Ep 592 ｜ Sharing the Gospel with Trump ｜ Guests： Phil & Al Robertson
Episode Stats
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Summary
Phil and Al Robertson talk about how the Lord saved their lives and how they have changed their lives over the past 40 years. They also talk about what it was like growing up in a Christian home and how it has impacted their lives.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Go to GoodRanchers.com slash Allie for a discount. That's GoodRanchers.com slash Allie.
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All right. I am so excited for you guys to hear my interview with Phil Robertson and Al Robertson.
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We're going to talk about his testimony and what his life has looked like over the past several decades since the Lord saved him.
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We're also going to talk about the stunning story of him recently meeting his daughter that he did not know that he had.
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I mean, it's really amazing and very emotional. I know you guys are going to be encouraged by this.
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So without further ado, here is our conversation.
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Thank you all so much for joining me. I'm in your lair, your area, not my typical relatable studio.
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So I appreciate y'all letting me host an episode in this studio.
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Now, before we were talking on y'all's podcast, how there is a movie being produced right now about your life.
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And you were saying that it's embarrassing. Can you expound a little bit more on that?
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Well, if you if you do a little survey, we're talking in these mics.
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Yep. If we do a little survey, what you'll find is most I just noticed something as the years have been going by.
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I came to Jesus. I was 28. Well, as I began to convert people, I would say, how old are you?
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And they would say 28. They would say 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 30, 31.
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So I noticed they would all begin to collect in that age group.
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So I wondered about it. And I think what I came up with, my thoughts could be wrong, is that by the time you reach about 30,
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if you are like I was, I call it like a dog chasing his tail.
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You go round and round and round, but you're not getting anywhere.
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Life is not kind at all. Well, by that time, you've built a substantial track record that you can check how your life has been going.
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You're 29 now. Plus, probably some would say, I think you should have known better to do that.
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You're 29 years old, for crying out loud. So what it's about that age, about 30, where your life is a track record.
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You look back at it and you say, I'm not getting it. I'm not there yet. Something is wrong.
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Yeah. So I think that's why. But they do the movie, so they kind of had to catch the negative part of my life up to 28.
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So my perspective was as a child growing up in this life without really having Christian parents and what that looked like,
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and especially the way our lives were, but then seeing the transformation, which was amazing.
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Oh, very clearly. And I remember everything that led up to it.
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And then I remember watching dad, you know, your dad is your hero, whether he's a good person or not.
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But then when he made the transformation as a Christian and literally went from the biggest heathen in South Arkansas, North Louisiana to John the Baptist overnight.
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I mean, it impacted us, too, in a positive way.
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Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about that, because we were talking in your podcast about how you guys ran a bar in Junction City.
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And you were young. You said that you were nine when he became a Christian.
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Do you remember the days before he became a Christian? Was it volatile at all?
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And then after that, I know, obviously, there was a change in his own life.
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But what was that like in your home? How did that change things there?
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Well, I would say it was volatile, but that would be an insult to volatility everywhere.
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You know, I mean, it was a yes, every night was some different, crazy chaos.
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And dad, you know, he like was finding all these different ways to make money, you know, around this bar setting.
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So there were fights and arm wrestling competitions.
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And I can remember, of course, again, I'm a child, so I'm looking up to my dad because he could whip anybody there.
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You know, he's whipping all these pulpwood guys and all that.
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There was a magnolia tree that was behind the bar, and I used to climb up the tree.
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So you had the black section out back, and you had the white section up front.
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And so there were equal evils going on in both sides of the situation.
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And dad was kind of there in the middle, you know, through this whole process.
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So, you know, on our home, it was obviously chaotic.
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Dad would be gone a lot because when he wasn't running the bar, he was off hunting and drinking with his own buddies.
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So I can remember a lot of times in our home, she was depressed.
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She was having a lot of difficulty just with having to focus on how do we go forward.
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Because what started out as we were going to make some money, you know, turned out to be a terrible lifestyle.
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Loretta Lynn was on the front jukebox, the white part.
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And I'm in the middle with a pistol in my belt.
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Well, what's amazing is that you just said that you lead a church that's about 50% white and black.
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So it's kind of, it's what, just a picture of redemption that you were standing in the middle of the dividing line.
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And now you pastor a church that brings both black and white Christians together through the Lord.
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But that's exactly, that was a good thought on your part.
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And now, you know, of course, the brothers there, they love me because I was a heathen who changed.
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And most of them come out of some pretty tough backgrounds themselves.
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So, but yesterday we had people visiting from Canada, from, what's the, Kansas, from Florida.
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So every week they're coming from all over the country and other parts of the world.
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You know, I asked some not too long ago, a few months back, where are you folks from, you know?
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So I think that it's better if the Apostle Paul had had the internet.
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I've never owned a cell phone and I've never clicked on to the internet.
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I know nothing about it, but I just was riding along on an airplane with these two.
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Zach and Al, and I said, y'all come back here a minute.
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I said, a thought just occurred to me, I said, you can get on the side of the road, American Christianity, little church building, and you start out and you win 75 to Christ.
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I said, if the Apostle Paul had had this internet, he would have clicked on.
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I'm convinced because by all means possible to reach as many as possible.
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Therefore, that's why now we have this so people can hear about Jesus, make the decision to follow him or not.
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If this is not true, we're not getting out of here alive.
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So I just read the script and I'm like, hmm, the resurrection of the dead.
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I said, well, I know of no other book, no other religion that has offered me that in a person.
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We count time by him, 2,022 years since Jesus showed up.
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The atheist said, well, you can't pay any attention to that.
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But the world, according to Alexa on the computer, I said, Dan, Dan the eunuch, I said, Dan, call Alexa up and ask her, what year is it in red in China?
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I didn't know if that was just nickname, but I got it.
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And then the ones who, like the Apostle Paul, because of the rigors of preaching the gospel,
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I said, but Dan, it's not a bad thing, not marry until I don't let anybody look down on you.
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And Alexa said, when Dan asked her, what year is it in China?
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So Lisa and I, dad was having alarm clock issues because he likes the old wind up ones, you know.
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We put an echo in his room and said, look, you don't have to use it for anything else.
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But just tell Alexa, Alexa, set the alarm for her and she'll do it.
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But dad got nervous because he felt like there was a woman in his bedroom because her voice is in there.
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He says, Dan, I want you to come in here with me.
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And so then they decide to vet her by asking her first if she duck hunted.
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And she said, I'm not sure, which raises all the paranoia, you know, for the situation.
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And then it's like, then they start, he starts asking her Bible questions.
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It's like, what do you think about first kindness?
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Of course, you know, Alexa, she's not quite understanding.
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But something about a computer breakdown, she's not getting a proper signal.
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And I just started pulling out the wires to get that out of here.
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Everywhere, no matter what, they go by the life of Jesus to determine time.
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So I would think, what are the odds that of all the people on planet Earth going back to whenever they started,
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if the Atheist was right, a big explosion, and then with the ocean, salt water made us.
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What are the odds out of that entire group that we count time by one of them?
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I would think whoever you're counting time by, I think I would at least, you know, all the years before him are called all the years before him, B.C.
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I would think he would be worthy of investigation at minimum.
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If we're counting time by him, how in the world did they ever decide that?
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You know, some monk, you know, Constantine sent him down there to the Roman, you know, where they kept all the laws and all that,
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and he checked into it and back-checked it, and he's the one that kind of came up with the date.
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Oh, Dionysius, Eusebius Dionysius, I think his name was, and he's the one that researched it for Constantine, you know,
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in about 500 A.D., you know, they went back and looked and said, you know, when did he show up?
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He said, I want to know the exact year he showed up.
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I would think modern-day people at least would investigate what he had to say, what he did, what he will do.
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He's worth investigation if immortality is riding on it.
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You can go the medical world or you can go the spiritual world, but we're going to die,
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and I don't think we have the technology yet to raise people from the dead.
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I know there are a lot of people, probably most people listening to this, have heard your story of how you actually came to faith,
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going from, you know, owning a segregated bar to now being a pastor and a Christian.
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But can you talk a little bit more about hearing the gospel or really understanding the gospel for the first time?
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I'm guessing you had probably heard it before you actually became a Christian.
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What was different about that when you actually started following Christ?
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What I heard was pretty well hammered, you have to hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.
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Unfortunately for me, at 28, when the guy said, you know what the gospel is, and I said, maybe the Chuck Wagon gang on, you know, gospel music on the radio.
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I said, see, my problem is I was taught to have to hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.
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I said, my question to you is, Mr. Preacher, hear what?
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So he writes it out, and I just noticed this here.
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By the way, when I first met Donald Trump, I did the same thing.
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I wrote this on a piece of paper, and I said, whatever happens, he was running for office at this time.
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Saw him a couple times after that, but while he was running for office, I said, whatever happens, Trump, don't miss this.
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That's pretty amazing, actually, that he said that.
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I thought it was, so I thought, well, so I told him, I said, I have a lot, too.
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I said, Trump, whatever happens, I said, we're the same age.
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I said, Trump, we're going to die, and you're going to go six feet under, and so am I.
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I said, it's the greatest thing that ever happened for the human race.
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Remove all your sin and raise you from the dead.
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I said, but in the meantime, you need to think seriously about that and give your life to Jesus
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I started, I said, have a nice day, and I took a step back, and he said, hey.
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I said, and I gave it to him, and I walked out the door.
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I said, if you don't do it, I said, I'll come up there and baptize you if you can't find anybody up there in the White House that will baptize you.
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I said, Jesus said, you know, go make disciples, baptize them.
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So I said, hey, I'm just following, carrying out instructions here.
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But that's whether he did or not, I don't know.
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I know that there have been people who have shared the gospel with Trump, but there's a lot of people who have supported him politically, like I have, that have just really wanted that so badly for him to see that heart change.
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I'm so glad that you shared the gospel with him like that.
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So I'm not a judge of any man, but he heard the gospel.
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But it also didn't leave him because when Dad's last book came out, or maybe it was the first one, the president called Dad and congratulated him.
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I just happened to be there, so I was overhearing the conversation.
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And he brought it up before Dad ever said anything.
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He said, you know, I still got that piece of paper you gave me.
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It's not like he didn't have a couple of things going on.
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And when he talked to Dad, first of all, he said, Phil, America needs people like you that are willing to speak, you know, about faith.
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For him to take the time with some joker like me, you know, to call me up and say, you know, I appreciate what you're doing and all that, you know.
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I had been on Fox News, and I took up for him when the guy with the glasses.
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He said, well, why would you vote for somebody like Donald Trump?
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He was like, you know, he's got a lot of bad stuff going on.
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I said, so you say I shouldn't run with Trump because he sins a lot.
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Well, Trump saw that, and he said, I'm glad you got old Cavuto.
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What I'm saying is, I mean, you know, people would judge him, you know, a little caustic
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personality, but I didn't have time to go into all the fruit of the spirit, love, joy,
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Donald Trump, I wrote in the front of my Bible, look, this is a little good news for Trump.
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Acumen, keenness and quickness in understanding and dealing with a situation, shrewdness, mental
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But as far as acumen, pro-God, pro-gun so we can hunt ducks, pro-life, I'm like, yeah.
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And I shared Jesus with him, and he did not say, get that Bible out of my face.
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One of the most interesting and shocking to me or just surprising stories that I've heard
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you guys talk about is that you recently found out that you had a daughter, right, that you
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And I would love to hear how that was for you as well.
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Yeah, I probably can tell it better than I can.
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Well, I think that it was really powerful because, you know, this story has been played
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out a lot with the rise of 23andMe and DNA and, you know, all the different ways that
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She just didn't seem to quite fill in her family, and she couldn't figure out why.
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And, of course, it turns out later, you know, when she's 44 years old, that she finally
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finds out through her son taking the DNA test, just to check on his heritage, that nothing
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And so then she went on a quest for the next year and a half to find out who her...
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When I was a kid, she said she would walk to the church building.
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Wherever they were, they moved around quite a bit.
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She said, I didn't know why I was doing that, but I just had this...
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And, again, she didn't necessarily share that with everybody in her family.
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And so it was really amazing that, you know, she sends a letter.
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They were missionaries on the field in Nicaragua.
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And so they didn't really know much about the show.
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You know, they had some family that knew about it, but they never watched her anything.
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So when they came into it, it was more just kind of eyes wide open.
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But it's been totally, for the last two and a half years, just this idea of we're getting, you know,
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we really learned to now know each other, which is so powerful.
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Now, she lives with her husband next door to dad.
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So when they flew in here, I'd never seen my long-lost daughter.
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She shows up, and Miss Kay hugs her first, and she turns around and sees me standing there
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about 10 feet apart, and she was just looking at me, and I'm looking at her.
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She walks up, and I put my hands on her face like that, and I'm looking into her eyes, you know.
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What was so powerful about that, Alice, because I had been, and my brothers had been prepping
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her that, look, dad is not a very compassionate type person.
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So we were like, he's probably not going to, you know, just don't feel embarrassed if he's
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And then the first time she meets him, he puts, you know, her face in his hands.
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I just wanted to see if there was some of me in there.
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And then they sat on the couch and talked, just the two of them, for like 30 or 40 minutes
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while we were all in the kitchen, because they just wanted to talk to each other.
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But it was everything she had dreamed and hoped for.
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And so, but it was so amazing to us, because I was looking at the situation and said, who
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is this man who I thought was my dad, now because it's a daughter, triggered something
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So when you read the text, like, you know, Romans 8 there, God works for the good of those
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You say, in all things, God works for the good.
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So we both looked at that text and she was like, I'm glad I'm here because, you know,
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I wouldn't have been here, but I mean, it's a tough way to get here.
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So two of her sons got married the year after we first met them.
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I got to be the best man at one of them because of COVID.
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But then the second son, I was able to do his wedding because we've just built this amazing
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And so when I met her mom for the first time and when I was leaving the wedding, I leaned
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into her and I said, I just want to thank you for choosing life when it wasn't convenient
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And because you did that, I now have a sister that I didn't know.
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And if you had not chosen that, I never would have known her.
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So I just thanked her because, you know, I don't know this woman, but I mean, she chose
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Because of that, we now get the blessing of this life together.
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So it's all the components we talk about with Pro-Life and all that.
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I just, God's redemption and seen in that story and so much of your testimony, it reminds
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me that when God is doing one thing or we think that he's doing one thing, he's actually doing
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a million things, a million unseen things that we might not know the what or the why behind
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And that's a very, like a peace giving realization in the moment when it seems like nothing's
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For example, my mom, you know, she's small town, Arkansas.
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My mom's from El Dorado, Arkansas, and her mom had an aneurysm.
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Long story short, my mom's mom ends up dying in the hospital because of this misdiagnosis.
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It was the most devastating thing that had ever happened to her.
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And if she tells this story, she'll still cry to this day.
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Just a few months later, I think it was a few months or maybe it was a couple of years
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later, she had a family approach her in church and said, because of your mom's misdiagnosis,
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and that really caused a big deal at the hospital and everything that happened, his wife suffered
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And because of that, because of the misdiagnosis of my grandmother, this woman's life was saved.
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Of course, at the time, my mom didn't realize that that's what was happening or why.
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But again, when God is doing one thing, he might be doing a million things and we might
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not see the manifestation of that redemption for years to come.
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But I did want to transition to, we just have a few minutes left, and I did want to hear
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And maybe this is a good jumping off point, because this is also kind of part of your
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testimony and what you've learned being a Christian since.
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I think you pointed to Colossians 2 when we were talking about uncanceled.
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And so tell us a little bit more about that and how you kind of came to write this book
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Gordon Dasher, my brother-in-law, we were looking at this text here, and he showed it
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In him, this is Colossians 2.11, you were also circumcised in the putting off of the
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You say, that's a strange way to say what happens at baptism.
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Not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ.
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Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith and the
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When you were dead in your sins, everybody, when they, when the, when they see the law,
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once I was alive apart from law, the apostle Paul said in Romans about Romans seven, once
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I was alive apart from law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
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So that knocks out children being dead in their sins.
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Once he was alive apart from law, you say, what, what was that timeframe from the time
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he was born until he got old enough and his conscience developed.
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And then he understood what the law said because he violated it.
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So when you were dead in your sins and all, everybody gets canceled at the beginning and
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in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.
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And listen to this, having canceled the written code, start with the top 10.
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Don't bow down to idols, work six days, rest one children, obey your father and mother.
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I didn't even, I didn't do well with the top 10.
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Well, he takes that, he comes down, he wrote it, he keeps it perfectly, 100%, then dies
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All my mistakes, you've, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we
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Having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us, it stood opposed
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He disarmed the powers and authorities, the evil one, Satan, and he made a public spectacle
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So, when God did that, I just wrote a book because I see in America this horrific situation
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we found ourselves in and the canceling of each other, trying to ruin someone's life just
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because you can find out a mistake they made when they were 16 and hold it against them
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And you see people who live the life of sin and you say, well, you know, have you ever
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Jesus, when they came to him and said, hey, how many times should we forgive someone when
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And you look around and you say, boy, if we use the same code that the world uses, none
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So, when Jesus said, I will uncancel you from now on the rest of your life on earth, your
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I'm just hoping that our culture will say, you know, if we say we care about our neighbor
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in any fashion, you would at least keep no record of their wrongs.
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So, I'm just trying to get people to be more like Jesus and forgive each other than to hold
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something against somebody and try to ruin their life for no reason at all, really, just
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You're on the computer back there in the back and you say, ah, I got one right here.
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How about just loving them enough to forgive them?
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I said, your best course of action, love does no harm to its neighbor.
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If you love God, you're not going to lie to him or anyone else.
00:34:14.340
If you love God, you're not going to murder your neighbor because if he did this, he did
00:34:19.880
that and don't steal, if you love your neighbor, you're not going to steal his stuff.
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If you love your neighbor, you're not going to mess with his woman.
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It just, you say, therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law, the whole thing.
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So I'm just trying to get America to be nicer to one another.
00:34:39.620
I know it's a tough gospel because of the gospel.
00:34:49.880
And the Unashamed podcast, you can also listen to that everywhere.
00:34:54.820
Y'all have got bonus material if you actually subscribe to blazetv.com slash unashamed.
00:35:04.000
Our podcast, I think, will be out by the time when this one comes out.