Climbing the mountain of God a look back at where we came from and where we are now

Welcome to episode 150. Give me a second so I can pat myself on the back. 150 episodes. Wasn't sure I was ever going to get to this point, but here we are.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 150. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I've made a few changes in my podcast in the first 149 episodes, and one of those changes has been to add— I guess it's a salutation, whatever you call that— that Paul starts each one of his epistles with: the grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That just seems so appropriate when you start studying the Bible and you start studying the word of God. And we're still climbing up the mountain. Before we get to the fourth stop on the mountain, I want to talk about just a— as I'm going through this journey of podcasting and growing in grace and truth. I just want to tell you that anything that you set your mind to do and you just continue to do it, I just want to encourage you, you can do it. Because here I am halfway through the year, I'm at 150 episodes. I can remember back when I first started, so it hasn't been far enough back to where I don't remember where I came from, but I can't really even recognize the place that I am right now because God is taking me such a long distance in 6 months that I just wanted just to thank God right now on the air that God, you are so wonderful and I thank you for what you're doing in me. And Lord, I hope that the person listening to this episode is growing in grace and truth as well. I hope that this is encouraging them. I hope it's empowering them and I hope it's just challenging them to kick fear, just, just punch fear in the face. I'm sick of fear and the only way to destroy fear is to take action. And sometimes in just about every time. It's uncomfortable action at first, but as you continue to do this, as you continue to grow, as you continue to walk out this walk, it gets easier. But that doesn't mean you don't have new challenges. And that's what I wanted to talk about a little bit here, is that when I started this podcast, I was just trying to figure out how to do all this podcast stuff, and those were challenge enough. Well, now I'm trying to figure out how to take this podcast and and repurpose it on my website and on YouTube and on the Instagrams and on the Facebooks, and then to get the, the handy-dandy PDF that I told you I was going to do. It is a lot to say grace over. I'm working out a little bit of a schedule, if you can believe it. If you've seen my calendar, it's a mess, but I'm getting more and more organized. If you've seen my office, it's a mess, but I'm getting more and more organized. And God is a God of organization. He's not a God of chaos. So there's a plan in all of this. I just kind of, kind of get into his plan a little bit better. But I just want to encourage you, I know that I tell you that I'm going to do something and I plan on it. I have great intentions that I'm going to have this PDF here and I'm going to have this here and I'm going to start a YouTube channel and I'm going to be able to communicate better. But then life gets in the way. And just like with you, I'm sure your life gets in the way. I've heard someone, and maybe it was Randy Travis, to show a little bit of my Christian cowboy route. I think it was The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions, and I'm pretty sure that was Randy Travis that sang that song. And I don't really think this is going to send me to hell by not having the PDF up yet, but I am working on it, and I really want to give you something that you can put in your hands because that's what I like. So maybe if I like it, maybe you like it. And I want to apologize right here on Episode 150 that when I say I'm gonna do something and then I don't follow through with it, it's not because I don't want to do it. It's because I'm hitting walls in my knowledge of how to get all these different things talking to each other. It's a learning process. It's life. It's like anything else. When you try something new, you're gonna have some failures. You're gonna have some falls, some stumbles. But you know, I'm just gonna get myself back up. I'm gonna dust myself off and I'm gonna get after it again. And And I just want to tell you, just hang in there. I'm working all this stuff out and it's going to be a well-oiled machine. I promise you that. It just may take 2 or 3 years to get it oiled. We're a little bit rusty right now, or really maybe not even rusty. We don't even know what we're doing because we are just 6 months in. And I just want to— I got to keep reminding myself that it's only been 6 months, but there's a lot that has happened in 6 months. And there we've gotten to a lot of the word of God and to encourage, inspire, and empower. And what I think, and where I'm leaning with this, is just to have a daily devotional on steroids. I see all these daily devotionals, these men's devotionals, or these women's devotionals, and where people just put a little nugget in the ground, and every nugget is different. I want to have the one on steroids to where we take one word, where we plant one seed. And the first seed that I'm working on is seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you, because we need things in this world. We still need to have food. We still need to have clothing. We still need to have shelter. So these things that we need, God knows we have need of those, but he's telling us in his word, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So when I see these firsts in the Bible, I kind of take notice. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do a seek first the kingdom of God, and then for 30 days we're going to continue to say that over and over and over again. I'm making that little devotional and I'm going to give you access to it, and then you can help me tweak it and help me design it. But we're going to have a single verse that waters that main verse. So the seed— we're going to plant that seed in the ground, just to kind of give you a little insider baseball of what I'm creating over here. But we're going to take the seek first the kingdom of God, and then we're going to take— every day we're going to have a different verse. We're going to stay with the seek first verse. If this is— I I know this is confusing, but we're gonna have the Seek First the Kingdom of God. We're gonna have a little video that explains the verse that goes with the Seek First to gain depth or to water that in the ground. We're gonna plant this in the ground and for 30 straight days we are gonna stay on Seek First the Kingdom of God. And that, I believe, is how we are gonna grow and build our faith. We're gonna plant that in the ground and once it's been in there for 30 days and it's been watered and it takes root, then we're going to find us another one. And I think I've got the second seed that I want to plant in the ground, and then I'm just going to start taking from the people that are still in this little daily devotional on steroids. And I know there's probably a better word for that, but instead of just taking random scriptures, we're going to take it with a purpose and we're going to grow this thing on purpose. I think that's what I'm going to bring to the table, to the body of Christ, is I'm going to help grow the Word of God. I just feel strongly about the Word of God, and I just feel strongly that we're not getting enough of it, and it's just so random. I think we need to be a little more targeted on how— what we plant, how we plant it, how we water it, how we dig all this roots and all these rocks and everything else out. I think there's an awful lot in there, and I just want to help me, and I want to help you get this thing in us. It was more of a public service announcement on episode 150, and I am excited about. I don't know if you can tell, but I am fired up that what God's stirring in me to help you and to help— you know, when I help you, it's really helping me. I just got to be completely honest as the teacher here in this conversation. I've got to dig in a whole lot deeper because what I'm going to do is I'm going to throw out a bunch of stuff that is irrelevant to give you just the nuggets, just the kernels, just the gold, if I— if you will, to where you can just put these things in one day at a time and, and to water this seed. And I'm excited. And it's the, the next step in the journey, and it's probably going to have to be on tomorrow's episode, is going to be what did Jesus do? I know we— I know the bracelet says what would Jesus do, and that's a great question, but I think a better question, and it'll drive us into the word of God more, is what did Jesus do? And so we have to go to the Gospels to look and find that. And that is step 4 on the journey up the mountain. We're going to pick that back up in tomorrow's episode, and I am going to have the map up online for you to be able to download it in Jesus' name this week. And if you're listening to this in the middle of July or after July, it's going to be up there. But if you're listening to this on July 6th, possibly it'll be up there, but I'm working on it. Again, I'm, I'm just learning this thing, and every time I open something up, it— there's 8 more things. It takes 4 times as long as I thought it was going to take me to get it accomplished. And obviously the thing that I have and want to get accomplished is not accomplished yet on my website. So I've got it— there's a lot of moving parts. I'm working on a podcast. I've got a Facebook page, I'm working on the YouTubes, I've got Instagrams, and I've got email marketing and PDF making and podcast episodes that come every day. And oh, by the way, I've got a life and a wife— I couldn't help that, you know how I like to rhyme things— and a career. So I've got a lot going on over here, and I'm sure you do too. And I thank you for letting me just— and I don't think this was venting, I just kind I want to give you— since it's 150, I want to give you a little behind the scenes where I've come from, what I'm doing, what I'm trying to do, what I'm failing at miserably. Because remember, this is not perfection— correction and changing the course and turning things around. And so that's what I'm doing. I am changing how I do my daily routine, and it's taking a little bit of effort. It's a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be. But it's going to be worth it. You're just going to have to trust me. So here we go. I just want to pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for this person listening to this episode. I thank you, Lord, that they have been faithful. I thank you that they are a fanatic. And if they're just now tuning in, God, I pray that they would come back to get what it is that you have poured onto me and into me so that I can encourage, inspire, and empower them to live their best life. God, I thank you for everything you're doing in my life, and I thank you, Lord, for breaking me and letting some of it— what you have put in me— pour out on the person listening. And God, you are so faithful, you are so loving, you are so kind, and I want to thank you for coming into my life. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for listening to episode 150, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.