Dr. Jessica Peck We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com/AFR $28 may not sound like much, but to a scared mother considering abortion, it can help provide something incred incredibly important. A real opportunity to pause and see her baby for the first time. Today, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can reach for her phone, search for abortion pills, connect with a provider online and have the pills delivered directly to her home. She can move from fear toward abortion incredibly quickly. But your gift can help create another opportunity. For just $28, you can help provide a free ultrasound through a preborn Network clinic. There, a woman can see her baby, talk with people who will listen to what she's facing, receive compassionate support, and consider another choice before abortion becomes her answer. And when women see their babies through an ultrasound at a PreBorn Network clinic, 80% choose life. $28 can help provide one ultrasound. $280 can help provide 10. Reach her before the pill does with your strongest gift today, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby. Or visit preborn.com/AFR that's preborn.com/AFR all gifts are tax- deductible and PreBorn is a five star rated charity. preborn.com/AFR hello and welcome to the Doctor Nursemama show, prescribing hope for healthy families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck Well, hey there friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day. So grateful to be able to spend time with you. And that's actually what we're talking about today is being grateful, being, thankful. And you know, when as a, for me, as a nurse, when I study the health benefits of gratitude, it's so strong. I like to call it vitamin G. I stole that from one of my nursing friends. But it has such good health benefits. And that's why following God's plan is for our best. It can be hard to do in a world like we live in, because we live in a culture that makes it remarkably easy to notice what is lacking in our life. What is missing? Just a quick scroll through social media shows us someone else's beautiful home or their exciting vacation or their effortless family life, like they have teenagers who speak to them or any other thing that can just make us feel a little less than grateful. That's where we go. And news alerts reminds us of everything going wrong with the world. Advertisements are selling us a problem we didn't know we had, so they can then sell us a solution. And our own busy schedules just leave us rushing past the everyday gifts of grace that God has given us. And for families, that pressure shows up in everyday ways. Children learn from, the adults in their life. They compare what they have with what their friends have. And then parents feel like they're falling short because they can't give their kids what, other kids are getting as opportunities. And we get so focused on the next milestone, the next purchase. I'll be happy when, when I get married, when I have kids, when I get a nicer house, when I get a nicer car, when the kids are grown. And that before we know it, our life has passed us by. And there are seasons when gratitude feels especially, especially complicated. Even on top of that, how do you give thanks? When you're in a season of grief, when you're navigating illness, when you're facing financial stress, when you're in the middle of betrayal or relationship brokenness or praying for a loved one, you're watching who's struggling. Does being thankful mean just pretending that everything's okay and just put on a happy front? Well, today we're going to talk about a deeper kind of gratitude, one that doesn't ask us to ignore pain or just artificially manufacture a cheerful attitude. It invites us to remember that God is present with us in every season and his goodness can hold us even when life is hard. Our guest calls this way of living thanks, Living. See, once you hear it, you'll never unhear it. When you hear of Thanksgiving, it's thanks, living. This allows Thanksgiving to become more than just a holiday or a polite response. And it lets us, it shapes how we see God, how we see ourselves, how we see the people around us. I'm so glad to be joined today by Stu Epperson Jr. He is the founder and president of the Truth Network and the host of Truth Talk. He's also the author of Last Words of Jesus and First Words of Jesus from the Cradle to the Cross. Stu and his wife Julie live in Winston Salem, North Carolina. They have four kids, two grandkids, and his new book that I have in my hand here is called thanks. Living, embracing the power of gratitude. Every day it went on my nightstand and it has walked around with me in my heart. Stu, so glad to have you here. I am really looking forward to our conversation.
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, thank you, Jessica, for the kind introduction and thank you for having me on. And thank you for having a program like this that's spreading a lot of joy. A lot of vitamin G. I really like that. I'm gonna have to start using that a lot.
Dr. Jessica Peck You can take it. You can take it. I took it from one of my friends who was dean at the Ohio State University. I hope that doesn't bias anybody, because I know my husband's a Penn State grad, but that's okay. It's all good science and science. What I love about science is that God made science. And when we look at the science of gratitude, it's not all there in scripture. And we're going to get into that. But before we do, Stu, I would love to hear just about your personal testimony, your ministry, and how you came to know the Lord, how God put this message of gratitude on your heart for you to be sitting here talking with us today.
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, the Lord has a sense of humor. And we just, we, if we look at all of our lives, if we're really honest, you know, like your, Your introduction, we. We compare ourselves, but we don't so much have it as together as we think we do or maybe as we convey. We're supposed to be smiling for that family portrait, right?
Stu Epperson Jr.'s Spiritual Journey: From Religious Upbringing to a Personal Relationship with Christ
But there's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of little meta narratives, a lot of things going on in our life. And so I, you know, I grew up in a Christian home. I mean, you would think just the perfect childhood, the perfect life and all that. But I was, very religious, close to church, but far from God, you know, my heart. And so really, it wasn't until my teenage years that I recognized I needed a savior and that my, my unrighteousness and my self righteousness couldn't save me. And so I just gave my life to Christ. And he's changed everything. I really started reading the Word and I really started rereading verses like First Thessalonians, 5, 18, which I had memorized. Mama taught me that when I was little. It was one of those camp verses. You can't get around it. It's there, you know, just like Jon 3, 16, Romans 8, 28. So many verses we quote. Sometimes we quote a little too fast and we don't really savor the delicious nutrients and the Real rich vitamins and minerals that are in, like, one Bible verse. And so this book is on one Bible verse. And in that verse, the Lord just opened my heart up to not just what his word was saying, what's going on in the world of Thessaloniki, you know, ancient Greece. When Paul, who's writing this, who's he writing it to? What are they going through? But a lot of what was going on in my life and the traumatic event that kind of triggered the book, like, that helped me get it into final form and all of the. A lot of the circumstances along the way. You know, you interview a lot of interesting people, Jessica. I know you do. And I'm a host as well. And so I'm usually interviewing you about your cool book and your ministry and your testimony. So this. This kind of juxtaposes my normal role for me. And so a lot of this book has come out of my life as a host, interviewing people like my college professor who's dying of cancer on his way to heaven, and he's celebrating it, and callers are actually calling in, kind of trying to talk him out of this thing. Like, what are you thinking? All this joy of the Lord, Why do you want to go to heaven so bad? You know, so things like that are all in there. So there. It's kind of a journey. It's quite incarnational, but it's also textual. We're going in and teaching and reteaching a verse that's been bannered around forever.
Deeper Meaning of Gratitude: Moving Beyond Superficial Thanks to a Lifestyle of Thankfulness
But we're going deeper into, like, what does it really mean? And what is God's word saying? And what are the rich, eternal implications for my life every day? Especially when stuff gets really rough and tough out there.
Dr. Jessica Peck You know, it goes back to what you said, Stu, about God having a sense of humor. I can relate to the juxtaposition because I, as a nurse, I do not like to be the patient. Like, I want to be the nurse and in control and even his radio host. I mean, it's just. I think I come from a generation, a generational brokenness. And what is my ministry is family healing. God loves to heal things like that. And the irony is not lost on me. I want to go to the topic, I mean, the title of Thanksgiving living. How did this come to you? Tell us about this term, what it means to you and how it has changed the way that you look at gratitude.
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, so we're all going to get together this, this last Thursday of November. It's just gone way, way back, you know, to the pilgrims. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, you know, a lot of our founding fathers and they said, hey, we're going to set this day apart for, you know, for this thing. So I really like it. But just like everything, we, every Christmas we talk about it. You know, we go. And Guy, you know, we go buy the bumper stickers or the, the big signs that say he is the reason for the season. You know, we, we, we got to remind ourselves why we do what we do at these seasons. And I just, you know, every year we go around the table at Thanksgiving. In our family, our tradition is say something you're thankful for. And, but it's also easy to kind of put that in a box, a nice neat box for that time of year. And then we just kind of move on. I mean, if you think about it, the biggest shopping day of the year, I honestly, I'm telling, I'm telling you, people are sitting around that table and they're thinking about, am I going to get up at 4am and get in that line at the department store, you know, to get the newest Xbox or the newest fad or the newest fashion that's cutting, that's launching, and I'm going to save, oh, my soul. The barn buster deals and savings and 50 off here and there and everywhere. And so, you know, we got this Black Friday right there. You know, we've got this. We, we're about the food, we're about the, the fellowship, the fun, the football. I mean, football. Get to watch, get to watch those cowboys that probably just made half your audience mad. But, you know, they're always on Thanksgiving Day. And so you got all this stuff going on. It's like, you know, what is this day really about? You know, what are we really thankful for? And then you start to read verses like 1st Thessalonians 5, 18, where it says in everything. So you're like, you mean even in October, even in July, even in January, even on the day after Thanksgiving, we're to be thankful? And so it really goes bigger than just a day. It goes bigger than just a season. It becomes a lifestyle. And so that's why this name had been on my heart for a while. Thanks. Living because it's a way of life, especially if you're a believer. And really, honestly, we'll get into this as we get into the book. Thanksgiving is an outgrowth. It's a byproduct, it's a result. It's a response to something bigger where you have grace, you have gratitude. And so the whole, really, the whole essence of the book is to take people back to that old rugged cross and say, wait a second, you deserve to be nailed to that thing. And look what God did. But God, Ephesians chapter two, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so if there's no grace, there's really no gratitude. But the crazy thing is, as you mentioned, secular psychologists and neurologists, psychiatrist, doctors, TED talkers are, they're applauding and they're promoting gratitude and they're recommending it. They're saying, look, you got to get a little more gratitude in your life. You're going south here. And they're using it as therapy. They're using it, it's become a M medicine, it's become a vitamin, vitamin G. It's become all these things. And so if anyone owns this space, it's the believer.
Gratitude as a Lifestyle: Embracing God's Abundance and the Power of His Word
If anyone shouldn't be grumbling all the time and complaining, it's the believer. Because we have everything to be thankful for. Because how much did he give us? Everything. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us. 1 Jon 3, that we could be called the sons of God, the daughters of God, We're King's kids. And so this, this idea of gratitude, it goes so much far beyond just, you know, that, that little quick, kind of, in between phase, you know, that's going to take us from Halloween to Christmas, you know, like a season, a marker on the counter. This is something that should, should be a prominent theme in our lives. And hopefully this book will encourage that and take people back to the source of all of this. Thanks, living. And that is God's word. And the verse 5:18 really, really hits it out of the park when you start studying that verse even more closely.
Dr. Jessica Peck I love that you mentioned, but God, that is my two favorite words, the two most powerful words in the history of ever. It changes everything. And going to that first Thessalonians 5:18. This is something that I have seen too. And it's. I followed with great interest too, for me as a scientist. And I look at the verse in Philipp 4 that says, you know, in everything give thanks. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything give thanks. And you make that same distinction about First Thessalonians 5, 18. It doesn't say that preposition is so important. It doesn't say, for everything give thanks. We don't have to be thankful for the trials, but there's a big distinction on being thankful in the trials. And I think that's what moves us from that superficial level? Gratitude that involves scouring the Black Friday sales and into. Into a deeper kind of gratitude. How do we be thankful in everything? And I think that goes back to what you said about but God, who is rich in mercy, we, we are sinners. And to see what Christ gave us, that we should be called the sons and the daughters of God, that is absolutely amazing. Well, Stu, we're coming up on our first break, but when we come back, I want to dive a little deeper into that, more on your personal perspective and more on the journey that readers can expect in this book. And I encourage read take this journey on Thanksgiving and to carry it with you not only into Christmas, but into the rest of the year. Because gratitude doesn't mean that we stop hoping or we stop growing or we stop working toward change or we, stop even feeling some of the unpleasant feelings that we can feel in seasons of broken life. We know from God's word that in this world we will have trouble, but we can take heart, we can be of good cheer because Christ has overcome the world and we are going to be, we aspire to be co heirs with Christ. Gratitude means we don't have to wait until everything is perfect to recognize God's presence and goodness. And when we come back, like I said, we're going to talk about what does that look like? When life feels painful and gratitude just doesn't seem like it comes easily, Grumbling is much more accessible. The book is called thanks Living Embracing the Power of Gratitude Every Day. It's by Stu Epperson Jr. You should go on a gratitude journey. It is good for you, heart, mind and soul. We'll be right back on the other side of this break. Don't go away. You don't want to miss it. Hello, I'm Jessica peck, host of Dr. Nurse Mama. did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.net/give that's afr.net/give
Gratitude by Brandon Lake Cuz all that I have is a hallelujah. I, know it's not much, but I have nothing else but for you except for heart singing.
Dr. Jessica Peck Welcome back, friends. That is Gratitude by Brandon Lake. And that's exactly what we're talking about today. I really hope to call your heart toward gratitude this Thanksgiving season and carry that with you into the Christmas holiday. And all through the. Not only the next year, but the rest of your life. I'm talking to Stu Epperson Jr. About his new book, Thanks Living, Embracing the power of gratitude every day. I've long been a fan of gratitude. I've written about it, I've studied about it, I teach about it because I know that God's plan is the best plan for us. And he has our good at his, at his heart. And Stu, one of the things that caught my attention when I opened your book, on the first page here, there is, there is a quote from someone named Joni Erickson. Tada. And for people who aren't familiar with her, I became familiar with her book as a teenager. Of course, when she was a teenager, she had a diving app accident in a pool and broke her neck and has been paralyzed. And she wrote this. Having lived many years with pain and disability, I've learned that Thanksgiving is not the denial of suffering, but the doorway to deeper joy in Jesus. And thanks and thanks Living. Stu Epperson warmly points readers to Christ and shows how a grateful heart can flourish even in life's hardest places. This encouraging book will help you offer up Thanksgiving as a way of life. And for someone like Joni to say that, Stu, I mean that, that's pretty powerful. And I know your own experiences shaped your message that you have, that life is not always social media worthy. And I know that a lot of our listeners are going to relate. They feel like they're not in a season where it feels easy to be grateful. The world seems like it's a perpetual dumpster fire as a baseline. And then we just have everyday trials, some little, some very, very big, some very traumatic. How do we give thanks in everything, including all of those things?
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, there's a grateful little girl in some village in the middle of nowhere, maybe in India or in a third world country. This little girl is crippled and she's been dragging herself by her hands and her elbows through the village because her legs don't work. And she's super grateful today because she just got a wheelchair From Joni and Friends,
Dr. Jessica Peck the
Stu Epperson Jr. ministry of Joni Eareckson. Tata.
Dr. Jessica Peck You're gonna get me
Stu Epperson Jr. well. So you think about perspective, right? Let's just, just picture that little child and picture the fact that the, the Joni and Friends team, Shawn and their whole gang is preaching the gospel of that village, leading people to Christ. And they're all asking, why would you bring, you know, why would you bring that to us? You know, we've been following this other religion and why do you care? Why Are you bringing us wheelchairs? Why are you bringing us these kind of things? And here you have a lady who is a prayer warrior, who is. Who went to all kinds of faith healers. I mean, she told me this. You know, I've known her for years, and she. God has kept her in that chair. And she. If you watch her videos on Facebook, like, I can't. I can't scroll when I come to her because she's always smiling, she's always grateful. And you're sitting there thinking, how can she, who doesn't have the use of her faculties, who's been in that wheelchair for, like, five or six decades, and yet she is so grateful. Like, she has this infectious attitude of gratitude, and it goes back to God's amazing grace. And here you have people all over the world being brought to their knees and transformed by a lady who can't even get on her knees and pray. But she is praying from that rolling, you know, pulpit on wheels and proclaiming the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, taking a lot of people to heaven with her. And so you just sit here and think, you know, you don't want to compare yourself to people because you'll always find someone a little worse off than you, right? Someone a little better, you know, better off than you. So this will puff your pride up. This will humble you. But look, when you just look at her life, you'll listen to her message. The message is, God's amazing grace has saved a wretch like me and has given me a platform which happens to be this, you know, as a quadriplegic that happens to be this wheelchair to touch millions of people around the globe. And God can use you, too, if you just connect with him. And so I. I use her in my. I was just tickled to death that she was able to write a little endorsement. And I use her in the. In the book is an illustration at the very end about how you got to read it. It's about, you know, how she. She wants to have a wheelchair in heaven. Not maybe for what people might think, but just. Just a, reminder, you know, all of these. You know, we're all trophies of God's grace. And so just. I'm so glad you brought her up and that it's. It. But it's. But what a great. You know, she could be like exhibit A for having gratitude, even in the midst of a mess, in suffering and someone that just laid. She laid in a hospital bed right after accident, you know, decades ago, and she just. She wanted to die. She wanted to commit suicide. She's like, I have no hope to live. And look at what God's done with her and think about what God can do with you. He was just recognized where it all came from and that he has a great vision and a great plan, but it's time to get our eyes off ourselves and look to him. And gratitude is a great little spark, you know, to light that fire.
Dr. Jessica Peck It's so true. There's just always something to be grateful for. No matter what your circumstance, there's always something to be grateful for. And Stu, I remember my granny, my precious granny who, who went to be with Jesus a few years ago. But she. During COVID she had a stroke and she was very social. I mean, she was the community welcome wagon. She was the coffee maker at the Sunday school class. I mean, she always had people in her home and it was really hard when she had to go and live in a care facility. And she was down about it for just a little bit. And one day I went in to see her and her whole countenance had changed. I mean, the. The room was just full with sunshine and it was all coming from her face. And I said, granny, what. What has changed? And she said, I was just praying and just praying that God would help me to be grateful. And he opened my eyes and he said, I've given you a new ministry. These are the people now that you're going to minister to. And so she viewed all of her caretaking team not as somebody who was taking care of her, she was taking care of them. And she could find, you know, things to be grateful for way pray over them. And it was such. When I. You see someone in that kind of position show that kind of gratitude, you know, that can only be of God because there is no way that we can do that in our human frailty. And one of the things you've been doing, Stu, so beautifully, which I love and appreciate, is just integrating scripture into everything that you say. That was a game changer for me, like literally hiding God's word in my heart because God's word does not return void. How can we go back to scripture to find the strength that we need to show that kind of gratitude in those kinds of circumstances.
Stu Epperson Jr. I think it's studying the scripture because, look, this whole book is one verse. It's just a breakdown of one verse. And effectively, what happens with this amazing book called the Bible, God's book, When you open the Bible, you're getting a text directly from God. What happens when you start Studying the Bible and reading the Bible is. It starts studying you and reading you. And that's what happened. I mean, this has been, been, this has been nearly like an eight year journey. This was, you know, seven, eight years ago. 518 was on the menu when I was leading my m. My Wednesday in the Word guys in our men's Bible group, Bible study group. And I said, hey, and I, and I, and I said, well, I'll do the whole chapter. Well, I do a whole psalm. And I'd done psalms, I'd done Psalm 100, I'd done some other psalms, you know, relevant to Thanksgiving. And that sort of thing is seasonal. So I started studying to Prepare to teach 5:18. And the Lord gave me these five A's of 5:18. And I discovered in one Bible verse. Listen, I challenge every preacher out there. If a guy like me who's not the brightest knife in the drawer, can write a whole book on one verse. Okay, Pastor, you could preach a sermon on one verse. And if people want to leave because of that, let them leave. But you're feeding them the Word. It's like someone saying, well, if you don't eat the steak in one bite at the steakhouse, which is going to make you sick, and you're never going to get to really enjoy and savor every bite and every delicious, you know, every, every ounce and every, every bit of that flavor in that steak if you just stuff it down your throat, Rush and Russian rush, you know, and all that. And you know, these eating contests, you see them jamming hot dogs? No. And they're drinking water and they're eating a, I can't stand to watch that. You know, it's all over. You know, it's all over social media, right? Guy walks in and has to eat a whole pizza, but they put it, push a timer. Here's not. I'm sitting here thinking, you know what I think? You know, my fantasy is? My fantasy is to walk in to a room where they bring this guy out 20 cheeseburgers. And they say, you got, you know, you got 10 minutes to eat these. I just want to walk in, sit down, because they always look really good. And just take one of those cheeseburgers, just one, and just go over in my own little corner, my own little buddies and family or my pastor, and just eat that and just enjoy it, you know, and enjoy the toppings, like, and enjoy the sauces. I'm a sauce guy, you know, So I, I kind of looked at the, the this verse like, whoa, in everything. Well, what does that mean?
God's Sovereignty at Work: Seeing His Hand in Every Situation and Choosing Gratitude
Well, let's just stop right there. I mean, that's kind of broad, you know, it's like, whoa. It's like the. It's like 8, 28. All things work together. Oh, my soul. You mean God is in everything? God is behind everything. All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him, all things exist. Colossians 1. One of the richest Christological sections of scripture, you know, in the whole Bible. And so you just go right there, and that's the amount, you know, that's the first chapter or the. The. You know, is one of the. There's five chapters on the five A's, and then there's a couple chapters to set the. You know, the whole book up. And so I just started reading. I'm like, oh, my soul. I just started writing on my smartphone. I wrote all three of my books on my smartphone, by the way. You're a mom, you know, you understand this. Now, my kids, I don't know where they are at age, but, you know, so I have Hope, grace, joy, and faith. And they all were in school, you know, right about the same time. And they had the laptop and they had the ipod. Ipods. And so I'm sitting here thinking, okay, Lord, you're telling me to write this book. And my Gracie's using that iPad to do her paper, and my daughter Hope is using the. The ipod, you know, or the. Or the, you know, her. Her laptop, you know, to do this. So I'm just gonna. I got this little thing, said notes on my phone. I just started typing it, and I tried to do a little voice stuff, you know, if it was a longer quote or something, right. And so I just started pecking away in everything. And I just went to all these scriptures that talk about how God is in control all the time. And that's such an important verse because he's always working. So either he is always working, and he is involved in our life, and he cares about our life, and our life has purpose because he gives us purpose, and he's that anchor. Well, you know, so you just start, you know, and that's just one little phrase. Those are just the two. First two words of this verse that's got about 16 words in English, that is 5. 18 of first Thessalonians. And so that's just kind of how it went. But Scripture really drove the whole thing, because Scripture interprets Scripture, and Scripture commentates on, Scripture. And you have all these verses in Psalms. You have the Whole. Oh, my. You have Ruth, chapter two, verse four. Well, what does Ruth. Chapter two, verse four, Stu. Well, it says, and Ruth happened to go in the field of Boaz. Now you tell me, Jessica, how important was that event? Pretty important. We have Jesse, we have Obed, we have Jesse, we have David, and we have the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came through the seed of the Davidic line, because Ruth just happened to go in the field of Boaz. But what's God doing? He's working everything together for the good. So I have to think that Ruth had a little gratitude for Naomi, this godly woman that she followed all the way out of Moab to come to a foreign land where she was an outcast, she was an unclean Moabitess. They didn't have the best reputation. And here God is just working all this thing. And so you have the whole book of Ruth as a book of God's sovereign plan, working everything together for the good. So that's why we're grateful in everything, because he's working in everything. And then, you know, it goes on, you know, because it goes into his will, it goes into, you know, what he's doing, it goes into how we get there, the access, you know, and all these things. He goes into the action, give thanks. That's an. When you give thanks, you are taking action like you are intentionally doing something, and it may not feel good because you. You said it earlier. It's so easy to gamble and to complain, which is all driven by self and driven by my own narcissism and my own selfishness and that sort of thing. It's easy to go into that category. So you got to make a decision. You got to make a choice to rejoice, right, like our preachers say, or have an attitude of gratitude. But it's a choice you got to make. You say, lord, I'm going to stop right now, and I'm going, to thank you for this difficult person and maybe this difficult person who just sent me this mean text. Maybe that happened. So I would be praying right now because I wasn't praying before that text came, See? And so it's forced me to pray. Now I'm interceding. And now I was thinking about someone in my life, a very difficult situation. I don't know why this person's mad at me. I've done everything to love him and encourage him and pray with him and give him stuff and all this stuff. And he's mad at me. He's like, can't stand to be around me. And so I was thinking about that person. And at first I was a little bit like, okay, Lord, I'm thinking about these, these prayers, you, know, of judgment, the Bible, Lord, you know, discipline. And then I started thinking about it more and praying more and thanking God for this person being in my life. And all of a sudden, I'm praying for their soul, saying, lord, just open their heart to you. Bring other people. If I can't get in their life, bring other gracious Christians in their life to love them, to encourage them, bring healing. Lord, I pray that at some point down the road, this person will be a testimony of your grace, changing them and changing their heart and changing their behavior and maybe even changing generations to come. And so the gratitude got me on the track of intercession. And all of a sudden, it's like I'm having a little revival at 4:00am just because the Lord reminded me. And that's why when you write a book about gratitude, it's very convicting, because when I start getting in grumble mode, we all have those kind of days. It's like, okay, Lord, I gotta find some kind of gratitude in this situation, because I'm gonna go on this radio show. It's got to be real in my life. And so. But it's really been a blessing. You know, I say.
Personal Struggles and Divine Grace: The Contagious Power of Gratitude in Life and Loss
I often say I'm the worst person and the best person to write a book on this, because I don't need. Because I struggle. I'm in life. I'm in. I'm in the. I'm in the battle. And so if anyone needs this book and needs gratitude and needs grace that brings gratitude, it's me.
Dr. Jessica Peck It's you. Well, Stu, we're gonn more about your own personal story, your perspective. And I love that you bring up the story of Ruth, because one of my favorite things about the story of Ruth is actually Naomi. And you see these two women who both experience really traumatic events. And Naomi decides to change her name to Mara, which means bitterness. But she walks alongside Ruth's faithfulness, Ruth's ministry to her. And Ruth chooses to have gratitude to poor her life in a positive direction. And at the end of that story, Naomi changes her name back. I think that's a beautiful picture of restoration. You don't have to choose between telling God the truth about your pain and trusting him with it. We'll talk more about that when we come back with Stu Epperson Jr. Here's Dr. Michael Krueger from the American Family Studios documentary, the God who Speaks.
Dr. Michael Kruger Yeah. When we look at the Protestant Reformation, one of the big flashpoint issues, obviously, was the issue of Scripture. What is the highest authority in the believer's life? Sola scriptura. scripture alone is the only infallible authority for believers. The reformers never suggested that the scripture was the only authority for believers, but, rather the only infallible authority for believers. The Protestant vision was a response to a church that had lowered the doctrine of scripture, had refused to submit to scripture, had raised church tradition, in the words of the Pope, functionally over Scripture. and so the Reformists said, if we're going to have a reformation, if we're going to get back to the way things should be, we've got to restore scripture to its proper place as the highest authority in the life of the believer. Visit thegodwhospeaks.org
You Are Our God by Josh Baldwin we give thanks to you, Lord. Your love endures forever. Your grace is an open door. Your mercy is our treasure. When we were in darkness, you came. Your light fills our hearts. So fill this house with praise. This shouts of who you are. You are, our God. You are our God, our strength, our defense, our salvation, our deliverance.
Dr. Jessica Peck Welcome back, friends. That is, you are our God by Josh Baldwin. And we're giving thanks to God today. I'm talking to Stu Epperson Jr. about his book thanks Living, embracing the power of Gratitude every day. And as Stu said earlier in the show, this is something that even in secular psychology, we recognize the power of gratitude. And all of that is right in God's word. And this book is centered around 1st Thessalonians 5, 18. In everything, give thanks. Not for everything, but in everything. And before the break, I was just talking about the story of Ruth, which is a really powerful story to me and Stu. There's so many stories in the Bible where you can see God working all things for good in situations that seem so terrible. You see Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and unfairly imprisoned. And yet one of one of my favorite verses in the Bible is, you know, what? You intended for evil. God intended for good and the saving of many lives. We see Esther in really terrible circumstances and her uncle telling her, you know, for such a time as this, and we can see God working all things for good. One of my favorite verses too is Psalm 84:11. The Lord God is a son and a shield. He gives grace and glory.
Learning Gratitude Through Experience: God's Provision of Seasons for Growth and Thankfulness
No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. But our definition of what is good can be different from what God is good. what God says is good. And I remember a season in my life where I was praying for something that on the surface seemed really good. Like God would want that. He would want restoration of a relationship. But I've seen his grace and provision and, and not granting that request in the moment and, and the way that he has orchestrated circumstances around it. Stu, you know, I've interviewed enough people to know, I'm sure you have to being on the other side of the microphone to know that rarely, rarely does God give someone a message to share with people that's just divinely delivered that you haven't experienced. Oh, I was just inspired. My life is so wonderful. I didn't struggle with this at all. And I just wanted to share with you how to be grateful. It usually from my experience, and I know it was my own experience, comes from a. Of pain and hardship. And when we pray for patience, God doesn't just magically infuse us with patience. He doesn't magically infuse us with gratitude. All of a sudden we're instantly, you know, have a boost of gratitude. He gives us things and seasons for which to learn how to be grateful. What was that experience for you in writing this book?
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, it really. The honestly, the trauma of my dad's death was really what set it off. You know, I had, I had it. I had my, my orthodoxy down, but my orthopraxy was a little bit lacking. And no one wants to go to the school of pain, right? No one wants to go to the school of trials and tribulations. And so I had really, I had the manuscript, I had the verse down, I had studied it, I had read it, I had all the cross references, I was, I was very excited, the title, everything. And there was a block, like there was something missing. Missing. And I don't know if you've ever, you know, been working on something, you've poured your heart and your soul into it and it's like the Lord just won't give you that release to talk about it, to share it, or just, just to, just to get it, you know, to get it up in the air and going. And there's something that was. Was left me grounded on the tarmac and I couldn't figure out what it was. And so I was just praying, you know, Lord, what is it going to take to. I'd even talk to publishers and all that, but it just, it was, There was a, there was a block. And so, so the day my dad went to heaven, the preacher came by the house. And it was emotional. I mean, I was over at his house by like 4 or 4:30am and he wasn't responsive. And, ah, he had been sick. But we were hoping he would turn the corner and just a godly man. He was our patriarch. Like, he was a powerful leader. He was one of the pioneers of Christian radio, along with Don Wildmon and great men of God who really, you know, made an impact and put these great voices, programs like yours on the radio going way, way back, you know. And so he's just so venerated and so loved. I mean, I can't go anywhere without someone asking about your dad, you know, memory about my dad, all that which I love. In fact, someone asked me, at a Christian broadcasters convention after dad had died, they said, hey, how's your dad doing? And I was so happy for that question because I got to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to tell you something. He's doing amazing. Oh, my soul. He's off his meds. He's eating like a horse. He's playing 36 holes of golf. He's dunking a basketball again. They're like, you got to be kidding me. I thought he was like, 85, 86, 87. I said, he's in heaven. Uh-huh. Thanks for asking me that, because you. You made me think about heaven. You know, I, like, this is really cool and to be grateful for what we have to look forward to, you know. And so. So I actually enjoy that question because it gets us thinking what we should be thinking about because our citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3:20 tells us so anyway, so he passed the emergency. People came out. They, you know, the. Everyone's kind of showing up. You know, all these friends, people are bringing food. It's kind of chaotic at the Everson household In Winston Salem, N.C. and 10:00am rolls around, 11:00am Rolls around. And, and. And the preacher comes by from the church, and so he comes by, meet him at the door. You know, you give him a hug. He says, hey, Stu, I'm praying for you guys, and this is a hard day. And. And we love you all. And he was very gracious. He's like, you know, I'd love to say hi to your mom and just pray with her. Well, mom was in the pool. She does this thing called quoting and floating. She memorizes big, giant chunks of scripture, and she just loves to quote and float. And if you happen to be. If Jessica, if you're in North Carolina, you You go by the house, and Mom's out there. She will hand you an index card, and she'll put you to work, and she'll put your kids to work, and she'll say. She'll say, test me now. I'm going to quote Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. I'm almost. She's almost done with Ephesians, and she's now check me. If I miss one word, you got to tell me. And so she does that. She's led people to Christ who are just quizzing her. The landscape person comes by, she says, quiz me on my Scriptures. So there she is, and she's in the pool. She's got her big umbrella. She's got her hat. It's a summer day, and the pastor kind of walks over. Pastor Will. He ducks his head under the umbrella, and he looks at her and he says, nancy, how are you doing? And I'm sitting here now. Let me give you the context. Let me give you the setting. There's grandkids running around in the yard, you know, goofing around, playing tag. You know, there's nieces and nephews everywhere. There's people that are just. Just came on the scene that are crying. They just. Just kind of like we've been dealing with it for three or four or five hours. They're just kind of getting there. There's people talking, catching up. They haven't seen, you know, us in a long time, talking to other family members, you know, wife, daughters, kids, grandkids. We got a big family. 17 grandkids. Big Stu had. And so he's asked her this question amid all this stuff. And she looks at him, she looks up at him. I'll never forget her expression. She had a big smile. And she said, pastor Will, I am so grateful.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, my goodness.
Stu Epperson Jr. She said, I'm thankful that God gave me 60 years married to big stuff. And she kind of goes on with that. And I'm sitting there having, you know, taken all this in, all more, wafted it all in and just the emotion. And all of our family members gather around my dad's bed, praying for him, singing praises, quoting scripture. You know, just earlier when he had just passed and you know, where people are getting there, she says that to him. And I'm telling you, this is the craziest thing. This is a total God thing. As I'm, I'm tearing up as she's saying that to him. Because I'm sitting here thinking, man, she's going to go into the woe is me oh, what are we going to do? Our patriarch's gone. I got to get this estate together. What about probate? What about these kids? And these. Look, he's left me a widow. I mean, what in the world? And it was all gratitude. And at that moment when she said those words to him, it's like the dam broke and just a flood of. Of just the Holy Spirit in my heart. And literally, the book was finished in that moment. That was it. And so I. I just went. Wrote down what kind of the Lord put on me from that whole week. It was like a, It was like a giant week of gratitude revival. He died on a Monday. His funeral was on a Friday. People came from all over the world, and it was just a massive testimony of God's grace. The gospel was preached. The funeral is like two and a half hours. Like, I got to go to the restroom, I think twice, and I'm on the second row. It was kind of awkward. And I. And I spoke and I preached. I preached, you know, some in the funeral. And I wore my dad's suit, and I wore. I just lost enough weight. I don't know why, but at that time, I just had. That was down a little bit, so I could perfectly fit in his suit. So there I am in his suit, in his tie, in his shoes, preaching, you know, giving God glory and all that. But there was just a. Just, a. A flood of gratitude, grace and gratitude that came out of that. That just was unbelievably contagious. And it's still. People call me today and say that that service was so powerful. But that's for my dad. He had a big heart of gratitude. So that. That is kind of what set off or kind of kicked this thing that was like the. The thing that got this going and. And then this. So the Lord's like, okay, I've given you now. This is what I wanted. This is the missing part. So now to go and share this and just to maybe encourage some other folks that are dealing with death, you can have gratitude at a funeral. Think about Christian funerals. Think about that. Who else sings songs? Who else is smiling and embracing and hugging? Who else can have tears of joy at someone's death? This is someone that died like they're in a box in the front of the church. But because of the hope we have, because of what Christ has done, because death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? Because he has conquered death, because the tomb is empty, our lives can be full, and they should be full of gratitude. For all he has done. And that's why even a Christian's funeral can be caused for celebration.
Hope in Christ: The Difference Between Christian and Secular Funerals and Eternal Perspective
Dr. Jessica Peck Wow. Stu I don't, I don't even know how to follow that up except for, I mean I literally have tears in my eyes. You know, I don't know what it is, but over the last five or six years I've just experienced a lot of loss and I've been at a lot of funerals. I actually sat down and started counting. I, I, I stopped counting it at 35. I've been to 35 funerals at least in, in the last five years, which I think is a lot for a person, shall I dare to say my age. And I've seen a lot of, of differences in funerals and I've been to funerals of people who are not believers. And the difference in the hope that we have. A hope that does not disappoint. A hope that is not abstract but is found in the resurrected, resurrected person of Jesus Christ that we. I know I will see my granny again. I know I will be reunited with her in joy. I know that my children are going to live with me forever. I know that I want to aspire them to be, to be co heirs with Christ. That is our hope, that is our aim, that is what we are going to have. And when you see the certainty of that, the miracles of God that he lets us to see. Honestly, Stu, I think your, your mother's gratitude in that moment was miraculous because everyone would have understand if she cried, if she was upset, if she stayed in her room in the dark, if she didn't come out, she didn't feel like she was seeing visitors, if she just, just sat in her feelings for a minute, everybody would have understood that. But to see that kind of joy, that kind of juxtaposition, there is no doubt that that is miraculous, that can only be divinely inspired. And Stu, I don't want to live my life thinking that this is just the best that there is like that whatever we can create here on this earth, the happiness that we can have. I mean just read the book of Ecclesiastes. I don't want to live a life under the sun. I want to live under the S u N. I want to live a life under the S O N. And I feel like your book, your work, it calls us to that when we look at the momentary sufferings that we have in the light of eternity and we know that we have a savior who is not, unacquainted with suffering and grief but for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising it. Shane. And now he sits at the right hand of God. And that is where we're going. Why can we not be grateful? I want to know what you hope people will end experience in reading this book. What kind of life transformation? What is it that, you hope the Holy Spirit will do through the words, through God's word that you have shared through your own experience?
Championing Gratitude: The World Adopts Christian Principles While Believers Can Lead the Way
Stu Epperson Jr. Look, I hope everyone listening, watching, will, will, will take. Become a gratitude vehicle with running shoes on, taking this message there. Isn't it innocent fasting that today, likely today a very successful, well polished, well spoken TED talker will walk out of a massive Fortune 500 company. They will get a check for a lot of money, $50,000 maybe. And what did they just do? They just walked in there and spoke to 10,000 employees or leaders and they gave a TED Talk and they got a big old check. And I'm going to guarantee you, I'm going to tell you what's in that TED talk. I guarantee you they talked about out. You should have a gratitude journal. You should write down what you're thankful for for your colleagues, your management staff, your customers. You should, you should take a gratitude walk every day. This is being championed by the most secular of the most secular people in our culture, in our world. And they're getting paid big money for it because science confirms just, it just, it's, isn't it beautiful? All this comes from God's word, you know, right? We, you know, these high level, you know, corporate geniuses are saying you should treat a customer how, you. How you want to be treated. Well, where did they get that right? We know where that came from. That came from God's word. The golden rule came from the Bible, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. And the same thing is true of gratitude. And so for, for far too long, Christians, like in other things, you know, we're, we are, and I'm excited that the world is eating from the, from the Christian tree of life, but it's time that we champion that and it's time that it
Dr. Jessica Peck is time that we champion that. Stu, Radio is so rude. We're right at the end of our time, but I want to hear more. I know you want to hear more too, as a listener. You can read more in this book. Thanks. Living, embracing the power of gratitude every day. Stu, I am genuinely genuine, genuinely grateful for the vitamin G infusion that you've given me today and for our listeners. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and that you'll seek gratitude. See you next time. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and has seen over a hundred thousand commitments to Christ. Will you join PreBorn in continuing this good work? supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today, Go to preborn.com/AFR
Jeff Chamblee the views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Dr. Jessica Peck We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com/AFR $28 may not sound like much, but to a scared mother considering abortion, it can help provide something incred incredibly important. A real opportunity to pause and see her baby for the first time. Today, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can reach for her phone, search for abortion pills, connect with a provider online and have the pills delivered directly to her home. She can move from fear toward abortion incredibly quickly. But your gift can help create another opportunity. For just $28, you can help provide a free ultrasound through a preborn Network clinic. There, a woman can see her baby, talk with people who will listen to what she's facing, receive compassionate support, and consider another choice before abortion becomes her answer. And when women see their babies through an ultrasound at a PreBorn Network clinic, 80% choose life. $28 can help provide one ultrasound. $280 can help provide 10. Reach her before the pill does with your strongest gift today, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby. Or visit preborn.com/AFR that's preborn.com/AFR all gifts are tax- deductible and PreBorn is a five star rated charity. preborn.com/AFR hello and welcome to the Doctor Nursemama show, prescribing hope for healthy families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck Well, hey there friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day. So grateful to be able to spend time with you. And that's actually what we're talking about today is being grateful, being, thankful. And you know, when as a, for me, as a nurse, when I study the health benefits of gratitude, it's so strong. I like to call it vitamin G. I stole that from one of my nursing friends. But it has such good health benefits. And that's why following God's plan is for our best. It can be hard to do in a world like we live in, because we live in a culture that makes it remarkably easy to notice what is lacking in our life. What is missing? Just a quick scroll through social media shows us someone else's beautiful home or their exciting vacation or their effortless family life, like they have teenagers who speak to them or any other thing that can just make us feel a little less than grateful. That's where we go. And news alerts reminds us of everything going wrong with the world. Advertisements are selling us a problem we didn't know we had, so they can then sell us a solution. And our own busy schedules just leave us rushing past the everyday gifts of grace that God has given us. And for families, that pressure shows up in everyday ways. Children learn from, the adults in their life. They compare what they have with what their friends have. And then parents feel like they're falling short because they can't give their kids what, other kids are getting as opportunities. And we get so focused on the next milestone, the next purchase. I'll be happy when, when I get married, when I have kids, when I get a nicer house, when I get a nicer car, when the kids are grown. And that before we know it, our life has passed us by. And there are seasons when gratitude feels especially, especially complicated. Even on top of that, how do you give thanks? When you're in a season of grief, when you're navigating illness, when you're facing financial stress, when you're in the middle of betrayal or relationship brokenness or praying for a loved one, you're watching who's struggling. Does being thankful mean just pretending that everything's okay and just put on a happy front? Well, today we're going to talk about a deeper kind of gratitude, one that doesn't ask us to ignore pain or just artificially manufacture a cheerful attitude. It invites us to remember that God is present with us in every season and his goodness can hold us even when life is hard. Our guest calls this way of living thanks, Living. See, once you hear it, you'll never unhear it. When you hear of Thanksgiving, it's thanks, living. This allows Thanksgiving to become more than just a holiday or a polite response. And it lets us, it shapes how we see God, how we see ourselves, how we see the people around us. I'm so glad to be joined today by Stu Epperson Jr. He is the founder and president of the Truth Network and the host of Truth Talk. He's also the author of Last Words of Jesus and First Words of Jesus from the Cradle to the Cross. Stu and his wife Julie live in Winston Salem, North Carolina. They have four kids, two grandkids, and his new book that I have in my hand here is called thanks. Living, embracing the power of gratitude. Every day it went on my nightstand and it has walked around with me in my heart. Stu, so glad to have you here. I am really looking forward to our conversation.
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, thank you, Jessica, for the kind introduction and thank you for having me on. And thank you for having a program like this that's spreading a lot of joy. A lot of vitamin G. I really like that. I'm gonna have to start using that a lot.
Dr. Jessica Peck You can take it. You can take it. I took it from one of my friends who was dean at the Ohio State University. I hope that doesn't bias anybody, because I know my husband's a Penn State grad, but that's okay. It's all good science and science. What I love about science is that God made science. And when we look at the science of gratitude, it's not all there in scripture. And we're going to get into that. But before we do, Stu, I would love to hear just about your personal testimony, your ministry, and how you came to know the Lord, how God put this message of gratitude on your heart for you to be sitting here talking with us today.
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, the Lord has a sense of humor. And we just, we, if we look at all of our lives, if we're really honest, you know, like your, Your introduction, we. We compare ourselves, but we don't so much have it as together as we think we do or maybe as we convey. We're supposed to be smiling for that family portrait, right?
Stu Epperson Jr.'s Spiritual Journey: From Religious Upbringing to a Personal Relationship with Christ
But there's a lot of stuff going on. There's a lot of little meta narratives, a lot of things going on in our life. And so I, you know, I grew up in a Christian home. I mean, you would think just the perfect childhood, the perfect life and all that. But I was, very religious, close to church, but far from God, you know, my heart. And so really, it wasn't until my teenage years that I recognized I needed a savior and that my, my unrighteousness and my self righteousness couldn't save me. And so I just gave my life to Christ. And he's changed everything. I really started reading the Word and I really started rereading verses like First Thessalonians, 5, 18, which I had memorized. Mama taught me that when I was little. It was one of those camp verses. You can't get around it. It's there, you know, just like Jon 3, 16, Romans 8, 28. So many verses we quote. Sometimes we quote a little too fast and we don't really savor the delicious nutrients and the Real rich vitamins and minerals that are in, like, one Bible verse. And so this book is on one Bible verse. And in that verse, the Lord just opened my heart up to not just what his word was saying, what's going on in the world of Thessaloniki, you know, ancient Greece. When Paul, who's writing this, who's he writing it to? What are they going through? But a lot of what was going on in my life and the traumatic event that kind of triggered the book, like, that helped me get it into final form and all of the. A lot of the circumstances along the way. You know, you interview a lot of interesting people, Jessica. I know you do. And I'm a host as well. And so I'm usually interviewing you about your cool book and your ministry and your testimony. So this. This kind of juxtaposes my normal role for me. And so a lot of this book has come out of my life as a host, interviewing people like my college professor who's dying of cancer on his way to heaven, and he's celebrating it, and callers are actually calling in, kind of trying to talk him out of this thing. Like, what are you thinking? All this joy of the Lord, Why do you want to go to heaven so bad? You know, so things like that are all in there. So there. It's kind of a journey. It's quite incarnational, but it's also textual. We're going in and teaching and reteaching a verse that's been bannered around forever.
Deeper Meaning of Gratitude: Moving Beyond Superficial Thanks to a Lifestyle of Thankfulness
But we're going deeper into, like, what does it really mean? And what is God's word saying? And what are the rich, eternal implications for my life every day? Especially when stuff gets really rough and tough out there.
Dr. Jessica Peck You know, it goes back to what you said, Stu, about God having a sense of humor. I can relate to the juxtaposition because I, as a nurse, I do not like to be the patient. Like, I want to be the nurse and in control and even his radio host. I mean, it's just. I think I come from a generation, a generational brokenness. And what is my ministry is family healing. God loves to heal things like that. And the irony is not lost on me. I want to go to the topic, I mean, the title of Thanksgiving living. How did this come to you? Tell us about this term, what it means to you and how it has changed the way that you look at gratitude.
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, so we're all going to get together this, this last Thursday of November. It's just gone way, way back, you know, to the pilgrims. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, you know, a lot of our founding fathers and they said, hey, we're going to set this day apart for, you know, for this thing. So I really like it. But just like everything, we, every Christmas we talk about it. You know, we go. And Guy, you know, we go buy the bumper stickers or the, the big signs that say he is the reason for the season. You know, we, we, we got to remind ourselves why we do what we do at these seasons. And I just, you know, every year we go around the table at Thanksgiving. In our family, our tradition is say something you're thankful for. And, but it's also easy to kind of put that in a box, a nice neat box for that time of year. And then we just kind of move on. I mean, if you think about it, the biggest shopping day of the year, I honestly, I'm telling, I'm telling you, people are sitting around that table and they're thinking about, am I going to get up at 4am and get in that line at the department store, you know, to get the newest Xbox or the newest fad or the newest fashion that's cutting, that's launching, and I'm going to save, oh, my soul. The barn buster deals and savings and 50 off here and there and everywhere. And so, you know, we got this Black Friday right there. You know, we've got this. We, we're about the food, we're about the, the fellowship, the fun, the football. I mean, football. Get to watch, get to watch those cowboys that probably just made half your audience mad. But, you know, they're always on Thanksgiving Day. And so you got all this stuff going on. It's like, you know, what is this day really about? You know, what are we really thankful for? And then you start to read verses like 1st Thessalonians 5, 18, where it says in everything. So you're like, you mean even in October, even in July, even in January, even on the day after Thanksgiving, we're to be thankful? And so it really goes bigger than just a day. It goes bigger than just a season. It becomes a lifestyle. And so that's why this name had been on my heart for a while. Thanks. Living because it's a way of life, especially if you're a believer. And really, honestly, we'll get into this as we get into the book. Thanksgiving is an outgrowth. It's a byproduct, it's a result. It's a response to something bigger where you have grace, you have gratitude. And so the whole, really, the whole essence of the book is to take people back to that old rugged cross and say, wait a second, you deserve to be nailed to that thing. And look what God did. But God, Ephesians chapter two, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so if there's no grace, there's really no gratitude. But the crazy thing is, as you mentioned, secular psychologists and neurologists, psychiatrist, doctors, TED talkers are, they're applauding and they're promoting gratitude and they're recommending it. They're saying, look, you got to get a little more gratitude in your life. You're going south here. And they're using it as therapy. They're using it, it's become a M medicine, it's become a vitamin, vitamin G. It's become all these things. And so if anyone owns this space, it's the believer.
Gratitude as a Lifestyle: Embracing God's Abundance and the Power of His Word
If anyone shouldn't be grumbling all the time and complaining, it's the believer. Because we have everything to be thankful for. Because how much did he give us? Everything. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us. 1 Jon 3, that we could be called the sons of God, the daughters of God, We're King's kids. And so this, this idea of gratitude, it goes so much far beyond just, you know, that, that little quick, kind of, in between phase, you know, that's going to take us from Halloween to Christmas, you know, like a season, a marker on the counter. This is something that should, should be a prominent theme in our lives. And hopefully this book will encourage that and take people back to the source of all of this. Thanks, living. And that is God's word. And the verse 5:18 really, really hits it out of the park when you start studying that verse even more closely.
Dr. Jessica Peck I love that you mentioned, but God, that is my two favorite words, the two most powerful words in the history of ever. It changes everything. And going to that first Thessalonians 5:18. This is something that I have seen too. And it's. I followed with great interest too, for me as a scientist. And I look at the verse in Philipp 4 that says, you know, in everything give thanks. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything give thanks. And you make that same distinction about First Thessalonians 5, 18. It doesn't say that preposition is so important. It doesn't say, for everything give thanks. We don't have to be thankful for the trials, but there's a big distinction on being thankful in the trials. And I think that's what moves us from that superficial level? Gratitude that involves scouring the Black Friday sales and into. Into a deeper kind of gratitude. How do we be thankful in everything? And I think that goes back to what you said about but God, who is rich in mercy, we, we are sinners. And to see what Christ gave us, that we should be called the sons and the daughters of God, that is absolutely amazing. Well, Stu, we're coming up on our first break, but when we come back, I want to dive a little deeper into that, more on your personal perspective and more on the journey that readers can expect in this book. And I encourage read take this journey on Thanksgiving and to carry it with you not only into Christmas, but into the rest of the year. Because gratitude doesn't mean that we stop hoping or we stop growing or we stop working toward change or we, stop even feeling some of the unpleasant feelings that we can feel in seasons of broken life. We know from God's word that in this world we will have trouble, but we can take heart, we can be of good cheer because Christ has overcome the world and we are going to be, we aspire to be co heirs with Christ. Gratitude means we don't have to wait until everything is perfect to recognize God's presence and goodness. And when we come back, like I said, we're going to talk about what does that look like? When life feels painful and gratitude just doesn't seem like it comes easily, Grumbling is much more accessible. The book is called thanks Living Embracing the Power of Gratitude Every Day. It's by Stu Epperson Jr. You should go on a gratitude journey. It is good for you, heart, mind and soul. We'll be right back on the other side of this break. Don't go away. You don't want to miss it. Hello, I'm Jessica peck, host of Dr. Nurse Mama. did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.net/give that's afr.net/give
Gratitude by Brandon Lake Cuz all that I have is a hallelujah. I, know it's not much, but I have nothing else but for you except for heart singing.
Dr. Jessica Peck Welcome back, friends. That is Gratitude by Brandon Lake. And that's exactly what we're talking about today. I really hope to call your heart toward gratitude this Thanksgiving season and carry that with you into the Christmas holiday. And all through the. Not only the next year, but the rest of your life. I'm talking to Stu Epperson Jr. About his new book, Thanks Living, Embracing the power of gratitude every day. I've long been a fan of gratitude. I've written about it, I've studied about it, I teach about it because I know that God's plan is the best plan for us. And he has our good at his, at his heart. And Stu, one of the things that caught my attention when I opened your book, on the first page here, there is, there is a quote from someone named Joni Erickson. Tada. And for people who aren't familiar with her, I became familiar with her book as a teenager. Of course, when she was a teenager, she had a diving app accident in a pool and broke her neck and has been paralyzed. And she wrote this. Having lived many years with pain and disability, I've learned that Thanksgiving is not the denial of suffering, but the doorway to deeper joy in Jesus. And thanks and thanks Living. Stu Epperson warmly points readers to Christ and shows how a grateful heart can flourish even in life's hardest places. This encouraging book will help you offer up Thanksgiving as a way of life. And for someone like Joni to say that, Stu, I mean that, that's pretty powerful. And I know your own experiences shaped your message that you have, that life is not always social media worthy. And I know that a lot of our listeners are going to relate. They feel like they're not in a season where it feels easy to be grateful. The world seems like it's a perpetual dumpster fire as a baseline. And then we just have everyday trials, some little, some very, very big, some very traumatic. How do we give thanks in everything, including all of those things?
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, there's a grateful little girl in some village in the middle of nowhere, maybe in India or in a third world country. This little girl is crippled and she's been dragging herself by her hands and her elbows through the village because her legs don't work. And she's super grateful today because she just got a wheelchair From Joni and Friends,
Dr. Jessica Peck the
Stu Epperson Jr. ministry of Joni Eareckson. Tata.
Dr. Jessica Peck You're gonna get me
Stu Epperson Jr. well. So you think about perspective, right? Let's just, just picture that little child and picture the fact that the, the Joni and Friends team, Shawn and their whole gang is preaching the gospel of that village, leading people to Christ. And they're all asking, why would you bring, you know, why would you bring that to us? You know, we've been following this other religion and why do you care? Why Are you bringing us wheelchairs? Why are you bringing us these kind of things? And here you have a lady who is a prayer warrior, who is. Who went to all kinds of faith healers. I mean, she told me this. You know, I've known her for years, and she. God has kept her in that chair. And she. If you watch her videos on Facebook, like, I can't. I can't scroll when I come to her because she's always smiling, she's always grateful. And you're sitting there thinking, how can she, who doesn't have the use of her faculties, who's been in that wheelchair for, like, five or six decades, and yet she is so grateful. Like, she has this infectious attitude of gratitude, and it goes back to God's amazing grace. And here you have people all over the world being brought to their knees and transformed by a lady who can't even get on her knees and pray. But she is praying from that rolling, you know, pulpit on wheels and proclaiming the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, taking a lot of people to heaven with her. And so you just sit here and think, you know, you don't want to compare yourself to people because you'll always find someone a little worse off than you, right? Someone a little better, you know, better off than you. So this will puff your pride up. This will humble you. But look, when you just look at her life, you'll listen to her message. The message is, God's amazing grace has saved a wretch like me and has given me a platform which happens to be this, you know, as a quadriplegic that happens to be this wheelchair to touch millions of people around the globe. And God can use you, too, if you just connect with him. And so I. I use her in my. I was just tickled to death that she was able to write a little endorsement. And I use her in the. In the book is an illustration at the very end about how you got to read it. It's about, you know, how she. She wants to have a wheelchair in heaven. Not maybe for what people might think, but just. Just a, reminder, you know, all of these. You know, we're all trophies of God's grace. And so just. I'm so glad you brought her up and that it's. It. But it's. But what a great. You know, she could be like exhibit A for having gratitude, even in the midst of a mess, in suffering and someone that just laid. She laid in a hospital bed right after accident, you know, decades ago, and she just. She wanted to die. She wanted to commit suicide. She's like, I have no hope to live. And look at what God's done with her and think about what God can do with you. He was just recognized where it all came from and that he has a great vision and a great plan, but it's time to get our eyes off ourselves and look to him. And gratitude is a great little spark, you know, to light that fire.
Dr. Jessica Peck It's so true. There's just always something to be grateful for. No matter what your circumstance, there's always something to be grateful for. And Stu, I remember my granny, my precious granny who, who went to be with Jesus a few years ago. But she. During COVID she had a stroke and she was very social. I mean, she was the community welcome wagon. She was the coffee maker at the Sunday school class. I mean, she always had people in her home and it was really hard when she had to go and live in a care facility. And she was down about it for just a little bit. And one day I went in to see her and her whole countenance had changed. I mean, the. The room was just full with sunshine and it was all coming from her face. And I said, granny, what. What has changed? And she said, I was just praying and just praying that God would help me to be grateful. And he opened my eyes and he said, I've given you a new ministry. These are the people now that you're going to minister to. And so she viewed all of her caretaking team not as somebody who was taking care of her, she was taking care of them. And she could find, you know, things to be grateful for way pray over them. And it was such. When I. You see someone in that kind of position show that kind of gratitude, you know, that can only be of God because there is no way that we can do that in our human frailty. And one of the things you've been doing, Stu, so beautifully, which I love and appreciate, is just integrating scripture into everything that you say. That was a game changer for me, like literally hiding God's word in my heart because God's word does not return void. How can we go back to scripture to find the strength that we need to show that kind of gratitude in those kinds of circumstances.
Stu Epperson Jr. I think it's studying the scripture because, look, this whole book is one verse. It's just a breakdown of one verse. And effectively, what happens with this amazing book called the Bible, God's book, When you open the Bible, you're getting a text directly from God. What happens when you start Studying the Bible and reading the Bible is. It starts studying you and reading you. And that's what happened. I mean, this has been, been, this has been nearly like an eight year journey. This was, you know, seven, eight years ago. 518 was on the menu when I was leading my m. My Wednesday in the Word guys in our men's Bible group, Bible study group. And I said, hey, and I, and I, and I said, well, I'll do the whole chapter. Well, I do a whole psalm. And I'd done psalms, I'd done Psalm 100, I'd done some other psalms, you know, relevant to Thanksgiving. And that sort of thing is seasonal. So I started studying to Prepare to teach 5:18. And the Lord gave me these five A's of 5:18. And I discovered in one Bible verse. Listen, I challenge every preacher out there. If a guy like me who's not the brightest knife in the drawer, can write a whole book on one verse. Okay, Pastor, you could preach a sermon on one verse. And if people want to leave because of that, let them leave. But you're feeding them the Word. It's like someone saying, well, if you don't eat the steak in one bite at the steakhouse, which is going to make you sick, and you're never going to get to really enjoy and savor every bite and every delicious, you know, every, every ounce and every, every bit of that flavor in that steak if you just stuff it down your throat, Rush and Russian rush, you know, and all that. And you know, these eating contests, you see them jamming hot dogs? No. And they're drinking water and they're eating a, I can't stand to watch that. You know, it's all over. You know, it's all over social media, right? Guy walks in and has to eat a whole pizza, but they put it, push a timer. Here's not. I'm sitting here thinking, you know what I think? You know, my fantasy is? My fantasy is to walk in to a room where they bring this guy out 20 cheeseburgers. And they say, you got, you know, you got 10 minutes to eat these. I just want to walk in, sit down, because they always look really good. And just take one of those cheeseburgers, just one, and just go over in my own little corner, my own little buddies and family or my pastor, and just eat that and just enjoy it, you know, and enjoy the toppings, like, and enjoy the sauces. I'm a sauce guy, you know, So I, I kind of looked at the, the this verse like, whoa, in everything. Well, what does that mean?
God's Sovereignty at Work: Seeing His Hand in Every Situation and Choosing Gratitude
Well, let's just stop right there. I mean, that's kind of broad, you know, it's like, whoa. It's like the. It's like 8, 28. All things work together. Oh, my soul. You mean God is in everything? God is behind everything. All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him, all things exist. Colossians 1. One of the richest Christological sections of scripture, you know, in the whole Bible. And so you just go right there, and that's the amount, you know, that's the first chapter or the. The. You know, is one of the. There's five chapters on the five A's, and then there's a couple chapters to set the. You know, the whole book up. And so I just started reading. I'm like, oh, my soul. I just started writing on my smartphone. I wrote all three of my books on my smartphone, by the way. You're a mom, you know, you understand this. Now, my kids, I don't know where they are at age, but, you know, so I have Hope, grace, joy, and faith. And they all were in school, you know, right about the same time. And they had the laptop and they had the ipod. Ipods. And so I'm sitting here thinking, okay, Lord, you're telling me to write this book. And my Gracie's using that iPad to do her paper, and my daughter Hope is using the. The ipod, you know, or the. Or the, you know, her. Her laptop, you know, to do this. So I'm just gonna. I got this little thing, said notes on my phone. I just started typing it, and I tried to do a little voice stuff, you know, if it was a longer quote or something, right. And so I just started pecking away in everything. And I just went to all these scriptures that talk about how God is in control all the time. And that's such an important verse because he's always working. So either he is always working, and he is involved in our life, and he cares about our life, and our life has purpose because he gives us purpose, and he's that anchor. Well, you know, so you just start, you know, and that's just one little phrase. Those are just the two. First two words of this verse that's got about 16 words in English, that is 5. 18 of first Thessalonians. And so that's just kind of how it went. But Scripture really drove the whole thing, because Scripture interprets Scripture, and Scripture commentates on, Scripture. And you have all these verses in Psalms. You have the Whole. Oh, my. You have Ruth, chapter two, verse four. Well, what does Ruth. Chapter two, verse four, Stu. Well, it says, and Ruth happened to go in the field of Boaz. Now you tell me, Jessica, how important was that event? Pretty important. We have Jesse, we have Obed, we have Jesse, we have David, and we have the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came through the seed of the Davidic line, because Ruth just happened to go in the field of Boaz. But what's God doing? He's working everything together for the good. So I have to think that Ruth had a little gratitude for Naomi, this godly woman that she followed all the way out of Moab to come to a foreign land where she was an outcast, she was an unclean Moabitess. They didn't have the best reputation. And here God is just working all this thing. And so you have the whole book of Ruth as a book of God's sovereign plan, working everything together for the good. So that's why we're grateful in everything, because he's working in everything. And then, you know, it goes on, you know, because it goes into his will, it goes into, you know, what he's doing, it goes into how we get there, the access, you know, and all these things. He goes into the action, give thanks. That's an. When you give thanks, you are taking action like you are intentionally doing something, and it may not feel good because you. You said it earlier. It's so easy to gamble and to complain, which is all driven by self and driven by my own narcissism and my own selfishness and that sort of thing. It's easy to go into that category. So you got to make a decision. You got to make a choice to rejoice, right, like our preachers say, or have an attitude of gratitude. But it's a choice you got to make. You say, lord, I'm going to stop right now, and I'm going, to thank you for this difficult person and maybe this difficult person who just sent me this mean text. Maybe that happened. So I would be praying right now because I wasn't praying before that text came, See? And so it's forced me to pray. Now I'm interceding. And now I was thinking about someone in my life, a very difficult situation. I don't know why this person's mad at me. I've done everything to love him and encourage him and pray with him and give him stuff and all this stuff. And he's mad at me. He's like, can't stand to be around me. And so I was thinking about that person. And at first I was a little bit like, okay, Lord, I'm thinking about these, these prayers, you, know, of judgment, the Bible, Lord, you know, discipline. And then I started thinking about it more and praying more and thanking God for this person being in my life. And all of a sudden, I'm praying for their soul, saying, lord, just open their heart to you. Bring other people. If I can't get in their life, bring other gracious Christians in their life to love them, to encourage them, bring healing. Lord, I pray that at some point down the road, this person will be a testimony of your grace, changing them and changing their heart and changing their behavior and maybe even changing generations to come. And so the gratitude got me on the track of intercession. And all of a sudden, it's like I'm having a little revival at 4:00am just because the Lord reminded me. And that's why when you write a book about gratitude, it's very convicting, because when I start getting in grumble mode, we all have those kind of days. It's like, okay, Lord, I gotta find some kind of gratitude in this situation, because I'm gonna go on this radio show. It's got to be real in my life. And so. But it's really been a blessing. You know, I say.
Personal Struggles and Divine Grace: The Contagious Power of Gratitude in Life and Loss
I often say I'm the worst person and the best person to write a book on this, because I don't need. Because I struggle. I'm in life. I'm in. I'm in the. I'm in the battle. And so if anyone needs this book and needs gratitude and needs grace that brings gratitude, it's me.
Dr. Jessica Peck It's you. Well, Stu, we're gonn more about your own personal story, your perspective. And I love that you bring up the story of Ruth, because one of my favorite things about the story of Ruth is actually Naomi. And you see these two women who both experience really traumatic events. And Naomi decides to change her name to Mara, which means bitterness. But she walks alongside Ruth's faithfulness, Ruth's ministry to her. And Ruth chooses to have gratitude to poor her life in a positive direction. And at the end of that story, Naomi changes her name back. I think that's a beautiful picture of restoration. You don't have to choose between telling God the truth about your pain and trusting him with it. We'll talk more about that when we come back with Stu Epperson Jr. Here's Dr. Michael Krueger from the American Family Studios documentary, the God who Speaks.
Dr. Michael Kruger Yeah. When we look at the Protestant Reformation, one of the big flashpoint issues, obviously, was the issue of Scripture. What is the highest authority in the believer's life? Sola scriptura. scripture alone is the only infallible authority for believers. The reformers never suggested that the scripture was the only authority for believers, but, rather the only infallible authority for believers. The Protestant vision was a response to a church that had lowered the doctrine of scripture, had refused to submit to scripture, had raised church tradition, in the words of the Pope, functionally over Scripture. and so the Reformists said, if we're going to have a reformation, if we're going to get back to the way things should be, we've got to restore scripture to its proper place as the highest authority in the life of the believer. Visit thegodwhospeaks.org
You Are Our God by Josh Baldwin we give thanks to you, Lord. Your love endures forever. Your grace is an open door. Your mercy is our treasure. When we were in darkness, you came. Your light fills our hearts. So fill this house with praise. This shouts of who you are. You are, our God. You are our God, our strength, our defense, our salvation, our deliverance.
Dr. Jessica Peck Welcome back, friends. That is, you are our God by Josh Baldwin. And we're giving thanks to God today. I'm talking to Stu Epperson Jr. about his book thanks Living, embracing the power of Gratitude every day. And as Stu said earlier in the show, this is something that even in secular psychology, we recognize the power of gratitude. And all of that is right in God's word. And this book is centered around 1st Thessalonians 5, 18. In everything, give thanks. Not for everything, but in everything. And before the break, I was just talking about the story of Ruth, which is a really powerful story to me and Stu. There's so many stories in the Bible where you can see God working all things for good in situations that seem so terrible. You see Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and unfairly imprisoned. And yet one of one of my favorite verses in the Bible is, you know, what? You intended for evil. God intended for good and the saving of many lives. We see Esther in really terrible circumstances and her uncle telling her, you know, for such a time as this, and we can see God working all things for good. One of my favorite verses too is Psalm 84:11. The Lord God is a son and a shield. He gives grace and glory.
Learning Gratitude Through Experience: God's Provision of Seasons for Growth and Thankfulness
No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. But our definition of what is good can be different from what God is good. what God says is good. And I remember a season in my life where I was praying for something that on the surface seemed really good. Like God would want that. He would want restoration of a relationship. But I've seen his grace and provision and, and not granting that request in the moment and, and the way that he has orchestrated circumstances around it. Stu, you know, I've interviewed enough people to know, I'm sure you have to being on the other side of the microphone to know that rarely, rarely does God give someone a message to share with people that's just divinely delivered that you haven't experienced. Oh, I was just inspired. My life is so wonderful. I didn't struggle with this at all. And I just wanted to share with you how to be grateful. It usually from my experience, and I know it was my own experience, comes from a. Of pain and hardship. And when we pray for patience, God doesn't just magically infuse us with patience. He doesn't magically infuse us with gratitude. All of a sudden we're instantly, you know, have a boost of gratitude. He gives us things and seasons for which to learn how to be grateful. What was that experience for you in writing this book?
Stu Epperson Jr. Well, it really. The honestly, the trauma of my dad's death was really what set it off. You know, I had, I had it. I had my, my orthodoxy down, but my orthopraxy was a little bit lacking. And no one wants to go to the school of pain, right? No one wants to go to the school of trials and tribulations. And so I had really, I had the manuscript, I had the verse down, I had studied it, I had read it, I had all the cross references, I was, I was very excited, the title, everything. And there was a block, like there was something missing. Missing. And I don't know if you've ever, you know, been working on something, you've poured your heart and your soul into it and it's like the Lord just won't give you that release to talk about it, to share it, or just, just to, just to get it, you know, to get it up in the air and going. And there's something that was. Was left me grounded on the tarmac and I couldn't figure out what it was. And so I was just praying, you know, Lord, what is it going to take to. I'd even talk to publishers and all that, but it just, it was, There was a, there was a block. And so, so the day my dad went to heaven, the preacher came by the house. And it was emotional. I mean, I was over at his house by like 4 or 4:30am and he wasn't responsive. And, ah, he had been sick. But we were hoping he would turn the corner and just a godly man. He was our patriarch. Like, he was a powerful leader. He was one of the pioneers of Christian radio, along with Don Wildmon and great men of God who really, you know, made an impact and put these great voices, programs like yours on the radio going way, way back, you know. And so he's just so venerated and so loved. I mean, I can't go anywhere without someone asking about your dad, you know, memory about my dad, all that which I love. In fact, someone asked me, at a Christian broadcasters convention after dad had died, they said, hey, how's your dad doing? And I was so happy for that question because I got to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to tell you something. He's doing amazing. Oh, my soul. He's off his meds. He's eating like a horse. He's playing 36 holes of golf. He's dunking a basketball again. They're like, you got to be kidding me. I thought he was like, 85, 86, 87. I said, he's in heaven. Uh-huh. Thanks for asking me that, because you. You made me think about heaven. You know, I, like, this is really cool and to be grateful for what we have to look forward to, you know. And so. So I actually enjoy that question because it gets us thinking what we should be thinking about because our citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3:20 tells us so anyway, so he passed the emergency. People came out. They, you know, the. Everyone's kind of showing up. You know, all these friends, people are bringing food. It's kind of chaotic at the Everson household In Winston Salem, N.C. and 10:00am rolls around, 11:00am Rolls around. And, and. And the preacher comes by from the church, and so he comes by, meet him at the door. You know, you give him a hug. He says, hey, Stu, I'm praying for you guys, and this is a hard day. And. And we love you all. And he was very gracious. He's like, you know, I'd love to say hi to your mom and just pray with her. Well, mom was in the pool. She does this thing called quoting and floating. She memorizes big, giant chunks of scripture, and she just loves to quote and float. And if you happen to be. If Jessica, if you're in North Carolina, you You go by the house, and Mom's out there. She will hand you an index card, and she'll put you to work, and she'll put your kids to work, and she'll say. She'll say, test me now. I'm going to quote Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. I'm almost. She's almost done with Ephesians, and she's now check me. If I miss one word, you got to tell me. And so she does that. She's led people to Christ who are just quizzing her. The landscape person comes by, she says, quiz me on my Scriptures. So there she is, and she's in the pool. She's got her big umbrella. She's got her hat. It's a summer day, and the pastor kind of walks over. Pastor Will. He ducks his head under the umbrella, and he looks at her and he says, nancy, how are you doing? And I'm sitting here now. Let me give you the context. Let me give you the setting. There's grandkids running around in the yard, you know, goofing around, playing tag. You know, there's nieces and nephews everywhere. There's people that are just. Just came on the scene that are crying. They just. Just kind of like we've been dealing with it for three or four or five hours. They're just kind of getting there. There's people talking, catching up. They haven't seen, you know, us in a long time, talking to other family members, you know, wife, daughters, kids, grandkids. We got a big family. 17 grandkids. Big Stu had. And so he's asked her this question amid all this stuff. And she looks at him, she looks up at him. I'll never forget her expression. She had a big smile. And she said, pastor Will, I am so grateful.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, my goodness.
Stu Epperson Jr. She said, I'm thankful that God gave me 60 years married to big stuff. And she kind of goes on with that. And I'm sitting there having, you know, taken all this in, all more, wafted it all in and just the emotion. And all of our family members gather around my dad's bed, praying for him, singing praises, quoting scripture. You know, just earlier when he had just passed and you know, where people are getting there, she says that to him. And I'm telling you, this is the craziest thing. This is a total God thing. As I'm, I'm tearing up as she's saying that to him. Because I'm sitting here thinking, man, she's going to go into the woe is me oh, what are we going to do? Our patriarch's gone. I got to get this estate together. What about probate? What about these kids? And these. Look, he's left me a widow. I mean, what in the world? And it was all gratitude. And at that moment when she said those words to him, it's like the dam broke and just a flood of. Of just the Holy Spirit in my heart. And literally, the book was finished in that moment. That was it. And so I. I just went. Wrote down what kind of the Lord put on me from that whole week. It was like a, It was like a giant week of gratitude revival. He died on a Monday. His funeral was on a Friday. People came from all over the world, and it was just a massive testimony of God's grace. The gospel was preached. The funeral is like two and a half hours. Like, I got to go to the restroom, I think twice, and I'm on the second row. It was kind of awkward. And I. And I spoke and I preached. I preached, you know, some in the funeral. And I wore my dad's suit, and I wore. I just lost enough weight. I don't know why, but at that time, I just had. That was down a little bit, so I could perfectly fit in his suit. So there I am in his suit, in his tie, in his shoes, preaching, you know, giving God glory and all that. But there was just a. Just, a. A flood of gratitude, grace and gratitude that came out of that. That just was unbelievably contagious. And it's still. People call me today and say that that service was so powerful. But that's for my dad. He had a big heart of gratitude. So that. That is kind of what set off or kind of kicked this thing that was like the. The thing that got this going and. And then this. So the Lord's like, okay, I've given you now. This is what I wanted. This is the missing part. So now to go and share this and just to maybe encourage some other folks that are dealing with death, you can have gratitude at a funeral. Think about Christian funerals. Think about that. Who else sings songs? Who else is smiling and embracing and hugging? Who else can have tears of joy at someone's death? This is someone that died like they're in a box in the front of the church. But because of the hope we have, because of what Christ has done, because death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? Because he has conquered death, because the tomb is empty, our lives can be full, and they should be full of gratitude. For all he has done. And that's why even a Christian's funeral can be caused for celebration.
Hope in Christ: The Difference Between Christian and Secular Funerals and Eternal Perspective
Dr. Jessica Peck Wow. Stu I don't, I don't even know how to follow that up except for, I mean I literally have tears in my eyes. You know, I don't know what it is, but over the last five or six years I've just experienced a lot of loss and I've been at a lot of funerals. I actually sat down and started counting. I, I, I stopped counting it at 35. I've been to 35 funerals at least in, in the last five years, which I think is a lot for a person, shall I dare to say my age. And I've seen a lot of, of differences in funerals and I've been to funerals of people who are not believers. And the difference in the hope that we have. A hope that does not disappoint. A hope that is not abstract but is found in the resurrected, resurrected person of Jesus Christ that we. I know I will see my granny again. I know I will be reunited with her in joy. I know that my children are going to live with me forever. I know that I want to aspire them to be, to be co heirs with Christ. That is our hope, that is our aim, that is what we are going to have. And when you see the certainty of that, the miracles of God that he lets us to see. Honestly, Stu, I think your, your mother's gratitude in that moment was miraculous because everyone would have understand if she cried, if she was upset, if she stayed in her room in the dark, if she didn't come out, she didn't feel like she was seeing visitors, if she just, just sat in her feelings for a minute, everybody would have understood that. But to see that kind of joy, that kind of juxtaposition, there is no doubt that that is miraculous, that can only be divinely inspired. And Stu, I don't want to live my life thinking that this is just the best that there is like that whatever we can create here on this earth, the happiness that we can have. I mean just read the book of Ecclesiastes. I don't want to live a life under the sun. I want to live under the S u N. I want to live a life under the S O N. And I feel like your book, your work, it calls us to that when we look at the momentary sufferings that we have in the light of eternity and we know that we have a savior who is not, unacquainted with suffering and grief but for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising it. Shane. And now he sits at the right hand of God. And that is where we're going. Why can we not be grateful? I want to know what you hope people will end experience in reading this book. What kind of life transformation? What is it that, you hope the Holy Spirit will do through the words, through God's word that you have shared through your own experience?
Championing Gratitude: The World Adopts Christian Principles While Believers Can Lead the Way
Stu Epperson Jr. Look, I hope everyone listening, watching, will, will, will take. Become a gratitude vehicle with running shoes on, taking this message there. Isn't it innocent fasting that today, likely today a very successful, well polished, well spoken TED talker will walk out of a massive Fortune 500 company. They will get a check for a lot of money, $50,000 maybe. And what did they just do? They just walked in there and spoke to 10,000 employees or leaders and they gave a TED Talk and they got a big old check. And I'm going to guarantee you, I'm going to tell you what's in that TED talk. I guarantee you they talked about out. You should have a gratitude journal. You should write down what you're thankful for for your colleagues, your management staff, your customers. You should, you should take a gratitude walk every day. This is being championed by the most secular of the most secular people in our culture, in our world. And they're getting paid big money for it because science confirms just, it just, it's, isn't it beautiful? All this comes from God's word, you know, right? We, you know, these high level, you know, corporate geniuses are saying you should treat a customer how, you. How you want to be treated. Well, where did they get that right? We know where that came from. That came from God's word. The golden rule came from the Bible, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. And the same thing is true of gratitude. And so for, for far too long, Christians, like in other things, you know, we're, we are, and I'm excited that the world is eating from the, from the Christian tree of life, but it's time that we champion that and it's time that it
Dr. Jessica Peck is time that we champion that. Stu, Radio is so rude. We're right at the end of our time, but I want to hear more. I know you want to hear more too, as a listener. You can read more in this book. Thanks. Living, embracing the power of gratitude every day. Stu, I am genuinely genuine, genuinely grateful for the vitamin G infusion that you've given me today and for our listeners. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and that you'll seek gratitude. See you next time. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and has seen over a hundred thousand commitments to Christ. Will you join PreBorn in continuing this good work? supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today, Go to preborn.com/AFR
Jeff Chamblee the views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Stu Epperson Jr., founder and president of The Truth Network, talks with Jessica about embracing the power of gratitude every day.
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