Transcript

Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello.

 : And welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing hope for healthy families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.

Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends. Welcome, welcome, welcome to my favorite day of the week, my favorite time of the day. I am so grateful that you are listening in. Hey, friends, it is fry. Yay. As my kids say, I love Fridays. They have such a good energy. And here we are back talking about health, healthy habits. I hope that you've joined us in on, my challenge on my invitation to a journey to develop 52 habits for healthy families. And this is just a journey. All you have to do is just listen in, ask God to prayerfully look at your life and think, what small changes can you make? And when we get to Christmas, which is when we get to Friday at Christmas, that's my favorite day of the week and my favorite time of the year. At my favorite time of the day, you'll be amazed to see what God has done in your life, because I firmly believe that God blesses small steps of obedience. And if you make that effort, God is going to meet you there.

Today we're talking about daily devotionals that can boost spiritual growth

Now, we've been talking about basic spiritual disciplines. All we've talked about so far, these are not rocket science, as, my husband would say, who is actually a rocket scientist. But thankfully, it's very simple for all of us. But it's somehow not easy to do. We've talked about the basic building blocks for healthy families. That is prayer, that is reading and memorizing scripture, that is going to church, getting plugged into a local church, getting connected. And we've talked about using Christian music as an intentional discipleship tool. Well, this week we're going to start transitioning into some rhythms that your family should have. And one of those is a crossover. It is a basic spiritual discipline, but it's also a rhythm. But I didn't include it in those core rhythms because those core spiritual disciplines are so, so important today. You're one probably wondering, what in the world is she talking about? Well, I'm talking About daily devotionals. Now, devotionals are a great thing, but they can also be a not so great thing. And I'll tell you how and why and the purpose of a devotional and how you can use them in your life to spur on your spiritual growth. So that's what we're talking about today. Daily devotionals, these are just rhythms in your life that are going to make your relationship stronger, that is going to make your faith stronger, and that is going to just make you happier. Honestly, when we are walking with the Lord, we can find such contentment with that. So today we're talking about daily devotional. That's where we're going. Now. This is about again, rhythm over rules. It's not about you have to do everything perfectly. It's just about engaging. And today we'll talk specifically about devotional. Now, the word word devotional actually has its root from Latin, the Latin word devotio. Ah, devotio, which means a deliberate act of dedication, a setting apart or an act of surrender or consecration. Now here's the thing. When we say devotional as a contemporary Christian society, you automatically think about a little passage from a book somewhere. And that's the devotional is something that somebody's written, an encouraging message. But in its earliest usage, that word devotio or the concept was not primarily about reading material because frankly, most people didn't have it. It described a posture of the heart. So when you were devoted to something, it meant you were oriented, you were fixed toward something with intentionality, with loyalty, with your attention. So devotional really referred to a way of being not a, or a book, which is kind of how we've reduced it to today. And so we need to make sure that our attitude and our posture is to put devotion before devotionals. Because for most of Christian history, there have been no daily devotional books. There were very few printed materials. So most believers practiced devotion, the act of devotion through reading scripture or citing scripture. They often would memorize scripture because there weren't Bibles that were widely available until in more recent history. They would pray, they would read psalms, they would sing hymns, they would practice silence, they would practice fasting. They would gather together to worship. That was their act of devotion. It was practiced as a time set apart for God, not a short inspirational reading that was squeezed into your schedule. And the rise of the modern devotional is pretty fascinating because the, the devotional as we know it today has really been a 20th century phenomenon because it's post printing press. It is, it really came about during the Protestant Reformation and the Puritan eras. It expanded through the 18th and 19th centuries because we had more people who could read. We had daily Bible reading movements. We had big revivals, Great Awakenings that were happening across the world, across the country, and we started to see household faith practices through these printed materials. Now, these devotionals were originally designed to help ordinary believers engage scripture. Because we didn't have streaming to understand for theology, we didn't have wide access to commentaries. It was intended to guide reflection and guide prayer and encourage consistency, not replace the Bible, not replace Scripture reading. And early devotionals were heavily scripture saturated, assuming that the. The reader had already read or even memorized the passage in full and was to help you meditate on that further. But the meaning has shifted in contemporary Christian culture for good and for not so good. So in modern Christian practice, the term devotional means it's not so much devotion as relationship with God. It is not devotion as our posture toward God. It is devotional as content to be consumed.

A devotional is best understood as an invitation into daily devotion

So today, doing a devotional or devo, as we often say in lingo, I did have someone ask me who would had was a very new believer saying, what is this devo word that everybody's using? And it's worth it. Most Christians would recognize, but it really is a very specific vocabulary or vernacular. But today, doing a devo or devotional means reading a short reflection, spending a few minutes alone, just getting encouragement for the day, like, check the box, because I feel really good that I did that. Now it can be helpful. It can be so good. It can be such a great spiritual discipline. But there is risk, okay? The risk is that devotion is all about consumption. That time with God is really transactional. Like, okay, I did my devotional now, God, you bless me. And we wouldn't say that out loud, but sometimes we think that and scripture becomes the supporting material rather than central. This happens with devotionals where we kind of skip over the scripture, right? Like, we're not like, oh, let me get to the story, let me get to the. The reflection that's in there. It's not inherently wrong. It's just incomplete. So we need to make sure that we have our when we're doing a devotional, that our hearts are postured toward devotion, meaning attention and abiding. We have this admonition in Scripture, John 15, remain in me as I also remain in you. Psalm 1. Meditate on it day and night. Deuteronomy 6, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Those are reflections of devotional. But we have to recognize that biblical devotion, spiritual devotion, it's relational, it's formational, it's not performance, it's not consumption. And so a devotional resource is meant to serve this posture, not to replace that posture. So in healthy Christian practice today, a devotional is best understood as a structured invitation into daily devotion. It is an invitation. It is a tool to posture your heart, your mind, your spirit, your attitude, your thoughts toward a living, breathing God who loves you more than anything. And so the goal is not, oh, I want to feel inspired, I want to be encouraged. I want to feel like, you know, I'm, I'm being faithful. The goal is being faithful, of course, turning your heart to God, sitting with that, scripture, practicing faithfulness in small, repeated ways. And when they are claimed properly, devotionals can be such a great tool to support consistency in your faith, to teach biblical literacy, to create rhythms of attentiveness and help believers to notice God's presence in their daily life. So a devotional isn't something that we're doing for God. It's space that we are making to be with God. And that, again brings us back to devotion is an invitation to relationship. It's a tool, it's a guide, it's a companion alongside scripture. It is not a checklist, it is not a shortcut. It is not a measure of your spiritual prowess. Okay? And there are so many holistic health benefits that come along with daily devotion. When we do it right spiritually, of course, the benefits are endless. It anchors our families in God's truth rather than all of the cultural chaos that's going on. It helps us to build spiritual literacy. We learn more, we learn to discern more because we're asking reflective questions. We're thinking about different concepts and moving towards discipleship. And it reinforces our identity in Christ emotionally and mentally. Mental health wise. Creating that daily moment of calm is golden. Having reducing anxiety because you have that predictability, you have that anchor that you're going to. That's helpful too. It also encourages practices that are so good for mental health, even secular counselors use them. We're talking about gratitude, we're finding hope or having perspective, balanced perspective relationally and for your family health. Those shared spiritual rhythms, they strengthen connection. When you're having that moment of connection together, that's really powerful. When you see your spouse every morning at the kitchen table, every night on the bed, stand on m the nightstand, pulling that devotional and having those acts of obedience, those acts of faith, that really gives the rest of the family Such a feeling of calm, such a feeling of confidence that I see my spouse, my child, my father, my whoever it is in your family, you see them turning to God for wisdom and guidance. That's really helpful. And normalizing conversation and questions about things of faith. And you can say, hey, when your family's doing a devotional together, you can say, wow, that Scripture passage is really confusing. What do you think we're supposed to learn by that? It models your faith as lived, not just taught. And then for your physical health, for your brain health, for your nervous system, when we sit in the stillness, when we sit in routine and stillness that supports healthy stress response, beginning or ending the day, grounded in that routine is really helpful. Now I want to say again, it can be really tempting for us to use devotionals to replace Scripture. And a, ah, common pitfall is, you know, you read the devotional commentary, you skip the actual Bible passage, use that devotional to go back and read the passage as a whole. If it references one verse, use it to go back and read that passage yourself. That matters because Scripture is living and active and devotions are reflections on Scripture, not necessarily revelations of Scripture. The devotional should always point you back to the word of God, with Scripture remaining central, not just kind of a little thing that's thrown in on the side.

How do you vet a devotional? Discernment matters

Now, how do you vet a devotional? Discernment matters. I'll share with you. This is a really big mistake that I made early as a mom, I thought that if a devotional was sold at a Christian bookstore, if it was marketed by an online retailer, is this is a Christian devotional, that it must be vetted, it must be okay. And I realized that I needed to be more intentional before putting a devotional into the hands of my kids. I needed to do a little groundwork, a little legwork to make sure that that devotional was going to be edifying. So some practical steps for vetting a, devotional. Start with the question, what is this devotional pointing me toward? Is it directing me to Scripture? Scripture used every day as the central focus, or is this just a footnote to what the author is thinking? If Scripture is central, if it's referenced consistently, that's a good first sign. If you don't see any scriptures on any page of the devotional, it's more just like a feel good thought for the day. That's a sign that maybe that's not the best devotional for you. And check the way that they're using the scripture, because not all scripture usage is equal. So Are the verses quoted in context? What version of the Bible is the devotional using? Is it encouraging you to read beyond just one isolated reference that's there? Is the Scripture provided in in full, and is it or is it just simply using a verse to support a personal story? That can be a red flag when a verse is used as kind of a slogan or an emotional reinforcement without biblical grounding. And we've really got to evaluate the theology. This is where it's really helpful to go to your church leaders, ask your children's minister, ask your youth minister, ask your adult minister, ask your pastor, what devotionals do you recommend that would be good for spiritual growth? And look for that good theology that is God's character at the center. Does it reflect the whole counsel of scripture? Is it just affirming feel good vibes? Is it just here for the vibes that probably isn't going to help you grow as much spiritually? When we come back, I have a few other tips for how to vet a devotional and how to make it a part of your everyday life. We'll be right back on this Friday. Yay. See you on the other side of this break.

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This Is My Father's World by The Worship Initiative: This is my father's world and to my listening ears all nature sings and round me rings m the music of the spheres. This is my father's world I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas his hand the wonders wrought welcome back, friends.

Dr. Jessica Peck: That is, this is my father's world by the worship initiative and find such a great reassuring truth. When we look at the world and we think, what has the world come to? We can remind ourselves of the spiritual scriptural truth, timeless truth, that this is God's world, God is sovereign, he sees, he knows, he cares, and he loves you very much. And so if no one's told you today that God loves you, let me be the first one to tell you. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you, and he invites you into relationship with him.

First family rhythm we're talking about today is daily devotionals

Here on this Friday, or Friday, as we say around here, we're talking about 52 habits for healthy families. And we are just moving out of core spiritual disciplines into family rhythms that will really strengthen your family. And this first family rhythm we're talking about today is daily devotionals. Now, before the break, I was talking about vetting a, devotional. And this is really important. And I shared with you a mistake that I made because some of the devotionals, you know, I. I remember my daughter coming to me with one saying, I think you should read this, because I don't think that this is true or maybe even appropriate. And I remember feeling horrified because from her perspective, I gave her a book, she completely trusted me, and she read it and accepted it as truth. And I had not read it myself. And I. And we're not talking about things that are devastating, but over time, just missed opportunities. And so what I've talked about is looking at how the devotional uses the scripture. What scripture version that they're using Is the scripture central, and how do you know about the theology? Another thing, other things that you can look at, look at are looking at the author's formation. So look at the author and think, okay, what are their credentials? What is their background? Who vetted this book? Who endorsed it, looked at it, where, where did they. If they went to seminary, where was it? Is it someone, somewhere that's theologically, sound? Is it rooted in church community? Is it affiliated with a specific denomination or faith tradition that may have different beliefs than my own? Do they reference the scripture more than they're referencing themselves? Do they point you to God's word more than their own personal take on things? And it doesn't mean the author has to be famous. It doesn't mean the author has to be scholarly, but they should be in some way showing that they're submitted to biblical authority. And that is really important. Other things that you can do are, look at the fruit that the devotional Produces after you read a few days. Is it leading you to pray? Is it leading you to want to read more scripture? It. Or is it creating dependence on that author's voice? Are you just focusing primarily on the emotional validation? Look at what the fruit is in your life. Is it challenging you? Is it really helping you to develop the fruits of the spirit? Or is it just something that you think, yeah, that was interesting, and you move on. Pay attention to the tone of the devotional, because tone is very indicative of theology. And if you see devotionals that speak constantly in absolutes, and God told me this, and therefore you should do this in your life, or they're promising guaranteed outcomes or speaking in promises of wealth or abundance, or they're framing, claiming God primarily as a means to personal fulfillment, this is the way to be happy. Those are subtle little red flags, and sometimes not so subtle that maybe this devotional is not theologically sound. So healthy devotionals are going to encourage you to trust even when the circumstances seem like they invite anything but that. And healthy theology reflects a God who is sovereign, who is good, and who is not transactional. Not if you do this, then God will do this. Test that devotional against the scripture that you already know. Do you find that what they're saying is supported in Scripture? Does it align with the broader biblical narrative? If something feels off about it, pursue it, don't ignore it. it's also important to consider the age and stage appropriateness. So is this devotional developmentally appropriate for your kids? Is it meeting them? They are. Is it spiritually forming or is it emotionally overwhelming? And for kids, it's really important that those devotionals be scripture centered and not fear based, not, you know, making them scared into obeying God, presenting God as loving, as trustworthy. And those devotionals can really shape theology very early. So choose carefully. And again, your children's minister at your church would be a great resource to go to for recommendations on devotionals to get you started. And it's always great to make it a practice of reading the Bible first and then reading your devotional. That's one of the simplest safeguards that you can do. Read the scripture passage before the devotional commentary and then read the devotional as a secondary voice, not the primary authority, but as a challenging voice to help you reflect further. And sometimes it's okay to just stop a devotional. It's okay to not finish it. It's okay to get rid of it, frankly, if it's. It's not sacred simply because it's Christian. If it's distracting you from scripture. If it has confusing theology, it's okay to put it down. It is completely fine to do that because Christian on the COVID doesn't mean theologically sound. That is okay. It's okay to let one go.

When you're thinking about devotionals for families with young kids, keep it short

So when you're thinking about devotionals across family stages for families with young kids, it's so important to keep it short. I can't tell you how important that is. A lot of times we think it has to be this grand affair. Half an hour, no, it can be two minutes. But just consistency every morning, every night, that is going to be so much more important. So just pairing a very simple devotional with a Bible story or a verse. Many children's ministries at church will provide these for you, during the week or can give you a resource. Bedtime or breakfast works well because bedtime comes eventually every night. It may seem like it's forever and it's a struggle, but eventually you're going to put your kids to bed, you're going to feed your kids breakfast. So something where you're already, you already have a rhythm established is a great time. And allow wiggles, allow questions, allow interruptions, have tolerance for the humanity that is childhood. That's really important. If you have school age children, have them read the devotional. So often as parents, we come in and we think, oh, we've got to read the devotional. Having the kids read it gets them really engaged. So have them take turns. It's okay if they don't read it. It, perfectly. It's okay if it stretches their vocabulary. It's okay if they don't really have a great attitude about it too. Just being patient about that and being consistent is really helpful. And invite them to lead. the question asking that can be really helpful for teens. This is where they really need to transition ownership to themselves, to adopt this as their own daily discipline rather than something that mom and dad is just enforcing all of the time.

Dr. Jessica Peck: And.

Dr. Jessica Peck: But invite them to discuss how it's applying to their real life. What did they learn? Model curiosity. What is, what did you learn in your devotional? What's it, what's it encouraging you to do? What do you feel challenged by? What do you feel discouraged by? What do you feel encouraged by? And sometimes if you are in that busy parenting stage of life or just busy stage of life and you have your spouse at home, just attach that devotional time to something you already do together. Do you have coffee in the morning? Is it a commute? Is it the last five minutes? Before bed day. The other these small, consistent moments really matter. And for couples and empty nesters, read together every day, read scripture and just have that emphasis on connection. It might even just be one little passage of scripture that you read every night before you go to bed. The key here is presence over perfection. Thinking about your heart posture. It's not about checking a box, doing it correctly. It's just about showing up consistently and creating a space for God to meet you, building that faithful rhythm over time so that you learn to hear his voice. It's not about a legalistic approach that demands performance. It's about an invitational approach that creates relationship. Now I have a few of trusted and classic devotional recommendations for you. These would be for adults, but if you're looking for something that is really classic that's been around a long time, here's some recommendations that you might try My utmost Were His Highest By Oswald Chambers Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon Daily Light on the Daily Path or Valley of Vision It's a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions or Billy Graham's Hope he has hope for each day, peace for each day, truth for each day, wisdom for each day. And we have featured a lot of devotional authors for adults, for young adults, for children on the show. And so feel free to contact us if you want any of those connections or recommendations. You can look back, back through the show and see we have featured a lot of devotional authors that point you back to the Lord. So in closing, just remember that God often meets you when you do that devotional. How many of you have had the experience if you do a daily devotional that you open that on just that right exact day, on March the first or whatever the day may be, that God had already prepared to meet you there in the moment, nothing is coincidence. God, we works divinely to give you that right word at that right time on exactly the day that we need it. And it is such a measure of God's grace and his presence in our lives and that faithfulness over time matters so much more than anything else that we could do. So start small, stay consistent, and trust that God honors that offering of your attention, because I really believe that he does. And so as we go forward, we will be continuing to talk about these family rhythms that you can have. We'll talk about morning and evening routines and how God made that. And I can't wait to talk about these. These are some of the most transformational moments that can be for families for today. Just think about where could that Devotion naturally fit into your family rhythm. That is important.

We need to nurture curiosity and translate that to discipleship

Now, as we transition to segments that I'm doing, this year on Fridays, I'm doing something called Home Front Headlines. I'm talking about headlines that I'm following in the news. What happened, what it means for your family, and what you can do about it. And one of the stories that I've been following is so encouraging, and it really relates to these daily habits, the core spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading and memorizing scripture, going to church, listening to Christian music, and having a daily devotional. Because one of the headlines that is very predominant that I'm seeing is that there are signs of revival. We are seeing revivals pop up and so much in young people on college campuses and in communities of young people. This is encouraging. And when we are in tune with God through those core spiritual disciplines, through rhythms of faith that we have, we are seeing that. And so we see some headlines that talk about a quiet revival in the US this isn't a mass altar call or things that we used to see like the Billy Graham crusades. These are happening spontaneously through genuine curiosity about God showing up in surprising places like podcasts and music and testimonies. We seen talk about people like Jelly Roll sharing their faith, or figures like Joe Rogan, who is talking openly about this curiosity and faith, if you're not familiar with who he is. Joe Rogan is often ranked as the number one podcast in the world with an average 11 million listens to his podcast. There are a lot of people tuning in, and it's really interesting to see that this conversation of curiosity. And one of the things, the clips that I heard of Joe Rogan speaking about recently was talking about how nice church people were. I was the nicest people ever. But there's this curiosity, but a, disconnect from meaningful discipleship. Now we see good things like barna, the American Bible Society, they say Bible engagement is really increasing, 20%, maybe in the last year alone. And that is really exciting. And this matters, though, because spiritual development and mental health are deeply intertwined in children and teens. When families are modeling curiosity about their faith, children are having those opportunities for conversation about what is the meaning of life, who is God, who am I? And that is really important. But we need to nurture this curiosity and translate that to discipleship. Not enough just to be curious. God has more for us than that and living life more abundantly. So ways that we can nurture that curiosity is actually starting with questions instead of answers. That sounds backwards, but we talked to Lee Strobel about that and really not being afraid of our kids questions. God is big enough to handle their questions, letting them work out their own faith with fear and trembling. Sometimes the fear and the trembling is on the parents part. We want our kids kids to ask honest questions about God, about faith, about life. And we see this modeled in secular society. Curiosity is the doorway, but discipleship is the journey that follows. And so it's perfectly okay for us to say, I don't know the answer to that, but let's explore that together. I say this all the time. If God was small enough to be understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshiped. And sometimes there are things that we just don't understand. Here's a, here's a caution. Curiosity without grounding in the word, grounding in the Bible, grounding in scripture, it can wander. Discipleship grows through consistent Bible engagement. That's the first thing to do, start praying, asking God to reveal himself through his Word. And we need to be talking about that and cultivating relational faith because discipleship is relationship with Christ, but it's also relationship with the church, with the community, with the people of God. It's not just intellectual knowledge, it's connecting that curious heart with a mentor, with a teacher, with a small group, with a faith filled community where you're going to model that authentic faith at home. You gotta move from observation to participation and start participating in these spiritual practices yourself. Praying, reading the Bible, memorizing scripture, going to church, listening to Christian music and a daily devotional like we talked about about today. When we come back from the break, I'm going to talk more about how do we cultivate curiosity into a discipleship journey And I'll share with you some more headlines when we come back. Don't go away. I pray that you will be encouraged. And if you have a good devotional recommendation, send it my way. I would love to know about it. We'll see you right on the other side of this break.

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Dr. Jessica Peck: God is on our side he has overcome yes, he has overcome we will not be shaken we will not be moved Jesus, you are here Carrying our burdens Covering our shame He has overcome yes, he has overcome we will not be be shaken we will not be moved Jesus, you are here I will live I will not die the resurrection life in me and.

Dr. Jessica Peck: I am free In Jesus name welcome back friends. That is in Jesus Name by Darlene Zschech And what a great message of encouragement today on this Friday. We are talking about today's healthy habit of having a daily devotional. We're moving into a section where we're talking about rhythms that cultivate faith.

One of the biggest fears that Christian parents hear is their kids will reject faith

And I think as Christian families, one of the biggest fears that I hear from parents is that their kids will walk away from their faith, their kids will reject their faith. And that is a really real unjustified fear because we do see kids walking away from their faith. But in a world of darkness, in a world full of doom and gloom, there is hope on the horizon. And on today's home front headlines. One of the headlines I'm following is reports of revival all around. You see this on social media, you see this in mainstream news media. You see professional athletes professing their faith, getting baptized before a game. You see college campuses having outbreaks of revival. We've had leaders with Gen Z who have been on here, from moms and prayer, from, from all kinds of campus ministries who say God is on the move and Gen Z is curious about God. They want to know who he is and they want to know who they are in relation to God's plan. And the way that we nurture that curiosity is not by just feeding them content, not by connecting them to influencers, but by inviting them into a discipleship journey. Now that's where it requires action. It requires intentionality, it requires faithfulness and obedience, but the reward is great. And as I've been talking to so many people across the country who are working in this space, we see this disconnect. And one of my guests even called it a discipleship crisis, saying that yes, we see the spiritual curiosity, but I also see this kind of desire for a faith that is tailored to me and my desires that's going to make my life better and make me feel good. Well, that is really contrary to the tenets of the Christian faith where we're told in Scripture to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus and that the purpose of this journey is not to make us happy, but to make us holy, and that the reward is worth it because the reward is eternal life with Jesus. That is what we are pursuing. So it's really important for us to help nurture a discipleship journey. We've talked about starting with questions, anchoring it in scripture, cultivating relationships across this discipleship, and moving from observation to participation. Other things that we need to do are integrating faith into daily life, just encouraging the application of, of biblical principles to school, to work, to friendships, to challenges that you're facing, to work situations all across every sphere of our life. How do we integrate faith into our daily life? We need to celebrate those small decisions that reflect Christlike values. So often as voices speaking into younger generations, we're quick to point out what they're doing wrong when they're dressed inappropriately, when they speak inappropriately, when they act inappropriately. But we're far less likely to give them encouragement and say, hey, I see the fruit of the Spirit in you. I see gentleness, I see patience, I see kindness, I see goodness, I see gen, I see self control. Those things are really helpful in celebrating small decisions and, and tell them discipleship is not a checklist. It's a way of living as part of discipleship. We also need to teach critical discernment because spiritual curiosity often encounters cultural or, we. We hear this phrase pop cult culture. I'm starting to hear this phrase called pop religion, where it's a cultural mirror counterpart of pop culture. We don't want pop religion where we're having, oh, this is the way we engage with religion online in a way that makes me feel good and validates all of, my own life choices. We need to make sure we're evaluating, teaching what we're encountering in culture, even in Christian culture, against the Scripture, because not everything that's labeled with Christian aligns with biblical truth and theology. And it's important for us to encourage kids and encourage ourselves because we want to see that instant transformation. But we've got to prioritize consistency over perfection. Discipleship is long term. So just those small term consistent practices are really more formative than sporadic big events in this culture that prizes experience. We want to go to the big tent revival, if we're being honest. We want to go to the stadium tour of whatever it is. We want to have that big moment where the, the lights are on and we just have that moment where we feel like, okay, yes, this is real, that experiential moment. And sometimes God can work through those, and he certainly has in the past, but God also works through those small consistent practices and our faith thrives. When it is lived out in community and our family and our churches especially, we can't just live isolated. And I see a lot of people saying that, like, okay, I. I believe in Jesus. Jesus, I profess as a Christian, church is not for me, and church people are not for me, and I'm just going to live out my faith on my own. But there's really no biblical model for that. We're missing out. And it is messy and imperfect. And I did talk about that, but that is important. And as part of our faith journey, we are going to have doubts, we are going to have fears. Those are all modeled through the Psalms. If you don't think that doubt is normal, just open Psalm, open Lamentations and start reading. And we see, Solomon's musings that life is futile, what's the point? But he comes even at the end of his life to see that he knows and has faith in the goodness of God. And we. And so that's really important because we see stories of revival around the world. I've been seeing reports of young adult revivals, especially in the United Kingdomnomics. Now, when these, reports started coming out, what we saw started seeing is other secular reports saying, hey, that is. That's really not happening. And, and starting critiquing scientific methodology and, and having this argument about is revival happening or is revival not happening? And that is. We see that tension playing out in the news, but the truth is, God is on the move. We are seeing persecution of the church in Nigeria. We're seeing persecution of the church all over the world. And we, we should definitely pray for those persecuted Christians. And it can be easy for us here in America to think we have it so hard, but we look at other parts of the country and we really don't. There are so many ways that we have been so blessed to have so much religious freedom. And so that's important for us to look at. And as we're looking at the headlines, when we see, things that are good, things like that are related to, that are related to things that God is doing, there are also stories that are really disturbing to us.

The US Department of Justice recently released documents related to Jeffrey Epstein

And one of the things that is dominating the news, you really can't escape it is the world's obsession with the Epstein files. Yes, I did just say that. That is a headline that is everywhere. And in case you're looking to see what happened, just recently, the US Department of Justice released another massive trove of documents that is related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was a convicted sex offender. Over 3 million pages actually by my estimation from reading the stories, plus thousands of images and videos under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. And these files span decades of investigation, of footage, of correspondence, of evidentiary materials. And they have all kinds of things in there. Communication, emails, flight logs, social networking, content, contacts. And these stories are deeply disturbing. They absolutely are. Because we're talking about abuse and exploitation and corruption and power and for from very wealthy, influential, powerful individuals. And what we have to remember is that this massive release of documents, it provides content for content creators. And that can be helpful because we want to know who's going to go through 3 million pages. Basically we want to know is what do we need to know about that? And we want somebody else to tell us that, somebody that we trust to tell us. That's why I encourage you to be very thoughtful about the news that you are curating and feeding. We talked about that on the show on Monday. Being very thoughtful about how much news you consume, from whom you consume it, and make sure you're going to a trusted source. That's one of the reasons I really appreciate American Family News is because they're being so thoughtful. They have your edification in mind. They want to equip you, to make you aware of things are going on in the world, but not in a way that's going to harm you and a way that's going to make you addicted to listening to the Doom scroll. And that is the temptation with a lot of these. We think, oh, we, we've got to know every little detail. Here's the thing. A lot of things that were released in these files are deeply disturbing. And we are not designed to be able to absorb all of those kinds of details of granular trauma and abuse, and especially when those are accompanied by images or videos. We need to know what's going on in the world, world. We don't need to wallow around in it. And some people are more sensitive to that than others. And that's really important that we're respectful of that because sometimes there can be a tension in that communication. Someone who is very interested and wants to know things and someone who thinks, I don't want to know anything about that. And you think, well, you can't just live under a rock. And we have to recognize that God made people with all kinds of temperaments, all kinds of personalities, all kinds of giftings. And we have lost our filter as a society for something called trauma dumping. Now this is just where you open up your social media feed, you open up the news and all of a sudden this drama is, this trauma is dumped on you. Sometimes it can happen in a one on one situation where you just ask someone innocently, how are things going at church? And the next thing you know you've got really graphic, just depictions of stories of things that have happened to them. And you just weren't even prepared for that. You did not even have a chance to brace yourself, yourself. That's really important. Now going back to this Epstein story. The Department of Justice has not opened as, as of, as of this moment when I'm reporting and to my knowledge they, with the release, they did not open new criminal charges from the newly released material. It's mainly an appeal from public outcry and say they say the content includes horrible photographs and troubling correspondence. so that is there and that that's important to know. So why does this matter matter when we're talking about adult rights and child exploitation? The conversation that should rise to the top should not remain in the granular. Things that happened and the specific abuses. There are people whose job it is to go through all of those, to categorize those, to prosecute those and to seek justice. And you know what? I pray for those people every single day. I remember when hearing as I was growing up, people like James Dobson talking about having to view pornography when he worked in the Reagan administration and remembering that there are people who have to deal with that kind of darkness every day. We should absolutely pray for them because that is a tough job to do. But the conversation that should be rising to the top is that child protection is non negotiable. Children are made in the image of God. And we should not tolerate as a society abuse or exploitation of children for any reason, under any circumstance. And the crimes that were there are actions that violate basic protective norms for children everywhere. And we need to make sure that we are committed to safeguarding children. This comes back to the argument that I see many times argued out in the public square. What is the right between, what is the balance between adult rights and child safety? And as I have said before and will continue to say, I believe that we have very smart, gifted people who can figure out a balance to give adults freedom that does not violate child safety. And I'm appreciative for American Family association for their continued advocacy in this space. The other question is accountability versus power because these files reveal long standing connections between very powerful public people and there's debates and over who holds who accountable. Because those power dynamics shield and hide exploitation unless systems hold those abusers accountable. So we do need transparency. So the rights of children are not overridden by wealth or influence. And that is really important. It also another thing that we should take away as parents, as concerned adults is that the exploitation is often hidden, hidden, and it is not what you would expect it to look like. And that is important for us to keep an open mind when we're hearing about things that we think would be unthinkable, while also not becoming jaded to think that everything is awful. It's really hard space to be in. So when we're talking about kids, because kids are even talking about this, teenagers know about this, are talking about this, or consuming this content, keep the conversation age appropriate. You might think, say sometimes people make really bad choices that hurt others. We have rules and laws to protect people and keep children safe. And it's important to encourage our teens not to get down into all of those graphic details that that may not be edifying for that in that moment, emphasize that every child is precious and made in God's image and help them to seek accountability in those things, but honestly, to respond to fear with faith. God cares deeply about the wrongs in the world. We don't understand it, but we know that God will work all things for good. And listen as we're consuming the news wherever you are, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. And I'll see you right back here on Monday.

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Jeff Chamblee: Opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.