Welcome to the lion within us, a podcast, serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders they’re predestined to be. I’m your host, Chris Grainger. Let’s jump in. All right, guys. Welcome to your spiritual kickoff. And yes, this is dry independence day. So happy independence day. I love this time of year prayerfully and I’m recording this in advance, obviously.

So this, if, if things work out, I should be at the beach toes in the sand, enjoying a little bit of, of rest and relaxation with the. So guys, I, I pray that today, you know, we take the time to celebrate our independence, enjoy some time with, with your friends. And remember we we’re living in the greatest country in the world.

So, you know what I know times are tough. I know gas prices are up, but there’s all sorts of things that are going on. That’s bad. But it’s still United States of America. We’re gonna stand strong and as lions we’re gonna stand strong together. So guys, I hope you have a great independence day. Enjoy that time of family.

Be careful out there on the grill. Remember, you are a lion, so you are in charge of the grill. Okay. So this is just get that up, that straight up front. So for our spiritual kickoff, We’re gonna be looking in the book of job. Okay. That’s right. It’s not job. It is job. I, I must admit as an early Christian, when I saw J O B in, in the Bible, I was say, all right.

So I guess this is where I figure out where I need to go to work at. Right. So this is, but it is no E there, but it is pronounced job. Okay. So Joe, 23 verse 10 is we’re gonna be looking at this week. Okay. But he knows the way that I take when he is testing me. I will come forth as gold. Let’s read one more time, but he knows the way that I take when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

All right. Now, first of all, you need to know where job is in your Bible, right guys. So we’re going, we’re gonna make sure we have this fundamental stuff down. It’s old Testament. Easiest way to find job, go to your Psalms. If you go to, if you can find the book of Psalms, usually that’s pretty close to the middle of the Bible.

Flip back one book and you’ll be at job. Okay. Now, job. Tell you what he got hammered and I mean, hammered, he lost a lot. I mean, lost everything. I mean, he lost his family, he lost his, his, his house. He lost his, his animals, the whole deal. I mean, the man was just pounded with, with event after event, after event.

So if you feel like you’re, you’re in a life right now, you’re just getting hammered, go read the book of Joe. It may give some perspective. I definitely read it. And we went through our trial back in 2020. It went back to a book of joke and it really helped center me on some things. Okay. So, you know, between losing everything he lost, he never lost his faith guys.

We remember that we never lost his faith. You know, think about when you’ve been lost in life. Maybe you’re lost in life right now, but you know, you gotta remember a cling on to your faith. You have. Let’s think about something you guys are out there in summertime, we’re taking a lot of road trips. People are maybe out there traveling, you know, if you’re gonna afford to travel with price of gas, but that’s for another podcast, but seriously, when you’re on a road trip, have you ever been lost?

You know, it is, it’s not a good feeling, but it, and it doesn’t happen that much anymore. Right. Because we have Google maps and you can just pull up your, your iPhone and just take me there, but look, think about back in the day. When you got turned around and some of you guys, you may be old enough to remember like myself, where you had these things called Atlass and maps, where you had to actually unfold them, look at ’em maps, you know, and lay out a route.

And you had to do all this work before the trip, right? So that you knew you would end up where you intended to go. It is very, if youve never read a map, it can be very tricky, very trying. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, you know, but the cool part is God has it all mapped out. He is with us, always, always.

And sometimes when we’re tested, I’m gonna tell you what he doesn’t feel like he’s with us at those moments. It could be, it could be very, uh, a feeling where he’s very far away, you know, or you’re so isolated. I know for me, isolation, that is something I struggle with. So that’s something I have to be very careful about because if I get too isolated, if I get in the studio or just get cranking and just next thing, you know, I haven’t talked to somebody in, in a couple hours.

I have to plug back in, but God is with us always, you know, even when, through those tough times. So think about the last test, the last trial, the last hard time that you encountered, when you, when you finish, when you came out of that, were you stronger, wiser, more prepared, most likely. Yes. Right. And think about Jesus.

Jesus. He faced tremendous trials, ultimate trials. I mean, think about the ultimate trial. He, that he faced right there on the cross. He paid the penalty for our sins right there on the cross. And did he back down? No. No, he didn’t back down. Yes. He took everything to him, prayer. I mean, to the point where he was praying where blood was coming out, but at the end of the day he filled what he was called to do and what he came here to do.

Right. He did it. No questions asked. So you need to think through the ultimate trial and the trials that you’re going to. So go, let’s, let’s look at this scripture again and he’s gonna test us and I’ll come forth as gold. So think about how do you get gold? Gold has to be refined and typically it’s refined with fire.

Okay. So I was doing a lot of research here on this particular verse, you know, uh, furnaces kept coming up now job in this, in this context of this verse, he’s talking to this friend LFA here and he. According to my Bible, one of the most, uh, sympathetic of job’s three friends. Okay. Who speaks first and appeals to the experience for authority, he was likely to eldest.

So this, this, this is, uh, uh, someone that job obviously trusted had had a, a lot of, lot of insight and, and he allowed him to speak into his life. So this, this furnace let’s get, let’s get back to the furnace part to get the gold. It has to be refined with that fire. And a furnace you can either scorch or purify.

Okay. Think about it. You can either scorch or purify. So which one do you want? Which one do you want? Let the furnace burn away. Me, myself. I, all the things of this world, right? The things that we strive for that make no sense whatsoever and, and, and focus and lean in on serving. And look, I get it. The fire sucks.

This is nothing good. This is not like, you know, I just wanna be, I wanna go through the fire. Just say I go through it. No, the fire’s tough, but it’s also momentary. You know, even though it may seem like it’s a season, it’s still a season and those seasons will pass. And then at that moment, Through the test at that point, that’s when you’re coming forth like gold, you know, so you have to trust God’s word and, and, and lean in on him when those trials hit.

And remember, he’s always with you. You know, I remember literally sitting in the trial in a, in a courtroom trial, it was, it was after our divorce and just my, my, my Bible was tear soaked because I had to lean in on completely on God. There was nothing else I could. At that point where, where you’re, it’s, it’s completely outta your hands.

You know, the believer just throws his hands up, maybe gives up it is what it is, but the believer we can go to God’s word, we can lean in him right here. We can understand that we have a, the ultimate comforter, you know, we have it in us right now, the holy spirit, the lying within it’s right there. And he is when he’s always with us through those trials.

We can face it. We can, we can overcome, and it’s not gonna always be pretty. Sometimes it’s gonna really hurt. The scars are real, but you know what? We, we, we can persevere again. We may not know why those trials come, you know, and right now, but one day clarity will, will occur and we can hold our head high as lions, cuz we will come forth as gold.

So just think about that guys. This is a beautiful verse here and job. 23 verse 10, but he knows the way that I take the he being, God, God knows the way that I take. And when he has testing me. So God’s gonna put that test out there, come forth. This goal, you know, you’re going to face trials, you’re going to face struggles, tribulations.

It’s going to happen. Scripture tells us Jesus prophesize it. He tells us you’re going to face it trials a many kind, right. We’re waiting. We’re in that period before he comes. It’s going to get tougher, you know, not to be the, the doom and GL here on, on, on independence day, but it’s going to get tougher. I think you guys look around, you see that you see darkness everywhere.

It’s going to get tougher, but you know what? We can rest assured we had the savior, we had the line within and we can come forth as goal. So guys, there’s your spiritual kickoff. So on Wednesday, which can you expect? What can you look forward to? Guys, this is gonna be a great one. The guy that I got coming in, he is highly sought after he has a ton of wisdom, ton of insight.

And he’s gonna be talking about designing life God’s way. Okay. God’s way. Now he’s been through a lot of trials and, and, and he is, is inspiring others to live the life that God desires. And I I’m trying constantly week in, week out to bring you guests that will challenge your thinking and help you and me also me grow.

We gotta grow as men. We gotta grow as leaders. We’re gonna lead our wives. We’re gonna lead our kids and we’re gonna lead at work. We’re gonna lead in our community or our church. We have to be growing every day, you know, and an hour, two hours on Sunday is not enough. The fact that you’re listening to this tell that’s proof right now that you recognize, you know, church while great as great as activity as church is.

It’s not enough to be the spiritual leader that you’re predestining to be. This is a daily thing every day. It’s you have to pick up that cross. You got to bow yourself, you have to follow him. So guys, I’m thinking this conversation, it’s gonna give you a lot of insight to things you can start incorporating into your life.

That’s gonna really help you. Be that leader. It’s tough. I know it’s tough, but you know what, with these tips, with these wisdoms that we can get from, from other people, from other believers out there, we can persevere guys. So question, I want you to think about this week, go back to that fire to the gold, the way you make that gold.

Do do the fires of life scorch or purify you. So due to fires of life, scorch or purify. To think about that, guys. I hope to catch you back here on Wednesday guys. Seriously. If you would give us a rating, give us a review that really makes a big difference in the world. Five stars will be wonderful if you liking it.

Also go check out the line within.us guys. We have the Bible study out there. That’s been out there since, probably beginning of the line within us, but we turned that into four courses. So we have different types of courses. The whole, we had the big Bible study course, as well as. Many courses, if you will, around health wealth itself.

So, you know what, maybe you just wanna lean in and learn a little bit more, uh, around the area of health, take the health course, you know, jump into that. You know, we’re constantly developing new courses, new material, new ways to serve you. You know, we have, we’re gonna be having membership opportunities coming up.

An easy way to jump in right now is just join the lion. It’s an easy way to jump in. You’ll just be part of our email group. And look, we don’t spam a bunch of emails. We don’t have time for it, but we do send stuff out from time to time. That’s help. That’s meant to encourage you to field you up, to help be that iron, that sharpens the iron to challenge your thinking.

All that stuff guys is to serve you and to try to serve you well. So I pray that you guys go check out the line within dot. Connect with me directly. Go check us out on Facebook. I do try to stay pretty active there, just so you know, to put some positivity out there, cuz we all know there’s plenty of darkness on Facebook.

So I try to get some positive stuff out there from the line within us, you know, quotes, smart guests and, and little snips and ideas and things that just try to help you guys. Well, some encouragement, I mean, come on such a dark world. So remember you will come forth as gold. So you just have to keep that in mind.

All right. So guys, come back on Wednesday, check out our, our, our great meet episode. You’re gonna love this guest. I’m tell you what, he’s phenomenal. It’s it’s unbelievable. I do pray you have a great, uh, uh, independent day. Now my birthday is this week. So for you guys, I want to get out there and send some birthday love, jump on it.

Thursday’s my birthday. Looking forward to that day, spending some time with my family, with my daughter. Very excited. Again, my wife’s pregnant. We, we’re very excited about that. Some cool things going on there. So I pray you guys have a great week, knock it out, get out there, hustle, do all the right things.

But most importantly, unleash the lion within

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