Dungeons & Disciples

Josh Shaw 0:00
I want people to get it. And you can put this before the episode even starts, straight up, I want people to get it. We don't record all of this. We don't do this at nine o'clock at night because we are just doing whatever. We just want people to get it. We not get D and D. We want people to get the word of God, like, I'm not perfect, I I've, I'm I'm faulty,

Tony Benda 0:43
same.

Josh Shaw 0:46
But all of this has nothing to do with justifying DND as biblical, but it has everything to do with if you're far away from God pulling you closer, that's all we want. That's all we desire. Jesus is the real. He wrote the story, not us. You

welcome one. Welcome all to dungeons and disciples. I can't confirm or deny that we've recorded anything prior to the opening of the episode, but if it's there, I'd be sure happy if it was part of the mystery is I'm not gonna know until the episode actually comes out, and Tony probably won't tell me. That's

Tony Benda 1:51
true. I keep things from Josh most of the time. We don't pre we don't pre screen anything, except if I've made mistakes, oh, I'm

Josh Shaw 1:59
telling you, I would, you know, and that would be really cool thing for Patreon if we want to do it. Wink, wink, wink.

Tony Benda 2:04
Can hit people,

Josh Shaw 2:05
lol, but even just like, just like talking and derping around, I don't know. It's cool. I like, I don't know I like the unedited,

Tony Benda 2:16
untouched stuff, plus it makes my job easier. I

Josh Shaw 2:20
like, I That's true. I like being unfiltered at times, yeah, because sometimes there's, there's like, real honestly, there's real authenticity and genuineness behind just, just spilling, like, your mind, like, Man, this is how I feel right in this moment. Like, like, job. Like, we're studying job. Oh

Tony Benda 2:40
my gosh. I was just talking about job to someone tonight, like, like, there's so such realness

Josh Shaw 2:44
in like, Job chapter three, where it's just like, he just lost everything, and job is just like, it's crazy. Job doesn't just be like, hey, I really just don't want to, I just wish you can take me away from all this. No. Job is like, I wish you had made the day dark the when I was born, which totally contradicts what God's command in Genesis chapter one, but all he was doing was just just letting out and into the into the wind. Like, this is how I feel, and it sucks, and I don't this is who I this is what I feel right now, yeah, and I think God honors those things when we just kind of release it all, and we just cry and we say, this is this is me, right, right this second, this is me. Because when we give our heart and align our hearts to God. We just man, I tell you, it's like, there's just freedom to it, and then we can open up our hearts, and then God can come in and be like, Okay, I met you in that. Now, let's walk together out of it. That's good. I'm already preaching. I just I've gone through a lot listeners,

Tony Benda 4:01
it's been a it's been a week, it's been a day, it's been a, you know, good things, good things, hard things, life just keeps going. And, yeah,

Josh Shaw 4:16
although I've already spilled what we're talking about,

Tony Benda 4:17
you kind of hinted at it. I

Josh Shaw 4:19
mean, I have to, though, because that's what we do, of course. Tony, why don't you officially introduce us

Tony Benda 4:26
well, to what we're talking jeez,

Josh Shaw 4:30
clear your throat. It's only nine o'clock at night. Tony, my goodness,

Tony Benda 4:36
well, I don't know if Josh actually said his name, but that's Josh Shaw over there on the mic, Hi folks, and I'm Tony Benda. Uh, like he said, Welcome to Dungeons and disciples. It was real heavy, real quick. I'm really sorry these listeners got an earful in a good way, and it's been great. But before we officially drop what we're talking about tonight, here's a recap. Of the last couple episodes that you guys have been listening to, hopefully

Josh Shaw 5:04
those are some honestly awesome episodes, even just just to receive was amazing. Yeah, we

Tony Benda 5:10
had some really, really, really fun people on those episodes, people that are, you know, special to us. And yeah, the episode nine and 10, we had Steven KACHER and tuck Choate join us in the booth, and they're just two awesome godly men that just shared some of their life and their wisdom and D and D knowledge and experience and all those things. And then we had Xavier and fish from the Fishers of Men podcast on here because they are D and D players and awesome young men and totally scripturally grounded, and their parents are amazing. So my goodness, their family,

Josh Shaw 5:53
their excitement, just when I saw them tonight, oh, it was a beautiful thing. Yes, it's

Tony Benda 5:58
so fun. But if you haven't listened to episodes 910, and 11, please go do so. Please go do so, not for us, but for you, because you guys will be filled, because we were filled. But as Josh hinted to earlier, he was talking about aligning ourselves with Christ, and that's what today's episode is about realignment. Is what we're talking about. Josh, would you like to explain how we can

Josh Shaw 6:26
realign, realign ourselves? Let me preface it with this for the listeners at home, this episode and to be honest with you, probably the next couple episodes are going to dive very heavy into not even just the word of God or DND, but kind of what we all face in our everyday lives. You know, I was as I was praying through this and even on, and I'm just gonna be real and authentic. I don't. I'm not hiding anything, and I'm not, certainly not a perfect person. But as I was even just praying through this and experiencing things in my own life, I began to realize and to think to myself, maybe it's time to show people like we're gonna address the hard things that we all fight and we all battle, and realignment folks really falls into line with where are you at, and How can you go back like a car, for example? Like, if your car is out of alignment, you're gonna sway off the road. I actually had a Dodge Caravan one time. I literally bought it off the lot, and it was so out of line when I bought it, you used car, I would I didn't even have the the wheel wouldn't hold straight. It would drift right like, drift, like, drift to the right side of the road. Like, so quick. It was crazy. I had to, like, almost hold the wheel at an angle until I called the dealership. I was like, This is not okay. Like, what did you do to the car between the two hours that I signed paperwork and drove it? Like, what? What happened? And so that this, that's what this episode aims for. Is to, is to kind of dive deep into that realignment principle, which is so funny because in DND, which what we also love talking about, there is such thing as character alignment. Yes, now I'm going to be honest with you, I don't, honestly haven't built a character strictly off of character alignment. Some people have, and that's not a bad thing. But Tony, I want you to talk about what exactly character alignment is, and then we'll come to discuss how we use it. Well,

Tony Benda 8:47
I'll even say this in a lot of like the big shows that people watch or listen to, like critical role, nadpod, dimension 20, things like this, I think they stay, not stay away from intentionally, but they build characters based off of story, and less off of I'm gonna create a character that is lawfully evil or chaotic neutral or whatever, like they don't. I don't think they really built their characters based off that stuff anymore, right? Because they're going with whatever really fits the story. But I'm going to attach a blog post in our show notes today where I'm going to be reading a little bit of this snippet from but here's just kind of a vague, a brief overview of alignments. And this is from the shop of many things.com, and their blog,

Unknown Speaker 9:39
super official.

Tony Benda 9:42
It says in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, alignment is a character's moral and ethical stance. Alignment is an optional element of character creation in DND, but it can be an important tool for players and Dungeon masters alike in developing and understanding a character's motivations, actions and. Role within the game. So it says that alignment varies across two dimensions, lawfulness and morality. So lawfulness is a character's tendency to follow the rules. Those rules could be good, like not killing people for fun, or evil, like exec executing any traitors. Oh, yep, that's fun. I love this blog. And then morality is more self explanatory. So is the character looking to do good things? Do they consider the effect of their actions on other or even society at large? So this says morality comes in three colors, good, neutral and evil. So you kind of have, like, they kind of make nine little blocks of things ranging from you have lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, lawful neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, lawful evil, neutral evil and chaotic evil. So like I said, I'll be leaving the link in the show notes, so you guys can go through and read kind of a little bit about what those things are about. And then they also have, like different characters in here that they, you know, relate these things to, like a chaotic good character. They compare a chaotic good character to someone like Han Solo or Robin Hood or Princess Leia. For Han, they say Han Solo is a rebellious and independent character who values his own freedom above all else. He is motivated by a desire to do what is right, but he's also willing to act outside the law if he believes it is necessary to achieve his goals. That's not a bad comparison. Hence, chaotic good. So you can go through and read all these things, and it's pretty interesting. They have random characters in here, like Hermione Granger and Mr. Robot and Batman. And at least they're memorable Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty. Like Rick Sanchez, it's listed right here. They say true neutral is Rick Sanchez, Rick and Morty.

Josh Shaw 11:48
Goodness. So

Tony Benda 11:48
this is funny, like we said, go check out the show notes for that blog. If you guys want to read more,

Josh Shaw 11:55
you don't, you know, I actually did love though, to be honest with you. In all seriousness, I actually did like how a lot of players base their character off their story, but you can use these alignments and read through these as what was the word I was going to use as like, as like a frame of reference. And I kind of like that. It's almost like a starting point, right? Well, it's also like a checkpoint, like, if I built my character now, like, let's say I started a character as a campaign, and let's say as I continue to make decisions, and as my character grew and developed, because I'm a firm believer, like, as you play the game, especially like longer campaigns, like your character should inevitably look different from when you started to when you get into the middle. Not like necessarily saying you should go from good evil or evil to good, but like your the story should shape the character in different ways. Like Elroy, for example, Elroy um and Zook have changed a little bit. So drastic. Yeah, there's been drastic changes Elroy would justify. Maybe hasn't changed, but there are some things where he's just, he's gone from like that, very reserved, neutral and doesn't be, hasn't been like, turned bad or chaotic, but his passions for things have grown more intense to where the decision making is, rather than being like, swayed. Like, okay, maybe this way to like, nope. We're doing this way because of the traumas he's experienced, yeah. But like, you could technically use those alignments for your character. Like, okay, my character started as this, and now I'm halfway through the campaign, and it's this, like, okay, hold my goodness, what happened? Where did where did I go? You know,

Tony Benda 13:40
that's very true. I

Josh Shaw 13:41
think it's like a really good frame of reference. I've,

Tony Benda 13:44
I will say that Zuck has changed quite a lot. Zook started as this, like, really kind of quiet, timid, like bookworm, yeah. And as a, as a as a wizard. I mean, he kind of kept to himself and his friend, but then when Kanan died, and when Aslan died with him, and it was brutal, like, that's called trauma, I know trauma is a real thing, and it can happen in game and out of game, folks, it's okay. That's why we talk about these things. And we're gonna, actually,

Josh Shaw 14:22
oh, we're no doubt gonna be talking about it at some point. We're no doubt talking about, yeah,

Tony Benda 14:26
so let's wait for that one. No, but the alignment stuff is, is very interesting, because Zuck is is not in the same place that he was. I'm like, Josh said he for Elroy, like Zook isn't good to bad or bad to good. He's just experienced some anguish in trauma, and is not the same. But he shouldn't be the same from where we started. It's kind of like what he said, but like we should be growing and maturing and doing those things.

Josh Shaw 14:59
Yeah, you said, Wow, that actually is profound. That's speaking to me. You said something. I don't know if you just realized it. We shouldn't be the same, correct. That's powerful. I think the trap is that I feel like again, folks, sorry for the authenticity, but I'm also not sorry. I think the trap, especially when it comes to trauma and hurt and pain, is that we need to go from this is who I was, happy, go lucky, joyful, me and I go through a season, and we are trying to walk backwards to what we were and not walk forwards to what we should become. Trauma sucks, and it's going to leave you scarred, and it's going to leave you unrecognizable. But at the end of it, we're already we already talked about job in chapter three of Joe or chapter end of chapter two of job, it literally says that his friends came upon him and Joe was unrecognizable as a human. Job wasn't the same job in chapter one as Chapter 42 when he received all his blessing again,

Tony Benda 16:05
he wasn't clean. He wasn't wearing the same robes he was, or maybe he was, but they might have been torn at

Josh Shaw 16:10
that point. No, but Job. Job was a new person with seven times the blessing he had, and not just a not just blessing, but a brand new understanding of of the God of the universe. Oh, yeah, he was not the same job. So why are we trying to return back to the same Tony or the same Josh that we were?

Tony Benda 16:29
That's good, the the

Josh Shaw 16:31
even, even if Josh in a previous season was joyful, and then Josh goes through some stuff, the Josh that's trying to that Josh, on the other side of all that is not supposed to be the one that's, you know, that was supposed to be the prior joyful. They're supposed to be a new joy. They're supposed to be a new understanding. So when we talk about alignment, Tony, that's kind of where I want to hop in, right there. And I want to, I think it'd be really cool to start with Genesis, right? So in D and D characters awful off, you know, often follow, like codes or deities, personal philosophies, things of that nature, like you can build a character off of that, like paladins, for example, I have to mention him. He's mentioned in every episode Creon or Jared character, right? He's a paladin. He quite often, in the in the game, prays to the to the deity of that he follows in the particular game, right? And we do the same thing. We, if we we follow after Christ in our life, but we can either fall after Christ or fall after the world. And when you look at Genesis, chapter three, verses eight through 10, something started sticking out to me as even I am working through my own trauma and my own pain that I've had happen in my life. Right? The story in chapter you know Genesis. Chapter Three, if you know it is you know the serpent came into the garden. He deceived Adam. He deceived Eve. We all know they partook of the they took, partook of the the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And then God comes walking in the garden and says, Where are you, Adam. Interestingly, doesn't try to deceive God. In fact, he comes to God with almost shame and sadness and confusion of like, I don't know where I'm at. I'm naked and I'm afraid, and I partook in a fruit and that's what I did, all right? And see Adam aligned his heart with something other than God, and His result was running and hiding. Adam didn't try to deceive the Lord when he was found just he was just confused and scared and uncertain. And when we are not aligned with God, we also feel lost and uncertain. Yeah, that's like the first indication that our hearts are not aligned with God and and God didn't hear this also importantly, God's first question is, how could you do this to me? God's first question is, where are you? Where is my child? Where did he? Where did you go? He already knows where we're at, but where are you as a such an intimate and inviting question, what do you think about that?

Tony Benda 19:20
I agree completely about the intimacy, like it's hard to it's hard to imagine someone or something or a creator that is so Omniscient and Omnipresent. And he knew exactly where Adam was, but he wanted Adam to reach out and cry out. It's I had this thought today, sitting in, well, sitting in our evening service, hearing my little baby girl cry in the front row. Like, I don't know why it was taking me a minute to process it, but then I'm thinking to myself, like, how. Much are we crying out to Jesus the way she's crying out for whatever? Hmm, oh, she wants a bottle, she wants her mom, she wants a diaper, change something, but she's crying out for it like that was just one of those random thoughts that occurred to me. How often are we crying out for Jesus? That's like, I think God, in that moment, wanted Adam to cry out for him, for his creator, and be like, God, I messed up. If

Josh Shaw 20:25
you as a father are going to inevitably respond to the cry of your daughter, why would God not to respond to the cry to our father

Tony Benda 20:32
Exactly,

Josh Shaw 20:35
exactly that's hitting me, actually, really deep.

Tony Benda 20:39
It's good stuff, like God wants us to respond in that way. He wants us like to cry out and be intimate and desire him. But how can we desire him if we're not aligned with him?

Josh Shaw 20:52
It's like Matthew 624 which says No one can serve two masters, for he either he will hate one and love the other, or he will hold to one and and despise others. You cannot serve God and mammon or money and other translations, which I do get the context of that scripture predominantly talks about wealth and possessions and and things of that nature, but it can apply to anything absolutely like if you're not, if your heart is aligned with a completely different purpose, then you're not, you're inevitably not going to want to follow God. That can be anything, that could be food, that could be

Tony Benda 21:29
D and D, that could be, oh, yeah, that

Josh Shaw 21:31
could be D and D. I mean, you could be so aligned with D and D that you don't want to be aligned with Christ. And that's not hitting on anybody playing D and D. But there is a real truth behind aligning yourself more with D and D and the new 5e players handbook, or with the Word of God. But nobody should be condemned for it correct. The question for believers to those who are lost or perceived to be lost, should be where are you? It's called invitation and intimacy, yep, which I also, I also wanted to throw this out there, right? We talk about not serving two masters, but I think at the same time, where we, where we get lost in this. When God says, Where are you? I think a good response from Christians is like, how do I how did I get here? I like the prodigal son. He's like, Well, what am I doing here? But I think oftentimes we confuse the terms like purpose and assignment, yeah, and I had to learn this very recently. I think a reason we can get so lost and so wrapped up and so out of line with God is because we can we we interpret purpose this way. If you're a Christian and you you can definitely relate to this is that you probably spend a lot of your life saying, God, what is my purpose? God, show God. Show me my purpose. Show me what I'm what I'm meant to do. Yeah, and we perceive that. We perceive the word purpose to be the thing that we're called to do on Earth, whether that be a job, a career, a particular decision, but a friend had to show me this and help me lean into this, because I'm about to if I don't blow your mind, I've blown my mind several for several weeks now, But I'm hopefully about to free you from something, or the Lord, His Word is going to free you. Actually, not me. I didn't do anything. Mark, chapter 12, verses 28 through 30, says one of the scribes approached when he heard them debating, and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, which command is the most important of all, like, almost trying to, like, deceive Jesus. Yet Jesus answered the most important is, listen Israel, the LORD our God. The Lord is One love, the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, what if your purpose in your life was not the job was not the calling was not that, but the purpose truly designed for your life is just to simply love God with everything that you have, because that freed me. I be, I be as real as I can be. I thought my purpose, quote, unquote, my life, was to preach, and was to preach the gospel and to become a pastor and to plan a church until a friend had to hum, had to show me the word of God and humble me and say, Josh, your purpose is not that. Your purpose is to love God because He loves you. Wake up every day with purpose on your mind that says, What's my purpose? Love God and keep going to God versus assignment. Assignment is what we're called to do in various seasons of life. That is the job, discipling somebody literally anything that the Lord commands. Right for me, my assignment in this season with Tony is to do a podcast to reach you listeners, and for you listeners, to go and share with other people you. That's our that's that's mine and Tony's assignment for this season. I believe that my assignment, and pray that my assignment one day, is to be a pastor and to plant a church and to preach the gospel and to lead people. Is that my assignment right now? No Why? Because I need to get better at my purpose.

Tony Benda 25:23
I think in line with that, John 2117 this verse just came to mind. This is, this is after Jesus has shown himself to his disciples. He's questioning Simon Peter on on the side of the of the of the water, oh yeah, asking him three times. And this is the third time. He said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. Oh, so Peter's assignment in that moment was to feed the sheep. It sounds like what you're saying is that maybe you are called to be a pastor, or your purpose, or whatever your your calling is to be a pastor and plant a church, but your assignment currently is to feed the sheep.

Josh Shaw 26:19
And sometimes, feeding the sheep isn't always the most fun or sad.

Tony Benda 26:27
Sheep stink. Sheep are stupid,

Josh Shaw 26:32
like sheep are dumb. Oh my gosh, that's why

Tony Benda 26:35
we have the story of the 99 and the shepherd goes to save the one, because that one was dumb enough to get out of the pen or to wander off, but you know by himself. Yeah, sheep are not the brightest of the animals. Sheep are

Josh Shaw 26:51
dumb in the sense that they're not the brightest of animals. But I will tell you that sheep are loyal, yes, and sheep know the Shepherd from an outsider, yes, and that's because they're aligned with their shepherd. I love that question, though, in John, he's like, Do you love me? Ask him, Do you love me? Like, of course, Lord I love you. It's kind of like us. It's like, Yes, Lord I love you. I love you. Why am I not here? Why am I not there? Why am I keep being this way? Because talking to Peter and saying, cool, how about just do this one simple assignment first. Now, I don't doubt that he couldn't been talking like, definitely, you know, prophetic, like, feed the sheep, like, feed other people, like, but I think maybe in that moment was like, just feed the sheep. Just, just do this one simple thing. If you really love me, it won't make sense right now, but the more you can feed the sheep and care for the sheep, when the bigger things that we pray about come it's not about how well we're going to do in the assignment when it comes. It's about how well we're going to live the true purpose of loving God. Because when we truly love God, we don't need to move into the place of, Oh, how did I get here? Because even when we're lost, we know that Jesus Christ gave us the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever. John, chapter 14 or 16. I don't recall. You guys can look it up. I think it's 16 verse 17. Oh, it's either 14 verse 17. Doesn't really matter. I'm sorry. I'm not a theologian. I don't remember all this, but the Holy Spirit is within you. If, if you've believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit was within you, even when you think God is far away, God is actually closer than he's ever been when you're hurting. Why? Psalm, chapter 34 verse 18, God is near to the brokenhearted and saves the Christian spirit. Yep. Right. So the the real question, then, Tony is, how do we detect our sense or see a misalignment from the word or from God in our lives? Because I think, if I'm on, if we're honest, there's, there's like different things that we can see the

Tony Benda 29:17
one of the first things that comes to mind. I think accountability is a way to check misalignment. Yeah,

yeah. I think having brothers in Christ or sisters in Christ or whatever. I think having that accountability partner, a spouse, a friend, a church, you know, mentor so to speak, to help keep you in check. Can also help detect misalignment in our lives. That's good.

Josh Shaw 29:44
That's really, really good. I accountability also helps. Helps you see. It's it's just a weird saying, and it's just coming in my brain. It helps you see what you can't see. Yes, right? So, for example, we're going to touch base. On a couple things here, right? Accountability, I feel like is the main thing. Because also, when you look at the garden, isn't it funny? Like Eve was the one that was tempted, even though she was Adam's helper, yeah. But in the Word of God, it also says that when those are of one flesh, were helpers of each other, yes. So Adam didn't keep Eve account. Doesn't matter. That's a whole nother. But accountability also looks like helping others see what you can't see. But then also in your life, being so attached to God that when you start to notice particular things in your life, you can say, Whoa, that's not of God. I need to realign myself. First thing that comes to my mind is comparison. Right? Comparison is not of God. So when you find yourself compares, comparing yourself to others, like, oh, they have this, or they have that. And I don't why like compare, comparison, straight up. And I'm sure plenty of pastors have said it, because it's very popular, but comparison is truly the thief of joy. When your joy is gone like and you start saying, Why do they have all this stuff, or why can't Why is God blessing them? Oh, that's such a big one. Why is God blessing them, but not blessing me? That is such a big one. But even in DND Tony, like, how do we even do you ever find yourself like comparing yourself to another character?

Tony Benda 31:34
Yes, really, no, really, okay, yeah, there are times that I do compare myself, primarily because it's a squishy boy we've talked about this is easy to get hit and go down so quickly that there are times that I wish I was a martial type character, yeah, so I could be able to, you know, swing a sword and do this stuff and, you know, get some more hit points, you know, taken from an enemy. But what I really got to do is realize that I am there's a song that comes to mind. The song is called, you're enough, and I have to take that into consideration when I'm playing Zuck. Zuck is enough. He has his strengths that he brings to the party, and he has to, you know, utilize those strengths to support the party. I'm not the martial character that was never my role or intention. So if I am staying where I need to be and supporting in the best way that I possibly can, then we'll, I think, achieve the outcome that we're looking to achieve.

Josh Shaw 32:33
Yeah, I find myself comparing myself to other physical players. Yeah, like Jarek. I love you. There are times I've compared myself to Derek because that dude can play D and D, he's great at it. Oh my gosh. That dude can play DND with finesse, with knowledge, oh yeah, with, oh yeah with just being so fun, like, Jarek is the perfect package when it comes to DND, and I found myself even comparing myself. Like, why can't I pay Why can't I play like that? Comparison even leading to envy, like, why? Yeah, like, why can I not play like that? Why like this? I'm I'm not enough. I'm not good enough. That statement is what I think deters everybody. I love the movie Inside Out, too.

Tony Benda 33:32
The second one, yeah, the second one. I have not seen the second one. Well, I'm gonna spoil some go for sorry. It's okay. Anxiety

Josh Shaw 33:37
comes in and starts building new core memories within with them, with the care, with the main girl, but the final string, and they pluck it almost like a harp. And I And again, if I'm probably misquoting it, and I'm totally fine with that, but she essentially said that once all the anxiety memories kicked in and started replacing good core memories, anxiety plucked that final string and she said, I'm not good enough or something, a statement along those lines to even where anxiety was Like, that's not what I wanted. And it honestly broke me, because I was like all those moments of anxiety, crept in, crept in, crept in, crept in and start and built a core belief, saying, Bing, I'm not good enough. Tony. You put some scriptures in here, and honestly, reading through it, it's pretty incredible. I want you to walk us through all those scriptures.

Tony Benda 34:47
Yeah, one of the notes you put in here was comparison distracts us from our own path. In Psalm 119, 105 it says Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Yeah. So to me, that means, like, if we're not aligned with the Word of God, then we can easily stray from the path. In John one, one it says In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So that's that saying that God is the word. Let's say it again this way, if we are not aligned with the word, or if we're not aligned with God or Jesus himself, and in his will for our lives, then we can easily stray from the path. So His Word, or he is the lamp to my feet and the light to my path. God is so we need something to help us stay on track, on the path. So thinking through like, what are some disciplines, like daily disciplines that we could hold on to so we could stay aligned? Like practical step type things. First,

Josh Shaw 35:57
two things that come to my mind. Second, Corinthians, chapter 10, verse five, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Practical step number one, a negative thought or a thought not of Christ, come into your mind. Take it captive. I literally was yelling in my car at the enemy trying to pollute my mind with horrible, horrendous thoughts on the way here. That's thought number one. Thought number two is this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, right? That's a big theological statement. In the beginning was the Word, meaning that the word has been around in the very beginning of time, so it's not going before time, before time. And the Word was with God, yep, meaning that God's Word doesn't return void. God knew what to say, how to say it, yep. He knew what he was intentionally doing. And the Word was God, yep, everything in God is life, right? I feel like we carry our Bibles around, not thinking there's any power behind it, but we are carrying around a source of power that is God. God's very words that we're reading is power. I just, I said it earlier, too. If the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, you have a power equivalent to what Jesus Christ had. Do we not? I don't. I don't feel like, I feel like some people think that's like a heretical statement, like, how

Speaker 1 37:23
dare you compare yourself to Christ, Jesus? We're supposed to be like him. I'm

Josh Shaw 37:28
not comparing myself to Jesus. Jesus is clearly better than me. I'm not denying that, but what I am saying is that Jesus, Christ gave us the Holy Spirit. It says in Luke chapter 10, I gave you the power to tread on serpents and scorpions and all over the power of the enemy, but not to just live in that power, but to realize that our names are written in heaven. It's not a heretical statement to be like that. We're called to share in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave us the helper to fill us with power of the fire of the Holy Spirit, to go out and make disciples, baptizing them in the Father, the Son and them the Holy Spirit, on the laying of hands, on praying, of doing miracles. But somehow the church has said miracles don't exist anymore. To me, that's doing opposite of what Paul warned us against. Do not quench the spirit. Yep, I'm really passionate about it. I'm sorry. Like, Oh, I hear you. Of course, we're not seeing miracles because half the churches aren't aligned with God, correct? I'm not going to church for someone to make me happy. I'm going for the church for a Holy Spirit that's going to convict me and bring me to repentance and so I can align my heart with them. I'm not trying to walk like Saul. I'm trying to walk like David. Saul slain 1000s, but David slaying 10 1000s man, and yet David was humble about it. Why? Because David, huh? Because David was a shepherd who knew how to shepherd sheep. Saul wasn't. Saul was simply picked because he was taller than everybody else and he was the biggest kid in school. Yeah, I ain't trying to be a big kid in school. I'm trying to shepherd sheep, and I'm also trying to be a sheep. What do you have to say about it? Tony,

Tony Benda 39:33
well, I say David's a good comparison, because he was a man after God's own heart. That's one thing I strive to be as well. Like to be a man after God's own heart, you have to be aligned with his word. And then it's all about that intimacy thing again, like the goal is to just draw close to Him. I mean, going back to Adam in the garden, he and Eve could not have. Closer with God like literally, they were the only two there that got to spend as much time with they wanted as they wanted with God at any given point when they were waiting perfect, they were made perfect, and then sin came into the world, and that opportunity was taken from us. So now we have to be intentional about being intimate with the Father. So that's why we say in Psalm 119, verse 11 earlier in that chapter, your word, have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are You? O Lord. Teach me your statutes with my lips. I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. I shall delight in your statutes. I shall not forget your word. That is something that we should truly strive to do. And that's going back to some of those practical steps of like just basic Bible knowledge and basic memorization of scriptures that we need to hold on to, reminds

Josh Shaw 41:10
me of Mary. What did Mary do every time Jesus spoke or she saw a miraculous work of the Lord? Do you remember? What did she do? It says, I think twice. And the Gospels, I think it's Matthew or Luke. Don't remember. Actually, I think it's Luke when miraculous works happened, or Jesus did something, probably the one I freaking for sure, the two, the two times I for sure remember the angel, the Lord came, or the angel, and the angel came letting her know that she's going to bear a child. And she said she treasured these things in her heart. Jesus, at a young age, I think it was 12, ran away, went into the temple, basically told Joseph and Mary, like that's where my father is, that's where I'm meant to be. They said, Okay, good for you come home. But that encounter and that conversation with Jesus, Mary against the word of God, says, Mary, again, treasured those things in her heart. She was living out Psalm 19, verse 11 and 12, your word I have treasured in my heart that what that I may not sin against you. Yep, she began understanding something that I don't think we understand as believers. When we treasure the word in our heart, we do it so we may not sin or leave God. And I think we need to get so intimate with the Father and so intimate with our love for Christ, and realize that he never left us. In fact, he came out of heaven for us compared to every other deity in the world that people follow. You can't tell me a single story of another deity that came from the high thrones of wherever they live, to be with man, not only to be with man, but to die for man. Tell me one because Christ was the ultimate servant. Versus other gods. Little G Gods say, No, you'll serve me. God's Jesus Christ said, Mom, I'm here to wash your feet before I die, which kind of brings me to, like, even just talking about David, like another big thing, indicator of that is the hardening of the heart. Ezekiel. Chapter 11, verse 19, says, and I will give them one heart and a new spirit. I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. Hebrews. Chapter three, verses 12 through 13, echoes and says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. Wow, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That's a powerful Scripture. I'm going to share a very real and vulnerable story about that for me when Western North Carolina was hit, my wife really wanted to go and provide relief. And I'm going to be really honest, and honestly, you can hate on me if you want. You can condemn me and give me a one star rating on our broadcast if you want to. But there was a part of me that was like, why should you go? I'm not going to lose you to that. Let them fend for themselves. I'm not losing my wife. I'm not I'm not damaging my brand new truck that I just. Got for my wife and all that debris. That's real. That's real, authentic, authentic thoughts I thought, and I'm sorry, but like, that's a real thing. That's a real thing. I thought and I battled, and I just felt this, this hardening of my heart, when my when my wife was was exuding a heart for God's people, while my heart was so far from God's people, until I finally had to realize, like whoa, I'm clearly not aligned with the Lord like I should be. Because if I was, my heart would be going out and crying out for those people. But I wasn't. And I think if you're honest with yourself, and I think if you look at your heart, you would begin to exhort and pray for people, as long as it is called today, that your heart may not be hardened. And if that's you, I love you, but maybe you should consider how much you're leaning into God's word and how much you're leaning into his heart. Your heart should become his heart. Tony. You got anything on that?

Tony Benda 46:16
I think there have been times where I have hardened my heart as well. In different situations, your story is is very relevant to a lot of us. It is a natural I don't know it's a natural reaction, in my opinion, but realize that we were not like we being born into a sinful world. Are constantly working first of all, once we become saved, or constantly being working towards that process of sanctification. So the daily life is a process of sanctification. So don't fault yourself for thinking that. Obviously that's that's something we have to work through and repent and do all those things, but like that is not something to hold. I look I look at it just like a fleshly response is normal. But as we strive to be closer to Christ, it becomes less and less our habit, less and less our norm.

Josh Shaw 47:18
I think people get condemned for fleshly responses, yeah, and to feel condemned for it, I think again, we resulted all back to accountability. Yes, I think

Tony Benda 47:30
it's not check ourselves.

Josh Shaw 47:31
Sorry, not sorry. But I think if you have a fleshly outburst, if you're around proper accountability, they'll have the heart to tell you, Hey, man, that's not a fruit of the Spirit. Yep, and then, but living in the non condemning attitude, the John eight attitude, Hey, man, that's not a fruit of the Spirit. We shouldn't walk in that kind of sin, or we shouldn't walk in that kind of attitude. But also, if they love you enough, they'd say, Man, I don't necessarily agree with that. But are you okay? Like, is something happening or is something something wrong? Like, what's going on? But that involves walking intimately with somebody. If I I can't walk to somebody in your church, Tony, not living a fruit of the Spirit, and say, Hey, Brother, do you know Galatians chapter five? Because that is a fruit of the flesh. Just wanted to, just wanted to let you know that have an amazing day, and God loves you. They look at me like, Who's this fool? Who's that dude? Why is he condemning me versus you and me, Tony, if I'm living, if I'm partaking in sin, you can lovingly come to me and say, Josh, this ain't you? Like, are you dude? Are you okay? Like, what's going on? Where? Like, where, where are you at right now? Where, where is your where's your mind that right now? And that's not a condemning statement to say so that to somebody, that's a statement of, that's a that's a godly response to somebody to say, Hey, man, where are you at right now? Just as you like in your life, like I've been, I've been struggling as of late. And Aaron called me and Aaron called me and was like, hey, just want to check in on you. And I was like, brother, I'm gonna be honest. I'm not okay. And he was like, Okay, where are you at right now? Not physically, but like, I knew he was asking, like, where are you at right now? I told him, and I love that song by we are messengers, and I encourage everyone to listen to it. And the simple lyric, the song is, maybe it's okay. But the simple lyric, it says, maybe it's okay not to be okay, because the God that holds me is holding on to. Me, maybe it's all right not to be all right, because the God who holds the stars is holding my whole life. That's profound because of the of one of the last little segments here, which I think is everybody's life, if you're a Christian, yes, and amen. And we call it spiritually stagnant seasons. Yep, I'm talking about the seasons y'all where you were riding on that mountain top. You're like, God is good, Hallelujah, Amen. You could hear the entire universe screaming at you. You could see colors. You could see like you could see the next 15 years of your ministry, and then all of a sudden you hit a brick wall, and you're like, Where is God? If you haven't been through that praise God, but I've been, I I'm going through it. Y'all Tony literally wrote Tony's whole college life.

Tony Benda 51:05
Thanks for calling me out. I'm

Josh Shaw 51:06
I'm just now seeing that. Well,

Tony Benda 51:11
I do want to comment and on the last thing you said before I dive into my college you know, life of spiritual dry spells, like, if you're not, if you're not the object of the enemy's attention, maybe you're not close enough to God in those seasons. Oh, so, oh, I don't know. Okay, love it. Okay, whatever. Okay, that's just my thought. The goal, the goals,

Josh Shaw 51:38
I mean, nobody wants to be in the eyes of the enemy, but all at the same time at the sir, if he's not trying to pick on you,

Tony Benda 51:44
maybe he doesn't need to pick on you. Maybe you're already his. Maybe you're, I

Josh Shaw 51:48
mean, to one or two things is happening. Maybe you are so powerful in the Word of God, the enemy is just like y'all I messing with that, not touching it. Either that or you've grown so content that, oh,

Tony Benda 52:01
so apropos. So what's the word I'm looking for?

Josh Shaw 52:05
Maybe you've grown so content that the enemy is just living in the household of your mind, and you don't want to kick them out, or you've or you've cleaned house, and then they brought eight more with them, and you're like, I guess it's all right,

Tony Benda 52:19
it's deep stuff, folks, if, if you are not feeling that spiritual warfare, maybe you're not even in the battle, like, that's the way, oh, come on. It's, it's a hard thing to figure out, because

persecution in the Christian walk is a normal thing. It's, it's, it's, uh, the Bible says we will be persecuted. Thank you. Like, if you're not being persecuted, you might be doing something wrong, so, or maybe just not doing something right. I don't know that's

Josh Shaw 52:54
called, that's called discernment, though, yeah, like, folks, this is what I'm talking about. This. It's, it's, it's real. It's just, this is real and authentic. Like deep episode, I'm just going to be honest with you, like we're not we're not perfect. We don't understand everything. And there full disclaimer, there's chance we can be wrong about things. I'm okay. I'm okay being proven wrong. But what I'm not okay with is telling listeners, telling you guys, saying, just keep doing what you're doing. You'll be just fine. On the other side, yep, I hate that grass is greener mentality, yeah. Just keep walking where the Lord has you. It doesn't Oh, okay. It doesn't matter where the Lord has you, because in Psalm 23 it says He will lead you to green pastures. Stop worrying about the grass being greener on the other side. Just be, just be present.

Tony Benda 53:46
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. So if you're not walking through the valley of the shadow of death at some point in your life, you know, God bless you. I I wish I could say that. But everyone has experienced. Everyone I know personally, has experienced some sort of spiritual, dark place or dry spell, like what Pastor Albert preached a couple months back on a first Thursday. We as Christians are, if we're a Christian, we will be persecuted like that is a that is a fact. And if we're not being persecuted, maybe we need to check our hearts.

Josh Shaw 54:25
That's not to say we wish, we wish ill upon you. Oh no.

Tony Benda 54:30
And I'm not even saying, like, no persecution. But I'm like,

Josh Shaw 54:32
I'm not, we're not saying, oh my gosh, you should go seek to be persecuted by the devil. It's so awesome. It's so fantastic. We love it. I just think the

Tony Benda 54:41
American church has become so complacent in recent decades, in scores of years, that people have no idea what it means to truly be persecuted for the faith. Anyway, that's a whole nother. Sorry, we're that's a whole nother topic. We whole nother topic.

Josh Shaw 54:58
We may have gone. Go over to the deep side for a second. Oh, we love we love you guys. Yes, and Tony and I are just very passionate about this kind of stuff. I will say that, but it honestly does tie to spiritually stagnant seasons. Seriously, right? Because a spiritually stagnant season can be a result of various things that could be a result of our lack to seek. It could be ever as a result of trauma we've gone through. It can result as confusion. It can result as so many things, right?

Tony Benda 55:29
I have in there as a note that Josh pointed out I put Tony's whole college life. I'll just a quick synopsis of my college career, I started off at a Christian university about two hours south of Chicago, called Olivet National University. It's great. School. Loved it, only place I applied, got accepted, got good scholarships, and was very grateful for that, all that stuff. Skip ahead five or six years, I've switched schools two or three times, switched majors four times, and wound up at Northern Illinois University, where I met some of the coolest people in the world and became a member of an eventually music director of the NYU Husky hunks Go Huskies, yeah, the Husky hunks. It's an acapella group. Go look them up. They're on Spotify. Have a few arrangements on that album. It's a lot of fun. No? So College is a weird journey, so like when I was at all of that, I used to travel back and forth. My aunt was leading worship at a church in one of the suburbs, and I used to come back every week and play drums and assist with that music and stuff like that. And then at the same time, I'm struggling, just like with different sin in my life, like living in the world, like pornography addiction. At the time, there was so at all of that you signed a covenant saying you're not going to smoke, drink and do all this other stuff. And here on my 21st birthday, I meant all of that. And of course, we go out and celebrate my 21st birthday. And like, there's a level of like, shame that comes over you, but there's also a level of complacency that comes over you, where I'm in such a spiritually stagnant season that I'm just going through the repetition, just going through the motion of just like the church, things that, like, I don't know. Like, it wasn't really a thought to me at the time. So it was such a spiritually stagnant season that, like, part of me felt guilt and shame. Part of me felt like, Yeah, whatever. And then I move on to a different school, and then, you know, I'm still in that complacent season. There are parts where I'm like, you know, hitting spiritual mountaintops, and I'm like, God, forgive me this stuff. And, you know, we move on. And then there's repentance, and then there's that whole cycle of, like, going back to sin again and then repentance again, and back to sin and repentance again. So, like, these are cyclical things, and the Lord finally broke those things. But, yeah, college just had some rough seasons.

Josh Shaw 57:59
You mean Christian colleges, people don't act inherently Christian.

Tony Benda 58:10
There's sin everywhere.

Josh Shaw 58:12
It's because the American church is more religious than relational. Well, that's

Tony Benda 58:16
very true, but I'm even saying like even so in a Christian college, I'm struggling with some stuff in a public university, a state school, where everything is out in the open.

It was, it was rough, you know. And I'm still going home on the weekends, helping, you know, play drums and lead worship and doing all this stuff in, like, the whole hypocritical Christian life, where it's looking great on the outside, but like, struggling on the inside kind of thing. And it's it was just very rough. But that whole, like stagnant season was truly a stagnant season.

Josh Shaw 58:51
I think you hit the ball. You kind of just hit the nail on the head. I think a spiritually stagnant season happens because we're trying to look good on the outside, but we're actually suffering on the inside Absolutely. I think there's a scripture here about like

Tony Benda 59:06
whitewash tombs, you Pharisees,

Josh Shaw 59:12
Luke, chapter 11, starting in verse 37 trying to love. It says, While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked to dine with him. So he went in, reclined at table, the Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools did not he who made the outside make the inside also, but give as alms to those things that are within. And behold, everything is clean for you. That's so good. It's because we we walk into church, I think we try to view church as this place where, okay, I have to put on my beautiful suit and. Nice looking tie and look the part, but on the inside, we're suffering and dying and saying, Why am I feeling this way? But it's like, and I'm guilty of it. We don't go up to people and say, and when they say, how are you I don't think I think we're terrified to say, I'm actually depressed because we're afraid someone's gonna say, Well, you're a sinner. You shouldn't be depressed. You have the Holy Spirit in your life. Holy Spirit doesn't tolerate depression. Now sit on the pew and raise your hand and read and read your Psalms. We laugh, but like that's, that's,

Tony Benda 1:00:48
I know. That's how I That's how I feel, yep,

Josh Shaw 1:00:53
yep. That's how so many people feel when a real church that isn't being religious but relational. You can go up to the person and say, I'm actually struggling really, really hard, and I don't know how to feel about it, and they'll say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Can I pray with you. Spiritually stagnant seasons occur because we're trying, because we are saying, I need to look good on the outside, but on the inside, we're just crushed, yeah, and that's why my own study lately, I've been so enamored with the personhood of the Holy Spirit living inside of me. I referenced it earlier, and I finally recalled in my mind John chapter 14, verses 16 through 17. I knew I would get there at some point, but I finally have it in my mind, and that scripture says, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of Truth. Likewise, it talks about in Ephesians, chapter one, verses 13 to 14, it says in him, you were also sealed with the promise of what the Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed the Holy Spirit, oh, this is crazy. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory. I think, in order to overcome that internal longing, or rather internal suffering, we have to keep reminding ourselves that if we believed in God, that the Holy Spirit is crying out with groanings too deeper words for us, that we need to believe that even if we our mind tells us that God is far away, that the Holy Spirit lives in with us, and he's going to be with us forever, even when The prodigal ran away. The prodigal never left the mind that the father he ran away from, and all that to say, I mean, all this conversation. I mean, we could talk about a million different topics, which, in future episodes, we're going to be talking a little bit more deeply about some of these things, but I would say the final kind of like into the segment of like understanding and how we detect misalignment in our lives. I would Tony and I would both encourage to go read Galatians chapter five, the fruit of the Spirit versus the fruit of the flesh. Your alignment can be seen through those things. Like, that's how you should judge alignment as well. Like, if you read the fruit of the Spirit, and you read through those and you're like, wow, that's me, you need to start leaning into the fruit of the Spirit. And that's just honest assessment of your life. But never fear, listeners, I think we've talked a lot about what misalignment looks like, but I think we want to not I think we want to encourage you guys that there is a light at the end of yonder tunnel. Tony, how? How should we encourage our listeners? From from this point, we've we've dropped so much authenticity and realness and things that I really don't know if we'll fully include in the podcast. We'll find out, but we'll find out how. How should we encourage listeners

Tony Benda 1:04:32
read John chapter 10? Ooh, just do it. That's all I've got. No, I'm kidding. That's it, if you guys notice, the the chapter compares us to sheep, sheep, like we've said before, very simple creatures, yeah, kind of dumb. They need the guidance, the protection, the rod of discipline, the staff of direction, Psalm 23 and the this, the. Lot of nice staff that comforted me in Psalm 23 like Josh said, and so many more things. In fact, Sheep can't see more than five feet in front of them, and tend to follow the lead sheep, even if it means falling off the end of Cliff. I

Josh Shaw 1:05:13
actually heard a story about somewhere in the middle east within the past year, about like there's a group of shepherds that went in for lunch, and they had, like a herd of, like 1000 sheep, oh no, and the lead sheep, they were these sheep were moving, and the lead sheep actually walked off the cliff. The the shepherds lost, like 250 sheep, equating to, like, 1000s of dollars of of, like property loss, essentially. But so all of the sheep actually jumped off the cliff because the lead sheep went, but the but about 500 sheep lived only because the first 250 sheep broke the fall of the other four. Oh, my goodness, that is so dark, yeah, yeah, but I actually heard that in church service. He was using it as a comparable to say, like, the point is that

Tony Benda 1:06:08
let the other ones that jump off the cliff break your fall.

Josh Shaw 1:06:12
The point is that, are you following a lead sheep? Are you leaning into the shepherd? Are you following into alignment with the shepherd that truly calls your name, or are you following the wolves dressed in sheep's clothing? Oh, that's good. We are just called to graze in the pasture that He has prepared for us. Our purpose, even though we may not be the smartest people, even though we may not be perfect. We we sin, we mess up, we doubt we are confused. We go through stuff, we we sometimes don't fully know how to give everything we have authentically to God, and we have hurts and traumas. Our purpose is to just be sheep, simple creatures that just know the voice of the shepherd that calls our name, and he will lead us into the next field or assignment. Wink, wink, when he's ready to lead us there. And it's good. I'll spoil John 10 a little bit. It says the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him and the sheep hear His voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them, the sheep, follow Him because they know His voice. They will never follow a stranger. Instead, they will run away from him the stranger because they don't know the voice of strangers. Folks. Alignment is truly Proverbs, chapter three, verses five through six. Six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean and not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. I'm not going to read the last part I wrote on there that's still I uh, I'm just not

Tony Benda 1:08:26
we're a little unhinged. We're

Josh Shaw 1:08:27
very unhinged. But I mean, you're either gonna stop listening 40 minutes ago or you've hung on this long, and we love you guys more than you could ever imagine. Yes, but um, we just wanted to thank you guys for listening. We kind of prefaced the beginning part of the episode that it was going to be very unfiltered. I just, I feel, I feel called to mention this that, like I said, kind of halfway through, Tony and I are not profound theologians. We're not Amen. We don't know all the answers. In fact, there is a we could be wrong about a lot of stuff. We're just two guys that really, really love Jesus, even when we struggle, yep, and talking about D and D. You know, if this episode impacted you, and you believe it could impact someone with just the rawness and authenticity and some things we've talked about all i All I ask is you just share it with one person, one person that's on your heart that says, you know, this was kind of real and raw. And I think this one person that has struggled like this may find comfort in hearing other Christians that struggle. And if you are personally impacted by it, and you want to talk with me and Tony about some of these things, even just to. To get some stuff off your chest. You know, like heard you guys this podcast, can can we discord sometime? You know, I just, I'm I'm struggling. We want to join you in that struggle, because we know what it's like to have church, hurt, have trauma, have so much stuff going, and we don't want you to to be alone in that fight.

Tony Benda 1:10:27
Yep, we've walked through the valley of the shadow

Josh Shaw 1:10:31
of death. We still are sometimes,

Tony Benda 1:10:34
yeah, but we'll fear no evil. Tony, according to Psalm 23

Josh Shaw 1:10:39
close this out, bud. You are, you are so incredible with closing us out. I don't know how you do what you do, but Tony likes to say that he's the co host, but I'm actually just the co host.

Tony Benda 1:10:49
False information, folks. It's, this is, you know, I fact checked that, and it is incorrect according to wiki, Tony wiki,

Josh Shaw 1:11:00
Tony, wiki, wiki, woo.

Tony Benda 1:11:03
DJ, Tony, oh my gosh, folks, we are unhinged. It is late at night. Women recording this, and it's been wonderful. I love Josh, I love Jesus, not in that order.

Josh Shaw 1:11:17
I love Jesus. Then I love you too.

Tony Benda 1:11:21
But yeah, folks, be encouraged. Read John 10, this was a deep episode. This was a very off the wall episode talking about realignment. And I think by the end of it, we finally realigned our episode back to what it was supposed to be. I'm

Josh Shaw 1:11:36
not sorry, I'm not sorry either. You know, I'm not sorry. I'm

Tony Benda 1:11:40
glad we got to this point, because we've been very transparent. And I think understanding

Josh Shaw 1:11:44
misalignment is understanding the real and authentic place that you're in correct. In order to be realigned, you have to put these things out into the open and to say them and to recognize that they are real things, in order to say, man, maybe that is me, and then I can fall back into line what Jesus has for me and who Jesus says I am, that's exactly right. Drop my pen. Thank you.

Tony Benda 1:12:04
Yeah, he's not dropping these mics, I'm telling you way too expensive. That being said, Folks call to action this week. Reflect on your spiritual alignment and make intentional changes to align with what Christ has for us and in everything we do. So looking back to Galatians, read about the fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the flesh, find where you land and pray that God you know is able to direct your path, amen, according to Proverbs three. So thank you all for listening. This is where the sad part of the episode comes in, because we say goodbye for this episode. But you can find us on social media platforms, both Facebook and Instagram, at dungeons and disciples. That's the word and spelled out, dungeons and disciples. Or you can send us an email at dungeons disciples@gmail.com that is without the end for that, dungeons disciples@gmail.com We've received quite a few emails already that we are so grateful for. Trey. Shout out to you. Congrats on what you're doing with your school. Keep doing what you're doing. It's been great. So excited for that storytelling that you're doing with those students in the school. Yeah, it's just amazing. Keep being a light in that DD group. Also don't forget to subscribe if you haven't subscribed already. And lastly, please rate and review the show if you get a moment. It's a very quick thing. You don't have to do five stars if it's not a true five star thing. In your opinion, our feelings aren't hurt. We just want the algorithms to get our name out there a little bit, just so we can share Jesus and with more people. Yes, so we could share D and D and Jesus again, not in that order, with people. Our goal is to spread the love of Christ, and we do that through the meeting of D and D. So as you guys know, it's been a pleasure, and we're looking forward to the next episode. Joshua to pray us out. I do.

Josh Shaw 1:14:04
Hey Father. I thank you so much for this time, for meeting us in this place with the realness and just authenticity. Lord, I know we kind of went unhinged tonight, and God, I'm I'm very aware that we did that, Lord, it's just because we're so passionate about you and what you do for us and who you say we are. God, I'm not outside of this train of being lost. Sometimes, God, when I'm lost and I feel like you're not there. I when I close my eyes, I can hear that still small voice just saying, Where are you? God? You don't meet with meet me with condemnation, God, in fact, you meet me with love and just comfort me. And then when I'm ready to hear and I give you all of. I feel you reassure me of your love, and you say, Go forth and sin no more. God, I pray that hearts were convicted. I pray that hearts were realigned to you, God, and not just the hearts of listeners, but God, our hearts too. God, I don't have all the answers. Tony doesn't have all the answers, but God, you do. I thank you for this real and raw episode, God. And I just pray that your churches, God would align our hearts to you, God, that we would fill our seats with your Holy Spirit, God. And if your Holy Spirit is not there. God, I pray that every church right now is filled with your Holy Spirit, that hearts that were maybe once lost are realigned with you, and that your Holy Spirit would fall on every church in the world. God on every heart of every person that is filled with you, God, and every heart that is hesitant about you, God, let the fire of your Holy Spirit move awaken us so he can sing your praises. God, I pray for the mental health, the traumas, the hurts, the pains and even the good seasons, the praises and everything that people may feel. Oh, God of the universe, would you light our paths and grab our hands and lead us? Let us just be sheep God, and let us always follow the voice of our shepherd, God, I love you. We love you. We praise you. We give you all the thanks and all the glory and all the honor in Jesus. Mighty Name. Thanks, guys, bye.