Explore the Christian Natural Health Podcast

Jodi Scholes is a celebrated author, educator, and Licensed Massage Therapist with over 30 years of experience in understanding and treating pain. Her work with elite athletes, including Major League Soccer team and U.S. Track & Field athletes, has taken her across the U.S. and internationally, providing high-level care and support. Her book, Body Blueprint: How Your Pain May Be Telling a Story, explores how a person's perception of pain is not solely influenced by biological factors but is also profoundly affected by mental and emotional stress. Jodi has shared her insights on a global stage, including delivering a TEDx talk titled "Body Blueprint: How Your Pain May Be Telling A Story.” She is a retired triathlete herself, and an improving tennis player. She continues to speak at retreats, teach weekly, and provide massage therapy, blending her extensive experience with her passion for holistic wellness.To learn more about Jodi, see jodischoles.com

Mrs. Christy Stutzman is a small-business owner, a music composer and a former teacher and state legislator. She has written for multiple news organizations including The Washington Times, The Daily Signal and is a featured opinion writer for the Washington Stand by Family Research Council. As the wife of a member of Congress, she traveled widely on diplomatic delegations and has been a strong advocate for conservative, pro-family causes on Capitol Hill and in political campaigns for the past twenty years. She has been a featured radio and podcast guest, and a featured speaker at political, Christian, and pro-life events across the country. Her new book, The Spiritual Price of Political Silence, connects the dots of political apathy and the cultural decline of American values. Mrs. Stutzman resides on her farm in Howe, IN with her husband, Marlin, and their two sons, Payton and Preston.To learn more about Christy and to get a copy of her book, see booksbychristy.org

Dr Tony Nalda holds a Doctorate of Chiropractic from Life University, and built one of the most successful chiropractic clinics in Central Florida. His expertise has made him a highly sought-after scoliosis specialist both in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Nalda is CLEAR Institute’s Chairman of the Board—the only non-profit chiropractic educational and certification center devoted to non-surgical scoliosis treatment and research, a MaxLiving board member and instructor, and a keynote speaker who teaches chiropractors across the world. He has written several books, including “Scoliosis Hope: How New Approaches to Treatment are Transforming Lives.” He has successfully led his family practice for 20+ years and continues to seek out the latest and most effective modalities for treating patients naturally.To learn more about Dr Nalda, see scoliosisreductioncenter.com or you can find him on YouTube at Scoliosis Reduction Center

For years now, even as headlines about the development of AI have become more frequent and more dire, I really never worried about it much, because I couldn't think of anything in scripture that sounded a great deal like a superintelligent machine. I'd read the end of the book (Revelation), I knew how it ended, and it wasn't in a robot apocalypse... so all the fears surrounding that possibility must therefore be much ado about nothing. (I did write a fictional trilogy for young adults back in 2017 about how I imagined a near-miss robot apocalypse might look, though, because I found the topic fascinating enough to research at the time. It's called the "Uncanny Valley" trilogy, where the "uncanny valley" refers to the "creepy" factor, as a synthetic humanoid creature approaches human likeness.)When I finished the trilogy, I more or less forgot about advancing AI, until some of the later iterations of Chat GPT and similar Large Language Models (LLMs). Full disclosure: I've never used any LLMs myself, mostly because (last I checked) you had to create an account with your email address before you started asking it questions. (In the third book of my series, the superintelligent bot Jaguar kept track of everyone via facial recognition cameras, recording literally everything they did in enormous data processing centers across the globe that synced with one another many times per day. Though at that point I doubt it would make any difference, I'd rather not voluntarily give Jaguar's real-life analog any data on me if I can help it!)Particularly the recent release of Chat GPT Omni (which apparently stands for "omniscient" --!!) gave me pause, though, and I had to stop and ask myself why the idea that it could be approaching actual Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I recently read a book called "Deep Medicine" by Eric Topol on the integration of AI into the medical field, which helped allay some potential concerns--that book contended that AGI would likely never be realized, largely because AGI inherently requires experience in the real world, and a robot can never have lived experiences in the way that humans can. It painted a mostly rosy picture of narrow (specialized) AI engaging in pattern recognition (reading radiology images or recognizing pathology samples or dermatological lesions, for instance), and thus vastly improving diagnostic capabilities of physicians. Other uses might include parsing a given individual's years of medical records and offering a synopsis and recommendations, or consolidating PubMed studies, and offering relevant suggestions. Topol did not seem to think that the AI would ever replace the doctor, though. Rather, the author contended, at the rate that data is currently exploding, doctors are drowning in the attempt to document and to keep up with it all, and empathic patient care suffers as a result. AI, he argues, will actually give the doctor time to spend with the patient again, to make judgment calls with a summary of all the data at his fingertips, and to put it together in an integrated whole with his uniquely human common sense.

Synthetic Empathy and Emotions?

But, "Deep Medicine" was written in 2019, which (in the world of AI) is already potentially obsolete. I'm told that Chat GPT Omni is better than most humans at anything involving either logic or creativity, and it does a terrific approximation of empathy, too. Even "Deep Medicine" cited statistics to suggest that most humans would prefer a machine for a therapist than a person (!!), largely due to the fear that the human might judge them for some of their most secret or shameful thoughts or feelings. And if the machine makes you feel like it understands you, does it really matter whether its empathy is "real" or not?What does "real" empathy mean, anyway? In "Uncanny Valley," my main character, as a teenager, inherited a "companion bot" who was programmed with mirror neurons (the seat of empathy in the human brain.) In the wake of her father's death, she came to regard her companion bot as her best friend. It was only as she got older that she started to ask questions like whether its 'love' for her was genuine, if it was programmed. This is essentially the theological argument for free will, too. Could God have made a world without sin? Sure, but in order to do it, we'd all have to be automatons--programmed to do His will, programmed to love Him and to love one another. Would there be any value in the love of a creature who could not do anything else? (The Calvinists might say that's the way the world actually is, for those who are predestined, but everyone else would vehemently disagree.) It certainly seems that God thought it was worth all the misery He endured since creation, for the chance that some of us might freely choose Him. I daresay that same logic is self-evident to all of us. Freedom is an inherent good--possibly the highest good.So, back to AI: real empathy requires not just real emotion, but memories of one's own real emotions, so that we can truly imagine that we are in another person's shoes. How can a robot, without its own lived memories, experience real empathy? Can it even experience real emotion? It might have goals or motives that can be programmed, but emotion at minimum requires biochemistry and a nervous system, at least in the way we understand it. We know from psychology research on brain lesions as well as from psychiatric and recreational medications and experiences with those suffering from neurodegenerative conditions that mood, affect, and personality can drastically change from physiologic tampering, as well.Does it follow that emotions are 'mere' biochemistry, though? This is at least part of the age-old question of materialism versus vitalism, or (to put it another way), reductionism versus holism. Modern medicine is inherently materialistic, believing that the entirety of a living entity can be explained by its physical makeup, and reductionistic, believing that one can reduce the 'whole' of the living system to a sum of its parts. Vitalism, on the other hand, argues that there is something else, something outside the physical body of the creature, that animates it and gives it life. At the moment just before death and just after, all the same biochemical machinery exists... but anyone who has seen the death of a loved one can attest that the body doesn't look the same. It becomes almost like clay. Some key essence is missing. I recently read "The Rainbow and the Worm" by Mae-Wan Ho, which described fascinating experiments on living worms viewed under electron microscopes. The structured water in the living tissue of the worm exhibited coherence, refracting visible light in a beautiful rainbow pattern. At the moment of death, though, the coherence vanished, and the rainbow was gone--even though all of the same physical components remained. The change is immaterial; the shift between death and life is inherently energetic. There was an animus, a vital force--qi, as Chinese Medicine would call it, or prana, as Ayurvedic medicine would describe it, or (as we're now discovering in alternative Western medicine), voltage carried through this structured water via our collagen. That hydrated collagen appears to function in our bodies very much like a semiconductor, animating our tissues with electrons, the literal energy of life. At the moment of death, it’s there, and then it's not--like someone pulled the plug. What's left is only the shell of the machine, the hardware.But where is that plug, such that it can be connected and then, abruptly, not? The materialist, who believes that everything should be explainable on the physical level, can have no answer. The Bible tells us, though, that we are body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess 5:23)--which inherently makes a distinction between body and soul (implying that the soul is not a mere product of the chemistry of the body). The spirit is what was dead without Jesus, and what gets born again when we are saved, and it's perfect, identical with Jesus' spirit (2 Cor. 5:17, Eph 4:24). It's God's "seal" on us, vacuum-packed as it were, so that no sin can contaminate it. It’s the down-payment, a promise that complete and total restoration is coming (Eph 1:13-14).But there's no physical outlet connecting the spirit and the body; the connection between them is the soul. With our souls, we can see what's ours in the Spirit through scripture, and scripture can train our souls to conform more and more to the spirit (Romans 12:2, Phil 2:12-13). No one would ever argue that a machine would have a spirit, obviously, but the materialists wouldn’t believe there is such a thing, anyway. What about the soul, though?What is a soul, anyway? Can it be explained entirely through materialistic means?Before God made Adam, He explicitly stated that He intended to make man after His own image (Gen 1:26-27). God is spirit (John 4:24), though, so the resemblance can't be physical, per se, at least not exclusively or even primarily. After forming his body, God breathed into him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7)--the same thing Jesus did to the disciples after His resurrection when he said "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). So it must therefore be in our spirits that we resemble God. Adam and Eve died spiritually when they sinned (Genesis 3:3), but something continued to animate their bodies for another 930 years. This is the non-corporeal part of us that gets "unplugged" at physical death. Since it can be neither body nor spirit, it must be the soul.Andrew Wommack defines the soul as the mind, will, and emotions. I can't think of a single scripture that defines the soul this way; I think it's just an extrapolation, based on what's otherwise unaccounted for. But in our mind, will, and emotions, even before redemption, mankind continued to reflect God's image, in that he continued to possess the ability to reason, to choose, to create, to love, and to discern right from wrong.The materialists would argue that emotion, like everything else, must have its root purely in the physical realm. Yet they do acknowledge that because there are so many possible emotional states, and relatively few physiologic expressions of them, many emotions necessarily share a physiologic expression. It's up to our minds to translate the meaning of a physiologic state, based on the context. In "How Emotions are Made," author Lisa Barrett gave a memorable example of this: once, a colleague to whom she didn’t think she was particularly attracted asked her for a date. She went, felt various strange things in her gut that felt a little like “butterflies”, and assumed during the date that perhaps she was attracted to him after all… only to later learn that she was actually in the early stages of gastroenteritis!This example illustrates how the biochemistry and physiologic expressions of emotion are merely the blunt downstream instruments that translate an emotion from the non-corporeal soul into physical perception--and in some cases, as in that one, the emotional perception might originate from the body entirely. This also might be why some people (children especially) can mistake hunger or fatigue for irritability, or why erratic blood sugar in uncontrolled diabetics can manifest as rage, etc. In those cases, the emotional response really does correspond to the materialist's worldview, originating far downstream in the "circuit," as it were. But people who experience these things as adults will say things like, "That's not me." I think they're right--when we think of our true selves, none of us think of our bodies--those are just our "tents" (2 Cor 5:1), to be put off eventually when we die. When we refer to our true selves, we mean our souls: our mind, will, and emotions.It's certainly possible for many of us to feel "hijacked" by our emotions, as if they're in control and not "us," though (Romans 7:15-20). Most of us recognize a certain distinction there, too, between the real "us" and our emotions. The examples of physiologic states influencing emotions are what scripture would call "carnal" responses. If we're "carnal," ruled by our flesh, then physiologic states will have a great deal of influence over our emotions-- a kind of small scale anarchy. The "government" is supposed to be our born-again spirits, governing our souls, which in turn controls our bodies, rather than allowing our flesh to control our souls (Romans 8:1-17) - though this is of course possible if we don’t enforce order.With respect to AI, my point is, where does "true" emotion originate? There is a version of it produced downstream, in our flesh, yes. It can either originate from the flesh itself, or it can originate upstream, from the non-corporeal soul, what we think of us "the real us." That's inherently a philosophical and not a scientific argument, though, as science by definition is "the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena." Any question pertaining to something outside the physical world cannot fall under the purview of science. But even for those who do not accept scripture as authority, our own inner experience testifies to the truth of the argument. We all know that we have free will; we all know we can reason, and feel emotions. We can also tell the difference between an emotion that is "us" and an emotion that feels like it originates from outside of "our real selves". As C.S. Lewis said in "Mere Christianity," if there is a world outside of the one we can experimentally observe, the only place in which we could possibly expect to have any evidence of it is in our own internal experience. And there, we find it’s true.Without a soul, then, a robot (such as an LLM) would of course exist entirely on the physical plane, unlike us. It therefore might have physical experiences that it might translate as emotion, the same way that we sometimes interpret physical experiences as emotion--but it cannot have true emotions. Empathy, therefore, can likewise be nothing more than programmed pattern recognition: this facial expression or these words or phrases tend to mean that the person is experiencing these feelings, and here is the appropriate way to respond. Many interactions with many different humans over a long period of time will refine the LLM's learning such that its pattern recognition and responses get closer and closer to the mark... but that's not empathy, not really. It's fake.Does that matter, though, if the person "feels" heard and understood?Well, does truth matter? If a man who is locked up in an insane asylum believes himself to be a great king, and believes that all the doctors and nurses around him are really his servants and subjects, would you trade places with him? I suspect that all of us would say no. With at least the protagonists in "The Matrix," we all agree that it's better to be awakened to a desperate truth than to be deceived by a happy lie.

The Emotional Uncanny Valley

Even aside from that issue, is it likely that mere pattern recognition could simulate empathy well enough to satisfy us--or is it likely that this, too, would fall into the "uncanny valley"? Most of us have had the experience of meeting a person who seems pleasant enough on the surface, and yet something about them just seemed ‘off’. (The Bible calls this discernment, 1 Corinthians 12:10.) When I was in a psychology course in college, the professor flashed images of several clean-cut, smiling men in the powerpoint, out of context, and asked us to raise our hands if we would trust each of them. I don't remember who most of them were - probably red herrings to disguise the point - but one of them was Ted Bundy, the serial killer of the 1970s. I didn't recognize him, but I did feel a prickling sense of unease as I gazed at his smiling face. Something just wasn't right. Granted, a violent psychopath is not quite the same, but isn't the idea of creating a robot possessed of emotional intelligence (in the sense that it can read others well) but without real empathy essentially like creating an artificial sociopath? Isn't the lack of true empathy the very definition? (Knowing this, would we really want jobs like social workers, nurses, or even elementary school teachers to be assumed by robots--no matter how good the empathic pattern recognition became?)An analogy of this is the 1958 Harlow experiment on infant monkeys (https://www.simplypsychology.org/harlow-monkey.html), in which the monkeys were given a choice between two simulated mothers: one made of wire, but that provided milk, and one made of cloth, but without milk. The study showed that the monkeys would only go to the wire mother when hungry; the rest of the day they would spend in the company of the cloth mother.My point is that emotional support matters to all living creatures, far more than objective physical needs (provided those needs are also met). If we just want a logical problem solved, we may well go to the robot. But most of our problems are not just questions of logic; they involve emotions, too. As Leonard Mlodinow, author of "Emotional" writes, emotions are not mere extraneous data that colors an experience, but can otherwise be ignored at will. In many cases, the emotions actually serve to motivate a course of action. Every major decision I've ever made in my life involved not just logic, but also emotion, or in some cases intuition (which I assume is a conscious prompting when the unconscious reasoning is present but unknown to me), or a else leading of the Holy Spirit (which "feels" like intuition, only without the presumed unconscious underpinning. He knows the reason, but I don't, even subconsciously.) Obviously, AI, with synthetic emotion or not, would have no way to advise us on matters of intuition, or especially promptings from the Holy Spirit. Those won't usually *seem* logical, based on the available information, but He has a perspective that we don't have. Neither will a machine, even if it could simultaneously process all known data available on earth.There was a time when Newtonian physicists believed that, with access to that level of data in the present, the entire future would become deterministic, making true omniscience in this world theoretically possible. Then we discovered quantum physics, and all of that went out the window. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle eliminates the possibility that any creature or machine, no matter how powerful, can in our own dimension ever truly achieve omniscience.In other words, even a perfectly logical machine with access to all available knowledge will fail to guide us into appropriate decisions much of the time -- precisely because they must lack true emotion, intuition, and especially the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Knowledge vs Wisdom

None of us will be able to compete with the level of knowledge an AI can process in a split second. But does that mean the application of that knowledge will always be appropriate? I think there's several levels to this question. The first has to do with the data sets on which AI has been trained. It can only learn from the patterns it's seen, and it will (like a teenager who draws sweeping conclusions based on very limited life experience) assume that it has the whole picture. In this way, AI may be part of the great deception mentioned by both Jesus (Matt 24:24) and the Apostle Paul (2 Thess 2:11) in the last days. How many of us already abdicate our own reasoning to those in positions of authority, blindly following them because we assume they must know more than we do on their subject? How much more will many of us fail to question the edicts of a purportedly "omniscient" machine, which must know more than we do on every subject? That machine may have only superficial knowledge of a subject, based on the data set it's been given, and may thus draw an inappropriate conclusion. (Also, my understanding is that current LLMs continue learning only until they are released into the world; from that point, they can no longer learn anything new, because of the risk that in storing new information, they could accidentally overwrite an older memory.)A human may draw an inappropriate conclusion too, of course, and if that person has enough credentials behind his name, it may be just as deceptive to many. But at least one individual will not command such blind obedience on absolutely every subject. AGI might. So who controls the data from which that machine learns? That's a tremendous responsibility... and, potentially, a tremendous amount of power, to deceive, if possible, "even the elect."For the sake of argument, let's say that the AGI is exposed only to real and complete data, though--not cherry-picked, and not "misinformation." In this scenario, some believe that (if appropriate safeguards are in place, to keep the AGI from deciding to save the planet by killing all the humans, for example, akin to science fiction author Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics), utopia will result.The only way this is possible, though, is if not only does the machine learn on a full, accurate, and complete set of collective human knowledge, but it also has a depth of understanding of how to apply that knowledge, as well. This is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. The dictionary definition of wisdom is "the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting," versus knowledge, defined as "information gained through experience, reasoning, or acquaintance." Wisdom has to do with one's worldview, in other words, or the lens through which he sees and interprets a set of facts. It is inextricably tied to morality. (So, who is programming these LLMs again? Even without AI, since postmodernism and beyond, there's been a crisis among many intellectuals as to whether or not there's such a thing as "truth," even going so far as to question objective physical reality. That’s certainly a major potential hazard right there.)Both words of wisdom and discernment are listed as explicit supernatural gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:8, 10). God says that He is the source of wisdom, as well as of knowledge and understanding (Prov 2:6), and that if we lack wisdom, we should ask Him for it (James 1:5). Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs as a person, with God at creation (Prov 8:29-30)--which means, unless it's simply a poetic construct, that wisdom and the Holy Spirit must be synonymous (Gen 1:2). Jesus did say that it was the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all truth, as He is the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). The Apostle Paul contrasts the wisdom of this world as foolishness compared to the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18-30)--because if God is truth (John 14:6), then no one can get to true wisdom without Him. That's not to say that no human (or robot) can make a true statement without an understanding of God, of course--but when he does so, he's borrowing from a worldview not his own. The statement may be true, but almost by accident--on some level, if you go down deep enough to bedrock beliefs, there is an inherent inconsistency between the statement of truth and the person's general worldview, if that worldview does not recognize a Creator. (Jason Lisle explains this well and in great detail in "The Ultimate Proof of Creation.")Can you see the danger of trusting a machine to discern what is right, then, simply because in terms of sheer facts and computing power, it's vastly "smarter" than we are? Anyone who does so is almost guaranteed to be deceived, unless he also filters the machine's response through his own discernment afterwards. (We should all be doing this with statements from any human authority on any subject, too, by the way. Never subjugate your own reasoning to anyone else's, even if they do know the Lord, but especially if they don't. You have the mind of Christ! 1 Cor 2:16).

Would Eliminating Emotion from the Workplace Actually Be a Good Thing?

I can see how one might think that replacing a human being with a machine that optimizes logic, but strips away everything else might seem a good trade, on the surface. After all, we humans (especially these days) aren't very logical, on the whole. Our emotions and desires are usually corrupted by sin. We're motivated by selfishness, greed, pride, and petty jealousies, when we're not actively being renewed by the Holy Spirit (and most of us aren't; even most believers are more carnal than not, most of the time. I don’t know if that’s always been the case, but it seems to be now). We also are subject to the normal human frailties: we get sick, or tired, or cranky, or hungry, or overwhelmed. We need vacations. We might be distracted by our own problems, or apathetic about the task we've been paid to accomplish. Machines would have none of these drawbacks.But do we really understand the trade-off we're making? We humans have a tendency to take a sliver of information, assume it's the whole picture, and run with it--eliminating everything we think is extraneous, simply because we don't understand it. In our hubris, we don't stop to consider that all the elements we've discarded might actually be critical to function.This seems to me sort of like processed food. We've taken the real thing the way God made it, and tweaked it in a laboratory to make it sweeter, crunchier, more savory, and with better "mouth feel.” It's even still got the same number of macronutrients and calories that it had before. But we didn’t understand not only how processing stripped away necessary micronutrients, but also added synthetic fats that contaminated our cell membranes, and chemicals that can overwhelm our livers, making us overweight and simultaneously nutrient depleted. We just didn't know what we didn't know.We've done the same thing with genetically engineered foods. God's instructions in scripture were to let the land lie fallow, and to rotate crops, because the soil itself is the source of micronutrition for the plant. If you plant the same crop in the same soil repeatedly and without a break, you will deplete the soil, and the plants will no longer be as nutritious, or as healthy... and an unhealthy plant is easy prey for pests. But the agriculture industry ignored this; it didn’t seem efficient or profitable enough, presumably. Synthetic fertilizer is the equivalent of macronutrients only for plants, so they grow bigger than ever before (much like humans do if they subsist on nothing but fast food), but they're still nutrient depleted and unhealthy, and thus, easy prey for pests. So we added the gene to the plants to make them produce their own glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp. Only glyphosate itself turns out to be incredibly toxic to humans, lo and behold...There are many, many more examples I can think of just in the realm of science, health, and nutrition, to say nothing of our approach to economics, or climate, or many other complex systems (the Gaia Hypothesis comes to mind here, of how the world itself functions as a complex interconnected system of feedback loops to maintain homeostasis--almost like a living organism). We tend to isolate the “active ingredient,” and eliminate everything we consider to be extraneous… only to learn of the side effects decades later.So what will the consequences be to society if most workers in most professions eventually lack true emotion, empathy, wisdom, and intuition?

Finding Purpose in Work

There’s also a growing concern that AI will take over nearly all jobs, putting almost everyone out of work. At this point, it seems that information-based positions are most at risk, and especially anything involving repetitive, computer-based tasks. I also understand that AI is better than most humans at writing essays, poetry, and producing art. Current robotics is far behind AI technology, though... Elon Musk has been promising self-driving cars in the eminent future for some time, yet they don't seem any closer to ubiquitous adoption now than they were five years ago. "A Brief History of Intelligence" by Max Bennett, published in fall 2023, said that as of the time of writing, robots can diagnose tumors from radiographic imaging better than most radiologists, yet they are still incapable of simple physical tasks such as loading a dishwasher without breaking things. (I suspect this is because the former involves intellectual pattern recognition, which seems to be their forte, while the latter involves movements that are subconscious for most of us, requiring integration of spatial recognition, balance, distal fine motor skills, etc. We're still a very long way from understanding the intricacies of the human brain... but then again, the pace at which knowledge is doubling is anywhere from every three to thirteen months, depending on the source. Either way, that’s fast).Bennett also stated at the end of "A Brief History of Intelligence" that older iterations of ChatGPT missed simple "common-sense" type questions, because they lacked a mental model of the world (of course; they don't have bodies or experiences). The example he gave was to complete the test sentence, "I am sitting in my apartment, and I look up, and I see..." The response from the machine was something along the lines of, "a star, and I am happy." Of course, what one would see if sitting in an apartment would not be the sky, but the ceiling. Having never lived in an apartment, that iteration of AI missed this. Current models of LLMs answer this question appropriately--but only because the engineers fed the machines more and more data designed to shore up this deficiency. They've anticipated possible common sense questions and attempted to feed the LLM patterns that cover the blind spot... but that isn't at all the same as actual understanding. It's the equivalent of just memorizing the answers to pass the test. If this is the way in which the LLMs have been trained, one can certainly imagine a situation not anticipated by the original engineers, in which the LLM's lack of real-world understanding would likewise lead to inappropriate recommendations. This is no big deal, as long as there are humans to "fact-check" its responses. Without the human oversight, this would probably always be a potential pitfall, though.Still, in the assumption that we'll soon be able to automate nearly everything a human can do physically or intellectually, the world's elite have postulated a Universal Basic Income--essentially welfare for all, since we would in theory be incapable of supporting ourselves. Leaving aside the many catastrophically failed historical examples of socialism and communism, it's pretty clear that God made us for good work (Eph 2:10, 2 Cor 9:8), and He expects us to work (2 Thess 3:10). Idleness while machines run the world is certainly not a biblical solution.That said, technology in and of itself is morally neutral. It's a tool, like money, time, or influence, and can be used for good or for evil. Both the Industrial Revolution and in the Information Revolution led to plenty of unforeseen consequences and social upheaval. Many jobs became obsolete, while new jobs were created that had never existed before. Work creates wealth, and due to increased efficiency, the world as a whole became wealthier than ever before, particularly in nations where these revolutions took hold. In the US, after the Industrial Revolution, the previously stagnant average standard of living suddenly doubled every 36 years. At the same time, though, the vast majority of the wealth created was in the hands of the few owners of the technology, and there was a greater disparity between the rich and the poor than ever before. This disparity has only grown more pronounced since the Information Revolution--and we have a clue in Revelation 6:5-6 that in the end times, it will be worse than ever. Will another AI-driven economic revolution have anything to do with this? It’s certainly possible.Whether or not another economic revolution should happen has little bearing on whether or not it will, though. But one thing for those of us who follow the Lord to remember is that we don't have to participate in the world's economy, if we trust Him to meet our needs. He is able to make us abound for every good work (2 Cor 9:8)--which I believe means we will also have some form of work, no matter what is going on in the world around us. He will bless the work of our hands, whatever we find for them to do (Deut 12:7). He will give us the ability to produce wealth (Deut 8:18), even if it seems impossible. He will meet all our needs as we seek His kingdom first (Luke 12:31-32)-and one of our deepest needs is undoubtedly a sense of purpose (Phil 4:19). We are designed to fulfill a purpose.

What about the AI Apocalyptic Fears?

The world's elite seem to fall into two camps on how an AI revolution might affect our world--those who think it will usher in utopia (Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” essentially depicts this), and those who think AI will decide that humans are the problem, and destroy us all.I feel pretty confident the latter won't occur, at least not completely, since neither Revelation nor any of the rest of the prophetic books seem to imply domination of humanity by machine overlords. Most, if not all of the actors involved certainly appear to be human (and angelic, and demonic). That said, there are several biblical references that the end times will be "as in the days of Noah" (Matt 24:27, Luke 17:26). What could that mean? Genesis 6 states that the thoughts in the minds of men were only evil all the time, so it may simply mean that in the end times, mankind will have achieved the same level of corruption as in the antediluvian world.But that might not be all. In Gen 6:1-4, we're told that the "sons of God" came down to the "daughters of men," and had children by them--the Nephilim. This mingling of human and non-human corrupted the genetic line, compromising God's ability to bring the promised seed of Eve to redeem mankind. Daniel 2:43 also reads, "As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they (in the end times) will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay." What is "they," if not the seed of men? It appears to be humanity, plus something else. Chuck Missler and many others have speculated that this could refer to transhumanism, the merging of human and machine.Revelation 13:14-15 is probably the most likely description I can think of in scripture of AI, describing the image of the beast that speaks, knows whether or not people worship the beast (AI facial recognition, possibly embedded into the "internet of things"?), and turns in anyone who refuses to do so.The mark of the beast sure sounds like a computer chip of some kind, with an internet connection (Bluetooth or something like it - Rev 13:17).Joel 2:4-9 describes evil beings "like mighty men" that can "climb upon a wall" and "when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded," and they "enter in at the windows like a thief." These could be demonic and thus extra-dimensional, but don’t they also sound like “The Terminator,” if robotics ever manages to advance that far?Jeremiah 50:9 says, "their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; none shall return in vain." This sounds like it could be AI-guided missiles.But the main evil actors of Revelation--the antichrist, the false prophet, the kings of the east, etc, all certainly appear to refer to humans. And from the time that the "earth lease" to humanity is up (Revelation 11), God Himself is the One cleansing the earth of all evil influences. I doubt He uses AI to do it.So, depending upon where we are on the prophetic timeline, I can certainly imagine AI playing a role in how the events of Revelation unfold, but I can't see how they'll take center stage. For whatever reason, it doesn't look to me like they'll ever get that far.

The Bottom Line

We know that in the end times, deception will come. We don't know if AI will be a part of it, but it could be. It's important for us to know the truth, to meditate on the truth, to keep our eyes focused on the truth -- on things above, and not on things beneath (Col 3:2). Don't outsource your thinking to a machine; no matter how "smart" they become, they will never have true wisdom; they can't. That doesn't mean don't use them at all, but if you do, do so cautiously, check the information you receive, and listen to the Holy Spirit in the process, trusting Him to guide you into all truth (John 16:13).Regardless of how rapidly or dramatically the economic landscape and the world around us may change, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and faith works through love (Gal 5:6). If we know how much God loves us, it becomes easy to not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present our requests to God... and then to fix our minds on whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, praiseworthy, or virtuous (Phil 4:6-8). He knows the end from the beginning. He's not surprised, and He'll absolutely take care of you in every way, if you trust Him to do it (Matt 6:33-34).

Lindsey Medenwaldt, (MA, JD, MPA) is the Director of Ministry Operations at Mama Bear Apologetics and serves as a consulting editor for the Christian Research Journal. She holds a Master’s in Apologetics and Ethics from Denver Seminary, a JD from St. Mary’s School of Law and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Midwestern State University. Her primary apologetics focus is on world religions and how we talk to people of other faiths.To learn more about Lindsey, see lindseymedenwaldt.com

Annie Pafford is the owner of Healthy Naturally You, next door to us at Nature Cure Family Health in Tucson, AZ! She is a Certified Laser Technician and Certified Sound Therapist with a 20 year background in nutrition and fitness. She was born and raised in Tucson, but she started Healthy Naturally You in 2011 in Michigan, and moved back to Tucson in 2020, opening her practice here in February 2021. She’s also the mother to three handsome sons.To learn more about Annie or to schedule a consultation, call or text 1-269-330-6847

Bob Gardner is the Founder of The Freedom Specialist, a body-based approach to happiness, health, and well-being. Bob is also the author of the book Built for Freedom and host of the podcast Alive and Free. As a Transformational Specialist, Bob’s aim is to share his unique tools with the world to empower everyone to find happiness, health, and well-being on autopilot.For the past 15 years, Bob has been incorporating multiple tools and knowledge gained from his years of experience in martial arts, breathwork, functional psychology, deep tissue release, and numerous other healing modalities to help thousands of people permanently put an end to their depression, anxiety & addiction by identifying and healing what's at the core of these issues.To learn more about Bob and The Freedom Specialist, see www.thefreedomspecialist.com

This week's podcast comes from this blog post on Chromotherapy.

Today's meditation is on Jeremiah 1:11-12 and Isa 55:10-11

Dr. Connie McReynolds is a licensed psychologist and certified rehabilitation counselor with more than 30 years of experience in the field of rehabilitation counseling and psychology. She is the founder of neurofeedback clinics in southern California, working with children and adults to reduce or eliminate conditions of ADHD, anxiety, anger, depression, chronic pain, learning problems, and trauma. She recently published the book "Solving the ADHD Riddle: The Real Cause and Lasting Solutions to Your Child’s Struggle to Learn"To learn more about Dr McReynolds, see www.conniemcreynolds.com

Dr. Russell Witte is a Professor of Medical Imaging, Optical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. Dr. Witte's Experimental Ultrasound and Neural Imaging Laboratory (EUNIL) devises cutting-edge imaging technology, integrating light, ultrasound and microwaves to diagnose and treat diseases ranging from tendinopathies and arrhythmias to breast cancer. By integrating different forms of energy, special effects are created that enable ultrasound imaging of optical absorption deep in tissue, mapping current source densities in the beating heart, and elasticity imaging of human muscle and tendon for quantifying tissue mechanical properties. Dr. Witte's research further extends into nanotechnology and smart contrast agents, which have applications to functional brain imaging, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Dr. Witte works closely with collaborators in the Colleges of Engineering, Optical Sciences and Medicine, as well as industry, to develop cutting-edge imaging technologies that potentially improve patient care.To contact Dr Witte: rwitte@protonmail.com

Dr Christie Fleetwood earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, in 1988. After practicing as a retail pharmacist in the greater Richmond area for a decade, she attended Bastyr University, earning a doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine in 2004. Because of her unique education and training, she effectively branded herself as “medically bilingual”. Her current passions and projects include renovating her crazy-cool house in unlicensed Virginia—where she ADORES practicing vitalist naturopathic medicine, riding her new touring bicycle, motorcycling with her husband and adult sons, eating great food, listening to great music, chasing her favorite band…. Oh! And for those who’ve been asking for her Book, the first one is underway: The Cardiovascular SYSTEM, combining both “Diseases of the Drugs” and the “Disease Reversal/Deprescribing” portions! “The Disease Reversal Project”, as a website and a podcast has already been published (currently on Spotify)!To learn more about Naturopathic Medical Institute or to help with their vision, visit naturopathicmedicineinstitute.orgOr, you can reach out to director@naturopathicmedicineinstitute.org or to Dr Fleetwood directly at: president@naturopathicmedicineinstitute.org

Today's podcast comes from this blog post of the same title.

Mark Walker's story is one of humble beginnings and extraordinary success. Raised in Spokane, Washington, he pursued his education at the University of Washington before embarking on a remarkable entrepreneurial journey. In 1980, Mark founded Walker's Furniture with a clear purpose: to build a successful business that could make a positive impact on society and advance the kingdom of God. What started as a modest venture has since flourished into a thriving enterprise, with thirteen furniture stores and over 200 employees. With annual retail sales exceeding $70 million, Mark's business acumen and dedication to his vision have made Walker's Furniture a pillar of the community. Beyond his professional endeavors, Mark finds fulfillment in his role as a devoted husband to Pam, a loving father to two daughters, and a proud grandfather to seven grandchildren. Together, Mark and Pam are passionate about supporting ministries that are making a difference, both locally and globally. As a sought-after speaker, Mark shares his insights on partnering with God in life and business at conferences across the nation and around the world.To learn more about Mark or to get a copy of his book, The Multiplication Factor, see restore7.org or you can pick up a copy on Amazon here.

Dr. Russell Witte is a Professor of Medical Imaging, Optical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. Dr. Witte’s Experimental Ultrasound and Neural Imaging Laboratory (EUNIL) devises cutting-edge imaging technology, integrating light, ultrasound and microwaves to diagnose and treat diseases ranging from tendinopathies and arrhythmias to breast cancer. By integrating different forms of energy, special effects are created that enable ultrasound imaging of optical absorption deep in tissue, mapping current source densities in the beating heart, and elasticity imaging of human muscle and tendon for quantifying tissue mechanical properties. Dr. Witte’s research further extends into nanotechnology and smart contrast agents, which have applications to functional brain imaging, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Dr. Witte works closely with collaborators in the Colleges of Engineering, Optical Sciences and Medicine, as well as industry, to develop cutting-edge imaging technologies that potentially improve patient care.

To find antennas in your area if you’re in Tucson, see safetechtucson.com

Dr Witte mentions Aman Jabbi – find a presentation on this subject by him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL_JQjjkOMY

To contact Dr Witte: rwitte@protonmail.com

1) “Russ’ Favorite links to government + peer-reviewed studies on Microwaves + Health + Safety”:
https://bit.ly/Russ5GLinks

2) “Sample References Describing Adverse Biological Effects of Low-level Microwave Radiation ”
https://tinyurl.com/yc23ravs

3) Updated review of 3000 peer-reviewed studies from a panel of scientific experts regarding “low-intensity microwave/electromagnetic radiation” and recommendations for rationale for biologically-based exposure standards.
https://bioinitiative.org/

4) “Hidden Dangers of 4G/5G Microwave Technology.” May 27, 2021 [15 min] (my shortest presentation on health effects of low-level microwave radiation)
https://youtu.be/0y8ixJFQDjo
Download slides: https://bit.ly/Witte_052721_Slides

5) 13-page letter sent to the City of Tucson demanding an moratorium on the deployment of 5G Cell Towers. The city did not respond to this letter or a followup letter sent in July 2020.
https://tinyurl.com/3pacba4k

6) Tips!

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We all have disappointments in life - things our hearts were set on that just didn’t pan out. God does promise to give us the desires of our hearts if we’re following Him (Ps 37:4), but He doesn’t promise to give them to us on our time table, or through the avenues we choose. His way is always best in the end, but that doesn’t make the immediate disappointments hurt any less.Then there are those times when bad things happen to us that God had no part of. These are the things that God specifically lists as a curse in the Old Testament - things like disease, death, destruction, destitution, and the like (Deuteronomy 28:15-38). They are listed as part of the curse of the law - but Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law, so God doesn’t do these things. When these things happen now, it is because there is an enemy who “prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8-9), or because the world itself is fallen and waiting for redemption (Rom 8:20-22), or because of the free will of sinful people (Ps 37) - either our own or that of others who hurt us.There are usually only a few ways that most people handle disappointments and sorrow: 1) they lie to themselves and pretend they never wanted (that thing) very much in the first place; 2) they run away, keeping themselves otherwise occupied so that they never feel the loss (and this includes addictions of all forms); 3) they get really mad, either at God or fate or whatever they blame; or 4) they grieve.The last one is the only path to true healing.

Lying to Yourself (Denial)

This is the “sour grapes” approach... “Well, fine, I never wanted it that much anyway!” It seems to work on the surface for awhile... the problem with this is simply that, well, it’s a lie. Pretending you feel one way when in fact you feel another way entirely is suppression. And the thing suppressed doesn’t go away... it gets buried deeper. It’s like getting a splinter in your foot, and instead of having it removed, you shove it down inside the flesh so you can’t see it anymore, and just learn to walk with a limp.This is often where emotional handicaps (such as depression) come from. We are injured and isolated, and we don’t see that there’s anything we can do except learn to live with it - the “stiff upper lip” approach. We move beyond blaming our needs to a denial of our needs. There’s something we’re not admitting to ourselves, and the depression is a symptom of it. It’s trying to remind us that we need to enter the healing process.The solution, of course, is to submit to having your foot cut open so that the splinter can be extracted and the cut can heal. Jesus says in Mark 8, If you try to preserve the things you want in life (by pretending everything is okay when it isn’t) then you will lose them. But if you willingly lay them down for the sake of the Kingdom, then they'll be given to you. As long as the splinter is still there, coping and “getting by” is the best you can ever do. But that isn’t God’s best for you.In “The Law of Happiness,” Dr Henry Cloud writes, “...grief allows you to let go of what you cannot have in order to make room in your heart for what you can have. Those who don’t feel safe enough to grieve find themselves holding on to lost hopes and relationships. Then it’s difficult for them to seek out new attachments, since the ghosts of the past still occupy their emotional life”.Jesus promises that when we let go, the exchange he offers is beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3).

Running Away (and Addictions)

An addiction is anything that we run to in order to escape from unpleasant thoughts or emotions. (That’s usually how all the physiologic addictions start, too.) The obvious ones are substances, food, sex, gambling, shopping, and work (or busyness in general). We can also be addicted to a person (that’s called codependence). We can compulsively fill our lives with noise so that silence never has the opportunity to ask its uncomfortable questions. We can park ourselves in front of the TV every night after work to escape from all the problems we don’t know how to solve. Distraction techniques are very popular.These approaches all have one thing in common: they help us to avoid our pain, but they don’t heal it. Because of that, they all enslave us sooner or later.But when Jesus first announced his ministry, he said it like this: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Isa 61:1-2). He came to heal, not just to offer a band-aid. He came to set the captives free.Once a hurt has been grieved and released, there’s no longer any need to run from it, and the necessity for addictive distractions goes away.

Anger at God

I tried this one. My dad died when I was fifteen. I didn’t stop believing in God (I’d studied too much apologetics to do that, so I knew He was there,) but instead I decided that He was like an army general who made sacrifices for the greater good... and sometimes, guess what? It’s your turn to get sacrificed.Because this was my basic philosophy, I therefore assumed that if I wanted any happiness, anything good to happen in my life, I had to take matters into my own hands. I became a control freak.Only problem was, I wasn’t in control of anything that truly mattered to me.The moment I got set free was the moment I admitted this, to myself and to God. And that was when He showed me who He really is. He doesn’t do bad things to us; death and disease are a result of one of those three things listed above (Satan, a fallen world, free will, or some combination of the above). But because He’s amazing, He can take all things (even the bad) and work them together for His purposes (Prov 16). Once I turned to Him instead of away from Him, He was there to comfort me (Psalm 34). One of my favorite verses to cling to even now is Deut 33:12: “Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields them all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.”I found out that “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that trust in him” (Nahum 1:7). I found out that if I seek Him, He will grant me the desires of my heat (Ps 37:4), but I probably can’t grant them to myself, no matter how hard I try. Giving up and letting go was freedom.

Grief

Grief happens when we admit that what happened to us hurt, and we allow ourselves to feel sad about it. God set up grief as a method for allowing us to accept those things we can’t do anything about. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that grief is what allows you to be comforted (Matt 5). If you’re too busy denying and suppressing your pain, though, comfort can’t get in.I see this one all the time. Patients come in with physical problems that started around the same time that someone they loved passed away, or they went through a divorce, lost a job, or had some other major life event happen to them. They subsequently developed insomnia, depression, digestive disorders, crippling fatigue, or a full-blown autoimmune disease. Then I ask what they did to grieve the loss, and they tell me they just do their best to keep going, because they can’t change the situation -- “so I just have to live with it, don’t I?”It’s really no secret that “the body weeps tears that the eyes cannot shed.” Grief is an important season, and without it, we will never quite function as well as we did before. But (again quoting Henry Cloud and John Townsend in “How People Grow”): “We basically need two things for grieving. First, we need love, support, and comfort... Second, we need structure. We need time and space for grieving. We need structured activities. This is why good support groups that meet at a regular time and do regular tasks are effective in getting people through grief”.Grief isn’t something we can do alone. We need the love and support of others to allow us to intentionally face pain. Although no other human can ever fully understand how you feel (Prov 14:10), God called us to “mourn with those who mourn” (Rom 12:15). Grief involves letting ourselves fall apart, and in order to do that in safety, we need God and others to hold us up.

• Ps 55:22: “Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall.”
• 1 Pet 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
• Ps 62:8: Trust in God at all times and pour your heart out to Him, because He is your refuge.

When we let ourselves feel sad for our losses in the context of relationship with God and others, true healing becomes possible. God says that sorrow lasts for a night, but joy comes in the morning, and mourning will turn to dancing (Ps 30). Isaiah 61:3 says that He will “comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion -- To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, A garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Dave Stetzer has been an electrician by training, education and experience for over 30 years. He joined the United States Air Force, attended electronics school at Keesler Air Force Base—at the time, the world’s #1 electronics school, and was given top-secret military clearance, as much of the electronic equipment he worked on was, and still remains, highly classified. In 1975, Dave founded Stetzer Electric, Inc, specializing in power control in industry, municipalities, and motor control centers, focusing his attention on power quality analysis and troubleshooting. This led to the founding of Stetzer Consulting, LLC and the development of the STETZERiZER (Graham-Stetzer) Filter and Microsurge Meter in conjunction with the late Professor Martin Graham. Dave has been an Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Member since 2000. For his extensive and exemplary work and research, Dave was nominated for, and now holds IEEE Senior Member status.To learn more about Dave, see stetzerelectric.com

The scripture says a lot about seeking the Lord and getting wisdom from Him on the direction He wants you to go. But what about that most dreaded in-between stage, when you’re praying for wisdom and getting nothing, and no doors seem to be opening, and you feel unsettled - like you know your time in a particular circumstance or life stage is short, but you have not yet been released?In a word, what about waiting?The Fruit of the SpiritPatience is a fruit of the Spirit... but it comes as a result of a process.Paul lists the “fruit” that we bear when we’re walking with God’s spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).Peter gives a similar list, but he doesn’t call them fruit. His list looks like this (2 Peter 1:5-7):

1. Add to your faith, goodness. This makes sense, because without faith we can’t even become God’s kids. So you have to start with that - faith is the seed that produces the fruit of goodness. In the Old Testament, God started by giving the Israelites the Law. They didn’t understand why they were doing what they were doing, but the Law produced “goodness” - meaning they weren’t killing each other and cheating on their spouses, and that sort of thing.
2. And to goodness, knowledge. God didn’t want them to stop there, though. He wanted the Israelites to know Him, not just to obey a set of rules. God wanted them to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Goodness therefore leads to knowledge - knowledge of the Lord.
3. And to knowledge, self-control. Now that we know what God asks us to do, and we know God himself, we need the ability to control ourselves in order to do what He is asking of us... but we don’t have the ability to control ourselves unless He gives it to us (remember Paul talking about how he used to continually do what he did not want to do, Rom 7:15-20? Instead, we get the fruit of self-control by getting to know the Holy Spirit (which is why Peter lists it after knowledge.) So knowledge is the seed that produces the fruit of self-control.
4. And to self-control, PERSEVERANCE. We may have learned to subjugate the desires of the moment for the longer-term goal, but what happens when the longer-term goal looks REALLY far away, like it’s never going to happen? That’s why we need perseverance. The word implies a struggle: it’s suffering without quitting. It’s hard, but we stick it out. The writer of Hebrews says, “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (10:36).
5. And to perseverance, godliness. Notice that the corresponding fruit to perseverance is patience. While the word perseverance implies a struggle, the word patience implies rest. You’re not struggling anymore. You know that God is going to come through. Perseverance is the seed, and eventually it bears the fruit of patience. Once you’ve got that, once you’re in rest, you become godly. This was one of the key traits that set Jesus apart: when the storm blew up, while the rest of the disciples were freaking out, He was sleeping in the boat. He’d said they were going to get to the other side, and He knew they were going to - he didn’t have to persevere through the storm anymore. He was in rest. He was godly.
6. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. Paul lists kindness after godliness. Now that you’re in rest, you’re not so worried about meeting your own needs anymore; you know God’s got you covered, and you can wait peacefully for Him to come through. Now you have energy to spare, and you can use it to see and joyfully meet the desires and needs of those around you. (The fruit of kindness is joy, because it feels pretty great to help others.)
7. And to brotherly kindness, love. This is the ultimate destination - to sow love into the lives of others, as we have received it from God. (“Freely you have received; freely give,” Matt 10:8.)

What this tells me is that we can’t just pray for patience and get it, in the same way that you can’t just pray for a Ph.D. and get it without putting in the necessary time and effort. It happens as a result of a process - that’s how God set it up. We have to first believe God, then follow after Him, then get to know Him, and then we gain His power to control ourselves and persevere, even in the face of hardship or long delays. Once we learn how to do this, we bear the fruit of patience. That’s when we can “sleep in the boat,” as it were. We’re not worried about the circumstances - now we can “walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7), because we know it’s gonna work out just fine in the end.David: Waiting for DeliveranceDavid was anointed to be king when he was 17. Then the current king, Saul, got (understandably) jealous, and tried to kill him... so David was on the run for thirteen years. Almost anybody else would have given up long before that... but David had this principle down. He knew God would come through if he waited for God to act. And God always did.

• Ps 5:3 “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”
• Ps 27:14: “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
• Ps 33:20: “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.”
• Ps 37:7: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”
• Ps 38:15: “Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.”
• Ps 40:1: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.”
• Ps 130:5: “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”
• Ps 130:6: “I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

Why Waiting?Personally I hate waiting. I hate anything slow. I walk fast, I eat fast, and some people say I talk too fast. If I wasn’t a naturopath I’d be all about microwaves.But James says that we should rejoice when we face trials (including delays) because “you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:3) - there’s that word again - and perseverance is the seed that produces the fruit of patience. Notice that all of the fruit before patience are about us - they’re about our growth in faith, in knowledge, and in controlling ourselves. But patience is the one that allows us to start to produce for others - godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. That’s where God wants us. So James goes on to say that “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4) - in other words, not lacking any of the other fruits of the spirit.But it means more than that too - those fruits of the Spirit also bear physical results in our lives. For example - Abraham’s patience eventually “bore the fruit” of Isaac (Heb 6:15). The farmer who patiently waits for the appropriate season will eventually “bear the fruit” of a harvest (James 5:7). Had the farmer tried to reap prematurely, he would not have had a harvest at all - he absolutely had to be patient, recognizing the season he was in and doing the work associated with it (Prov 20:4; Ecc 3:2).Do Not Despise Small BeginningsThe same is true of us. God reminds us not to “despise the day of small beginnings” (Zechariah 4:10) - everything great started out small. We all start out as babies. Every harvest begins with a seed.Solomon reminds us not to try to “get rich quick,” for instance, because it will become a curse in the end - instead he says that if you gather money little by little, you will make it grow (Prov 13). He says to build what you already have, and not to tear it down (Prov 14). He says whatever your hands find to do, you should do it with all your might (Ecc 9). He reminds us that our part is to do the possible, but we must leave it to God to do the impossible - that is, to bring victory (Prov 21).“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (Heb 6:12).

Sally K. Norton, MPH is a distinguished expert in dietary oxalates with 35 years of health education and research experience. She holds a nutrition degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her path to becoming a leading expert on dietary oxalate includes a prior career working at prestigious medical schools in medical education and public health research. Sally championed a five-year, National Institute of Health-funded program at the UNC Medical School that educated students and faculty about holistic, alternative, and integrative healing. Her personal healing experience inspired years of research, culminating in the release of her groundbreaking book, Toxic Superfoods, which was released in January 2023 and is available everywhere books are sold.

• • You can pick up a copy of Toxic Superfoods here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593139585?tag=randohouseinc7986-20
  • Learn more about Sally at https://sallyknorton.com/ or you can find her on YouTube as SallyKNorton

Your words have tremendous power to influence the course of your life.Jesus teaches it this way. In Matthew 15, the Pharisees are arguing with Jesus because he and his disciples eat food that is considered “unclean” by Jewish law. Jesus explains to them, “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean’... But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’” (Matt 15:11-19).Jesus has connected three things here: thoughts, words, and actions. They go in that order: your thoughts are seeds, and they get planted in the “soil” of your heart. They don’t necessarily change the environment right away, but when that seed has been planted, it will germinate, and will spring up and become a tree, which will eventually bear fruit. So you’d better be careful what you’re planting.

Round and Round We Go

When I was in my early 20s, I realized my life was on a merry-go-round. I was living essentially the same story over and over again. The names and details might change, but the characters and circumstances were basically consistent. I wrestled with this for years; I had an intuitive sense that it was a spiritual principle somehow (because everyone’s story seemed to repeat itself, not just mine!), but I could not for the life of me figure out why.I was 25 when I finally understood (and wondered why it had taken me so long, because it seemed so blatantly obvious in retrospect). In all of those iterations of the same story, there was only one common denominator: me. I realized that my beliefs were essentially, “My life will always be this way. I will never get out of this cycle. I will always repeat this pattern.” I bitterly said something to this effect every time I told my tale of woe to a sympathetic friend. I wrote about it every day in my journal. I prayed about it every day to God - but despite the biblical promises that God had something better for me, I never actually believed what God said my future held. Instead, I told Him that my future would be exactly the same as my past. I gained a twisted sense of satisfaction by complaining, little knowing that my words were actually prophetic. I was planting seeds, and those seeds were bearing fruit - unfortunately, the fruit they bore was exactly the same fruit I was already harvesting in my life. Instead of recognizing this and changing what I planted, I’d cut open that fruit, pull out the seeds, and plant them right back in the soil of my heart. For years.Jesus compares the Word of God to a seed in the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-23). When it falls on good soil and isn’t choked out by the cares of this life and deceitfulness of wealth, Jesus said that seed will germinate, sprout and bear fruit - thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold. But this process is indifferent: your heart will grow whatever you plant in it, whether the seed is good or bad. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit... For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:33-34; Luke 6:43-45).

Guard Your Heart

The first five books of the Bible contain extremely detailed laws that the Jews had to abide by in order to be “right” with God. The Pharisees had even added hundreds of additional laws of their own by the time Jesus showed up. But their laws were all about external actions. Jesus’ laws went much deeper - his dealt not just with wrong actions, but with the wrong thinking that eventually produced wrong actions (Matt 5). Jesus said it’s not enough to not commit murder - don’t even think about murder. It’s not enough not to commit adultery - don’t even look at a woman lustfully. What’s he saying? Guard your heart. He knows that the heart will grow whatever you plant in it. The thought will eventually produce the words, and the words will eventually produce the actions.Because the heart grows whatever you plant in it, before anything else you have to start with Solomon’s famous advice: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23).So be vigilant about what you plant in your heart. Solomon talks about this a lot:

• “Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Prov 7:1-3).
• “A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction” (Prov 16:23).
• “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out” (Prov 18:15).
• “Apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips” (Prov 22:17-18).
• “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov 23:7).

Guard Your Tongue

If your thinking is right, then your speaking will be right automatically. But what if both your thinking and your speaking are already wrong?In the midst of my “merry-go-round,” I don’t know if I could have changed what I said about my future. The habit was too entrenched by then... but at least I could have kept my mouth shut!In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel visits Zechariah and tells him that his elderly and barren wife Elizabeth would bear him a son (who would become John the Baptist). But Zechariah did not respond to this statement in faith (as Mary did when she received a similar prophecy that she would become pregnant with Jesus, even though she was a virgin). Instead, Zechariah said, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years” (Luke 1:18). The angel’s reply is disapproving: “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” But then he adds something interesting: “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time” (Luke 1:20).This wasn’t just a punishment; the angel said this for a very good reason. Zechariah didn’t believe God’s word, and the angel knew that he would continue to speak his doubts, for nine months. Could that have stopped John’s birth, had Zechariah’s mouth gone unchecked? Another story from the Old Testament suggests that it might have.

An Evil Report

The Israelite spies told the rest of the Israelites after exploring Canaan, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are... We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:31-33). Objectively, this report was true: the spies reported what they saw. There were giants in the land, and their cities were fortified and very powerful. The Israelites, on the other hand, were a nomadic band of former slaves who had never fought a battle in their lives, and apparently they were a lot smaller than the Canaanites. But God called this an “evil report” (13:32), because it disagreed with what He said. He told the Israelites that He was giving them the land (Deuteronomy 1:29-31), so the size and might of the inhabitants was irrelevant.What happened? The Israelites had been complaining ever since Moses had led them out of Egypt and out of slavery that they would die in the wilderness. After their disobedience and unbelief, God says, “I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall” (Numbers 14:28-29). Not one of those Israelites who spread that evil report got to experience God’s Promised Land.So an evil report is anything that disagrees with what God says, even when it accurately describes the current situation. When you’re tempted to say what you see instead of what God says, Solomon advises you to hold your tongue. Speak only what agrees with God’s word, and if you can’t do that, then at least keep your mouth shut!

• “A man of knowledge uses words with restraint” (Prov 17:27).
• “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue” (Prov 17:28).
• “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin” (Prov 13:3).
• “Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Prov 29:20).
• “A chattering fool comes to ruin” (Prov 10:10).
• “A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul” (Prov 18:7).
• “He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity” (Prov 21:23).

Speak Life, Not Death

If the best you can do is hold your tongue, you do well. But if instead you use your tongue to say what God says about the situation, you do much better! We can plant the Word of God in our hearts as a seed, instead of a faithless, evil report. It won’t change the way we think overnight, but eventually that seed will become a tree, and the tree will bear fruit, and the fruit will influence the direction of our lives. We can “be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind[s]” (Romans 12:2).

• “The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them” (Prov 12:6).
• “From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him” (Prov 12:14).
• “From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things” (Prov 13:2).
• “From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied” (Prov 18:20).
• “For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt 12:37).
• “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Prov 18:21).

Back to the story of the Israelite spies: all of the Israelites spread an evil report except two, Joshua and Caleb. After the rest of the spies’ resoundingly negative report, Caleb countered them and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30). In response, God said, “Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun” (Numbers 14:30). Joshua went on to become Moses’ successor, and Caleb was the only other member of the Israelite community over the age of 20 at the time of the exploration who got to go in to the Promised Land. They got what they said.Solomon said the tongue has the power of life and death. Another famous place in the Bible that uses this same phrase is Deuteronomy 30. Here, God says, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him” (Deut 30:19-20).Our tongues have the power of blessing us by speaking God’s word (leading to life), or of cursing us by speaking what is contrary to God’s word (leading to death). God says the choice is up to us - but He recommends that we choose life.

Rafaele Joudry has dedicated her life to helping people overcome auditory problems and enhance their lives through better brain performance. She was guided to introduce her mother to Sound Therapy, which proved life-changing for fatigue, insomnia, sound sensitivity and difficulty hearing in social situations. As a result, Rafaele and her mother developed the self help Sound Therapy program which helped thousands of people to find relief for tinnitus, dizziness, anxiety and sleeplessness. As a world leader in self help Sound Therapy, Rafaele has enabled individuals from all walks of life to benefit from unique discoveries about how the ears can enhance the performance of the entire nervous system. She has authored three best selling books, and helped many thousands of listeners to improve communication, learning, focus, sleep, creativity and brain performance. To contact Sound Therapy International go to www.mysoundtherapy.com/podcast

David Bahnsen is the founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of The Bahnsen Group, a national private wealth management firm with offices in multiple states, managing $4.5 billion in client assets. Prior to launching The Bahnsen Group he spent eight years as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and six years as a Vice President at UBS. He is consistently named as one of the top financial advisors in America by Barron’s, Forbes, and the Financial Times. He is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, and Fox Business, and is a regular contributor to National Review. He hosts the popular weekly podcast, Capital Record, dedicated to a defense of free enterprise and capital markets. He is the author of several best-selling books. Today he’s here to talk about his upcoming book, “Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life.”To learn more about David, see fulltimebook.com or bahnsen.com

Kim Shapira M.S., R.D. is a celebrity dietitian, nutritional therapist, and author, with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from Tulane University and a Master’s degree in Human Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition from Boston University. Kim has spent over 25 years helping people lose weight and keep it off (with a giant emphasis on keeping it off), both in her private Los Angeles practice, in hospitals, sports clinics, addiction centers and universities. When she's not helping her clients take back their relationship with food, she is a wife and mother of three children and three pups. Kim often appears as a guest expert for Yahoo!, Just Jenny, Sky News, Vanity Fair, Pop Sugar, Podcasts, and will be happy to pop in and be a guest speaker for your book clubs.To learn more about Kim, you can find her on any social media platform, at kimshapiramethod.com or you can check out her book, "This Is What You're Really Hungry For," here.

Peggy Ployhar is the SPED Homeschool Founder & CEO, an organization that empowers families to home educate diverse learners. She is also the owner of Eternal Aerial Arts where she teaches aerial arts classes and coaches a student performance team. Peggy is a speaker, aerial performer, podcaster, author, breast cancer survivor, and 19-year retired homeschool veteran. She and her husband Doug live in League City, TX and enjoy paddle boarding, hiking, and camping in their classic Airstream.To learn more about Peggy, go to www.spedhomeschool.com

Paul Harding is the owner of Total EMF Solutions in Tucson, AZ. Total EMF Solutions started as a personal journey and a fight for his life. He experienced a complete breakdown in his sleep after a smart meter was installed on his bedroom wall in the beginning of 2011. After further research he found that smart meters produced frequencies on the home wiring and electric field correlated with those that are used to open the sodium and potassium ion channels. His symptoms began to abate once he started sleeping in an area with very low levels of exposure. Once he found relief, his focus in life became studying the source of the problem.To learn more about Paul, see www.totalemfsolutions.com If you are on the east coast, Paul mentioned contacting Dave Stetzer: https://www.stetzerelectric.com/about/ To find out if there are cell phone towers in your area, see: https://www.antennasearch.com/

Dr. Mike Van Thielen is a bestselling author on optimizing productivity and focus, a sought after speaker, and an entrepreneur who has owned several anti-aging clinics in central and northeast Florida. He was the CEO of an innovative stem cell clinic, treating top athletes including NFL players and heavyweight boxing champions. He is also a treating physician for Boston Neuro Pain and Psych Centers, helping tens of thousands of patients with chronic pain and mental health conditions.To learn more about Dr Mike, see biohackingunlimited.comYou can also find his latest book, The Izod Method, here: https://www.amazon.com/IZOD-MethodTM-Superpower-Productivity-Stress-Free/dp/B0BR9GJLK1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3K1QAJUQD4G4G&keywords=The+Izod+Method&qid=1702672674&sprefix=the+izod+method%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-1

Brant Hansen is a bestselling author, syndicated radio host and advocate for healing children with correctable disabilities through CURE International Children's Hospitals. His award-winning radio show, The Brant Hansen Show, airs on top stations in the U.S. and Canada. His podcast, The Brant and Sherri Oddcast, has been downloaded more than 15 million times. He has been named "Personality of the Year" multiple times by Christian Music Broadcasters and is called "Christian music's most beloved radio personality" by Christian Voice Magazine. Brant writes about varied topics related to faith, including masculinity in his book, The Men We Need, and forgiveness in Unoffendable, about which he was recently interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America. Brant’s new book, ‘Life is Hard, God is Good, Let’s Dance’, releases January 16.For Brant's book, see here; https://www.amazon.com/Life-Hard-Good-Lets-Dance-ebook/dp/B0BYYXTNQ2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1702662446&sr=8-1For more about CURE, go to cure.orgTo learn more about Brant, go to: branthansen.com