The Hope Hotline - The Hope Hotline | S01-50 | 07-07-23

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

Question #1If your younger self could meet you as an adult, what would they be most impressed by?Question #2When I got my driver's license, I was asked if I would like to be an organ donor and I said yes. Some people say that we shouldn’t mutilate our bodies and I should change it to no. So, is it wrong to be an organ donor?Question #3So, for those of us who were brought up Catholic, the sign of the cross is standard. Some people might consider it heresy. While it may not be in the Bible, is there a problem with it?Question #4What’s the best/worst practical joke that you’ve played on someone or that was played on you?

Real Talk you Thank you. Just type technical difficulty, Logan. We're taking care of it. No sound. Is there sound now? Oh, okay. So we're going to make sure you actually can hear everything. It happens. What is that?

Oh, hot diggity. I'm here. The gang's all here. Now you can hear us. Minor technical difficulties. On Wednesday when we were late, that's because of me. And today it's all Heather. I blame Heather. That's fine. Of course. Heather

don't care. The great thing is, is no heart rates are going up around here. Nope. And you guys don't really care because like, what do you care? Like it doesn't matter. So Logan's over there laughing. Why are you laughing, Logan? Your audience is wonderful too they are yeah put you on okay why are the audience what what are they saying they're so like they're so honed in it's three minutes in or three it's three o'clock three seconds in and everyone's like no sound no sound no sound i appreciate you telling us there's no oh my gosh and yeah thank you for doing that because lord knows we would have never known. I don't know why.

Like, do we even test that? I don't even know if we even test that. We did test it. We did test it. And here's the thing. You got Heather. Run over there. No clue what I'm doing.

You got Heather over there. We got a full house today. My daughter just left. We got Heather. We got Logan. We got a full house today. My daughter just left. We got Heather. We got Logan. We got Talia who came. Did you come straight? Why are you putting your hair down?

Oh, you didn't. Sorry. I'm accusing you of things you did not do. Talia who came from working out this morning with us. And then we got, look at Brinley. Brinley, don't put your hair down, girl. You look good. Are you sticking your tongue out? She's sticking her tongue out at me. And then we got Charlotte look at Brinley. Brinley, don't put your hair down, girl. You look good. Are you sticking your tongue out?

She's sticking her tongue out at me. And then we got Charlotte, Taya's sister. Courtney's daughter. Which you all know about because I talk about them all the time. Now you know Charlotte, which is part of the crew. Charlotte loves the Hope Hotline. Don't you, Char? Yeah, whenever they go to hear that timing, I get so mad at them. I'm like, where did you go? And they're like. Can you hear her? No. Oh put it come go over to Logan so she can

put her back on the screen. Now how Char how old are you? This see my show is for everybody of all ages. Char how old are you? Now you're mature you're a nine you're very mature for nine, right? Okay, tell everybody what you were saying about the Hope Hotline. You love it. I know this. Whenever Talia goes without telling me that she's going

there and she comes home, I'm like, where are you? She goes, Hope Hotline. I go, why didn't you tell me you were going? I love you, Char. I love you too, Hope. She's so Brinley. Her and Brinley, like, brilliant. And I'm not just saying that.

Those two girls over there, God has blessed them with brains. They're brilliant children. I know I'm preg, but I'm not. Am I just saying that? I'm not just saying that. They're smart. Okay, Heather I'm preg, but I'm not. Am I just saying that? I'm not just saying that. They're smart. Okay, Heather's going to say nothing because it's her child. And she's not going to be bragging.

But I'm just telling you, as her Nina, she's brilliant. And Char, you are too. All right, let's go on with the podcast because enough. Oh, no, no, no. Look at my shirt. Now, my sister. Have you read this before my sister bought this for me like my older sister comes into town several times a year and so a couple not the

last time my sister came into town the time before that there's four of us in my family there's my older sister who's three years older than me then there there's me. Then there's my brother. And then there's my baby sister. Now, my mom, I don't know what cocaine or heroin or crack or whatever she was on when after she had my sister, Sandy. But my mom decided and my dad decided. For the record, she was not on any of those. What is that? She was not on any of those drugs.

She was heavily medicated or something. Because after I tell you what she did, you're going to be like, yeah, you would have to be on some kind of, like, no, not just any drug. What do they call those ones that are major drugs, though? All the ones you just named. Narcotics. Narcotics. Thank you. She'd have to be, yeah, ex-cop.

She'd have to be on some narcotic to do this to herself. So my mom decided when she had me, after she had me, I was born in May. My brother was born the following July. And then my sister was born the following October. It's like having triplets. Like it's one thing to find out you're going to have twins or triplets or quadruplets or whatever. It's one of those things like you have no control over. But having kids consecutively one right after the other,

something right up there. I mean, like my mom and dad said, we just wanted to get it over with. My dad wanted lots of kids, and he said, we just wanted to get it over with. My dad wanted lots of kids and he was like, let's just, let's just get her done. I'm like, well, after me, I really don't care who was born, right? Have your two. You don't have to rush, have more. Now I love my brother and my sister, but hey, like if you can't, if you want to like then stop after that me and sandy would have been fine no i kid you not i would have i would have missed my brother and sister but so my sister's faith gets me this shirt it says the middle sister i'm the reason we have

rules could this not be more real that's very you. Now, I made her tell me what her shirts said. The angel. Yeah. Well, Faith is the angel. I know. And I'm not saying that to be funny. Like, you know I'm serious. I know.

Heather's shaking her head. My sister is somewhat angelic. It's disgusting. So she goes, hers is youngest sister, rules don't apply to me. Which back in the day, that is very, very, very true. The baby, always. And in this case, it is true in the Dexter household because Brindley is not the golden child. But let's just face it.

Out of three boys, she's the only girl. She's my only girl she's like there's a huge difference between her and your son that's the third how many years is that seven seven years like and we we were praying her in so like there's she has a she has a halo over her too but she is a very good girl on top of that but let's face it she really can't do any wrong and if she does i look the other way i don't i know you don't but i do a lot i do um and then my big sister says i'm the oldest i make the rules and let me just tell you that's true because she used to babysit me and my three siblings. And she did make the rules and we did ask her a bunch to start the day over too because we knew if my parents came home and they found out what we had been doing all day long or since we got home from school, there was going to be some pounding going on.

We begged. She was a very good older sister. She always, like, she didn't tell on us a lot. Hey, I just realized what I did. What did you do? I hit outro instead of intro. Totally my fault. Maybe we'll play the intro for the outro.

Turn you on really quick. I'm sorry, people. We're scattered, and I don't care, because it's Friday. You know? Like, everybody's scattered on Friday. At least I know what, people. We're scattered, and I don't care because it's Friday. You know, like everybody's scattered on Friday. At least I know what I think. But it's kind of like when we were about five, ten minutes out from Tom's podcast, and you deleted the whole entire show.

It was like four minutes. Four minutes. There you go. Four minutes, and Heather is Tuesday nights. Heather is like basically, you would say Aaron's assistant, correct? Yeah. So I don't know what you did, but you might be able to explain it. All of a sudden, she deletes the whole show.

I think you're lucky to be alive. Well, for the record. Yeah, do tell us. The screens were on and Aaron always is multitasking, but so am I. And I said, hey, can I close this out? And he's like, yes. I said, so I can X out these screens. And he said, yes. I said, okay, are you sure? And he goes, yes. So then I did it. And he didn't mean yes. Apparently he wasn't listening to me, which is fine. And then he's like, that's men.

He goes, what did you do? I'm like, I asked you three times and you told me yes every time. So I did it. And well. So every time the show, just before the show starts or on Tuesdays, almost all the time, Tom always says, Heather, are you going to delete the show before we start? Or something along those lines. Or I ask him, how about I delete the show now? Is that good?

Yeah, that's true. I don't know why you guys keep me around i do there's multiple reasons multiple reasons and if if i had to keep you around simply for my entertainment then that's happening you're welcome i will because it's very entertaining when you're around that's all i can. I'll take that as a compliment. That's a very big compliment. Okay, good. Because most people get on my nerves.

You, on the other hand, can go, no, not like that. Like, you get on my nerves like my kids get on my nerves. Okay. That's a whole other ballgame. That's endearing. Like, I'll take you on vacation. I'll do anything. But all right. So if somebody asks me on vacation, I tell them no, that doesn't mean that you get on my nerves. That just just means I don't really want to go. Or I don't want to go with you. I

don't know. But I mean, whatever. If I invite you on vacation, that's a good sign. Not always. No, no, no. It is always a good sign if I invite you. But it's not always a bad sign if I don't invite you. That's what I mean. Correct? Correct.

Yeah. Okay. Back to the show. Here we go. If your younger self could meet you as an adult, what would they most be impressed by? Have you ever thought about that question? Like, I look at myself when I was in my 20s, and I don't even recognize that person. I'm like, who the heck is that? I can sometimes, even to this day, spiritually speaking, I can look at me like even a year ago when I first, because I always did, I've always done two to three jobs.

When I say I've done two to three jobs, that doesn't mean I was making money at them. Meaning like for the church, I worked for the church for free up until a year ago, right? And the church is going to be 20 years old. So I never, I mean, that's cleaning, that's accounting, that's secretarial, that's running, managing, whatever. I never got paid until this year, this past year. So I never had this as a full-time job. So I would usually have a regular job, then do this, do the church, and then volunteer or do something somewhere else.

So I've always been very, very busy person. Life has changed dramatically for me because I am now single-minded and focused on one specific thing, which has been very difficult for me. I mean, not difficult in a bad way. It's been very freeing to not have multiple jobs for me. Like, I don't feel so scattered. I really don't. I feel very – I mean, Heather worked for the church and she had another job. And before we hired you, didn't you feel like at points,

because the church started growing and things started getting super busy, put yourself on. Don't you feel like there were times that you're like this, keeping your head above water? Absolutely. Yeah. And so you're like kind of scrambled at times because you're like, wait a minute, that's not for this job.

That's for this job, right? Mm-hmm. Because you managed offices, office one in particular, that, but then you did other things for several other offices. So it's very like, it's very like, sometimes you're cloudy because you're so busy. Like you can't keep things straight. Like I had to write everything down.

Same with me. I still do. Same with me. But like I have lists for one job, lists for another. So for me, life is very, very different from a year ago. So life should always be evolving. But I will say like you girls can put your two cents in. But I look at myself six months ago who i am and

how i behave and the things that god is weeding out of me and i still don't even recognize that person to a certain extent either because i look at me and i'm like you don't do that anymore you're not like that anymore thank god but that's what it should be we should not recognize ourselves always three months six months ago. You should always be growing. Right. Tom says if you're not growing and you're standing still, either you will eventually go backwards very quickly

or you're already going back. Right. You can't just stand still. If you stand still for just a brief period of time, then that's where compromise and sin starts coming in. You've always got to be moving forward. And he says not lateral. Horizontal.

Always. And a lot of times he always says people are moving laterally thinking they're moving horizontally. Vertical. Vertical. Thank you. Horizontal. Vertical.

Yeah. So it's like they always feel like if they're doing this, then they must be doing up and down or vertical. But in all actuality, it's just new. So you've not done anything spiritually speaking to grow. You're just doing something new, which is still staying the same person. But I will say to myself, listen, if my, I will tell you, when I was younger, I used to think I will never make it to 50.

Not because sickness, illness, and disease, even when I wasn't saved. It was because I was so stupid. Like I did some stupid things that should have gotten me killed. Like dumb, dumb things. So for me to be alive right now is shocking. I would be like, are you kidding me? I'm going to make it to 56. That's a shocker.

Saved, that's another thing. Never, I don't even know. I mean, I was so deep into sin when I was in my early 20s that I don't even think being saved was on the screen for me. What about you? Logan's kind of like, yeah, being saved is kind of for you too, correct? Yeah, I didn't know this life existed, but I'm very thankful that I found it. Yeah, and see, I did know this life existed, but I walked away from it,

which is you sit there and somebody who's never walked away, like Tom really has never walked away, and he sits there and goes how could you do that you're an idiot but yeah i was an idiot lots of people are idiots that's why it's super careful how you raise your kids but what heather you didn't grow up i didn't know yeah no so i didn't realize i didn't even think i wouldn't make it i was just living life yeah those thoughts never went into my head I never dreamed I'd come back to God let alone have the want to right so but I you could have never told me that I would live in Florida that I would meet a guy like Tom because I didn't even know guys like Tom existed. Like no idea. Like he's so easy. I know people think I'm crazy because they see him in the pulpit and they see a different person, you know.

But he is such an easy person. I mean he's got his little quirks and things like that, but who doesn't? Like for me, like he's super easy. and if he has his little quirkiness is quirky thingies well he usually just sticks them to himself right they don't involve other people so again super easy and then my kids I would never I always thought I was going to have two boys so me to have a boy and a girl best thing ever not that if you have all boys, I wouldn't say that you're, that's what God designed for you. So you're not missing out on anything.

And you won't know the void. And you won't know the void. Or if you have all girls. Right. But since I always thought I'd have two boys, man, like I'm glad I know the experience of having a girl. I can't imagine life without Norma. I agree. Yeah, with Brinley.

Well, I was talking about Norma. Oh, yeah. Oh. Aw. Of course you were. Like, she's me, and that's a shame in some ways. She is like me. Some of the things she says and does and the way she acts is me.

She's a lot of Tom also. She is a lot of Tom. That's true. That is true. She's a very nice person. She is. We're getting there, though. We're changing her.

We're working on her. We're working on her. There you go. Not good. And I did not know that I would be, I mean, I think I knew in my high school years that I might be in ministry, but then I walked away from God. So I didn't think ministry was in my future and, or even wanted ministry in my future. And now if I knew that I would be doing this, I would have laughed at you like there's no

tomorrow and cursed all at the same time. I would have would have laughed at you like there's no tomorrow. I've been and cursed all at the same time. I would have cursed and laughed at you. I agree. Yeah. I wouldn't like. And to boot, like I've always been blessed with people who from high school, even elementary school, high school, even when I wasn't saved, I've always had good people around me. Like I've always had really good friends. Like none of my friends would have ever like allowed you to go on a one night stand. You meet a guy

at a bar and you go on a one night. my girlfriends would have never allowed that. They would have been like, no, they would have dragged, we would have dragged them out. That was not acceptable. And that wasn't happening. Even though, and it was only because of safety, not because of being prude. It wasn't because of that. It was just, that's crazy. You're not doing that. That's not safe. So none of us would have allowed. So even though I was wild, my friends were still very sweet, nice people. They just weren't saved. But then if I take and I look at the people that I'm surrounded with now, and I think those people were great. Like my high school friends, like my girlfriend, Susie and Chris, phenomenal people, like the best. But if I look at who God has for me and surrounded me with now, like I would have never believed that even these kinds of people exist.

I agree. This church has a whole new level of people that attend it. And I'm not saying everybody's perfect, and I'm not saying everybody in every situation acts perfect or does the right thing. We don't. We don't. We make mistakes. But on the whole, everybody's striving for perfection. Everybody is really watching out for one another and um they're real relationships yeah not surface level they're deep like family yeah because because here's the thing i will tell you this um when a deep a real relationship is when somebody offends you and makes you mad or

hurts your feelings or whatever is when you go to that and you can be able to go to that person and say, hey, listen, this is bothers me. Or what was the reason behind this? Or I don't like this. And I find that this church is really good about that because that's scriptural. If your brother offends you, then you go to them. You don't go to somebody else. That's not how it works. So I find that this church tends to lean more to going and rectifying and making things, working things out. And that relationship then gets stronger. When you can talk about anything and everything with a friend, whether it's something that will make them mad or make them happy, when

you can do that, then, and I think that's one of the reasons why this, this, our podcast team, I kid you not, even Tom's, and even our staff, I think one of the reasons why we are so tight knit is because nothing's off the table when we tell everybody each, we tell each other everything, whether they like it or they don't. But the intention of the heart isn't to be evil or nasty to them. It's because we truly care about each other. And I think when we're honest with each other like that, it takes that relationship to another level

because there's such a great trust with one another. Like if you're willing to share your heart and be honest with somebody then like I can remember Logan came in and she was gonna tell me about something yeah I that's what I'm thinking of Logan came in this is when she was first new with us she came in and she was gonna tell me something and I didn't even I was like I don't want to hear it I don't want it like I'm very protective of what I feel like the Holy Spirit tells me and I don't out I try and not allow one thing in that might infiltrate that little area because then I gotta pull it out and I gotta like I don't want to rethink did I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? Is this really the way I'm supposed to go?

All those things. So she was going to tell me. And her stuff was totally innocent. Like she was just, it was very positive. But I was like, no, don't tell me. Thank God she's from New York because somebody else might have been offended or bothered by it. But I told her, I said, listen, if you're going to be in this group, you just got to know, we just say it like it is. We tell the truth to one another. And she wasn't even bothered or

whatever. But that's how it is. Even if it's not something that you want to hear or don't want to hear, it's irrelevant. We're going to say it. And hopefully it is nice. But I'll be honest with you, sometimes it's not. But that's where grace and love comes in. And lots of people haven't been very nice to me and haven't spoken very nice to me, but I also know the heart behind them. They're a good person. Their intentions are never to really hurt anybody. They just might have had a dumb moment.

I do that. I offend and hurt people all the time, but it's because in that moment, I'm stupid. You know, I'm stupid. You know, I'm just doing something stupid. So enough about that question. So if you would have told me I would have had people around me like I have, I would have never believed you. And here's the thing I would tell you.

If you're a person that says, I cannot relate to what you're talking about because I look the same way as I did 20 years ago. Shame on you because there is absolutely no reason for that. Get in your word and find out what God's expectations are for you and then start striving for those things. You should never look the same as you did the week before. Like I'm taking pictures of myself, which is quite frightening because I am on my exercise weight loss kick. So Magalas, Tracy, I don't know if Heather did, but Magalas and Tracy told me, take pictures of yourself every week on the same day so that you can see your progress. And I would say the same thing to you spiritually. Every week, you need to be looking at yourself. Am I different than the week before?

If you can't say that you haven't changed one thing, spiritually speaking, or even like personally or whatever, to better yourself, then get on it. Because that's not what it's all about. We're to be going after it every single day. And then you'll start seeing the results of your efforts and your work. And then you'll be really happy and those around you will. And people will want to be your friend.

And sometimes I will say, you know, let me, I don't know who this is for, but I'm going to say it. Sometimes people want specific friends. That's the ones they see them and they're like, that's who I want to be with. That's, but I'm going to tell you, and I don't know why you want to be friends with them or if it's because they're considered to be the pretty people or what everybody likes or I don't know what it would be. Maybe they're super smart and you ain't so smart. So you think you'll fit in with them and you like that.

Like my son has always said smart girls are super hot to him. Well, Tommy, like he's smart, but listen, he gets in a cage for a reason. You got to be a little crazy. And I say that because I used to fight all my life. So, I mean, got to be a little, screw loose a little somewhere. But I'm just saying, like, not that a pretty smart girl won't like him. I'm just saying sometimes you need to fit into the group that you mesh with instead of trying to mesh with a group that doesn't make sense. And so like if you have your eye on something

and it seems like you're not able to get to that, why don't you say, okay, this person's interested in being my friend. So I'm going to start creating a relationship with them and then see how everything comes out then this group you might end up mixing the two together but it might not work do you understand what i'm saying because i am like not yeah okay it makes complete sense like people think that they have to be, like when I was in high school, everybody wanted to be friends with the popular crowd. They were miserable people. They were.

Like they were always worried that if they weren't doing something with that group, then they would be out of the group. They were always like, they always had to wear a certain thing because if they didn't wear that thing, then they would be out of the group. It's always making sure that, so you stay at that whatever level in their heads they were.

I'm like, man, it's great to be carefree. I was friends with every single person. Popular, not popular. What would be considered the geeks? What would be considered? I mean, even some of the guys people that were druggies and i was friends with everybody i was too yeah and for me life was freeing i didn't it didn't matter i wasn't making sure that i was always at a certain place you know

right very nice so just now the place that you think that would be great for you may not be great for you. Because for whatever reason, that might not be who God has you to really hang out with. So I don't know. That was super confusing to a certain extent. But to whoever that's for, that makes sense to you. So we'll leave it at that. What'd you say, Tal? Oh, okay. Next question. When I got my driver's license, I was asked if I would like to be an organ donor, and I said yes. Some people say that we shouldn't mutilate our bodies, and I should change it to no. So is it wrong to be an organ donor? How many of you guys are organ donors in this room? I am an organ donor.

I am. You don't know what an organ donor is? You're not old enough yet. Yeah. I'm going to have your mama explain that to you. So that was Charlotte. She doesn't know what one is. So I personally don't think it's wrong.

I'm an organ donor. I don't see anywhere in the Bible that it says that you're not allowed to be an organ donor. I see no scriptures. I even looked it up to see if there was anything out there that there's nothing. I would remind everybody that Jesus gave up his life. And when he gave up his life on the cross, his body was mutilated for each and every single one of us. And in so much that he did not look human any longer. So I'm not saying that you go out and dies to be an organ donor. That's not what I'm

saying. So okay, I'm an organ donor. So I'll whatever. It's okay. No. If at some point in life, for me, I'll personally tell you as a believer, I believe that I'll die in my sleep and I'll be of old age. So none of my parts will be available really because they're going to be so old because I stand on the promises of God. There's a lot of people that don't stand on the promises of God. So if you were to die in a car accident, you go to heaven. What's so bad about that? Okay, that's okay. If your organs were donated to someone and they were able to use them, then that's great too. Because truthfully,

our bodies are going to turn to dust. If you're cremated, it returns to dust very quickly. And if you are buried, it just takes a little bit longer. But in the end, it's going to turn to dust because Genesis 3.19 says, By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you you are and to dust you will return um the the most important thing i would say is are you going to heaven like do you know that when you die you're going to heaven it's less important about being an organ donor but most people don't feel like that. So I will tell you this.

Your body is not going to be your body anyway when you go to heaven. This is not because it clearly says in 1 Corinthians 15, 35 through 49, it's entitled the resurrection body. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? How foolish. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And when you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as he determined. And to each kind of seed, he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same.

People have one kind of flesh. Animals have another. Birds another. And fish another. There are also heavenly bodies. And there are earthly bodies. Hmm. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind.

And the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor. the moon another, and the stars another, and stars differ from star in splendor. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable. It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. Do you understand? So the earthly body is sown in dishonor,

but the heavenly body is raised in glory. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being, which is the Adam of Genesis that God created with Eve. The last Adam, which is Jesus, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Through what Jesus did on the cross, each of us have life eternal. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural.

So Adam came first, which is the natural, and then Jesus came second, which is the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth. Adam was. Adam and Eve, they are dust of the earth. And the second man is of heaven. Jesus came. He became rich. I mean, he was rich, so he could become poor. He sat in the heavens. He was at the very beginning. 1 John 1 clearly says that Jesus was present at the time when the earth, in Genesis, when the world was created.

And so Jesus came from heaven to earth so that we might have eternal life in heaven. The first man was of dust, was the dust of the earth. And the second man is of heaven, as was the earthly man. So are those who are of earth and as and as was the earthly man, so are those who are of earth. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. So when you go, when you die, this earthly body is not what's going to heaven. So if you are an organ donor, it doesn't matter.

You're not going to need those organs. Because your heavenly body is different than your earthly body, and it is perfect. So I say, go for it, do it, whatever. Well, all of you guys are organ donors, so it's irrelevant. You do agree with it. I was going to say, is anybody over there not an organ donor and does not agree? But you all are. We agree.

You obviously agree. There's a really beautiful story kind of floating around right now. A gentleman gave his heart to another gentleman after he had passed, and the heart transplant receiver walked his daughter down the aisle it was it's really it's a beautiful story that's sweet that's selfishness and yeah you know it makes life giving life yeah it's well a life taken giving life to another there's a reason tell you saying there's a reason why some people don't become organ donors because apparently yeah she's running over here so people can hear what she has to say

because apparently like if you get in a car accident and like, let's say you're like, like you're still alive, but you're almost dying. They will cut you off on purpose if somebody else needs your organs. They can't do that because the family, just so you know, I know that that might be people's fears, but the family has to be the one that agrees to pull the plug. Correct. Okay. If you have a do not resuscitate, then they won't. That's right. But I can see why people,

well, listen, the black market's got body organs all over it. So I understand why people might be afraid of that. But in the world we live in, maybe in different countries. Yeah, maybe in different countries. Like you might not want to be an organ donor. How many minutes do I have?

I got no clock. 22. I got 22 minutes. Woo, woo. Doing good. And ADT is calling me as usual. I have no nice things to say about them. So I will not say anything.

So next question. So for those of us who have brought up, so for those of us who brought up Catholic, so for those of us who are brought up Catholic, the sign of the cross is standard. Some people might consider it heresy. While it may not be in the Bible, is there a problem with it? Just like other things drilled into us, I'm not sure that they are heresy as much as just not in the Bible,

except perhaps things like praying to Mary. If something brings your thoughts to God, I'm not sure if it's necessarily bad I'm finding a lot of different opinions on this one example stained glass with images of Jesus some might say that it is a graven image and scripture leans that way but if you're using it to pray to God then is it bad?

this goes deep okay I never have considered the cross heresy at all. I will tell you that when I see somebody wearing the cross, I usually don't consider them to be a Christian or not a Christian because lots of people wear them. It's like lots of people have Bibles. It's the biggest selling book ever. Even every year, the Bible is sold more than any other book every year for forever. So just because people have Bibles doesn't mean that I believe they're Christians, just like if somebody's wearing a cross.

I don't think a stained glass window with Jesus in it is heresy either. I think that, I mean, I find it odd that someone would pray to the stained glass window. I mean, I don't know why that would be. There's been different things, like people have gone to different places because it seems like when I went to Israel, a lot of people, a lot of the Catholic faith owns so much over in Israel, and they've built so many churches on top of different very significant, symbolic things. Like on Mount Morah, where they believe Jesus died and was hung on the cross, they actually have a Catholic church on that. And people go to these places and like they, when I stood in line to, you stand in front of the,

you stand in line and you go and see like the cross that they believe was the cross you you they have these different um different like catholic things i don't even know what they are because i didn't grow up catholic that they go and people kneel and they kiss their rosaries and i i don't believe in any of that stuff because that's not in the word of god and do i think that's heresy if it's not in the word of God. And do I think that's heresy? If it's not, it's borderline. I think there's been, what are they?

It's not been clouds, but do you remember some of those things that people have gone and visited because they feel like they can get healed if they look at that one particular thing? Like Jesus in toast? visited because they feel like they can get healed if they look at that one particular thing or you you know what I'm talking about and toast yeah like that's funny but actually it's what I'm kind of that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about this one's not religious any in any way but the Irish kissing wall have you heard of that one no and I'm Irish in Ireland you can lay down lean upside down and kiss this wall, and it's supposed to bring you luck and prosperity. Really? And, I mean, really.

Yeah, but like you said, that's not really a biblical thing. No. So I get, I mean, I know what you're saying, but that's basically what I'm talking about with people go, and they look at, go, and they'll see an image of something like there was this window and I think it was in Tampa and and it had the shape the the the shape of this window it wasn't the shape of the window it was like this foggy like not foggy it was this tent of the window and it looked like mary i believe and literally

people were driving from all over the place to come and look at this mirror one of my shower windows what is that one of my shower tiles could be jesus one of your shower tiles could be the way that it like is shaped oh you totally see a face you can come see it so everybody listen for a small fee you can come and pray i'll take a picture and frame and heather's shower i don't even think because apparently a tile looks like jesus a face we'll just call it jesus okay hey Hey, you never know. You might have people knocking on your door. I think they have toasters now that will put a face or a logo into toast. Not of Jesus.

No, I think there is one of Jesus. Oh, my word. I'm just going to tell you, anything that you do that's anything, like you should not pray to Mary. You should not pray to St. Peter you you should not pray to Mary you should not pray to Saint Peter you should not pray to whoever Joseph whatever the only people you're to pray to is the Trinity God Holy Spirit Jesus that's it if you're praying to anybody other than that you're out of order that's not what the word says. I know that different denominations have different doctrines and they have like books that they've written and you follow that doctrinal

book. That doctrinal book does not supersede the word of God. If it's not in the word of God, then that doctrinal book needs to be tossed out and thrown into the fire because it means absolutely nothing. I mean, people have literally lost it on some things. Like when I sold real estate, people were burying St. Joseph into the ground to sell their house. They would take the statue of St. Joseph and they would bury it into the front yard. I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you. More than once.

Bury this statue of St. Joseph into the ground because they believed it would bring them, that St. Joseph would bring them their buyer and their house would sell. And I'm not kidding you, when it did sell. Did they dig up the statue then and take it with them? Yes, you're supposed to take it out. People moved out of houses when St. Joseph has not been moved

because it's superstitious. Jer verified that the Virgin Mary window was in clear water. I knew it was in Tampa. But someone, I guess, threw a rock at it and broke it. So it's no longer. But people are traveling all over the place to come and see it. Like from other countries to come to this. That's crazy.

Then there is St. Francis. And I'm going to read this one to you because this one's wild. So to extort the saints, you're to put a bag over St. Francis's head or bury the statue upside down with the deal being that you'll undo it if they answer your prayer. So you're going to put a bag over St. Francis's head for something to happen. And once that thing happens, then you take the bag off of St. Francis's head. For example, there was a priest that lost something, so he put a bag over St. Joseph's head. And once he would find that lost item, then he would take the bag off of it because he believed that St. Francis was helping him find it. Talia's saying her great-grandmother loved that stuff. Was she Catholic, Talia?

Yep, she's Catholic. I have a question. Yes. So when we were deployed, when I was deployed, a lot of the soldiers, including myself, would carry around St. Michael pendants as a hedge of protection. Same thing. Same thing. No bueno. St. Michael pendants as a hedge of protection. Same thing.

Same thing. No bueno. Who, what does it say that provides you the hedge of protection? Who do you pray for your hedge of protection from? Jesus. Holy Spirit. So Michael's not doing squat for you. They're making money on pens. Oh, they're making lots of money.

It's like the, it's like like the it was like the blacksmiths and the ones that were making the idols when Paul came into this specific town and he was preaching the word of God, people were being converted and they stopped buying these idols and these different things that these blacksmiths were making so they caused great havoc and they basically went to the government and said

if you don't get rid of this guy he's going to financially put us to ruin so get him out of here because we're losing money because nobody's buying our stuff anymore these idols they're not building buying them anymore so they booted them out and they started making money again. It's exactly like what she said. It's not real. It's not true. Jesus is the one. Psalm 91.

Psalm 91 was not written about Michael, St. Michael. It was written about God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one who provides the hedge of protection around you. He's the one that dwells. You have an angel that protects you. Do you know what I'm saying? All of those things. So isn't that funny, though?

Yeah. Who gave you the St. Michael? That's a really big thing in both law enforcement and the military. He is the angel of. Oh, Michael the archangel. Yes. Not St. Michael. Sorry. No, no, no, no, no. I was like. Yes. Michael the archangel not saint michael as in no no no no no no i was like yes michael the archangel he's supposed to be just the angel of our of the servants does that make sense and

it wasn't that we were worshiping or idling the pendant it was just that you wore it as a reminder that you have an angel protecting you and we knew what he did and who he slayed well to a certain extent i don't think that that's horrible as a reminder of that you have a spiritual being which you do we have angels that guard and protect us and surround us like so in some ways i don't dispute that but if your faith is in the angel not in what who sent that angel to do that job then that's where i because god created the angels right so that's the only thing that i would say but doesn't sound like really like that's the issue for the most part no yeah well i say okay you're allowed to do that then, Logan. I put my stamp of approval on that. With the thought process, if people have something symbolic,

it's no different than the cross as far as I'm concerned. The cross is a symbol to me of what Jesus did for me. When I wear a cross, which I do, not always, when I wear my cross though, I'm wearing it as a reminder of who I am, whose I am, and what was done for me. Now there's lots of unbelievers that wear them and it doesn't mean anything to them. They're just wearing it because it's just a cross. But for me, I've got one particular one that I wear, and all the time when I wear it, it has a stone in it, and people always are like, is that a cross?

That is beautiful, which opens the door for me to share the gospelh the gospel with them and that's what i take the opportunity to do if the door is open and i feel like it'll be received then that's a chance to talk about about my walk with god and see where that goes but um but the cross means different things to different people. Just like the pendant of, you know, is it an angel that it is? It's Michael, so it's just a pendant of an archangel. So just like for you guys, that was a reminder that you have a hedge of protection around you. Now some people that aren't Christians, which you weren't at the time, correct correct were you a Christian at the time when you were wearing it not like I am today hope yeah so for you it was it gave you peace of mind right but it really wasn't like what it would be today so it's just like the cross for

some people how many minutes do I got? Eight. I got eight minutes. Okay. This next question, it's a doozy. Well, the story behind it's a doozy. So what's the best, worst practical joke that you've played on someone or that was played on you? Okay.

When I was in high school, I had a girlfriend. Her name was Debbie. I would tell you the last name. I don't know. I think she's married now. Her name was Debbie Dotson. I love this girl. She was kind of like Talia's mom. One of the funniest human beings you'll ever meet on the face of the earth. She was funny. But her family was a wild scene. Okay. And I went to church with them since I was in elementary school and into high school. Um, we didn't always go to the same church, but we went to the same school and we did go to the same church. And so, um, we're, you know, I knew her, I knew her pretty well. So it you know, in high school, you TP people. But we weren't TPing.

Well, that's not true. I was going to say we didn't TP houses. That's not true. I did TP houses. But in this particular case, me and my girlfriends decide we're going to go TP Debbie. But we're going to TP Debbie's car. And I don't know how many rolls of toilet paper. I mean, it wasn't just toilet paper.

We had a field day with that vehicle. You never tell anybody who TPs you. Like when my house got toilet papered, I didn't know who did it. I mean, you just don't do it. You hope the odds are that it's somebody who likes you. But that's not always the case. Because my husband egged anti-peep people he hated in high school.

That's what I did. And baloney. Baloney takes the paint off, if I remember correctly. It's not good. We did a garage door once. We didn't even know the poor people. And it ruined the paint on their garage door. How long do they let the bologna stay on there?

I don't think long. So how do you put bologna? I'll get back to my story. This is really important. Put yourself on camera. How in the world do you bologna somebody? Like, how do you get it to stick? It's wet and sticky. It just sticks on there. How in the world do you baloney somebody? How do you get it to stick?

It's wet and sticky. It just sticks on there. So the paint comes off in a circle? I don't remember exactly, but... That's interesting. Don't try that at home, people. Off the car, yes. It did. It took the paint off the car?

I thought you said you put it on the garage door we did both that's expensive true that's bad not good you know what tom used to do and we burned down the woods once that was bad that was really bad The fire department had to come. When we were at Vanessa's recently, that was one of the, it was like, who is the question? We all put it down and that was on one of the papers. You had to guess whose question that went to. So it was burnt down the woods and they picked me and I was like well yes but i didn't write it down there was like five or six of us that had burnt woods down are you kidding me yeah no i'm not kidding i'm being serious it was bad tom's friend burnt down i mean he caused a huge fire in the area

mine was on old england road yours is what old england road back in the day near the Catholic Church. Oh, my gosh. How did you do that? Did they find out it was you? We had to call the fire department because we were burning it down. The end of Sesame Street, that's where. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I know that. Oh, my gosh, Heather. We tried to get a hose and we tried to put it out, but we were too far out. How did you do that? We lit the fire. And the woods, you lit a fire on purpose to try and see if it would? No, like it was kind of cold because it was what we considered a Florida winter. It was probably 70, 75 degrees.

70 degrees maybe. And we were making it to like be warm while we sat out there. Then we even tried to urinate on it to get it to go out and it made it worse. Then we ran for hoses and then it was too little too late. You tried to pee on it? We did. We absolutely did. That's dang funny.

Somebody's urine was acidic. Something. Or we didn't have enough to get on there. It didn't go out. That's bad. We would have been best friends in high school. This was like middle school. This wasn't even high school.

Oh my gosh. I was probably like 12. Oh my gosh. Did you get in trouble? I don't remember getting in trouble horribly. Maybe when we called the fire department, we didn't reveal that we lit it on fire. That's what I'm probably thinking.

Just that it was on fire. Yeah. Well, there's no DNA because by the time they got there, your urine was burned up. Gone. So no DNA. They couldn't find out it was her.

And then for DNA nowadays, they use like Ancestry.com against you. People don't know that. But if you give your DNA to Ancestry.com, right now they're solving major crimes through DNA. Family. Do you not think they take it when you go to the doctor and give blood or? No. It's not legally. They're not legally allowed. you're not voluntarily giving it like when you do the ancestry.com you're signing

something off saying i allow this to be used whatever it's totally different it's a voluntary basis when you're going to the doctor it's not voluntary in the same light and you have HIPAA laws. Right. So HIPAA doesn't apply in Ancestry. But in order to have DNA you had to commit a crime for them to find you. Not anymore. Ancestry.com is finding you. Like men who have raped women. If a family

member, people who do sex crimes they need to think about this because people are finding them like. So if you, if somebody, if you commit a crime and they get your DNA, what happens is if a family member, a close enough family member, like aunts, uncle, cousins, even they can go as far as third cousin, they can find you and trace it back to you. And they can usually get it to a parent, and then they can find out the kid.

Yeah. They can find out who you are. They're solving crimes like that, left and right with Ancestry.com, things like that, which in some ways I think is good, but in other ways it's, again, one more thing of our privacy that's being stolen and taken from us. I'm thankful that at the time of my not great years they didn't have any of that. They didn't have that? Yeah.

Me too, girl. We might be in jail still. I know I'd be in jail 100%. It would not be good. So back to Debbie Dotson. Oh, no, I was going to tell you, Tom. I'll save that story for later. Maybe Tom will have to tell that story because it's funny.

We should have him back on the show. We'll have to have him back on the show. I was just talking to him about that last night. And Aaron, me, Aaron, and Tom were talking about that after the podcast. Okay. So Debbie, we toilet paper her car and some. What we did not know at the time was there was a major feud in the neighborhood with her parents and some other neighbors. So when we toilet papered her car, her family, like when I say redneck, I mean like gangster redneck.

So her family, when they found out or they came out, they thought. The other people. They thought. this is on a friday night so saturday morning they come out to the car and they thought that family that they were feuding with in the neighborhood was the one that tp'd debbie's car that's bad like it was a physical altercation people had to be pulled away from each other it was down right dog dirty did you admit that it was you well no if i had known that it happened i never would have but monday morning going into school hey what'd you think of our job that we tped your cart she was madder than a daggone heart. She was like, what? Because they thought that family member was lying to them. She was like, you have no idea what happened.

Like, it was bad. My mom and that woman. Oh, my gosh. It was bad. So, yeah, I almost started a neighborhood war. People almost went to jail. I had no idea. So on that note, do you need Jesus?

Do you know him as your Lord and Savior? Have you walked away from God? I have. In the past. But I'm back. And you need to come back too. Seriously. It's the weekend. We you need to come back too. Seriously. It's the weekend.

We're going to have fun. Actually, Monday, they're tearing down my ceilings, my walls. So this weekend, I get to move my whole house around. Yeah, Monday. They're coming. Major demo day in the Lively household. So this weekend's not going to be fun for me. Hey, but the offices are ready.

But our offices are ready. So that's good. But we do get to move back into our offices. Yeah. And that is a beautiful thing because now, like, I have somewhere to work because it's been rough for a year, almost a year. It's been rough working like I know people love working from home but unless you have the appropriate workspace it is not easy correct I have stuff strewn everywhere it's a hot mess but now I'm about to have no walls and ceiling but I'm moving my office back into here

so I won't be at home they can demo whatever they want and I ain't gonna see it Norma's moving out she's moving in with my mother because she doesn't want us to see through right into her room how long is this process gonna take well my general contractor who you know who you are he's leaving out of town on July 25th. That's convenient. For a very long time. Way to go. So he's going to try, and my kitchen will have to wait.

But my bedroom, my living room, I'll have lights in my living room. I'm super excited about that. Me too. I have lights on my exterior, and I'll have lights in my back. So that'll be nice. But my living room will not have lights. I won't hear the drip, drip, drip when it rains in Norma's wall. Yeah. So life's going to be good in the Lightplay house. But this weekend, P.U., it stinks. It's not going to be that great for me.

I hope it's great for you. I hope we see you at church on Sunday if you're not out of town. And if you don't know Jesus, we're going to get you right so we can see you here at church on Sunday. Or just come to church on Sunday and get your life right. But either way, let's say this prayer together and let's get you saved. Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you right now. I thank you for what you did on the cross. I thank you for the price that was paid for my sin. I ask you to forgive me of my sins.

I ask you to be the Lord and Savior of my life. Whatever you say to do, I will do. And whatever you say not to do, I will not do it from this moment on. I love you. I praise you. And I thank you. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. If you made that prayer or said that prayer, please let us know. In all seriousness, really, like you can do whatever you want and have as much fun as you want. But if you're doing life without Jesus, it's just not going to be that great. And you may think it is, but you know deep down in your heart, whatever you're chasing after, once you get there, you're going to find out.

Just like you found out so many times previously to this, every time you've chased something, it did not fill that void. It will never fill that void until you come to him and make his life your life. Become a Christian, become Christ-like, live for him, and he'll take you places you never thought you would go. Have a great weekend. Thank you for joining in, and I will see you hopefully on Sunday. Bye.