The Hope Hotline - The Hope Hotline | S02-E79| 12-20-2024

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

The Hope Hotline | S02-E79| 12-20-2024

Real Talk. Real Talk. Real Talk. Real Talk. Hello and welcome to the Hope Hotline. This is our official the Hope Hotline. This is our official last Hope Hotline for the year. It's kind of sad, but kind of interesting all at the same time.

Lots of loaded questions. Okay. And I just learned something. Yes, you did. I just was saying to them, we don't have Taya today. No, she's cleaning. Because we're all jam-packed right now. Okay, so this is what I found out.

I was asking them if they were going to start exercising at the beginning of the year. Because, you know, everybody does their New Year's resolutions that they never stick to. Both of them proceeded to tell me they're working out. Well, no, Tracy did not. I did. Yeah, and you're not. I totally am. She doesn't agree.

It's not working out. You guys, I walk every morning four miles, maybe sometimes five, with a weighted vest on. 17-minute miles. What did you used to do that you considered working out? Pilates. Pilates. Are you still doing that? you considered working out? Pilates. Pilates. Are you still doing that? No, that wasn't Pilates.

You were at the gym. Oh, Zumba? Doing weights. Yeah, I did that too. Don't you consider that more working out than walking? Sure. Are you saying that to appease me? Because that sure sounds like it.

I will say it works out different body. How did you get your muscles? Because it wasn't from walking. I did weightlifting and then I burnt out on weightlifting, I think. And I needed something different. And so walking, I can put my earbuds in, and it's like the best. It is the best. I get it. I spend my time praying.

Right. But it doesn't feel like working out to me now that I know both. Like today, I mean, I enjoyed it. But you do have to have something. You can't do muscles every day. Right. I mean, you can. As my muscles are killing me today.

But I'm just saying. You gotta recover. You gotta recover. So walking's not I mean not to bust the chops of the people who are walking and consider it exercise.

Kudos. Because at least it's something. But that's more cardio. That's not like I mean it's fat burning. Let's call Magalas. Let's call Mags right now. No she doesn't count. I lost. She's hardcore burning. Let's call Magalus. Let's call Mags right now. No, she doesn't count.

She's hardcore. 400 calories this morning walking. What? 400 calories. That's good. That's a whole meal. Okay, that's cardio. But we're losing fat.

Okay. Mags, dot, dot, dot. I'm on my podcast right now. And we are having a debate do you consider walking a workout or do you consider lifting weights a workout question mark four miles i'm not adding the four miles because she does well she does four miles every day you haven't done squat what i ran i did did. I walked for, okay. Okay.

Okay. I didn't know this thing existed. Show them what this thing is. Okay. Look at this thing. So you can put a desk. Well, first I'll start with this one. So this is a walking pad.

It's not the one I have, but this is a walking pad and it's cool. Like it's, you can just slip it right underneath your bed, get it out of the way, and then you can pull it back out. It'll go up all the way up to 6.0 so it goes very fast but even if you want to just work look at that and you walk very very slow i mean i actually i i'm interested in that yeah it's amazing i love it i'm very interested in that yeah it's i honestly i'm just saying to you that what are you saying to me i don't think so why i ran on it i did i ran a minute and then i stopped and kept walking and then i waited again and then i ran again and i was like wow i have not run in a really long time this was interesting

but i did it and i ran again okay you ran for a minute got off waited 30 minutes no no no no I just kept walking I was walking I was like you know what I'm gonna bump it up I'm gonna run for a minute while instead instead of just just walking so I was like and then I ran for a minute and then I slowed down to walking and I did it for an hour oh for an hour I thought okay yeah I did an hour I take that back not that it's a workout because I don't consider it. But what I am going to say to you is. But it was not her pace. I literally thought you got on it, walked for a minute, got off, sat for 30, got back on it for a minute, ran.

That sounds like a good idea. That's what I thought you were telling me. I'm like, okay, that's ridiculous, Tracy. That is ridiculous. Are you trying to like. What? Yeah. Are you trying to make it funny here? Yeah. Are you trying to make...

I mean, I've been a little bit busy. I've been a little busy. Oh, my gosh. So, when I have a moment, like, that's what I'll do. She has... What did she say? She hasn't responded yet. If she's not in a meeting or whatever.

Usually, I get something pretty quick. But, like, what's crazy about it for me with you is um like you have non-stop yeah worked on christmas yeah guys listen i know she's gonna go straight to the announcements very soon and i'm just telling you you are gonna want to invite your friends and family it is so good yeah it really is super excited about it it's so good so much hard work really is. Super excited about it. It's so good. So much hard work goes into this, and you have no idea when you've never done something like this, if you've never put on something,

like between the worship team, the media team, just all the things that we have to do to make this happen. Yeah, there's a lot of work that goes into it, and it's always such a great feeling at the end like I do kind of feel like it's like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner you know how you prep and prepare for it for like hours hours before everybody eats they come in load up their plates they sit down 25 to 30 minutes done done and it took hours to prepare it it's like wrapping presents christmas presents it's like you wrap and wrap and wrap and wrap and then like 15

minutes everybody's done i'm like well that was interesting and depending on how great the gift is depending is depending on how much it was worth the hours that you did it this though i'm just telling you true um i went went through it this morning again. Like I can't tell you how many times. I literally have everything memorized in my head. Yeah. And I'm so happy. I am too.

I'm so happy. I'm so happy you're happy. From the moment, yes, from the moment you're walking into the building to the moment you leave. True the building yeah to the moment you leave true it will be an experience it'll be an experience we've made sure of it yes yep yep anybody who's got their fingerprints on this thing are making sure yes that it is an experience that you will not regret and you'll be glad you came yes and miss that christmas eve dinner with other

friends and family yeah i'll be Yeah. I'll be worth it. It'll be worth it. Yeah. Or just show up late. Yeah. Well, my neighbors, my neighbors are coming. I texted them and I said, hey, come to Christmas Eve service at our church. And they said, we're actually coming.

Yay. Yeah. We're actually coming. We have to be in Sarasota at five, but we'll be there. We're planning on coming. I'm like, yes. That's what I'm talking about. Which they come.

When I say neighbors, it's my Heather. Heather's going to be here? Heather's going to be here. It's my other neighbors that when they're seasonal and they now come to the church. Oh, good. Yeah, they come here when they're in town. So she was here like, I think it was last Sunday.

And that's when she was like, she heard about it. Cause they just got back. Love it. So that's why I listen. I love, that's why I love what Tara said. Tara said that they went and invited their neighbors.

You like people will say, I don't have a job. Right. So I don't like have nobody to witness to. Okay. You got neighbors. Yeah. You got neighbors. Yeah. You got neighbors.

And so for me, there's absolutely no excuse. If you don't have a job, we got soul winning. Right. Every other Saturday. I know. There's always a way if there's a will. Right.

It depends on how, oh, how much of a priority is it? Somebody, I think Jer just posted this thing. I'm going to, let me pull this up on Instagram. Yeah. And the other thing is, is like if you're out shopping, like ask God to highlight somebody

to you because everybody's out doing things right now. And somebody will say something like, oh, I don't really have family here for Christmas or like, are you excited for Christmas? And they'll say, oh, I have no family around here. And then you can be like, oh, well, I have something going on Christmas Eve. Do you want to come with me? And you don't like, sometimes people just want to feel included and just, they do want something to do. You know, this, we have a lot of older people here and so families all over the place and they don't want to travel. So definitely invite people. And everyone's heart is tender during this time.

Yes. Oh gosh. They're more susceptible than ever before at this time. It's Christmas and Easter time. Everyone's heart is just like mush. And so let's take advantage of that. I can't find it. But basically, I think it was Jeff. Was Jeff your Jeff? Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. So can you find what it said? It was on Instagram, right? It was on Facebook, too. It was on Facebook, too. It was on Facebook. Because I remember reading the same thing. And I've said this before, but I've never seen it on something. And I literally thought to myself, flipping flapping.

I should have put that as, because I say that. Instead of saying, I don't have time, try saying, it's not a priority and see how that feels. That's Jeff. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so true. I have said that.

And Tom actually was one of the ones that taught me it. Is like, when he would say, if you say you don't have time, it's only because you don't want to do it. And then I thought to myself, well, that actually is very, very's only because you don't want to do it. And then I thought to myself, well, that actually is very, very true because if I really wanted to do it,

I would do it. Like I would never say, that's Aaron texting me. I would never say like that if it was something that I was really interested in, I would make time for it. I would call people back if I really wanted to talk to them. Or not call them back, because if somebody calls me,

I do call them back. But if I really wanted to call somebody, the only person I call every day is my mother. That's it. I don't call anybody. And there's obviously reasons for that, which might be sad. But I just, I hate the phone.

I am not a phone girl. Same. If I make a phone call to you, that's saying something. Could this be a text message? I had a friend, super close friend. We went from being on the phone all the time to it was only texting

and that's all she she wanted to do and i thought to myself man i really i really downgraded but i'm the same way i like i started like thinking to myself i can get a lot more done with texting it's terrible yeah it's terrible yeah or both It's terrible. Yeah. I don't know. Or voice notes. Yeah. Voice notes are great. I don't do voice notes. Yeah. I know. You haven't gotten on voice notes yet. They're kind of wonderful.

Because you can get your thought out. And then they can listen to it on their own time. And the inflection of the voice is super important. Yeah. That's why I like those. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I don't do voice notes.

I know. It's kind of disappointing. But it's all right. Do you want me to do voice notes? Yes. I do. Okay. From now on. Well, you do talk to texting anyway. That's true. Oh, I don't do voice notes. I know. It's kind of disappointing, but it's all right. Do you want me to do voice notes? Yes, I do. Well, you do talk to texting anyway. That's true. Oh, I did.

So with Magalas, my fan's on. I'm a little chilled. Okay, I turned mine off, so I must have hit yours. Oh, okay. I'm a little chilled over here, along with the air conditioning. But no, what I was going to say is, when I said to Mag, I said Mags and it said Max. I do it all the time. And sometimes it's cuss words and I don't even come close to cussing.

And if you don't reread it and you just send it. I didn't. And it did. And it was bad. You can't. I did. It was to a bunch of church people. Text responsibly.

Yes. I was in the middle. I was landscape. Voice message church people. Text responsibly. Yes. Us in the middle. Friends don't let friends voice message that way. Me and Heather and Norma were out pulling weeds back in the day when we first got the building. It was a hot mess. Oh, my goodness. So we were like, we're going to go out there and tackle this. We're going to get those weeds. Like days of weeding.

I know. Days. And in the process, I sweating i'm hot and i'm in this group text somebody says something so i'm like let me just let me just talk into my phone really quick and then nor and and i think heather was in the and normally i would and heather was in the group text and people were like uh hope's cussing or something like that and heather's like hope you just said i'm like oh my god literally i was like i don't care pick the weed pick the weed oh my gosh okay now to the next thing because we get christmas questions yeah we do we do we do let's do it

okay let's do it all right so um today oh we do have black robe up okay black robe is being a little silly earlier but we're good now um so if you're on Facebook, what you can do is you can like, and you can comment, and you can share. And then the link is already over there. Vanessa is on it. So just come over to Rumble. Got our live chat going over here. We got Courtney in, we got Anne-Marie and Sharon and Alice. So just drop if you're watching. I see 20 of you watching on Rumble. So just drop your name in there. I want to know who you are.

YouTube, if you're watching on YouTube, again, drop your name in the chat. You don't have to chat the whole time. Just drop your name in there. Let us know who's watching. And then Black Robe available. And then later on, obviously, we have our audio podcast available. Next, we've got send in your questions. So this is the last Christmas podcast.

So if you didn't have any Christmas questions, that's good because we're moving right along. So please send in any questions that you have. I actually have already been thinking about a few that I've been hearing other people talk about. So I'm going to send in some questions, too. I'd love to hear Hope's perspective on it. And then we are on Instagram and we are also on TikTok. So head over there. TikTok is a place where you will comment and you'll like, and then you'll repost.

So when you repost, it'll just show up on your friend's feed. So that helps us get out there. We've got our merch available and all of it, foundationchurchfl.com. Click shop. It's all available. Or you can buy some on Sunday. We've got everything there. Anything you could possibly want, shirt, hat, mug, and a spoon. And what we were just talking about earlier, Christmas Eve around the world. If you are on Facebook, we've posted a few invites. So feel free to share that to your page. Feel free to right click and save as a photo. And then if you're on your phone, you have it on your phone. So it'll be in your photo album. If you have the new upgrade on your iPhone, good luck finding it, but it should be in there somewhere. If not, screenshot it and then you can crop it and then send it to a friend. Pray today

about who you're supposed to invite, because what an opportunity to invite somebody here. You probably have been like, oh, I wish I could invite these people, but they're not Christian enough or they don't believe in the Bible enough or whatever. Everybody is looking for family things to do. So use this opportunity to get people into church and then we'll let the Holy Spirit do the hard work. Yeah. And pray and fast over it. Absolutely. I haven't, I've been praying and fasting over this. Because what if this is like what changes somebody's whole life? Like I just, I was talking to my girls and they are telling me about different friends that they have and stuff

that they're going through right now. And they, these people, these poor kids, I mean, they're like 19, 20 years old and they just feel hopeless right now. And they're like, I don't know what to do. And they have no, for us and him coming to earth and dying on a cross, all the cool things that we're going to talk about, like we always do. And it's going to be amazing guys. Like really, we've been working so hard on this and, um, and, and praying over it. So we just really hope that you guys will really consider bringing somebody along or at least inviting them, do your part. And, um, yeah, and that's that so then next week no podcast next week and then no podcast the following week so we will be back in January and if you follow us on all of the things Instagram and Facebook and all the things

we'll be posting some stuff um just so you as reminders that we're coming back and reminders to send questions in so yeah yeah any way that you want to send them to you can you can always email but you can drop them in the tithe box you can hand them to us like and it doesn't really matter it's just um that the easiest way probably is just a quick email but yeah we just want to hear your questions we want to hear where you guys are at started off the new year with yeah loaded up yeah so okay let us turn off the volume to the thing because i'm dinging because now i've been texting with aaron and aaron is not watching the podcast normally he is but um he must not be um so okay let us let us begin now here's the thing. I believe this is the reason why we had major technical issues on Friday.

We did. And I think it's the Krampus. Don't say it. The Krampus blew us. The week before, that Wednesday, there was no storm, no nothing. We start talking about the Krampus, and at 4 o'clock, we get shut down. On the dot. On the dot.

Then Friday, complete fluke. It never happens. The camera would not come on. The camera that video records this. So no podcast. Aaron had to drive down here and bust tail. Because Friday night is the big podcast for Tom on CTN's National and everything. So he had to get that ready.

He had to get that fixed. Our tech guy that's in Bradenton was going to have to drive down. Because even Aaron was like, I don't know. I can't fix this. This is ridiculous. And then somehow his genius mind figured it out. But it's the Krampus. I blame the Krampus.

I do too. You know what? I ain't scared of the Krampus. So I'm going to address this question and we're going to finish it off. That's right. Listen, if something happens. We're going to go live on my phone. We're going to talk about it no matter what.

If something happens and we disappear, it's the Krampus. We blame the Krampus. We have not committed suicide. You know how everybody says that? They're talking about a hot subject and they go, so if something happens to me, I've not committed suicide. Well, just so you know,

if something goes down, we blame the Krampus. That's it. We do. I'm sure it's him. Yeah. So we're going to go back to this question. We're going to finish it. Like, I'm going to start from the beginning, and then we're going to finish it.

Okay? So the Krampus, he's an interesting fellow. And so the question was, here's a hope question. Have you guys ever heard about the Krampus? Now, all of us have that have been watching that watch the end of the Hope Hotline on Wednesday of last week. We now have, but I'm going to, for the ones that don't, I'm going to go back to the beginning and then we'll finish it up. Okay.

So in some countries and cultures, the Krampus is what they use to make sure kids behave. Like we use Santa, right? Well, the Krampus, you can put him up. The Krampus is like this demonic goat-looking, hairy, black, long-tongued, horned. He looks like the devil. Yike.

And so what he is used to, like, he's used to threaten kids. So it's like one of the pagan, another pagan parts of Christmas. So he's like a demonic goat monster in pagan mythology. He has fangs along with everything else I named which is his horns his long tongue dark hair all over his body it in in the Krampus comes from the word cramp in in German and it means claw and so so here's basically all about the Krampus the legend of the Krampus may have ties to Nordic paganism, but the common story originated in Austrian folklore,

probably as a way for parents to try and make their children mind. Misbehaving children are threatened with a visit from Krampus who will scare them, beat them with a bundle of birch switches, and possibly even take them away to his lair. Krampus then is rather like Santa's evil counterpart. Santa's main threat is to put mischief makers on his naughty list or leave them a lump of coal, but Krampus will terrorize them. In Austria, the regions of Germany, residents look for Krampus on Krampusnack,

which what I just said was a German word, and I don't speak German, but it means Krampus night on the night of December 5th. So on December 5th, that's Krampus night, and they look for him, which happens to be the eve of St. Nicholas Day, which I know about that, and you know about that, Tracy, from Christmas Eve service, which happens to be the eve of St. Nicholas Day, which I know about that and you know about that, Tracy, from Christmas Eve service, which happens to be the eve of St. Nicholas Day in Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, adults get involved in the chaotic Krampus tribute involving public drunkenness and men running through the streets dressed as devils.

Isn't that special? Yes. In recent years, and so it's moving over to the United States. And in recent years, some people in the United States have begun throwing Krampus parties as a sort of twisted anti-Christmas celebration, which, let me bring in Tracy. Tracy just was telling me, take it away. Take it away, girl.

And right after we posted this or we did the first question, I saw somebody on Facebook posting about a party, a Krampus party, and was asking like two days left, who's going to show up? And I was like, no way. I've never even heard of this before.

But it's come and moved into the United States. That's crazy. That's crazy. It's crazy. And the thing is, I should go over here because that's where you're at. But it's opposite of me. Okay, so what's crazy is, like, if you see the invite, it looks satanic. Oh, yeah. This whole thing is demonic.

I mean, it's a scary invite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is this person satanic that's throwing this party? He really likes Halloween and does haunted houses. He makes money off of doing haunted houses and all that kind of stuff. So he has a demonic, he's kind of like into the demonic thing? I think so. I don't know him.

He's from Jared's like past high school, middle school. Oh. Lifetime. Just like a Facebook friend. So. Yeah. Mags, go back. Uh-oh.

Don't even. Don't even. Tell her I will fly up to Pennsylvania and put my walking pad to the test. She says lifting all day. Then she's saying something else. So she agrees with me. No, she doesn't. Just trying to make you feel good.

She doesn't even know who walking is a pastime we're just trying to get back to like our like softer days you know like just like lower cortisol levels like feminist feminism you know so lifting is a workout. Walking. And walking is a pastime. Okay. I don't know. Do you know what I wrote to her back?

I said, God, I love you. Booyah. I do love lifting, so I can't really argue this. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Okay. Right? That's how you say it? Yeah, that's how you say it, but how are you going to skin it when you're like, and in a chest vest, a weighted chest vest, and then you're selling them. I'm not selling them.

I'm just advertising. Advertising is a way of selling a product. True. That's what, like, ask Mattel toys. You want to up your walking game out of this. Hey, you'll burn more calories. Okay. You know what she says?

Gosh. If you ask people who actually work out, they will all say the same thing. Wow. I feel personally attacked right now. I'm offended. I'm offended. I'm going to unfollow her on Instagram right now. That's it. That's it.

It's over. It's over. I just told her the two past timers are offended. I'm super offended. That's like, get over it. My truth hurts. I feel like there's a tear.

It's a very small one. Yeah. You're selling the weighted vest. like trying to sell it as if people should let's get into this yeah yeah you literally look like you're ready for war oh yes okay i do 17 minute miles she said stay offended by the way my god when we're not friends on Instagram anymore, you're going to understand why. I'm not going to. I don't.

Like, that's just the way it's going to be. That's it. And Facebook. I'm going to unfollow you on Facebook, too. It's done. It's already done. That's like, that's the really hurtful one. When you're unfriended on Facebook.

She has so many followers, she really won't care what you guys do. Not even just unsubscribed. I'm going to, like, unfollow. And then make a post about it. She doesn't need you. Then I'm going to start talking about how amazing walking is. And somebody will screenshot it and send it to her. No they won't. And my brother would.

That's your only door open right there. That's the point. You have to know that there's one person watching you. Here's the thing. Nobody else has access to her. And the only way you have access to her is through your brother. Otherwise. And you use that. Listen, I got her personal phone.

Listen. I'm just saying. You're screwed. I could probably find it. I said I'm falling in love with you more and more by the minute. Oh. Wow. Great minds, baby.

Keep telling yourself that. Back to the Krampus. Oh, yeah. Are we still going? So, well, yeah. I mean, I'm basically done. But I'm just saying, like, that guy,

that's scary crap. And my thing is, is this. How about you not use Santa as a means to manipulate and get your children to do what they and god forbid you use the krampus like you gotta be like twisted and demented to like terrorize your children with a demonic figure like that to try and keep them who does that that's terrible who does that although i will say i think this is freaking hilarious people literally have used tom and me oh as means

to control their children listen you you do not behave i'm gonna call pastor tom i think you guys should be like the new elf on the shelf oh like i'm scary apparently right get little stuffies of you i'm scary parents literally have told me i've we've used you guys oh yeah or we're gonna sign a waiver and let you go live with them no i'm like okay i don't want to be like the person that they're afraid of but but apparently i am there you go is funny. Tom more so than me. Yeah. Yeah.

And he's widely loved as kids are departing. Like there are kids that are like loving on him. Like they grab his leg. They make their parents stand in line to say goodbye. So they can say goodbye to him. Yeah. Cute. And they pass right on by me.

They got nothing to say. See ya. I'm like, how about me? And they're like, hmm. They look at me like, you've lost your mind, woman. Oh, my gosh. I want no parts of you. What?

I'm not kidding you. That's because you're not in kids ministry anymore. They literally walk right past me. But they don't, do they have a relationship with you? Like, you're not like. They don't have a relationship with him. He's not in the dadgum kids rock room. I'm more in there than he is.

He's like Pastor Tom. He's on stage. Right. They don't see him. But they know. How do they know? Maybe you need to go back to kids rock again. No, just kidding.

Don't do that. Then they'll really be afraid of you. Courtney, you love that. Yeah. Listen. Yeah. I'd be kicked out by her. You and Tara. Yeah. Listen. Yeah. I'd be kicked out by her. You and Tara.

Yeah. That's true. That would be interesting. Nobody messes. I mean, Courtney's the fun one. Yeah. Tara's the heavy. Yeah.

Yeah. Gotta have both. But Courtney's the, like, has them rolling. Yeah. When does Courtney not have you rolling? Oh, I know. All day, every day. Literally. Adults to rolling. Yeah. When does Courtney not have you rolling? Oh, I know all day, every day.

Adults to children. Yes. A constant comedian. She is. Gotta love it. Stuff she comes up with. Yeah. 100%.

Okay. Mags just said something else. Oh, she just laughed. Can folk. Can folk. Oh man. That Folk. Oh, man. That's right.

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So give them a call. Both of these companies, the people that attend the church, I'm not just saying to use them because they attend your church. I'm saying it because I know them personally, and they will do an excellent job for you. And Christians should prefer one another, and we should honor one another. So if you need that done uh we have lots of realtors in the church and i'm not i interview everybody okay but you want to make

sure that somebody does right by you the odds are high if you hire a christian and somebody that you know you're going to be taking good care of. Otherwise, it's up for grabs if you try to go with somebody who's not a Christian and you don't know them. This way, at least, you know, you can figure that part out. So with a Christian, your odds are higher. Next question. Have you ever heard, have you guys ever heard this? I've never heard of this. I had to learn about this. Have you ever heard about Saturnella? It is supposedly another pagan holiday related to Christmas.

Have you ever heard of this? I kid you not. I knew that Christmas was founded in paganism. I had no idea until we started doing an all Christmas podcast. I had no idea that there was so many things that go back to paganism for Christmas. None whatsoever. It's crazy.

It's crazy. It ain't changing my opinion. I'm still celebrating Christmas because I don't celebrate these things. We're redeeming the holiday now. Yeah, exactly. It's ours. Right.

Right. It's mind-boggling. Yeah. It's mind-boggling. It kind of like makes me go back to like the people who don't do one holiday but they'll do other holidays. It's like,

I don't know about that. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Yep. Okay. Let me tell you about this. Saturnella was a week-long Roman festival honoring the god Saturn. Hmm. You know, like, a lot of times Greek mythology is all based on like you have the

love goddess and things like that. This sounds like that to me. It wasn't that all Roman, like Greek mythology. It wasn't like a lot of these Greek gods and stuff like that. Weren't they all stemming from like the Roman times or something? Are you looking that up for me? Thank you. Because I'm sitting here thinking, I think some of that has got to do with all of those Greek gods. Yeah, the Roman gods largely stemmed from the Greek gods. Yeah, that's what I thought.

I don't remember much from school. Yeah, Zeus. But I do remember like Venus or something like that was the love goddess or something like that roman yep and poseidon yeah and jupiter zeus zeus it's very interesting that a lot of our planets are named after greek yeah that is very interesting well they used the planets to name greek gods not that our planets are named after Greek gods. The Greek gods were named after the planets. Vice versa what you just said.

Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? I don't think that's by accident. Again, if you look at the scripture says that the story is in the stars. If you want to know what's going on, look at the sky. Cause even in the end times, which most people don't pay attention to, but the,

but what you'll know the end times by, by what's going on in the celestial. Right. Yeah. So I don't think that that's by accident that they took our planets and made gods out of them. It's pagan. It's, yeah.

I don't know. But I do remember that from school. I'm like, it's crazy. And the Romans were very pagan. Yeah. And they terrorized the Israelites, the Jewish people. They were just, I mean, that's the scripture where it says, where Jesus said, if you're asked to walk one mile, go two.

And a lot of people don't realize that the reason that Jesus said that is because what would happen is Roman soldiers would literally take a Jewish person, an Israelite, make them carry all of their belongings, as much or as little as they had. They would have to walk a mile. They were only mandated. So they would have to stop whatever they were doing or wherever they were going

and carry that Roman soldiers, whatever they had, whether it be their sword, their spears, their armor, whatever it is, whatever he was carrying, they were now going to have to carry it for one mile. And Jesus said, if you're asked to do it, do one, do two. And that's to teach us to die to yourself, but also a lot of times people harbor ill will

when they're asked to do something by somebody they can't stand. What does it speak? It speaks volumes when you not only do that one thing for them, it's like heaping coals upon somebody of kindness, which is the word that tells us to do. Heap coals of kindness on your enemy. Well, that's exactly what that's doing. And it's good for you to get past you

when you're dealing with somebody you can't stand because they hated each other and the Romans were terrible to the Israelites and the Jewish people. So I just think that that's one of the first things that the Lord taught to the Jewish people. So it's profound. But going back, I went somewhere we didn't need to go. But it says, the Roman festival honoring the good God Saturn. It started on December 17th to fall within what we now call the Christmas season. Historical accounts mention the rich paying rent for the poor,

masters and slaves exchanging clothes, and so forth on Saturnella. Yet for most of history, debauchery seems to dominate celebrations of the holiday. In fact, the word Saturnella became synonymous with an immorality and carousing. In modern eyes, some Saturnella customs come across as hedonistic perversions of Christmas traditions. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. So it says, for instance, singing from house to house naked, feasting excessively,

eating baked goods shaped like people. Oh my gosh. That's disgusting. And exchanging body gifts. Well, I think I've done that. I'm not allowed to go back to abide. Listen, but I'm not going to tell you why. Are you sure? No, I'm not telling why. Stephanie Holland will kill me. Oh my goodness. I'm just saying I've been banned. I mean, you thought it was supposed

to be spicy. You guys said bring a gag gift. Yeah. I brought a gag gift. I showed it to Tom. Tom laughed. Do you know what a gag gift is? Yeah. And that was a gag gift. That was funny. It's what I brought last night.

What did you bring? A goldfish. A live goldfish? A live one. A live one. And somebody's now stuck with a goldfish? Somebody. Listen, it got stolen twice.

It did. It was the hot topic. A rotisserie chicken? That is a gag gift. That's not a gag gift. That was also a gift last night? It is. It is.

I don't go to a bar. I don't even know how I got invited to this thing. Because we love you and we wanted you there. But it was regretful. No, it wasn't. That was the funniest thing ever. It's why we have rules now yeah exactly yes yeah we had to set rules yes of course we do now

no that was really no no that was so funny and it was like the perfect setup like we couldn't have done that we couldn't have set that up more perfectly. It was. My daughter almost ended up with it. I was like, you cannot take that. She was going to grab it. I'm like, nope. Nope. Not for you. That's not for you.

But I will say this. I literally left my house. But when I left my house, I said to Tom, I'm telling you right now, Stephanie Holland gets this gift. And the place is like 40 women that attended. Yeah. That place was hot. Yes. I was hot because in your house, it was a nice cool night yeah but there's so many people in there

a lot of body heat a lot of body heat what are the flipping odds i'm just telling you i said that was so perfect i said stephanie holland gets this gift i'm gonna die sure enough she got the gift my gift was like the last one to be paid it was it was right at the end it was like second to last and stephanie holland got it she opened it up and she closed it immediately and then her daughter goes mommy what did you get what did she say i think you put candy in there no i didn I didn't. I don't think so. It was like special candy. Did I buy special candy? It was special. Yeah.

I bought two things I thought I'd stick in there. Yeah. I think it was special candy. Oh, no, no, no. Three things. And one of them can be considered candy. Yes. Okay.

Yes. I think you're correct. So, yeah. Heather always says it, what she says, and i die laughing that's so bad heather is famous for like doing it just like the way she did super fun super funny but i'm banned yep banned i'm not allowed to go so back to this we just have to buy your gifts that's all right we just have to scan your gift before i have you can always open the bag. Yeah. Like let me see Hope. Okay. We'll have an extra gift just in case

we have to swap it out. So people brought a rotisserie chicken and you brought a fish. I brought a fish. Was there any other? It was so cute. It was the cutest

little goldfish. I know people have brought muumus before. That was me. That was the party you attended. And I think people were fighting over that muumu.

Yeah. I think so. Yeah. That wasMo. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. That was special. That was a special one. I played it safe this time around. What did you bring? A Bible.

That's not a gag gift. That wasn't the theme. This was White Elephant. Yeah. It was just get a gift. Isn't White Elephant like nobody knows who it came from? Is that the point of it? I think so.

Okay. Yeah. Nobody would have known that was me. Yeah. That I brought. But we were all like. We knew it came from it's not the point of it i think so okay yeah nobody would have known that was me yeah but i brought but we were all like we knew it was you so anyway so people kept and i this is the one thing i got kind of teed off about because people kept saying sorry i'll go back to the question people kept literally saying that was me that's what i get i'm like shut up i know like it's gonna come down to where everybody's gonna know after somebody would open the gift every set that's not a part that's not the point of a gag gift if you don't know part of a gag gift is shut your mouth no one needs to know who gave it to you right and none of them were gag those stunk like everybody's

gag gifts like uh the mumu was good i'm gonna give you that that's a funny gag gift hello best cult ever best cult ever shirt that's a good gag thank you that one got stolen too yeah she did a best cult uh ever but it was like everybody thinks we're like yeah They think we're a cult. It had black on it too. So you could barely see it. If you're not being accused of a cult, are you even doing the thing? Especially after 2020. Are you doing it right? After COVID. After COVID, I...

Isn't that what cults say? Probably. I literally toyed around with doing best cult ever with the Foundation Church. I know. But. People actually think we are cult. But people actually do.

But I don't want to validate. Right. Exactly. And thinking like they're going to think Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. I don't want to start playing balled tambourines doing Hare Krishna. Oh, man. You just unlocked a memory.

Okay. Because you used to see them out on the streets in New York. In the subway system. And at the airport, right? Yes. We used to see them at the airports in D.C. and at the Pentagon.

They would sit out back in the day. Anybody could go into the Pentagon. They were traveling groups. So Hare Krishnas were sitting out at the Pentagon beating the tambourines and flipping freezing in their togas, or whatever they were wearing. I think they're gone now. They look like monks.

Yeah, or worse. What is that? They sing with... Order in the court. I love you, too. Thank you for giving. Thanks for your gift, man. Appreciate you.

Is that a rumble rant that she just did? Yeah. Thank you for that rum Thanks for your gift, man. Appreciate you. Is that a rumble rant that she just did? Yeah. Thank you for that rumble rant, girl. Order in the court. You're the best. Yeah. So they look like monks. Okay.

But not with the thing around. Oh. They were bald, and they would have a ponytail on the top. Oh, okay. Bald with a ponytail. I don't think we had those. They would sing, and there was tambourines. Always tambourines. Oh, yeah. We didn't have those. And they didn't sing good. Very good. Tol ponytail. They would sing and there was always tambourines.

And they didn't sing good. They did not sing good. And it was always cold. And they were always not a lot. What is that? There was always white women too. I don't remember any white ladies. I remember no whiteys. Only whitey men.

And I was just like, you guys are freaksaks i don't want to be considered a freak no so that's the only reason i don't do the best cold ever all right but i'm tempted so in reality there's some historical evidence suggesting that these events are were reformed absorbed and transformed over time as a result of Christmas popularity, overtaking that of Saturnala. Christians may have redeemed portions of the celebration. So basically, this is what they say. The early motive for celebrating Jesus' birth on December 25th may have been akin to that which inspires modern churches to hold fall festivals. Wow.

Wow. Isn't that funny? Yeah, that's very funny or bible costume parties stop it on october on october 31st no way it does say that yeah that's wild that is christians desire to provide a spiritually positive alternative to what they perceive as a pagan celebration over time as the roman emperor empire was christianized customs associated with saturnella were cleaned up and absorbed into the celebration of christmas there is another roman holiday called sol invectus which we talked about that seems to have been gradually absorbed by christmas too sol invectus which is invincible sun which another obviously planet, the sun.

Well, they say the sun's a star. Yeah, it is a star. Celebrated on December 25th, the renewing of the sun king and was linked to winter solstice. Although the solstice itself never falls on December 25th. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, was raised in this cult of unconquered sun God. And he had a hand in returning Roman culture toward Christ and away from the paganism. And the first reliable historical evidence of Christmas being observed on

December 25th dates from his reign. Isn't that interesting how one person can flip everything. Yeah. Yep. And turn it and work it in the direction of the Lord. So it goes back to, what it basically goes back to is what do you, because there's people probably watching that are like,

now I feel conflicted. Should I or shouldn't I celebrate Christmas? Flippant celebrate Christmas. You're not, the tree is not the tree for Satan. It's not for a pagan. You look at that tree. I mean, every single time.

Tara gave me those flowers. And I put the flowers in my room, which, holy moly, my room smells amazing. You didn't see those flowers, did you, Vanessa? I was watching. Yeah, I was watching. Vanessa, they were. I know, they were gorgeous. I didn't see those flowers i was watching yeah i was watching they were i know they were gorgeous i didn't cut them i left them and i have a huge face and i just stuck them in there they're thriving i just bet i stuck them in there and they look like the biggest because i had a huge i was

like you know what i i was didn't want to cut them so i'm like i want to keep them in how beautiful they had them laid out yeah that. That thing is a beast. I know. Beast. But I put them in the living room at first and I was like, well, now I can't smell my tree. I mean, that's why I have a tree. Right. Right.

Because it smells so amazing. Now you go into my bedroom and it smells so good. I love that. I love that. But you're done. But what's the heart? Yes. I mean, what is the heart behind it? Don't let it's the posture of your heart, right? There you go. You just heard it from the ark pastor herself. You just heard it from her. It's the posture of your heart. Oh, I love it.

That doesn't say it, but it's, true. What is the reason you're doing it? And if it's pure, then that's what God looks at. Yeah. The purity behind what you're doing. And why not redeem it? Take it back from the enemy. Take it back from what they try to make it to be. Which is what they, what did they say this guy was?

The emperor, Constantine. He was the first Christian emperor. And he was raised in that cult. And he still did it. So again, and that just goes to show, it doesn't matter what you grow up in, you can always change. True. True that.

Preach. Yep. You're not beholden to your, you're not beholden to how you're raised. Yeah. So don't allow that to be the excuse of why you do what is wrong. Yep.

Which is what a lot of people do. And the next question, I love this flipping question. Okay. Do I have any more questions after this? Yeah. Yes, I do. Holy moly.

Let's go. We got to move? We got to move. Nine minutes. Okay. I love this question because you know what? When I read this question, I was like, this is one of my pet peeves. It says, what's your thoughts when people write or say Merry Xmas? I hate that crap.

I don't like it. I hate that crap. I'm not passionate about many things, but I think it's totally wrong to remove Christ's name from Christmas. The holiday is all about him. You you know what? I flippin' agree with you. I totally agree with you 100%. It's six letters. Six letters. You can't write

out six letters. I have to write out a lot of cards. Yeah. There's no excuse you can give me that will make it okay for me. Never. In a million years, you're removing the very thing that it's all about. And I agree with you on that. And why are you removing it? Lazy. That's why. You're lazy. Or you can't be bothered. Or Christ isn't the reason you celebrate Christmas. It's for everything else.

But without him, you have nothing. You don't have the holiday if you don't have him. So write the daggum thing out fully. Cannot stand it. Cannot stand it. What about you? Obviously, we know how Vanessa says. Courtney said, not me double checking my Rumble rant to make sure I didn't write Xmas.

She didn't. She wrote Christmas. Yeah, you know what? Because there was definitely a season of life where everybody was writing it. I think we were much younger and I just never, I always felt weird about it. It was a lazy thing. Like, oh, I just write it real fast. And then I was like, I don't know. I don't like that. I don't like the Xmas. I feel like you're crossing off

the point, like X. Wait, if you don't know how to spell your name or if illiterate people yeah what do they when they sign their name because they don't know how to write or read what how do they do that they do it with an x oh i don't know what are you doing i don't know that new wrinkle in my brain yeah and and like and you're crossing you're putting an x through like christ like it's yes you're removing it but you're you're replacing with an x right like you're crossing him out i can see like a satanist using x-mas yeah i can yeah yeah like

someone somebody that's demonic right um that's satanic or i should say satanic. They celebrate Krampus. I bet you they do celebrate Krampus. No, I'm not a fan. And I've heard the arguments. Oh, it's just because it just saves time. I will wait the 0.2 seconds it takes you. I have a chat GPT response. Okay, do it. Tell us what chat GPT is.

The Greek letter for X is chai. It's the first letter of the Greek word for Christ. Wow. I take it all back. I take it all back. Because if chat GPT says it, it's true. It's got to be true. Well, that changes things.

How funny is that? I'm glad you asked that question. Because now I feel like an idiot. Thank you very much. In medieval and Europe, it was often time-consuming for scribes to use abbreviation to save time and space. They'd use X for Christ, and it became a common thing in religious context. So it was to save time. All right. But X is... It's actually his letter. And it became a common thing in religious context. So it was to save time.

All right. But X is. It's actually his letter. Yeah. It's like X P I O T O S is how they like write that in the Greek. For Christos. Christos. Yeah, probably.

Christos. Yeah. So that's where the X came from. Okay. Oh, so what do you guys think about Xmas? I still hate it. I know. Because we're American.

I feel invalidated. X means X. And X means? X is like, uh-uh. X marks the spot. Oh, okay. I think, I mean, X is like canceled. Yeah. That's how I feel about it.

I do too. I don't like it. I guess it's how you perceive it. Yeah. I perceive it as lazy. I mean, it was used to shorten it. Yeah, but here's the thing. How many of the people that write X-mas actually know that it was Greek?

And are thinking, I'm using the X word. Yeah. No, they're being lazy. They're being lazy, but you totally like. I know. I was like, when are I, ChatGPT? The sail on my boat has totally disappeared. All right, next question.

You took the wind out of my sail. I know, I'm sorry. It wasn't me. It was ChatGPT. Who facts? I know. Listen. Listen, if ChatGPT says it, it's better than if the internet says it.

Listen. You know some people are really against ChatGPT. You know that, right? Oh, really? Yeah. some people are really against chat gbt you know that right oh really yeah 100 like really against it like this is basically the antichrist well here's the thing it's not it is it isn't good it has it has some value and merit like everything in life but on the whole yeah it's not good oh i thought on the whole it was good but i'll work it for my good right i mean it's like social media for the whole. Everybody puts out fake stuff or like shows what they want to show. Like everything.

Social media is not good either. Right. But we all use it. Yeah. Right. It's not going to stop me. No. I just know.

I'm a knower. Okay. What it is. Yeah. You know, they started putting. Oh, it's here. Chat GPT can make mistakes. Check important information.

They have that at the bottom now. As a disclaimer. As a disclaimer. I don't think that was there before. Because people are using chat GPT to like diagnose themselves. Oh, yeah. What? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You put in all your symptoms. And then you go to the black market and buy. And then you, yeah, exactly. And then, yeah. Can't do that. Oh, yeah. This is real hope.

Oh, yeah. This is real hope. Oh, yeah. They're using chat GPT as a physician? Yes. Yeah. Or even like a therapist? Yeah. And then they like diagnose themselves with like mental problems. And they're like, all right, let's go into the black web.

Yeah. Get some Lexapro. I don't know. Is that even something? I don't know. I even something i don't know i was like wow sounds official it did it did i fell for it official natalie's watching i know natalie is that right she goes yes what are you serious it is wait she said it is what is it what is it nat, she said it is. No way! What is it? What is it? Natalie, what is it?

No way! It is something? It is. I guess so. Oh my gosh. I'm telling you, this girl and her weird information. I've seen it once and it was like sort of long term. I have none of that.

Crazy. I don't remember squat like that. That's wild. That's crazy. Okay. Another tangent. All right like that. That's wild. That's crazy. Okay. Another tangent. All right. Yeah.

Let's one last question. Two minutes to go. Oh, wait. Lexapro is for anxiety and depression. Oh, bam. From Natalie. I should just be. I'm just going to go to you.

Who needs chat GPT? Natalie, you're fired. I'm hiring. No, Natalie, I will not take your job. You can have it. If Vanessa takes your job, we'll all be dead. Within 30 days. Wow.

She'll just chat GBT it. Totally. She doesn't know what doses anybody should take of anything. I bet I can ask GBT. Can you imagine? Give me a second. Kristen had a quick question for you kristin wagner she said so basically when i'm being extra she's being more christ-like this is what i live with this these people in the chat are just

i remember when christina aguilera was oh yeah she was what christina guys it's our last day we're getting it all out we're gonna miss you so much oh my gosh holy moly yes okay okay okay that's all the chat's quiet now oh man you people need help so chat gpt oh my gosh i'll get the answer oh my gosh kristen i wonder if kristen i know exactly i wonder if kristen what was that one we did about with kristen a couple weeks ago what did we did we talked about what she what did she do made. I wonder if she saw that one. Yeah. Was it the picture that you shared?

It wasn't the pictures, was it? Like everybody put pictures in your phone. That was a while ago. Oh, yeah. Where I put her picture out. Yep. I wonder if she didn't. Yeah. Vanessa, that was you too, right?

Yes. Yeah, Brittany. Same episode. And Brittany. That was flipping funny. I feel like I have it somewhere. No, I think she did see it because I remember we were chatting about it. Okay.

That was flipping funny. Thank God. Because that's important to see that kind of stuff. We're a small family. Very small. For sure. Keep watching. You'll probably be a part of it very shortly.

It's very true. Or we'll consider you to be a part of it. So next question. Last question. Oh oh there we go right there put that on there there we go um poor thing i know do you want yours too no yeah put hers on which one yes which one's your favorite do it do it okay okay it's coming do it my very christmas but look how smooth that um head that forehead is had you just seen tracy Do it. Okay. Okay. It's coming. Do it. Merry Christmas. But look how smooth that forehead is.

Had you just seen Tracy? That's not bad. No. You hadn't seen me. Oh my gosh. And then these crazies. There we go. Oh my gosh.

Okay. Okay. With the gum. Vanessa with the gum. I just love a good smacking of the gum. Oh my gosh. My mother's girlfriend is staying with her right now. Yeah. And she loves bubble yum.

No. She doesn't normally chew it. I think they're probably watching this, Barb. And listen, she chews that gum like I did when I was in high school. I'm like, you're a beast. There's some satisfaction when you just go to town. On a piece of gum. That's true.

It almost made me want to buy a bubble yum. Yeah. Yeah. I know what I'm getting her for Christmas. I was going to say. It's a good gift. It is. She'll be thrilled.

Keeps on giving. All year long. All. Clark. Yes. I'm going to watch that. I bet she has a really good jawline. Oh.

That's what I'm saying. Like. Listen. I was over there. I think it'm saying. Like, listen, I was over there. I think it was, was it last night? I was over there and she ate five pieces of gum. No way. As soon as it loses its flavor, she's moving on to the next one. That's the next one. My kind of girl.

That's how I am. My kind of girl. Like, I ain't chewing it and it loses its flavor. No, yeah, once it's gone. But Tom literally can chew gum and he has to get rid of it quick because he'll choose the same piece of gum and it'll have no flavor

and his jaw would be, it will be killing him. Really? Because he like, yeah, because he goes to town on it too, but he's not with his mouth open

like Vanessa. Vanessa and me and Miss Barb, we all pop it and we pop it and then we blow bubbles with it and then pop it and like you suck it in yeah uh-huh i don't know i don't even realize that i'm doing it yeah i was at the post

office like a couple days ago and i had a piece of gum i was just going to town i was popping i was like everyone's like get out of here lady get out and out. And then I caught myself. Everybody was looking at you, weren't they? Yeah, I think I got a glance. Like somebody looked at me, and I was just like, oh, man, how long have I been doing this? Enough to annoy the crap out of them. Too long. That's how long. Too long.

It doesn't bother me, really, to be honest with you. It doesn't bother me. I'm like, rock that gum. It bothers Jeff. Except for you. Oh, my gosh. Sometimes Vanessa, because she chews. Like Miss Barb isn't chewing her gum.

With her mouth closed? No, she's, well, a little bit. But I'm saying she doesn't, like you're, like you sound like you are chewing your cud. Like a cow. About it. You are about it. Like your level is like.

I'm going to do things halfway. Listen, if I'm going to chew halfway listen if i'm gonna chew gum i'm gonna chew it she does that is not that is not a flipping line oh man okay what was the other one you have one of of brit i love that one i know me too that one's flipping i love that so. I know me too. That one's flipping. I love that so much. And the funny thing is all these girls are beautiful. Beautiful. Yes. But you wouldn't know it.

Not, not by these ones. That you would not know. Like show what you, I mean, holy crap. Find pictures of them. Like,

you know what Vanessa looks like. That ain't it. But you should find pictures of what they really look like. So, because for the people that don't know them, that true that would be nice that'd be a good friend because if you saw them in real life you'd be like that's what they they seriously it's great is they're beautiful but they can laugh at themselves yeah oh yeah oh man yeah life is that's when you're living your best life absolutely you can laugh at yourself. I mean, you took the pictures. Like, sorry, guys.

Like, you did it. So Hope's going to use it. You just have to know better. Always. You use my phone, it's game on. Game on. It's out there. Yeah, it's game on.

It's mine. So whatever I choose. So while she's finding those pictures, and we're four minutes over, let me do this real quick question. So whatever I choose. So while she's finding those pictures, and we're four minutes over, let me do this real quick question. My relatives every year before opening presents read the Christmas story in Luke, which is in the Bible, for those of you who don't know. Luke's version of the Gospels is more detailed than any other book of the Gospels. Out of Matthew, Mark, and John, Luke's is more detailed.

And a lot of times people say that it's more detailed because he was a physician. And doctors are more detailed. I don't know, but I'm just saying his story of the birth of Christ and his walk, scratchy throat, I mean, itchy throat, it's tickling me, it gives you more information than all the other gospels. I love the book of Luke, but everybody always reads the nativity story from Luke. And it's long. My parents used to do it all the time at Christmas.

And I'd just be like ants in pants because you've got presents underneath the tree. And your parents want to read the nativity. And are you going to listen? Truth be told. Heck to the no. Like you're not. You're not listening when be told. Heck to the no. Like, you're not. You're not listening when you're a child to the story. You're like, just shut up and let's move on.

Let's get to the presents. Is that right? Totally. I don't know. But it's just the reality of the situation. It is. So this is what the story, this is what the question says. When my family doesn't go to their house on Christmas, we do is what the story this is what the question says when my family doesn't go to their house on christmas we do not read the story is that wrong i don't want my kids to think

it's all about the presents but that's what they think but i don't think they are paying attention while the story is being read either you are absolutely 100. They are not paying attention to the story. It's too long. Depending on the age, it might be crying. Like, shut up. Let's move on. So this is what I suggest that you do. I mean, if it's a teenager,

they're probably not listening either. But there are ways, if you want to tell the Christmas story But there are ways, if you want to tell the Christmas story, there are ways that you can do this with your children. And you're satisfied because you feel like you've added the spiritual aspect of the day and them understanding why they're celebrating that day to them also being satisfied and actually getting something out of it too. Super important.

So in our church, we have the action Bible that every child gets that visits our church. If you come in and you only attend the church once, you're leaving with the Bible. And that goes from being in to the, what is it, twos to fours? Or no, threes to fives, I think it is. I know. I can't remember. So as soon as you can actually look at something and understand it, it's Trisha's class. I think it's three to fives. And then when you move up to Kids Rock, you get the Action Bible. So both classes, every child that visits or attends gets a Bible from us. The Action Bible actually tells a great detailed story of the birth of Christ.

But the thing is, it's in the form of a comic. And so it's like a comic strip. It's colorful, and it'll keep your kids' attention. So I highly suggest, if you're gonna tell a nativity story, or if you're gonna tell about the birth of Christ, pull out something that they will like to hear.

Not necessarily what you want to hear. Like, you don't need to pull out your King James, your new King James, your NIV, put that on the side. You do that before they get up and you read that story. But if you want them to listen and you want them to understand and they conceptually get why they're celebrating that day pull out something that they'll understand the action bible is perfect for elementary and like junior high age junior highs it's a little too young for them but at least they'll enjoy it enough that they're not gonna like be probably daydreaming as much. I would suggest you want to do that one. If you have a child that's age three to seven, this book, I pulled up some different options for you guys. These can be found on the Christian book, Amazon, things like that. Put that one up there, baby girl. Ages three to seven. This is a pop-up book.

So you press it out and playbook. And if you go to the next one, it looks like this. It tells the story about Mary and Joseph, the whole thing. And as you go on through, there's pop-ups in it that you can pop up and tell the story of the birth of Jesus. So they actually, while you're reading, they can pull up the tabs and see what you're reading. So, okay, that's three to seven. They're not going to be bored. Then who doesn't love a golden book? Yeah.

The best. Oh my gosh. We all grew up on them. If you're like, pretty much everybody, right? Golden books are still really popular with kids today with okay because golden books were like my jam when i was young i mean my mom had so many of them for us to read there's so many different ones but this is really great you can do the christmas story even from young, ages two to six can do this.

And even if you're older than six years old, elementary, you'll still enjoy this. There's no pop ups in it. And it's not going to be as short as the one that we just recently I recently showed you. But this one's pretty dang good. Golden books. You can't go wrong. And I like I said, the Action Bible, I think that was the only one, right? Yeah, that was, yeah, those were the ones that we showed. The Action Bible is another one, like I said. And I don't have, I didn't take a picture of that. But if you go to this church, then you know. But all you got to do is type in Action Bible and you'll see it. And I highly suggest people get that because for your kids,

if they're in elementary school, they'll love it. I have had people whose kids, they're new to, they're newly saved. Their kids come to church. Their kids are actually reading the whole Bible through because of the Action Bible. And they were shocked that their kid would even be interested. We do a lot of reading challenges with our elementary school age groups. And we use the Action Bible to do the reading challenges. And kids constantly win because it's something that they're not. Thank you. That's it right there.

It's so good. And do they show the inside what that looks like? There's also an audio version. And so if the kids want to read on their own, but they're not yet like really great readers, they can listen to it and follow along. Which we do that with our youngers. If the younger kids don't know how to read for the reading challenges then they're able to we're allowed we allow them to do that because that also helps them to

reach the goal but yeah i mean it's such a great resource for kids and it's a comic strip yeah and uh it's fun it's really really good and um it's you know with anything you got to be really with anything does sometimes it not stick to the scripture exactly i would say that was pretty dang close because i've read it i've talked with it i taught kids rock with it for 10 years and we've been giving those things away for over 10 years yeah and I taught from him and I never saw one thing that wasn't accurate yeah so it skips but you're gonna have to skip because kids are not gonna you know it skips certain things but even that it doesn't skip very much okay it

doesn't tell every story that's a great thing that's the resource that I would use if you are strong if you strongly feel like you need to do it and i think it's important to like you do the birthday cake yeah um i think it's really important to to explain to kids or read the the story of the birth of jesus on christmas morning right but not to the detriment of the morning because let me just say I remember living just not even listening I was bored stiff

and my dad only read from the King James and there was a lot of these and thuses and I was like I don't even know what you're talking about I don't even know what you're talking about so what was the point I'm not saying rush through it what I'm just saying is make sure that it's quality. Right. Instead of just doing

something to do it. Right. Because what's the point if they don't understand what you're doing when you're done? Absolutely. And it goes back to what you taught once. Like, why do you do the things that you do? What's the motive behind it is it supposed is it like to to scratch it you know yeah exactly or is it really the posture of your heart right there it goes again i did it on purpose i know you did just to get to me it's so true yeah it's yeah why are you doing it is it to check mark it off that you did it and so you can tell everybody? This is what we do every single Christmas morning. We gather around before we open any presents

and we read the birth of Jesus and the nativity story. And let me tell you, the Lord will see the motive of your heart. Yeah, if it smells. If it smells, he's gonna, he's. Why do it? If it smells, why do it?

And you don't always have to do it that morning. Maybe you do it before that morning. Yeah. Like systematically. I'm reading Luke with my kids this week, just so that our hearts are prepared for Christmas. So it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be, like you said, Christmas morning, like you put it in a box. Don't put, don't put things in a box that don't need to be, like you said, Christmas morning.

You put it in a box. Don't put things in a box that don't need to be in a box. Absolutely. Enjoy. Enjoy this time. Enjoy the season. Oh my gosh. Because it is so, when I say the word magical, I don't mean Santa Claus magical.

I mean it is such a magical time of year. Think about this. It's magical and miraculous, I will say. Think about this. Like the greatest gift ever given to us was born of a virgin. I know. She was young.

Yeah. Yes. I was telling Emma this. We were reading. And I said, did you know that Mary was about your age, Emma? Like, that's crazy. Can you put yourself in her shoes? I know.

And what would you say? I say I've taught this many, many times around this season. But, you know, our decisions that we make, when the Lord asks us to do something and we don't do it, we don't know the ramifications of it years later by us not doing it. And if you think about what if Mary would have said no? The ramifications of that, Would God have chose somebody else? Probably. Yeah.

They would have reaped the reward and she would have suffered the consequence. Yeah, she would have missed out. So do we. Yeah. And when we tell the Lord no, that's, but what if Joseph,

I know. I know. Would have said, I'm divorcing her. Right. Which means she would have gotten stoned. Because he could have done that. Because if you were thought to have had an affair,

and they weren't, they were, once you committed, or once you were engaged, you were legally married. Even though the document wasn't signed officially, because you weren't living together. Once you committed to that, you were considered betrothed. And you would have to do a divorce decree. And if the husband wanted to,

he could have you stoned because adultery was a stonable offense for women. What if Joseph did that though? What if he wasn't obedient? And the angel didn't go to him immediately. Like, he had to, like, take her word for it. You know? It's crazy. Yeah.

But what we say yes to and what we say no to is very important. So make sure that every opportunity that comes your way, you grab hold of it. You take it. You run with it. I was just telling somebody earlier today, like when things happen in our lives, good or bad, but when things happen in our lives, that's an opportunity. That's an opportunity for you to show God what you're willing to do with that opportunity. And you can change it into a testimony that will change not only your life but lives to come right so what do we do in those moments do we most people shut down right like clam up hide away

um you know sometimes they like remove themselves and and and i just sit there and go that's a missed opportunity to really show who christ is in your life because how you respond to things really shows where you are spiritually in your walk 100 what's stored yep you know yep every time Stored. Yep. You know. Yep. Every time. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Yep. It is. So this, for me, is a very magical, miraculous time. It is. Because if we reflect on those things, then we know what's been done for us,

but what we have the opportunity to do, too. Yeah. And for me, like. Absolutely. It's just a reminder. what's been done for us, but what we have the opportunity to do too. Yeah. And for me, like, absolutely. It's just a reminder. If, if you don't remember history, it will repeat itself.

If you remember it though too, sometimes you continue on with it and perpetuate it in a good way as well. So there's something to be said for that, but it's a great, great time. It is. I love this time. Oh yeah, let's something to be said for that. But it's a great, great time. It is. I love this time. Oh, yeah.

Let's do this. So, just so you know. Great job, Trace. Listen. I totally forgot you were doing this for me. There they are. I have to. They're my friends.

Like, I can't leave. You got to spare them. Absolutely. Okay. So, the pictures, she has the before and afters. Yes. So, Kristen is on the left. Is that that gonna be how they're looking at it yeah yeah yeah yeah and that's her husband gavin and then there's britney hot mama on the right not so hot in the top picture but

oh wait do that Not so hot in the top picture. Oh, wait. Do that. Oh, wait. I haven't watched that movie yet. I started it the other night. Thank you. Thank you, Tracy. I told you one of these times I'm going to figure it out. Beautiful girls that are able to laugh at themselves. Yeah.

We have to. Life's too short. Life is too short themselves. We have to. Life's too short. Life is too short. And here's the thing. You go, well, that's because they're beautiful. That's the reason why they're willing to do it. Some of the most stuck up and most self-absorbed and self-conscious people I've ever met in my life

are the ones that think that they're so beautiful. And they would never do those things because they would never be caught. I mean, so it goes both ways. You can be beautiful, but I'm just saying, learn to laugh at yourself. Learn to like look at life. It's funny.

Life is funny. Absolutely. And if you don't take yourself too seriously, you'll enjoy it more. Yeah. And God created fun. That's my Christmas'll enjoy it more. And God created fun. That's my Christmas gift to you. Yes.

God created fun. God laughs, I'm sure, at us all the time. Yeah. Well, listen. I think he does because he sits in the heavens and laughs. What's he laughing at? Probably us and our stupidity down here. Yeah.

I mean, hello. Hello. I'm sure he's thought a few times What in the world are they doing? I look at my daughter and sometimes Kristen Because their energy level off of each other Is off the chain It is And I literally look at them

And I go I laugh at them because I'm like you're idiots You are two freaking idiots You don't think God looks at us He's probably not saying idiot because he's too buddy. He questions. He's like,

I made some funny kids down there. I made some funny kids. They're entertaining. Yeah. They're pretty crazy. It's true. I mean, if you can't laugh at the things you've birthed,

like, why can you laugh now? You got it. Yeah. So that's it, people. That's it. We love you. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas, right? Merry Christmas now? No, you got it. Come on, yes. So that's it, people. That's it. We love you. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas, right?

Merry Christmas. Merry X-mas, guys. Ignore that. Yeah, unless you're Roman. Yes, if you're Roman, then you get that. Or you know Greek. Yeah, Greek. Merry Christmas to you guys.

Happy New Year, because we won't see you until after the New Year. Happy New Year. Listen, I pray over you guys, over this podcast, and they do too. Just know that we are praying for you. And we hedge protection. I pray a hedge protection that you would flourish, that you walk in prosperity, you walk in favor, but also you walk in the prophetic and then healing power. And so that is my daily prayer

for people who are part of this body of Christ, who are part of this church, who are part of this podcast. Know that people are praying over you, believing the best thing for you, and that the greater days are ahead. 2025 is your year. I truly believe that. 2025 is all of our year. And I cannot wait to see what happens because it's going to be like off the chain. And we should be anxiously waiting it. But let's enjoy each day.

And Christmas is going to be great. And Christmas Eve, if you're here, it's going to be amazing. If you can't be here with us, we're going to be on Rumble be on watch online we love you we thank you for being a part of this podcast we will see you in january bye real talk real talk

real talk Real talk. Real talk.