Pirate Money Radio helps you unpack the economic headlines with real money solutions
Kevin Freeman: Wow. It's summer in America or it sure feels that way. Kids are out of school, vacations are starting weddings, and the state legislatures are wrapping up their sessions. I throw out that last one because we have been pushing Pirate Money across the United States, multiple states. We're in crunch time. We've won Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, and we've had a few losses, a setback in Oklahoma and other places. But the ideas of Americans using gold and silver as money, that's been catching on. It's a biblical idea, it's a constitutional idea. It's returned to historical money. The founders of America favored it and they wrote it in our Constitution and it worked great until Nixon took us off the last semblance of the gold standard in 1971. And since that time, as you know, Americans have lost 90% of their purchasing power with the dollar and our bonds just lost their triple A credit rating. So it's time for optional gold and silver, AKA pirate money. And I'm being joined this morning. We're invited a great guest, a dear friend, from Oklahoma, former NFL offensive tackle for the Chicago Bears. He's a dear friend. It is a, ah, Pastor Paul Blair. Paul, welcome to Pirate Money Radio.
Paul Blair: Thank you, Kevin. It is a pleasure to be all with you this morning. And you're right, we've got a lot to celebrate. We're moving the, needle in the.
Kevin Freeman: Right direction and you've been a big part helping us do it. I'm looking at your bio here, so I pull it up. You played for coach Mike Ditka?
Paul Blair: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: What was that like, Dick?
Paul Blair: It was gold. You know, I've had the privilege, Kevin, of being around some really phenomenally talented athletes. You know, I played in a college all star game with Bo Jackson, I was teammates with Walter Payton. I was teammates in Collins and Thurman Thomas and you know, coached by Jimmy Johnson and Collins and coached by Mike Nick in the NFL. Ditkin was just gold. And ah, reason being is he was just, he was just who he was. I mean he wasn't, trying to be something that he wasn't. I mean he was just genuinely an old fashioned tough guy. He loved football. He wasn't pretentious, he wasn't put on. He was genuine. He was fair. he was kind. But he was a beast. I mean he was just a tough guy and he didn't have a lot of rules and but the Rules applied to everybody. So it didn't matter whether you were Paul Blair, a rookie offensive tackle, or Walter Payton, who was a legend and future hall of Famer. And we had just a few rules that applied to everybody on the team evenly. And you just have great respect for that kind of a boss. That's what your coach is. He's your boss. And, he said he's the, chief operating officer of your business. But he was a great man. And, I love those guys. You know, it's just sad. One of my teammates, Steve McMichael, just died a week ago. He had ALS and he was a. He was the Texas guy and he was a beast and, a great teammate. But, you know, his body was just ravaged the last few years. But, you know, when you're in college, the people that you play ball with and then the pros, the people you play ball with, you're. You're inseparable because you work together, you live life together, and then once football's over, you go off into the business world, you get married, you start your families, and you just lose touch. And these people were. That were such a special part of your life. You know, you just grow apart from. For 40 years. You know, when you see them, it feels like it's yesterday, but. But it's sad to see, it's sad to have so many wonderful memories. And I'd love to get back up there more often and get involved in some of the prayers, reunions, and catch up. Those guys did get. Was gold. He was everything you'd think he was.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, that's amazing. I remember the old Saturday Night Live back when it was funny, you know, Dub Bears and the guys would be sitting around eating their sausage and drinking their beer and poke in their chest to stop the heart attacks.
Paul Blair: Absolutely true, too. And Kevin's hilarious when you see these people. Of course, you know, the windy city of Chicago gets brutally cold. It was not uncommon to see these guys out there after being, you know, pregame in the parking lot for two hours, to be sitting in the stands, when it was 5 degrees, wearing no shirt and just drunk and cheering and just, you know, but. But what you saw on Saturday Night Live was, was the real deal that wasn't put on. And everybody had the mustache. Of course, I was sporting the mustache back in that day, too. I mean, the 80s was the era of the stash.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, that's. That's so funny. And I remember it. And it was back when, when again, Saturday Night Live. Actually had humorous things. And they didn't try and make some political message. they just, they just m. They just enjoyed life and it was fun to watch. But you know, you've had a long and we're we listeners. You got to listen to this. This guy Paul is a dear friend. I've known his wife's family almost my entire life. his wife grew up around the corner from me as close to my wife's family also, you know, growing up in Oklahoma and Tulsa and so forth. But you've got to hear Pastor Paul Blair. We're going to hear his incredible story, how he went from, you know, one of the best athletes in the state of Oklahoma, to professional football player to pastor and now in the political aren, which is amazing, you know, this long journey he's got, which is kind of America's journey. It's so much.
Pirate Money Radio focuses on economics and money. And at Pirate Money Radio, we explain solutions
So Paul, I'm so excited. We're gonna talk about today, how you came to Christ, your football days, how you became a pastor. You know, here's one I can't wait to get to is how Andy Griffith made you political liberty, pastors and the work you're doing now, the impact they're having on the Constitution, the role of pastors, your role in getting, I mean listeners. This guy helped us get Pirate Money launched. And we'll talk about his battle with cancer, his near death experience that happened earlier this year, and then some of the things that you can do. Plugging in with Pastor Paul Blair to be part of Liberty Pastor events. How you can encourage, if you're a pastor, you can join us. If you're not a pastor, you can encourage your pastor to make a difference in this world. This guy has a passion for bringing truth, the truth of Christ to America, to every state in America. He's been traveling around the country doing this. He's put his life on the line. He's got a wonderful family, he's got a great testimony and great history and he shares, you know, some common friends with us, the supporters of this program. you know, like Timothy Plan has been a supporter. Patriot, Mobile has been a supporter. And you know, he really can bring it down to money. We're Pirate Money Radio and sometimes it all comes down to economics and money. And there are three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. And at Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas in a way that promotes liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile is a mobile Phone company. They support our Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile. They operate on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room and Patriot Mobile is [email protected] afr that's PirateMoneyRadio.com and I know they've been supporters of yours Pastor Paul at Liberty Pastors as well.
Paul Blair's father was a bi vocational pastor and he became a pastor
So we've got a lot to talk about but before I do that tell a little bit about your journey. You know, how did you come to Christ? Your father was a pastor, right?
Paul Blair: My father was a bi vocational pastor. Dad was a veteran of the Navy from World War II. Matter of fact Dad's story amazes me. Dad was grew up in Cheri Valley Arkansas and after Pearl Harbor, dad went down and lied about his age and was actually serving as a solar mom, on a destroyer in the South Pacific at the age of 16. That was how passionate that generation was about the safety and welfare of the American people in our country. And of course mom and dad got married after the war and dad was a bi vocational pastor. He made his living as an architect, was a deacon in a Baptist church in Oklahoma and but felt a calling to go and preach and serve in small Congregational churches that really couldn't afford a pastor. So much of my life I spent half the time in a big church and half the time in small churches around maybe 30, 40 people. But dad wound up accepting a call at the church where I happened to be at now many generations later in 1969. And dad again made his living in architecture but served faithfully as a Baptist preacher. So I grew up in that kind of a home. You know, mom and dad raised me to know the Bible. You know as mom that you know, taught me the books of the Bible, taught me scripture, you know every night and truck me in at night and grew up in that kind of a God fearing home. and you know like many kids do when I got away to college I'd been very sheltered, got away in college, I went through a period of life where I kind of wandered and quite frankly there were about seven or eight years there where I was a, you know a football star in college in my first three years in the pros where there was certainly very little evidence that I was a Christian. and then after my third year I was at home on a Sunday evening listening to my dad preach, came face to face with the reality well, if you're a Christian, there's not much evidence. And I made a serious life changing.
Kevin Freeman: Station like, well, Paul, we're going to cover that. You're coming to Christ, you're becoming a pastor, and we're going to cover even more right after this break.
Paul Blair: M.
Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevin Freeman.
Paul Blair: Hey.
Kevin Freeman: And I just found Marnie, my beautiful wife, my life partner of, well, almost 30 years, mother of our children, my best friend. And she stopped by the studio and I said, hey, we're interviewing Paul Blair. And she's like, I want in. And you know how it is, husbands, when your wife says, hey, I want to be involved in that, you say, okay, yes ma' am. And here she is.
Marnie Freeman: Yeah, I was just outside wandering around. I found out that our good friend Pastor Paul Blair was coming on and M. I'm a big fan.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, so Marty, you just missed Paul, was describing how his father, bi. Vocational pastor, architect, and also pastoring a small church, he was listening to a sermon. He was the big guy on campus, big man on campus. You know, he was a, football star and everything else. And he heard the Holy Spirit say, what was it, Paul? Can you share it again?
Paul Blair: You call yourself a Christian, but there's no evidence that Jesus is the Lord of your life. And I realized that that was a problem.
Kevin Freeman: That is a problem. And when you get that direct from the Holy Spirit, it's a good sign that God loves you, that he's going to speak to you that pl. But so what did you do then?
Paul Blair: What, what did that problem again? I was 26 years old. I just finished my third year with the Chicago Bears. I was in church at Fairview Baptist Church on a Sunday evening and really didn't want to be there. I was there out of respect for my parents because it was the off season. I was back in Edinburgh. And but just, the Holy Spirit spoke to me that night. You know, Jesus talking with Nicodemus and John talks about that work of the Holy Spirit. You know, you see the effect, you see the work. You can't see it visibly, but you see the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. And I was in church that night and I'd grown up in church, heard thousands and thousands of sermons, had the Bible grounded into me. But so often I think we, as we hang so much on just a creed or praying the synod's prayer, and that is absolutely a commitment. I mean, just like when you get married and you say, I do, you have to Say I do to Jesus. But, you know, your, the sincerity of your heart is reflected in your behavior. And if you say one thing, but your actions aren't consistent with what you claim to believe, then you probably don't really believe it. And, again, as I said a little while ago, I'd grown up in a very sheltered home. I was the baby boy to mill and burning fear. And you know, mom and dad tried to protect me from any kind of, sinful temptation as good parents overdo it often and. But, when I got to college, discovered a lot of things I never knew existed. And for about eight years as the, you know, the quote unquote football star, I made bad decisions I did not claim ever to mean. I never doubted God and never claimed that I was doing the right thing. I was just having a good time doing the wrong thing. But, at that point, at the age of 26, for some reason, the Lord just slapped me in the face and got my attention that night. It was very personal, very real, and it was very serious to me. And I recognized that I was a fraud, you know, and I sat here and called myself a Christian. I can talk theology because I'd had it drilled into me all my life. But as far as the way I live my life, I was not honoring God. And the term Christian means a follower of Christ, A follower of Jesus Christ. And there really wasn't much in my life that would indicate that I was following Jesus anywhere. So that night I walked the aisle. Small church, maybe 35, 40 people in church that night. Trained on the front row with my dad and got, up and have been walking in a different direction ever since. It's interesting. I'm sitting here at my desk at home. This is my picture of me in the middle, my dead and my Uncle Walter, who just loved Jesus with all of his heart. That was the next week after I was baptized again in that little shirt. So a week after I'd made my, real profession of faith, I was re baptized and wound up. Cindy and I got married about four, or five months later. And now we've been together for 36 years and. And you know, my life's journey.
Marnie Freeman: Yeah, we love Cindy. I mean, I'm a fan of hers too. So. The Blair family.
Paul Blair: I'm a number one fan.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, well, I get that I'm number one fan of the Marnie, but, you know, we all grew up Marnie and Cindy and I all went to the same church. We went to the same high school, you Know, a few different years. Marnie and Cindy are a little younger, but, than I am, but. But, you know, big admirers of these amazing women growing up in Tulsa. But, Paul, I can't imagine. You know, I was nothing like a football player. I was the run of the litter in junior high and start of high school. And, you know, I always looked up, man, that guy's got everything. The football player, you look at him and they'd get. Marnie was a cheerleader in high school.
You say life is good, but it's not easy
And I look up and say, yeah, they get the cheerleaders, they get every. Everything's perfect for a football player. The life is, you know, that would be ideal, especially when, I mean, you're a really smart guy and you've got great relationships and, you know, everybody would say you had everything at Oklahoma State and Chicago. The best of the best of the best. And yet you found a personal need in your Life at age 26.
Paul Blair: Oh, absolutely. I mean, God created us for a purpose. And until we are in line with that purpose, until we have surrendered ourselves to him and are working, and living a life to honor him as savior and king and Lord, quite frankly, there's going to be a void there. It doesn't matter how successful you are, how famous you are, how much money you have, how much power you have. just like, you know, Solomon's testimony when he had wandered away and recorded it in the book of Ecclesiastes. And once he lost the joy of his walk with the Lord, he tried to fill it with all sorts of things, from sex to money to power to architecture and found it to be vanity. And that's the truth with all of us, you know, inside man. And until we are walking with our God, until we are saved and walking in alignment with our God, we'll never find that. That perfect peace, that contentment. And even then, it's a struggle because we still have these bodies of flesh. We still have the devil going about like a roaring lion trying to get us off track and tempt us. And, you know, people battle with anxiety and in trials and tribulations in their lives. So, you know, as I tell my kids, and now they're grown and married, I tell our people in church, you know, your life is not easy, but life is good. And God gives us a great life when we. When we, do it his way. And that doesn't mean every day is going to be sunshine and roses. It's not. I mean, there's a time for crying and a time for laughter. But, until A person comes to faith in Jesus Christ and starts living a life with the purpose of trying to honor God and all that he does, he's going to always be swinging and missing. He's going to have that void and it's just not filled. And you can't fill it with stuff.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned that, life is good, but it's not easy. That reminds me of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, where it says that he's not tame, but he's good. and I think that God's made it like that, you know.
Kevin Johnson played five seasons in the NFL before retiring due to knee injuries
All right, so you're starting out. You marry our friend, right? Marnie said all. Ah, right. You marry our friend. You're a new committed Christian, at least newly committed in your Christian walk. What was that age 26. What was that like? You're in Oklahoma, you're out. when did you leave the NFL and where did you go from there?
Paul Blair: Well, the next two years we're rather trying to some degree. I was really, as I look back at it, Kevin, I was really blessed. I mean I was. I failed my physical for the NFL draft at the combine camp. Normally when they told me, the doctors told me I had the knees of a 65 year old man. That's when I was coming out of college.
Kevin Freeman: Hey, so I'm almost 65. I wish I had your knees back.
Paul Blair: When you fail the physical, that, that you, you don't get drafted. I mean when people fail their pre draft physical, they don't get drafted. I mean that takes your name off the board. M. But I guess I was talented enough or they saw enough in me from my testing and my college film that the defending world champion Chicago Bears still took me in the fourth round, which is in fact they flew me out the next day. Normally you only fly in first round draft picks. They flew me to Chicago the next day, which I didn't know at the time was rather unusual but they had high hopes for me and I had some, played a total of five seasons and I had some really high highlights but I wound up having four surgeries over those five years and, and my body was already deteriorating drastically at the time. So you know, by those last two years I was, I wound up going to Minnesota my last season because I was willing to, you know, play for whoever was willing to pay me. And but after five years it got to the point where I just literally could not run again. You know, I ah, could not run anymore. The pain was Just too intense. And obviously if you can't run, you can't play football. So after five seasons I had before I was ready mentally to retire physically, I was forced to retire. But, it was good to me. Great, great experience, great, great teammates. Was in long enough to, you know, make a little money to get started on life. Have a pension and everything through the NFL. Played long enough for that. So all of that was good. Cindy and I had started a business with my, my oldest brother in Oklahoma after I was here.
Kevin Freeman: What was your business? What was it?
Paul Blair: well, we started a vending company and coffee service. You know, it was interesting at the time the Minnesota Vikings were owned by a food service company, a vending company. So I mean it was a interesting business, cash business. You know, it didn't have accounts receivable. People had to put money in the machine to buy a soda pop or a candy bar. And you know, it's amazing. You sell enough 50 cent items and it adds up to real money.
Kevin Freeman: Well, There are no 50 cent items these days. They're $2.50 items.
Paul Blair: But we had, we had a good business, had that for 29 years. And we raised our children. Coach Lilly, you know, taught Sunday school class. And you know, we were just living, you know, the typical, American dream, you know, just middle class America here in Oklahoma. And I, was serving in a large Baptist church in Edmond. And then my dad was still at the church where he had pastured for all these years. And dad had a stroke, had a severe stroke in January, I think it was, 1998, 1999. And my two brothers and I went back over to Fairview to try to hold it together in hopes that dad could recover from his throat. But he was never able to. In fact, dad wound up dying about three years later. But we got to spend some more time with him. and they called me as, they called me to be the pastor of the church. I said, no, thank you. I'm, happy to serve as interim this year, but I am not a pastor and don't want to be with it. I love pastor. You know, grew up in a pastor's own, but I also knew work that it entailed. I knew the heartbreak. I knew that, you know, having seen Christians up close for all those years, I knew that Christians bite or sheep bite. And this was something that I just wanted to do. I wanted to be the pastor's best friend. I wanted to serve Faithland church, but I did not want to be the pastor of a church. So we led in calling another man. And he came to Fairview at the time and agreed that he would take the job if I would stay and help try to build it with him. So I did. He asked me if I would be his youth pastor since I'd only been out of the NFL for about seven or eight years. So I still had a certain name with the youth and I agreed to do that. I didn't even like kids. I like teaching adults. But, my pastor needed me. I was going to help.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you say you didn't like kids. You raised some fine kids, though.
Paul Blair: M. I'm just kidding.
Kevin Freeman: You and Cindy have done a terrific job.
Marnie Freeman: And there. And one at one's pastoring with you, right?
Paul Blair: Well, he is the same now. One's an attorney and he helps, teach when I'm not here. And he's really good.
Marnie Freeman: He is amazing.
Paul Blair: And I've got two grandchildren, two wonderful daughters in law. So the Lord has truly.
Kevin Freeman: And they're not small kids.
Marnie Freeman: No, they're gentle giants.
Paul Blair: Yeah, they both. And they're even greater men inside. I mean, they're larger internally than they are externally. They're.
Paul Blair is helping train other pastors through Pirate Money Radio
They truly love the Lord. Great husband, great sons, and been very successful. We're so proud of.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, I can see that. Marty and I look at it like those are fine looking, you know, huge guys. And we look up to them in more ways than one.
Marnie Freeman: Exactly.
Paul Blair: Six foot eight. We all look up to Jacob. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: All right, so we're going to need to take another break.
Paul Blair: Break.
Kevin Freeman: Paul, when we come back, I want to transition from becoming a pastor, to how you're helping train other pastors. It's a beautiful story. You want to stay tuned and hear more from Paul Blair after the break.
Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend m and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
Kevin Freeman talks with Pastor Paul Blair about how he became a pastor
Welcome back with your host, Kevin Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. And I'm joined by my favorite person on planet earth, Marnie. The beautiful wife, mother of my kids. I just love having you here, Marnie. And she came because she knew who our special guest was.
Marnie Freeman: Absolutely.
Kevin Freeman: Pastor Paul Blair. Hey, Marnie, look at this. Look what I found.
Marnie Freeman: Oh, my soul. Look at that.
Kevin Freeman: That is an Oklahoma State, football card for Paul Blair. He's not even on the picture in the picture of it. but number 22, it lists his cowboy career and everything. I know, Marnie, you're a big Oklahoma State.
Marnie Freeman: I am. Go Pokes. I love those. I love those Oklahoma State cowboys.
Paul Blair: That's funny, Kevin. I made the all century team for Oklahoma State, is one of the five best offensive linemen to ever play there. And so they came out with, a hundred card all star set. So the 100 greatest players. And then there were two of them that they had error cards. The card company just blew it. They, they took the picture and in my car they cropped the running back rather than me, who was in front of the running back. So it's got Kelly Crook's picture on it, but it's my stats and information. I was actually number 72, the lineman in front of him. But that was sounds sort of interesting story. It was an honor on the oil century team. But then they, they botched the card. But anyway, at least that's one you can talk about.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I've got it right here. And I bought it on ebay, so I now know it's a collector's item. You know, like that upside down stamp that's worth a million dollars or something. Anybody want to make an offer to me, call me, because I've got one of the very, very rare, Paul Blair, Oklahoma State. Ah, all century football cards. Anyway, we're talking with Paul Blair and we're talking about how he became a pastor. But Marnie wants to hear the Andy Griffith story, how, how you became political as a pastor, because that's a big jump. People don't want their pastor to be political sometimes. But you need to explain that.
Paul Blair: Well, we, again, I initially turned down the call to pastor, and because I didn't believe I was called, I didn't run the job after the pastor that we had hired, he was there about two years, had some health issues, retired, make a long story short, and a year went by, I filled the pulpit one Sunday, and I was still serving as youth pastor at this point in time. I filled the pulpit one Sunday and the people just, it was just right. I mean, it was just overrun. Everybody, everybody loved it. It just felt right, knew it was right, knew the Lord was calling by that point in time. And I'd been there about three years. I accepted the ministry call in 2001, and, by about 2004, I was at home on a Sunday afternoon reviewing my notes for our Sunday night service and had the football game on in my office across the room at home. And I was reviewing my notes and watching the game the Cowboys were playing. Game ended. I didn't have the remote control, so I didn't get up. Didn't want to waste the energy to get up and go Turn the TV off. So I'm glancing at my notes and joined in progress was an old Andy Griffith episode. And it revolved around church. And it was just all good stuff. You know, Andy was part of the budget board. They were trying to determine how to spend some extra money, whether they needed to shore up the foundation or buy new choir robes. And the whole plot was trying to convince, you know, Andy to vote for Aunt Be in the choir robes or with Howard and the supporting him, the. The sound agents are happy ending. They wound up stretching the money and doing it all. And the final scene in the church was panning, across this little congregation that may vary. Everybody with their hymnals open, singing a beautiful old hymn with their heads rock back, smiles on their face. And the show ended. And you just felt warm all over. You just felt good. And I just thought, wow, that was great. Hadn't seen one of those a long time. And I, went back to my notes and immediately a commercial came on. And this was 2004, so think how much worse it's got, you know, advertising some Modern Crime Family. it was. I just saw naked dead blood and everything the next 30 seconds. And it just really struck me, you know, at the time, I was in my early 40s, had small children, young children. And I thought, my Lord, in my lifetime being a baby boomer, we've seen America go from Andy Griffith to broke Matt Mount, Andy Griffith going from, you know, from. From Lena to Beaver to Modern Family. And I just thought. I said, lord, if you don't return first, what kind of country are my children getting me left to raise my grandchildren in? And I said, somebody's got to do something about it. And I went through my mind, the list of people that had influence that could, could, change the thinking of America. And I thought, well, the educational system. And I thought, no, that's gone already in 2004 is gone. I thought, well, the media. Media has a great audience. I thought, no, that's gone. And then it dawned on me, the fulfillment. And then I thought, you know, that's always been God's plan. It's always been God's plan to have the man of God, from Enoch to Jeremiah to John the Baptist, standing up and preaching righteousness to the culture, pointing people to the truth and the one true living God and, our Lord Jesus Christ and calling people to get right with God. So I really was naive at the time. I thought it would be really simple to go around and awaken pastors and get them involved. But that was what my awakening was. I recognize that, you know, we're not just supposed to get people to heaven, which we are supposed to do, but we're supposed to bring, you know, righteous living into the lives that we live now. You know, we're supposed to be glorifying God in everything that we do now as followers of Jesus. So I was compelled to try to awaken the pulpit. We had the chance to go down and meet Dr. Kennedy, and we started reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ, along with reclaiming America for Christ. And Dr. Kennedy died and. And, they gave us the.
Most pastors have been taught to compartmentalize life
The mantle of carrying the oak. I mean, reclaiming America for Christ effort. And then I. I focused that to get people to change their behavior, you have to convince them with their thinking. You have to teach them truth. And most pastors have been taught to compartmentalize life. That's what they're taught in seminary. So, so get this. I mean, as. As nonsense as this is. A pastor will say Jesus is lord of all. Oh, but I can't talk about that. My church. Wait a second. He's either the Lord of all, or he's only the Lord of stuff that you can talk about in church. And we know that he's lord of all. But this compartmentalization actually goes back to Greek influence and religion and Christianity. And the Hebraic understanding was, whatever you do this, God created the spiritual and the material world. We're supposed to glorify God if all of it. And the Bible, full of principles, economic principles, political principles. There's a role for self government. There's a role for family government, there's a role for church government, and there's a role for civil government.
Kevin Freeman: There's no question. Yeah. And, You had something you wanted to say. Go ahead.
Marnie Freeman: Well, I'm just saying, ironically, this really stems from the government, a lot of it. They keep perpetuating this, perpetuating this, so they can kind of control the narrative, I think.
Paul Blair: Well, that's what tyranny is. Tyranny is when the civil government that has the power of the sword behind it begins overstepping its boundaries and taking over church government, family government, and self government when the tyrant makes decisions on everything.
Kevin Freeman: So they sure did that during COVID didn't they? Shut your church down. You're not allowed to worship. You're not allowed to be within five feet. You can't feed the poor. You can't visit your sick, aunt in the hospital. So that's it.
You went against the grain with your biblical worldview, Paul. You Began a dramatic change
All right, so you did this. You took a. You Began a dramatic change. I'm going to be a pastor, but a different kind of pastor. You went against the grain. Everybody would say, don't do that. You'll lose church members. And yet I see in Your bio, in 2008, you were named pastor of the Year for the state of Oklahoma by the Bot Radio Network. In 2011, you were named National Pastor of the Year by Vision America in Houston, which is our friend Rick Scarborough at the time. I think this, you've received numerous awards and, and really your church grew, right? It didn't shrink, it grew.
Marnie Freeman: So what happens when you speak truth?
Paul Blair: People are hungry for the truth. And, and they love this. And we have had a reach with, with technology and media, we are able to reach far outside the walls of our church. We have now done 20 pastors camps, of course. Kevin, you are a featured speaker at all of our camps these days. We've got four more coming up this year, but we bring pastors in for three days and we, we only charge them $99 for about a 1500 dollar three day vacation. they have a second honeymoon with their wives, but they commit to 20 hours of continuing education. With us on biblical worldview. And we start on opening night and we ask the question, what part of your life is Jesus not the Lord over make that list. And those are the subjects that you can't preach about in church. But every pastor knows that's nonsense and we knock that wall down immediately. Jesus is Lord of all. So we should speak of a biblical worldview on every facet of life. There's nothing off limits. And then we begin teaching these men chapter and verse where the Bible speaks about proper civil government, where the Bible speaks about, proper economics. We get into cultural issues of the day. You know, we no longer have the redcoats marching into elections. And you know, we were literally just feeling up, fielding up, fending off Covid and the World Economic Forum and other things. You know, now we've got, we've got abortion, we've got this, this transing of our youth. We've got all sorts of things out here that we are engaging. And then we give a battle plan, we give next steps, real solutions. We got members of our, of our graduates and we got 2000 pastors that have graduated. Now. We should have about 2500 to get through this year. But we got a m. Member of the Houston City Council, which is huge. I mean, Houston is a state all into itself. We've got member of the Florida legislature, we've got mayors across the country that have literally transformed their counties because the stands that they're taking for righteousness.
Kevin Freeman: Well, I want to jump in here because, Paul, if you go back to 1776, this would not be uncommon. The pastor would be talking worldview. And you had a bunch of pastors that actually put on black robes, the black robe regiment, and put on the soldier uniform and went out and fought for the revolution because they knew that it was essential. We've been told now we shouldn't do that. Sit down, shut up. You can talk about Jesus, but only on Sunday and maybe Wednesday night. but you're not allowed to bring Jesus into anything else because that's against the culture. No, we don't want to do that. And yet you've done it. And I love that. You mentioned, you mentioned a, pastor in Florida who has joined the legislature. He's become a dear friend, Marnie.
Marnie Freeman: Absolutely. Representative Doug Bankson. He's, amazing. And you all helped train him, raised him up for what he's doing now in the legislature and the pirate money.
Kevin Freeman: Radio audience, you've heard what we're doing. Transactional gold and silver. Guess who got our legislation passed unanimously through the Florida House and the Senate, and then invited. Got us invited to the signing ceremony of with Governor Ron DeSantis. It is a guy we met through you, Paul. Pastor Doug Bankson. And it's because you trained him. You know, we've got a lot to cover here. and we've got one more segment to cover. But quickly tell us about Doug Bankson and how he decided to run for the legislature.
Paul Blair: Well, it's so fun, all these guys. It's just an organic response. We teach these guys. And then once you've been taught something that's going to affect your behavior from then on out, you can't unlearn, it. But it's organic. We give them all next steps. They have a battle plan. But some go back and start schools, Christian schools in their churches. Some go back and decide that they're going to run for office themselves. Doug was one of those guys. He ran for the state legislature there in Florida 1. And as you have just announced, he has been part of probably one of the most significant bills that history will show has ever been passed in America. And he led the charge as a pastor in the Florida legislature. We trained him, sent him on his way. Organic conviction, moving in the Holy Spirit, working with you in this battle plan. And now we've seen victory.
Kevin Freeman: If you're not in a liberty pastor's church, you ought to be. Or if your pastor is not a liberty pastor, he needs to be. We're going to study this and talk with Paul Blair. More about this after the break. You've got to study. Stay tuned.
Mike Carter: M Pirate Money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
Kevin Friedman: Pastor Paul Blair talks about eternal investments in the kingdom of God
Welcome back with your host, Kevin Friedman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, we're talking about eternal investments in the kingdom of God with Pastor Paul Blair. We're also talking about earthly investments, how to get, you know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, bringing it to earth with the Christian worldview. And Marnie, you had something you just, just wanted to share?
Marnie Freeman: Well, I just want to say about the Liberty Pastors camps. We've been to quite a few now and they are amazing. They get to come in, the pastors, their wives get to come into an incredible resort area. Then they are fire hosed with some of the best speakers, I think on the planet. But then they are. And it's a lot of facts that they do not know. Most of them do not know these things, but they don't leave it there. They arm them with like, the battle plans, with tools, with people, with experts, and then they are empowering them to go out to their flocks and to their communities to do the things that God is calling them to do.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you know, this is a great secret. I attended these as a speaker and I just show up and speak and then leave. And then I said, hey, look at these other speakers. I want to stick around and listen to some of these other great men and women that were speaking. You're talking about homeschooling and you're talking about what China's doing and you're talking about, you know, secret societies and what are, what's taking place. And, and then I went home and told Marty says, I want to go. And it's designed for men and women pastors and their wives. And it's designed in a romantic setting so that you get both a second honeymoon and this great continuing education. And you get it for $99. I mean, you may end up having to raise the price on that. But where can you take. And it's not a timeshare. the only other place you can do this, if you sit in an excruciating timeshare meeting and listen to them hard sell you on buying, you know, sharing this Disney resort or this other resort, okay, there you can get $99, I guess, but nowhere else. And the food, our mutual friend Art Allison says, well, if you feed Them, right? They'll come. The food is fantastic, the time is fantastic. We've loved it, right?
Marnie Freeman: I've loved it. And even at the end of the session or the conference, it's amazing. You see pastors just streaming up to the front saying how can I help? What can I do? Tears rolling down their face. It's a, it's amazing.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Committing and signing a commitment literally in front front of everybody.
Paul Miller shares his vision of Liberty pastors and where people can learn more
So Paul, tell us about the vision of Liberty pastors and where can people learn more? Because if you are a churchgoer, if you're not a churchgoer, let me talk to you. You need to be in church. If you are a churchgoer, you've got a pastor and your pastor, are they covering the entirety of, of the Bible? Is Jesus Lord over everything or just a fraction of it? If they are a Liberty pastor, congratulations. If they're not, catch your pastor to go to the Liberty Pastors conference. Paul, describe it and tell where people can learn more.
Paul Blair: Well, as you said, without art allies, passionate generosity and first Timothy plan, conscientious, clean Christian investment, in American values and things that are sensitive to a Christian conviction. Without art, we wouldn't be able to do these things. So all things are alley. But we've got four camps upcoming. One's a hybrid that's going to be out real quickly down at Patriot Academy, this, this June. But we've got three of our major camps coming up. One in Williamsburg, Virginia August 18th through 21st. One in Orlando, Florida from September 29th through October 2nd on one at Bay Harbor, Michigan November 3rd through six. we encourage people to go to our website, libertypastasu.com libertypastas.com, libertypastas.org We've tried to grab all those domains so you can't miss us. But go there, find the events tab and you'll find the information about these upcoming camps and just sign up, sign your pastor up. Sign for senior pastors. But we associate pastors are welcome as well because they may one day be a senior pastor. But if your pastor is not already involved, give him the gift of a second honeymoon. Literally it's about a fifteen hundred dollar trip, three day second honeymoon as Kevin and Marty have said. But we only charge $99, just a registration fee. So the pastor has a little investment in it now, have a little value to it, then recover the rest of it. Has six meals included, has plenty of free time to enjoy the beautiful venue. But we have 20 hours continuing education. We teach Biblical worldview. We introduce, them to some of the major issues that we face today, like abortion. Big issue in Virginia. They may change their constitution to make it a very liberal abortion state. That's one of the reasons we're there. It's a major battle in the state of Virginia coming up this next year. And then we actually have next steps. A Babel plan where these pastors can go back and simply begin implementing this in their churches. And then we have a continuing support system and network that's around it. And it's all voluntary. Once they come to the camp, as Marty said, we have basically an invitation at the end. and if these pastors want to take the next step and join shoulder, shoulder with us and engage the culture for Christ, then they come on their own, sign up, and there's no obligation. It's just a commitment. It's that active commitment. And then they're part of our program, and we work with them from that point forward.
Kevin Freeman: You know, Marnie, you went with the first one or one of the first ones you went with me to was Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Marnie Freeman: Oh, yeah. There was chocolate everywhere.
Kevin Freeman: I don't think I've eaten so much chocolate in my entire life. Every time you turned around, there was chocolate this and chocolate that. Chocolate in the, in the food. Chocolate, you know, bars and, and. And kisses and everything in the rooms.
Marnie Freeman: They were at the desk. They were everywhere.
Kevin Freeman: Chocolate. And the shampoo, actually, I think you use the shampoo. It smelled like chocolate. That was fun.
Marnie Freeman: It was fun. But Williamsburg, oh, it's gonna be amazing. Oh, I mean, Oh, yes. History right there.
Kevin Freeman: Remember when we took our girls to Williamsburg, how much fun they had?
Marnie Freeman: Yeah. What did our. What did our daughter say?
Kevin Freeman: Okay, our daughter's a literal comedian. I mean, she. She should be. I lined her up with Michael Jr. Who offered to mentor her. She said, I don't want to do that. She wanted to dance, but she's so funny. She walks into, the. The little kitchen, goods store in Colonial Williamsburg. So it's a colonial store, and you can buy towels and pots and pans and things. And she walks in, and she walks to the middle of the room.
Marnie Freeman: And she's very young at the time.
Kevin Freeman: She's very young and tiny. And she looks around and she blurts out, what is this, Williamsburg Sonoma? Everybody in that store cracked up. They wanted to hire her to come back. And she was in a little colonial outfit, too. Hire her. But. So we're looking so forward to being part of those liberty pastors. Campsite.
Paul was diagnosed with throat cancer three months ago
but Paul, you know, you've been active out there, and the enemy has come after you. You've been a powerful voice. Briefly share some of your battle with cancer and how God delivered you from that.
Paul Blair: I will be very brief because I know we don't have much time. I was diagnosed with throat cancer, which is interesting. Very aggressive. Came on me literally in a month. Had no symptoms. And then part of my throat and tonsils were just eaten away. Just weren't there. And M.D. Anderson rushed and got me in. We had people around the world literally praying for me. And, God answered the prayers. I thought it was face death, survived the massive radiation they gave me. I've come to learn just this last year, continues to work. In fact, I have to do speech therapy. I've, got speech therapy when we're done here because it continues to try to stiffen and tighten your throat. So I'm going to have to always work at speaking. And I'm slowly losing my ability to speak. Hopefully I won't before I die, but that's just a battle. Makes me lean on the Lord that much harder. the, the. The fact that I have a hole in my throat that's not supposed to be there. I wound up. I wind up aspirating food, and from that I'm constantly battling pneumonia. And, as you too knew, we were at Council for National Policy meeting in Washington, D.C. just about two months ago, three months ago. Cindy and I were checking it out on Saturday morning. We were literally. I've been up for two hours. Felt great. We were just packed, getting ready to walk out the door, head to the airport, when within about 20 seconds, I'm on the bed and I can't breathe, and my left side hurts so bad. I've never experienced greater pain. I thought I was having a heart attack, and I literally could not grasp a breath. And the first time I've ever had an ambulance ride. But I spent a week at Fairfax Hospital, and they wound up draining, three liters of blood out of my left lung. And so that's a constant battle that I'm monitoring right now. But we only have time to say this, and I wish I could elaborate more, but, you know, we always. We will often say we're not guaranteeing tomorrow. Let me just remind everybody, we're not guaranteed the next minute. I was up on that Saturday morning and I felt great. I felt on top of the world. I'd been in the gym the day before. I had no symptoms. I was Having problems in my legs. And then I literally thought I was going to die. And here was all that was going on in my mind. As time really slows down, when you're at that point, it almost stops. And with every breath I'm trying to tell Cindy everything I want to tell her. I'm trying to tell her who to call, where the money is taken care of. You don't have to worry about it. When I tell her how much I loved her and make sure she told me kids how much I love them. But then at that point in time when you go through all that stuff, you think, okay, am I ready? It's like, there's perfect case. It's like, yeah, Paul, you're ready. Jesus is, Lord. And I literally didn't think I was going to make it hostile because I could not breathe. And I'm so tired of trying to breathe. But let me give some advice. Everybody, pastors, everybody that's listening, take the time today. Write out a letter to your wife, to your children, Express your thoughts. Tell them who to call if there was an emergency. Tell them where everything is so you're not trying to get it out that last few seconds. And then above everything else, if you die today, do you know you can be in heaven? And I gotta tell you, I've had three occasions in my life where I thought death was imminent. And, that was the most critical because I thought death was seconds away. I mean, I literally was so tired of trying to breathe that I was ready to stop trying. And I can just tell you this. I had perfect peace. I know that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. And I know that to be absent from this body, we'll be present with him. So my advice, everybody, don't wait. Take the time to write out a letter, express your love and thoughts and direction and instruction for your children and for your wife. And then above everything else, make sure you're ready to go meet Jesus.
Kevin Freeman: Well, thank you Paul.
Marnie Freeman: We love you, Pastor Paul Do.
Kevin Freeman: And we're so looking forward to Liberty Pastors camp. Let me just share this. This guy has been on top of the world, one of the best football players in, in the history of a, great football program. And he's dedicated his life to Jesus. He's dedicated his life to helping pastors help you if you're a listener. So learn more about Liberty pastors@liberty pastorsu.com. get your pastor to go there. That's what he, he came back from near death experience to help you and help America. And this is so important. Thank you, Paul Blair, for all that you're doing and thank you, Marnie, for joining me. It's such a pleasure to have you here on, Pirate Money Radio. Look, listen wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify or whatever, it's Kevin Freeman joined by Marnie Freeman and Pastor Paul Blair and Pirate Money Radio.
Pirate Money Radio helps you unpack the economic headlines with real money solutions
Kevin Freeman: Wow. It's summer in America or it sure feels that way. Kids are out of school, vacations are starting weddings, and the state legislatures are wrapping up their sessions. I throw out that last one because we have been pushing Pirate Money across the United States, multiple states. We're in crunch time. We've won Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, and we've had a few losses, a setback in Oklahoma and other places. But the ideas of Americans using gold and silver as money, that's been catching on. It's a biblical idea, it's a constitutional idea. It's returned to historical money. The founders of America favored it and they wrote it in our Constitution and it worked great until Nixon took us off the last semblance of the gold standard in 1971. And since that time, as you know, Americans have lost 90% of their purchasing power with the dollar and our bonds just lost their triple A credit rating. So it's time for optional gold and silver, AKA pirate money. And I'm being joined this morning. We're invited a great guest, a dear friend, from Oklahoma, former NFL offensive tackle for the Chicago Bears. He's a dear friend. It is a, ah, Pastor Paul Blair. Paul, welcome to Pirate Money Radio.
Paul Blair: Thank you, Kevin. It is a pleasure to be all with you this morning. And you're right, we've got a lot to celebrate. We're moving the, needle in the.
Kevin Freeman: Right direction and you've been a big part helping us do it. I'm looking at your bio here, so I pull it up. You played for coach Mike Ditka?
Paul Blair: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: What was that like, Dick?
Paul Blair: It was gold. You know, I've had the privilege, Kevin, of being around some really phenomenally talented athletes. You know, I played in a college all star game with Bo Jackson, I was teammates with Walter Payton. I was teammates in Collins and Thurman Thomas and you know, coached by Jimmy Johnson and Collins and coached by Mike Nick in the NFL. Ditkin was just gold. And ah, reason being is he was just, he was just who he was. I mean he wasn't, trying to be something that he wasn't. I mean he was just genuinely an old fashioned tough guy. He loved football. He wasn't pretentious, he wasn't put on. He was genuine. He was fair. he was kind. But he was a beast. I mean he was just a tough guy and he didn't have a lot of rules and but the Rules applied to everybody. So it didn't matter whether you were Paul Blair, a rookie offensive tackle, or Walter Payton, who was a legend and future hall of Famer. And we had just a few rules that applied to everybody on the team evenly. And you just have great respect for that kind of a boss. That's what your coach is. He's your boss. And, he said he's the, chief operating officer of your business. But he was a great man. And, I love those guys. You know, it's just sad. One of my teammates, Steve McMichael, just died a week ago. He had ALS and he was a. He was the Texas guy and he was a beast and, a great teammate. But, you know, his body was just ravaged the last few years. But, you know, when you're in college, the people that you play ball with and then the pros, the people you play ball with, you're. You're inseparable because you work together, you live life together, and then once football's over, you go off into the business world, you get married, you start your families, and you just lose touch. And these people were. That were such a special part of your life. You know, you just grow apart from. For 40 years. You know, when you see them, it feels like it's yesterday, but. But it's sad to see, it's sad to have so many wonderful memories. And I'd love to get back up there more often and get involved in some of the prayers, reunions, and catch up. Those guys did get. Was gold. He was everything you'd think he was.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, that's amazing. I remember the old Saturday Night Live back when it was funny, you know, Dub Bears and the guys would be sitting around eating their sausage and drinking their beer and poke in their chest to stop the heart attacks.
Paul Blair: Absolutely true, too. And Kevin's hilarious when you see these people. Of course, you know, the windy city of Chicago gets brutally cold. It was not uncommon to see these guys out there after being, you know, pregame in the parking lot for two hours, to be sitting in the stands, when it was 5 degrees, wearing no shirt and just drunk and cheering and just, you know, but. But what you saw on Saturday Night Live was, was the real deal that wasn't put on. And everybody had the mustache. Of course, I was sporting the mustache back in that day, too. I mean, the 80s was the era of the stash.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, that's. That's so funny. And I remember it. And it was back when, when again, Saturday Night Live. Actually had humorous things. And they didn't try and make some political message. they just, they just m. They just enjoyed life and it was fun to watch. But you know, you've had a long and we're we listeners. You got to listen to this. This guy Paul is a dear friend. I've known his wife's family almost my entire life. his wife grew up around the corner from me as close to my wife's family also, you know, growing up in Oklahoma and Tulsa and so forth. But you've got to hear Pastor Paul Blair. We're going to hear his incredible story, how he went from, you know, one of the best athletes in the state of Oklahoma, to professional football player to pastor and now in the political aren, which is amazing, you know, this long journey he's got, which is kind of America's journey. It's so much.
Pirate Money Radio focuses on economics and money. And at Pirate Money Radio, we explain solutions
So Paul, I'm so excited. We're gonna talk about today, how you came to Christ, your football days, how you became a pastor. You know, here's one I can't wait to get to is how Andy Griffith made you political liberty, pastors and the work you're doing now, the impact they're having on the Constitution, the role of pastors, your role in getting, I mean listeners. This guy helped us get Pirate Money launched. And we'll talk about his battle with cancer, his near death experience that happened earlier this year, and then some of the things that you can do. Plugging in with Pastor Paul Blair to be part of Liberty Pastor events. How you can encourage, if you're a pastor, you can join us. If you're not a pastor, you can encourage your pastor to make a difference in this world. This guy has a passion for bringing truth, the truth of Christ to America, to every state in America. He's been traveling around the country doing this. He's put his life on the line. He's got a wonderful family, he's got a great testimony and great history and he shares, you know, some common friends with us, the supporters of this program. you know, like Timothy Plan has been a supporter. Patriot, Mobile has been a supporter. And you know, he really can bring it down to money. We're Pirate Money Radio and sometimes it all comes down to economics and money. And there are three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. And at Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas in a way that promotes liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile is a mobile Phone company. They support our Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile. They operate on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room and Patriot Mobile is [email protected] afr that's PirateMoneyRadio.com and I know they've been supporters of yours Pastor Paul at Liberty Pastors as well.
Paul Blair's father was a bi vocational pastor and he became a pastor
So we've got a lot to talk about but before I do that tell a little bit about your journey. You know, how did you come to Christ? Your father was a pastor, right?
Paul Blair: My father was a bi vocational pastor. Dad was a veteran of the Navy from World War II. Matter of fact Dad's story amazes me. Dad was grew up in Cheri Valley Arkansas and after Pearl Harbor, dad went down and lied about his age and was actually serving as a solar mom, on a destroyer in the South Pacific at the age of 16. That was how passionate that generation was about the safety and welfare of the American people in our country. And of course mom and dad got married after the war and dad was a bi vocational pastor. He made his living as an architect, was a deacon in a Baptist church in Oklahoma and but felt a calling to go and preach and serve in small Congregational churches that really couldn't afford a pastor. So much of my life I spent half the time in a big church and half the time in small churches around maybe 30, 40 people. But dad wound up accepting a call at the church where I happened to be at now many generations later in 1969. And dad again made his living in architecture but served faithfully as a Baptist preacher. So I grew up in that kind of a home. You know, mom and dad raised me to know the Bible. You know as mom that you know, taught me the books of the Bible, taught me scripture, you know every night and truck me in at night and grew up in that kind of a God fearing home. and you know like many kids do when I got away to college I'd been very sheltered, got away in college, I went through a period of life where I kind of wandered and quite frankly there were about seven or eight years there where I was a, you know a football star in college in my first three years in the pros where there was certainly very little evidence that I was a Christian. and then after my third year I was at home on a Sunday evening listening to my dad preach, came face to face with the reality well, if you're a Christian, there's not much evidence. And I made a serious life changing.
Kevin Freeman: Station like, well, Paul, we're going to cover that. You're coming to Christ, you're becoming a pastor, and we're going to cover even more right after this break.
Paul Blair: M.
Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevin Freeman.
Paul Blair: Hey.
Kevin Freeman: And I just found Marnie, my beautiful wife, my life partner of, well, almost 30 years, mother of our children, my best friend. And she stopped by the studio and I said, hey, we're interviewing Paul Blair. And she's like, I want in. And you know how it is, husbands, when your wife says, hey, I want to be involved in that, you say, okay, yes ma' am. And here she is.
Marnie Freeman: Yeah, I was just outside wandering around. I found out that our good friend Pastor Paul Blair was coming on and M. I'm a big fan.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, so Marty, you just missed Paul, was describing how his father, bi. Vocational pastor, architect, and also pastoring a small church, he was listening to a sermon. He was the big guy on campus, big man on campus. You know, he was a, football star and everything else. And he heard the Holy Spirit say, what was it, Paul? Can you share it again?
Paul Blair: You call yourself a Christian, but there's no evidence that Jesus is the Lord of your life. And I realized that that was a problem.
Kevin Freeman: That is a problem. And when you get that direct from the Holy Spirit, it's a good sign that God loves you, that he's going to speak to you that pl. But so what did you do then?
Paul Blair: What, what did that problem again? I was 26 years old. I just finished my third year with the Chicago Bears. I was in church at Fairview Baptist Church on a Sunday evening and really didn't want to be there. I was there out of respect for my parents because it was the off season. I was back in Edinburgh. And but just, the Holy Spirit spoke to me that night. You know, Jesus talking with Nicodemus and John talks about that work of the Holy Spirit. You know, you see the effect, you see the work. You can't see it visibly, but you see the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. And I was in church that night and I'd grown up in church, heard thousands and thousands of sermons, had the Bible grounded into me. But so often I think we, as we hang so much on just a creed or praying the synod's prayer, and that is absolutely a commitment. I mean, just like when you get married and you say, I do, you have to Say I do to Jesus. But, you know, your, the sincerity of your heart is reflected in your behavior. And if you say one thing, but your actions aren't consistent with what you claim to believe, then you probably don't really believe it. And, again, as I said a little while ago, I'd grown up in a very sheltered home. I was the baby boy to mill and burning fear. And you know, mom and dad tried to protect me from any kind of, sinful temptation as good parents overdo it often and. But, when I got to college, discovered a lot of things I never knew existed. And for about eight years as the, you know, the quote unquote football star, I made bad decisions I did not claim ever to mean. I never doubted God and never claimed that I was doing the right thing. I was just having a good time doing the wrong thing. But, at that point, at the age of 26, for some reason, the Lord just slapped me in the face and got my attention that night. It was very personal, very real, and it was very serious to me. And I recognized that I was a fraud, you know, and I sat here and called myself a Christian. I can talk theology because I'd had it drilled into me all my life. But as far as the way I live my life, I was not honoring God. And the term Christian means a follower of Christ, A follower of Jesus Christ. And there really wasn't much in my life that would indicate that I was following Jesus anywhere. So that night I walked the aisle. Small church, maybe 35, 40 people in church that night. Trained on the front row with my dad and got, up and have been walking in a different direction ever since. It's interesting. I'm sitting here at my desk at home. This is my picture of me in the middle, my dead and my Uncle Walter, who just loved Jesus with all of his heart. That was the next week after I was baptized again in that little shirt. So a week after I'd made my, real profession of faith, I was re baptized and wound up. Cindy and I got married about four, or five months later. And now we've been together for 36 years and. And you know, my life's journey.
Marnie Freeman: Yeah, we love Cindy. I mean, I'm a fan of hers too. So. The Blair family.
Paul Blair: I'm a number one fan.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, well, I get that I'm number one fan of the Marnie, but, you know, we all grew up Marnie and Cindy and I all went to the same church. We went to the same high school, you Know, a few different years. Marnie and Cindy are a little younger, but, than I am, but. But, you know, big admirers of these amazing women growing up in Tulsa. But, Paul, I can't imagine. You know, I was nothing like a football player. I was the run of the litter in junior high and start of high school. And, you know, I always looked up, man, that guy's got everything. The football player, you look at him and they'd get. Marnie was a cheerleader in high school.
You say life is good, but it's not easy
And I look up and say, yeah, they get the cheerleaders, they get every. Everything's perfect for a football player. The life is, you know, that would be ideal, especially when, I mean, you're a really smart guy and you've got great relationships and, you know, everybody would say you had everything at Oklahoma State and Chicago. The best of the best of the best. And yet you found a personal need in your Life at age 26.
Paul Blair: Oh, absolutely. I mean, God created us for a purpose. And until we are in line with that purpose, until we have surrendered ourselves to him and are working, and living a life to honor him as savior and king and Lord, quite frankly, there's going to be a void there. It doesn't matter how successful you are, how famous you are, how much money you have, how much power you have. just like, you know, Solomon's testimony when he had wandered away and recorded it in the book of Ecclesiastes. And once he lost the joy of his walk with the Lord, he tried to fill it with all sorts of things, from sex to money to power to architecture and found it to be vanity. And that's the truth with all of us, you know, inside man. And until we are walking with our God, until we are saved and walking in alignment with our God, we'll never find that. That perfect peace, that contentment. And even then, it's a struggle because we still have these bodies of flesh. We still have the devil going about like a roaring lion trying to get us off track and tempt us. And, you know, people battle with anxiety and in trials and tribulations in their lives. So, you know, as I tell my kids, and now they're grown and married, I tell our people in church, you know, your life is not easy, but life is good. And God gives us a great life when we. When we, do it his way. And that doesn't mean every day is going to be sunshine and roses. It's not. I mean, there's a time for crying and a time for laughter. But, until A person comes to faith in Jesus Christ and starts living a life with the purpose of trying to honor God and all that he does, he's going to always be swinging and missing. He's going to have that void and it's just not filled. And you can't fill it with stuff.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned that, life is good, but it's not easy. That reminds me of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, where it says that he's not tame, but he's good. and I think that God's made it like that, you know.
Kevin Johnson played five seasons in the NFL before retiring due to knee injuries
All right, so you're starting out. You marry our friend, right? Marnie said all. Ah, right. You marry our friend. You're a new committed Christian, at least newly committed in your Christian walk. What was that age 26. What was that like? You're in Oklahoma, you're out. when did you leave the NFL and where did you go from there?
Paul Blair: Well, the next two years we're rather trying to some degree. I was really, as I look back at it, Kevin, I was really blessed. I mean I was. I failed my physical for the NFL draft at the combine camp. Normally when they told me, the doctors told me I had the knees of a 65 year old man. That's when I was coming out of college.
Kevin Freeman: Hey, so I'm almost 65. I wish I had your knees back.
Paul Blair: When you fail the physical, that, that you, you don't get drafted. I mean when people fail their pre draft physical, they don't get drafted. I mean that takes your name off the board. M. But I guess I was talented enough or they saw enough in me from my testing and my college film that the defending world champion Chicago Bears still took me in the fourth round, which is in fact they flew me out the next day. Normally you only fly in first round draft picks. They flew me to Chicago the next day, which I didn't know at the time was rather unusual but they had high hopes for me and I had some, played a total of five seasons and I had some really high highlights but I wound up having four surgeries over those five years and, and my body was already deteriorating drastically at the time. So you know, by those last two years I was, I wound up going to Minnesota my last season because I was willing to, you know, play for whoever was willing to pay me. And but after five years it got to the point where I just literally could not run again. You know, I ah, could not run anymore. The pain was Just too intense. And obviously if you can't run, you can't play football. So after five seasons I had before I was ready mentally to retire physically, I was forced to retire. But, it was good to me. Great, great experience, great, great teammates. Was in long enough to, you know, make a little money to get started on life. Have a pension and everything through the NFL. Played long enough for that. So all of that was good. Cindy and I had started a business with my, my oldest brother in Oklahoma after I was here.
Kevin Freeman: What was your business? What was it?
Paul Blair: well, we started a vending company and coffee service. You know, it was interesting at the time the Minnesota Vikings were owned by a food service company, a vending company. So I mean it was a interesting business, cash business. You know, it didn't have accounts receivable. People had to put money in the machine to buy a soda pop or a candy bar. And you know, it's amazing. You sell enough 50 cent items and it adds up to real money.
Kevin Freeman: Well, There are no 50 cent items these days. They're $2.50 items.
Paul Blair: But we had, we had a good business, had that for 29 years. And we raised our children. Coach Lilly, you know, taught Sunday school class. And you know, we were just living, you know, the typical, American dream, you know, just middle class America here in Oklahoma. And I, was serving in a large Baptist church in Edmond. And then my dad was still at the church where he had pastured for all these years. And dad had a stroke, had a severe stroke in January, I think it was, 1998, 1999. And my two brothers and I went back over to Fairview to try to hold it together in hopes that dad could recover from his throat. But he was never able to. In fact, dad wound up dying about three years later. But we got to spend some more time with him. and they called me as, they called me to be the pastor of the church. I said, no, thank you. I'm, happy to serve as interim this year, but I am not a pastor and don't want to be with it. I love pastor. You know, grew up in a pastor's own, but I also knew work that it entailed. I knew the heartbreak. I knew that, you know, having seen Christians up close for all those years, I knew that Christians bite or sheep bite. And this was something that I just wanted to do. I wanted to be the pastor's best friend. I wanted to serve Faithland church, but I did not want to be the pastor of a church. So we led in calling another man. And he came to Fairview at the time and agreed that he would take the job if I would stay and help try to build it with him. So I did. He asked me if I would be his youth pastor since I'd only been out of the NFL for about seven or eight years. So I still had a certain name with the youth and I agreed to do that. I didn't even like kids. I like teaching adults. But, my pastor needed me. I was going to help.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you say you didn't like kids. You raised some fine kids, though.
Paul Blair: M. I'm just kidding.
Kevin Freeman: You and Cindy have done a terrific job.
Marnie Freeman: And there. And one at one's pastoring with you, right?
Paul Blair: Well, he is the same now. One's an attorney and he helps, teach when I'm not here. And he's really good.
Marnie Freeman: He is amazing.
Paul Blair: And I've got two grandchildren, two wonderful daughters in law. So the Lord has truly.
Kevin Freeman: And they're not small kids.
Marnie Freeman: No, they're gentle giants.
Paul Blair: Yeah, they both. And they're even greater men inside. I mean, they're larger internally than they are externally. They're.
Paul Blair is helping train other pastors through Pirate Money Radio
They truly love the Lord. Great husband, great sons, and been very successful. We're so proud of.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, I can see that. Marty and I look at it like those are fine looking, you know, huge guys. And we look up to them in more ways than one.
Marnie Freeman: Exactly.
Paul Blair: Six foot eight. We all look up to Jacob. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: All right, so we're going to need to take another break.
Paul Blair: Break.
Kevin Freeman: Paul, when we come back, I want to transition from becoming a pastor, to how you're helping train other pastors. It's a beautiful story. You want to stay tuned and hear more from Paul Blair after the break.
Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend m and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
Kevin Freeman talks with Pastor Paul Blair about how he became a pastor
Welcome back with your host, Kevin Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. And I'm joined by my favorite person on planet earth, Marnie. The beautiful wife, mother of my kids. I just love having you here, Marnie. And she came because she knew who our special guest was.
Marnie Freeman: Absolutely.
Kevin Freeman: Pastor Paul Blair. Hey, Marnie, look at this. Look what I found.
Marnie Freeman: Oh, my soul. Look at that.
Kevin Freeman: That is an Oklahoma State, football card for Paul Blair. He's not even on the picture in the picture of it. but number 22, it lists his cowboy career and everything. I know, Marnie, you're a big Oklahoma State.
Marnie Freeman: I am. Go Pokes. I love those. I love those Oklahoma State cowboys.
Paul Blair: That's funny, Kevin. I made the all century team for Oklahoma State, is one of the five best offensive linemen to ever play there. And so they came out with, a hundred card all star set. So the 100 greatest players. And then there were two of them that they had error cards. The card company just blew it. They, they took the picture and in my car they cropped the running back rather than me, who was in front of the running back. So it's got Kelly Crook's picture on it, but it's my stats and information. I was actually number 72, the lineman in front of him. But that was sounds sort of interesting story. It was an honor on the oil century team. But then they, they botched the card. But anyway, at least that's one you can talk about.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I've got it right here. And I bought it on ebay, so I now know it's a collector's item. You know, like that upside down stamp that's worth a million dollars or something. Anybody want to make an offer to me, call me, because I've got one of the very, very rare, Paul Blair, Oklahoma State. Ah, all century football cards. Anyway, we're talking with Paul Blair and we're talking about how he became a pastor. But Marnie wants to hear the Andy Griffith story, how, how you became political as a pastor, because that's a big jump. People don't want their pastor to be political sometimes. But you need to explain that.
Paul Blair: Well, we, again, I initially turned down the call to pastor, and because I didn't believe I was called, I didn't run the job after the pastor that we had hired, he was there about two years, had some health issues, retired, make a long story short, and a year went by, I filled the pulpit one Sunday, and I was still serving as youth pastor at this point in time. I filled the pulpit one Sunday and the people just, it was just right. I mean, it was just overrun. Everybody, everybody loved it. It just felt right, knew it was right, knew the Lord was calling by that point in time. And I'd been there about three years. I accepted the ministry call in 2001, and, by about 2004, I was at home on a Sunday afternoon reviewing my notes for our Sunday night service and had the football game on in my office across the room at home. And I was reviewing my notes and watching the game the Cowboys were playing. Game ended. I didn't have the remote control, so I didn't get up. Didn't want to waste the energy to get up and go Turn the TV off. So I'm glancing at my notes and joined in progress was an old Andy Griffith episode. And it revolved around church. And it was just all good stuff. You know, Andy was part of the budget board. They were trying to determine how to spend some extra money, whether they needed to shore up the foundation or buy new choir robes. And the whole plot was trying to convince, you know, Andy to vote for Aunt Be in the choir robes or with Howard and the supporting him, the. The sound agents are happy ending. They wound up stretching the money and doing it all. And the final scene in the church was panning, across this little congregation that may vary. Everybody with their hymnals open, singing a beautiful old hymn with their heads rock back, smiles on their face. And the show ended. And you just felt warm all over. You just felt good. And I just thought, wow, that was great. Hadn't seen one of those a long time. And I, went back to my notes and immediately a commercial came on. And this was 2004, so think how much worse it's got, you know, advertising some Modern Crime Family. it was. I just saw naked dead blood and everything the next 30 seconds. And it just really struck me, you know, at the time, I was in my early 40s, had small children, young children. And I thought, my Lord, in my lifetime being a baby boomer, we've seen America go from Andy Griffith to broke Matt Mount, Andy Griffith going from, you know, from. From Lena to Beaver to Modern Family. And I just thought. I said, lord, if you don't return first, what kind of country are my children getting me left to raise my grandchildren in? And I said, somebody's got to do something about it. And I went through my mind, the list of people that had influence that could, could, change the thinking of America. And I thought, well, the educational system. And I thought, no, that's gone already in 2004 is gone. I thought, well, the media. Media has a great audience. I thought, no, that's gone. And then it dawned on me, the fulfillment. And then I thought, you know, that's always been God's plan. It's always been God's plan to have the man of God, from Enoch to Jeremiah to John the Baptist, standing up and preaching righteousness to the culture, pointing people to the truth and the one true living God and, our Lord Jesus Christ and calling people to get right with God. So I really was naive at the time. I thought it would be really simple to go around and awaken pastors and get them involved. But that was what my awakening was. I recognize that, you know, we're not just supposed to get people to heaven, which we are supposed to do, but we're supposed to bring, you know, righteous living into the lives that we live now. You know, we're supposed to be glorifying God in everything that we do now as followers of Jesus. So I was compelled to try to awaken the pulpit. We had the chance to go down and meet Dr. Kennedy, and we started reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ, along with reclaiming America for Christ. And Dr. Kennedy died and. And, they gave us the.
Most pastors have been taught to compartmentalize life
The mantle of carrying the oak. I mean, reclaiming America for Christ effort. And then I. I focused that to get people to change their behavior, you have to convince them with their thinking. You have to teach them truth. And most pastors have been taught to compartmentalize life. That's what they're taught in seminary. So, so get this. I mean, as. As nonsense as this is. A pastor will say Jesus is lord of all. Oh, but I can't talk about that. My church. Wait a second. He's either the Lord of all, or he's only the Lord of stuff that you can talk about in church. And we know that he's lord of all. But this compartmentalization actually goes back to Greek influence and religion and Christianity. And the Hebraic understanding was, whatever you do this, God created the spiritual and the material world. We're supposed to glorify God if all of it. And the Bible, full of principles, economic principles, political principles. There's a role for self government. There's a role for family government, there's a role for church government, and there's a role for civil government.
Kevin Freeman: There's no question. Yeah. And, You had something you wanted to say. Go ahead.
Marnie Freeman: Well, I'm just saying, ironically, this really stems from the government, a lot of it. They keep perpetuating this, perpetuating this, so they can kind of control the narrative, I think.
Paul Blair: Well, that's what tyranny is. Tyranny is when the civil government that has the power of the sword behind it begins overstepping its boundaries and taking over church government, family government, and self government when the tyrant makes decisions on everything.
Kevin Freeman: So they sure did that during COVID didn't they? Shut your church down. You're not allowed to worship. You're not allowed to be within five feet. You can't feed the poor. You can't visit your sick, aunt in the hospital. So that's it.
You went against the grain with your biblical worldview, Paul. You Began a dramatic change
All right, so you did this. You took a. You Began a dramatic change. I'm going to be a pastor, but a different kind of pastor. You went against the grain. Everybody would say, don't do that. You'll lose church members. And yet I see in Your bio, in 2008, you were named pastor of the Year for the state of Oklahoma by the Bot Radio Network. In 2011, you were named National Pastor of the Year by Vision America in Houston, which is our friend Rick Scarborough at the time. I think this, you've received numerous awards and, and really your church grew, right? It didn't shrink, it grew.
Marnie Freeman: So what happens when you speak truth?
Paul Blair: People are hungry for the truth. And, and they love this. And we have had a reach with, with technology and media, we are able to reach far outside the walls of our church. We have now done 20 pastors camps, of course. Kevin, you are a featured speaker at all of our camps these days. We've got four more coming up this year, but we bring pastors in for three days and we, we only charge them $99 for about a 1500 dollar three day vacation. they have a second honeymoon with their wives, but they commit to 20 hours of continuing education. With us on biblical worldview. And we start on opening night and we ask the question, what part of your life is Jesus not the Lord over make that list. And those are the subjects that you can't preach about in church. But every pastor knows that's nonsense and we knock that wall down immediately. Jesus is Lord of all. So we should speak of a biblical worldview on every facet of life. There's nothing off limits. And then we begin teaching these men chapter and verse where the Bible speaks about proper civil government, where the Bible speaks about, proper economics. We get into cultural issues of the day. You know, we no longer have the redcoats marching into elections. And you know, we were literally just feeling up, fielding up, fending off Covid and the World Economic Forum and other things. You know, now we've got, we've got abortion, we've got this, this transing of our youth. We've got all sorts of things out here that we are engaging. And then we give a battle plan, we give next steps, real solutions. We got members of our, of our graduates and we got 2000 pastors that have graduated. Now. We should have about 2500 to get through this year. But we got a m. Member of the Houston City Council, which is huge. I mean, Houston is a state all into itself. We've got member of the Florida legislature, we've got mayors across the country that have literally transformed their counties because the stands that they're taking for righteousness.
Kevin Freeman: Well, I want to jump in here because, Paul, if you go back to 1776, this would not be uncommon. The pastor would be talking worldview. And you had a bunch of pastors that actually put on black robes, the black robe regiment, and put on the soldier uniform and went out and fought for the revolution because they knew that it was essential. We've been told now we shouldn't do that. Sit down, shut up. You can talk about Jesus, but only on Sunday and maybe Wednesday night. but you're not allowed to bring Jesus into anything else because that's against the culture. No, we don't want to do that. And yet you've done it. And I love that. You mentioned, you mentioned a, pastor in Florida who has joined the legislature. He's become a dear friend, Marnie.
Marnie Freeman: Absolutely. Representative Doug Bankson. He's, amazing. And you all helped train him, raised him up for what he's doing now in the legislature and the pirate money.
Kevin Freeman: Radio audience, you've heard what we're doing. Transactional gold and silver. Guess who got our legislation passed unanimously through the Florida House and the Senate, and then invited. Got us invited to the signing ceremony of with Governor Ron DeSantis. It is a guy we met through you, Paul. Pastor Doug Bankson. And it's because you trained him. You know, we've got a lot to cover here. and we've got one more segment to cover. But quickly tell us about Doug Bankson and how he decided to run for the legislature.
Paul Blair: Well, it's so fun, all these guys. It's just an organic response. We teach these guys. And then once you've been taught something that's going to affect your behavior from then on out, you can't unlearn, it. But it's organic. We give them all next steps. They have a battle plan. But some go back and start schools, Christian schools in their churches. Some go back and decide that they're going to run for office themselves. Doug was one of those guys. He ran for the state legislature there in Florida 1. And as you have just announced, he has been part of probably one of the most significant bills that history will show has ever been passed in America. And he led the charge as a pastor in the Florida legislature. We trained him, sent him on his way. Organic conviction, moving in the Holy Spirit, working with you in this battle plan. And now we've seen victory.
Kevin Freeman: If you're not in a liberty pastor's church, you ought to be. Or if your pastor is not a liberty pastor, he needs to be. We're going to study this and talk with Paul Blair. More about this after the break. You've got to study. Stay tuned.
Mike Carter: M Pirate Money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
Kevin Friedman: Pastor Paul Blair talks about eternal investments in the kingdom of God
Welcome back with your host, Kevin Friedman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, we're talking about eternal investments in the kingdom of God with Pastor Paul Blair. We're also talking about earthly investments, how to get, you know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, bringing it to earth with the Christian worldview. And Marnie, you had something you just, just wanted to share?
Marnie Freeman: Well, I just want to say about the Liberty Pastors camps. We've been to quite a few now and they are amazing. They get to come in, the pastors, their wives get to come into an incredible resort area. Then they are fire hosed with some of the best speakers, I think on the planet. But then they are. And it's a lot of facts that they do not know. Most of them do not know these things, but they don't leave it there. They arm them with like, the battle plans, with tools, with people, with experts, and then they are empowering them to go out to their flocks and to their communities to do the things that God is calling them to do.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you know, this is a great secret. I attended these as a speaker and I just show up and speak and then leave. And then I said, hey, look at these other speakers. I want to stick around and listen to some of these other great men and women that were speaking. You're talking about homeschooling and you're talking about what China's doing and you're talking about, you know, secret societies and what are, what's taking place. And, and then I went home and told Marty says, I want to go. And it's designed for men and women pastors and their wives. And it's designed in a romantic setting so that you get both a second honeymoon and this great continuing education. And you get it for $99. I mean, you may end up having to raise the price on that. But where can you take. And it's not a timeshare. the only other place you can do this, if you sit in an excruciating timeshare meeting and listen to them hard sell you on buying, you know, sharing this Disney resort or this other resort, okay, there you can get $99, I guess, but nowhere else. And the food, our mutual friend Art Allison says, well, if you feed Them, right? They'll come. The food is fantastic, the time is fantastic. We've loved it, right?
Marnie Freeman: I've loved it. And even at the end of the session or the conference, it's amazing. You see pastors just streaming up to the front saying how can I help? What can I do? Tears rolling down their face. It's a, it's amazing.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Committing and signing a commitment literally in front front of everybody.
Paul Miller shares his vision of Liberty pastors and where people can learn more
So Paul, tell us about the vision of Liberty pastors and where can people learn more? Because if you are a churchgoer, if you're not a churchgoer, let me talk to you. You need to be in church. If you are a churchgoer, you've got a pastor and your pastor, are they covering the entirety of, of the Bible? Is Jesus Lord over everything or just a fraction of it? If they are a Liberty pastor, congratulations. If they're not, catch your pastor to go to the Liberty Pastors conference. Paul, describe it and tell where people can learn more.
Paul Blair: Well, as you said, without art allies, passionate generosity and first Timothy plan, conscientious, clean Christian investment, in American values and things that are sensitive to a Christian conviction. Without art, we wouldn't be able to do these things. So all things are alley. But we've got four camps upcoming. One's a hybrid that's going to be out real quickly down at Patriot Academy, this, this June. But we've got three of our major camps coming up. One in Williamsburg, Virginia August 18th through 21st. One in Orlando, Florida from September 29th through October 2nd on one at Bay Harbor, Michigan November 3rd through six. we encourage people to go to our website, libertypastasu.com libertypastas.com, libertypastas.org We've tried to grab all those domains so you can't miss us. But go there, find the events tab and you'll find the information about these upcoming camps and just sign up, sign your pastor up. Sign for senior pastors. But we associate pastors are welcome as well because they may one day be a senior pastor. But if your pastor is not already involved, give him the gift of a second honeymoon. Literally it's about a fifteen hundred dollar trip, three day second honeymoon as Kevin and Marty have said. But we only charge $99, just a registration fee. So the pastor has a little investment in it now, have a little value to it, then recover the rest of it. Has six meals included, has plenty of free time to enjoy the beautiful venue. But we have 20 hours continuing education. We teach Biblical worldview. We introduce, them to some of the major issues that we face today, like abortion. Big issue in Virginia. They may change their constitution to make it a very liberal abortion state. That's one of the reasons we're there. It's a major battle in the state of Virginia coming up this next year. And then we actually have next steps. A Babel plan where these pastors can go back and simply begin implementing this in their churches. And then we have a continuing support system and network that's around it. And it's all voluntary. Once they come to the camp, as Marty said, we have basically an invitation at the end. and if these pastors want to take the next step and join shoulder, shoulder with us and engage the culture for Christ, then they come on their own, sign up, and there's no obligation. It's just a commitment. It's that active commitment. And then they're part of our program, and we work with them from that point forward.
Kevin Freeman: You know, Marnie, you went with the first one or one of the first ones you went with me to was Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Marnie Freeman: Oh, yeah. There was chocolate everywhere.
Kevin Freeman: I don't think I've eaten so much chocolate in my entire life. Every time you turned around, there was chocolate this and chocolate that. Chocolate in the, in the food. Chocolate, you know, bars and, and. And kisses and everything in the rooms.
Marnie Freeman: They were at the desk. They were everywhere.
Kevin Freeman: Chocolate. And the shampoo, actually, I think you use the shampoo. It smelled like chocolate. That was fun.
Marnie Freeman: It was fun. But Williamsburg, oh, it's gonna be amazing. Oh, I mean, Oh, yes. History right there.
Kevin Freeman: Remember when we took our girls to Williamsburg, how much fun they had?
Marnie Freeman: Yeah. What did our. What did our daughter say?
Kevin Freeman: Okay, our daughter's a literal comedian. I mean, she. She should be. I lined her up with Michael Jr. Who offered to mentor her. She said, I don't want to do that. She wanted to dance, but she's so funny. She walks into, the. The little kitchen, goods store in Colonial Williamsburg. So it's a colonial store, and you can buy towels and pots and pans and things. And she walks in, and she walks to the middle of the room.
Marnie Freeman: And she's very young at the time.
Kevin Freeman: She's very young and tiny. And she looks around and she blurts out, what is this, Williamsburg Sonoma? Everybody in that store cracked up. They wanted to hire her to come back. And she was in a little colonial outfit, too. Hire her. But. So we're looking so forward to being part of those liberty pastors. Campsite.
Paul was diagnosed with throat cancer three months ago
but Paul, you know, you've been active out there, and the enemy has come after you. You've been a powerful voice. Briefly share some of your battle with cancer and how God delivered you from that.
Paul Blair: I will be very brief because I know we don't have much time. I was diagnosed with throat cancer, which is interesting. Very aggressive. Came on me literally in a month. Had no symptoms. And then part of my throat and tonsils were just eaten away. Just weren't there. And M.D. Anderson rushed and got me in. We had people around the world literally praying for me. And, God answered the prayers. I thought it was face death, survived the massive radiation they gave me. I've come to learn just this last year, continues to work. In fact, I have to do speech therapy. I've, got speech therapy when we're done here because it continues to try to stiffen and tighten your throat. So I'm going to have to always work at speaking. And I'm slowly losing my ability to speak. Hopefully I won't before I die, but that's just a battle. Makes me lean on the Lord that much harder. the, the. The fact that I have a hole in my throat that's not supposed to be there. I wound up. I wind up aspirating food, and from that I'm constantly battling pneumonia. And, as you too knew, we were at Council for National Policy meeting in Washington, D.C. just about two months ago, three months ago. Cindy and I were checking it out on Saturday morning. We were literally. I've been up for two hours. Felt great. We were just packed, getting ready to walk out the door, head to the airport, when within about 20 seconds, I'm on the bed and I can't breathe, and my left side hurts so bad. I've never experienced greater pain. I thought I was having a heart attack, and I literally could not grasp a breath. And the first time I've ever had an ambulance ride. But I spent a week at Fairfax Hospital, and they wound up draining, three liters of blood out of my left lung. And so that's a constant battle that I'm monitoring right now. But we only have time to say this, and I wish I could elaborate more, but, you know, we always. We will often say we're not guaranteeing tomorrow. Let me just remind everybody, we're not guaranteed the next minute. I was up on that Saturday morning and I felt great. I felt on top of the world. I'd been in the gym the day before. I had no symptoms. I was Having problems in my legs. And then I literally thought I was going to die. And here was all that was going on in my mind. As time really slows down, when you're at that point, it almost stops. And with every breath I'm trying to tell Cindy everything I want to tell her. I'm trying to tell her who to call, where the money is taken care of. You don't have to worry about it. When I tell her how much I loved her and make sure she told me kids how much I love them. But then at that point in time when you go through all that stuff, you think, okay, am I ready? It's like, there's perfect case. It's like, yeah, Paul, you're ready. Jesus is, Lord. And I literally didn't think I was going to make it hostile because I could not breathe. And I'm so tired of trying to breathe. But let me give some advice. Everybody, pastors, everybody that's listening, take the time today. Write out a letter to your wife, to your children, Express your thoughts. Tell them who to call if there was an emergency. Tell them where everything is so you're not trying to get it out that last few seconds. And then above everything else, if you die today, do you know you can be in heaven? And I gotta tell you, I've had three occasions in my life where I thought death was imminent. And, that was the most critical because I thought death was seconds away. I mean, I literally was so tired of trying to breathe that I was ready to stop trying. And I can just tell you this. I had perfect peace. I know that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. And I know that to be absent from this body, we'll be present with him. So my advice, everybody, don't wait. Take the time to write out a letter, express your love and thoughts and direction and instruction for your children and for your wife. And then above everything else, make sure you're ready to go meet Jesus.
Kevin Freeman: Well, thank you Paul.
Marnie Freeman: We love you, Pastor Paul Do.
Kevin Freeman: And we're so looking forward to Liberty Pastors camp. Let me just share this. This guy has been on top of the world, one of the best football players in, in the history of a, great football program. And he's dedicated his life to Jesus. He's dedicated his life to helping pastors help you if you're a listener. So learn more about Liberty pastors@liberty pastorsu.com. get your pastor to go there. That's what he, he came back from near death experience to help you and help America. And this is so important. Thank you, Paul Blair, for all that you're doing and thank you, Marnie, for joining me. It's such a pleasure to have you here on, Pirate Money Radio. Look, listen wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify or whatever, it's Kevin Freeman joined by Marnie Freeman and Pastor Paul Blair and Pirate Money Radio.
Join us as former NFL player Pastor Paul Blair and host Kevin Freeman discuss the growing trend of using gold and silver as currency— a nod to America's foundational history and economic stability. Dive into Pastor Blair's incredible journey from the NFL to the pastorate, and his pivotal role in shaping political change through Liberty Pastors. The conversation takes a turn as Blair shares insights from his battle with cancer, affirming his faith and ultimate peace with Christ. Discover how you and your church can partake in the Liberty Pastors' mission to restore our nation’s values.
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