Kids, Canines, and the Quest for a Closer Walk with God

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Pure Faith Podcast, a podcast where we discuss all things Bible. I am your host, co-host, just the brains of the operation.

Speaker 2: 0:18

And the local person.

Speaker 1: 0:19

I am crazy, michelle, this is my brother, mitchell, and we ask that you like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification icon to be notified when new episodes are released. I'm a touch crazy is what I'm told, but life is good. I might be crazy, but your household is crazy. Your household is crazy. I called yesterday was Zeke's fifth birthday, mind you. You're seeing this, you know, a week later, but it was his birthday yesterday, so about 830,. I thought, okay, they should be done with dinner. I'm just going to hopefully they're not in bed yet I'm just going to FaceTime Zeke to wish him happy birthday. Oh, my goodness, mass chaos. But Ephraim was so cute, he's so cute. Hello, goodbye. Hello, because you can see my face and he just ran from ear to ear. So cute. But your other two? I don't know what you guys gave him for dinner, but they were running around like they had way too much sugar.

Speaker 2: 1:30

I don't think they had sugar last night. What did they have for dinner last?

Speaker 1: 1:34

night.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Sausage on there.

Speaker 1: 1:36

That's what it looked like when I FaceTime.

Speaker 2: 1:38

That's Zeke's favorite food is sausage.

Speaker 1: 1:40

It is yeah. Oh, I'm so excited.

Speaker 2: 1:43

So we made, and we made a packet of the brats that you gave us.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Okay, good.

Speaker 2: 1:47

So we had a brats in regular sausage. So the regular sausage for the boys. Me and Paige had to eat the brats.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Okay, that's not sugar, so I don't know what they had. They had some grapes.

Speaker 2: 1:59

They had. They did have rice, so some carbs.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Yeah but, my goodness.

Speaker 2: 2:07

And by the time we were done eating, it was like it's too late for Zeke with an ice cream only it's too late.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:14

So I think Eli and Efrem had a little bit of the coffee cake that I just gave you.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Oh yes, mitchell said that, zeke made it.

Speaker 2: 2:21

No, I lied, that was this morning for breakfast.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Okay, but he made coffee cake for his birthday, him and his mom.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:29

And I got a piece.

Speaker 2: 2:30

I got kicked out of the house, me and Eli.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Well, I saw that you had a hat on. It was 8.30 on my. Did you just get home from work?

Speaker 2: 2:36

No, I got kicked out to the garage.

Speaker 1: 2:37

Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:38

So Eli wasn't interrupting them as they were cooking.

Speaker 1: 2:42

So what did Eli do?

Speaker 2: 2:44

We cleaned out a refrigerator.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Oh, was he super excited.

Speaker 2: 2:47

He was having fun until he wasn't, and then he was gone, just normal.

Speaker 1: 2:55

So well, you'll have that. Anything else going on? I don't think so. Not so much.

Speaker 2: 3:05

Not so much.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Okay, Well, it's January Well it's February, no February. It is February, so today was the first time we saw sunshine in I don't know eight days.

Speaker 2: 3:20

It's actually really nice out.

Speaker 1: 3:21

So nice out today. Oh, so we got a puppy.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Oh yeah, that's new.

Speaker 1: 3:26

This is new from last week. We got a puppy. It is a Cavalier King Charles. He's 11 weeks old. His name is Sir Wyatt.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Wally.

Speaker 1: 3:36

His name is not Wally, his name is Wyatt.

Speaker 1: 3:40

Anyhow well, we didn't name him. The person who they got it from is who named him Anyhow. So this is new. And today, well, no, I had to take him to the vet two days ago. When I came home it was raining and by the time I walked to the vet, since it's right down the road, it was snowing. And then just potty training this puppy in the weather. The last couple of days has been torture, because I don't like to go outside. I go outside when it's necessary, necessary. I'm the one who gets to train this puppy because Phoebe, who is still with us, is 16 years old and she does not like the puppy and she is Dawn's dog, so Phoebe stays with Dawn. I let the puppy out multiple times in the weather. Today was the beautiful day. I would have stayed out there all day. Sunshine hit in your face, so but and on Saturday I get to have your boys over- to our house with the puppy.

Speaker 1: 4:47

This is gonna be interesting because puppies like to play. They like to nip, so I'm assuming there's gonna be lots of tears at our house.

Speaker 2: 4:56

I don't know, jazzy nips at them.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Well then, maybe it won't be so bad.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Jazzy will use them as springboards. It is the funniest thing If that they'll be like just walking by and she'll be hiding and she like jump out and like jump off their back, like literally hit them and like jump off of them.

Speaker 1: 5:20

And go find the other direction.

Speaker 2: 5:22

Yeah, and then take off and then go and hide.

Speaker 1: 5:23

I've not seen this recorded yet.

Speaker 2: 5:25

No, it's, I think. I've tried recording it before and go figure, whenever you start recording, she doesn't do it Right, right and I get that. Or she'll come up short or there's a lot of times she'll just jump by him.

Speaker 1: 5:39

Do they say anything?

Speaker 2: 5:40

No, they're completely clueless. Now the judge like stop him around, I'll just keep going.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Oh, my goodness. Well, I am, I am. Dawn says I'm crazy for having the boys over with a puppy, but I, they need to get used to him, so I'm. I've got a baby gate. If it gets to be too much, or I'll send the puppy upstairs with either I'll send the puppy upstairs with Daniel or I'll send the boys upstairs with Daniel. I know right, yeah, how do I pick? And I'll wait to give them their ice cream bars. Oh wait.

Speaker 2: 6:17

A's and ice cream bars.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Oh, remember the video I sent you of Zeke. He said dad, give me these. These are delicious.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Oh, pages like the grocery store. Right now I shouldn't text or tell her to get some.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Well, you can in my house and get what we have. I don't eat them. The only reason why, god, was because I had to run to the store and Zeke was at the house. I'm like, oh, maybe he would like to have these. And he did, and I got him his favorite chips. He was so excited. You're a sucker, I am a sucker. Well, I don't get to see him for it. I mean, I see him, but I don't get to spend just quality time with Zeke. So when I do, I like to splomb, rotten so and rod his teeth out of his head.

Speaker 2: 6:57

Luckily there's those baby teeth.

Speaker 1: 6:59

I know right, so all right. So we've you put together a podcast how A Bible study. I'm sorry. Okay Are you ready for it?

Speaker 2: 7:17

Are we ready to get into it?

Speaker 1: 7:18

I don't know you. I just made the comment that it was stressful, so I was like I wasn't.

Speaker 2: 7:23

I wasn't sure if I was gonna get my notes done, so here's the issue I ran into. This is a topical Bible study. Topical Bible studies typically have a lot of rabbit holes.

Speaker 1: 7:35

They do.

Speaker 2: 7:36

And I've been chasing down some rabbit holes.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Hmm. And they're taking direction.

Speaker 2: 7:43

There's times, like when I do this at drill, like like last week, we had 20, some minutes of actual Bible study. I had like four to five hours of preparation for that 20 minutes.

Speaker 1: 7:57

Hmm.

Speaker 2: 7:59

So, and that didn't have nearly as many rabbit holes as this did. So I've been chasing down these rabbit holes. I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of research, trying to make sense of all of this so that I can then present it to everybody who watches us in a clear and understanding manner.

Speaker 1: 8:28

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:29

That's a good way so we can absorb. I was going to say a palatable format.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Okay, I mean, if that's what you want to say, or you can Dude yours is better I think people maybe can relate with my wording a little bit better.

Speaker 2: 8:44

Sure.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:46

So this is my attempt. I did I do have enough notes, I think, to get through this podcast.

Speaker 1: 8:51

Okay.

Speaker 2: 8:53

Um, but we're not going to get very far.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Okay.

Speaker 2: 8:59

So, as in, we're not even going to make it through this next piece, but anyways, we'll get into it. So we are in Hebrews 11.6. Um, and I'll read Hebrews 11.6 again, so everybody remembers where we are.

Speaker 1: 9:13

All right, I just said the. I didn't set my timer before that and I thought, oh, so you got 20 minutes of Bible study.

Speaker 2: 9:20

Okay, okay, hold on. Sorry, no, you're fine. So Hebrews 11.6 reads and without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him. So before we get into our next section, if you remember, last week we talked a lot about the fact that, um, we really hit that faith really hard and because we covered in, without faith, it is impossible to please Him. That's where we ended and we hit really hard on this concept of faith and we talked a little bit about this idea of pleasing Him and we kind of talked about the reference to the Greek translation of walking with God. Um, well, the Hebrew translation is walking with God. The Greek translation would be pleased Him or pleased God, but I never went back to actually make that connection. So I want to do that real quick.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Okay.

Speaker 2: 10:26

So again we hammered. On faith.

Speaker 1: 10:28

We did.

Speaker 2: 10:30

And I don't want to go that deep again right now. I highly recommend you go back and watch our last episode and um watch that again. But just to continue from that, we want to let's say, let me read this again Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, it's impossible to please God. So we hammered this faith. There's different aspects of faith. Now, how does us having faith, living faithfully, how does that please God? The best way that I can think of to explain this is as parents ourselves.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Okay.

Speaker 2: 11:16

Um, you know, I'm a father, you're a mother. We have children. Well, when those children do things that are pleasing to us and they are doing what we consider to be the right things without us having to tell them or yell at them or, like right now, my boys don't do this very often it takes a lot of persuasion to get them to do the right thing. But there are times, especially with Zeke, now that he's he's a now five, but there are times where I see him doing what I consider to be right without me having to yell at him or tell him Um, he'll just do. It's just little things. Um, he even did it. This morning, eli threw a fit because I told him to shut games off and Eli's hitting the iPad and he's throwing the remote, and so I have to discipline Eli. Well, while I'm disciplining Eli, zeke's picking up the remote, putting it away. He's doing all the without me telling him. He's just doing these things, putting them away, and he's doing that because he wants to please me Right.

Speaker 1: 12:29

He wants to please you and he knows that you have to get going too.

Speaker 2: 12:32

I mean he knows that there's a schedule and yes, well, I have to admit, being a father has really helped me actually increase my faith, because it helps me to relate to God, the Father.

Speaker 1: 12:47

Right right. So, you want to please him.

Speaker 2: 12:50

The way things operate Now, that now that I am a father myself, I can make that connection better to the way God looks at us as his children.

Speaker 1: 13:00

That's kind of what I was thinking too when you said something like that. I said I was thinking to myself you know, when we do something right for the father, our praise that we get back. You know an open door, a good thing that happens. You know to us in our life type thing. You know that we please him and he gives back to us.

Speaker 2: 13:21

Yes.

Speaker 1: 13:21

It's the same thing with our kids.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Yes.

Speaker 1: 13:24

You know they do something. We praise them, you know, and they get joy out of that. Yes, when we praise them, even just to say thank you, you can tell that that just gives them that joy.

Speaker 2: 13:35

Yep. So this idea it can go both ways. I mean, obviously here we're talking about pleasing, but at the same time if our kids are doing something wrong, that then breaks our heart. You know, there are both sides of that coin. But for what we're looking about here is pleasing him. Well, this again is saying without faith is impossible to please God. So where does this faith come in, how it pleases God when we live our lives faithfully? Another connection here is comparing or connecting faithfulness to righteousness.

Speaker 1: 14:19

Yes.

Speaker 2: 14:20

Because what is righteousness? Righteousness is doing what is right in the eyes of God. When we live our lives righteously, then that pleases God. Well, faithfulness is part of living our lives righteously. It's having that faith, that trust, that confidence that God has us, that he's going to protect us, that he will never leave us and never forsake us, that he will lift us up, that he has plans for us, plans to prosper us, all these things. So when we live our lives in a way that we are giving God glory for those reasons, because we're showing that trust and confidence in His promises, then that pleases God.

Speaker 1: 15:06

Yes.

Speaker 2: 15:07

So I think I hit it hard enough there, but I just wanted to go back because we never actually went back to make that connection at the end of last week. So now that we have that covered, it's time for the next part of that verse, which is for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists. So this is the one that we're going to be. We're going to be here for a bit.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Okay.

Speaker 2: 15:38

Because I really want to take a look at this idea of drawing near to God. And if we want to draw near to God, it's just like this verse says the first step is believing that God exists.

Speaker 1: 15:54

Sorry, that's okay.

Speaker 2: 15:57

So again this is going to. There's a lot of repetition here because it's all stemming from the same thing, but I think it has to be said in order for us to have that confidence, that trust that God does exist, we need to build up our faith, and not we're not looking at the definition of faith here. We're looking how we've built our faith, which is through knowledge and understanding. As you gain knowledge and understanding, your faith grows. As your faith grows, your knowledge and understanding grows. They go hand in hand.

Speaker 2: 16:35

Well, at a certain point, once you reach a certain level of faith and knowledge and understanding, then trust and confidence starts to come into play and you're starting to trust the Word of God. You're starting to have confidence in the fact that God is who the Bible says he is. But at the same time that this is happening, you're also most likely going to be seeing God working in your life, like you were talking about before. You're going to see things happen. You're going to see doors open. You're going to start to see God's path laid out before you. I don't know what's wrong with me. One second.

Speaker 1: 17:18

Oh wait, is it a chocolate milk? Oh what is that? Is that tea?

Speaker 2: 17:23

It's just water with some.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Oh, as I say, because it looks colorful.

Speaker 2: 17:30

Yeah, it's a fruity water mix with some cranberry juice.

Speaker 1: 17:35

That's not a commercial.

Speaker 2: 17:36

No, okay, so that kind of threw me off. That's okay, so, yeah, so we're building up that trust and confidence. We're building up the trust that God is who he says he is. That confidence that God is I think I said that wrong but that confidence in God's word it goes the other way.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:59

So, as that is growing and again you start seeing God working in your life it's all of this kind of built together and everything will just continue to grow and your prayer life will start to come into play and your prayer life will grow and your faith will grow and your knowledge and understanding will grow. Everything will just start growing and keep growing into snowball. Well, like I said, at some point you're going to Come to that conclusion that God is who he says he is and that God does exist. Not only did he exist in his word from the Old Testament and the New Testament, but he still exists today in the way he is working in your life Right right.

Speaker 2: 18:44

So that is where, once you get to that point, to where you know that God exists, that's when you get to the point that you can draw near to God. But this is a pretty big but here, okay, it's not that simple.

Speaker 1: 19:03

Oh.

Speaker 2: 19:04

We can't just draw near to God. We, we, we are a sinful people, right, we are born with original sin. We, we're not worthy to go straight to God. So for that reason we need to have a mediator between us, and Reading Hebrews, hebrews strongly hits on the fact that this mediator is a high priest, and the high priest Referenced is Jesus.

Speaker 2: 19:46

Jesus is our high priest, jesus is our mediator, he is the link between us and God, because we're not worthy to go straight to God. We're just we're, we're covered in in the filth of sin. It's just the way it is. But through Jesus, through his death on the cross, through his burial and resurrection, he has the power to wash away our sins. And so it's through Jesus that we can have that communion with God. Because Another way to look at it is is God is the holy of Holies. If you, if you don't know exactly what that means, if you think back or read back in I Don't know if it's Exodus or numbers, but whenever the tabernacle was built, and then even going forward into the temple there, the innermost room of the tabernacle, and then, following that, the temple was called the holy of Holies. It is a room that One priest, one and right right.

Speaker 2: 20:56

I think once a year. I think so and it was Extremely sacred. It's where they kept the Ark of the Covenant. It's just like an Extremely sacred place in the eyes of the Jewish people. Well, that is technically God for us today. He is the holy of Holies, but if you remember, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil between, or the veil that that separated us from the holy of Holies in the temple was torn in two and in the same way, jesus tearing that that curtain, opening up and exposing the holy of Holies.

Speaker 2: 21:47

That is how Jesus works for us in Comparison to God, god is the holy of Holies, but it's through Jesus that we have access to that. Mm-hmm and Hebrews really highlights this fact, this idea, this concept, and so we want to, or I want to. Well, you cut up on my notes because I was going rogue we're going rogue, that's okay.

Speaker 2: 22:20

So we are going to start to look at this whole idea of drawing near to God Through Jesus as a high priest okay and we're gonna start by doing this in Hebrews 7, 11 through 28, I'm so. Do we have left?

Speaker 1: 22:36

Oh, yeah, seven minutes.

Speaker 2: 22:38

Okay, so We'll get into this. So I'm gonna start by reading Hebrews 7 11, and they're gonna stop and more talk about that, because right, you don't read all.

Speaker 2: 22:49

Okay, very loaded Okay and that's why I'm gonna do this section. I'll just do it verse by verse. Okay, so verse 11. Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of much he's a dick rather than the one named after the order of Aaron?

Speaker 1: 23:18

Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2: 23:21

So I want you to hear this. I I'm going to read this again Now. If perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest who rise after the order of Nochizatech, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? This is huge. I read this and, yeah, this is huge. So what this is saying is that perfection is impossible through the Old Covenant.

Speaker 1: 24:05

Yes, it's impossible.

Speaker 2: 24:06

And the Old Covenant was the Levitical priesthood and the law. So basically the law, the old style of doing things. Perfection was impossible through that. So if perfection was possible through that old way of doing things, then why was there even a need for Jesus to come? But not only that, the fact that Jesus did come, why didn't he come through the Levite line Instead, jesus came from the line of Judah, not from the line of Levi. So Jesus was not a part of that Levitical priesthood, he was outside of that priesthood. But yet Jesus is our High Priest. And not only that, but now it's bringing up this fact that let me see, for what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Mochizidek? So you remember the name, mochizidek, right?

Speaker 1: 25:26

I do.

Speaker 2: 25:28

Do you remember why you remember that name?

Speaker 1: 25:30

Weren't you going to name your child? You sent us a text message that after the name was Mochizidek or something.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Mochizidek, then we're on high camp.

Speaker 1: 25:40

And we're all like please tell us that's not going to be, because from you I could see this, From Paige I could not.

Speaker 2: 25:50

I like the name Mochizidek. But who is Mochizidek? What is the order of Mochizidek?

Speaker 1: 25:57

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 25:58

See, and this is one of the rabb holes. That's like I knew who Mochizidek was. I knew the story of Mochizidek, but this is the rabbit hole that I found myself in and chasing down that rabbit. So, in order to start to understand this, we are going to go to Hebrews seven, one through four. Remember, this is a Bible study, so we study the Bible.

Speaker 2: 26:28

Yeah, so we were in Hebrews 11, six. Then we went to Hebrews seven, 11. Now we're going to Hebrews seven, one through four. So I'm going to read all of one through four. So this reads for this, mochizidek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first by translation of his name, and he, this, is Mochizidek. So Mochizidek is first, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. And he is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever. See how great this man was. To Abraham, the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils.

Speaker 1: 27:39

So he had no mother, he had no father, he had no genealogy.

Speaker 2: 27:45

Neither beginning of days nor end of life. So we're going to cover. We're going to cover this pretty hard. Do we have time?

Speaker 1: 27:55

143.

Speaker 2: 27:58

So, yeah, we probably really don't have time to.

Speaker 1: 28:01

I'm going to tell you you probably don't, but just again, just looking at this, I'm like how does he become? Who?

Speaker 2: 28:11

he is so until next week. If you want to read the actual story of Mochizidek, it is in Genesis 1417 through 24.

Speaker 1: 28:22

Oh, you're right here, so okay.

Speaker 2: 28:26

And we're not going to read. I'm not, I'm not planning on reading that, because there's not a whole lot more information in there than what is here in Hebrews. There are a few things that I will point out, but overall this actually has more information in it about Mochizidek than Genesis does. Okay, so whenever we come back next week, we will break this down to Hebrews 7124.

Speaker 1: 28:57

Letter by letter, If you haven't seen how Mochizidek is spelled. That on top of itself.

Speaker 2: 29:04

What it's M-E-L-C-H-I-Z-E-D-E-K.

Speaker 1: 29:08

Yeah, this is why I don't say words sometimes.

Speaker 2: 29:13

And I say it in Mochizidek. There are a lot of other pronunciations like Mochizidek. There's just a lot of different. I just like Mochizidek.

Speaker 1: 29:24

Because it just rolls off your tongue. That's why you wanted to name F from Mochizidek.

Speaker 2: 29:29

Mochizidek Nimrod.

Speaker 1: 29:30

Nimrod Yep, nimrod.

Speaker 2: 29:33

Yeah, nimrod was a great warrior. In the Bible, read the stories Shell.

Speaker 1: 29:43

Read the stories I'm going to. I'm going to worry about Mochizidek, all right. So we thank you for joining us. Please leave a comment on this video or go to our contact page on PureFaithLivingcom to send us a message. And, as always, if you like what you hear, then we ask that you share this show with others so we can all work together in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. Don't forget to subscribe and we will talk to you again next time.

Speaker 2: 30:11

God bless you everybody.