Transcript
Speaker: Hello everybody, welcome to the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared and I am the Preacher Dad. I blog over at PreacherDad.com and you can find information there, other bits of help maybe because we're trying to equip and inspire Christians in the West to engage in the culture war and to make a difference for the next generation.
Speaker: We are glad to have you here. Thank you for joining us. Tonight we have a special interview for you. We're going to be interviewing a man named Keith Hinton, who's written a book about starting your walk with the Lord and how to do that effectively. There's probably a lot of people out there that are just getting to know the Lord, just starting their Christian walk. And so he's written a really excellent book on this subject, and we want to share those details with you. But before we do that, I just want to quickly remind you that this podcast is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship.
Speaker: a Cornerstone Fellowship is a small country church out in the middle of nowhere. And just in the heart of Georgia, we would love for you to join us if you have time. If you're in the area, we'd love for you to come visit us just a little north of Tombsboro, Georgia on Sunday morning or Wednesday night if you want to. And we'll love to share Jesus with you and make a difference together.
Speaker: So I hope you'll check us out online at That's cornerstonefellowship-ga.org. Or you can also find us on Facebook and see ah our our services are available.
Speaker: live streamed ah most churches are doing that now and we are not an exception well god bless you and i'm looking forward to sharing this interview with you so without any further ado let's get started
Speaker: Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the Preacher Dad podcast. I sure am glad to have you here with us tonight. And we have a very special guest that is joining us. Mr. Keith Hinton is here tonight.
Speaker: And ah ah you might notice a similarity in our names. The the name sounds sort of similar there. um And actually, Keith is my uncle, my father's brother.
Speaker: And he has been a ah pastor for a number of years. In fact, was my own pastor for a little while. And he's also a speaker and now an author.
Speaker: He's written this book. I have my copy, ah a copy. I don't think it's mine yet, but I have this one, Mapping a Life of Hope. And it's Course Corrections for Following Christ.
Speaker: And I'm just so excited to talk with him about that. Uncle Keith, so glad to have you here. ah But first, we have a little tradition. Oh, yeah. A tradition on on the Preacher Dad podcast.
Speaker: Of dad jokes. So I'm going to throw these at you and you tell me, ah you tell me if you like them. What if You'll probably able to tell. If you don't, just, you know.
Speaker: Okay. Fake it. Fake it till you make it. How does a spider go into battle?
Speaker: Well armed. Well armed. Yes. Okay. Indeed. And you might actually know the answer. So if you know it, throw it out here. My kids are good at these.
Speaker: What's worse than raining cats and dogs?
Speaker: Don't know. Hailing taxi cabs. Oh, shoot. Hailing taxi cabs is definitely worse. Last one. What did the plate say to the fork?
Speaker: Dinner is on me. oh Oh, oh, oh, oh. those Those are the best ones when you groan at the end, right?
Speaker: I guess so. Oh, man. Oh, man. Uncle Keith, so glad to have you here. Thank you for being here. I'm glad you acknowledge that we're related. that That comforts me a little today. ah Yes, I'm willing to publicly acknowledge our relationship. Okay, that's cool.
Speaker: Oh boy. Well, Uncle Keith, this book is so great and I just enjoyed reading it. And, um, I just wanted to ask you why, why did you say hope define a life of hope?
Speaker: If we're going to lay out the map, what does that mean? What does a life of hope mean? It's a good question. Um,
Speaker: I suppose I've been pursuing hope for quite a while. One time, and one of my professors, Dr. Charles W. Carter, he's he's quite an author, you might have run across him, but one day we were talking and he said, hope is a stronger word than faith.
Speaker: Now that took me a little by surprise. In the New Testament, he said, faith hope is a stronger word than faith. um I don't think I buy that completely, but what I do think is that hope is in partnership with faith.
Speaker: In fact, it takes both. The New Testament, you remember, speaks of hope as an anchor for the soul. That's a strong thing. It's an anchor for the soul.
Speaker: ah But in Hebrews, well, that's in Hebrews, but also in Hebrews 11, you remember, we're said that we're we're told that hope faith is the evidence of things hoped for that go Right.
Speaker: Faith, that's true hope. So ever since he told me that, ever since he said that, I've been paying attention to what God may be saying about hope, especially in the New Testament. But there's some of that in the Old Testament as well. excuse me absolutely Hope is what you hold on to when every other part of life is has failed you or has gone wrong.
Speaker: oh i take I take, for instance, quite a bit of comfort, and so do most people. They just don't read what comes before it. ah In the third chapter of Lamentations, there the writer is describing to us thing after thing, item after item, problem after problem.
Speaker: I mean, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. And you'd think he would be giving up in despair, but he isn't. And I really like the way the New Living Translation puts it.
Speaker: He says, yet I still dare to hope. And that that strikes me. He's still daring to hope. And it's not just, you know, hope.
Speaker: It's hope for a particular reason. Why are you hoping? You might be asking. Well, I'm hoping because I know about the faithful love of the Lord and it never ends.
Speaker: The faithful, that's what comes next. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. And that's why we can hope.
Speaker: And that's that's where I am. when i talk about a life of hope. I'm talking about a life that is anchored in Jesus Christ and what he did for us to to forgive our sins, too to, when he died on the cross, shed his blood to cover our sins, rose again from the dead.
Speaker: All of that brings hope into my soul and helps me know that
Speaker: that this is something real. It's not just mere hope, it's hope that will not disappoint. It is hope that literally rests all of its expectations, all of its faith,
Speaker: on the love and the character of God. Amen. That's just where I am. and So I'm really um really excited about hope.
Speaker: And I think that that's and that's why I've titled what I did, making Mapping a Life of Hope. I thought that was pretty important. Yeah. Well, that is that is very well said. i love how you said, you know, dare to hope because it takes it takes courage sometimes to have hope.
Speaker: You know, sometimes i just love the way you said that and it struck me. And I mean, i've I've thought of that phrase before because your podcast, you're also a podcast host and your podcast is called Dare to Hope.
Speaker: The Dare to Hope podcast. I encourage everybody to check that out. But ah it ah it just occurred to me that it does really take courage to lay your hope in someone else and not not in your own abilities, but in in others. And so once again, there's faith and hope connected to each other.
Speaker: Uncle Keith, why let me ask you this question. ah Why did you see a need for this book? This is ah written for ah especially for ah new Christians, and um it it sort of breaks down some of the real basics of Christianity in a very understandable and easy way.
Speaker: um And i just I just love it. But I wondered why you saw a need for this book in the first place. Yeah, I... ah when I was telling a group of senior, well-seasoned Christian adults about the book, Mac, last January, I said, I didn't write this book for you.
Speaker: You know, unless you're gonna give it to somebody who's a new believer, this isn't for you. You you know all this already. So that's kind of the way I feel, and that's the way I approached it. um yeah
Speaker: To give you some idea of where this came from, I have to go back just a little bit, I suppose. I've always had a desire to help new Christians grow in their faith. That's part of what motivated me in the ministry. i i really want to help new Christians grow in their faith.
Speaker: In the last couple of years, maybe longer, I've seen God move in our country.
Speaker: God, whether you see it or don't see it, and I see some evidence, God is moving, not only in our country, but around the world. You believe that? I mean, I'm putting you on the spot there, but I do believe that really easy. I totally agree with you. I believe our our nation nol is in it's yeah its the all over the place.
Speaker: So I began to to notice some things going on in the country. I made some notes here, so i wouldn't mess it up too bad. But there's a spirit of revival, and it's particularly present at some of our colleges and universities.
Speaker: all I agree. Just follow me here just a little bit. For instance, there's Auburn University. It started at Asbury. fact, it's probably a little more than 36 months ago, but it started at Asbury.
Speaker: But then places where you wouldn't necessarily expect it. Auburn University, the University of South Florida, the University of Kentucky, Ohio State University. And I have i have some interesting statements. Listen, at Ohio State University, there were 1,000 students who gathered in the lawn just to worship.
Speaker: And as a result of that, they began to baptize people. They there was math they say mass baptisms in livestock troughs, watering troughs, thousands. i've I've seen other reports of of um a thousand conversions at the University of South Florida.
Speaker: A thousand. Wow. And that, you know, i who knows? I don't know who's counting, but that that speaks to me. ah hu At Texas A&M, they tell me there was a ah a mass movement of God in the regional campus.
Speaker: And there's lots of people coming, people standing in line in some of these places just to get baptized. ah Now, you know, can I speak to the genuineness of those folks? No, I i can't. But that's what I saw.
Speaker: And then, Sharon, I saw, i watched the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service. And I'm still moved pretty emotionally by this. I watched it.
Speaker: I watched the obvious worship. It wasn't a show. named Named worship bands, worship people, well-known people, not advertising themselves. They didn't even put a banner on the television screen to tell you who these people were.
Speaker: If you didn't know, you just wouldn't know. Worshiping, praising God, heard the gospel presented so clearly. And that i don't know, evidently nobody nobody counted.
Speaker: you know there was There were 100,000 to 200,000 people present. And that doesn't count all the people watching online. Millions. for are Hundreds of millions.
Speaker: The invitation is given.
Speaker: People who are followers of Christ, just stay seated. That's what the invitation was, as I recall. And if you really want to die today to begin to become a follower of Jesus Christ, stand to your feet.
Speaker: I could not believe the people who stood. i couldn't but i was moved. i I couldn't believe that that was happening. And there there's no record of how many there were, but the estimates are thousands.
Speaker: of people All right. So that being the case, God moving not only where I've seen it, but in places wherever you may be in the United States, at least, if not around the world, there are new believers who need somehow to find their way to a mature relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker: That became passionate for me. That somehow, some way, we had to get into their hands. what they needed because they it's it's it's it's a journey from believing and then actually learning how to practice what you're learning or what what you've begun.
Speaker: I've begun this, now I have to learn how to walk this way. so That was my passion. that That's still my passion. And that's why the book is out there. I i don't know that it it'll ever get into all those thousands of people who've made no become followers of Christ.
Speaker: But if it just helps a few, and there are of it there are reports of it helping, of people saying good things about it and using it.
Speaker: um I just want to get it out there. Because I believe it's it's a necessary step for discipling believers. no not Not by itself think necessarily.
Speaker: Sure. but but a so's not a replacement It's not a replacement for a discipleship group at church, but it's an outstanding GPS device to help you figure out how to walk that life of hope, um in my opinion.
Speaker: But ah how important is the Word of God ah for a believer? I love the Bible and I'm passionate about Scripture, um but how important is that for a new believer?
Speaker: I think it's pretty important. um My dad and i had a conversation many, many years ago. We were just talking in the kitchen, as I recall. And he said, Keith, if you get up to have your devotions in the morning and you got up late and you don't have time to do everything, is it more important? What do you think? He said, is it more important to pray or to read the word?
Speaker: And I thought about that for a little while and I come down on the side of you need to read the word because that's God speaking to you.
Speaker: And if he's speaking to you through his word, that's probably more important than me talking to him. So I need to talk to him and maybe we'll talk about that in a minute. Maybe not, but that's it That's important, but I k need to know what God has said.
Speaker: um You remember Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's pretty important stuff then.
Speaker: And so, you know, I have, I don't know how much time we need to take with this, but I tell this story sometimes to students and and to congregations, I guess I've told it.
Speaker: But when Joanne and I were dating, my wife Joanne and I were dating, ah we were on different college campuses. In fact, she was living at home and going to college.
Speaker: And I was on ah in a small Bible college and we wrote letters. And we typically wrote just about every day. In fact, her mailman was so excited about delivering the love letters I would write to her. He he he felt he was having a bum day if he didn't actually have a letter to deliver to her.
Speaker: He was so involved. We invited him to the wedding and he came. But here's the point. yeah but You know, that's your mailman. And yeah, i love it. He was excited about it.
Speaker: yeah So I would get my college, my my mail in the mail.
Speaker: cafeteria at the in the lunchroom where we are all gathered for lunch. They come and they pass out. So, you know, everybody knew when I was getting a letter and i would try not to think it was all that big a deal. Oh yeah, thanks. I appreciate it.
Speaker: But everybody began to understand and realize I wanted to get back to my room as fast as I could to read her letter. It was a big deal.
Speaker: I tell some people I i read i read every word. ah I read it more than once. And it was kind of like a symphony that she was, you know, writing to me.
Speaker: So I told that story one time and somebody said, oh, come on. Like I'm exaggerating. Okay. It may be a little exaggeration, but it was important to me. Maybe not a symphony. It was a concerto.
Speaker: It was a concerto. Maybe that. Okay. um I'm not suggesting that that we should have that kind of emotional response every day when we sit down to read God's Word.
Speaker: But I am suggesting that we attach to it the importance it deserves. Okay. When we sit down with the Word of God, we're sitting down reading things we ought to remember God wants us to know.
Speaker: God wants you to know this. And that's why it's in here. And so it seems to me to be pretty important for us. It's not just an historical document.
Speaker: an historical document which a lot of people think it is, and it and it is, there's a lot of history in it. But it's more than that. it's It's more than that kind of document. it's It's God speaking to us. It's how we learn about him. It's how we discover who he is.
Speaker: In fact, a couple of questions I suggest you always ask when you're reading the word of God. The first one is, what does this passage teach me about God? And the other question is, what do these verses teach me about God's plan for the world?
Speaker: And they they may not be the only questions, but those are questions that will help a new believer begin to understand who God is.
Speaker: God has said that his word is alive, it's powerful, The NLT says it's sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and morrow.
Speaker: like I like this line. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Well, that makes it a pretty important thing for us to do.
Speaker: love that. One more thing there, I think. Yeah. The Word of God isn't just something we read. even for understanding, even for information, you for knowledge about God. It is something the Holy Spirit uses to convey grace to us.
Speaker: And we all need grace. i I like what the the definition that we learned years ago. Grace is the desire and the power to do the will of God. That's what grace is. You can define it lots of ways, yeah but it's God giving you the desire. It's God giving you the power.
Speaker: Right. I think you actually even include that definition in the book. yeah Oh, yeah. i' I'm sure that's great because I believe that. Anyway, this is just one way, one other way that God is able to convey his grace to us. And I i mean by that um
Speaker: that he actually... We don't just read about grace, we experience grace. Oh, yeah. Amen. You understand what I'm saying? We experience grace in those moments.
Speaker: At least we can. There's the potential for the Holy Spirit to bring grace to our innermost being, our soul. And by that we grow. You remember Peter said, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So both things are going on, in my opinion.
Speaker: When we read the word of God. Yeah. Yeah. It's not just intellectual. It's effectual. It's effects. that's good It's effectual in changing us. It's not just filling our mind. If we allow it to, it will fill our heart and change us.
Speaker: It's so powerful. i I just love, love the way you put it, Uncle Keith. You're you're right on target. And I really feel passionately about it ah as well. But,
Speaker: In addition to the word of God, just like Grandpa Hinton said to you, what should you do? Should you read your Bible or should you pray? And, you know, prayer is an important aspect of our life as a believer.
Speaker: I like the simple tools that you put into the book about ah improving our prayers, especially if we're not very familiar with praying or how to do it. Precisely. I wondered if you could share a little bit more about those tools and why you feel that it's important to pray as a new believer, as as a believer, period.
Speaker: Yeah. um They are simple tools, aren't they? I mean, they're pretty simple. But remember, I'm writing to people that I think know nothing about being a Christian. They've just come to Christ.
Speaker: And let me tell you, prayer isn't an easy thing to learn how to do. Now, you know, it's just talking to God. Okay, yeah, but it is God.
Speaker: And um I better know how to talk to him. So anyway, that's why those tools are the ACTS acronym, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Yeah.
Speaker: Just to give an explanation, the adoration we all know would be recognizing the attributes of God, praising him for who he is and all that he he is in our our lives. There's a lot we could do there.
Speaker: Confession is, the C is for confession, and that's confessing our needs, whatever those needs are, confessing them to God, maybe confessing sin that we need to have forgiven.
Speaker: It may be confessing a real need that we have in our life and or or a shortcoming we found out about in our life. We need God's help with that.
Speaker: it's ah It's a need thing. And the Thanksgiving is is kind of thanking him for the the things he's doing right now, recent blessings. um Things that he's done, answered prayer. you know if we've If we've understood it all, God answers prayer, then there's a reason to thank him and give him glory for that. Then then there's this S, which breaks up brings up a word that's difficult for us to understand, maybe.
Speaker: Supplication. What is supplication, Jared? um ah To supplicate.
Speaker: ah That's good. That's good. it is ah It is to make a request, I think, or to ask for something that I need. I need succor, and so I'm supplicating for the the help that I need.
Speaker: That's so what I would say. It is. it It often includes intercession as well. Okay. it is it is It is asking god to meet needs.
Speaker: Sometimes they're your needs and you're you're doing that, but sometimes it's it's other needs. And part of what we have to do in prayer is learn how to pray for other people because our tendency will be to only pray for me, for myself, for what I need and ask God to help me And we forget that we are also intercessors and that could be very well part of supplication where we we pray for the people who are around us, people we know, people we don't know, people we've heard about.
Speaker: We pray for the authorities that are over us, rulers, P-R-A-Y by the way, ah for the authority of rulers, people who are over us in authority of one kind or another.
Speaker: um
Speaker: We pray for, the A stands for affliction. So we people we know that are afflicted, they're sick, they're depressed, they have other needs, they have they're afflicted. So we pray for them in that regard.
Speaker: And then of course, pray for ourselves. there is a We should be praying for ourselves. That's part of the supplication intercession kind of prayer as well. Listen, in prayer is the only way we really talk to God.
Speaker: It may be verbal, out loud. It may be in our heart, in our mind, which I believe he hears and answers. um I used to tell used to tell kids, little kids actually,
Speaker: ah
Speaker: trying to help them to know how to pray, I'd say things like, if you had a friend that came to visit you at your house and stay for a while, And then after they were there, you didn't speak to them again.
Speaker: you You just completely ignored them. You never talked to them again. How do you think they'd feel? And they'd say, oh, it wouldn't feel very good. No, it wouldn't be good. That's right.
Speaker: Jesus, you've just asked Jesus to come into your life, into your heart. And he's your friend and he wants you to talk to him. That's why prayer is important.
Speaker: And on the on the more adult level, it is in fact the way we develop a personal relationship, a personal interaction, a personal encounter with God.
Speaker: It's just very important. That's awesome. That we pray. That's awesome. So that was P-R-A-Y. People, rulers, afflicted. Afflictions.
Speaker: Afflictions and yourself. Yourself, yep. Okay. Yep. That's great. Thank you. Helps me anyway. um So let's think about dangers.
Speaker: Let's talk about some of the dangers that a new believer um would experience. um You know, what would you say ah is the greatest or or one of the greatest dangers that a new believer has? i want to, you know,
Speaker: ah be able to, yeah there may be some new believers that are are listening to this, or maybe somebody knows someone who's a new believer. what's What's the warning bells? What's the alarm that we would throw in front of a new believer say, this is a very great danger when you're when you're a young Christian? I'm not sure i've not sure I'm thinking about it the way you are right now. Maybe we'll get on the same track, but I...
Speaker: Obviously, they're going to face temptation. And I think they need to know how to deal with that. That's one of the chapters in the book, dealing with temptation. How do we do that?
Speaker: What is temptation? And what's what's not? And what you know what's sin? and What isn't? That kind of stuff. yeah Because I think there is a danger of a new believer getting messed up there.
Speaker: Just as a small example, and and not maybe as important as some things, but it's possible for new believers to think if they're tempted, they're sinning, that they shouldn't be tempted.
Speaker: And so they need to know that, yeah, there's no temptation that you're experiencing that is not common to everybody else. They need to know that God is faithful and won't allow them to be tempted more than they're able to bear. And on top of that,
Speaker: He'll provide a way for for you to escape if you're let him. They need to know that. If you talk about the greatest danger,
Speaker: in my opinion, it's simple, but the greatest danger would be giving up, getting so discouraged, and thinking that nothing is really going right, and they just give up.
Speaker: no because things get hard. Everybody will experience hardship. Everybody's going to experience things not going the way you thought they were going to go. And everybody's going to have ah trials, tests.
Speaker: And to think that that means things aren't going well with our relationship to God is a danger. And if the person isn't determined,
Speaker: to follow Jesus Christ, no matter what, then they'll give up because it's going to get hard and they'll give up. And I think that is a very real, maybe not the greatest, but one of the greatest that I think of when it comes to people not following through with their initial commitment to Jesus Christ.
Speaker: Yeah. And that's why we need hope, isn't it? I mean, yeah we need to hope that, hey, things might be hard, but I'm not giving up because I still have hope. Hope of redemption, hope that the Lord is paying attention to my struggles and trials and and temptations and that he'll lead me out of them. That's really that's really powerful. Hope.
Speaker: Hope is a key there. I'm glad you're emphasizing that. Yeah. Hope is a key. If I didn't have the hope... if the hope didn't anchor my soul, i give up.
Speaker: i I drift away. i i i have to have the hope. i have to and it's not It's not just a hope for eternal life, which, you know, that's that's part of it. But it's the hope that good will triumph over evil.
Speaker: That this thing that's going on in my life that's evil, is going to be overcome because God is going to get the victory. Now, I may not find out that it was the best route that I take. i may God may not resolve it till I get to heaven.
Speaker: It may not be resolved in this world, but this hope that I have that lives in me right keeps me going. And I'm glad you brought that up again. Amen.
Speaker: Amen.
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Speaker: Yeah, so Uncle Keith, um near the end of the book, I love how you recommend that when we consider a decision,
Speaker: that we need to think, what does the Bible have to say about this? I think that's really important for all believers to consider. Does the Bible address this? But I wondered if you'd be able to share a little bit of wisdom about what a person should do when it doesn't seem like the Bible does address an issue.
Speaker: You know, does the Bible... tell me what pair of shoes to wear or what person to date or whether or not i should take this promotion at my work or things like that. How should a Christian address situations like that when it doesn't seem like the Bible really addresses the the choice?
Speaker: There are some things that God just simply lets you choose. it It's... it's It's not anything. I don't want to say he doesn't care about it. He does care about it.
Speaker: But it's okay with him, whichever way you go, whatever you choose. It's he's it's not going to be a big deal. i've I've actually felt that at times when I was trying to decide whether to whether to leave a church or not. or but I was candidating at two different churches. Which church should I go? And it's like God says, it's okay, whichever one you take, be fine with me.
Speaker: that's yeah That's a little frustrating. but I'm just saying there are times when God says, it's okay. yeah Do whichever one you want to do If you're trying to decide what sermon to preach, God might say, it's all the Bible.
Speaker: You can't really go wrong. Just pick one. Just pick a passage. We'll go for it. Yeah, I get it. yeah i think Those things... Those things are important.
Speaker: Yeah. I may get to more why I think it's all right for that God gives us a choice sometimes. It doesn't matter. But um there are there are things we have to decide that the Bible does address. But there are lots of things, maybe most things, so far as our everyday living is concerned, that the Bible doesn't address.
Speaker: So my my counsel usually is, first of all, I... I hope you're in a small group. And if you're in a small group, sometimes, and I think maybe most of the time, it'd be okay to ask the group what they think.
Speaker: discern There's safety in a multitude of counselors. And so to ask them to just see what they think about it, um which way they wasn what advice they would give you.
Speaker: you know Isn't that a scripture? Their safety in multitude of counselors. Absolutely. That's part of the Proverbs. and Awesome. um
Speaker: I would, I would, have I mean, if there's a real tough question, I might go to my, I would go to my pastor and say, Hey, look, I got a, I got a problem. A trusted friend, somebody you can, you know, is walking with the Lord and you can talk to them about the implications of this decision that you're trying to make.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: They're just just a number of things that you, with people, people who can help guide you, help direct you, help give you counsel with regard to what you do.
Speaker: That doesn't mean everybody's right. They might give you conflicting ideas, but they can give you positives, negatives on both sides and you can weigh it out. Now, here's why that's important.
Speaker: um i I forget, where it is in the Corinthian letters. But at one point, Paul says to the group that he's writing to, ah you know, how can how can we know the mind of God?
Speaker: Does any anyone really know the mind of God? And he goes on, he says several things, but he he ends that section, or at least he completes that section by saying, but we have the mind of Christ.
Speaker: In other words, God is too great for us to really understand. He is he is too he's unfathomable. And it's impossible for us to, how can how could we possibly think we could know what God is thinking?
Speaker: Except he has given us the mind of Christ. Christ's mind is in you.
Speaker: oh Wow. I don't want to take that too literally here, but I'm saying, and because of that, in fact, what I say to to new believers is trust it.
Speaker: fact, I just gave somebody that advice yesterday. Trust your mind. In other words, if you can't figure out, if God doesn't actually speak to you about it, if you can't figure it out counsel of others,
Speaker: then do what you want to do. Do what you think you ought to do. And it'll probably be right. Because you have the mind of Christ.
Speaker: He's in you. He's guiding you. right And here's here's the other thing.
Speaker: If you do something that isn't compatible with what he wants for your life, he'll tell you. All of a sudden, you'll understand, no, no this isn't it. And if you make a mistake, it's okay.
Speaker: Because God will give you another shot if you need it. Now, I know we can get into a lot of territory there, but right God goes with us. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to walk with you. This is a journey we're taking together.
Speaker: um This is something you can trust me with. Believe me, if you make a mistake, I'm gonna let you know. If this is not where you should be, I'll tell you.
Speaker: If this is not what should happen for your life or the your family or whatever, i wont be I will be faithful to let you know. And that's such a comfort to me to know that sometimes we make mistakes, we get it wrong.
Speaker: But God's faithful and he'll let us know we did it wrong. One way or another, we'll find out, okay, this must not be what God wanted. So that's those that's my two cents worth.
Speaker: Oh, that's what i think that's at least that's at least a nickel worth right there. at least Thank you. okay That was great. That was great stuff. It was worth at least at least a dime. A dime's worth of time. Okay, good. Yeah. good somebody um Somebody like me that... ah that so that cares about doing things well and cares if I make a mistake, I think finds a lot of comfort in knowing that God is bigger than my mistakes.
Speaker: And even if I mess something up really bad, God can forgive me and you know God can fix that up. He can be like, hey, um I'm the master of the universe. I can handle a ah little a little mistake from ah from anybody. So in fact, I knew it was coming. I had already planned ahead how to handle your mistake, that sort of thing. That's good. sorry that That gives me a lot of comfort.
Speaker: No, you go ahead. going say, it kind of reminds me of, you know, first... The scripture says God is love. And what you've just described is one of the ways God loves you.
Speaker: In fact, recently I've been thinking about the fact that everything God is and the hope that we have flows out of the fact that he is love.
Speaker: e You begin to think about all the attributes we give to God and understand that because he loves us, he's holy. Because he loves us, he's just.
Speaker: Because he loves us, he's omnipresent. ah yeah We go on and on. it's it's It grows out of his love. So because he loves us so much, he does what you've described here and ah and in a small so small way, but he loves you enough.
Speaker: to correct you, to forgive you, to say this is the way. Whom the Lord loves, He each disciplines, corrects, He chastens, is the King James. Yeah.
Speaker: Amen. Well, Uncle Keith, how can people find your book, Mapping a Life of Hope, folks? ma Sorry, I'm messing up the title. Mapping a Life of Hope is the name of the book, Course Corrections for Following Christ. How can people find that book and and ah purchase it from you? Okay. First of all, it looks like that.
Speaker: So there you go when you do find it, you'll know you found the right thing. We publish through Amazon this time around. So it's amazon.com. And ah you can find it by putting my name in there, n Keith Hinton. Or you can just put it in Mapping a Life of Hope. It'll come up.
Speaker: um is that's That's the only way. Unless I sell it to you personally, that's the only way you can actually get one right now. Okay. How can people follow you online as well?
Speaker: oh They can follow our Facebook page at Dare to Hope Ministries. They can follow the podcast. and You could find the Dare to Hope podcast on almost any platform that you would look for it.
Speaker: There might be one or two we haven't plugged into, but you can find it ah Spotify in particular, Apple Podcasts. I'm just thinking of things that come to my mind. So the Dare to Hope podcast, which is published twice a month, and we're in our fifth season.
Speaker: So we're we're about to finish the fifth year. We're just about to finish that. Then there's also a website, which is daretohope.com. dot life Now I'm going to tell you that it's dare, the word dare, the number two, hope.life.
Speaker: I like that. I like it a lot. That is great. That's good. Two, for me, symbolizes the fact that God's always ready to give us another chance. there's There's a possibility of a fresh start.
Speaker: two And then what he does for us is give us life. So dare to hope dot life. And you can find out more about us there. Well, this is, this is amazing. I mean, you're, you've got to be one of the best preachers that I've ever heard. You can even put a sermon in a website address.
Speaker: That is incredible. If you, if you know, it's there, that's it. You know, works. Well, I encourage everyone to go out there and and check out the website. We'll put the link in the show notes under this episode.
Speaker: And get out and purchase this book, folks. If you're a new believer, um you need to read this book. It is just so full of... ah basic doctrinal truth and foundational helpful advice, you need to get this book. And if you're not a new believer, you still need to get this book because you're probably going to run into somebody that needs to have it.
Speaker: And if you don't need to That's going on the most. Yeah. Exactly. So let's get, I've had several people tell me they, Oh, Hey, I sent your book to so-and-so. I, I gave you somebody, this person, there's a story out there. that this person just came to Christ and there's a whole story around that.
Speaker: So I sent him your book. I want him to, and he's in, you know, there he's in Florida. This guy's up here Marion. but I send him your book and that that's happening quite a bit. So, yeah, that is, that is incredible. I just love that. And folks, you need to, you need to get a stack of them because with the thousands and thousands of people that are coming to faith in Christ in our nation and around the world right now, the work of the Holy spirit is upon them.
Speaker: ah This could really be helpful to them. And so I want you to have that, have it ready. You're going to run into some, So you need to have it ready. But Uncle Keith, thank you for being with us and sharing some of your land and wisdom and insight. and Thanks for having me, man.
Speaker: Absolutely. Well, we'd love to have you on again sometime. So God bless you. And folks, we would love to hear from you. If you would like to make a comment on this episode, you can.
Speaker: You can like and subscribe. we say They say in the YouTube world, I guess. And we also would love it if you want to email us, you can email the the the show here, jared at preacherdad.com.
Speaker: dot com Email Jared, J-A-R-O-D, at PreacherDad.com. We would love to hear from you if you want to reach out to us. so Well, everybody, have a great evening.
Speaker: We love you. We pray God's blessings upon you and that you will be strong and grow in grace. Grow in the grace of the Lord. God bless you, and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker: Bye-bye.
