Dungeons & Disciples

Josh Shaw 0:19
Episode Three,

Tony Benda 0:21
episode three. While we're here, folks,

Josh Shaw 0:25
we are here and this is incredible. Every time we get the opportunity record, I love it. I love coming into this room and just recording and talking about the word of Jesus and talking about DND it's so much fun.

Tony Benda 0:40
I'm taking a selfie because I'm enjoying it so much.

Josh Shaw 0:41
He's enjoying it so much. Hold up.

Tony Benda 0:44
Ready. Here we go. 123

Josh Shaw 0:46
great. He enjoyed it

Tony Benda 0:47
so much.

Josh Shaw 0:48
Selfies right in the middle of recording.

Tony Benda 0:53
That's true. Yeah, we'll see. You have to see our Instagram to kind of see the selfie all the Instagram. Yeah, exactly. I posted the week before this episode airs. So you'll have to scroll back if I've you know, posted some stuff since then. But that's true.

Josh Shaw 1:08
Easiest way to connect with us is through that form, though. Yep. connecting us to Facebook, Instagram, going on writing review about on any kind of podcast form, but how highlight this podcast? And importantly, and we'll talk about this sharing it with a friend. Yes. You know, the funny thing is, is I was praying about our podcast. Because, you know, we we get so wrapped in the thought of like, I just want everybody to hear it and leave it on mission forgotten that we need to remember to be in relationship with God used to begin to idolize the mission, rather than walk into the Father Father in relationship. So I would encourage before we even start Autodesk, share it with one person, whether they play the game. Well, they don't play the game. Because I've I've actually a cool testimony. Everybody at work that I've talked to about this wants to build a d&d character. Yeah, never played the game. So I've never done the game, but they're like, can you help me build a d&d character? And I'm like, I'm sure absolutely just because of how we talk about it. It really just takes communicating with one person. Yep, I'm really sorry about it. Who do you need to share this with? And honestly, as we recap, episode two, I'd encourage everybody to go back and listen to our episode, titled playing the game, from meta to ministry. Yes, an amazing episode that talks about how we can walk in what the Lord has for us in the current moment, rather than trying to walk and what the future is trying to hold. Now, there's not a problem in walking in our dreams and our aspirations that the Lord has for us not a problem at all, or even praying about them and asking and moving towards those goals. But there is a problem with trying to take a seat on God's throne and try to doing it ourselves. Woof. are preaching early already preaching. Go back and watch that episode. But today, today's episode,

Tony Benda 3:15
I was excited.

Josh Shaw 3:15
I love it.

Tony Benda 3:17
The concept is just so funny, because this happens around every every, every every every d&d table, or Pathfinder or whatever TTRPG table you might find yourself at. Every single time we come back to a session there. The first there's two questions that typically happen at at the start of every session. The first question is, did we level the level up? There's one person in particular, every session that we play, or well, cherrick we always know the second episode. He's getting that shot. I love it, because he's just a huge part of that campaign. I love it seriously, if anything ever happens to Korea, like it almost,

Josh Shaw 4:01
I would cry, I would cry, I would actually reel me I would start crying. Me too.

Speaker 1 4:07
I would not have probably, you know, our first game that we played with him because he literally went crazy and almost got himself killed in the first half hour we've ever played together. But he did. But he didn't. And I was so surprised and so happy. But now crayon continues

Josh Shaw 4:20
to go into the temptation and follow these things of getting himself killed. And he always says, Don't worry, I have a plan. That's right.

Tony Benda 4:27
And then it comes out and he's like, watch this.

Josh Shaw 4:32
His second question is what

Tony Benda 4:35
did we long

Josh Shaw 4:38
did we long rest? So always we could be in the middle of initiative. Yep. We could have stopped the session in the middle of initiative and go into the middle of initiative in the next session. And he's like, Hey, ah, a Steven David long rest. And the look on his face the look on Steven spaces like I will see help you. Like you know what we're doing? No, we didn't long rest, no extra inspiration, no extra inspiration. Absolutely. That's funny if you're a DM honestly, the concept of expert inspiration and we can talk about another episode is actually incredible though. I love extra inspiration because it gives us a little nugget of hope when we roll so bad.

Tony Benda 5:22
We'll do anything for extra inspiration. I will jump into a 50 degree pool.

Josh Shaw 5:25
We did. Yes,

Tony Benda 5:27
we did worth it.

Josh Shaw 5:28
Stephen said to us, I will give you 12 Extra inspiration if you jump into my dad's pool, and it was like 40 degrees for cleaning greens, not cleaning, not nothing. And what did we do shirts off jumped right? March.

Tony Benda 5:41
It was great. It

Josh Shaw 5:42
was freezing.

Tony Benda 5:43
It was hilarious and very refreshing to be totally honest. Anyway.

Josh Shaw 5:48
12 An extra inspiration? Nothing board and did.

Tony Benda 5:52
But we also had a fun session that Oh, because yeah, we used all of our inspiration just about

Josh Shaw 5:58
I think I remember rolling so bad. I was like, okay, extra inspiration. And then I did it like 11 more times. Yes. Like Yeah, finally got rolled terribly that round. It was so bad.

Tony Benda 6:08
Oh my gosh. Anyway, I'm kind of back to the topic at hand. So today's episode is called dem did we long rest? That is? Wow. long rest are fun.

Josh Shaw 6:22
So talk to me about it. What is what is what is resting in the world of d&d? So

Tony Benda 6:29
the explanation that I have here in front of me, which came from one of our favorite d&d resources, d&d, beyond, I believe, yes. It says a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least eight hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity, reading, talking, eating or standing watch for no more than two hours. So the benefits of a long rest in d&d? Yeah, according to d&d, five E, I should say, I'm not familiar with any of the previous editions. I really can't talk about that. But I'm sure it's pretty close. I'd love to hear from you guys. Let me close. But yeah, so the reason we take a long rest is because it restores all of our hitpoints replenishes our spell slots, resolves levels of exhaustion at I don't know, if it gets rid of like three levels of exhaustion at once.

Josh Shaw 7:21
So the way a long rest works is, let's say you have three levels of exhaustion. The only reason I know is because I literally had this happen. Thank you, Kanan. So if you have it takes a long rest takes away one point of exhaustion.

Tony Benda 7:36
Yep. So you can do potions of greater healing, I believe. No, that was no greater restoration. That's yeah, this greater restoration would give you a point back from exhaustion as well. So does

Josh Shaw 7:50
it and maybe anybody else can elaborate does I know it obviously eliminates one level of exhaustion. Does it eliminate any other ailments? Along resting? Let's say you're poisoned or something like that? Or do you actually mean,

Tony Benda 8:04
these are good questions? Let's go.

Josh Shaw 8:06
I'm actually I'm actually asking now I actually was thinking I'm looking over our notes. Like I didn't even think about the breaking news. We are coming to you from the studio actually looking at these questions for you.

Tony Benda 8:17
That's right. We have our man in the booth right now looking up. Does a long rest. Cure wound in poison? Interesting, yes. These are both considered heal effects and thus interact, ah, their heal abilities.

Josh Shaw 8:32
So it does. Yes.

Tony Benda 8:35
So, yeah, we'll help you recover from poison.

Josh Shaw 8:38
That's incredible. That actually, is really nice to know.

Tony Benda 8:42
You can recuperate from debilitating injuries, diseases or poison according to rule 20. Awesome. The more you know,

Josh Shaw 8:53
the more you know, by dungeons and disciples.

Tony Benda 8:58
That's great. So long rest. I've just I just love sitting across from your goofy mug because it's so fun watching your facial expressions too.

Josh Shaw 9:07
So it's, it's always happening because Okay, so Tony makes me a coffee right before these sessions. It's always kicks in at the right time.

Tony Benda 9:14
That's right. It's delicious.

Josh Shaw 9:16
But the other cool thing is that it does restore abilities that are limited by the short and long wrists. Yes. So like spell casting, any other key points, any other major abilities that you use raging? Raging I can think of another one luck points back everything. You long Resnik restore, though, so you kind of go into the like into your next day with those fresh, you know, preparing for your next day's battles. But,

Tony Benda 9:40
but we also need to talk about short rest, too, because there is a thing a short rest, yes. And a short rest is a period of downtime at least one hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking or eating or tending to wounds. So the difference between Long and short rest is that Not just a period of seven hours, but also short rest is limited with how much things you get back at one point. So that that long rest is definitely super, super important for your party depending on what you're trying to do. But if you don't have an opportunity to take a long rest, say it's, you know, nine o'clock in the morning, and you've already done a million things and you've depleted quite a bit of your resources. A short rest might, you know, fit the bill in that time, because, yeah, so during a short rest characters can spend a hit die to gain back some of their hit points depending on what your die roll is plus your constitution modifier. You can also spend as many hit die as you have available during that time as well. And then your hit die are replenished after a long rest. So you get one hit die back after each long rest as well. And there are certain class abilities that you can get back after you've short rested. Some of those things are like Warlock spell slots, monk's key points, a fighters Action Surge, and second wind those kinds of things. And then there are certain wizard abilities, you can get back like arcane recovery, you can get some spell slots back. So really, the difference between the two is you get minimal things back during a short rest, but it allows you a chance to brief especially if you're about to go into another dangerous situation or something where you need your hitpoints or abilities. So it's it's a cool thing. And it's all dependent on you know, time of day. It's also dependent on where you are in your storyline or you know what the adventure is looking like ahead and the DM, it's his discretion to kind of determine whether you could take a short rest in his spot or not.

Josh Shaw 11:46
So when we also talk about the hit dice, so as you level up, and I believe as you pick your character, it, it will reveal and you can get this on like any kind of d&d fivey just Player's Handbook of the players you pick. It will reveal what your hit dice is. So like, for me, for example, I'm playing, I'm playing a blue Hunter right now. And according to my level at level nine at the moment, my hit die is one D 10 plus three. So I can spend those hit die to regain abilities. Or let's say, I wanted to take my short rest and use my hit die to regain my tip again, health points. So for my blender, I could do one D 10, plus three. And if I use three hit die, I had roll one D 10 plus three. So ultimately, I'd be adding a plus nine to that. And then I had essentially be rolling a 3d 10 plus nine, essentially to to recover those hit points for that time. And honestly, you just look at your character, what's your hit die? And you know, honestly, if you have any questions about that, reach out. Ask do you research go on to d&d forums. I mean, that's the beautiful part about the community is reaching out and asking those kinds of questions. But this wouldn't be a Dungeons and disciples podcast if we didn't talk about the concepts, the mechanics of rest. Now, we get to the fun stuff. Which the DND is the fun stuff. I mean, the d&d, the fun stuff, talking about Jesus is a fun stuff. But I was chatting with a couple of friends, Tony, and this question popped up. That was incredible. So when you rest in d&d, you're going off of a long fight and initiative. Pain of literally being cut by cutting Spelke acid and all this stuff, you take a long rest. Finally, imagine resting and waking up and you found that your HP was not restored or your spell slots didn't come back.

Tony Benda 13:59
That's not good. He must not have rested long enough.

Josh Shaw 14:04
But why don't you if you rest in a campaign and you're like, Oh, I cool. Been playing d&d A long time. I want a long rest in the d&d in the DM is like, Absolutely not. You have no health points, no spell slots, and you're like, what? Yep,

Tony Benda 14:19
that would be crazy.

Josh Shaw 14:22
In equivalence, to the biblical concept. That's kind of how we treat resting. So the concept of rest in the Bible is amazing. And there's a couple of ways we're gonna look at it. So why the question is, why do we need rest? Now, Tony, you're going to talk about the first point, because when you brought it up when we were when we're discussing the episode, it was incredible.

Tony Benda 14:52
So there's two ways we can look at it. We can look at it from the biblical standpoint. Yes. Which We Will and we're going to dive deep Yeah, Billy. You need that we're going to dive. However, I do want to point out a sciency thing because I like nerd, I will say I was never great at science. But there are certain aspects of science which are cool, because they still point back to our Creator. So absolutely Amen. Preach it. Science is, in this case, the National Institute of Health, also a subset of that the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, they say, without sleep, you can't form or maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and create new memories. And it's harder to concentrate and respond quickly, which is very interesting to me. So it's tied to memories, it's tied to concentration. And they also went on to say that sleep is important to a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells or neurons communicate with each other. So if you're not resting, it's hard for your brain to communicate amongst itself or between the neurons. So sleep is vital from a scientific standpoint, from a human standpoint, from a creation standpoint, and our creator intended us to arrest for in the physical, but also in the spiritual, there are ways that we need to be resting. Go ahead, Josh, let's let's let's hear some of those ways from the spiritual side. Oh, no,

Josh Shaw 16:26
you're gonna put it down. Now?

Tony Benda 16:27
No, you're great with this. I love it.

Josh Shaw 16:29
One thing you said is you kind of talked about from the scientific standpoint. Yeah. When you said like, our Creator is the one who birthed these things when we talk about from a scientific standpoint all relates back to God to because he is the way we've created before we even get down to the point. Genesis chapter one already. God spent six days working to create the earth on the seventh day, it says He rested. And I feel like we skip over that so much. Because God took the time to rest and spend time with his creation. Let's look at the the standpoints about rest. What happens when we don't rest? Or why are we not resting? We're overloading our schedules. We think that we live in a consumeristic nation, to where we feel like we need to push grind, work, continue to do more. But all that's really doing is we're just falling into worship with anxiety. And that we believe that peace is honestly found in what we do. But true peace is actually found not in what we do, but who we're called to be. And as I was thinking about this kind of concept, I was immediately brought to Luke chapter 10. And it was a story of Mary and Martha, I love this story. It says now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she wanted to and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answer her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her. Actually, I preached this at a youth group a couple of months ago. And the one thing that really stood out to me was Martha is the one that invited Jesus in. But Martha is the one that decided to stay away. And yet, Jesus in an actually in biblical context, when a name is repeated twice the reason it is that way, is to denote intense relationship. So Jesus, even in the midst of Martha's anxiety, it says anxiety. He says, Martha, Martha, calling to the deep pain that she's feeling and trying to call her into his presence. But we so often invite Jesus in. And we're like, yeah, Jesus is with me. Yeah. And then we're not. We're just working and working, working and doing the present with him. What do you think about that, Tony?

Tony Benda 19:37
I think it's interesting how there are so many times like even in our own lives, where we could set up times to hang out with our friends, and not truly be present with them. Sometimes during a d&d game, there are moments when we're in a room

Speaker 1 19:59
we're all at the same table. And there, I will say, I'm guilty of this too. There have been times that you and Aaron have been interacting with your characters and Steven for like, quite a long time. And it's good and it's intense, and the story is awesome. But my ADHD, whatever it is,

Tony Benda 20:23
sometimes I just, I can't focus all the time. So I'm there, we're all invited into that space, but not fully present, not fully aware, not fully, like, I'm not fully invested in that. And, you know, shame on me for that. But it also is not good, because then we're gonna be asking the question, Wait, what just happened? Or like, we're gonna come back into the game and be like, I just missed something. What's

Josh Shaw 20:49
the name of the three fat? Girl?

Tony Benda 20:54
licensed material? We're not going to Tony never know, I can't always remember the names of these three factions in this one city anyway. No, but it's, it's hard sometimes to be fully present when you feel like, like, I'll even I'll even say there have been times like, where I've been the Martha where, you know, it's a family Thanksgiving, and we're supposed to be spending time with family. But we're like, so involved with the cooking process, making sure there's another pot of coffee on making sure that all of these things are happening and flowing. And you know, going well, that maybe they just want to, you know, sit down and just talk or play a card game or something and not be so invested in the work but in the people. So, yeah, that's just money.

Josh Shaw 21:49
invested in the work and not the people. The Jews were? Yeah. In biblical time. Absolutely. They were invested in the work, not the people, correct. I actually, I just learned this, that when when Jesus talks about how he invited sinners, and tax collectors to his table, we think of sinners is like a generic like, oh, you're a sinner, I'm a sinner, stuff like that. Yeah, sinners was a classification of people. It the sinners were classified by Jews, sinners were so quote, unquote, so bad. They weren't. They were not allowed into the synagogues. They were excluded. Oh, you can't come in here. You're a sinner. Which is funny, because they condemned them for being sinners. But in John chapter eight, when Jesus says he used that sin cast the first stone when the woman was caught and pulled for adultery, it says that they set down their stones and walked away. So it's it's so funny. They recognize that they were sinners, but we're still willing to classify, classify people as sinners. Yeah, that's a double standard.

Tony Benda 22:56
That's crazy.

Josh Shaw 22:57
I just got that blog post on my butt, too, Tony, there's a really interesting thing about that when you talk. And it comes back to the original intent of what rest is. Yeah, we talk about it all the time. And it's this word called Sabbath. And I'm going to be honest with those listening, I did not understand Sabbath rest. And I'm giving a shout out. My, my, my main bend of fam, Aaron and Jesse, you incredible people of God. Yes. I had. I was pondering on what Sabbath Rest is. And I actually was convicted because I didn't know what Sabbath was. So I called them I was like, Hey, can you guys teach me what Sabbath Rest is? And the information that I got from them, honestly, and I hope and I pray that the information you're about to receive changes your life, because it honestly has shaped me in every way. So let's talk about it. Sabbath. Sabbath, the there's two Hebrew words we can talk about. There's the word Shabbat, Shabbat, literally means the word stop. That means stop what you're doing. It's mentioned all throughout the scriptures when the command is to Sabbath, especially old and even some parts of the New Testament talks about to Shabbat, to means to exactly stop what you're doing. The Jews predominantly talked about Shabbat to Stop, just stop what you're doing. However, there is also another word for rest. This other word for rest is nuoc. But this rest is different than stopping. This rest is defined as a comforting rest, almost defined as being held or encompass. There's a there's a, if you read Exodus 33. It talks about what nuoc actually is. And then when Jesus talks about come to me all who are heavy laden and burden and I will give you rest. He's saying I will give you Nuuk a comforting, inviting rest and this is what I learned. Simply stopping what we are doing won't refill us. Have you ever done that just like go home you like okay, I'm resting. I'm stopping I'm sitting here. But our minds are so consumed with you busyness, social media, worrying anxiety about so much things. But see, Nuuk being held by God is where we receive actual true rest. That's

Tony Benda 25:32
it? Yeah, see, we

Josh Shaw 25:34
need to stop moving so we can be held. We need both Shabbat and nuoc. Shabbat is saying stop. Stop what you're doing, but participating in Nuuk. So as you stop, participate in nuoc, coming to Lord and saying, Lord, I'm Shabbat and stop. But now, I'm participating and I want to come to you, I want to be held by you. That's so good. It just blows my mind. Because I think about when Jesus when we talk about when you pray to God, and he says like, this is the way you should pray. And he talks about daily Britain, daily Britain, and next to the 16th when the man was falling from the sky. The command was take only enough for that day. Why? Why only take enough for that day. Because if you took more it would spoil. And it would go rotten. And see, here's the funny part. We still they have received the bread from heavy enough for a day, but they still had to work. They still had to prepare it. But it was still provided for. And when we talk about this concept of rest, Jesus came came in Mark chapter two verse 27, and says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And he's referencing His disciples taking grain in a field. And the Pharisees are are condemning them for doing that. And they're condemning, they're condemning them on the principle of Shabbat. They're trying to recognize Shabbat. But Jesus is saying no, I am Lord of the Sabbath. I want them to be part of nuoc I am here to show you that Shabbat that you you've you've twisted it. You've twisted Shabbat and you're only stopping and being lazy in your faith all. It is possible to Shabbat and be lazy in your faith because it's good. Why? Because you can stop all you want to do but what are you consuming? You're consuming the world you consumer. You're I mean, let's be honest, you're consuming that Amazon Amazon cart real quick dreaming and desire what you want from Amazon, but not giving your dreams and desires to the Lord. So what what does this look like practically? See, we talked about Genesis. He said this, the six days are meant to accomplish our tasks. were meant to to work that seven days and even on the weekend Jesse Jesse was talking about she's like, you know, I spend that Saturday, getting the last rest of my little small details done, I clean the house, I do it. So on that seventh day, I can rest. And that can look like so many different things. But that sevens day is so that we can take our minds from the tasks that have to get done. And set it on him. Yeah. And I love this. Read Psalm 21. Why? I'm sorry, Psalm 121. Why? We choose to rest because God chose to rest. He doesn't need to rest. God does not sleep nor slumber. That's right. So God if God doesn't sleep or slumber and he created the world in six days, he didn't need to rest because he was tired. He didn't need to rest because he needed to Bri I just got done crying the whole world and you go take a nap. No, no, no. God said, I need to rest to Nuuk. Yeah, with my creation. And we live in this culture. Where Sabbath is hard because it's outside of the norm. It's right. That's it. We that's not you know, if you rest that's not how the world works. You need to grind you need to pull it out. No, no, we need to shift our mindset because it's difficult to stand on the Word of God if we are standing and going in the opposite direction. Yep. Resting is a strength. It's not a weakness. It's not a weakness. If it's good enough for God, it's good enough for us. I'm blowing my own mind. Because because I'm being honest when I learned about this stuff especially About last term, if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for us. Yeah. Tony, what do you think? And you're just, you look, you look mind blown over that. I love it. I'm this good stuff.

Tony Benda 30:14
It truly is good enough for us. And it is a strength. This reminds me of a trip I went on to Kansas City, Missouri, right? Talk to me. So my friend, Brandon Nemec, shout out to Brandon, we, this is while I was still living in Chicago area. So we decided, Hey, let's go to IHOP. And no, not the pancake place. Although their pancakes are pretty good.

Josh Shaw 30:38
Pancakes sounds so good or no? Oh, my goodness, yes. Anyway.

Tony Benda 30:43
Now we decided to take a trip down from Chicago to Kansas City, for the International House of Prayer, which is this 24/7 prayer room and worship and all this awesome stuff. And it was a long drive, it was about eight hours. And, you know, we got there, we're chilling, we're there for a couple of days, you know, spending time in the Word and in the prayer room. And this was just a busy time in my life. It was like a lot going on a lot of work, a lot of relationship stuff, a lot of I don't know, just family stuff a lot happening in this era of time. So when I got down there, one of the cool things about it was I received a word from the Lord in that season, and it was just rest. This is something that I have to keep coming back to it because there are different periods of time where I forget that word from him. It's not just relevant in 2018. That's right. It's relevant today. Because to Shabbat, to nuoc is, is a daily and it's a regular thing. It's another discipline, just like praying and reading the word it's, it's a spiritual discipline that we need to just truly engage with. Because if we're not new walking, so to speak, we're not being intimate with the Father. And that's something we talked about a couple weeks ago, was being intimate with the Father. And that intimacy is huge for our Christian walk. Because we've related it to relationships with, you know, our spouses, like if we're not being intentionally intimate with our spouses, just in relation just in conversation in personality, all of these things, then we lose touch of who they are, we lose touch of how they are with their faith and where they're sitting in all of these things. So to be intentional, to Shabbat to nuoc is huge. And yeah, that just reminded me of that that time that we went down to Kansas City, it was a great time. And I didn't depressing in a very good and very healthy way. But it's a good reminder to be getting back into that regular phase of rest again, that nuoc

Josh Shaw 33:03
you said something about? When you don't rest you lose touch with like, who other people are. Yeah. I think when we don't rest, we lose touch with who we are and who God is. That's true. Why don't why do we think? Sorry, I'm just I'm like, I'm, I'm honestly super convicted right now. Yeah. Why do we think that it's busyness that's going to please God? Why do we think it's the sacrifices we do that's going to please God. Fact, my personal studies in the book of Jeremiah right now. And so many times, God was like, I'm angry because you're sacrificing everything for the wrong reason. Like, we spend so much time trying to sacrifice and for what, you know, always to get a better job and to get more money to advance or further

Tony Benda 34:11
Instagram likes. For the social media aspect, to look over having a good

Josh Shaw 34:18
time to become something quote unquote, yeah. That's all just unjust. I mean, you're not you're never gonna gain anything from that. No. Jesus spent so much time pulling away to the Father. He sent the disciples out. And then Jesus withdrew. In fact, one story when I think about resting is Jesus in the middle of a storm. Yep. says in Luke chapter eight, verses 20 through 22 through 25. One day he got into a boat with His disciples and He said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out And as they sailed he fell asleep. Which is funny. I think about this Bible said God doesn't need to sleep more slumber. And I just Jesus chose to sleep he was man. Yeah, he he needed fully God fully, fully God fully man, he needed rest. And a windstorm came down to the lake and they were filling with water and we're in danger. And they went and welcome and saying, Master, Master, we are perishing. And he awoke and he rebuked the raging waves and they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them, where's your faith? And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even the winds in the water and they obey Him? Jesus rested in the middle of a storm because he knew what the Father would do. And he knew whose hands he were in. Yeah, in fact, I said something to someone earlier. I don't know if a pastor said it. I don't know if the Lord just laid it on my heart. But it rocks me every time I say it. Jesus had Jesus. In the Bible, scriptural Jesus walked on water. Even if the boat sank. Why are we afraid that we won't walk on water to? What was Jesus afraid of? Right? Jesus can walk on water that boat sank. He's just gonna sit on. He's just gonna sit on the ocean floor like it's his bed. Are you kidding me? That's crazy. That boat can sync and Jason Wait, oh, oh, just go in first row school for several weeks. Can you imagine just waking up and you're just standing on the lake. But if the whole if the disciples were filled with the same Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ was filled with what makes them think that if that boat sank, they wouldn't be walking? Yeah.

Tony Benda 36:48
Well, it's like Peter when he tried, yeah, that he had the faith. And then he stepped out. And then he lost sight of Jesus. Oh,

Josh Shaw 36:57
he stepped out of the faith. He he lost

Tony Benda 37:01
sight of what was in front of him the important thing in front of him to maintain his concentration on Christ. And then he started sinking. He took his eyes off Jesus.

Josh Shaw 37:13
So if we rest in the Lord will walk on water. If we stay focused in the word, will walk on water. Now, I'm not saying to the listeners, like don't go out and go jump into your river. And if you do, and you jump into that river and you start walking on water, please record it and then send it to us and be like, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. You better you're gonna see real quick, but there is something powerful about standing in faith, or being in faith about being focused on God. First Corinthians chapter 16. Be there verse 13, and 14, be watchful, stand firm. What in the faith, act like men be strong, let all you do be done in love. Yep. First Peter, chapter five, verses eight through nine, be on your guard and stay awake, who? Your enemy the devil is like a roaring lion sneaking around to find someone to attack. But you must resist the devil and what stay strong in your faith. I'm gonna keep going. In fact, even proverbs 423 Above all ours, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. received this sentence, people that all you that are listening. If we don't stay in the Word of God, we will never be able to stand against the enemy. If we don't stay in the Word of God, we will never be able to stand against the enemy. We cannot be a people of God that are against the current of God. When I talk about current I talk about the wave. In fact, if we stand strong, honestly, in the middle of a storm, we can be the log that someone grabs on to in the middle of the storm. But if your cup is empty, if your cup is empty, you're going to be the one drowning. You're going to be the one drowning. And as people of God we stand up we need to learn to Shabbat and we need to learn to Nuuk. So we can rest and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So that when the Strauss have in storms come and we walk, we can be the log that someone's going to grab on to. In fact, you shared a personal testimony last year one a couple of friends of ours, Jayla and I were serving I mean ungodly amounts of hours. And we had friends of ours invite us over to dinner. And they with the most grace and love said, you know, the Lord has we've been talking to the Lord for a very long time. And we really feel like you guys need to take a step away. And at the time, honestly, that hurt that was so painful. Why? Because in my mind was like I'm doing the work of the Lord, I am called to preach and do this. And I'm, why are you asking me to step away? I mean, we stepped away from everything we stepped away from serving, we stepped away from groups, we went in one group, and that was a Bible study we went to and then a group, we were leading a young adults group. And I was so angry during that season, I was like, God, you call me to preach the Word. You call me to these things? Why am I stepping away? Not to go in deep into the testimony. But here's what it did for us. during that season of rest, God spoke to me about this podcast. I was sitting one night, praying and reading. And I'd always dreamed about doing a podcast and God said, I want you to do one. I said, What about? He said, Dungeons and Dragons. And I said, I don't know anything about it. I just have fun and play with my friends. And he said, No, but you know, people who do. And he said, it's going to be called dungeons in disciples. There's so much more that happened in that season of rest, that I thank God for every day. But to the listeners out here, this podcast is alive and birth today, because of a season of rest. Yeah. This podcast is alive right now. Because, look, Tony and I are not perfect at resting. We have to learn how to practice a Shabbat and then do walk in our own life. But we are able to bring it to you with confidence knowing that we're not perfect at this. We are at fault. But we are learning we are growing. And we want to help you learn and grow. We want your testimonies to be filled with, Hey, I'm applying Shabbat and nuoc in my life, so that you have the energy to go to your d&d campaigns. And not let your tired ADHD take control when storyplot is happening. But you can have fun and you can engage and rather than just fall into any maybe bad temptations, you can actually be the light inside of your d&d groups. Yeah. That you can walk into a d&d session even if maybe some of your friends are not Christians. You can be the the embodiment of rest and say and then be like, do you work a job you work all this? How are you just this light? And you say, because I'm learning how to rest? Yeah. Our d&d characters Alon resting and they're awesome at level nine when they long rest, I got almost 100 hit points.

Tony Benda 42:56
is big for yourself.

Josh Shaw 42:58
Yeah. You chose the character you Dan, that's true. But you can be that light. You can be the light. So Tony, what does rest do for us then? Talk to us about what rest does for us.

Tony Benda 43:16
Well beyond the scientific beyond the Shabbat in the new Ark. Well, not even beyond that, like but that's that's it? That isn't it is. It's just an awesome time to spend with the Lord to start. Just as characters in d&d need that long rest to be fully restored, Christians need spiritual rest, renew their strength and take time to bond with other characters.

Josh Shaw 43:43
Bond with the Lord. That's right.

Tony Benda 43:47
Bond with the Lord. All three, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So what are some like practical examples of like how we can? Shabbat or nuoc? Like when do we know it's time to rest?

Josh Shaw 44:01
Because what do we know? It's time? Yeah,

Tony Benda 44:04
there's I will say this, like, not everyone goes to church on the same day. Not everyone works on the same hours. Not everyone has that same nine to five Monday through Friday. So what does it practically look like for each individual person? I know for me, Sundays, you know, working at a church Sundays is my one of my work days. So Monday is a work day. So I have to find my time. Between Sunday and Sunday and Thursday. There's Sunday through Thursday, I work Fridays and Saturdays I need to find that Shabbat that that time to stop and reflect and rest and nuoc with the Lord and just be present with my family just be present with you know the word and continue growing in that way. So, again, that's just me in my head. Your personal schedule, but it's different for everyone.

Josh Shaw 45:04
I would also add one, when you ask the question, when is it time to rest? Yeah. What is your relationships look like? Yeah. How much anxiety are you carrying? How much are you praying? Are your relationships broken? Are your relationships healthy? With you, your family and the Lord? Are you praying? How much do you pray? Do you do you seek the Lord the Lord? The word literally says, Rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, and the word and I think it's First Thessalonians Oh, goodness. But the word I know the Word says that. For this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. So God is saying, Jesus, whoa, Paul's brother Paul is saying through the word of God, that the will of God for your life. Rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance, if you are not living into that word, are you fully rested? And I want to look at this way, what does rest exactly do? Like? What is it doing for us? For one, it's preparing us for upcoming challenges that we don't see. Like in d&d, if we don't long rest, yep, we will get killed. Straight, hands down, hands down, you'll die, if you will. If you don't long rest, you will die. Which is funny, because in our campaign, we took potions that make homebrew potion of staying out, I don't remember what it's called. But it's essentially a potion that makes it stay up for like four days straight. Yeah, that's gonna be interesting. I didn't think about that when I took that potion, any who have any level of exhaustion, so we're gonna get none. So the potion doesn't give us any level of exhaustion. But I don't know what our health points are gonna look like. Anyway, it prepares us for challenges that we don't see on it. And also it teaches us how to rely on God. Prayer, I'm reading a book, I'd recommend it to everybody. I wish he would listen to our podcasts. And I hope one day he just says like, I want to see what this podcast is about because I would. I'd be so thankful. Chad Veatch wrote a book called, oh my gosh, oh, there I was, like, literally Drib, like worried about everything, because I pray about nothing. He wrote these words, prayer does not always change your situation. But it does change you. You may go into prayer with a mountain of debt. Praying to God about it. And you may walk out of prayer is you will walk out of prayer in debt, you're not going to open your eyes and it's going to be gone. I mean, I pray that that does happen to you. It could it could. But that's it's not likely. However, what prayer is meant to do is change you through fasting. Resting teaches, honestly, a lot of the times that I've rested, I've gone into a season of fasting, a deeper connection with the Lord because when you decide to pursue connection with the Lord, the Lord is going to call you deeper. And a lot of times it looks like fasting. And don't quote me like fasting doesn't have to be 24 hours of not eating food or anything like that. But it could be telling you to put something down so you can take up what God has for you. Yeah, other thing is meditating or ruminating on the Word of God. It's such a vulgar example. I'm going to use it anyway. room and I like the word ruminating more than meditating. Because here's why. ruminating comes from the concept of a cow. When a cow eats grass, a cow is four stomachs. I told you is, don't laugh at me, I know is a weird example. But I'm gonna do it. I love it. A cow has four stomachs. So when they eat the grass, it's so gross. But they eat the grass and they swallow it. So what they're going to do is after the grass after they it hits the first stomach, they're actually going to throw it back up into their mouth. I know I told you but it gets better listeners beware. Listeners beware. They're going to throw the grass up back in their mouth and reach you it. They're going to re swallow it. And they're going to throw it back up four different times. Why? Because they have to get all the nutrients out of the grass into each stomach. This process is called ruminating. This is what we do with the Word of God. We read the word we let it ruminate and meditate in our souls. You don't throw it back up, but we bring it back to our mind. Reflect on it more. let it settle. pulling all of the spiritual nutrients we can out of the Word of God That is what rest does for us. Another thing it does is it brings us away from the chaos of life. And honestly, separating is a hard thing. Listen to me, listeners, if you feel like God is calling you away from something, pray about it, and know that it might be uncomfortable to walk away. But it's okay, it's worth it. And the last thing and I love this resting breaks chains that need to be broken. You may think that the thing you're held down to his act is a healing quote, unquote, healing thing. But if there's a chain around you, let me tell you, it's not worth it. God breaks every chain. So if you have a chain on, it's not from the Lord. Let resting break the chains. Let resting. move you. In fact, that's how we're gonna close. I love this, we kind of thought about it. When we're writing stuff down. At we're always going to end with a moment of encouragement. Both you both me and Tony are gonna give you a moment of encouragement. For one, I would encourage players, followers of Jesus to see their characters need for rest as a metaphor for their own need for spiritual and physical rest. Why? You will quickly die if you don't rest. You need prayer, you need intentional, quiet time, calm, you need constant time in the Word. And you need to be able to stand firm in the storms of life. I would encourage you to seek the Lord in your time of rest. Practice Shabbat. Practice Nuuk. Yeah, and see what the Lord has told me what kind of word of encouragement you got.

Tony Benda 52:00
I'm gonna reflect back on Matthew 11 That you had written here earlier. Matthew 1128 through 30 Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Love the word that's Yeah, that's so good. Yeah, I Tony's like Word speaks for itself. That's it. That's I really don't have much more than that. I mean, Jesus himself said it. Well. I dropped the motors button. Seriously. No, it's It's so cool. And that that scripture did come up to me, you know, back in 2018, when we went to IHOP, International House of Prayer, not the pancake place. But yeah, because in that season, again, I was fairly weary and fairly heavy laden with work and life and people and the Lord did give me rest and it was awesome. So that's my encouragement to us is take that scripture to heart. Study it. ruminate on it.

Josh Shaw 53:19
You'll never forget what

Tony Benda 53:22
Seriously though, ruminate on that scripture. She would up digest it and she would up again

Josh Shaw 53:29
and she would not say that.

Tony Benda 53:34
That's good stuff. No. Well, folks, truly thank you for listening. Yes, always. It is, is so much fun to talk about Dungeons and Dragons, and what it really means to be a disciple of Christ and how to relate this to Scripture. And wow, the word is powerful. So I

Josh Shaw 53:55
want to say as well, Tony, can I tease it? Can I tease those episodes? Today said I talked about breaking chains that need to be broken through rest. Yes. If you want to know more about breaking chains. Listen to Episode Four. Yep. There is an incredible word that has been laid on our heart about breaking chains. And we didn't have enough time in this particular episode to talk about it. That's right, but rest assured. Next episode y'all. You don't even know. That's right. Tune in. ruminate on the word. That's right.

Tony Benda 54:36
Well, as we sign off, I want to give you guys our socials again. We are on Facebook and Instagram. At dungeons and disciples. That's the word am spelled out dungeons and disciples on Facebook and Instagram. You can also email us at dungeons disciples@gmail.com now and in that one so dungeons decide polls@gmail.com We are talking about Patreon. At some point in the near future. If you guys have any thoughts, or really would like to listen to any bonus material, we can always provide some woowoo Patreon is a fun way to do it. Yeah, you guys can get a sneak peek in the booth and all these fun things. And merchandise down the road. We got some stuff in the works. So

Josh Shaw 55:24
let me let me add this Tony, can I please if merchandise is something you desire and want to see? Let us know. Yeah, we the biggest thing that I we talked about the beginning of the episode. Share it with one friend. Yeah, we want the Word of God to spread. First and foremost. We love d&d, but the Word of God, we want to take it to the gaming communities. That's right. If merchandise is something you desire. Let us know. We want to grow the ministry and whatever we can. And we love providing the content and and the swag. And the swag. That because if someone's swag, if

Tony Benda 56:03
someone walks up to you and ask you, Hey, what's the what's dungeon, the new staples, you now have an outlet to present the Word of God in a fun format. Amen. So thank you all again for listening. Josh, would you like to close us out with a word of prayer a

Josh Shaw 56:20
word of prayer. Praying. Father, we thank you so much for this time, God. Lord, we thank You that we need Shabbat and we need to Nuuk and we thank You that You created it. God, you didn't need to rest but you chose to rest. And Jesus you came to show us what that meant. I thank You that You are the Lord of the Sabbath. I thank you for everything you do to show us how to rest. And God I thank you that rest breaks chains. It refills us regenerates us and helps us walk in the purpose that you have. I pray for every listener right now. That hears our voices, that they are moved and convicted to rest more and to seek you deeper. Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to just do this podcast and for the listeners. And I just pray that some they just send it to one more one person. One more person once up somebody new. Father, I just pray that this word would change hearts change lives. And most importantly, God. It's not just about the mission. God I pray that this podcast changes me and Tony to Lord continue to use us as vessels of Your Word. We thank you that you are giving us the words and the speech to do it in such a unique and beautiful format. Lord God, we can't change the world but you can. And we thank you that you're choosing our voices to do it. And God let us walk in communion with you. In Jesus name we pray, we seek and we ruminate on your word and on your presence.

Tony Benda 58:06
Amen. Amen. Thanks, I'll see you next week.