Pastors' Perspective - 9/6/2024

Equipping the Saints with Sound Biblical Instruction. This is KWAVE 107.9.

Hello and welcome to Pastors Perspective, sponsored by Biola University,

ranked as the most comprehensively Christian university in North America.

I'm Brian Perez, and we are here live on this Friday, the 6th of September.

Give us a call at 888-564-6173. That number is good until 4 p.m. Pacific time today.

It's actually good all the time, but after 4 p.m. you might just get a busy signal for the next three days.

So call us today at 888-564-6173.

You're also welcome to send us your question using the Pastors Perspective Facebook Messenger account

or by going to our flagship website at www.pastorsperspective.org.

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Look for the Pastors Perspective page under Programs and submit your question that way.

But there's no guarantee that we will get the questions that you send in online.

We'll receive them. I should say, yes, we will receive them,

but there's no guarantee that we will read them on the radio program.

And you might say, well, I don't want you to read it on the radio.

I just want you to answer my question on the email.

It's like, no, we don't do that. That's not what we're set up to do.

So if you have a question for us, give us a call.

888-564-6173.

Pastor Brian Broderson from Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa joins me in the studio today.

Pastor Brian, am I being too strict and rigid with my—

have I set up too many rules for people to call in or to get their question to us?

Well, I do think that we need to remind people that we're not just answering questions like,

here, send in a question and we'll sit down and type it in an answer for you.

Right. Yeah.

It's a question-answer program where we actually talk to people.

Yes.

That's our preference.

And we don't really have the staff to do the other.

Yeah.

And it's so much funner—

I agree.

—to actually talk to people.

Yes.

Yes. I prefer that.

Because when I read the questions, it's all monotone.

I mean, I try my best to put inflection in there.

Oh, you do. You do.

But I might do it wrong.

I might miss a comma or something and wind up asking an entirely different question.

So I want to say, at the top of the program,

I want to say a big thank you to everybody who prayed for my dad.

He had quadruple bypass this morning.

So they thought it was going to be triple.

And when they went in, they found out that there was a need to go with one more artery.

I spoke to him about an hour ago.

And he—like, the first thing he said to me, he said, thank everybody for their prayers.

And so I wanted to make sure that I did that.

And, you know, for the next 24 to 48 hours, you know, after—

after surgery like that, you're still—

Oh, yeah.

You're not totally out of the woods.

So if you wouldn't mind just, you know, saying a little prayer for him this weekend,

that would be great.

But, you know, he's just doing really well, all things considered.

Well, praise God.

Is he here locally or does he live—

No, he actually—my dad, as I mentioned, is 85 years old.

For 83 years, he lived in California.

He was born and raised in California.

And a little over a year and a half ago, he moved to Virginia.

Mm-hmm.

I have a sister who lives in Virginia.

And they have a—they bought a house that's, you know, they've got like a sort of a granny

flat sort of a thing that he and my stepmom are able to live in.

Mm-hmm.

So, yeah.

So he's—he's in Virginia now.

Nice.

Yeah.

Well, good.

Praise God.

Keep him in prayer.

Michael Broderson.

888-564-6173.

And we're going to begin with a question that was sent in online.

This one is from Micah.

And—

And Micah writes,

What should one do with old Bibles?

Is it okay to throw them out?

I feel odd to donate them or give them to somebody when they're marked, noted, or personalized.

What do you think, Pastor Brian?

Well, I feel more odd throwing them away than I do actually giving them away—

Right.

—even if they are marked up.

Yeah, this is—you're not the first person who has found themselves in this dilemma.

You know, throwing away a Bible, you're just like, gosh, I just don't know.

You know, I have thrown away a couple of Bibles and just thought, you know, maybe the trashman is actually going to find this Bible and get saved.

You never know.

That's my justification.

But I do know—and actually, I've seen this recently.

I think I've seen it on Instagram, maybe somewhere.

Prison Fellowship is looking for Bibles because they've got more people in prison that are not in prison.

They've got more people in prison that are interested in Bibles than they actually have Bibles to give them.

So they were requesting donations of Bibles.

Now, I'm not quite sure if they were wanting new Bibles or if they were willing to take used Bibles.

Over the years, we've done a number of things.

I mean, we've literally sent thousands of Bibles to different parts of the world where they just didn't have access to Bibles.

So, you know, maybe check out Prison Fellowship.

Because I know they're looking for Bibles.

Maybe they're looking for used Bibles.

And then that would be a good place.

And if not there, again, you know, I mean, I wouldn't worry at all about—I wouldn't worry about even throwing away a Bible.

I mean, it's not like, you know, it's not like, oh, no, I threw away a Bible.

I don't know if I'm saved.

But if you can give it away, then why not?

Even if it is used and marked up and all of that.

There is an organization I just found online.

They're called GTI Hope.

And I think we've partnered with them here.

Our flagship radio station, K-Wave, has done things with them before.

So this might—I think it's the same organization.

And it looks like they do accept Bibles.

Yeah, it said something down there.

You just went by.

It said something about need Bibles.

Need Bibles.

Needed.

Bibles and Christian books.

Needed.

Bibles and Christian books will bless people and ministries in South Asia.

So—

Gently used.

Hmm.

Well, I don't know about that.

Yeah.

I guess if it's—I don't know.

Even if it's in really bad condition—I mean, we've heard stories of people in third world countries.

They just have like a page of the Bible.

Yes.

And they're just like thrilled.

Yeah.

So that might be something to look into.

Yeah.

This could be a good—

GTI Hope.org.

Okay.

Micah, thanks for sending in your question on Facebook Messenger.

888-564-6173 is the number to call today with your questions till 4 p.m.

Want to do another one?

Let's do another one.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

Okay.

Heather wrote in.

And Heather writes, I'm a Christian, and I'm living between two difficult neighbors.

I've tried to extend my kindness, and all they do is talk behind my back, and all because

I won't let the one move his fence over on my property line and the other one because I had the town come out and open up the drainage hole on the other one's property so my property didn't flood.

I feel like I can't go outside.

I feel like I'm stuck in my own house, and I don't know what to do.

I'm trying to be a Christian, and I know we're in difficult times, but I just need some guidance.

What would you say to Heather in Indiana?

Go outside.

You have to.

Just do it.

You know, at some point, you just have to bite the bullet and do that.

I mean, you shouldn't be a prisoner in your house over the fact that, you know, these people – I mean, you know, the guy wants to move his fence onto your property.

It's like, well, no, you can't do that.

That's not complicated.

You know, that seems pretty simple.

And you don't want your neighbor's yard flooding your yard.

I don't think that's an unreasonable request either.

So, you know.

You know, just pray for these people that they get over it and just go about your life.

Be kind.

You know, be gracious.

And – but, you know, don't be a prisoner in your home over this.

I mean, what are they going to do?

They're going to, you know, maybe just give you a dirty look or something.

But, yeah, we can take that.

Sometimes it's difficult knowing or thinking that people are talking behind our back and not being able to defend ourselves.

Yeah.

And how do we handle that?

Because, like, in Heather's case, she's just like, I'm just not going to go outside.

I'm thinking even if she goes – even if she stays inside, they're probably talking about her.

Oh, look, she's in her house.

She doesn't want to come out.

I wonder why, you know.

And, you know, Brian, being in ministry, you get talked about behind your back all the time.

You even?

Well, I just said in general, being in ministry.

Yeah.

And, you know, you just have to – you just – it is what it is.

You know, God knows.

God knows the truth about all of those things, so you just have to say, well, okay, whatever.

Yeah.

You can't stop it from happening.

It's like the illustration of, like, thoughts that you don't want, you know, where you can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop it from building a nest.

You can't stop people from talking behind your back, but you can stop yourself.

You can't stop yourself from being overwhelmed by it and preoccupied with it and just – to be able to just say, look, this isn't my problem.

You know, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with everyone, Paul said in Romans 12.

And so if you're just doing what you can to be peaceable and it's not being reciprocated, what can you do?

Right.

So.

Getting back to Heather's situation, what's the Bible verse in the Old Testament that talks about the boundary markers on the property line and all that?

I don't think it applies here.

No.

I don't think it applies here, but that just came to mind.

Yeah.

I don't remember what that is.

I mean, there is a passage, and I'm not – could be in Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers.

Yeah.

Or Deuteronomy.

Yeah.

That talks about not moving the boundary line and things like that.

So, yeah, it's probably not applicable if you took it into the court and said, hey, check this out.

Deuteronomy right here says this guy can't do that.

Yeah.

Not going to work.

But it is okay to not let somebody build a fence on your property.

Heather, thank you for sending in your question.

And let's do one more that was sent in on Facebook.

This one is from Jen.

And Pastor Brian, Cheryl's not here today, but be careful how you answer this one.

No, I'm joking.

Jen writes, what does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 7 when he says married men should live as if they had no wife?

I've read that before.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I've read the verses before that and after that, but I don't understand the thought process.

What is the thought process behind that portion of the verse, 1 Corinthians 7, 29?

Okay, I'm going to be really good in answering that.

I'm not going to – if other people were in the studio, we'd probably go off and joke about it.

But I'm going to be really serious.

The context is – the answer is in the context.

And the context is Paul is saying that the married man cares for the things he loves.

He cares for the things of his wife.

You know, there are just natural burdens that come along with marriage.

You have to think about your home.

You have to think about provision.

You have to think about a lot of things.

His argument there is that the single person is freed up from the distractions that naturally come to the married person.

So what he's saying is, you know, husbands live as though –

they don't have a wife means don't – even if you're married, don't get divorced and –

but at the same time, don't get entangled in the affairs of this world

like there is a natural tendency to happen when you are married.

So be on your guard against that.

Sounds good.

Jen, thank you for sending in your question on Facebook Messenger.

And now we're going to go to the phones.

Here is Bob in Buena Park.

Welcome to Pastors Perspective.

Bob?

Hi.

How are you doing?

Doing well, thanks.

I was a little curious about the passage where the centurion sends a message to Jesus to heal his servant, which he does.

But he says, of course, he didn't want him to come to his house because it was not fit for Jesus to be in.

What does that mean?

Well, Jesus said that he'd never seen such greater faith than all of Jerusalem, I believe.

It seems like a very profound statement and there's really no follow-up to that passage.

How do you take it?

So you're wondering why Jesus thought this man had so much faith?

Just based on him saying, you don't have to come to my house?

What do you mean?

Well, what do you mean?

Well, when he made this statement, it's only, I believe it's in Mark and Luke, but it doesn't, it's a very short passage and it just ends there.

I mean, I'm also curious what happened to the centurion because if this got back to his superiors, I believe he'd be in a lot of trouble.

Pastor Brian?

Yeah, I think, you know, we see this in the Gospels in a number of places,

where Jesus is, he's really chiding the Israelites for the fact that they're,

the Gentiles are outshining them in belief.

And in Luke's Gospel, in the early chapters of Luke, Jesus talks about how there were many widows, for example, in Israel at the time of Elijah,

but to none of them was Elijah sent,

except to the widow of Zarephath.

There were many lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha,

and to none of them was Elijah sent except to a man who was a foreigner.

And the point that Jesus is making, just like he's making right here,

is that the Gentiles, the outsiders, actually have more faith than the people who should have faith.

The people who should have embraced him, believed in him, received him as the Messiah,

they're skeptical, they're unbelieving, they're rejecting him,

and yet these others are, who have no historical expectation for the Messiah,

they have no scriptural promises to base their life upon,

but, you know, they're looking at Jesus and saying, I believe.

And so that's what he's really referring to here with the centurion.

So the centurion, the centurion is obviously a non-Israelite, he's a Roman.

And he would be, therefore, a pagan.

But yet he's exercising the kind of faith that Jesus is not seeing among his own people.

Bob, what do you think?

Okay.

That help?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it does, it does.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you for calling in today on Pastors' Perspective.

888-564-7000.

888-564-6173 is the number to call between now and 4 p.m. Pacific time.

We've got Brian Broderson from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa here to answer your questions.

By the way, Pastor Brian is teaching at Calvary Costa Mesa this Sunday morning and Sunday evening.

Yes?

Yes, indeed I am.

Sunday morning we are, you know, we're making our way, as you know,

through kind of the big picture view of Scripture.

And we are getting close to the end of the year in which we have to finish this.

So we haven't even got to the New Testament yet.

So yeah, so this Sunday our little kind of vignette is the faithfulness, the topic of faithfulness.

Last week Char looked at the faithfulness of God's people in exile, Daniel and so forth.

And this week I'm going to look at faithfulness from the perspective of God's faithfulness.

Faithfulness to his word, faithfulness to his people.

Looking at those great prophetic passages in Daniel chapter 7, Daniel chapter 9, and so forth.

And then in the evening we're back in our study in the Gospel of Luke.

So yeah.

So in my absence, Pastor Richard Cimino has been filling in.

And he doesn't pick up where I left off.

He actually taught through Philippians.

And so I'm going to resume in Luke, our study through Luke.

Or you're not just going to pick it up in Philippians.

Because you've still got stuff to share.

Richard finished Philippians.

So I'm going to go back to Luke.

Nice.

Yes.

So get all the details, service times, etc.

Well, I'll give you the service times right now.

8.30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

The evening service is at 6 p.m.

If you want other details, you can find that online at cccm.com.

The website for Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

Cccm.com.

888-564-6173 is the number to call.

Thank you.

888-564-6173.

And Sunday night, we actually refer to that meeting as Back to Basics Live.

And so if you're looking on the website, that's what you'll be looking for.

Good point.

Here's a question sent in online by Kim.

Kim writes, I married into a Filipino family and they are mainly Catholic.

I noticed there's statues of saints and things like that in the house.

I would never bring one of those things into my home.

But I'm conflicted.

Do I even tolerate that?

Another thing is, do I allow my in-laws to watch spiritual horror movies inside my home when they come over?

Spiritual horror movies.

Have you heard of this?

I'm not quite sure what that means.

Because that's what my mother-in-law likes to watch all the time.

I don't like the thought of that inside my home.

Am I being too much here?

Asks Kim.

Yeah, this is a mystery.

Spiritual horror movies.

We're both a little bit baffled on what that is.

I don't want to know what that is.

Exactly.

But I think on one level, of course, it is your home.

So you do have the right to set the standard within your home.

And so I think if there's something really troubling about these films, again, we don't really even know what that's a reference to.

But if there's something that's troubling you, then you might just say to your in-laws, you know, look, I would just like you not to watch those when we come.

Oh, when you come over, this is not – my house isn't a place where I'm going to have that.

When it comes to the images that you referred to earlier, you don't really have any control over that.

No, you cannot go in their house and take all of those and break them and throw them in the rubbish.

That is not allowable.

You know, this is something that you just have to pray for them, pray that God touches their heart and that they – you know, when people come to know Jesus, all of these things that are, you know, whether they're sinful or idolatrous or whatever, Jesus, it's his job to clean us up.

He takes those things away.

So even if you went in and scolded him about the statues and all of that, that's not really going to accomplish anything.

What's going to accomplish –

Yeah.

What's going to accomplish something is the Spirit of God working in their lives through your witness of love and grace and through your prayer for them.

So I think of – you know, Paul the Apostle, here's a great chapter in the Bible you can read, kind of relevant to this.

Acts 17, Paul goes into the city of Athens, and the city of Athens is filled with idols.

It's like there's an idol on – not just on every corner.

There's an idol just – everywhere you look, there's idols everywhere.

And Paul comes to the people of Athens, and he said, wow, you know, I notice you are very religious.

You know, look, got a lot of worship opportunities around here.

And I saw this – I actually saw an image that you have set up, and it's to the unknown God.

So I am going to tell you about the God that you are unknowingly worshiping.

And then he used that as a springboard to explain to them who the true God is and to preach the gospel from that.

So Paul didn't say, hey, bring in the bulldozer.

We're going to mow down all of these idols right now.

You guys are idolaters, and you need to stop this.

He took advantage of the opportunity to preach the gospel.

That's what we should do.

Kim, thanks for sending in your question.

And I did do a search online for spiritual horror movies.

And I think what they mean is – what Kim means is like supernatural, paranormal, ghost-type things, like maybe The Exorcist and things of that nature.

Probably anything that has to do with, you know, the demonic realm, the – you know.

Yeah, some of that stuff is pretty creepy.

I wouldn't watch it.

I wouldn't watch it either.

I can't do those kinds of movies anymore.

I mean it's been several years.

The last one I watched, it just freaked me out.

I mean not these demonic ones, but I mean just horror movies in general.

I just said – I swore them off.

I'm just like no more.

The last one I watched freaked me out.

For me, it's like The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I mean those are my horror – that's about as deep into horror as I go.

Right, right.

Who can forget The Blob?

That's not really a horror movie, but that's a lot of fun.

All right, Kim, thanks for sending in your question online.

And let's see.

Do we have time to take another one?

Yeah, let's do this one here.

This one is from Confused in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Revelation 4-7 talks about the four creatures with the eyes.

Are those angels?

I get confused because John calls them creatures in the NIV.

What do you say, Brian?

Yeah, creature is a word that is – you know, it's kind of an old word.

And I just mentioned the creature from the Black Lagoon.

So that's kind of like you're like, oh, wow, is that what we're talking about?

Living being is probably just a better way to even translate the word there.

A creature is something created.

That's what a creature is.

But, you know, we do think of sometimes creature in a kind of a little bit more of a negative and, you know, horror flick way.

So think of living being.

That might be.

That's a better way to understand it.

Okay.

Isabel, thank you for sending in your question.

And thank you for watching us there in Corpus Christi, Texas on Facebook.

Michael in Virginia, welcome to the program.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for calling 888-564-6173.

What's up?

Well, I'm in Virginia.

I just heard about Brian Stagg recovering from quadruple bypass.

And I was wondering what CCF he attends or if we can do a meal.

Michael, that is so kind.

Thank you so much.

You know, he lives, I mentioned this, he lives with my sister.

I think they live in the Fredericksburg area.

But he's got a lot of family all around him and he's pretty well taken care of.

So that is very kind of you.

And thank you so much for even just, you know, the suggestion that you would help out with that.

But it's really not necessary.

It's very kind.

Yeah, totally.

Michael, thank you for calling in with that.

And yeah, just remember to keep Pastor Brian's dad, whose name is also Michael, keep him in your prayers.

But yeah, we appreciate you wanting to help out like that.

One more question that was sent in online and then we'll go to the phones for the rest of the hour.

888-564-6173 is the number to call.

And Mitchell, who's 10 years old, wrote in and wants to know,

What was God doing before he made Christ?

What was God doing before he made the world?

Let's think about that.

God couldn't go to the beach because he hadn't yet created the beach or the world or the beach on the world.

I'm kidding.

But seriously, what was God doing before he made the world?

What do you think, Brian?

Well, this is an unanswerable question because God hasn't told us what he was doing.

But he certainly wasn't doing nothing.

Remember God.

He's eternal.

That means he always has been, always will be.

And God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So we know that for all eternity there is a relational situation going on within the very nature of God.

Creating the world, there's question about whether or not the material world—so we live in the material world.

And when the Bible says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, it is the material universe that is being referred to.

So that doesn't necessarily include the angels.

So the angels more than likely were with God even before the world was created.

But of course God created the angels as well.

But we don't know exactly when he did.

So we don't know the answer to the question.

And it's one of those things that we just have to say,

well, you know, I'm not sure about that.

But I'm sure if that's still on your mind when you get to heaven,

you can say, God, what were you doing before you made the world?

And I'm sure he will tell you because, of course, he knows.

Yeah, he'd remember that.

Mitchell, thanks for calling in today, or for writing in, I should say, with your question using the form online at kwave.com.

Amanda in Glendora, let's get your question in.

We're up to a break in a couple of minutes.

So let's at least hear what your question is.

And maybe we'll answer you in the second half of the program.

Go ahead.

My question is if we as believers can willfully make a decision to turn away from a plan that God has paved the way for us to decide to go down after lots of prayer.

And the opposite direction.

The opposite direction would involve getting to spend more time with my infant son who's four months old.

But I feel conflicted about a decision that I have to make today to return to a full-time school program.

And I just really need a discernment because I've been praying about it for the last month and a half.

And what's your gut feeling on it today?

Well.

I just feel like, yes, I do want to continue because I'm halfway done.

But I absolutely don't want to take away time from my son.

And I would be required to spend 15 hours without my son per week as I see clients online.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Well, I think this is something that I don't know.

I think you should put it in the category like, oh, wow, God's opened the door.

He's paved the way.

So I better go through this.

And if I don't, I'm going to be in trouble with God.

Just take it completely out of a category like that.

And just put it in more in the category of, you know, what's the best for me at the present time?

And, you know, there are times when I actually believe that the Lord just sort of says, hey.

You can, whatever you choose.

I'm going to be with you and bless you.

It's not a sinful thing.

So it's not like, you know, you're trying to decide whether you should go off and sin.

This is just a life choice you're not sure about.

And so you don't have to be that burdened about it to think that, oh, no, if I make the wrong decision, I'm going to be in trouble with God.

No, you're not going to be in trouble with God.

And I think it's a decision that you, as a mother, you look at and you say, what do I want to do at this time?

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks for calling us today on Pastors Perspective.

Time for the break.

We will be back with more of your questions, 888-564-6173, 888-564-6173.

Sharon in Riverside, you will be first when we come back on Pastors Perspective.

You're back.

Yay.

We are, too, on Pastors Perspective, sponsored by Biola University, ranked as the most comprehensively Christian university in North America.

I'm Brian Perez here with Pastor Brian Broderson, whom you hear on many of these same stations on the radio program called Back to Basics.

He's also the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in Southern California.

You can find out more about Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa at cccm.com.

And you can catch up on past episodes that you may have missed of Back to Basics.

Back to Basics on backtobasicsradio.com.

Now, right before the break, we were talking about Amanda, who needed to make this decision today about whether to, you know, spend more time with her infant, newborn, four-month-old, I think she said, or, you know, go back into doing this thing that's going to take time away from that.

And I think what it is a lot of times, and I'm not saying Amanda's doing this, but we are so paranoid.

We freeze up that we're going to make the wrong decision.

And not only might we make God upset with us, I think that's the fear sometimes, but it's also what if I turn right and I get so off the course God wanted me on that I can never get back on what he had planned for me?

Well, yeah.

Like I said, unless you're making a decision to do a left turn into sin or a right turn into sin.

Right.

Then you don't have to worry about that.

If you're just trying to make the right decision and you just honestly don't know what the right decision is, you do what, in the end, you just do what you feel like, I'm just going to go with this.

And then you just trust God, who is your Father, to redirect you if need be.

And I shared a few days ago on the program, we talked about that, you know, that there was a point in my life, and this was a big life for me.

And this was a big life decision that I was making.

And I just was not absolutely sure that I was making the right decision.

And I had to finally conclude, because there never was a crystal clear, like, this is the way, walk in it.

I finally had to make a decision with the understanding that if I was making the wrong decision, God would help me correct it.

And in her case, I think, you know, she has a big heart.

You know, she has a newborn baby.

As a mother, of course, you want to spend time with your baby.

That's a good thing.

But does it mean that it would be a bad thing if you went and did the job that she was going to do?

No, not necessarily.

I mean, lots of people, you know, lots of ladies have children and then they, you know, they continue to work.

My daughter, she is a hair stylist and she has a four-year-old son.

And from the time he was probably six months old or something, she's been working.

And, you know, just figuring it out, navigating it.

And grandma and grandpa have been there on plenty of occasions to help her out.

Were you pushing her purposely to go back to work so that you can spend more time with her?

Actually, no, we weren't.

But, you know, I mean, it's great.

She's…

Her…

Recently, her salon burned down.

So she's actually right now jobless.

Oh, my goodness.

But she's feeling okay about it.

She's just not worried about it.

She just knows that, you know, God will provide what she needs when she needs it.

Wow.

I didn't know about that.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Man.

Okay, back to the phones we go.

Here is Sharon in Riverside.

Thank you, Sharon, for calling in today.

What's up?

My question is similar to the one that was previously about figurines on the wall.

Okay.

So I have a figurine of Jesus hanging on the wall and, you know, with his hands outspread.

And then I have a cabinet that, you know, glass cabinet, I guess that's what you call it.

And that my grandmother, you know, I inherit from my grandmother.

And I didn't know what to put in it.

So I thought, being a Christian, I thought, you know, because I go to antique stores with

my…

And thrift stores with a friend of mine that loves them.

And I…

And she asked me, she goes, well, you're not buying anything.

And I go, I'm not into material things.

And so I thought these little angels, you know, little figurine angels, so I thought,

I'll fill up my cabinet with the angels.

Now I'm wondering, because, you know, it was on the air a minute ago, am I wrong?

Is that a sin?

Okay, here's a simple way to figure that out.

Are you worshipping the picture of Jesus or worshipping the little angel figurines?

I'm not worshipping them, no.

You're not doing that, right?

No, I…

No, I just…

When I go to prayer, I go directly to God.

Yeah.

The Bible…

What the Bible prohibits is the worship of these images.

We're not to do that.

So it doesn't mean you can't have a…

My mom has…

Oh, gosh, for the life of me, I'm forgetting what they are.

They're the little…

They're the little figurines, but they're like…

Precious moments?

Precious moments!

Wow!

Don't ask me how I knew that.

Wow!

That is amazing that you remember that.

Yes.

Brian Perez, who would have guessed that you would be the person to recall…

Well, have you seen my office?

No, I'm joking.

No.

I do have penguins all over my office, but none of them are precious moments.

Yes.

My mother has collected precious moments, little figurines for years and years, and

these are just, you know, they're knickknacks.

They're little memorabilia.

They're nothing to be worried about, that, oh, no, I'm somehow violating the commandments

of God.

No, unless you're actually bowing down before, or you have a picture that you think looks

like Jesus, and every time you pray, you're like, okay, I got to get in front of my picture

so I can pray to Jesus.

You're not doing that, so be free.

What about Beanie Babies?

Is that…

Beanie Babies are completely off limits.

I mean, it doesn't even matter what you're doing with Beanie Babies.

Beanie Babies just don't have them.

Don't have them.

Sharon, hope that helps.

And look…

Cabbage Patch Dolls, though, are, you know…

Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Oh, that's what Pastor Brian likes, I guess.

I don't know.

Look, Nia in Orange County is calling in, and she's got a similar question.

I think we opened up a bag of something with the other question.

Go ahead, Nia.

Hi.

Thank you for taking my call.

So my question is this.

The Bible tells us no to idolatry, and in the book of Revelation, it has…

It tells us that there's, I think, three dragons, or three different beasts, that

frogs come out of their mouth, and they're demons.

So my question is, having statues, or having frogs in the house, is that a form of idolatry?

And is it bad energy, or bad spirits, or anything evil to have them being that the Scripture

already interpreted?

And is it interpreted, frogs, as demonic, evil spirits?

That's my question.

I just want to clarify.

You're saying frogs, right?

Like, ribbit, ribbit, frogs?

That's what you're saying?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, it doesn't…

You know, what it says in Revelation, it says, and three spirits like frogs.

So what does that even exactly mean?

Do they look like frogs?

Well, they're spirits, so they can't really look like material things.

You know, what does that mean?

Well, they're spirits, so they can't really look like material things.

You know, what is the reference even to?

And remember, frogs were created by God, and so all creation is good.

It is only bad when people pervert creation.

And so if you worship a frog, which the Egyptians did do, they worship frogs.

That's why I remember when God was bringing a judgment on Pharaoh, one of the judgments

was their houses were filled with frogs.

That was God showing his authority over their faults.

But apart from worshiping a frog, I have a frog on my front porch.

It's a frog that actually, when you walk up to the house, it says, ribbit, ribbit.

Are you serious?

I'm serious.

Hey, somebody gave it to us.

I don't know where we even got the thing.

I would have never guessed that.

Yeah, but you know, we don't worship the frog.

It just sits there on the front porch.

And I think the batteries are dead anyway, so it's not—it hasn't made any noise for a while.

It hasn't ribbited in a long time.

Does that help, Nia?

Well, a second question to that is that if those two examples—and I think it was in

the book of Exodus where it says about the Pharaoh and that it has—

Yes.

And in Revelation, and they said it has that subjection where it says, like frogs.

But if the Bible is giving us an example—

If the Bible is giving us an example that they were used in a bad way, why have them?

Are we opening doors to something else, even though they're not being worshipped?

And then two—and, you know, please forgive me for doing this analogy—it's like having,

you know, God forbid, a statue of Baal or all these other bad statues.

And if a person would say, well, but we don't worship it, we just have it there.

I mean, is it a comparison?

Knowing that the Bible already said they're bad, why have it?

I mean, are we opening doors to oppression or demonology or idolatry?

Well, you know, a statue of Baal and a statue or image of a frog are entirely different

things.

So the Egyptians, like I said, they worshipped frogs, they worshipped locusts, they worshipped

flies, they worshipped the sun.

You know, they worshipped all of these—all of the things that were judgments came against

them.

Those ten plagues.

And in the end, they worshipped the Pharaoh, and that's why the firstborn of Pharaoh died.

But all of them are just creatures.

It wasn't the fault of the creature that they were worshipped.

It was the human depravity that led them to be—to worship.

So it's like Paul the Apostle says this to the Corinthians.

He says, an idol is nothing in the world.

And Paul says, I'm convinced that there's nothing unclean in and of itself.

It only becomes unclean if you take it and you use it.

You take it and you use it in an unclean fashion.

So if you take one of these things and use it as a means of worship, then obviously this

is wrong.

If you have a statue of Baal, which nobody does because nobody knows what the image of

Baal looked like, but if you did and you worshipped at that, that would be a problem.

But if there was just a statue?

If there was just a statue and it was in a house and you didn't know what it was and

somebody came along later and said, wow, this is a statue of Nebo.

Who's Nebo?

Oh, he's the god of the Ammonites.

Oh, wow.

I didn't know that.

Did that statue have any power?

No, it doesn't have any power.

That's what Paul says.

An idol is nothing.

It's not anything in the world.

It's just a rock or it's carved wood or something like that.

Now, there can be a demonic component.

You are pursuing an encounter with demons.

But if you're not doing that, then there is no demonic element to it.

What about – and I think we've had this – I know we've had this question before.

It's been a while.

But walking into a Chinese restaurant or something and it's got the Buddha statue or even here

locally, driving through Garden Grove or Westminster, you might as well avoid those streets because

they're everywhere.

I mean –

No.

This is – you can cross over into superstition when it comes to this and Christians should

not be superstitious.

There are Buddha statues all over the place.

Don't worship at a Buddha statue.

It's as simple as that.

I know people that have gone into Buddhist shrines and into temples in India and into

temples in the Far East and they've gone in to look and observe and so forth.

But they're not worshipping there.

Right.

So, yeah.

I'm glad you brought up the superstition because in one week from today will be Friday

the 13th.

Uh-oh.

So, you know.

What are we going to do?

I don't know.

Should we not do a show because who knows what might happen?

I don't know.

We should just –

Yeah.

Christians –

We should just stay home.

Christians are not to be superstitious.

If anybody shouldn't be superstitious, it's Christians because we know the truth.

We know the truth of who God is.

And we even know the truth about the supernatural.

Yeah.

So, we need to know the spirit world.

And we need to know if we're informed by our Bibles, we need to know that the spirit

world, although it does have influence on the present world, the spirit world, especially

when it comes to Christians, it says in 1 John 5, verse 18, that the evil one – although

the world lies in the grip of the evil one, the evil one does not touch or possess or

control the believer.

So, there's that.

Very good.

Thank you, Nia.

Thank you for calling us with your question.

question today on pastor's perspective. 888-564-6173 is the number to call. And here's

one that was sent in online by Esther. She writes, my ex-husband, a Christian, is an alcoholic. He's

had many opportunities to get help and start over. He's a very mean, angry drunk. Eight years ago,

I had to take full custody of our three kids. I did not ask for more child support, and I let

him pay when he could until he got really ugly with me over it, at which point I handed the

support order to Child Support Services, so I no longer had to deal with him directly.

Over the years, he has continually lived beyond his means. Luxury cars, apartments near the beach,

and as usual with him, he has creditors looking for him because he doesn't pay his bills.

He can never hold down a job, even when he's sober. Eventually, this has all caught up with

him, and he has been homeless off and on. He now says he's sober, maybe he is,

he owes me $30,000 in child support. He's seeking to lower his payment on the one child that's still

a minor. Child Support Services will not dismiss the amount in arrears, so he has asked me to have

them terminated, and he'll make payments to me directly. I know he won't, so I said no. My

question is, I'm supporting our family just fine. We live on a budget, but we don't live hand-to-mouth

either. Am I wrong?

Do you not dismiss the arrears? Is that being ungraceful, or do I need to hold them accountable?

Now, to Esther, I would also say, have you talked to a pastor at your church? Because they know you

better. They might be able to better address this.

And I would recommend that. But I would also say, you know, he has a track record,

and it's pretty consistent. So I think you're absolutely right. I think if you, you know,

say, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that.

Okay, well, I'll call the authorities off, and you can just pay me. He will not pay you a penny.

I think you're absolutely right about that. So I don't think you need to put yourself in a

situation like that. You know, Paul said in writing to the Thessalonians, he talked about

people who would not work. And he said, if a person will not work, he's not talking about

people who can't work. He's not talking about people who are disabled and incapable of working.

Or people who literally just can't, you know, get a job because of the present economy. He's

talking about people who, like the person you're describing, who just, they don't want to work,

they want to play, they want everybody to pay for them. And he says this, if a person does not work,

neither shall they eat. So meaning, we are not to enable them. We are not to supply them

with the means to carry on their

irresponsible lifestyle. Because, you know, your irresponsible lifestyle will catch up to you

and maybe, hopefully, force you to reconsider the way you're living.

But if we keep bailing people out, you know, they call that enabling people. You keep bailing them

out, and they never learn a lesson. They just keep repeating the same thing over and over again.

Esther, thank you for sending in your question online. One more that was sent in on Facebook.

It's from Sal and Tricia in Fontana, California.

Is tithing a New Testament Christian command? My nephew, who is a pastor, says it is. I say

freewill love offerings are fine. But the ministry he's part of really makes giving a tithe a

requirement, to the point of saying, you are cursed if you don't. He also says it's the law

of first mention, whatever that means. Please help. Also, I'm not saying tithing is a bad thing. So

Sal and Tricia are letting us know they're fine with tithing.

But to the point that their nephew is saying, no, you're cursed if you don't.

Well, it sounds like he's kind of been a little bit maybe swept up into like a prosperity doctrine perspective on things because that is something that they would say.

I mean, they want, you know, you need to give.

And if you don't, you're going to be cursed.

There's differences of opinion about this.

I've shared this many times before on this radio program.

I am of the conviction that tithing, tithing means giving of a tenth.

I'm of the conviction that that was something that the Old Testament required, but it is not a mandatory requirement under the new covenant.

We'd have now again, I have good friends who disagree with me on this.

We've had these conversations even on the program where one person will just say, no, we've got to go back to Abraham gave a tenth to Milt.

And then, you know, Jacob said he would give a tenth to the Lord.

This all predates the law.

So we're not talking about the law here.

We're just talking about and maybe this is like the first mention.

Whereas the idea is wherever it's first mentioned in the Bible, that's how you understand it.

Yeah.

So maybe that's what they're doing going back that far.

But I do think, again, when you get to the New Testament and somebody has pointed out, oh, but, you know, the people would have.

I just understood that this is what you do because it was part of the covenant history.

Well, that would be true for the Jews, but it wouldn't be true at all for the Gentiles.

And since the apostles don't demand it, require it, they don't even really teach about it.

You know, the closest thing to it is the apostle Paul talking to the Corinthians about a commitment that they had made to helping out the poor saints in Jerusalem.

And he's giving them direction on basically follow through with with what you said you were going to do.

And this is this is how you can do it.

So I think with the absence of any clear statement in the New Testament.

Now, when I say New Testament, I'm talking about the epistles, because, of course, tithing appears in the Gospels.

But the Gospels are still Jewish.

You're still in the context of the Old Testament until you come to the book of Acts, the day of Pentecost and so forth.

Now, I tithe myself.

I actually do more than tithe.

So I think 10%.

10%.

Is a good thing.

I think it's a good place to start.

What I don't like is when people put people in bondage to it who literally just cannot.

They just can't do it.

And then they feel condemned and guilty because, you know, I can I can only give 5%.

OK, you know, God, I think it's clear God wants us to give and giving is an act of faith where we're actually trusting God.

We're kind of putting our money where our mouth is.

We're saying, OK, Lord, I trust you.

And here's.

I'm going to show you that I trust you.

I'm going to.

I could really use this money, but I'm going to give it to your work.

So I think that that's important.

First Corinthians, like I said, chapters eight and nine.

Paul gives the principle of giving, giving generously, giving joyfully and so forth.

And and I think, like I said, a tenth is a good it's a good starting point.

But I.

For one, do not feel like it is something that we ought to say.

You better give a tenth of your income or else you're going to be cursed or.

Right.

God's not going to bless you or whatever.

Yeah.

Sal and Tricia, thanks for sending in your question.

And now we'll talk to Hannah in Hemet.

We've got a question about yoga or as it's known in Hemet, hot yoga, because, you know, it's always hot in Hemet.

So, Hannah, what is your question?

It's especially hot today.

Yes.

Yeah, very hot.

Hi.

Yes.

My question is about if as Christians we can practice yoga just as like stretching or for exercise.

I had a friend that was pretty adamant that as Christians we should not be doing it.

And my understanding is I'm not, you know, if I do yoga purely for stretching, I don't do any, you know, have any kind of, you know, there's no nothing.

But the history of yoga that I know about.

So, anyways, that's my question.

Okay.

Pastor Brian, what do you say to Hannah?

By the way, it's 110 degrees today in Hemet.

It feels like 110 here, but I'm sure it's not.

Right outside this door.

Yeah.

Yeah, Hannah, I agree with you on that.

I think that obviously there, you know, yoga is or it originates within a context of Hinduism.

And there's a spiritual element.

There's a spiritual element to yoga if you do it in its purest form as an aspect of Hinduism.

But if you disassociate yourself from the spiritual side of it and you use it as a means to physically exercise, I don't think that there's any problem with that whatsoever.

Anybody could have come up with those kinds of stretches and things like that.

It just happens that they came up, you know, in this context.

Now, I keep seeing on my Instagram, I keep seeing chair yoga.

Have you seen that?

Chair yoga?

Chair yoga.

Okay.

Chair yoga is how guys over 50 years old, they take a chair and they lose all their belly fat really, really, you know, in like a short amount of time.

You're doing all these crazy exercises.

I sit in my chair all day.

I have not lost any belly fat.

Okay.

Well, you got to start doing the chair yoga.

That's your problem.

You're not doing the chair yoga.

I guess that's it.

So my personal conviction, Hannah, is that as a form of physical exercise.

Those stretches are completely harmless.

There's no spiritual danger in it whatsoever.

And I would not at all be concerned, nor would I say to somebody, hey, you know, you shouldn't be doing that.

If they decided I want to meditate with this on some Sanskrit chant, then I would say, well, you know, that could become a problem.

So you don't want to do that.

But apart from that.

So.

Should Christians even call it yoga?

Let's just call it stretching, if that's all.

Well, I mean, you know, it's called yoga.

I think it's like, you know, how are you going to reverse that?

I just think, yeah, it is what it is.

But I just think Christians should not.

Again, I think we have to be careful that we don't fall into superstition.

I mean, this is OK.

This is this is stretching.

And yes, people who belong to the Hindu religion, they it originated with them and they do it maybe a specific way to.

To spiritually enlighten themselves or to get in tune.

But I can do the same stretches and not do any of that.

Right.

Perfectly fine.

Right.

Anything meditate on the Lord.

Yeah.

While you're doing your stretching slash yoga slash hot yoga.

I have chair yoga.

I have tons of friends that do yoga, actually.

And they're good Christians.

So there.

Hannah, thank you for calling us today from Hemet.

Hope you have a cool weekend.

But I don't know if that's going to happen.

God bless you.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for watching on Facebook.

And YouTube, everybody.

We'll do it again on Monday.

Make sure to go to church on Sunday if you're able to.

If you're looking for a church, check out Calvary Chapel dot com.

Use the church finder feature.

Type in your zip code.

And if there's something near you, that'd be great.

You can go attend for Pastor Brian Broderson.

I'm Brian Perez.

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