Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 157

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Friday. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. Today

00:00:06.140 I am going to interview Dale Partridge. He hosts a podcast called Real Christianity with his wife.

00:00:13.860 They talk about biblical marriage and raising a biblical family. We are going to talk about

00:00:20.360 his new book and the things that he feels like the modern church and young people are confronting

00:00:25.100 within Christianity and what we can actually do better. A lot of you guys must listen to his

00:00:30.740 podcast because I've gotten quite a few messages from you saying you've got to interview this person

00:00:36.420 and I have researched a little bit about who he is and read a little bit of his book ahead of time and

00:00:42.980 he seems like a really awesome, wonderful influence and so I'm excited to get to talk to him. Also,

00:00:50.160 it is Labor Day weekend, which I kind of forgot about ever since I had a child. It's like I've

00:00:56.820 lost track of the days and the weeks and the holidays and things like that. I pretty much

00:01:02.420 don't know what's going on except for the things I have to do like record this podcast, but it is

00:01:06.520 Labor Day weekend, which means that there is no school slash maybe no work for some of you on

00:01:12.120 Monday. So we are going to have a different kind of episode on Monday than you typically have. It's

00:01:18.140 still going to be Theology Monday, but I'm going to play you an episode that I've recorded before.

00:01:23.960 Maybe you haven't heard it. I highly encourage you to listen to it and if you have heard it before,

00:01:29.200 maybe it'll be a good reminder for you. So now we are going to get into the interview with my

00:01:38.160 new friend, Dale Partridge. Dale, thanks so much for joining me. Yeah, excited to be here.

00:01:43.480 Yes, let me tell you, I have had a lot of requests from people who listen to this podcast say you have

00:01:50.120 to interview Dale Partridge. They talk all about marriage from a biblical perspective. And as you

00:01:55.380 know, that's very rare in this day and age, at least a sound biblical perspective. So I'm very,

00:02:00.740 very excited that you're here. And I'm really excited about your new book, Real Christianity.

00:02:05.940 I'm very, I'm very curious about it. I read some of it. And first, I just kind of want you to

00:02:11.700 give your, your pitch or your premise of what the book is so everyone knows.

00:02:16.660 Yeah. I mean, I think that we're at a time in church where in America that we kind of don't

00:02:22.780 know what we believe. I feel like many Christians have kind of bought into something. They don't even

00:02:27.800 know what they signed up for. And I think it's important that we get to a point where we go,

00:02:31.620 hey, what is real biblical Christianity? Because the Christianity that we have today,

00:02:37.340 it's been, you know, kind of extra biblical. It's been added on. We've had, we've learned a lot

00:02:43.980 about Christianity that has nothing to do with scripture. And so I wrote this book just on this

00:02:48.360 idea of the subtitle is how to be bold for Christ in a culture of darkness. And the truth is, is that

00:02:54.260 you can't be bold for Christ if you don't know the scriptures, if you don't know what Christianity

00:02:59.060 truly is. So I wanted to give an overview, a quick reminder of what biblical Christianity truly looks

00:03:05.740 like. Because again, so many people raised their hand in the middle of an altar call and accepted

00:03:13.740 something that they didn't even fully grasp quite yet. They don't even know the expectations that are

00:03:19.880 set for them. And I think it's becoming an issue in the church. So we wrote this book. It's short.

00:03:26.640 It's only an hour and 20 minute read. I'm just the kind of guy that likes to be, again, quick and

00:03:31.540 straight to the point. And so it's a very short book. I would say really, Ali, it's, it's, it's

00:03:37.600 confronting the unspoken space that many people have found themselves. It's this kind of barrenness

00:03:44.260 of half-hearted, lethargic, lukewarm, or what I call Bible-less Christianity. And so we really just

00:03:50.440 want to talk directly about that and really give them a vision of what the scriptures say Christians

00:03:55.420 should look like, what they should behave like, what they should believe, and ultimately, you know,

00:04:01.380 what we should be representing in this world. Yeah. You mentioned altar call, and that's something

00:04:05.340 that you actually talk about in the book. You kind of compare the Western church's altar call to Jesus's

00:04:10.840 so-called altar call. And I think that's really interesting. If you could explain that just a

00:04:15.700 little bit. Yeah, it's so funny. So what is an altar? I mean, I think this is a really important

00:04:20.820 question. When you read the Old Testament, an altar is a place that you go to die. And I think

00:04:26.860 that we've kind of sprinkled a little bit of fairy dust on this concept in the church today. An altar

00:04:32.300 call is you're coming up here to die in your flesh and be born again, right? None of us are born right,

00:04:38.000 and we all need to be, we all need to be born again. And this idea that we need to die before we can live.

00:04:43.520 And so, you know, I think many Christians just have come to the altar and never died. And I think this is a

00:04:49.180 really important point to grasp onto. And we, you know, we've turned to, I guess, coming to Christ

00:04:56.180 as this, raise your hand with everybody's heads bowed and eyes closed. You can accept Jesus into

00:05:01.180 your heart. And it's this kind of pledge experience that you're committing to. And again, I don't think

00:05:07.840 people understand what they're saying yes to. And we've turned into an evangelistically rich church

00:05:15.040 where we're focused so much on conversion and not on discipleship that we're willing to sign people

00:05:20.000 up for Christianity without really explaining what they're signing up for. And I'm going to give you

00:05:24.440 an example. Jesus does an altar call. And I think it's such a, like a stark contrast from, uh, from

00:05:30.800 what we do in the church today. And it's in Luke 14, 25 through 30. It's a couple of verses. So bear

00:05:36.080 with us as we go through this, but it says now great multitudes went with him. So this isn't a small

00:05:42.320 group of people, right? This is a lot of people. And it says, and he turned and said to them,

00:05:47.080 if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,

00:05:52.960 yes, his own life also. Now when the scriptures say hates, it means love less, right? So that's the

00:05:58.840 concept that we should be talking about. He's not going to tell you to go hate your parents. He's saying,

00:06:02.820 no, go love them less than me. It says that if you don't do these things, you cannot be my disciple.

00:06:07.160 And it says, whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So a couple

00:06:13.500 things I want to say before we move on. One is what is a cross? Okay. A cross is an instrument to

00:06:22.000 kill your flesh. That's what it does. And we're supposed to pick it up daily. And so the idea of

00:06:28.180 going, Hey, come here and die is what's really being said. Pick up that cross, die to your flesh,

00:06:33.820 be born of the spirit, walk contrary to the desires of your flesh. That's what he's saying

00:06:38.460 here. And it says that if you don't do this, you cannot be his disciple. It goes on. It says,

00:06:43.280 for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the costs,

00:06:49.520 whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish

00:06:54.540 all who see it, begin mocking him and saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.

00:06:59.920 Okay. Allie, this is mind boggling. Okay. He's saying, Hey, don't come follow me. If you don't

00:07:08.760 understand what you're about to say yes to count the costs. This is, I'm asking you for your life.

00:07:15.600 I'm asking you for, for complete prioritization of my ways and my, my desires for you and that,

00:07:23.000 and nothing less. And this is on day one. You know, we often think that this is like a mature message.

00:07:28.700 No, this is day one. So this is a huge difference. You are absolutely right. There

00:07:32.480 was a conversation that I had with another guest a couple months ago that, um, we talked about the

00:07:37.220 difference between the gospel that was preached, uh, in the book of Acts and the gospel that Jesus

00:07:41.420 was preaching, which you just explained in the gospel that the so-called gospel that people are

00:07:45.760 hearing today, it's a call to come and die. And it, uh, caused the people that were preaching the

00:07:51.060 gospel to actually be executed. I mean, that's how scandalous and how offensive this gospel was,

00:07:57.100 which you just articulated so perfectly. And now so often we hear today, not the cost, uh, that Jesus

00:08:03.980 explained, but, um, that actually we are getting a cheerleader that we are getting someone to come

00:08:11.840 alongside us and say, Hey, you're good. Exactly the way you are. Please don't change anything about

00:08:17.080 yourself. As long as you feel good about yourself, that's what I'm here for. That's kind of the quote

00:08:22.260 that people ascribe to Jesus. And I think the question is what kind, what Bible are you reading?

00:08:28.900 What Jesus are you seeing? And I think the answer is, is that a lot of unfortunately preachers,

00:08:35.340 pastors, shepherds, whatever you want to call them in the modern church, um, that is the message that

00:08:41.160 they're presenting that God just wants you to stay exactly the way that you are. And as long as you

00:08:47.220 believe that, like you said, raise your hand, walk down the aisle, then you're all good. Um, but I

00:08:53.080 would say that they're severely, they're missing out. They're missing out on the abundant life that

00:08:57.920 Jesus gives. And so speaking of the modern church, what would you say, maybe you've already answered

00:09:03.880 this and what you just said, but what would you say is the biggest threat to the modern church?

00:09:09.740 Yeah. So this is a good question. I'm going to, I'm going to add one last thing to the last

00:09:13.080 question before I move to that one, just real quick. I looked up a quote on my phone while you

00:09:17.060 were talking right there. And it's a quote from letter, Leonard Ravenhill. And it says, if Jesus

00:09:21.220 preached the message ministers preach today, he would have never been crucified. And, um, again,

00:09:27.240 this is the contrast that we need to recognize. You know, that, that whole point is that, you know,

00:09:32.000 Jesus isn't interested in winning people under false expectations with blurred lines or lack of

00:09:36.680 clarity. Uh, he's very clear. And again, this blends into the church, which I think leads into your

00:09:41.720 next question. Uh, yeah. What's the biggest threat to the modern church today? And, uh, man,

00:09:48.280 there's so many conversations and angles that we can go to. I think that the threats are the same

00:09:52.680 threats that they've always been. Uh, I'm going to open up with a William Booth quote. So William

00:09:57.500 Booth was the guy that founded the Salvation Army and, uh, he's got an old beard, you know, it just long

00:10:03.420 beard and a black and white photo from 1899, this quote. And he says,

00:10:07.200 the chief danger that confronts the coming century, right? The century that we were born in,

00:10:12.360 right? The coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ,

00:10:18.160 forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven

00:10:22.620 without hell. Okay. This is 120 years ago that he said this, right? And it's the same thing that he

00:10:30.680 was worried about it then. And we're worried about it now. I think that biblical illiteracy is probably

00:10:37.160 the biggest threat to the church right now. Um, heresy and false teaching can really enter into

00:10:42.700 the church when you don't know your Bible. And I'm going to say something is that you can't know

00:10:46.540 your Bible by simply allowing somebody else to tell you what's in it. Okay. We need to read our

00:10:53.180 Bibles on our own. And I think that again, that biblical literacy, the second thing, Allie, I think

00:10:59.320 that's a really big threat to the church right now is a quote that I say often. It's what you win

00:11:05.100 people with is what you win people to. And the church today is winning people with, uh, bookstores

00:11:12.760 and coffee shops. It's winning people with daycare and really great music. It's winning people with

00:11:17.580 positive messages and skateboard camps. What it's not winning people to is the core centralized

00:11:24.380 biblical gospel, the Bible and the people of God. That, that are the, those are the only things that

00:11:30.300 we're to be winning people with. And again, when we won people with all these other things,

00:11:35.480 that's what we've won them to. And I think we have a church that we just go, I don't know where

00:11:40.760 you're at. You look across the aisles and you see someone sitting there and you go, I don't know if

00:11:44.940 you're mature, if you're really a Christian, if you understood what you said yes to, uh, where are you

00:11:50.620 on this journey? There's, there's not a commonality of fellowship today. And I think it's, it's divisive

00:11:56.500 in, in some of its nature and, um, and it's causing a lots of, uh, lots of problems that

00:12:02.180 we're seeing everywhere in the modern church. So hopefully that kind of gives a wraparound

00:12:05.480 answer on that topic. Yeah. I think that part of it, the last part of what you just explained

00:12:09.680 is offering people something other than Jesus or other than the fellowship of believers, because

00:12:16.480 we think that that is what it takes to make church attractive, or that is what it takes to make

00:12:22.320 even the cross of Christ attractive. If I were a young person or I am a young person, but if I were

00:12:27.840 a young person that these people were trying to attract these kinds of churches, I would be, um,

00:12:32.940 I would be offended. I'd be offended by the notion that they seem to be, uh, communicating that the

00:12:39.960 truth is not enough. The truth is not enough to attract these people. The cross of Christ is not

00:12:44.860 enough to attract these people, young people. They need all of the extra stuff that you just listed.

00:12:49.780 They need us to be cool. They need us to play secular music. They need us to kind of shroud

00:12:54.720 the church in something new and edgy and modern, and maybe just a little bit unholy. So they know

00:13:00.300 that we're relatable. Um, that's, I, I am offended by that message that people believe that young people

00:13:07.220 don't just need truth, that they don't just need the gospel, that somehow 2000 years later,

00:13:13.200 we've evolved to a place where the gospel all of a sudden just isn't good enough. If the cross of

00:13:18.080 Christ just isn't appealing enough for us. Um, and I think that that's, I think that's a grave

00:13:23.440 mistake. And I think that leads to exactly what you said, the biblical literacy that pastors assume

00:13:29.640 that we don't really, that theology isn't that important, that young people don't really want

00:13:34.440 to know that stuff. They just need a relevant kind of catchy, cool, relatable sermon. And that's

00:13:41.240 going to, that's going to satisfy us. Don't you think?

00:13:44.020 Yeah. No, this is so true. I mean, on our podcast, we just released an episode titled

00:13:49.200 why all Christians should delight in doctrine and theology. And it's this, this idea is that

00:13:54.440 we have this belief that there's theologians and then there's lay people. And I go, no,

00:13:59.660 what kind of person can do something for 10, 20, 30 years and not become a master at it,

00:14:06.860 or at least deeply know and understand it. And so we have this, this, this weird thing

00:14:12.220 that's going on in the church that you can stay the same for long periods of time. We're

00:14:18.100 not deepening. We're not walking and understanding. Um, you know, the Bible says that he who glories,

00:14:23.900 glory in this, let him, that he understands and knows me. That's in Jeremiah. And this idea

00:14:28.800 that we should be yearning to know him more. And by the time we're 10 years into our faith,

00:14:34.500 we shouldn't be babies in the faith. We should have a strong, solid, sound doctrinal biblical

00:14:41.380 theology of who Jesus is and what he calls us to do. Right. You talk about in the book,

00:14:47.060 uh, being bold for Christ and what you call a culture of darkness. What do you mean by that?

00:14:52.820 Yeah. So the culture, you know, we can see, obviously, I feel like it's magnifying in terms

00:14:56.960 of its hostility. Uh, obviously we're not dealing with any of the things that are going on in Iran

00:15:01.760 and Afghanistan, um, or parts of Africa, but we are dealing. I think one of the biggest things to

00:15:07.560 think is that there's no persecution in America. People say that, Oh, there's no persecution in

00:15:11.100 America. Well, the persecution is different here in America. The fear of man is absolutely prevalent

00:15:16.140 here in America. Um, one thing I think about in terms of being bold for Christ in a culture of

00:15:20.880 darkness. I think about first Peter, uh, it's chapter three, verse 15. It's the apologetics

00:15:27.020 verse. And I want to talk about it for a second. It says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts

00:15:31.120 and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is

00:15:37.100 in you and do it with meekness and in fear. And so, um, you know, one, one thing I want to point

00:15:42.640 out the first couple of chapters of first Peter are talking about living holy, being a peculiar

00:15:48.880 people, unique, different. Like you, you think differently, you walk differently, you dress

00:15:54.060 differently, you behave differently, you talk differently, you work differently, everything.

00:15:58.100 And because of that, people are going to ask you, it's, they're going to be curious about the hope

00:16:04.080 that is in you. And you need to be prepared to give an answer, a response, an apology, a defense

00:16:09.540 of why you live that way. And so what I'm saying is that witnessing in many situations is relational

00:16:16.380 and it's reactive. It's a reactive work. It's a result of curiosity due to the sanctification of

00:16:22.360 the holiness that's in your life. And so I would say one thing is if people don't have questions for

00:16:28.220 you often, you need to ask yourself why. If, if the culture at large has no more questions for the

00:16:35.440 church at large, we have to seriously start asking ourselves why. And, and this is a really

00:16:41.760 important conversation. Um, you can't be bold about what you do not know.

00:16:47.320 Right. Well, if you are, some people are, some people are bold about what they do not know,

00:16:52.760 but the Bible describes those people as fools. Yes. So maybe, maybe it's not the best route for

00:16:59.060 believers to your point. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, we Christians, if you're a Christian,

00:17:04.200 you're listening to this podcast, second Timothy gives you a command. It says, be diligent

00:17:08.660 to show yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the

00:17:14.360 word of truth. Okay. We are workers in the kingdom and we need to be diligent to know the word so that

00:17:21.020 we can rightly divide right from wrong, to rightly divide the truth from flaw. And this is so critical.

00:17:27.780 And so I think it all begins again with a love for scripture and a desire to know who he is. So from

00:17:35.620 that witnessing can be the result. Definitely. I think that that's encouraging for a lot of people

00:17:41.680 who feel, they look at the world around us, they look at culture, politics, whatever it is. And they

00:17:46.780 just kind of feel like the world in our country is going to hell in a handbasket, that Christianity

00:17:51.640 is being demonized left and right. And they are worried about the world in which we're bringing up

00:17:58.200 our kids. Um, and I think that what you just said is encouraging and really probably your entire

00:18:03.120 book is dedicated to this, that really the Christians role, no matter what's going on in

00:18:08.140 the world, no matter what our circumstance is, does not change. It is to be light and darkness.

00:18:12.960 It's to witness. It's to share the gospel. It's to be ambassadors aroma for Christ. And even if the

00:18:18.940 world around us is scary, is darkness, it's always been that way. Uh, our responsibility as stewards of

00:18:25.960 God's word does not change. And I think keeping our minds focused on that, on our eternal purpose

00:18:31.660 kind of helps alleviate the anxiety that I know I sometimes feel looking at the world around us and

00:18:38.840 feeling like everything is getting worse. Hmm. Totally get that. Yeah, it is. It is a discouraging

00:18:45.720 place to be in the flesh and we need to keep an eternal perspective so that those fears,

00:18:52.740 so that those worries can lose grip on our emotions and, uh, you know, where there is no vision,

00:19:00.300 the people perish and we need to keep a vision of God's kingdom because yeah, this is a difficult

00:19:05.200 place to be. And, um, we need to surround ourselves with not only the people of God, but the word of

00:19:10.180 God to keep us on the straight path. So what would you tell someone who maybe feels like they're in a

00:19:15.420 place where they are stagnant in their faith? They just kind of don't know where to turn. They want to

00:19:20.440 maybe be quote on fire for Christ, but they're just, they're just not sure how, and maybe they

00:19:25.480 feel like they can't muster up the strength to do that. Yeah. I think this is a really important

00:19:30.440 question because it, what it, what it, what it leads to is I think a common misconception in the

00:19:36.800 church. People want to work themselves into a on fire relationship with God as if they're the ones

00:19:44.320 that are the authors of the fiery relationship with God. And so I want to, I want to clarify

00:19:50.000 something. Um, for me personally, it's not about, I'm so disciplined that I'm going to read the word

00:19:56.320 and all of a sudden I'm going to be on fire for God because I've disciplined myself. 21 days equal

00:19:59.920 to habit. I've now read the word 21 days in a row. Now I'm going to, I'm a biblical Christian. It's not

00:20:05.240 about discipline. It's not about you implanting the desire in your own heart. This is, this is a really

00:20:12.520 important point. What you need to do is lay down, literally lay down on your face on the floor

00:20:19.120 and you need to go before the Lord and go, God, show me who you are. And father, give me a desire

00:20:28.080 for you. Implant a hunger for you. I want to want to desire you. I want to want to pray, but I need you

00:20:39.080 to open up and awaken that desire in my heart for me. And that, that's a critical step of going. It's

00:20:46.760 not about you working hard. It's about allowing Christ to work in you. And you got to ask him to

00:20:52.640 come in and fill you with the Holy spirit, give you that opportunity to fall deeper in understanding

00:20:58.780 of him. And so for me over the years, as I've become more and more, uh, connected to Christ,

00:21:05.000 I feel like I'm working less and less. And it's actually something in me that's kind of increasing,

00:21:11.780 progressing on its own. And it's from the Holy spirit's work in me. It's not my work of disciplining

00:21:18.020 myself to read scripture. Now I am going to say, uh, you know, there, there is some truth in the fact

00:21:24.220 that by doing, we understand. And so it's important to also discipline yourself to go read the word

00:21:31.200 because your flesh is never going to want to read scripture. Your flesh is never going to want to go

00:21:36.880 pray. You know, we, we, Galatians says that there's a war happening between your flesh and your spirit.

00:21:42.100 So just don't expect that you're going to be all gung ho about let's go and read the Bible this

00:21:46.300 morning. That's always going to be a difficult thing, but the desire that the Lord can put in

00:21:50.900 you can overcome that. I think that it's perfectly encapsulated in the verse. I think it's Philippians

00:21:56.960 two. I know it's Philippians, but I'm trying to think of what chapter that to work out your

00:22:00.680 salvation with fear and trembling. If you just read that phrase alone, I think a lot of people

00:22:04.600 can see that as legalistic or earning our faith or cultivating our faith in and of ourselves.

00:22:09.520 But then you see the next phrase that says for it is God who works in you both to will and to work

00:22:14.240 for his good pleasure. So work out your salvation with fear and trembling. How do you do that? Well,

00:22:19.160 it's God who works in you. So even the work that we're doing, the discipline that we're enacting,

00:22:24.160 the praying that we're doing, the desire that we have to do those things, all of that comes from

00:22:29.440 God. And I think that you pointed that out clearly and really importantly, that we can't even want to

00:22:36.160 want to do those things. Like I can't even want to want to be disciplined to read the word. I can't

00:22:41.740 even do that. I need Christ to even initiate that desire in me. And I think that that's really an

00:22:47.800 important fundamental understanding when you become a Christian of just how totally and completely

00:22:53.060 unable and depraved we are and how perfect and holy and powerful Christ is. I think a lot of people

00:22:58.980 think that that's self-deprecating, but actually it gives complete confidence and assurance.

00:23:04.500 Okay. So how can we, unless you have something else to add to that, which you totally can,

00:23:10.340 but I also want to hear how we can spread the word and the message of your book in which you talk

00:23:15.120 about all this awesome stuff. Yeah. I mean, so a couple of things, you know, we have a podcast called

00:23:21.400 Real Christianity. And that's kind of a place where, you know, we have bigger discussions around

00:23:26.620 this idea of what does it really mean to be a Christian? And so that's one place that I think

00:23:30.480 is a central hub for, I guess, continuing on the journey of what does it mean to be a real Christian

00:23:35.820 in terms of buying the book? Um, we, this is the first book I've published several books with

00:23:41.500 traditional publishers. This is the first time I've actually self-published a book and I wanted to

00:23:46.960 own this book. I didn't want to give up the manuscript to anybody. And, um, and so this is

00:23:52.600 the first time we're, we're going through this, but if you want to check out the book, you can always

00:23:56.420 go to relearnchurch.org forward slash RC for real Christianity. And that's our, that's our global

00:24:04.780 church planting, uh, ministry. My wife and I, we have been called to plant biblical house churches.

00:24:12.280 And so just regular Protestant house churches, but we go and plant these house churches and we train

00:24:18.260 people how to plant house churches. And, um, and so that's our, our ministry is relearnchurch.org.

00:24:24.240 So again, it's forward slash RC, and you can pick up the book there, learn a little bit more about

00:24:29.160 the book. We're going to have some other free resources there for people. It will also be available,

00:24:33.540 uh, on Amazon and other places, uh, as soon as it launches here in the next couple of weeks.

00:24:39.100 And so what's the date for release again? Uh, the date of the release is going to be

00:24:44.120 October 5th. Um, and, and so it'll be, it'll be out that time. The pre-order, uh, will be available

00:24:50.000 as well. Um, so you can get that early. It would be a huge support for our ministry. Um, another thing

00:24:55.660 is that, um, I'm on Instagram. That's probably my main jam. Um, creating stories and putting truth

00:25:01.040 bombs on my social media, uh, stories. And, and so that, that's something that we talk about. As you said

00:25:05.600 earlier, when you opened up, my wife and I talk a lot about marriage. Uh, we think that, man,

00:25:10.040 you can't have a healthy church without healthy marriages and families. So that's a big part of

00:25:13.580 our ministry. And, uh, hopefully it can be edified if you, uh, find our platforms over there.

00:25:18.460 Yeah. Well, I think that what you guys do is so important. All of it. I, even just the simple act

00:25:23.580 of reflecting a godly marriage and godly, um, rearing of kids. That's something that we talk about on this

00:25:30.280 podcast, how unfortunately there is, um, I would say a culture of darkness surrounding the family

00:25:36.460 in our worlds to where it's seen as, uh, raising kids is seen as a burden. Even marriage is seen as

00:25:43.420 more restraining than freeing. And so just seeing a couple live and talk about communicate godly

00:25:49.620 principles within marriage and church planning and raising kids is so important. So thank you so much

00:25:55.380 for what you do. And if there's, is there anything, any final words that you would like to leave us

00:26:00.400 with? I'll leave you with one thing. Um, it's really important as Christians that we remember,

00:26:07.400 we remember what normal Christianity is. What you just explained to Allie, uh, about just loving

00:26:14.200 children and having a biblically ordered home is normal Christianity. Now what's common isn't

00:26:20.300 necessarily what's normal. And just because it's common in the church doesn't mean it's normal.

00:26:25.380 And so the Bible is the only place that will remind us what is normal. And so constantly take

00:26:32.500 time in your lives, people to remind yourself of what's normal for the Christian. And the only way

00:26:38.620 you can do that is reading the scriptures. Absolutely. Amen. Well, thank you so much for

00:26:43.560 taking the time to join me. I'm very excited about your book, Real Christianity, that you have

00:26:48.960 self-published. I hope that everyone checks that out when it is up on Amazon and checks out your

00:26:54.100 podcast, Real Christianity, that you and your wife host. Uh, thank you again. And hopefully we

00:27:00.120 will stay connected. Awesome. Thanks, Allie. Take care. Bye. I hope that you guys enjoyed that

00:27:05.520 interview. That was awesome. I love talking to people that are just on fire for the subject or

00:27:10.360 passionate about it, are learned in theology and are living in a way that we can all emulate and be

00:27:17.700 encouraged by. And I also think that it's a really good way to end the week because I know a lot of

00:27:22.180 times we talk about the things that are going wrong in the world and wrong in the country on our

00:27:26.700 podcast. But I also hope that this podcast is an encouragement to you. I also hope that it gives

00:27:32.460 us hope as Christians and helps us remember to have an eternal perspective and to fix our eyes on the

00:27:38.460 things that are above and to, uh, hold captive our thoughts, uh, to Christ. And that's what I certainly

00:27:46.940 got out of talking to him is just a lot of encouragement that even though it seems like

00:27:51.700 things are spiraling downward, that Christian's responsibility stays the same. And that there

00:27:56.680 are so many people, not just him, not just a lot of you who listen to this podcast and not just the

00:28:01.740 so-called famous Christians that we, uh, listen to or watch, but there are a lot of normal average

00:28:09.760 Christians that are being obedient to Christ, that are living out their biblical responsibilities.

00:28:14.440 And there's good being done in the world because of them. And the gospel is being spread because of

00:28:20.720 them. And we know that God is sovereign and therefore he is using all of us in the exact

00:28:26.540 way that he purposed or that he planned to use us before he even laid the foundations of the world

00:28:32.640 that he's not freaking out about our situations, but he's using very normal people like you and me

00:28:37.760 asking us to come and die and, uh, to take up our cross and to share his gospel. And so

00:28:43.560 that's what we're called to do. Um, I am edified by all of you out there who send me your emails and

00:28:51.000 send me your messages of stories of you standing up for your faith and having an impact on your

00:28:55.500 college campuses. Uh, I'm just, I'm really excited about what God is doing as scary as sometimes this

00:29:01.260 world is and how down and anxious I can get about, you know, our, our political world. And it just

00:29:07.860 seems like sometimes things are upside down. Uh, God's kingdom is not, uh, God's kingdom is being

00:29:13.800 pushed for exactly the way that he wants us to. And all of us who are in Christ are a part of that.

00:29:18.680 And that's an incredible privilege and incredible honor. So I hope again, that this was a good way

00:29:24.400 to end your week. I don't know how your week went. I don't know kind of what troubles you might be

00:29:29.180 looking, uh, looking ahead to, or what's your, uh, what is in front of you as far as, uh, your future

00:29:36.680 goes. But I hope that this is a place that you can come to and remember that God is in control and

00:29:41.460 that he is using all of us. Thank you so much for listening. As always, you can email me,

00:29:47.260 Allie at the conservative millennial blog.com. I truly love reading your emails. Uh, you can message

00:29:52.340 me on Instagram. I try to get to as many as, uh, as many of those as possible. I don't always,

00:29:58.120 and just so you know, if you message me, I do not necessarily see it. Sometimes I'm afraid that

00:30:03.620 people think that I'm just ignoring you, but there's like a whole column or section. I don't

00:30:08.320 know how to explain it that I don't necessarily see. They come up as message requests and not actual

00:30:13.480 messages that I see. So sometimes I look through those and I respond to people and sometimes I just

00:30:19.840 don't. So just know that I'm never purposely ignoring you. And I appreciate all of you who do

00:30:23.780 reach out to me, all of you who leave reviews on Apple podcasts or wherever you leave them know that

00:30:29.120 I read those all the time. And I really appreciate them as well. When you share this podcast, I

00:30:33.860 appreciate that if of course you like it. And when you give me constructive criticism or feedback,

00:30:38.540 I appreciate that. Could not do this without you guys. Love you so much. I hope that you have

00:30:43.700 a wonderful weekend and a restful labor day, and we will be back here next week. I will see you then.

00:30:53.780 Bye.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 30, 2019

Ep 157 ｜ Dale Partridge

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