Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 158 ｜ Freedom & Harm

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable thank you for being here i hope everyone has had a wonderful week a

00:00:06.060 good long and restful labor day weekend unfortunately something very tragic happened

00:00:12.440 this weekend in west texas another mass shooting today that's what we're going to talk about we're

00:00:18.360 going to talk about mass shootings we're going to talk about gun control we will touch on red flag

00:00:22.100 laws and the solutions that have been promote uh proposed and the differences between the right and

00:00:27.680 the left on this particular issue this is something a lot of you have asked me to talk about we did

00:00:33.720 many evergreen topics over the summer the second amendment is not one that we got to i'd like to

00:00:40.480 do a more in-depth episode on really what the second amendment is the history of court cases surrounding

00:00:47.160 the second amendment and why conservatives support it that's not what today's episode is but i do hope

00:00:52.680 to offer a little bit of clarity to you on this particular subject first okay so like i said over

00:00:58.640 the weekend another tragic shooting happened in midland texas this time it wasn't in a store or

00:01:03.700 at a concert or in a building that's something that we're used to this time it was a person identified

00:01:09.280 as a white male in his mid-30s in his car shooting at people in other cars he was pulled over on saturday

00:01:15.860 afternoon for not using his turn signals this was a totally routine traffic stop but he then started

00:01:22.560 shooting at the officers and then he drove off and started shooting at other drivers and passengers

00:01:26.840 he hijacked a postal truck and drove to odessa about 20 miles away shooting and killing people

00:01:33.000 on route he killed seven people and injured over 20 people among the seriously injured was a 17 month

00:01:40.640 old baby girl her mother apparently was not injured there was a story of someone coming out of a

00:01:45.140 restaurant and seeing the mother and her child covered in blood in the back seat in a car seat

00:01:50.380 and her mother was just hysterical of course exactly how i would be as well i can't imagine the terror

00:01:56.500 and the helplessness that she felt in that moment and the heartache and the fear and the anxiety that

00:02:02.240 she's probably experiencing now reportedly this young girl is in stable condition which is great

00:02:08.720 but i'm sure this mom and her dad are probably dealing with a lot right now and so while i'm praying

00:02:14.080 for all of the victims and their families uh this particular story since i am a new mom of a baby

00:02:19.640 girl just really gets me in my core into my heart just because i can feel and empathize how scary that

00:02:27.400 must be and i'm i'm just thinking about them a lot and have been over the past few days uh so law

00:02:33.200 enforcement cornered this guy in the parking lot of the movie theater they shot and killed him thankfully i am

00:02:38.420 so thankful so thankful for our police officers proving yet again that the only way to stop a bad

00:02:44.420 guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun bad guys are always going to find a way to harm and to kill

00:02:49.500 and even to illegally buy guns so the need for well-armed good responsible citizens will always be

00:02:56.200 necessary for our safety and we'll get into more of that in just a little bit so a little bit more on

00:03:01.460 this guy i'm not going to name him because one of the motivations they have found and researchers

00:03:08.080 have found in these mass shootings is publicity is fame is notoriety i'm not going to give him that

00:03:14.600 satisfaction i'm also not going to be a part of any kind of complicit encouragement or indirect

00:03:21.600 encouragement of people who are maybe considering doing something like this because they want some

00:03:27.160 kind of recognition i'm not going to give them that thing that they crave the question always is

00:03:33.180 were there any signs leading up to this should we have known that this guy was a threat did he have

00:03:39.680 a criminal record what was the context of the shooting what's his online history and of course

00:03:44.440 the big question that law enforcement is looking at and that we wonder too what is the motive what we

00:03:50.260 know is that he was fired from his trucking job just hours before this so that could explain a little

00:03:55.380 bit of it maybe he was angry but of course a lot of people get fired from their jobs and they don't

00:03:59.920 go on some kind of killing rampage so clearly there's something else going on here he actually called the

00:04:06.080 fbi tip line just before this happened after he was fired apparently he got into a verbal altercation

00:04:11.660 with his boss they both uh called 911 this guy called the fbi tip line but apparently according to the

00:04:18.880 fbi he was just rambling he wasn't actually threatening to do anything and so no action by them was taken

00:04:24.360 public records show that he was arrested way back in 2001 for two misdemeanors one was trespassing

00:04:30.940 the other was evading arrest that was 18 years ago the guy was 36 and so he was 18 when he was arrested

00:04:39.400 for those misdemeanors most people wouldn't say that a misdemeanor alone when you're a teenager

00:04:44.440 necessarily means that you pose a risk to society he doesn't have much of an online footprint from what

00:04:50.840 we know that's a little bit rare a lot of times when we see these mass shootings there was some

00:04:54.920 kind of sign online but his neighbor did tell officers that he threatened her with a gun for

00:05:00.440 leaving her trash in a dumpster close by she also reportedly said that he would shoot at animals in

00:05:06.460 his yard from a structure on top of his house every night which is extremely disturbing especially

00:05:10.280 to people who love animals i mean i guess it's disturbing to everyone we don't know maybe they could

00:05:15.160 have been rats or raccoons or something like that but they also could have been cats and dogs

00:05:18.880 we do know that animal abuse especially in a grown man and especially of domesticated animals is

00:05:24.040 typically some kind of indication of other kinds of violent behavior not every time but many times

00:05:30.620 the fbi also believed that there had been a lot leading up to this as there almost always is these

00:05:36.800 things just don't happen in a vacuum there is always something that precipitated it or something that

00:05:43.120 had been going on along behind the scenes for a long time this is according to usa today

00:05:47.840 fbi special agent christopher combe said the shooter's home was a very strange residence that

00:05:53.780 reflected his mental state he was on a long spiral of going down combe said after a search of the

00:05:59.220 property west of odessa he didn't wake up saturday morning and go into his company and then it happened

00:06:05.180 he went to that company in trouble and had probably been in trouble for a while but that's really all we

00:06:10.840 know at this point we know that he used a rifle texas governor greg abbott tweeted that the shooter had

00:06:15.620 failed his background check to get a gun but he didn't say how or why it's probably not because

00:06:21.720 of the misdemeanors because in texas only felonies or domestic violence misdemeanors stop you from

00:06:26.700 being able to purchase a gun the texas tribute says this in texas licensed licensed dealers must conduct

00:06:34.400 background checks through the national instant criminal background check system or in ics however

00:06:39.520 there are exceptions to this rule such as if the buyer already has a texas license to carry a handgun

00:06:44.880 private sales between individuals also do not require a criminal background check which includes

00:06:50.460 some gun sales at gun shows this is exactly why advocates for gun control believe that there needs

00:06:56.520 to be a universal background check which supporters say would close the so-called gun show loophole and

00:07:04.240 make private transfers pretty much impossible every firearm purchase would have to be registered

00:07:09.460 with the nics some have also suggested red flag laws you've probably heard a lot about this in the

00:07:15.880 news recently which allows family members or police to ask a state court to temporarily remove guns from

00:07:23.020 someone they believe is a violent threat based on something they've said or done better work and other

00:07:28.920 democratic candidates for press for the presidency propose gun buyback programs where the government

00:07:35.180 would literally confiscate certain kinds of guns what they consider assault style guns or military style guns

00:07:42.220 the pushback on all of this from gun rights advocates is that each of these suggestions limits the freedoms of

00:07:48.560 responsible citizens that's the big argument that that we've been having universal background checks would

00:07:54.100 essentially require a registry of all guns which many believe is an invasion of privacy privacy and an over

00:08:00.700 encroachment of the government the check also adds a cost to the purchase of buying a gun which could make it more

00:08:06.540 difficult for poor people to purchase a gun legally that's a problem the red flag laws they sound really good in 1.00

00:08:12.600 theory i think that they sound good on the surface but there is a risk of manipulating them there's a risk of

00:08:19.720 politicization for example someone disagrees with you politically or maybe it's theologically or whatever and they

00:08:26.560 petitioned the court to remove your weapons the court may share this person's political inclinations

00:08:31.700 and agree to take your weapons away for that reason there's just no way of guaranteeing that there would

00:08:37.460 be a fair objective standard for these laws and president trump actually interestingly demonstrated this

00:08:43.880 problem when he tweeted about chris cuomo getting angry at someone in public for calling him freedom

00:08:48.520 he said that maybe cuomo poses a threat under red flag laws and should have his guns taken away because he's an 0.97

00:08:54.520 angry guy well obviously president trump was being sarcastic he was being facetious uh but that is

00:08:59.960 exactly what we should be afraid of with these kinds of laws using red flag laws as either a personal

00:09:05.160 or political or professional whatever it is weapon against someone uh red flag laws would just be very

00:09:12.460 difficult to enforce there was actually a story last week out of portland about a marine who said online

00:09:19.220 that he would quote slaughter antifa you know antifa the violent thugs uh if he were attacked so he's

00:09:26.280 talking about acting in self-defense and all of his guns under these red flag laws in uh in oregon were

00:09:32.620 removed from him that is crazy i don't see how that's not unconstitutional and while i do think that we need

00:09:38.100 to do a better job of that a better job of tracking people who potentially pose a threat that's just very

00:09:43.020 difficult i mean think about it there are a lot of just weird erratic people in the world who are

00:09:48.440 into some really freaky stuff who don't necessarily though pose a threat of violence and they have a

00:09:55.080 right to be weird they have a right to be into freaky stuff we don't have to agree with it but that

00:09:58.980 doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have a right to own a gun people have suggested gun buyback

00:10:04.320 programs where the police buy your guns it is mandatory of course we know that bad guys won't turn in

00:10:10.700 their guns and this costs money it's a terrible idea here is better work talking about that we're

00:10:15.940 going to speak as defiantly and as strongly as we can but we're also going to take action universal

00:10:21.020 background checks red flag laws and into the sales of weapons of war and buying those ak-47s and ar-15s

00:10:27.920 back so there have been supposed solutions put forth but really the conversation after something like

00:10:35.200 this happens is predictable before the bodies are even cold liberals are saying that it is a gun

00:10:41.920 problem that it's even a white male problems conservatives are arguing that it's not a gun

00:10:47.200 problem guns don't shoot people and let me just give credence to both arguments on the one hand

00:10:54.000 conservatives are right guns don't shoot people a gun has never committed a crime a gun is neither good

00:10:59.660 nor bad it is an inanimate object that can be used in self-defense it can be used for sport for hunting

00:11:05.600 or for evil it depends on who is behind the gun a bad person behind a gun means that bad things are

00:11:11.440 probably going to happen and if a responsible gun owner is behind the gun they probably won't bad

00:11:17.400 people will find a way to do what they want no matter what the gun laws are no matter what their

00:11:22.660 weapon of choice is so there's no use in passing laws conservatives say that would violate the rights of

00:11:28.900 responsible gun owners who do make up the majority of gun ownership to which however the left says

00:11:36.360 sure a gun doesn't fire on its own but we already have laws that make assault and murder illegal and

00:11:42.580 these people are still assaulting and murdering people there has to be a law or a series of laws

00:11:47.840 regulating the weapon of choice for these mass shooters they would say yes a bad person may use a

00:11:54.100 knife or a truck or a shovel but in this country they typically don't and these kinds of

00:11:58.680 weapons are apparently capable of killing a lot more people a lot faster than other kinds of

00:12:03.720 weapons so why don't we try to limit the casualties as much as possible as much as we can by getting

00:12:09.620 rid of these guns that's what people on the left would say or gun control advocates would say and i

00:12:14.080 get that i understand how that makes sense i really do and these what i just did is a really good faith

00:12:20.220 rendering of both arguments both sides really have a lot of dishonesty uh but taking the most honest of

00:12:27.200 both sides the best of both sides what we're talking about essentially is how to balance our

00:12:32.780 personal liberty our constitutional right to bear arms with public safety the nature of personal

00:12:39.020 liberty is that there will always be risk same thing with free speech for example free speech means

00:12:44.080 there is a risk of you being offended there is a risk of hearing me say something that you don't like

00:12:49.920 the question is how much risk are we willing to bear and is it possible to mitigate the risk of harm

00:12:55.560 without severely hampering individual liberty that's the real question that we're asking that's the

00:13:01.460 real debate that we're having if we can get past all of the punditry punditry and all of the

00:13:09.000 politicization of this that is the question that we are trying to answer so the problem is and here's

00:13:16.720 where i reveal my issue with the leftist position on this in particular is that the left especially today

00:13:22.680 just has a very low value on individual liberty whereas the right cares about both harm and liberty

00:13:28.700 the left really only cares about harm especially in this case and they believe that taking guns away

00:13:34.140 and making it harder to get guns is the answer to preventing harm while the question is is this true

00:13:40.740 because i think all of us would like to prevent mass shootings all of us would like fewer casualties

00:13:45.160 but does taking guns away really prevent shootings there is a meme that you've probably seen that goes

00:13:51.680 around every time a mass shooting happens with a list of flags it's you know the flag emojis and a

00:13:57.880 number next to it and all next to all of the flags is the number zero and then there's the american

00:14:02.780 flag at the very bottom and the number next to it i think is like 250 accounting for how many mass

00:14:07.500 shootings have occurred this year celebrities share it everyone shares it it's been shared millions of

00:14:12.500 times and people share it without giving any kind of source without citing hey this is where i got these

00:14:18.300 numbers from uh they just say nope this is a fax because someone tweeted it out but we should

00:14:24.040 probably ask some questions before we just take this at face value like this person who created this

00:14:29.700 meme what is the definition of mass technically it is four or more people shot at the same time

00:14:35.280 but we don't we don't know if that's this person's definition of mass shooting say that it is we don't have a

00:14:41.880 citation for it so we don't know if it's really true that four or more people haven't been shot at the same

00:14:46.920 time in any of these other countries that are listed especially considering that the homicide

00:14:51.280 rates for some of the countries on this list are much higher than the united states in brazil for

00:14:56.300 example they have extremely strict gun laws and yet their murder rate is one of the highest murder

00:15:01.320 rates in the world that goes for most of central and south america and mexico by the way there is a

00:15:07.720 non-partisan study that i've cited before by lot and moody i have it in the highlights on my instagram

00:15:12.420 uh that you can you can go look at it there you can just swipe up and see the whole study for

00:15:18.000 yourself so you know that i'm not making this up they found that there is no correlation no

00:15:23.140 correlation at all between the number of guns in a country and the number of homicides a lot of people

00:15:28.720 say that if you look at other countries shootings go down after strict gun laws go into place but if you

00:15:34.900 look at the charts that these people are citing uh before and after those gun laws are actually put

00:15:40.860 into place what you'll see is that the number of shootings was already on the decline before the

00:15:46.000 laws were even passed getting rid of guns is only going to make people like you and me unsafe we are

00:15:54.480 not safer as a society if i for example don't have a gun by taking away my guns from me and my family

00:16:02.200 are making it harder for me to get a gun you do absolutely nothing to contribute to the safety of

00:16:07.520 this country you've done nothing all you've done is violate my freedoms and make me more vulnerable

00:16:11.640 because guess what if a 200 pound guy or less than that about even if a 150 pound guy approaches me and

00:16:18.480 my child on the street and tries to assault me i'm powerless it doesn't matter how quick i am with my

00:16:23.820 mace it doesn't matter how good i am with my knife um not that i carry a knife but if i did it doesn't

00:16:31.000 matter how many self-defense classes i've taken i probably won't be able to fight him off maybe if

00:16:36.920 i'm lucky maybe if i'm really lucky and he happens to be really slow but my trump card is going to be

00:16:43.400 my gun if i and if you gun owner know how to handle it well and this is the same for almost every woman 1.00

00:16:52.840 and a lot of men and of course it's not just criminals uh the second amendment protects us

00:16:57.920 against it's the government it's tyranny the taking away of our freedoms you've probably heard the second

00:17:02.300 amendment protects the first amendment and that's true this is precisely why the second amendment

00:17:07.240 exists the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed for some for some reason for some reason

00:17:14.520 some people like to pretend like that part doesn't exist that it's just a well-regulated militia

00:17:19.860 no the founders did not want a nation in which only the government and law enforcement are armed

00:17:27.560 that makes you powerless to the whims of a tyrant and that is exactly what they sought to avoid

00:17:33.400 you don't have to like guns or own a gun to respect the rights of people to defend themselves how they

00:17:39.640 see fit i don't judge you if you don't own a gun or if guns scare you that's totally fine i want you to

00:17:45.080 be able to protect yourself with pepper spray if you want to i want you to be able to protect your

00:17:49.280 family uh by i don't know taekwondo if you want i also want you to be able to own a gun if you want to

00:17:57.160 i want you to be able to take your protection into your own hands i want you to have the ability

00:18:02.120 to defend yourself and to help those around you should the opportunity arise there is this utter

00:18:08.640 misconception among a lot of people on the left especially the coastal elites especially those who

00:18:14.720 live in big cities who just don't seem to understand this that people who own guns or people who believe

00:18:22.520 and the right to bear arms aren't gun nuts maybe you are and that's totally fine if you love guns and

00:18:28.800 you love going out and shooting guns and you're obsessed with going to gun shows that's totally

00:18:32.460 fine but the vast majority i would say of gun owners aren't like that like i really don't care

00:18:37.820 about guns i'm not obsessed with guns i'm not in gun culture again that's cool if you are but i'm not

00:18:43.040 like that all i care about is protecting myself all i care about is the right to protect my family

00:18:48.560 that's that's all i care about and i want you to have the right to do that as well you don't have

00:18:53.780 to but i want you to have that right what we care about way more than guns it's freedom uh they think

00:18:59.800 that we are i don't know excited about the opportunity to use our gun on someone and what

00:19:05.400 they must not realize is that all responsible gun owners pray pray that we will never have to use our

00:19:13.080 gun on a person no one wants to be in that situation i think they think that we are like

00:19:18.460 warped in our minds and that we love violence no not at all we hope that violence is completely

00:19:24.620 eradicated of course those of us who are christians know that that's not going to happen until jesus

00:19:28.500 comes back but that's not our desire at all we're not more violent people we just want to be able to

00:19:34.300 protect ourselves and protect our families but the question is the question is misconceptions aside

00:19:39.200 is what do we do about this because both the right and the left again if we take the best of both

00:19:43.820 sides want to do something about this we don't want casualties we don't want this to happen again

00:19:48.440 we don't want ourselves we don't we don't want to be put in this situation we don't want those that we

00:19:52.060 know to be put in this situation we don't want to see another one of these stories and we don't want

00:19:56.380 to have this twitter dialogue where it's so exhausting where both sides are so dishonest and

00:20:01.420 it's it's it's it's the worst it's the worst of the american soul the conversations that we have

00:20:10.720 after these tragic shootings it is the worst part of us that seems to come to the forefront

00:20:17.140 and i would say that most of us don't want that anymore most of us would love to never have this

00:20:23.360 conversation again and so what do we do again we are trying to find the balance between liberty

00:20:29.680 and preventing harm last year congress passed the fix ncis bill and since then over six million

00:20:37.180 records have actually been added to the federal databases this is from conservative review.com

00:20:42.120 the fix nics act was passed in march 2018 and aimed to increase compliance with federal background

00:20:48.500 check laws by providing additional reporting resources imposing penalties on federal agencies that

00:20:54.600 fail to comply and promoting state level compliance through incentives and public reporting of

00:20:59.460 those who don't comply the doj numbers also indicate that the department has now received

00:21:04.040 implementation plans from all 50 states the district of columbia and 71 federal agencies the plans are

00:21:10.120 meant to evaluate and approve current nics reporting practices so as far as i'm concerned that's a good

00:21:15.720 thing we don't want people falling through the cracks that's a big problem that we have is not that we

00:21:20.000 don't have that ground checks because we do but people fall through the cracks that is a problem and i hope

00:21:26.720 this uh that this act continues to be implemented and work well is there more that we could do maybe

00:21:32.780 and i know this might be unsatisfying to you but i don't have the perfect answer for this i want one

00:21:37.760 i want congress to work on this i want the left and the right to come together i want democrats and

00:21:42.280 republicans to come together and have a conversation about this but i also want to get rid of the talking

00:21:47.860 points that say neither side really cares because i believe that both sides do and i also think it's a myth

00:21:53.240 perpetuated by some people on the left to say that uh the politicians that support the second

00:21:58.740 amendment are just beholden to the nra they just want nra money no the nra supports them because they

00:22:05.400 ideologically support the second amendment because they've probably always supported the second amendment

00:22:10.240 maybe not every single politician that they support but um politicians conservative politicians

00:22:16.160 are ideologically inclined to support the second amendment so that's not why we're not having

00:22:21.540 a serious conversation about this at least that's not the main reason why we're not having a

00:22:26.820 conversation about this it's just a back and forth of scoring political points when really i would

00:22:32.400 really like to see these things come to an end i simply don't believe that any of the so-called

00:22:38.460 solutions that democrats have put forth will do anything i mean they put forth these solutions in a very

00:22:46.100 emotional state and they don't correspond the legislation that they put forth doesn't actually

00:22:51.800 correspond with the crime committed so often the legislation that they put forward wouldn't have

00:22:57.240 stopped the particular shooter that they are reacting to which just goes to show again it's about

00:23:02.420 political points it's not actually about fixing the problem and so i'm ready to hear more solutions from

00:23:10.140 our congress people i am ready to hear how we can make these tragedies stop or at least stop them from

00:23:17.700 happening as often without limiting the freedom of people like you and me responsible gun owners who hope to

00:23:24.640 never ever have to use our guns uh on a person in self-defense i i hope that that never happens but

00:23:32.140 nevertheless who want to protect our families um what we know also as christians what we know as

00:23:40.940 christians is that no legislation will fix this no bill will fix this no pundit will fix this no

00:23:47.640 politician will fix this that sin is the problem and sin is going to persist and yes i i will say that

00:23:55.880 mass shootings look different in america than they look in other countries homicide rates are higher in

00:24:01.160 other countries but this kind of crime is unique to us it's not completely exclusive to us but it is

00:24:08.320 unique to us but what we know as christians is that no matter what kind of crime is prevalent in our

00:24:13.320 country no matter what the problem is the solution remains the same like if our essential and ultimate

00:24:19.560 problem is that we are dead in our trespasses if our essential problem is that we are broken in the

00:24:29.240 core of our being that we are totally depraved then the ultimate solution can only be the only one who

00:24:36.120 can save us from those things the only one who can make us alive who can make us a new creation

00:24:40.240 whose kindness can lead us to repentance who can make us love god's law and walk in his ways and that is

00:24:45.880 jesus which means a few things that means that our sole responsibility our ultimate responsibility

00:24:52.900 responsibility as christians is to share the gospel if that's what changes hearts and minds and we

00:24:58.680 believe that this is a heart problem then that's our sole responsibility we can't say you know this is

00:25:03.440 a heart problem this is a problem in people's souls and not give people the solution we can't just be

00:25:08.200 people who talk about problems we also have to share the solution which is jesus it's really easy to score

00:25:14.080 political points on twitter and say this isn't a gun problem this is a heart problem okay well who fixes the

00:25:20.740 heart who changes the heart who makes the heart of stone a heart of flesh who makes us a new creation

00:25:26.260 who saves us who reconciles us a wicked people to a holy god changing us completely and eternally

00:25:32.200 it's jesus so we can't just be people that state the problem we also have to know the solution and

00:25:38.280 because we know the solution that means something else that we don't live in fear so much easier said

00:25:43.540 than done anyone who is in my family knows what an anxious person i am how paranoid i can be how i'm

00:25:49.400 always thinking about the worst case scenario and how worried and fearful i can be and yet jesus tells

00:25:54.960 us over and over again in his word do not fear do not let your heart be troubled do not be anxious do

00:26:04.240 not worry your heavenly father knows what you need that is much easier said than done but i have to

00:26:12.780 believe that the god of the universe who existed before time began who is suspended in the eternal

00:26:19.020 now who was ever on his throne who is the same yesterday today and forever knew exactly what

00:26:24.980 we would be up against in 2019 and i don't believe that it was arbitrary that you and i were placed

00:26:30.780 on the time in history on the specific point in eternity that we were placed not that god needs us

00:26:37.720 but that he chooses to use us when and how he does and i believe that he equips every generation you are

00:26:44.940 not here by accident god doesn't do anything flippantly he doesn't do anything arbitrarily he

00:26:50.500 doesn't do anything accidentally he's not surprised by anything he's not thrown off by anything he's not

00:26:56.220 looking down and saying oh my gosh i made a huge mistake no because he is gracious because he doesn't

00:27:03.160 um he doesn't experience time the same way that we do uh he is patiently bringing people to himself

00:27:11.000 even as we are experiencing these scary circumstances and the way that he has chosen

00:27:16.040 to bring people to himself is through the power of the holy spirit through christians so that's still

00:27:22.740 our responsibility we can stay steadfast we can stay assured knowing that our obligation

00:27:28.140 does not change uh that god is the same that we serve a god who is the same and that he has equipped

00:27:37.120 us and he has called us to the same thing that he has called christians to for thousands of years so

00:27:42.080 the thing that we should pray for is to be obedient and is to be bold and not to shrink back just because

00:27:48.860 things are unsure i know that's the temptation that's certainly my temptation but to go forward

00:27:54.440 in truth speaking the truth in love and sharing the gospel that is just as good of news today as it has

00:28:03.280 always been that is our role it is not to be paralyzed it is not to be ridden with anxiety

00:28:09.660 even as we look to our children and say what kind of world is this how could i bring kids into this

00:28:14.860 world some people are are asking themselves right now god has called us to the same responsibility

00:28:21.080 that he always has and he's not going to leave us behind he's not freaking out even though we are

00:28:28.600 and he's on our side if our god is for us who can be against us we know that they're going to be

00:28:33.040 trials and tribulations we know that there are going to be difficulties we know there are going

00:28:37.320 to be surprises for us and yet uh we know that god is sovereign that he is in control and that he knows

00:28:43.320 everything and that he is all powerful and we also know there's a day when jesus is coming back when

00:28:48.680 we won't worry about mass shootings that'll be in the distant past what what is that what is strife

00:28:54.520 what is division what is politics will ask what is it disagreement what is uh what is sadness

00:29:01.420 what is sorrow what what are what are tears uh we will only know joy we'll only know perfect peace

00:29:09.480 and we all look forward to that day until then we've got a job to do this is spiritual warfare

00:29:14.720 and god has shown us in his word how we can stand up uh for what is true uh that's all we have today

00:29:21.840 i will see you back here on friday

00:29:23.960 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 04, 2019

Ep 158 ｜ Freedom & Harm

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