Peter Rosenberger: Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, and this is the program for you as a family caregiver. This month marks our 14th year that we've been on the air advocating for the family caregiver. That's what we do for those people who wake up every day, every day and are taking care of somebody who is dealing with something. Now, that something could be a lot of things. Could be trauma, could be illness, could be addiction, could be aging. It could be all kinds of stuff. But there's always a caregiver. Are you that person? If so, you're in the right place. If you're not that person, you're still in the right place. Because guess what? If you love someone, you're probably gonna be a caregiver. If you live long enough, you're gonna need one. And this show is helping family caregivers stay strong and healthy while taking care of someone who is not. And healthy caregivers do indeed make better caregivers. Speaking of healthy, we've been talking for the last several weeks about theology. Now that you're saying, Peter. I know what you're saying, Peter. Hey, hey. Caregiving caregivers, not theology. But hear me out. First off, what is theology? Well, it simply means the study of God. Who is He? What is revealed about himself? What does he do? What does he require of us? And when you hear the word theology, some people think of professors sitting in, you know, academic halls wearing tweed jackets or in libraries or something, arguing about whatever. But I say to you that every caregiver eventually becomes a theologian. When we ask, where is God? That's theology. When we ask, what kind of good and loving God would allow this, that's theology. Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of September 11th. And when that happened, there were a lot of people asking a lot of things about God. I don't know if you remember that or not, but that was in the headlines almost every day on every news story. and it wasn't just conservative media. It was in every media. People were scrambling. They had priests, and pastors and clergy and spiritual advisors. And everybody and their brother was on television and on radio talking about this. How could a good and loving God allow such things? But, you know, they don't ask that anymore. Not collectively, as a country. Only when faced with crisis. Well, see, you know, that's where we live as caregivers. We're there all the time. And so those questions don't get to put on the shelf. They don't. They don't. Get to be dismissed. Okay, we've. We've moved on when they don't get to do that. But who dreamed that we'd have a Muslim mayor of NewSong York the 25th anniversary of 9 11? Who dreamed that this would happen? They obviously. They kept saying, never forget, never forget, never forget. Well, guess what? They forgot. But with caregivers, we don't forget because it's there every day. And we have to deal with those questions. And that's a theological question. And the question is not whether we're going to do theology. The question is whether we do it well. Doctrine matters because doctrine tells us what is true about God, what is. What's true about our suffering, what's true about sin, what's true about salvation, what's true about hope. And if we don't know what Scripture teaches, whatever sounds spiritual can start sounding true. We can be pulled down every spiritual rabbit hole that opens up in front of us. How many of you know this? How many of you been there? And that brings me to something that I heard this week. I was working at my desk and I was listening to some music while I was doing this, some gospel music recorded. There were. And there was. It was just. I was just streaming this on my devices, okay. And there were several live artists all in a row that were getting up in front of audience. And the music was hot and smoking, and it was just, I mean, really good stuff, music wise. But I kept hearing the artist basically get up, the soloist to get up, say, God told me to tell you. God told me to tell you. And the band's playing along and everybody's all excited because God told them to tell him something. And I've heard that phrase so often in my life. The Lord told me this. God told me to tell you this. And it's almost become doctrinal background noise. But this time I stopped and I just had it. And I do this a lot. but when I was working, I was actually working on this for this week, and I heard that and I was like, you know, I'm really getting tired of this. God told you the great I am the eternal self existent God we've been discussing for weeks who is being in of himself. He is a sati. He is not becoming anything. He doesn't just exist. He is. And that God, Jehovah Jireh personally spoke to you and gave you a message for everyone listening in your audience. Is that what you're telling me? Think about what that person is claiming. If it's true, the implications are staggering. If it's not true, the implications may even be more staggering. And, how many of you have heard this before from the pulpit? the Lord told me this. I hear it all the time, all the time for people who I believe are very, very sincere in their faith. But they say these things so flippantly. And you say. And I challenge sometimes, I will challenge people on that sometimes just because I'm getting so annoyed by it, you know, I'm turning into a grumpy old man. But I get so annoyed by this because the people have been telling us this for so long. They come up to Gracie and me for years. They did this. And it would just, you know, the Lord told me this. I was praying about you guys. The Lord told me that. And I'm thinking, you know, for those of us who are dealing with this kind of heartache, and we're so hungry to have some kind of explanation of why. Lord, Lord, how long, Lord. And we're desperate to hear something from God that would make sense out of this thing. And then here comes this person, and they're saying these things, or they're worse yet. They're up on stage. Or even worse yet, they're in the pulpit and they're saying these things. Like they get to hear from God, but we don't. They get to hear, you know, a message downloaded from God. The Lord told them that these are their words. They're not my words. They're their words, the ones they're using to communicate this. And so when, I challenge them on it, when I do that, sometimes they will say, well, he told me in my heart. Well, that's not what you said. Well, he impressed on my heart. Well, that's not what you said. Now, who claimed to speak for God in the Old Testament? I mean, let's just. Let's just back up on that. Who. Who claimed to speak for God? Well, the prophets did. And if they were a false prophet, by the way, and what they said didn't come true, then the. The circumstances were dire. But the prophets did. And what did they say? Thus saith the Lord. They didn't say. Well, I have a strong feeling about this. They didn't say, well, the Lord impressed on my heart. They said, thus. Say it, the Lord. The Lord said. The Lord told me. And when they spoke in God's name, they were claiming God's authority. Accuracy was just not optional. God doesn't stutter. He doesn't guess, and he doesn't receive incomplete information. He doesn't say something. And then discover he was mistaken about it. So if God truly told somebody to deliver a message, that message is true. If it is partly true, mostly true, emotionally true, or something the speaker simply misunderstood, then God didn't say it, he doesn't stutter. And the impression came through a fallible mind, not the infallible God. Now let's go back to Deuteronomy 18. But the prophet. This is, by the way, verse 20 through 22. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him. By the way, that's not ambiguous, is it? Was. Was any part of that unclear? Anybody? I mean, let me have a show of hands. Did everybody understand what Deuteronomy 18, 20, 22 said? Okay, so this nonsense that we're hearing from people all over Christendom, The Lord told me. The Lord told me, the Lord told me. God told me to tell you this while the band is playing. Do you think that that is just something God winks at? We're going to talk about that more when we come back. You know, caregivers who are healthy theologically are better caregivers. This is Peter Rosenberg and we'll be right back. Hello, I'm Peter Rosenberger. Did you know that this show is listener supported? Without people like you, this show would not exist. That's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio, specifically this show as we reach thousands of people each week with biblical truth. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr m.netgive that's afr.net give

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Peter Rosenberger with my wife as she was struggling with the Cove 19 virus herself. And I looked at her, I said, are you scared? And she said, a little bit, but I've been through worse.

The certainty of mankind's history with uncertainty. An article by Peter Rosenberger.

Peter Rosenberger And then as her fever was approaching almost 103, she started singing. In Christ alone, I placed my trust and find my glory in the power of the cross. And that's how she has anchored herself in the certainty of Christ, through her huge medical journey that has included 80 surgeries, both of her legs amputated, 100 doctors have treated, 12 hospitals, and now the COVID 19 virus. And so when we live with those kinds of uncertainties, anchoring ourselves in Christ, in Christ alone, that's the only place we can run to where there is certainty.

To read this article and more, visit afa.net thestand.

Peter Rosenberger Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. Hopefor the caregiver.com hopeforthecaregiver.com before the break, I was reading from Deuteronomy 18. God said that when someone speaks in his name and the word does not come true, that is a word quote. That is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. End quote. Now, that's what the Scriptures say in Deuteronomy 18. Go back, look at for yourself, okay? Don't take my word for it. Take God's. All I have is a simple question. Does God wink at that? Does God shrug when someone claims that he spoke even though he did not? Does he say, well, their heart was in the right place? So does it really matter? The short answer is no. The long answer, by the way, is still no. Exodus 20:7 states, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. That is Exodus 27, okay? Don't take my word for it. Take his. And we often, you know, think of that commandment as using God's name as profanity, and certainly it includes that. But taking God's name in vain, it's a little bit larger than just using certain words when we hit our thumb with a hammer. God's name represents his character, his authority, his reputation. So when I say God told me, attaching his name and his authority to what comes next, I am effectively placing God's signature beneath my sentence. Whatever statement I'm making, God is sealing it with his name. That's what you're saying, when you say, the Lord told me, if he didn't say it, then I forged the signature. You think God winks at that? He doesn't, does he? So why do people do it? Do you think that they are deliberately lying? I don't know that I can land there. I don't know that they are deliberately lying. I think a lot of these people are sincere, and they may be very earnest Christians who genuinely desire to encourage others. I think a lot of them are. That's just my opinion. I can't back it up because I don't know their hearts. But let me tell you something. Sincerity does not guarantee accuracy. If you are sincerely believing something and it's wrong, you are still sincerely wrong. Let me take it out of theology for just a moment and go into medical stuff. This is a caregiver show. Gracie after losing her right leg. First leg, first amputation. They. She had a special device that had a lead into her epidural space. it was called a dorsal column stimulator, and it was supposed to interrupt the pain signal. Well, it failed. So when they amputated her leg, they were going to take that out at that same surgery, and they were going to try something different at the time and go into that epidural space with medication to numb her from the waist down there so that it would erase the pain print on her brain that her right leg had been sending to her for so many years. It's a good plan. It made good sense. And after the surgery, the pain management anesthesiologist kept putting stuff in there, and she wasn't getting any pain relief. And she was in raw pain from an amputation. I mean, I want you to imagine how horrific that is. And he kept wanting to up the dose, and she's not getting any pain relief. And I heard the anesthesiologist and her surgeon arguing outside the door, and the surgeon was just adamant, no, you can't keep doing this. You are flooding the zone with pain medication. You're going to hurt her. You're going to kill her. And the guy said, no, it's not working. She needs more. Well, it turns out she had a lot of scar tissue in that epidural space, and the medicine that this guy was sending in there wasn't getting there. So he just kept putting more in her body, but she's not getting any pain relief. They brought in another guy, pain management specialist, who quickly diagnosed the situation, went up higher and gave her what is called a spinal intrathecal, put it in there and within seconds, she was asleep, and she finally got some relief. The first anesthesiologist was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong to the point of almost hurting her. And he and this surgeon about got into it, and it was a pretty. Pretty ugly situation, and Gracie bore the brunt of it. So why do people do this? They can be sincere, but they could be sincerely wrong. Some Christian circles, I mean, that's just how they talk. God told me is simply the language of the day with them. They hear their pastor saying it, Musicians say, the teacher say, the friends say it. Parents say it. Eventually it's part of their religious vocabulary. Don't even think anything about it. They'll say things like that instead of say, well, I decided to call you. Well, that doesn't sound very spiritual. I decided to call you. So we got to dress it up a little bit. I thought about you this morning. Well, that sounds too ordinary. I got to dress that up a little bit. Well, I felt strongly that I should do this. Well, that, that sounds a little uncertain. But if I say God told me to call you, one of that sounds authoritative and spiritual. And people may repeat that language without ever stopping to consider what they are claiming. It becomes that doctrinal background noise. But they're proclaiming what they believe. They're proclaiming their belief system, their doctrine every time they say it. And that's one of the reasons theology matters. Theology makes us stop and define our, terms. What do we mean when we say that God told me. What do we mean? We say, the Lord told me. What do we mean? We say, God spoke to me. Ah. Do we mean that a Bible verse came to mind? Do we mean that we felt concern for someone? Do we mean that circumstances seem to point us in a particular direction? Do we mean that we reached a conclusion after prayer and careful thought? Or do we mean that the eternal God communicated actual words to us? Those are not interchangeable experiences. And people say, well, you know, I didn't mean he literally spoke. Well, then say that. Be precise. I can only go by the words that come out of someone's mouth. And I assume they know what they're saying. And if they don't, then who. Whose fault is that? Another reason people do this is they. They easily confuse a strong internal impression with. With an external word from God. We have thoughts, we have intuitions, we have emotional reactions. And sometimes a thought comes with tremendous force and clarity. Some insight that we have. Sometimes it arrives during prayer or worship. Sometimes it seems to appear from nowhere. But intensity does not Prove origin. A thought can feel powerful without coming directly from God. Jeremiah 17:9 states this. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? That's Jeremiah 17:9. Go look it up. Don't take my word for it again. I'm just telling you what the scripture says. Our minds and emotions are not infallible. Remember what we talked about last week? Sin fried our brains. Our brains are broken. Sin affects the way we think, the way we interpret, the way we remember, and the way we respond. And I would suggest to you that as caregivers, we may understand this with a little more clarity than most, because we recognize that our brains are a bit fried because we have a bombardment of stuff that is hitting us all the time. And the way we process this reflects a lot of what's in our hearts. We know what exhaustion does to the mind. We know what fear does. We know what sleep deprivation does. When the phone rings at two in the morning, our thoughts are sometimes two miles out ahead of the facts. We can misunderstand a physician. We can misread an expression because we're wearing our emotions so close to the surface, we can assume the worst before we have all the information. Let me ask you something. If we can misunderstand a physician. You ever done that? If we can misread an expression, if we can assume the worst before possessing all that information, if we can misinterpret something from another human being who said it out loud, why would we assume that we can never misinterpret an internal impression? Why would we lean on our own understanding? Oh, wait a. Didn't Proverbs talk about that? Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. And see, this is the thing we do. We just say, well, it sounds good, it feels right. I feel it very strongly. So therefore, it must be sincere. And so I got to tell somebody that God told me something. The Lord told me, you're going to get your breakthrough. I mean, how many times have you heard this? God told me this morning that you're going to blessings. I mean, how many times have you heard this? Have people said this to you in the midst of your agony? And it's starting to really hack me off to the point where I don't even want to be around people like this anymore. And if I can, I'd like to protect fellow caregivers from this as well. And I don't know who else is saying this out there, but I'm saying it because it really Frosts my grommet. I just. I really get tired of this. You know, I was watching a major national show not too long ago, and people there. I've been on this show, and these people are praying and they're saying, you know, the Lord is showing me, and he's telling me that somebody's getting healed of migraines or something like that. And they're doing this right there in front of God and everybody, and they're closing their eyes and they're squinting real, real tight, you know, and they're furrowing their brow, and God's telling that somebody's being healed of, you know, some kind of kidney malfunction or whatever. I don't know. It's always something. It's never something demonstrative. There's a famous atheist that. His big argument is, why don't we get a billion people to find a deserving amputee and pray for that amputee to grow that leg back, and then we'll believe in God. I wrote an article about this in Fox News a long time ago. Maybe I'll delve into the vast, archives and put it on my sub stack. But think about how that article lands at my household. So I wrote an article. I know an amputee. I know a deserving amputee, but she trusts God with her limb loss and. And in the process, other people are walking and every step they take. That's why we named the ministry Standing with Hope. They're Standing with Hope, knowing that this isn't the way it's always going to be. But for a season, for a while, for whatever reason, God has decreed to allow this. not only to allow it, he's purposed it. I don't understand it. I don't particularly like it, and Gracie certainly does it. But here we are, and we trust him with it. And we've had people say to Gracie very clearly, the Lord told me to tell you not to get your legs amputated. That happened. That happened to us. And this was many, many, many years ago. And as you can imagine, it was rather distressing. Two women did this. I've told that story before. It gets annoying, but we're going to talk about that more when we come back. I'm going to tell you the third reason I think people do this. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back.

In a culture that calls conviction intolerant, how should Christians respond to the hard questions of our day? This week on pathway to victory. Dr. Robert Jeffress shows us how to answer those who deny absolute truth, dismiss the reality of hell, and challenge God's design for human sexuality. Listen all this week to pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress, weekday mornings at 6 Central on American Family Radio.

Peter Rosenberger Dr. Jessica Peck talked about Reimagining the Church with Dr. Rich Griffith. But what if we became a church that realized, hey, we need to be family to each other? Young people left the church because they had no ownership, very little accountability. It was like we were going to wait till young people became adults and then they became a leader. But we never did anything to prepare them to be a leader in advance. Find this interview and other episodes of Dr. Nurse Mama on the podcast page

at afr.net the enemy wants to destroy anything of God's, especially mankind, who is made in God's image.

Peter Rosenberger What would it be like if every person knew that they were created in the image of God? We're talking about people, people loved by the Father, people for whom Jesus died.

We have to stand on God's truth.

Peter Rosenberger We hear in culture all the time. We need to find ourselves. We need to go find our identity. We are already defined. We are known before the foundations of the world.

In his image is a life changing film that has helped people break free from the grip of evil. It will take you through scripture to show the truth, and its powerful testimonies will destroy Satan's attempts to pervert God's perfect design.

Peter Rosenberger We now know with the genome of all of the DNA that there is no propensity towards a genetic disposition to homosexual behavior.

Watch it for the first time or again with someone who needs to see it anytime on AFA stream stream.afa.net.

Peter Rosenberger Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, and this is the program for you as a family caregiver celebrating 14 years this month of being on the air, talking to and following the family caregiver is. It's staggered. They told me when I started doing this show, you'll never fill up an hour. It takes me 15, 20 minutes just to clear my throat. So, yes, we have more than filled up an hour. Quite a few hours, as a matter of fact. And we're still here and we're just scratching the surface. And so I am, talking about things that I think have tremendous value to family caregivers that you're not going to find anywhere else. And that is the theological component of our journey. everything that we're doing basically is rooted in our theology. What do we believe about God. What do we believe about his character? And today I'm talking about these people who have said, God told me this. The Lord told me. And one of the things that you'll find me asking myself, not just you, I'm asking myself this. If I say I believe something, then what are the implications? You've heard me often say on this program, Christian, what do you believe? What do we believe? And so when somebody comes up to me and says, well, the Lord told me. All right, well, hold that thought. Number one, why are you telling me this? What are the implications of what you're saying? I don't believe that many of these people are lying. I think they're sincere, but I think they're sincerely wrong. But it doesn't really matter what I think. What does Scripture say? What does Scripture say about this sort of thing? And I, went back to Deuteronomy and went back to various scripture in Jeremiah and so forth and Exodus of, what scripture says about this. So I guess before we go any further, we have to ask ourselves, do we believe that Scripture is the final authority on everything? Do we believe that it is the decreed, inerrant, infallible word of God that is the final authority? You know, Martin Luther seemed to, the reformers believed that. That it's not church tradition that's telling me what to do. It's not people's feelings telling me what to do. It's not even the pope telling me what to do is, what does the word of God say? And can we trust that this is the word of God? Now do you understand why theology matters? Otherwise, we're just floundering through life. Many people have just learned this language, number one, and they just say it as part of the vernacular of their culture. They're not even really thinking about it. They're, you know, the pastors, musicians, everybody says this. That's number one. Number two, a lot of people will confuse a clarity, a powerful thought and insight with an external word from God, and they'll just, you know, blurt it on out. The Lord told me. But intensity doesn't prove origin. It doesn't mean they're being deceitful, but it can mean that they're wrong. And you can be sincere and sincerely wrong. How about this for a third reason why human beings crave certainty, I think feels vulnerable. I may be wrong. And that leaves us, you know, maybe a little exposed. I made this decision means that I have to accept responsibility for that decision. But if I say God told me, well, that puts the responsibility on someone else, on God. But they're not going to blame God, because if they pronounce God's word, quote unquote, to you and it doesn't come to pass, guess who they're going to blame? You. Because you didn't have enough faith. See, if you'd had enough faith, then God would have honored his word to you, but you didn't have enough faith. So too bad for you. And once this thing moves from my judgment to God's command, the implications become enormous. And God told me tends to end the discussion for some people. Not for me, by the way. If I say to you I think you should do this, you can disagree with me. But if I say, here's what I understand scripture to teach, you can open the Bible and examine my interpretation. But if I say, God told me that you should do this, how do you respond? Now, if you're disagreeing with me, it feels like you're disagreeing with God. And that phrase becomes a spiritual trump card. It can be used to control relationships, marriages, churches, audiences, frightened people, suffering people. And sometimes that manipulation is intentional, sometimes it's not, sometimes it is. And some people get so caught up in this thing that they're going to use God's name to control this audience. And the stage will magnify it. And the music is playing and the lights are bright and the audience is emotionally engaged, hands are raised, and everybody's swaying to the music. And the performer, and I say that intentionally lowers his or her voice and says, God told me to tell somebody here tonight, and everything stops. Who wants to be the person who says, how do we know that? Who wants to be the one that says, you know, brother, I think you got that wrong, or, sister, I think you got that wrong? Who wants to appear to quench the Holy Spirit? Who wants to interrupt a, movement of God? you know, how dare you bring up the Bible during a religious event? You know, that's the kind of thing that's going on. The emotional intensity of the setting begins to function as if the. The claim is true, you know, but the emotional intensity is not an evidence of divine revelation. The prophets of BAAL were pretty emotionally intense, but it wasn't divine revelation they were getting. And the volume of applause doesn't verify the message. People may say, well, Peter, you're basing this in the Old Testament. We're under the new test. We're under grace now. All right, well, let's look at that. The civil penalty described in Deuteronomy belonged to ancient Israel under the Mosaic covenant. The church is not instructed to execute people who make false spiritual claims. Okay, but did God's concern for truth change? Did the God who warned Israel not to use the Lord's name in vain become less concerned about that after the cross? Is that what they're telling me? Does grace give us permission to place words in God's mouth? The NewSong Testament does not tell believers to accept every spiritual claim. It tells us to test them first. Jon 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. Jon doesn't say if it feels spiritual, receive it. He does not say if the speaker appears sincere, receive it. If the audience is crying and the band's playing, receive it. He said, test the spirits first. Thessalonians 5, 1922. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good? Abstain from every form of evil. Notice both those passages said tested. And I got a simple question for you. Got a simple question. Tested against what? How do we test it? What do we what? Where's the ruler? Where's. You know. You ever use the level to see if something's level? Well, you know Scripture and Amos. I believe God uses the description word of a plumb line. You know what's level? Well, how do we test it? And that's when we have to know the Scriptures. That's when we go back to studying theology, knowing who God is. What are his immutable characteristics, the things about him that don't change. Who is he? Who is God? Is there a God? Who is he? Can we know Him? What's the standard that we're testing everything? And, we don't test a spiritual claim about how the music made us feel, do we? Or how sincere the guy with the microphone is. Or even if he's got his hand outstretched to the television, or ask you to place your hand behind the television and feel the power. We don't test it that way. We don't test about how many people stood up, how many people went forward, how many people are crying. We test it against what God has already revealed in Scripture. Lets go to Acts 17:11. Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Now, who were these Jews? Well, these were the Bereans. by the way, I grew up in South Carolina. There's a town named Berea there. And they were listening. That's not the same group. They were listening to the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul could have easily got up. He was an apostle personally commissioned by Jesus Christ. And he could have gotten up and said, don't question me. God told me he. He could have pulled that off. There are a lot of people out there give themselves the title prophet and all these kinds of things. Apostles, they do that now in our culture and around the world too. Paul actually was an apostle appointed by Christ. He really could have pulled that off. But Luke was writing this in the Book of Acts under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit. And he said they were noble for examining the Scriptures to determine whether Paul was saying something that was true or not. They received the word eagerly. That's what they did. And they examined it carefully. They received it eagerly and examined it carefully. They weren't cynical and they weren't gullible. Now they did that with the apostle Paul. That's the apostle Paul. Now, what about this lady that's up there leading your worship on Sunday morning, saying, the Lord told me, are you going to be as diligent as the Bereans were with Paul with her? What about this guy that gets up on stage and has a microphone, says, the Lord told me to tell you this. Are you going to be as diligent and as fastidious with examining this guy as the Bereans were with the Apostle Paul? Because that's what they did. And Luke said they were noble for doing it. That's the Apostle Paul. That's not some fly by night guy. That's. Well, never mind. I'm going to get into some dangerous water there. But if the Apostle Paul's teaching could be examined against Scripture, then certainly the person holding a microphone at a gospel concert doesn't get a free pass. Now contrast that for just a moment with Gnosticism. We're. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. It's not just knowledge, though, that was available to everyone. It's secret knowledge, hidden knowledge. It's knowledge available to the spiritually enlightened. The ordinary believer had the public teaching, but the enlightened person gets the deeper truth. Do you see the problem? I know something you don't know. I have access to something you don't possess. God gave me a message that he didn't give to you. You can't examine the experience because it happened inside of me. You can't question the message because then you're questioning God, that creates a spiritual class system. You and I are in the ordinary Christian system. And then there are those who are supposedly receiving private briefings from heaven. And what this does is it shifts the spiritual authority away from God's publicly revealed word toward the private experience of the enlightened individual. And one of the things I love about Christianity, there's no secret information available only to an elite group. Christ was born publicly. He taught publicly. He was crucified publicly. His body rose from the grave and appeared to witnesses. The apostles proclaimed the gospel publicly. The scriptures were written, circulated, read aloud. It's public. There is no secret room. The Christian faith does contain mysteries, but it is not a mystery religion that requires some kind of secret code before we can reach God. The gospel is out there for everyone. He's given his word to the entire church, not just to the person standing beneath the spotlight. And that's hope for this caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. I'll never forget walking into the hospital room after Gracie had her second amputation. Both legs are gone now. And she looked at me, she said, I know what I'm going to do. And I was kind of startled. What are you going to do? She said, I'm going to help provide prosthetic limbs to my fellow amputees and tell them about Jesus. And I said, well, baby, can we get out of the hospital first? She never let it go. And for almost 20 years, we've been working out of Ghana, West Africa. We treat patients all over there from other countries that come there. We send some supplies, we send teams, we sponsor patients. We work with a prison where inmates volunteer to disassemble used prosthetic limbs so we can recycle the parts. All of this because Gracie trusted God with her heartache. We've got a huge shipment of supplies that is being loaded up right now to go out soon. Would you help us do it? Standingwithhope.com giving standingwithope.com giving there's prosthetic feet, knees, pylons, sleeves, adapters, all kinds of connectors. All of these things we are sending over there so that people can walk. We're going to point them to Christ. Help us out.

How do you stop the enemy from taking away our Christian freedoms, stealing the innocence of our children, and destroying the moral foundation given by God for our country. Knowledge. Hosea, 4, 6 tells us God's people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. It opens us up to believing false teachings and other traps laid for us by Satan. A great way to change that is AFA Activate, an in depth training course you take in the comfort of your home. You can start anytime because the lessons are available online or by DVD. 13 of the best professors, including Ed Vitagliano, Abraham Hamilton III and Rob west will take you through 18 Bible based sessions that break down the issues AFA deals with every day. So the sanctity of life, marriage and family, religious liberty and stewardship come alive and have more meaning. We also include the resources you need to apply what you learn, including full access to AFA stream for a year. Go to activate.aca.net for all the details.

Peter Rosenberger Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you. I. I appreciate your indulgence. Okay, I took a little bit of time today. This has really gotten under my skin. And the reason why is, number one, I felt the harm to both Gracie and me over the years, but I've seen how this has harmed other people. When you get these people that proclaim, well, the Lord told me, well, the Lord told me, I think we need to be better than that. I think we need to be more precise than that. And I've, spent the time on this because caregivers deal with never ending challenges. I mean, that's the nature of our life as caregivers. That's the whole point of it. This ain't going to get better on its own. I mean, we know that. All right? And so I take the process and the thought that, okay, we need to understand what we believe and why we believe it and be prepared to navigate through a lot of this silliness that's out there and juvenile behavior. And it's not childlike, it's childish. And I can't stop people from, you know, saying and doing stupid things and believing things that are wrong. I mean, I don't want, I don't have power over anybody else, but I have power over how I respond to it. I have power over how I choose to interact with it or choose to not interact with it. And I wanted to bring this to your attention today to maybe give you some tools that I've learned over the years to push back on this kind of thing, that we've got to be grown ups. We look around in our country, do you get the feeling that we could benefit from a lot more adults and look around in the church, do we have strong adults, you know, and that that's what we're called to be? We're not called to be children anymore. With this, we're called to grow up. And part of growing up is having our theology grow up. And we become more anchored and we become more able to process what we believe and why we believe it, and to be able to share that at a moment's notice with, other people, particularly people who are struggling. And that's us as caregivers. So if you're calling me or reaching out to me on this program, and you send me a note and I write you back and say, God told me to tell you such and such, well, you need to stop listening to me then, forever, until I repent of that, because God hasn't told me what to tell you. God has written in His Word, and I'm going to read that to you, and I will share with you things that I've seen and witnessed on this. But it's always going to be in the context of Scripture. My opinion is irrelevant. And I am not a prophet, and I am not the son of a prophet. I am merely one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is. That's it. That's it. And so I think we can learn something from what Luke wrote in Acts about the Bereans, how they eagerly received Paul. But they tested him. I mean, they tested Paul. If we're going to test Paul, okay, Scripture's going to write. I mean, Luke. You got to remember Luke was writing this under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit. So every word, every jot, every tittle, that's the decreed word of God that we have available to us. Scripture affirms, itself. And it says in there that Luke wrote in the Acts under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit, said they were noble to do this because they went back and examined the Scriptures carefully to make sure what Paul was saying lined up with Scripture. If they could do that to the Apostle Paul, can we not do that to some of the people that flood our air ways with stuff? Can we not do that? I think that is an amazing stewardship challenge to all of us. Are we testing this against Scripture? Okay. Which brings me to the song today. Now, it's not a hymn, per se. Okay. It is a song. And it was, the chorus was written by Micah W. Smith, and he had this thing worked out, I think. And then they were working on a Christmas record, I believe, at, Caribou Ranch in Colorado. I think that thing is burned down now. It's a really, really nice recording studio. Micah had the course, and he asked Amy to write the verses to It. And you've heard this thing. and there's a story long associated with this. I've known Amy and Micah for a very long time. I hadn't seen them in a long time, but know who they are. And next time I see her, if I get the chance, I'll ask her if this is true, that she became disoriented while walking back to her cabin there on this complex after dark. And she saw the light of the lantern and followed it home. And it gave kind of a personal expression to the scripture Micah had already put in the chorus. And so let me go over here to the caregiver keyboard. And you know this one. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light onto my path. I think when he originally did it, I think it was like, Remember that I don't have the music to it. I don't. So I don't. I can't remember exactly how that goes. But I. I. You know, as. As you know how I do this on the caregiver keyboard, I do things a little slower. And a light unto my. And there's a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It's just such a very memorable text and course. The text is scripture, Psalm, Psalm 118. Sorry, that's Psalm 119. Sorry. But, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Very simple. Yet we can. We can hang on to that in the moments when it just gets nuts. So what is it telling us to do? What is the lamp? What is the light? It's his word. We go back to it. I'm going to say this over and over and over for the rest of the time I have on this planet. There is no other place to go but to the word of God. If you go anywhere else, you're missing it. He's. He's given us his word. Do we believe this or not? And then Amy wrote the verses to it. They're not scripture. I think it's more of Amy's feelings on that. and that's fine. When I feel afraid, I think I've lost my way. That's us as caregivers. Still you're there right beside me. Nothing will I fear as long as you are near. Please be near me to the end. And back to the chorus. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my. Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my hand. And I will not forget all your love for me. And yet my heart Forever is wondering. Remember the HM hymn? He said, Come, thou fount of every blessing. Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. That's. I mean, that's. That's it right there. Yet, but forever. My heart is forever. Yet my heart forever is wandering. Jesus, be my God and hold me to your side. I will love you to the end. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Sing it with me. Thy work is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto. You're the light unto my path. So that's a. That's a, wonderful course for us to remember when we are just overwhelmed by all the things that we deal with. And then we get people coming up and saying, well, the Lord told me this. The Lord gave me this word for you, and God told me to tell you this. And you got a worship leader up there saying, God told me you're going to get your breakthrough today for those of you. And he's waiting at the door. And I remember I was going to this one church and. And they said, tell your neighbor God's going to show up. And everybody wanted to come up to me and tell me God's going to show up. And every time they try to grab my hand and tell them that, I looked at him, I said, he's already shown up. He's already shown up. I mean, we don't have to manufacture something. We don't have to create an emotional experience out of all these things. We are anchored by His Word. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. And then the interesting thing about lamps and scripture used the word lamp and a light unto my path. It's not a searchlight. We're not going to see miles down the road. We're going to see the next step sometimes, and it's going to be difficult for us. And so we walk by faith, not by sight. see how that works? All we get is this little bit. Sometimes that's all we're going to know. And that's okay because he's with us and he always will be because he said he would be. So when somebody comes up to you and they say, God told me such and such, or the Lord told me to tell you this. Whatever. You can confront them if you want. If you feel comfortable doing that, that's fine. But if you don't, then maybe just sidestep and just back away from them and walk away, say, hey, look at the time. I got to be somewhere. But I often confront him. I say, are you saying that Jehovah, Jireh, El Shaddai, El Adonai. The great. I am spoke to you? Is that what you're telling me? That he said something to you privately? And I push him on that, and they sometimes bristle at me. But you know what? I don't know that I really care that much anymore. Because they're the ones that signing God's name to a decree, they're the ones doing that, not me. So they got to answer for that, not me. I'm just looking at what's already there in his word. And it says, thy word is a lamp into my feet and a light unto my path. So that's our time today. I, thank you for being with me. Thank you for indulging me. I hope that helps. Let me know. You can go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com or you can go out to my substack caregiver. Substack.com. just remember, there is no secret handshake. There's no hidden room. There is simply, as, Fanny Crosby wrote so beautifully, come to the Father through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory. Great things he has done. This is Peter Rosenberger, and that is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll see you next time.