Father, we honor you today. What a joy, what
a privilege it is to be here sitting at these
microphones, sitting across the table, doing
life together and just saying out loud, we get
to do this. Thank you for your goodness. Thank
you for your mercy and your grace. Thank you
for the love that you show us. And thank you
for how you give us a reason to get up on a Tuesday
morning, a Wednesday morning, a Thursday morning
because we have a mission and you've given us
purpose. I pray for our listeners today that
they would find themselves inspired and encouraged
today, and that they too would be able to say,
whatever they're facing in life, I get to do
this. And we say this and pray this in the name
of Jesus. Amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, August
26, 2026. We get to do this. This is episode
number 47. We get to do this. A little harmony
there by you, Pastor Jimmy Pruitt. If it was
harmony, it was accidental. You know, I always
tell Tina, I said, when you sing a song... It's
perfect harmony. It's completely wrong when you're
singing it by yourself, but if you just sing
along with the song, it's unbelievable. I don't
know how she does it. Does she not believe you
when you say that? I mean, does she go along
with that? Well, it's worse. She thinks she's
singing everything perfectly. No. Oh, OK. That's
an American Idol moment, audition moment. She
knows lyrics. She knows lyrics, I'll tell you
that. No, she has uncanny ability to sing perfect
harmony. Hey, brother. Cheers, brother. Come
on, man. Plank the cups. Yes. I've got Black
Rifle, I've got Laird's, Laird's coffee. I've
done many podcasts in my life, arguably one of
the first. This is the first podcast I've ever
had a business card for. Brother, I'm holding
your business card in my hand. It's amazing.
You know what I love about this? Annette saw
it today and she was like, oh. Who chose those
colors? That looks amazing. I said, well, I did,
of course. Yeah, you did. I wanted something
black, but I love the QR code. There's the key.
Nobody keeps a card. No, of course not. Scan
it, toss it. Scan it, toss it. That's the beauty
of it. That's exactly right. I love it, man.
That's yours right there. Thank you. We're going
to a conference mid -September. We are. Christianity
and Culture. Culture and Christianity is what
it's called, and it's in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
to Nashville. Pastor Alan Jackson's church. It's
got a great lineup of speakers, and it'll be
great. I mean, we'll be able to just, man, do
life, hang out, and learn, and just sit under
the water hose. That's why I said, we need business
cards. We need people to hear about us. Now,
at this conference, it's not like a bunch of
vendors showing up. No, but I want to give one
to Pastor Alan Jackson. Good luck with that.
Good luck getting to him. That guy, he'll be
way down off in the distance. Yeah, I hear you.
Josh, what a great church and a great pastor.
I just love having business cards. That's just
so cool. I do too. It's cool. It makes it feel
official. Big good morning, everybody, to Get2Nation.
Yeah, come on. All those doers out there. All
the doers here. Come on. Everyone who's decloaking.
Like we saw you, we saw you decloak right in
front of our eyes and all the Christ curious.
Come on, man. And they are here and there's so
many reasons for it. I heard you with Pastor
Brian yesterday on living up in a down world.
And you're so right. I think it's not even that
people are coming. into their faith, they were
probably already there, they grew up with it,
and they're all looking for something, and everything
else has failed. And we'll get into that. But
first, I want to thank you as my friend and as
my pastor, which is an interesting role. Because
I see you as my friend, and we talk to each other
as friends, but sometimes you'll slip in a little
bit of Pastor Jay there. I try to give a warning
when I do that. I've been a little bit in the
storm. Did you send me a scripture about that,
or were you thinking of one? Well, I did a DG
about that, and it had to do with that. Pull
it up real quick, just so you'll have the scripture
right in front of you, unless you have it there.
I don't, actually. No, I don't. And I called
it firm in the storm, but I love the scripture.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23, let us hold unswervingly
to the hope we profess, for he who promised is
faithful." And that was very helpful to me. Good.
Because I think it was a while back, maybe two
years ago, there was a clip of Joe Rogan, we'll
talk about a lot of clips today, clips in general,
and it was Joe Rogan saying, if only there was
like an owner's manual to life, and all the comments
were like, who's going to tell Joe? And I have
personally found, and I think most believers,
that the Bible, it is the Word, it is the truth,
and every single time I can go back and find
the truth and, you know, history just repeats
over and over and over again. The cycles probably
keep getting shorter and people's memories even
shorter. There's a Bible verse for that. Which
one is that? The book of Ecclesiastes says there
is literally nothing new under the sun. Right,
right. So, I was struggling with some things.
I'm gonna have to go into too much detail. What
I said to you, I said, you know, the word tells
me that I need to care for orphans and widows
and their distress and refusing to let the world
corrupt me. Now that's 1 James 27. I mean, it
goes all the way back to Genesis, you know, words
about widows and orphans. And you said something
very interesting to me. You said, well, in the
first century, it was a very different deal for
widows and for orphans. And that was tremendously
helpful. But it immediately gave me questions.
And I'll tell you how it went in my mind, because
very often the Second Amendment of the United
States of America is discredited by people who
say, well, when they wrote that, they had canons
and muskets, not, you know, AR -15s. And so if
you take the Constitution strictly at its word,
it's like it doesn't really matter what that
is. Can we? Should we? Is it an option to look
at Scripture in the first century versus the
21st century? Does it apply everywhere? I mean,
do you understand my question? Absolutely, because
this is where we're trying to make something
that was written centuries ago. Yeah. relevant
to a totally different place, time, and context.
So when you read scripture, you always want to
read it from two perspectives. You always want
to make sure... I love, context is king. Let
me just use that. I want to use a phrase that'll
help us remember this. Context is king. So primarily,
whenever I read a scripture, for example, I used
Isaiah today, and we'll talk about this particular
scripture in a moment, Isaiah 8 -12. Now, I read
the scripture at face value, right? What does
it say to me today? But I also realize and understand
this is in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant.
I want to find out what it meant to Isaiah in
his day. So I did some background scripture study
because I want to know the context of that. Can
I read the whole Isaiah 8 -12? Absolutely. And
I love this. This is one of my favorite scriptures
because in almost every Translation it uses the
word conspiracy. It sure does conspiracy from
the root word conspire to breathe to breathe
together Don't call everything a conspiracy like
they do and don't live in dread of what frightens
them Whoa Yeah, I mean hello. That sounds pretty
relevant to me. Also. I like I like Reading the
there's a whole in my Bible is a whole block.
It goes from 11 to 17, right? And I'll just read
the whole block There's just context that's exactly
man. We're gonna be talking about that today
So we start with 11 the Lord has given me a strong
warning not to think like everyone else does
he said he said Don't call everything a conspiracy
like they do and don't live in dread of what
frightens them. Make the Lord of heaven's armies
holy in your life. He is the one you should fear.
In this case, not, oh, I'm afraid, but I revere
him as we speak about a God -fearing man. He
is the one who should make you tremble. He will
keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah, He will
be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock
that makes them fall, and for the people of Jerusalem
He will be a trap and a snare. Many will stumble
and fall, never to rise again. They will be snared
and captured. Preserve the teaching of God, entrust
His instructions to those who follow Me. I will
wait for the Lord who has turned away from the
descendants of Jacob, I will put my hope in him."
So that's the whole, and it's literally indentated,
indented. It has a block around it in my Bible.
So I like the context of all of that. That's
critical to understanding it. So you read it
at face value, but you want to know what it said
then. What did it mean to the people then? And
now what is it saying to me today? Because the
neat thing about the Word of God, we believe
that it was actually authored by Him through
the hands and pens of men and people. So we say
the Word was dictated in a very real sense. It
was written, it was guided, it was inspired by
the Holy Spirit, Him at work. And it has layers
of truth. and it will speak to all men at all
times. And here's why, is because there's a word
that's used called rama, the word rama. That
means God breathed. So the rama word of God is
the breathed word of God. In other words, it
has the breath of life in it, which is why Paul
later says that the word of God is living and
active and sharper than any two -edged sword,
piercing even into the joints and marrow. So,
that's what the word is. It's a living word.
So, it may say something to you at one point
in your life, and then 10 years later, you're
scanning, you're reading, and you come over the
same verse, and it may say something. I wouldn't
say entirely different. It'll just be enhanced.
It'll be more. It'll have more depth. But it
can say something different to you in different
times because the emphasis will be on a different
part of the verse. the object of the verse may
change, if that makes sense. So context gives
us this is what it meant to those folks in history.
And it's like the Constitution. We need to understand
the times in which we live. That's why it's so
important to know our history. But then we also
have to adapt and interpret it for our time today.
Same way with Scripture. So in this particular
Scripture, you're right. I mean, the Hebrew word
kishur literally is conspiracy treason, or an
unlawful alliance. I mean, how relevant this
look around right now of what's happening, unlawful
alliances, treason, conspiracy. It can describe
a genuine political plot. God isn't saying conspiracies
never exist. He's warning Isaiah not to adopt
the crowd's interpretation and fear. How relevant
is that? I mean, it is exactly speaks to our
time. Completely. Because here's the way to understand
the nature of man has never changed since the
garden. I mean, it's the same old story displayed.
It's always the woman's fault is what you mean.
I'm not going to say that out loud. I'm not leaving
that level of an Easter egg for my wife. I'm
just saying. Just kidding. Although she would
probably say that actually, because she's like,
it's always women. I'm like, but you are one.
And she says, I know. But I love what that says
in that, I'll read that sentence again, it can
describe a genuine political plot. And that was
the issue in the day. Wow. So what was happening
was, Ephraim up in the North, one of the tribes
had joined forces with Syria. So it was a Syria,
Ephraim, alliance, which was an evil alliance.
God had told them not to align with enemies,
never to become allies. But by definition, a
political alliance. It was a political alliance.
Now they come together and they're threatening
to attack the South, Judah. So Isaiah is in the
South and he's dealing with all these people
who are losing their minds because their internet,
their version of the internet is saying, we're
about to get killed. We're about to get crushed.
This is going to be bad. It's over. We're at
the end of an era. We're at the end of an epoch.
You know what I mean? The same things we say
today. And it was the same language and they
were in fear. God through the prophet Isaiah
whispers to them, not so much of a whisper, he
basically says this, if you're going to fear
or dread anything, you should fear and dread
me, not what other men fear and dread. And that's
exactly how the verse reads. I read mine in the
NIV 84 version, so listen to it in that version.
Do not call conspiracy everything that these
people call conspiracy. Do not fear what they
fear and do not dread it. Now later you read
the content to context he's saying if you're
gonna fear anybody fear me fear me Yeah, I mean
he's literally he say you've got your attention
on the wrong thing Yes, you know the object of
what you're fearing is wrong That's so good and
as a political conspiracy just to make it clear
I have to say this almost whenever I talk to
anybody about anything going on in the so -called
news Which we'll get to that Everything everything
everything is about the midterms. Everything,
just everything. I don't care what topic it is,
it has a midterm slant and this is how America
runs. It's a multi -billion dollar business,
like multi, multi -billion dollar business. And
I had quite a... Quite a setup going for us today
because I was going to talk about the lawsuit.
Do you know anything about the lawsuit? No, I
don't. The meta lawsuits? Have you heard? No.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Meta. I don't know what you're
talking about. Maybe a little bit. You know,
it hasn't really been top of news. It hasn't.
But it will be tonight probably because just
this morning we got this breaking news. The corporation
that owns Facebook and Instagram has settled
the case for a landmark $12 billion and up to
$17 billion over the next 10 years. In addition,
they'll have to make major changes to their social
apps that the state's claim got kids and teens
hooked. Some of the changes are a default daily
time limit of two hours for users under the age
of 18 that can only be changed by a parent. Also,
an enhanced system allowing teens to report harmful
content that meta must respond to. to within
six hours. all social networks are looking at
this, like, okay, what do we have to do? And
it wasn't so much the content, but it was the
mechanisms, what we would call the algorithms
or the quote unquote addictive nature of it.
And I do want to go through a couple of these
clips that I pulled anyway, just so we can understand,
because they didn't really settle on anything.
And this was only focusing on kids. So the whole...
And that's how you, I mean, everything, you can
build a lawsuit for anything as long as it's
hurting children. I mean, please think of the
children that is a primal reaction from any parent,
any adult, even if you don't have kids. Like,
oh, it's hurting kids. Now, of course, they're
going to get into, just to show you how weak
this is. There won't be age verification. There'll
be age assurance. I was like, okay, so. We're
not on video, so you can't see the look on my
face. But I'm also pretty sure this was punted
by the states to get it out of the way before
the midterms because everybody needs the social
media networks for the midterms. Yep. Everybody
needs it. Absolutely. And so even though it's
just attorney generals, attorney generals are
political as well, they're not supposed to be,
but look at Ken Paxson. He was, was he... Attorney
General? Yes. And now he's running for Senate?
Yes. So, you know, so everybody's political and
everybody wants to stay on the good side of everything.
But this was what the basic suit was about. MedOut
is back in court, this time facing allegations
that it knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook
to keep children and teenagers hooked, even as
it learned about the potential harm to their
mental health. Attorneys general from California,
Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are seeking
changes to how Metta operates its platforms and
roughly $200 billion in penalties. which is what
makes this settlement quite laughable, was $1
.3 trillion. So $17 billion, of which $12 billion
now and $5 billion later on, it'll leave a mark.
It'll hurt them, but it's not the end of the
world by far. They're part of a larger group
of 29 states that sued the tech giant over child
safety and privacy. The other states will go
to trial later. The states argue Meta designed
its apps to quote, hook the users, hold them
for as long as they can, harvest their data and
hide the truth from the public. Hook them, hold
them, harvest them, hide them, beautiful. Nice
alliteration. Well, you know, that's, that's
some consultant came up with that, you know,
to work against them. A Meta spokesperson called
those claims unsubstantiated, saying the company
stands by its record of protecting miners on
their platforms. For more, we're joined by Bloomberg
tech reporter Alexandra Levine, who's been covering
this trial. Alexandra, welcome. Thanks for joining
us. Thanks for having me. So Meta and other social
media companies have faced similar allegations.
They've gone to trial before. How is this trial
different? Yeah, well... We've been hearing about
alleged harms to children through social media
for so many years at this point. I think what
makes this moment very different is that in the
past, a lot of the focus has been on the content
posted the platforms and how that content could
be harmful. Right now, the focus is mainly on
product design. So how the actual products of
Instagram and Facebook have been built to, as
the state attorney general was alleged, to keep
children hooked and to harm them. certain design
features, and these are seated business practices
that are integral to both of the platforms. But
I think the difference between the content posted
and the product design is a key difference. The
other key difference here, of course, is that
in addition to seeking monetary penalties, the
state AGs would like to see injunctive relief
measures, which would actually fundamentally
change the way that the platforms operate. So
it's really great when you get to change something
for a relatively small age group, which isn't
really that interesting. Advertisers and people
who want to advertise want to advertise to one
specific group, 1824. Now, if they can get kids
early, yeah, I guess there's benefit to that.
But anything you do for children, I don't think
it's a big deal to these companies in general,
but there's quite an analogy to this entire setup,
which I've been discussing with Rob Carty, the
constitutional lawyer. By the way, if you got
hit by a truck, call Suits and Boots. Come on,
man. They'll get you maximum money, I guarantee
you. Those guys are amazing. They are friends.
Friends and Rob. Friends of the family. Great
guys. Friends of the family. Our family, too.
We laid out our case today, which is essentially
this. This is the AG. That meta. has designed
and deployed dangerous product dangerous product
with dangerous features that they knew uh...
would create excessive use and compulsive use
by children and it would create mental health
harms including things like anxiety and depression
uh... like body image issues like addictive tendencies
like learning loss they knew all that They knew
their product was dangerous and they lied to
the public. They lied to Congress. They told
the public. They told the world that their product
was safe, that it wasn't dangerous. Okay. Where
have we heard this before? Where have we heard
this before? I take you back in the time machine.
Close your eyes so you don't get nauseous. If
it's the room is spinning, look at the ground,
it'll all go away. 1994. Let me begin my questioning
on the matter of whether or not nicotine is addictive.
Let me ask you first, and I'd like to just go
down the row, whether each of you believes that
nicotine is not addictive. I heard virtually
all of you touch on it and just yes or no. Do
you believe nicotine is not addictive? I believe
nicotine is not addictive, yes. Mr. Johnston.
Congressman. Cigarettes and nicotine clearly
do not meet the classic definitions of addiction.
There is no toxin. This was all the big tobacco
guys sitting in Congress, sitting in Congress.
We'll take that as a no, and again, time is short.
If you could just, I think each of you... This
sounds like Raskin. I'm not sure if he was there
back there. It sounds like him, though. We believe
nicotine is not addictive. We just would like
to have this for the record. Yeah, just get it
on the record, everybody. I don't believe that
nicotine for our products are addictive. Next.
I believe nicotine is not addictive. I believe
that nicotine is not addictive. Well, spoiler
alert, they go all the way down the line. I don't
believe it's addictive. Not one outlier. So what
is interesting in the analogy between these two
is that, you know, of course they lied. They
literally made the product more addictive, not
just with nicotine, but with other properties.
And what was really the results of that? the
state sued the states in this in the in the tobacco
case the states got something called the master
settlement agreement and a tax you know when
you pay tax on cigarettes which is now probably
much more than the product itself that money
is split up amongst all the states and goes to
health care laughable of course because that
just gets sucked up now into the general ledger
and you know they've written bonds against that
income but what did they really do for the children
Mean they put a warning label on it say they
get a sticker on them get a sticker You know
you can't buy it in the store warning the surgeon
general is deemed blah blah blah age assurance
It actually turns out you know for a while they
had those horrible pictures of a diseased lung
on it I don't remember that that was maybe ten
years ago. They started that campaign Europe
still does it Research shows people actually
are more inclined to buy it when you have that
on the package kind of like I can beat this Like
they were trading him like I have a diseased
lung. You got a heart. Let me have your pack
I mean, it's crazy and I'm sure they thought
about that before they actually put that into
into effect The thing that that is interesting
though is people still smoke It's not like yeah,
a lot of people have given up that wasn't necessarily
because of that lawsuit You know, it's it's less
easy for kids that we can't go in and buy a pack
But you know kids underage still smoke But it
never removed the problem it never removed and
I don't think they ever actually removed any
of the addictive properties You know, they didn't
really change the product that much So this the
analog here is okay You can do stuff for kids
like the it'll you won't be able to access it
at night It'll tell you to take a break You'll
be able to hide your likes hide them by default
so you can turn it back on you know, whatever
crutches they've come up with But are kids really
the problem? No. Do you really see children?
I mean, yes, big problems. But is that really
the problem? The problem, no. No. Who has problems?
Us. Adults. 30 -year -olds. Boomers. Anybody
with a pulse. Anybody with a pulse. Exactly.
And this is, I think, CNBC. The woman actually,
the news model, I call him, she actually admits
it. The courtroom doors are open. And it is time
that the public see what the executives at Metta
have known all along, that their products are
designed to addict and harm children. We got
a third of the planet on their products. They
broke our brains, all of them. It's not just
about kids. And so at the end of the day, I think
there should be some sort of reckoning. Sorry,
it was a male news model. He's saying it. They
broke our brains. They broke everybody, a third
of the planet. And it's absolutely true. So the
product is not just the problem. There was this
fantastic documentary I found on Deutsche Welle.
So it's German with English voiceover. It was
called Loneliness Influencers. I think I saw
that. Not really. Just kidding. It's possible.
It's possible. But these are not. late 20, early
30 year olds who have just gone, because of social
media, have gone into a complete state of loneliness
while they've never been as connected before
in their lives. I've really noticed the intense
doom scrolling, especially when I'm alone at
home. The phone is basically a connection to
feel some kind of fake closeness. At the same
time, it makes you feel even lonelier. Totally.
I really felt that during the times I was doing
badly. I'd sleep 15 hours and spend the other
nine in front of a screen because it kind of
pulls you away from your own reality and your
thoughts. Do you think that's good, watching
that stuff? Of course not. I was doing badly.
But that was my way of coping. It's kind of dumb.
But it's also like, there's this FOMO thing,
right? Someone's traveling and you feel bad about
your life. But if you just switch your life and
turn on the internet, it feels like you just
traveled too, because you watched that vlog.
I think it's really just that dopamine kick.
At the same time, like I said, it makes me lonelier.
Social media is completely curated. People only
post what looks amazing. So they're very aware
of what's going on, completely aware, yet they're
fully into it. And what happens is these people...
aren't finding faith, they aren't finding God,
they're finding people teaching them how to manifest.
You know, like, I'm going to be okay, and the
world is going to be okay. This is literally
the… Category known as Loneliness Influencers,
which is just mind -bogglingly scary. Part of
my daily routine is watching videos from YouTubers
who make content about manifestation. I basically
have them in my ear all the time. What I love
is that you get this sense of power, that you're
truly the creator of your own reality. You don't
need astrology or anything outside yourself.
Oh, don't even need that. Don't even, don't,
Noah, don't need any of that stuff, no. Every
day it's me who decides who I am. That gives
me a real boost. Hi, I'm Vanneleen. I'm 34 years
old, a Gemini, and I'm a trained actress, host,
voice actor, mental coach, photographer, lecturer,
and model. Go ahead. There is an unholy trinity
out there and it's called me, myself, and I.
That is all I heard right there. It's all about
me. Yes. I remember when Oprah came out a couple
of decades ago and she started just throwing
everything off and saying, it's all about me.
It's all about, I've got to take care of me.
And, you know, there is a level of truth that
we do have to mind. We have to steward the gift
that God's given us. That's us, mind, body, spirit.
But it goes way over a line to where, and if
you think about it, what she's talking about,
okay, she's downing dopamine hits, but yet she's
getting them by doing this manifestation trick.
It's a hack. It's a biohack. It's a mental hack.
Yes, without even knowing it. Yeah, exactly.
It's the same thing. It's just an exchanging
one dopamine generator for another. And so she's
trading off things, but that will not give lasting...
I mean, how long has she been doing it? A month?
Three weeks? I mean, who knows? Because everything
in social media is a short shelf life. I mean,
right now, neuroscience, everything's neuroscience.
Andrew Huberman, all this neuro, neurology, then
it's breathing. You gotta breathe right. I'm
gonna teach you how to breathe. We're gonna do
a double -hit breathe with a long exhale. Then
it's always something that's a hack. And people
are looking for hacks for life. Oh, even believers
are looking for hacks. Believers are looking
for the next guy to tell them something. Here's
the tragedy about that. And I have this headline,
social media has changed not only what we read,
but how we read. I mean, this is like deep dive.
Shall I tell you my view on that? Bring it. Because
we are only looking at clips. And I'm not just
talking about clips of video. people will literally
post a screenshot of a headline of a story. If
they even post a link, so headlines are a whole,
the writer of an article doesn't write the headline.
Headlines are written by headline writers. They
A, B, C, and D test them throughout the day,
the minute it's released, to see which one gets
the most clicks. That's the one they go with.
So that is literally how news is getting more
clicks is by what clickbait headline works better.
In eight times out of ten, you click on a new
story, what do you get? Paywall. Definitely.
So people are 30 pop -ups on that page. There's
that. But the paywall is the problem, because
you're only seeing the headline, you may be seeing
the first paragraph, and this is, I had to go
into myself on this one, because this is very
similar to reading the Bible. So if we only read
Isaiah 8 -12 and not within context, we can miss
a lot. And I got to be honest, I myself have
been a lot of a Bible headline reader. It's called
a devotional. And if you don't get the context
of it, and you don't go in, and I have forced
myself, it wasn't that hard because I enjoy it,
to go read the entire chapter and verse. but
people don't do that. So you're still getting
just little quick hits of, oh, okay, I feel better
without the context, which means you can lose
everything of what that verse was written for
and what God is trying to tell you with it. And
I think we as believers, as get to nation, as
doers, we've got to help people understand that
a devotional alone is not going to do it because
we've been trained. Oh, this is my quick Bible
fix. I was disappointed in myself. Like, wow,
I'm actually doing this. So that's part of the
problem. It is. So I'm glad you brought up neuroscience
because just as actual brain scientists created
the entire algorithm concept of firing dopamine,
there's plenty of... documentation, there's,
you know, some funny documentaries about it.
Everyone's kind of aware that, you know, the
minute you're about to leave Facebook or Instagram,
you get all the alerts, they hold that back.
Oh, I just got some dopamine hits, I'm saying.
Way before this, scientists, brain scientists,
network scientists, were already, had already
figured out how network effects really work.
And this is important because this is where clips
come in. I'm so blind today. Hold on a second.
I'm like squinting all over the place. This is
the law of large numbers. Have you ever heard
of the law of large numbers? This is Leonard
Kleinrock. He actually built the first node on
the internet when it was the DARPAnet Defense
Advanced Research Project Agency. Defense. Advanced
research Al Gore takes credit for it, but the
Defense Department was on this long before 1969
is when they were already doing these experiments
and listen to his this is just a let me see if
I have this one. This is a Here we go This is
just a quickie. This was a simplified but exact
model at the time now we have other aspects of
it. But it's basically the underlying principles
of the network and one of the things we found,
surprisingly, was that the larger the network
is, the far more efficient it becomes. Like a
gambling casino that certainly makes money if
you have millions of gamblers at the slot machines.
Very much so. You've articulated what we call
the law of large numbers. The law of large numbers
says that a large population of unpredictable
players or messages collectively behaves in a
very predictable fashion a fashion we can write
down exactly and we therefore we can predict
the performance of a network when it's large
isn't that interesting the law of averages the
guy even says in the background oh kind of like
as long as you have enough gamblers you're always
gonna make money yes the larger the network the
more predictable the way the individual nodes,
guess what we are, we're nodes, the way those
nodes will behave. Now this is him in 2015, so
this is 11 years ago, listen to what he predicted.
Well as I said, one of the challenges is to make
the internet invisible, to disappear into the
infrastructure surrounding us. And to do that,
what's happening now, and will happen in the
future, is the deployment of embedded devices,
small devices, actuators, sensors, logic, memory,
displays, cameras, microphones, in our environment,
as I say, in our bodies, in our fingernails,
in our walls, in our tables, etc. So the idea
of physical devices embedded in our physical
infrastructure communicating with us. At the
same time, we'll have intelligent software agents
out in cyberspace. Sound like a thing like your
chatbot, like AI? Yeah. doing the things we ask
them to, providing us information, mining data,
alerting us, reminding us, etc. And you know
right now those intelligent software agents and
those embedded devices in our physical infrastructure
are generating more traffic on the internet than
our humans. That's already an indication that
where we're heading for is what I like to refer
to as a global, a global nervous system, a global
internet nervous system for the entire planet.
And that's where we're heading. It'll be invisible,
it'll be everywhere, it'll be omnipresent, it'll
be easy to use, and it'll be cooperative and
functional. A global nervous system. That just
needed an ominous soundtrack behind it. I know,
but it's from 2015. We weren't doing that back
in the day. Wow. So they already knew that this
is turning into a nervous system. Now, a nervous
system, everything is connected one way or the
other. So how does something go viral? Now, you'd
think you want it to go to somewhere who was
a node connected to all kinds of nodes, like
what we would call an influencer. Turns out,
in the law of large numbers, that is not true.
I mean, I was like, what? That, okay. And where
it does happen is interesting. And today the
way we tend to think about - This is Professor
Sentola. This is in terms of networks. What binds
people together are the patterns of connection
between them and the people they know and the
people they know and so forth. And when we look
at networks, there are several key features that
we think are the most important things for understanding
human behavior and human behavior change. And
typically we pick out the people who have very
highly connected networks who are in the center
of the network, and they've got ties reaching
out in all directions. And then we look at people
who are in the periphery of the network, shown
on the right, who have many fewer connections,
but also those connections are sort of clustered
together. So it's not just the number of connections
that differs between the center and the periphery,
but also the structure of those connections that's
different. And when we think about any kind of
technology diffusion process or innovation process,
we have a kind of common idea of how it works.
We say, well, typically someone who's highly
connected adopts first and that person influences
the people around them. And from that initial
process, then it spreads very effectively out
towards the outer skirts of the network and then
saturates the rest of the population. So that's
our classic model of spreading. What I want to
suggest is that a problem has arisen in the last
20 years. We've started to get really good data
on how social movements spread, how new technologies
like Twitter and Facebook spread. And really
what we tend to see is that when technology or
new ideas, new political movements take hold,
they tend to take hold out in the periphery.
instead of the center and then when they spread
instead of jumping to the center and what they
tend to do is they tend to spread around the
edges of the social network and they only reach
the center of the network at the very end of
the process. This is LGBTQ but it's also far
right far left this is why politicians are so
they know it yeah they know it they notice they
can get a small group on the periphery, on the
outside to continue. It's so counterintuitive
because you think, well, as long as Megan Kelly
says it or Sean Hannity, but no, that's not how
it works. In the connected nervousness system,
it's the small things on the edges. Which is
why RFK was willing to do podcasts with almost
anyone. Exactly. Nobody. Small podcasts. That's
right. College kids. He would sit down with anybody.
And it worked pretty well for him. He might not
have made it to president, but he is right up
there making a big difference in this world.
I think President Trump also realizes, I don't
know if he understands the depth of the network
level, but he does stuff which is clearly meant
to trigger things way on the edges like Lake
Ontario, Lake America. That's triggering all
on the outside, but it's not as... as unimportant
as we think it is, possibly. Now, one of the
biggest, the company that understood this very
well, which was attacked when Steve Bannon used
it for President Trump's first campaign, but
it really was brought to life during the campaign
for Barack Obama, is the outfit called, oh no,
I forgot the name of it. It's in the clip. They
were taking Facebook data and they were influencing
people to vote for initially for President Obama.
I think the name is in here. Cambridge Analytica
has sought to Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge
Analytica. You may have heard of them. There
was a lot to do about them for a while, but they
figured out how to activate people. on the edges,
but not as a central to a central influencer.
Cambridge Analytica sought to identify mental
vulnerabilities in voters and worked to exploit
them by targeting information designed to activate
some of the worst characteristics in people such
as neuroticism, paranoia, and racial biases.
To be clear, the work of Cambridge Analytica
is not equivalent to traditional marketing. Cambridge
Analytica specialized in disinformation, spreading
rumors, compromise, and propaganda. There it
is, propaganda. This is where I wanted to get
us. Everything we see right now, including from
people we admire and like, is propaganda. They
may not even know it's propaganda. And this is
what I think everyone misses, like, oh, Facebook
and they're giving you all the stuff from this
political party or that political party. No,
this is just people who know how to manipulate
the network. And you manipulate the network the
way people are already manipulated by headlines,
by clips, out of context, everything's out of
context. I mean, this is one of the things I
love doing is I love, oh, what's this outrage
about this clip? Let me go find out the context.
And you'd be surprised how sometimes it's even
the exact opposite of why people might be sharing
it. So propaganda, have we talked about propaganda
in the past? I mean, bits and pieces here, but
I like your take on this because What I'm seeing
is, of course, I'm seeing everything through
a midterm filter because, you know, the warning
flag has gone up. Midterms are coming. I mean,
we're close. I mean, already, I mean, October,
I mean, we start voting in October, early voting.
So it's literally around the corner. So everything
I'm seeing right now, I am reading with massive
skepticism. I mean, literally. So what I have
started doing as a practice is when I see something,
in fact, Well, I saw an announcement, Dolly Parton
has died at 80 years of age. And my first thought
wasn't, oh no, my first thought was, is this
true? I'm serious. And that's actually something
you have to ask. You have to ask that. Because
there's been other people, celebrities who have
been announced with great emotion, they've died
and it turns out they didn't. They're alive and
well. So I'm being trained now by this swill
of information that's so you can't tell where
it's coming from. It's the telegraph game gone
insane. The telephone game where you talk to
one person, talk to another by the third person
is completely different story. That's happening
in real time right now. So the hard part for
me and for others, and so I'm going to defer
to you in terms of maybe an answer or a response,
is how and where do we get real information now?
Well, the answer is nowhere. There it is. But
it also means that nobody's in control and everybody's
in control. So that's what I've always liked
about no agenda. If there was something with
air traffic control, an air traffic controller,
give me a boots on the ground to tell me what's
happening. There was a great, I got a great note.
It's kind of off topic, but you know, President
Trump is going to import 300 tons or 300 ,000
tons, whatever it is, of ground beef. And everybody's
freaking out. It's going to be poisonous. It's
going to be cheap. It's going to hurt our farmers.
And really, I don't think he has any intention
of importing ground beef. The intent was to lower
the price of ground beef. The beef cattle futures
dropped immediately. Mission accomplished. He
doesn't even have to bring in And I got this
idea from a rancher, a zoomer rancher who says,
hey man, I'm building my herd. This is great.
We were expecting it. We have an 11 year cycle.
It was a year late already. Anyone who's boohooing
about this is disingenuous. So that's how I...
So you got the real story. Boots on the ground.
But we have people in our church even who have
boots on the ground in almost every single area.
of life. But you have to have real human connections.
Man, that is so true. Wow. Well, I mean, you
just blew something up in me because I do. If
I hear a medical something, I'll go to Dr. K.
Yes. I'll go to one of our guys and go, is this
true? And they'll just laugh and go, no. Exactly.
This is also called Gell -Mann amnesia. Really?
Gell -Mann, two scientists, brain scientists,
they said, If you read something in the newspaper
and it's something you are an expert in and it's
incorrect, you probably will forget to tell yourself
that everything else on that page is probably
incorrect as well. That's gel man amnesia. Wow.
So let's go back to the propaganda because you
said earlier all that clip needed was a little
bit of scary music. Yeah. Dude, talk about one
of the best parts of propaganda that is built
into the tools of online systems. Now, I'm going
to create a clip. It adds to scary music. It
does all the jump cuts. That is the essence of
propaganda, the very essence of it. And then
you've got YouTubers and podcasters and YouTube
pastors and all kinds of people taking those
clips commenting on them and Validating them
validating even though it may not be entirely
true, right? But to understand this we need to
go back to the nephew of Sigmund Freud Sigmund
Freud we all know Freud the you know He was the
guy who wrote the book on how the brain works
and he had his own ideas I think they still hold
true today his nephew was a guy named Edward
Bernays I know about this guy. And he wrote a
book called Propaganda. You can read all about
his studies. And didn't his works get pulled
into the marketing industry? I'm going to give
you the exact example of propaganda going back
to the days when Mr. Bernays, and this is him
speaking I believe, first got into the game of
marketing with propaganda. It's a fascinating
story. Bernays set out to experiment with the
minds of the popular classes. His most dramatic
experiment was to persuade women to smoke. At
that time, there was a taboo against women smoking,
and one of his early clients, George Hill, the
president of the American Tobacco Corporation,
asked Bernays to find a way of breaking it. He
said, we're losing half of our market because
men have invoked a taboo against women smoking
in public. Can you do anything about that?" I
said, let me think about it. And then I said,
have I your permission to see a psychoanalyst
to find out what cigarettes mean to women? He
said, what'll it cost? So I called up Dr. Brill,
A .A. Brill, who was a leading psychoanalyst.
In New York at that time. How come you didn't
call your uncle? Hey, how come you didn't call
your uncle? How come you didn't call the top
dog? Great answer here. That was. Why didn't
you call your uncle? Because he was in Vienna.
He wasn't around, man. I got the other guy. He
was in Vienna. A .A. Brill was one of the first
psychoanalysts in America. And for a large fee,
he told Bernays that cigarettes were a symbol
of the penis and of male sexual power. He told
Bernays if he could find a way to connect cigarettes
with the idea of challenging male power Then
women would smoke because then they would have
their own penises. This is the whole phallic
symbol This is well established psycho psychiatry.
This is so he took that and Here's what he did
with it every year New York held an Easter Day
parade to which thousands came And Bernays decided
to stage an event there He persuaded a group
of rich debutantes to hide cigarettes under their
clothes. Then they should join the parade, and
at a given signal from him, they were to light
up the cigarettes dramatically. Bernays then
informed the press that he had heard that a group
of suffragettes were preparing to protest by
lighting up what they called torches of freedom.
He knew this would be an outcry and he knew that
all of the photographers would be there to capture
this moment and so he was ready with a phrase
which was torches of freedom. And so here you
have a symbol, women, young women, debutantes,
smoking a cigarette in public with a phrase that
means anybody who believes in this kind of equality
pretty much has to support them in the ensuing
debate about this because torches of freedom.
I mean, what's on all American coins? It's liberty.
She's holding up the torch. You see? And so all
of this is there together. There's emotion. There's
memory. There's a rational phrase. Even though
it's using a lot of emotional elements, it's
a phrase that works in a rational sense. All
of this is together. And so the next day, this
was not just in all of the New York papers, it
was across the United States and around the world.
And from that point forward, the sale of cigarettes
to women began to rise. He had made them socially
acceptable with a single symbolic ad. And I would
argue that the term freedom is still used to
this day based on that initial campaign. That's
fascinating. This is scary brilliance This is
when when someone takes something that they discover
a key to like a golden key But they also know
they can use it for a lot of for good and for
evil Welcome to the world of marketing products
and politicians and policy and whole political
parties And this is it's only become easier again
It's not Elon Musk controlling your thoughts.
It's not Zuckerberg. It's not Google. It is the
people who understand how to use the networks
with the right message. And memes, really big
one. I think President Trump's first memelogical
warfare. I mean, it was very, very powerful.
Now with generative artificial generative intelligence.
You got the guy out running for mayor in Los
Angeles. Now he got screwed for other reasons.
You know, he didn't win. Forget his name. But
his entire campaign was based upon AI videos.
So this is how powerful this stuff is. And in
fact, I have to say this. particular campaign
is so powerful that I still remembered it as
being suffragettes. But it wasn't even that.
It was debutantes pretending to be suffragettes.
This was 1929. And they were like, you know,
we want the right to vote. It actually was also
a political campaign at the same time, because
women got the right to vote. because they were
acting like men with their cigarettes. I mean,
we don't even know if there was a secondary client
in the mix. So then it creates this sense of,
okay, if I smoke, I'm giving the finger to men.
I mean, you know, I'm saying I'm powerful. Or
I'm equal. Yeah, I have a right to do this. It's
a symbol of freedom, the torch, the Statue of
Liberty. Yes. Wow. Does it get any better than
that? That's brilliant and scary. But these things
are being brought in all the time. An example,
Sharia. There's nothing in Islam that talks about
Sharia law. It is law. It is how you conduct
yourself. But here in America, politicians use...
Concatenate the two Sharia law why it's like
freedom. Hey man law. We're a nation built of
laws You can't just come in here and change our
laws That's not necessarily even what they're
doing. But of course you add a few Imams doing
a podcast somewhere and then you add in you know
scenes of Europe where this has taken 25 years
to grab hold and Before you know it people are
losing their ever loving minds And then, so you
get this pastor, I like this guy a lot, he spoke
at President Trump's inauguration. And this was
so taken out of context, but it was also him
using virality to gain stature, I would say.
You might have seen him yelling at the Dearborn
City Council, literally yelling at the guy with
an Irish name to, you know, to renounce Sharia
law. But the whole thing was about an arrest
not made for a black man who was protesting and
Dearborn has arguably a very racist past where
26 ,000 black Americans could not live in Dearborn,
but they work there at the factories. And so,
you know, when he says this whole city was built
on our backs, it's a racial argument, which he
actually is not incorrect about. But he's talking
about someone not being arrested that someone
was, he actually was arrested a week before he
made this statement, which is kind of interesting.
But what people share it as is a pastor who is
strong, strong for God, standing against Islam.
Exactly. And it's really a city council, whether
there's two Muslims on it or not, it goes viral
and people pick it up for the wrong reasons.
Tell me about it. It landed in my inbox. So here's
one that I had to look at. We should talk about
data centers just for a second. Is President
Trump actually even called it out that this is
a public relations issue? But the news sees it
as one thing and one thing only. It's a midterm
issue. President Trump hosted tech leaders at
the White House to discuss U .S. efforts on cryptocurrency
and artificial intelligence. Trump says the technology
is crucial to create more jobs and beat China,
but voters have a different perspective. NPR's
Deepa Sivaram reports. The president argued that
if he were the mayor of a town, he would want
an AI data center there for the tax benefits.
But if I were a governor or mayor, I would want
that plant in my community, and many of them
are designed in a very beautiful way. That puts
Trump at odds with the majority of Americans.
A Gallup poll from March this year said seven
in 10 Americans oppose an AI data center getting
built in their area. Trump, in his remarks, acknowledged
that AI data centers could use a quote, little
public relations help. But his stance underscores
how his perception of the technology differs
from voters concerns, which could be a top issue
in the midterm elections this year. There it
is. That's why it's an issue. Because you see
city council meetings from Indiana and other
places. You know, our electricity is sky high.
There are some reasons for that in Indiana. But
there's this confluence of marketing that has
been put out against Republican politicians.
to distract them from everything else. And it
is a democratic party operation. And it's so,
it's so. prevalent that even our governor here
in Texas, you're like, oh yeah, I know I'm going
to stand firm on these data centers. We're putting
down some restrictions and yeah, we'll stop these
guys. But you've read up on data centers. Yes,
I have. What have you found about the evil, evil
demonic data centers that are popping up everywhere?
Well, the interesting thing about some of them
is that there's different kinds of data centers
and they use different cooling systems. The ones
that have the internal cooling system will take
about 30 ,000 gallons to start the thing. It
has a 10 -year long shelf life. We literally
have a gentleman in our church who sells these
closed -loop water systems. You can talk to him
and he will tell you that the water thing is
not true. It's not an issue. Then there's the
electricity issue. Is it going to cause everybody?
Is there enough on the grid to support it? Because
it's going to take X megawatts to run. Then there's
the issue of sound. It makes a hum. I'm going...
What doesn't? I mean, the cars going on my highway
make a hum. Let's go back to the electricity
for a second because that's important. Yeah,
it's huge. The reason why data centers are coming
to a place like Texas is because we have trapped
power, stranded power everywhere. When the windmills
are going crazy in West Texas and the solar farms
are producing energy, the grid doesn't need it.
The grid doesn't need it. So these data centers
are going wherever there's power, to take that
power, but the only ones that will actually get
used ever are the data centers that also can
then connect to the grid. So you see them building
their own power supply, their own gas fired,
some will be nuclear, some coal. This is, I believe,
is going to be net benefit. Now, Indiana, you
know, why Indiana, they have huge solar farms.
So everything about the power is really just
not true. Where it went up? In Virginia. Virginia
has tons of data centers. We use data centers.
We've been using them for decades. You got iCloud.
You got Google. You use YouTube. Do you watch
Netflix? Data centers. All data centers. But
somehow this confluence of the security state
and the surveillance state and AI is going to
kill us. Thank you, AI companies for marketing
that your stuff is going to kill us. It's so
dangerous. Please, government, please create
rules and regulations so nobody can use the cheap
ones that are open source. Do you see what's
happening here? But people lose their minds over
this. Well, it's because they pick up on these
news stories. I've read several of them where
they scare the bejeebies out of you. Oh, they're
going to drain all the water out of the Perdenales
River. We won't have any water here. We already
have water issues here in the Texas Hill Country.
Kerrville has a group they put together to actually
stop all this. So it's like people are picking
up pitchforks and torches and looking for...
Frankenstein the monster, you know, showing up
at doors. So it's creating this groundswell of
rage. It's interesting how mob mentality, mob
rule works. Who are they raging against? They're
raging against politicians. I guess, I guess
ultimately it comes back to that. Yeah. Yeah.
Because they're the ones who will regulate. And
now it's become an issue. for the midterms. Well
done Democrats and well done Governor Abbott
for walking right into the trap. The same people
that are yelling about this are using Check GBT
like it's gonna end tomorrow. That's the funniest
thing about it. They're the ones jamming this
stuff, you know? So it's like... But it's a very,
very successful campaign. They've done a great
job. And it literally is. There's a group in
Portland that started a huge... You may have
seen Mr. Wonderful. Kevin O 'Leary. So he had
a data center project and he's like, look at
these leftist groups there. You know, they're
railing against my data center. Yeah, exactly.
And what does it do? It creates turbulence in
the community. The community's like, yeah, we
don't really want this. It's dangerous. We got
flock cameras and storing it there. I've got
two outside of my gate. I thought about spray
painting the lenses. Are those flocks? What are
those? They are. They are. Who put those up?
Kendall County. By the way, Bernie just voted
to get rid of them. Now I don't know if it's
Kendall County or Bernie Texas itself. So I'm
not sure if it's county. Well, I got a warning
on my way is driving to your house as a warning
mobile police camera. Those are flocks. You sure?
Yep. I mean, so there's two there and there's
another one over by Hidden Springs on 87. Yeah,
there's one there. That's another county. I don't
think that's Gillespie. I'm not sure. 87 goes
in and out of Gillespie Kerr in Kendall County.
It's bizarre. You don't know which county you're
in. But the answer is, hey, city council, let's
get rid of them. Yeah. If not, we'll get rid
of you. But instead, we're all losing our minds
over this stuff. And you get the clips and these
elaborate productions done by AI showing you
how data centers are gonna kill us all. It's
like, not really, not, in fact, in my mind, this
$500 billion that is being, and we have, We have
people right here in the church who are part
of data center building. And they'll tell you,
man, I wish I could get more people to work on
this stuff. We need construction workers, welders,
electricians, people driving. They're going to
employ a lot of people. And it is one of the
largest transfers of wealth from all the people
you love to hate, Black Rock, Goldman Sachs,
the big hedge funds. I mean, take their money.
These things won't be there forever. And then
it's all about the midterms. The same thing where
there is not an irrational fear of Islam taking
over. They are about 1 % of the entire US population.
And yes, they are. They do have plans to... Expand.
They've had plans since 1990. Exactly. It's been
around. This is not new. This is not new. But
it sure is in our face right now. It's being
used by conservatives to make sure people vote
Republican. I'm not saying you shouldn't. I'm
not saying it's a problem. But people are getting
the nervous system of the network is very twitchy
over these issues. And people are not necessarily
reacting the same in a godly way, which we discussed
on the last episode. So boil this down to kind
of a simple thing because what you've been talking
about is systemic in nature. So you're talking
about the philosophy behind creating these marketing
campaigns. dating back to, you know, pre -Freud.
I mean, so now you're, you bring it into the
future and we're seeing the flock cameras. We're
seeing, you know, whatever issue it happens to
be issue of the week or month leading up to the
midterms. How do we discern or distinguish if
this is BS? I mean, how do we just, where do
we, when we see these things drop into our text
groups from all of our friends that are losing
their minds, hair on fire. How do we look at
that and go, so where do we look next? So you've
taught me, if anything, is if they're saying,
look here, look here, you need to be looking
around somewhere else. So how do we take that
next step to push that down and our visceral
reaction to these things and start looking for
something that's true or accurate? Looking around
you to the people, you know, so if I wanted to
know something about aircraft I know I'm gonna
call David if I need to know something about
tennis, you know I know who to call and a good
way is to have a church family and you know community
community and real that's the first place to
turn to just like we were saying earlier something
about medicine How many doctors how many lawyers
do we have here exactly? They're all around you.
That is the number one place to get your information.
Yeah The second way is actually something that
you can do. Well, first of all, question everything
always if it's online, particularly if it's in
a clip that's edited with music. Excellent. So
I will give you an example to land this. Pastor
Josh Howerton, we both like him a lot. Love the
guy. We like what he's doing. So Tina sent me...
at Instagram this morning. She's out the door,
she's on her walk, so she's in her car, but to
go to her walk and she sends me this video. And
I'm like, oh, okay, Pastor Howerton on the Live
Free podcast. I'm like, okay, let's see what
it is. I only clipped a little bit of it, a little
bit over a minute, just to prove a point. I just
want to point this out. You can't notice the
music. So, and now he is on his podcast and he's
going to play a clip that is clipped by somebody
else that he's playing from Instagram itself
or TikTok or wherever. So this is now a clip
of a clip of a clip and we're playing a clip
of that clip of a clip. It's so mind -boggling.
I just want to point this out. You can't teach
the Bible to kids, but we definitely want you
to be able to kill them. So the New Testament
talks about wolves in sheep's clothing. What
that means is somebody that has a Team Jesus
jersey on, but they're actually playing for Team
Satan. He's getting asked about the concept of
having kids. And the he in this case is James
Teller. who will be running against Ken Paxton
for Senate in Texas. This is about the midterms,
without a doubt. Let me just roll that back a
little bit. I talked over the setup, it's important.
Pause. So what's really insidious for the Christian
guy is they're gonna put Bible readings in schools
and teach it as historical fact. Check this out.
as the only truth to our youngest students. I
mean, kindergarten, first graders. So here's
what's insidious. We're going to teach the Bible
as a historical fact. We're going to teach it
as the only truth it is to our youngest students.
Glory to God. All they're doing is they're trying
to put a tiny amount of essentially one Bible
reading in every grade. And they're trying to
teach them what the bedrock of. So he's not.
So what? Pastor, first of all, notice the music.
It's affecting my nervous system. I think it's
from Damien Omen III or something. It's possible.
It's got that feel. So the pastor is now telling
us about what they asked, and we're not actually
hearing what was asked. The pastor is telling
us what was asked, and what is the impression
you get so far of this clip about Tallarico?
Oh, Tallarico is disparaging the fact that we're
going to have any kind of Christian content in
public education. OK, so that is your takeaway.
So what I did this morning, just this morning,
and it's funny enough, you can use your AI for
this. You'll say, AI, please go find the original
video of this video that Josh Howerton is showing
and show me what Talarico actually said and what
he was asked. Now, I'm not going to vote for
Talarico anytime soon. Thank you. But it's a
lot more nuanced. And that's why I love this
example, because We don't like this guy. We won't
vote for this guy. But it's not exactly the Damian
-esque thing about what Pastor Howerton is saying.
And I don't think he knows either, because he
didn't go for the original question and answer.
Here it is. It would be extrapolated nationwide.
Because I think sometimes people here, they want
to display the Ten Commandments on school property.
Well, what's the problem with that? It's just
a display. Like, what's the big deal? So I'd
really love if you could unpack that for our
listeners. Yeah, you know you you said Bible
studies earlier that would be one thing you know
there there there are ways to Teach the Bible
in an academic context in a public school setting
As long as you approach it from a scholarly academic
perspective and as long as you are Allowing students
to study the holy texts of other religious traditions,
right? We I believe that that public school students
should learn about. By the way, I should mention
this is from 2024. It's also two years old. Great
faith traditions of the world. It's a critical
part of engaging with other cultures, with entering
into a global economy and being able to participate
in a diverse democracy like we have here in Texas.
My problem is when you slip from teaching to
preaching. And again, I know the difference because
I am both a former public school teacher and
I'm also a current seminary student learning
to become a minister. So I know that there is
a difference between teaching and preaching.
And Greg Abbott and other Republicans here in
Texas are fond of saying that schools are for
education, not indoctrination. And I completely
agree. And my concern is that The way these Bible
stories are being taught to very young students
as historical fact, that becomes indoctrination.
That no longer is education. Now, I don't agree
with everything he's saying for obvious reasons.
I'm there with you. But if you ever want to make
an argument with somebody against Talarico, you
can't use the Howerton abbreviation because you
will lose because they will come back and say,
that's not what he said. Here is what he said.
He's not against. the Bible in schools. This
is where we have to be careful. Even when we
really want to agree, we really want to agree.
I saw that clip in real time. I mean, I watched
that podcast and I was just like, yeah, there
it is. I mean, I literally just, I just didn't
even question the veracity of that. And again,
It's important if we want to be informed because
the debate will come up and there'll be someone
who saw this version and you're going to sound,
you know what, you're never going to connect
with that person. You're never going to connect
on a human. loving intellectual right level because
you and the music and remember it's like American
society See the third right marching in the background
and again, I like pastor Howerton I do too, but
he spiked the ball I think in a very bad way
and I don't think it's good that he does this
wish there was a way to get this to him because
He's the kind of guy and I know him also not
from just being on a podcast, but as a pastor,
that he's a guy of integrity. And if he knew,
you know, what we're saying, I think he would
back up on that. At least that clip. Well, remember,
everything's about the midterms. I know. And
so is Pastor Howerton. And to put this in perspective,
especially if you're in Texas, there are 16 million
Christians in Texas. people are assuming that
Texas midterm race will be determined by five
percentage points or less. So there are 16 million
Christians in Texas, that race will be determined
by less than 300 ,000 votes. So just to put it
in perspective, like, honestly, if Christians
vote, if Christians just do their job, evil loses
every time. And the reason we do a podcast is,
you know, honestly, I may be naive, I kind of
think... I kind of think Live Free Nation can
actually influence the dead gum thing. How many
downloads a month are we at? Does anybody know?
Yeah, no, just overall. Does anybody know? Just
on Apple. So just on Apple last month, we had
3 million downloads on Apple. Total all platforms,
like 6 million. So just put that in perspective.
Hey man, I think we can move a dang needle. Yeah,
I think so. I think he has to be careful about
this stuff. Because first of all, I don't think
his stats are right. I don't think this is a
300 ,000 person race in Texas. This is actually
a Democratic Party talking point where it's always
about to flip blue and it never even comes close.
I think he has to be careful. Like, hey, this
podcast is going to make us win. That's what
I heard. I would never claim that. I don't care
how big you are. I agree with that. It comes
back to me to the world I'm in and what I want
to walk in is theological integrity, cultural
integrity, just pure honesty. And if we're winning,
thank God, be excited. If we're not, then you
know what I mean? There's a sense of can we do
this right and still win? And I have to believe
yes. Now I don't think he's being nefarious in
any way because I do know him. And that's not
his heart, but I think he's caught a real wave
that's making him feel very powerful right now.
And I don't mean that in a bad way. He has caught
a wave. I mean, my gosh, the guy's exploding
everywhere. And he's a sharp young man. I think
he's 44 years of age and just way ahead of his
age in terms of wisdom. But yeah, I think in
real life, Cameras are on. Mocks are rolling.
You're feeling very relaxed. Your best friends
are there around you. We're all cheering and
we can get excited about things. I think it's
a cautionary thing to say, man, I love that guy
and I won't stop watching because I do love Josh.
But again, watching him like I would watch anybody
and that is with a discerning heart. This is
my point exactly. You can watch all kinds of
people and you love them and you take it as the
gospel. Because you agree with it and you want
that to be true. Exactly. That's a good point,
Adam. Exactly. Again, what you're doing is you're
hearkening us back to integrity and honesty.
And at the end of the day, let's just be real,
all this stuff's going to burn. The only thing
we're going to have is our relationship with
God. And if we have not walked in integrity here,
the last thing I want to hear when I get to heaven
is, I was going to say, well done, good and faithful
servant, but man. What were you doing there?
You could have just thought critically a little
more. And doesn't this come back to critical
thinking that we've got to? Not criticizing.
When I say critical thought, I don't mean you're
just judging harshly everything, but you're trying
to live life with your eyes wide open. For me,
honestly, the only thing that helps me to have
that clarity is God's Word, being saturated in
it, being informed by it, understanding the context
of the day and then the application for now.
That's what keeps me alive and well. I think
that's what keeps my head above water. It keeps
me living up in a down world. keeps me having
a mindset of, gosh, I get to do this from a positive
mindset. But it also helps me realize, man, there's
some real evil, real dark stuff going on out
there. And, but God. But God, indeed. I'm going
to end it with a but God. I'm not going to land
on, oh no, the sky's falling. We're doomed. No.
It's over. No, no, no. It's not over till it's
over. God will have the final word. I've never
been as positive as my life these past four years
because I know who to be afraid of, who to fear,
quote unquote. And I know God's got this, and
I've completely surrendered everything. My life
has changed dramatically in so many ways, even
in the past two months. I'm like, God's got this.
But I hope that we've shown people and given
them some background as to what's really going
on and how we got to this point and that nobody's
in charge and everybody's in charge. And the
only truth you can get is nowhere. It's only
from your relationships with other people, your
discernment. You have to really do research.
I mean who has time for that? I don't have time
for all of that. So you kind of have to see everything
as entertainment and just question everything
because even from the guys you love, it's not
the exact true story. And that's well said, Adam.
And I'm just always concerned that people forget
that part. But I was here at the beginning, man.
I had one of the first websites, MTV .com. And
I saw it happen. I saw it all take place in the
whole commercialization. But even when I was
five years old, they were already thinking about
how can we manipulate these networks? And oh
goody, this Defense Advanced Research Project
Agency built this global network and everybody's
on it. Hey, we happen to know how you can make
things work on this thing. In the early days,
they were branding. They were grooming children.
They made Pell -Mell gold candy cigarettes. And
it looked just like your parents' cigarettes.
They were just a piece of chalk or sugar. A piece
of sugar, chunk of sugar. And kids would walk
around with a fake cigarette in their mouth,
building brand loyalty from the get -go generationally.
And so this is not new, but it is definitely
advanced in terms of the ability to get it out
quicker. But the systems go back to 1929 and
it's happening every single day for everything,
usually to sell you a political agenda, an entertainment
product, let's say entertainment product above
all actually, political agenda and a pharmaceutical
product. That's really what is being done here.
I think there's three kinds of people when I
think about something like this and it all starts
with a V. There are victims, there are volunteers,
and there are victors. Oh, I love that. So let's
start with victim. The victim is legitimate.
Something happened. They were betrayed. They
were hurt. They were damaged. They were manipulated.
I'm thinking in terms of marketing. They were
manipulated and they drank the poison. Volunteer
means there comes a point in a victim's life
where they have to make a decision, I will no
longer be a victim. But it may choose to be.
So now they're a volunteer. Hmm. So there's the
middle ground right? That's so you got to make
that switch So when we're reading about dopamine,
we're reading about addiction to the internet
We're reading about all these things and we're
still doing it. We're no longer a victim. We're
now a volunteer Yeah, we because we're choosing
to do it. Anyway, that's volunteer. Nobody's
twisting my arm I know where the dopamine's coming
from. I know how often I look at my phone. I'm
going to have that cigarette. I'm going to have
that cigarette. I know what it can do to me,
but I'm going to have that smoke. The last one
is victors. So you've got victim, volunteer,
victor. A victor has the ability to know that
real life change happens when you feel the pull
and you choose obedience. Yes. Obedience over
impulse. Yes, that was a great daily grind you
had, choosing obedience over impulse. Do you
remember the scripture you had to go with that?
I do. I've got it right here, actually. And while
you're looking for that, I'll add another V,
value for value, because we are going to thank
people for supporting us. Beautiful, beautiful.
We'll end on that V. So here it is. It's Hebrews
12 -11. It says, no discipline seems pleasant
at the time. Later on, however, it produces a
harvest of righteousness and peace. That's it.
Put down your screens, pick up your scripture.
It is so good. Just going back to the loneliness
epidemic, this is what you're seeing. There's
nothing left. Well, let me try this Bible thing.
You're welcome. Come on in, come on in. The water
literally, well... Our Duncan tank here isn't
exactly warm. I mean, we have a heater in it,
but it's still a little bit chilly. But the water's
warm. Come on in, everybody. Man, thank you.
That was good. I love those Vs, those three Vs.
So we're going to thank people who've supported
us. It's very simple. Value for value. At any
point, you get value out of what we're doing
here. We'd love for you to send that back. Time,
talent, treasure. Your time and talent is a whole
bunch of ways you can do that. Tell somebody
about the podcast. Give us a boots on the ground.
Tell us what's happening. New stories were open.
Leave a comment. Also WGTDT .com is the website.
I had to adjust it because, you know, we link
it to our Substack. And Substack was kind of
sometimes throwing up this little thing that
says, hey, subscribe for $500. Like, hold on
a second. I was able to find how to turn that
off because that was quite annoying and people
were getting confused. No, it is free, always,
no charge whatsoever to subscribe to the sub
stack. If you want to, you can support us with
a subscription there and there's suggested amounts.
You could do whatever you want any time. We have
PayPal, we have Venmo, all different ways to
support us. Just go to WGTDTdonations .com and
we've got to come up with something for for people
who are really supporting us with a lot of value.
Like when we get to like a thousand, we got to
have something. I'd love to send somebody something
for doing that. I would love to do that. I have
some ideas. Okay, good. We'll talk. Jill Holbrook
comes in with $500 today. Aw man, Mark and Jill.
Never leaves us a note, which I'd love for her
to leave us a note, but also... An unknown GWS.
I have no idea who GWS is. Can you think of who
GWS is? No, but thank you, whoever you are. $500
from GWS. You can hear Jill's voice on any of
our church broadcasts. She's the loudest person
in the room. Sorry about that. I have no idea,
but let us know. We'd love to thank you. Brian
Maloney sent us $100 and he sent a note to me.
He said, read any parts or none at all. It was
a very sweet note that he sent me. He says, keep
your eyes on the Lord, not the storm. I love
what you're up to. Esther Roden, 8888. I love
the Get To Nation. Happy birthday, Adam. Thank
you. That's September 3rd coming up. Grandbaby,
a big squeeze, enjoy all the snuggles. Joseph
Rojas comes in with our 77 .77 note, love that.
Let's see, he says, I have the distinct honor
of making the first ever value for value pickle
laundering donation. Okay, I love pickles and
hearing you both talk about Louisiana dill pickles
Compelled me to reach out to Bo to see if I could
get some now. This is fantastic It's Louisiana
dill pickles at gmail .com Bo shared that he
cannot sell across state lines But he still sent
a jar for me in two jars to share to spread the
good news in exchange He suggested a value for
value pickle laundering donation till we get
to do this I can attest the pickles are amazing.
My donation is for the shipping charge both paid
to ship the pickles a little more for the cool
numerology. That's funny. God has been so glorious
in connecting me to amazing people. Connecting
me to Beau Lacoste is the best example in my
life so far. More amazing than the pickles have
been the conversation I've had and the connection
I made with Beau. He is such an amazing person.
I can say that he is the first person in my life
to actually be interested in hearing my stories.
Thank you, too, for an amazing podcast. Isn't
that beautiful? That's awesome. Darius Walker,
7714. Thank you, brother. We know he's a veteran.
Is he a pastor? He is a pastor, yes. Very cool.
Yeah, he's a pastor. Thank you for reminding
me. No note further that I had that I could find
from him. Todd Willimon, $50. Thank you, Todd.
John Sbert, that's John's BRT, John Sbert. He's
donated to all kinds of podcasts. $50, thank
you, brother. Brian Albright, $50. He said, hey
guys, you read my donation on the last show.
I'm set up for monthly, and I'm pretty sure I
also post on the Substack, but here is that note
again if you want to read it. I agree with Adam
that a change was coming. I was feeling it for
him in the later No Agenda episodes. I could
feel the change brewing. I had no idea God was
going to make it so suddenly and definitely.
Come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
I'm very saddened by John C. Dvorak's passing,
as I feel like I knew him since I was a kid,
reading his articles and following all the way
to no agenda. I know WGTDT is going to be huge.
I've listened to every episode. I'm proud to
support it. Look forward to continuing to grow
in Christ with you both as we continue our walks
and honestly talk about how the struggle is real
and how with the Holy Spirit we can carry on.
Wow, man, that is so nice. Thank you. Paul Erskine,
$50. Thank you, Paul. And he says, apologies
in advance, but it's a very long note. I'm going
to edit it a little bit on the fly. He says,
in the last show, there was a YouTube guy in
Michigan who talked about, have you had a supernatural
experience? I don't remember that. Oh, that was
the street pastor talking to the Muslim girl.
Oh, Lorenzo. Yes. which seem to imply that he
has had those God experiences. Also, it accounts
for people who have had Jesus approach them in
their dreams. These are amazing experiences that
people have had. What I don't understand is why
I haven't seemed to have had that experience.
I need you to comment in a moment. He says, well,
that's not entirely true. There are two points
I can remember that was probably God, but it
wasn't a smack -me -in -the -face obvious experience
like a burning bush, just two things that could
be coincidences or God -cidences. He says, I'm
clearly not as good as Pastor Jimmy at making
words or phrases. Yes, I've been praying for
God to show me the next step or push me or show
me something. I think this is... so common that
people want this aha moment. This is your territory,
brother. Yeah. First Kings 1912, we see that
Elijah was at Mount Horeb and he was in a real
desperate position and he comes out to the edge
of a cave. And it's interesting because he hears
God's voice, but it wasn't in the thunder, it
wasn't in the wind. He says this, and after the
fire, and so there's thunder, Wind, fire, no
God, but after the fire, a still small voice.
That's how he heard. Another translation says,
and after the fire came a gentle whisper. So
I think those God nudges that he's feeling and
sensing, that is God. I mean, rarely do I get
a brick in the head. I probably need one, but
rarely do I get that. It's usually a gentle whisper,
a still small voice. So it's not always the fire.
It's not always epic. You know, a relationship
with anybody, your own wife, it's not always
epic. It's just daily stuff. It's a conversation
you have as you're getting ready, as you're making
bed, as you're doing life, as you're getting
ready to go out the door, things are said here
and there. They're not epic, but they form a
fabric of communication. And that's really what
happens in our walk of God. So it's not the big
things that are said, it's the 50 little things
through the day. For me, it's like, it's that,
I got to call that guy. Yeah. It just pops up.
Just a thought. And I'm just always considering
if something pops into my head, it probably wasn't
me thinking about something. It just popped in
because the Holy Spirit gave me to it, or somebody
needs it. godly communication thing was working.
I don't have to know how it works. So the pull
you feel will be to... Maybe I'll do that later.
And you put it off. And you forget. But what
we have to do, life change happens when you feel
the pull and you choose obedience over impulse.
So the impulse is to just go, I'll do it later.
And we mean well, but we don't necessarily follow
up. For me, it's really those things. It's a
very, very small thing. You're so right about
that. And it never turned out bad. I should text
this guy. I haven't heard from him in a while.
I should just shoot a text to him. And you go,
that's a great idea. And then you don't do it.
But when you do it, the guy says, man, I was
just having a bad day. It happens all the time.
And you just really made my day. It's small things
like that. Yeah. That's it. So I would say just
as a word of counsel, quit looking for epic.
Yeah. Don't look in the fire. Don't look in the
thunder. Don't look in the wind. Look for the
gentle, still, small voice. So I'm just going
to finish here with, thank you, Rutherford, with
Paul's note here, because, you know, he's really,
yeah. He has the right question. He says, he
winds up, maybe I'm not ready to take the next
step in faith, so he's waiting on me. I think
I'm ready, but maybe I'm not. My current plan
is to keep showing up. Yes. What a great guy.
There's not really a cohesive question here.
I'm not really even sure why I'm writing to you.
We understand your question completely, brother.
Maybe there's something here that God will put
on your heart to speak about on the show. Yes,
Paul. And that's it. The scariest moment in my
life, which I was not afraid of at all, was going
on Joe Rogan and saying, man, I looked at all
the conspiracies and I finally checked out this
Jesus thing and this God thing and like, sorry,
it's true because there's too much written about
it. There's too much going on with this. I can't
believe I ignored it all my life. And you know
what didn't happen? People didn't come after
me and throw bricks at me and tell me I'm a nut
job. Opposite happen. People came out of the
woodwork. Decloked. Decloked in front of me.
Rock and rollers who I had no idea. Rudy Sarzo.
I love that. I mean, the most unbelievable people
have just come in. And that's your community,
man. That's it. You're lonely? Join us. It's
a big club. And you're welcome in it, unlike
what George Carlin would say. So good. $19 .48
from Dr. Graham Brian Bishko. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Kevin Hallisey, $10, twice a week.
Love your perspectives, twice a week. Oh, please.
He says, twice a week, please. Yes. Working on
it, brother. Appreciate it. Love the perspectives
and the conversations. We feel like we're all
at the barbecue. Oh, I love that. That's what
we want people to feel. You're in the conversation.
Sharing the joys of getting to do this, praying
as I drive 100. Easy, brother. Maybe it's Highway
100. Nicholas Stark, $5. Thank you very much.
Dwayne Spellman, Jr., $153. And the final, and
whoever sent me this, Larry Ice, Galatians, Freedom
from, have you ever seen this? Larry Ice is a
great guy. I know Larry. It's a 61 -day study,
Freedom from Religious Slavery. He's a good guy.
See, I brought this here because I want to show
everything to my pastor brother over here. And
when he says, yeah, that's good. Okay. Yeah,
Larry's great. Good brother. We got a $5 check
and we love checks in the PO box. Checks, by
the way, is something so, only in America. Only
in America do we trust. It is like, I'm giving
you this and you're going to trust me that that
check is good. It's not going to bounce. It's
personal. It's written by hand. And people always
laugh at me. You're so old fashioned. We have
Vin Moon. Also no fees for checks. I think it's
maybe five cents or something, some processing
fee. I love checks. I just do. And this was sent
by Cameron Knapp. Hello, Adam and Pastor Jimmy.
Enclosed is a $5 check. I'm hoping to continue
doing this as a monthly donation. I've set up
a monthly reminder to do this. Thank you so much.
Now, she's listened to No Agenda since my Joe
Rogan appearance in 2021. She's only donated
once the show. I regret it now that John has
passed. I'll likely donate monthly to No Agenda
as well. The community within No Agenda was so
much larger and tighter than I could have realized.
It wasn't until recently, with the outpouring
of love, prayers, and meetups, I realized how
special it is. I'm sure this community will be
just as great." There's a huge overlap. Now,
she's had a lot of tragedy since 2009, 19. Her
father passed in 2019. In 2017, when he was diagnosed,
His father died, his mother's father's died,
his wife's grandmother died. I mean, the last
three weeks of my father's life is something
I'll never forget. This is where I began believing
in God. On his deathbed, he had a terminal lucidity
moment. He was completely coherent, and although
his face was half paralyzed, he was able to speak
to me. His last words to me were, I saw the same
thing grandpa saw. I have to find my way. Wow.
I bring this up because despite believing in
Jesus Christ and God at that moment, I have not
gone to church. I always felt uncomfortable at
church when I attended with friends growing up,
Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, non -denominational.
I feel like I'd be judged a lot for some reason.
I'm sure they are all great people, I just can't
bring myself to attend. I would like to someday,
since we have two young girls and a third child
on the way in this crazy world, I really want
them to grow up loving God and following the
path of Christ, which will help guide them once
they grow up and move out onto their own. So
I've been trying to read the Bible. I like the
King James Version, but it's hard to read and
understand. Doth not sayeth so. Elizabethan English.
It's hard for me to understand. So now I'm reading
the new King James Version. I'm reading front
to back, but I feel like there's a better way
to read this and digest it. What are your suggestions?
An app would be easier, but I feel like I just
feel like reading text sinks in better if that
makes sense. Anyway, I appreciate this new show.
I look forward to every week and I feel like
it's helping me find my way. Your advice? Yeah,
start with the book of John, the book of John.
John was one of the closest disciples to Jesus.
Even John called himself the disciple Jesus loved.
He was so humble. So humble about it, you know.
There's a great clip from The Chosen where Jesus
and Nicodemus are meeting and John's off to the
side. Writing, writing, writing. And Andrew starts
to say something. He goes, shh, shh, shh. He's
like, shut up. I'm trying to write all this down.
So it's just a great. Should she read it in New
King James or should she try a different translation?
Well, I mean, she just had, she's using a physical
Bible and that's what she's got. New King James
is great. It was, that came out I think in 1981.
And it's one I've used for a long time, but I'm
really more partial to, if I'm reading like narratively,
like just trying to read a bulk of scripture,
like from the NLT, the New Living Translations,
really good. It's idea for idea, not word for
word, but well done. And it's more of a narrative
flow, especially in the Old Testament. It depends
on the person. I use Small tablet, you know,
I use an iPad mini and and I use that a lot because
I use a lot of different translations Right,
right because I'm always jumping back and forth
Probably my favorite all -around translation
is the ESV. It's called the English standard
version. It's one of the best In between where
you've got good narrative flow More modern English,
but a little bit of the classic feel so it's
really a good and very scholarly translation,
one of the better, for sure. Wesley Hough, you
know, he rated translations, ESV was at the top.
And so I would agree with that. So start in the
book of John though, because that book of John,
I was talking to Tina about this note and she
said, man, they should whoever it is, start with
the New Testament. It just gets you into it.
You know, it's an E because we're new. You know,
this is very new for us. Like flowing into the
New Testament first. I mean, that gives you a
good start. When I was a new Christian at 18,
19 years of age, I started with the Sermon on
the Mount in Matthew chapter five. Yeah, the
Beatitudes. Because that's where Jesus is talking
direct. It's all red. It's all the red stuff
in the Bible. Read the red, pray for the power.
You know, that's what we say. I also want to
say to this amazing Gosh, thank you for that
letter. Cameron, I want to give you an easy on
-ramp for church. First of all, we're always
going to direct people to a local church, find
a local church, but we also recognize it's hard
to do, especially if you're in another country.
It's just hard to find good Bible believing evangelical
type churches. But I want to give you an easy
on -ramp. And in the meantime, and this is only
an on -ramp, not a permanent thing, is go to
bridgefbg .com. And every Sunday morning, we
have all of our messages archived with me and
Pastor Brian teaching and preaching. And we even
have the worship on there if you want to watch
that part as well. But you can also watch it
live in real time, depending on where you are.
9 a .m. It's live at Central Standard Time, Texas
time. Central Standard Time, 9 a .m. It's live.
And you can get that on YouTube. You can get
it on our website, bridgefbg .com, or on Facebook.
And the Godcaster runs the audio. Yeah, they
run the audio stream of it. So there's four formats
right there that you can get it live, or you
can go back and watch and listen to the archives.
And here's the three things that you'll hear.
You'll hear, go on preacher! That's Mel. Then
you'll hear, woo! That's Jill. Amen. That's me.
That's what you're going to hear because it's
that good and it's that awesome. Naomi says,
good. That's good. So everybody's got their little
thing. That's good. That's good. What a great
crowd. I'm saying that to you because that's
an easy on -ramp where you're going to see a
familiar face and hear a familiar voice, but
also we want you to find a local church, but
maybe this will give you a template to help you
do that. And that's it. Thank you, everybody.
Can I read my daily grind for today? Because
it really ties up into a bow. Yes, please. Because
I was informed by the topics you sent me in conversation.
Isaiah 8 -12 again, do not call conspiracy everything
that these people call conspiracy. Do not fear
what they fear and do not dread it. Again, Isaiah
8 -12 and the NIV. The Daily Grind, today's Daily
Grind title is Breaking News or the Good News?
If you think that the days we live in are rife
with conspiracy theories and misinformation like
never before, you would be wrong. The Bible addresses
this issue head on, all the way back to the Old
Testament. It is a stark warning not to jump
on the conspiracy theory bandwagon and not to
fear what they fear or dread what they dread.
The context tells us that we are to have a holy
and reverent fear of God. So, for today, Do you
find yourself doom -scrolling, spun up and spun
out over the latest breaking news alerts? Put
down your screen and pick up your Bible. Prayer.
Father, forgive me for defaulting to news feeds,
notifications, and breaking news over intentional
time in the Word and prayer. I reject the spirit
of fear and receive your peace. In Jesus' name,
amen. I love it, brother. Thank you so much.
It's a joy.