Santiago Leon and Eric Olson share how to be slow during the times of a pandemic.

Verse of the Day

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. – Colossians 4:5-6

Eric Olson shares James 1:19-20:

James 1:19-20 New American Standard Bible

¹⁹ This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; ²⁰ for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Transcript

Santiago Leon
InstaBible Cast. Welcome to another edition of the InstaBible Cast. May 8 2020. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe in and our channels. If you’re an iTunes, please subscribe. If you’re on Twitter, please follow us and if you’re on Facebook please like us at this Bible app. Today’s versus the day is be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace. Season with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians four through six. And joining us today is Eric Ryan Olson. He’s our frequent guest on this podcast. Welcome back to the Insert Bible cast. Eric Olson

Eric Olson
Thank you brother Santiago. It’s good to be back and Hi everyone. goblins Happy Friday May 8 2020.

Santiago Leon
Eric give us a quick update we’ve been up to this past couple weeks before we head into our devotion

Eric Olson
Yeah, well obviously we’re still you know, locked down because of the corona virus and you know, I think things are slowly transitioning but it still seems like more or less at least out here in the Boise Idaho area. Um, it feels it still feels like everything is on lockdown even though the, you know, state government has is saving reasoning but From my standpoint and my family standpoint, it still feels like locked down. So in several weeks, basically have just been, you know, with the power. And I think the best way for me to be one to make the most of any situation, whether you’re in lockdown in your house, whether you’re stuck somewhere, whatever it is, and we can always seek the Lord in our heart and our mind, we can focus on him. That’s why I’m a big advocate for memorizing scripture. Because if you don’t have a Bible handy, then you can always, you know, look to the scripture that you sown to the part that you have put in your heart. And so I’ve just been seeking the Lord with a fresh intense intensity and I’ve been finding the Lord, you know, seeking you’ll find and, and I believe the Lord has been giving me exciting ideas. I’ve been collaborating with my wife on some things, we work some things out that we didn’t even realize we had to work out. But you know, just Something that when you’re when, you know when you’re around, obviously stuck together with, you know, blessed to be married and with a awesome believing wife and, you know, in this lockdown, we’ve been around each other more than normal. And so if there is any areas, unresolved areas, you know, the Lord has allowed us to those things to be, you know, I guess friction but then if we humble ourselves and bring them to the Lord, he smooth them out. So those are some of the things that I’ve been doing the last weeks and and I am grateful to God for everything that he’s been doing in the last

Santiago Leon
several weeks. I was watching a tick tock account from Tick Tock and this guy was from Idaho. And then I didn’t realize that Idaho is a big part of the food supply chain. Like how often do you see I mean, I mean, obviously you’re, you’re in Boise, but do you notice that around Is that something? That’s pretty the big night. Oh,

Eric Olson
yeah, a lot of agriculture Of course, nationwide. Idaho is known for its famous potato. Right, you know, they have. Yeah. And they grow. I mean, there’s thousands and thousands of acres of, you know, potato crops. And I mean, probably hundreds of thousands in the whole state. So, you know, it’s a bigger state and but it’s not a huge population. So it’s a bigger state in terms of square mileage, but the population is, you know, pretty small

Santiago Leon
potatoes and people.

Eric Olson
Oh, by far more potatoes and people so I don’t know that say it’s, it’s growing. It’s a really beautiful state. And it’s, it’s I you know, it’s nice. I hear that people are very nice. The culture is nice. And so I think it’s maybe right now, if you Google it, it’s maybe 1.5 million population, but it’s probably closer to 2 million but you know, that’s tiny, like You know, compared to theirs, of course, there’s a lot of cities that are bigger than that whole population of Idaho. So but they have agriculture’s bigger here not it’s not just potatoes, they grow all sorts of, you know, different crops, all sorts of different vegetables, fruits, I mean the cherry cherry orchards out here a big blueberry mint. I mean, you name it, I guess because it’s interesting Idaho’s in the Pacific Northwest but southern Idaho is actually high desert and so you don’t we don’t get a lot of precipitation but we have like the Snake River and other rivers. So irrigation you know, the water from the from the rivers is what really helps grow the crops in southern Idaho, northern Idaho. You get you know, more rain but yeah, it’s a beautiful state. And they’re they do they’re really big on the food production. And the China the chain of supply or the supply chain. Yeah,

Santiago Leon
yeah. And, you know, and like this guy was saying that things are are kind of backed up because yeah, they, you know, they’re delivering to grocery stores, but they’re not delivering to restaurants. So that backs up a lot. And I didn’t realize restaurants are a big part when they purchase these crops,

Eric Olson
big time and you know, they have those orders a lot of times, you know, or those contracts years in advance, you know. And so, probably, I would suspect that the, the restaurant industry has been hit the hardest, you know, or probably at least as hard as any other industry. I mean, hospitality industries in general. I mean, the theater you know, the movie cinemas have been hit or they’ve had to be closed but yeah, restaurants have been totally shut down and then obviously there’s the ripple effect you know, they they’re backed up because they have all this extra food. And so what’s good though the food banks like the church I go to Boise Yes. This has happened, all the food they’ve been then have enough donations from these, these flyers have been seen all the local food bank, which is a good thing. But you know, I’m hoping that sooner than later that the restaurants will fully be open because I mean they were officially by the state ordered and this you know city ordered to be closed down. It was illegal for them to be open. So I think maybe like the next phase, they’re going to be reopened. But, but my my concern is even if they do reopen most, a lot of the citizens are still sketchy, you know, not not, I would say, oh, there’s a percentage, I’d say probably the majority, probably 60% of the people are going to be hesitant to go out right away to restaurants, they’ll probably wait for a month or four until everything you know, really calms down. But then there’s Idaho’s a very independent a like like a lot of people like to you know, you know, kill the self route, personal responsibility. So in a lot of people feel have there’s very mixed opinions about the whole Coronavirus. And I have people I know that are on total polar extremes about how they view it. Some people totally make you know, the lockdown needs to continue. And then there’s other people that think it never should have happened in the first place. So, um, yeah, and I guess I’m, I’m not Yeah, I won’t get into this is the Insta bio cast. I’m not trying to get into political stuff.

Santiago Leon
But the political cast

Eric Olson
is not a political class, but I would say, my values and my politically and worldview wise for society, you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And so that’s why we have the Constitution, the first and second amendment are so important and whenever a government starts to infringe upon that I’m not in support of it, so I’ll leave it at that.

Santiago Leon
I told him to stand let’s get into prayer and Eric will take this ship with with with his devotion, Lord Jesus, we thank you For today, Lord, we invite your presence Lord, speak through us speak through Eric, Lord be an instrument and we pray out there that that person that will have will have ears to hear, Lord, hear your message, because this is not for America. This is from you, Lord, and from you alone. We thank you George Jesus, and we thank you for what you can do. And and what are you gonna say in Jesus name. Amen.

Eric Olson
Jesus. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father, thank you for your anointing, Lord. Oh, I’m so encouraged and I encourage you to get on the ship. And, and flow with me here on this, this devotional here, and this is very timely, sharing my heart. And my wife came to me yesterday afternoon, mid afternoon, maybe around four o’clock or so. As she shared with me, I don’t know if you’ve heard the breaking news, but it’s all over the news. came out maybe a day, maybe two days ago, but I didn’t hear about it. And so my wife, who if you don’t know my wife happens to be African American, and she’s from Georgia and she’s from a small town in Georgia. And she also happens to be a runner she enjoys to jog. And she came to me with the news of this, this young 25 year old African American black man who was shot while jogging small town in southeastern Georgia, Georgia close to the border with you know, with Northeastern Florida and so it’s all over the news right now. His name was Ahmed Aubrey and and it came I guess the details I’ll try to make this quick here and then get into the scripture what’s on the heart with related to this and what relates to us all how we can learn a lesson. Um, first of all, I believe God grieves you know about these things. But you know, you always want to get what’s the truth of the situation. Every situation is unique, but a video came out and so the You know, his death actually happened in February but there was a video that was leaked, I guess. And now it’s been published over all the media. And he was just jogging and he was an avid jogger. And there were, I just want to state the facts of the case. My allegiance is to the Lord and to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. So I’m not tribalistic about I just, you know, want to be objective. And when I saw that video, and I really believe it was an injustice. This is a man and his son and the men they thought that they were quick to judge him. He was jogging in their neighborhood, and they called 911. And they thought that he might be somebody who had who had robbed some place or they saw I’m looking into a house that was under construction. And they gotten their truck. The you can read all these details. They got in the truck and they took a shotgun and a pistol and they cut this jogger off, right they drove maybe 50 feet and probably in a video captures this young man jogging casually, up to them. And then next thing you know, the the, there’s a tussle and the younger the son shoots him and he was shot three times and he dies. And I believe what I wanted to focus on the verse and in James that that’s what’s on my heart. So I want to be, you know, authentic. This all could have been avoided. They were afraid and they took they took justice into their own hands, they thought, and I believe this young man from all the evidence, he was completely innocent, you know, and that it could have been avoided. He was jogging and you can see it he wasn’t running away from anybody. He would just jogging to run and They confronted him unnecessarily. And and then they shot him and I think it’s a it’s it is really outrageous and in my my wife obviously she felt a very a sense of grief and a sense of you know, this could have been my cousin you know type of thing and and I also think like what if you know, take take race out of the picture what if it was your cousin What if it was your brother or your friend that was a jogger you know that I really think there’s no justification for what these men did. And I don’t know what the law you know, I don’t think it wasn’t premeditated because they caught my one but I think their foolishness, their their rush to judgment, and their insensitivity led them to be vigilantes, and then they took matters into their own hand and then a man died and they really think, according to law, I think they both should serve some time in prison, perhaps. Perhaps a long time. I’m not sure it is more deep. Tough come out. But this is the verse in relation to that. And we can all learn from we can all avoid. That was a huge mistake, a life ending and life changing mistake for these people involved in their families. And the young man we should pray for his family. The young man is Ahmed Aubry and in families grieving and and you know, I some people might not like this we can pray, pray for the culprits to and pray for justice. But you know, pray. God prefers to have mercy. And so I do call for justice. Another verse in what I’ve heard about this when I talk with April because there’s a sense of anger, but is waiting on the Lord again, be slow. So when people see this, a lot of people are quick to judge about this case. And I encourage people, Hey, be slow to judgment, right? So let me read the verse in James. This is the letter to James in the New Testament. It’s chapter one, verse 19, and 20. And this happens to be in the end They’d be the New American Standard Bible. So this is what this you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Now, I might read it again in another translation, but that’s how that translation reads it. And so this father and son, they, they were, they were, instead of being to this, this Bible verse here God is exhorting us to be quick to hear quick another translation say quick to listen, right. So be quick to listen to other people that called My word be quick to listen to God. Be quick to listen when you know, the the 911 call in advise them to go and cut this young man off but they took matters into their own Hands. So instead of being slow to speak and slow to anger, they were quick to speak, which would which I associate, they were quick to prejudge. They were quick to judge the situation out of there. And they were quick to have anger rather than being slow. So that’s why the title of this devotional cast is be slow. And what I mean in regards to that is just this verse, let’s be slow to judge. A lot of times, there’s so many variables, someone might be late, you know, to a color, they might, we don’t know, maybe they’re in a car wreck. So let’s not judge their character by what happened. Maybe there’s a very justifiable reason while and so this young man was jogging, and maybe if they instantly judged him, so, but how many times in our day when we interact with people, where we fail to, we’re quick to judge that’s just kind of our culture and there’s an outraged culture with this. Same thing applies to people who are hearing about this news. Instead of getting the full letting it play out and praying for God’s mercy praying for God’s justice, and that is what we should do. But it’s before we can make a judgement. We need to be slow to judge and we need to be slow to anger about what’s happening and and pray for God’s justice. And I just believe this incident incident highlights a lot of things that are going on in America as a whole there’s so much division and and tribalism, if you want to call it you know, people against others. And we really need to see God and and God will bring will bring things into the light, he will make things clear, and he will bring justice and in the Lord says Vengeance is mine. So the Lord tells us don’t take vengeance on other people, right? Don’t. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other as well, right Don’t. Don’t seek out a vendetta and don’t. Don’t slap them. Back, return evil with good, that’s easier said than done. But with the Lord’s help, we can do it. And so the second you know, verse there in James in this couple of here in first, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God and IV it says the anger man does not bring about the righteousness of God. So we might be angry about something. There’s a lot of things to be angry about. But that doesn’t bring about the justice or the righteousness of God, our own personal anger, right? And so there’s a verse in Romans two for two great verses says, again, translations might translate, it turns out, it’s slightly different, but essentially off the top of my head here. That is the loving kindness of God that draws us to repentance. So God prefers God prefers to have mercy on us, and when we pretend and turn to Him, He holds back his judgment and he gives us His mercy, that delight to heart and that Jesus took our judgment, he took everyone’s judgment. But if we refuse His mercy, if we harden the heart, then at some point, all that’s left is his judgment. And I believe it grieves the heart of God that he doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked. As it says in his EQ, he doesn’t delight in people perish, and he wants all men to be saved. He wants all men to repent and come to the truth, and to walk in love, and to walk with the Lord. And so, think about your own life. Think about your family, your friends, or just maybe co workers, people you interact with, perhaps based on some how someone acts or someone dresses or maybe someone posted something on Facebook, and you were you were to judge them, right? Instead, it’s slow, so we happen to peg them. This is how this person is. It’s possible you were wrong. It might be even likely you were wrong. We can You just you took one moment and tag that person judge that person and what that when we jumped in, obviously, is another great verse in the Gospel of john is coming to my remembrance right now. surfacing in my spirit is gospel of john seven one chapter seven, verse 24. Jesus says, Do not judge by mere appearance, or do not judge by hour. Don’t judge by what you see. Right outwardly, but make a righteous judgment. So there’s a contrast that if we see something on the app, God sees the heart right? connect that verse really correlates with worth First Samuel 16 seven, I believe is when the prophet Samuel was choosing the next king of Israel. And God spoke to him and says, man looks on the outward appearance. But God sees the heart God judges the heart and so don’t when you you’re going to notice next king do not look at his higher stature right? So he obviously He, the Lord chose David, who was the youngest son of Jesse, which Jesse didn’t even bring into the house. If you read the whole story there, he brought his six oldest sons and didn’t even bring Jesse because how could he be the next king of Israel? He was the youngest son and he was the smallest, maybe just a little boy at that time out in the fields watching sheep, but he had the heart that God wanted. He was the smallest, and he was the shortest, but he had the heart. God wanted king of Israel. him as the Bible says David was a man after God’s own heart. Well, you know what, God I believe we can ask God God make me a man after your own heart or if you’re a woman make me a woman after your heart Lord, Lord just work you’re willing to me Let Your will be done in my life, right not might have the heart of Jesus like in the garden that gets me where we cried out, Lord, not my will but your will be done. And so these this this father and son, if they were sensitive to the Lord, insensitive noise, spirit They would not have done what they did. And so it’s a tragedy. But I pray that we pray that for mercy for justice, and we pray that good will come out of this we pray that the God will be glorified, and that the people will seek the Lord out of this. That’s, that’s what that’s what I pray for. And going back to john 724, when Jesus says do not judge by outward appearance or by mere appearances, but judge righteously, so he’s calling us to make discernment, we have to have discernment, we do have to make choices. Every time you make a choice, you’re making a judgment call. am I choosing to make this commitment? Or am I not? Every time Jesus in the sermon amount says, Let your yes be Yes, let your and let your no be no. Anything beyond this is from the evil one. So every time we say yes to something, we’re making a judgement. I am saying yes, that’s a judgment call. Right? It’s not the judgment. We’re in john seven, you know, beginning of john, or not john, begin of Matthew seven where Jesus says, Do not judge. He’s talking about that in the context of a position of a judge where you’re condemning someone. But in terms of decisions, we have to make judgments, right? So it’s important to make that distinction about the different meanings of Judge making it of judging. And so you don’t call us the Lord God calls us to judge things, not in condemning no one, but making judgment calls. Is this of God. Is this not of God? Is this something I should commit to? Is it not? Is this a bad relationship? Do I need to cut it off? And the real key to making righteous Jesus says judge righteously? The key to judging rights righteously is seeking the Lord because he’s the righteous judge. How can we judge righteously apart from the righteous one. We can’t if we’re only doing stuff in our own understanding, or our emotions that are like wage diplomacy, hot and cold, we’ll miss the mark every time. So the way to judge righteously is to not be quick to judge by outward appearance, but slow ourselves down. Seek the Lord ask God and trust God, what is your perspective, Lord, because God is Spirit. And he is he transcends every nation, every tribe every time he beyond every ethnicity in every race, right? He’s with john he beyond gender, right? God is Spirit. And so when we get God’s heart, he helps us to see a T sees and he’s got a love even got a mercy. And he’s a God of truth. And so when we get the mind of Christ and the heart of God, and we can see by the eyes of spirit, they will be in a position to judge right to see And the righteous judgment of God is not being quick to anger. It’s being slow to anger. God Himself is slow to anger. God Himself perhaps, is slow to speak. Right? He’s very, his words are very intentional. He doesn’t speak flippantly or just out of a spirit of gossip or anger, right? So if you’re hearing this and you’re on one side of this issue, you know, you know you’re on you’re really stirred up in your emotions about this issue or other issues. My encouragement to you and I’m gonna wrap this up and conclude and pray, but it’s to seek God before you post something in a spirit of anger, that doesn’t bring about the righteousness of God before you use it. And and you know, fit of rage that the Bible says is the work of the flesh. That doesn’t bring glory. God. So when we see this in a situation of injustice like this, what can bring about the glory of God? Well, let’s lift up the name of Jesus. Let’s not try to come down. All the facts haven’t come out. It looks pretty clear to me based on the video. But let’s say God and let’s lift up the name of Jesus, let’s call for justice. But God is what what justice is, is is not a certain outcome that we want. It’s the truth, right? It’s the truth being unfolded, and then the proper kinds of consequences under the law. It’s not a matter it’s not the Justice by mob right. The Justice by mob is what sent Jesus the righteous and holy one who was sinless mob justice sent Jesus to the cross, right? They called crucify him, right that the crowd the mob the crowd that crucifying we know Jesus said he lays his life no one takes his life from him. So in business picture that Jesus died was for God’s justice to be fulfilled for all of us. But in the, in the moment and the God used that mob justice, which was really, you know, that the anger of man, to call it the holy and righteous one to be lynched so well to be lynched to be crucified. But so I don’t know maybe more details will come out i don’t i don’t think God would say call for, you know, the, the, you know, the murder or call for the, my first when I first thought I was upset with this, this father and son and like they deserve life in prison. Then as I I was, I didn’t that was my first thought. I was angry. And then I thought about it some more. I’m like, well, maybe it can’t be life in prison, maybe because it was a premeditated because they called 911. They thought they were doing the right thing. They were sincerely thought they’re doing the right thing, but they were totally wrong. And this man, I believe, was totally innocent. So there might well maybe a second degree, and so I don’t know but Not the God is the ultimate judge and we pray that justice will come but I pray this will be exposed and and the truth will come out of and godly glorify, let me wrap it up. Pray with me here. Pray with me let’s let’s let’s fix the world right now

Eric Olson
Jesus name was Jesus name Father, we love you, Lord let this let this tragedy bring you glory. We do ask for your justice we ask for the truth to be exposed about this situation. And Lord for everyone listening in and even those who aren’t listening across America, we pray, Father that you would bring conviction to our hearts that that we work when we are quick to judge and quick to speak before we have wisdom and we’re quick to anger. We asked for your conviction, Holy Spirit. And we asked father that you were convicted and so we could be to obey and conform to your character that will be slow to judge slow to speak and slow to anger. Lord, let your will be done in this situation. We pray that you would not allow any riots or looting to happen in in Georgia or Florida because of this. But we pray that there will be a call for repentance of all peoples of black and white and Hispanic and Asian in every nation. Let there be a call, let us call out. Now is this day Today’s the day of salvation, Lord, and now is the time to give our lives to Christ. If you haven’t, and those who believe in you, Lord, now’s the time to seek the Lord. Father, we ask that you would stir up this urgency in our heart, not not a panic, but a sense of high stakes for the souls of humanity. Lord, we love you, Father, first overflowing with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen. And Amen.

Santiago Leon
And, Lord, we pray for anyone out there that needs healing. Lord, we pray for my cousin that She was diagnosed with cancer again, Lord, we, we come against cancer Lord. It’s not from you, Lord. We pray for healing, complete healing in Jesus name. And for anyone that has cancer in their bodies, Lord, let it disappear to dissipate in Jesus name. We pray for you. For anyone that’s hurting or going through the Coronavirus there are in a severe state Lord we pray for healing in Jesus name this virus. Lord, I pray Lord that virus will be cut. Lord in Jesus name.

Santiago Leon
complete, complete healing Lord and we pause to pray for eyes. I’m here if anyone has any eyesight or even if they’re blind Jesus name we pray for vision declare up Lord and Lord and we pray for any back pain, any back pain anyone that’s dealing with back pain disc, nerves disease That’d be correction.

Eric Olson
And I feel I have, I just pray against the spirit of depression. Yeah, in this period of suicide that there’s people out there that are having suicidal thoughts that have never had them before. There’s people that are really under the spirit of heaviness. You just command that heaviness to get off when people rebuke the spirit of heaviness. And Lord, we ask that you would release the joy of the Lord, open people’s eyes to your goodness and your presence that are feeling this and set them free in Jesus name, show Cordova.

Santiago Leon
And also Lord, we pray for people that you know during this time they were thinking about launching something a ministry, or a business or a new venture, or we prayed that they will execute it. Because this is the month of transition. This is the month where a lot of people are going to make decisions of what they’re going to do in their next phase of their life and their next chapter. In Jesus name. We pray for freedom. We pray for peace and we pray that they will Not be nervous or have any fear. Give them courage, Lord, give them courage in Jesus name. Amen. Wow, that’s a you know, to be honest, you know, there’s a lot of people talking about, you know, changing jobs careers or just launching that thing they’ve been procrastinating about for the past couple months or maybe years. And this is the moment you know, when you’re, when you’re in your house quarantine you think about a lot of things and also, it’s a good time to do some prayer time, right? Because it also men relationships, I’ve heard you know, a lot of couples that have family members, many relationships and never spend more than an hour together because because of that, because their busy lives and this has been a very good moment. It’s an awakening moment and I know that you and I have been kind of talking about it. What is this season all about? We don’t know yet for sure. We have ideas But I have a lot of confidence in the Lord. That’s all I can say.

Eric Olson
Amen. And just to jump piggyback off what you just said, you know, the is the Bible verse For today, as you read in the beginning there and Colossians, four, five, there’s a statement in there that verses says make the most of every opportunity, right? Yep. And so, this Coronavirus, we can look at it. That’s I really believe with wisdom with God is to look at it in terms of an opportunity. Yes, it was a disruption to our natural routines. But guess what every obstacle and if there’s an obstacle and there’s a threat to it, yes. And there’s different things going on. But in the spirit and with God, everything, even setbacks are actually opportunities in disguise. So this where you’re if you’re still on lockdown, you can’t go to restaurants and you can’t go to your church like normal. This is an opportunity and just as what Santiago said, seek God right now. A lot of you already are with as long as this last word, how does God want you to transition right now? I believe this is a transition all of us have, maybe some of us has had huge transition and others have small one, but I believe we’re all called to transition because everything this is transitioning our society could be

Santiago Leon
gradual transition.

Eric Olson
Yeah, yeah, that’s true.

Santiago Leon
And they take longer than usual, but we really want to encourage you and and you know, just you know, hopefully to take that next step. Maybe it might take a few months more for you to just to plan anyways going towards the end of our show, Eric Olson tell us a little bit about Jmt TV dot biz, and and the best way to reach you.

Eric Olson
Oh, glory. Thank you, Santiago. Well, I’m just so thankful for the Lord and I you know, as Santiago was speaking there, Transitioning and, and make obviously I mean on being honest. I mean, I was feeling that in my own heart that and that’s what I’ve been thinking a lot with that I, you know, have children and wife and other responsibilities and so I’ve been slowly transitioning into the relaunch of Jmt dot biz, I’ve been portraying Jesus dramatically since 2007. And so Wow, 13 years now. And how much

Santiago Leon
of the Bible Have you memorized so far?

Eric Olson
Wow. You know, I could, let’s see, I would say, close to 1000 verses, and I would, I would say probably, maybe about 10 total chapters, that maybe more than maybe more than that. You’re you’re probably above average, aren’t you? Well, I guess in terms of memorization, I in memorizing scripture, I would say I am not trying to, I would say, yeah, I’m above average. In one thing, the Lord called me to do that, and also my train in my background as an actor in memorizing Shakespeare and other plays, you know, I was trained to memorize and so I’m, I’m above average memorization for a number of reason. reasons. And I actually I have a goal I it’s a discipline, it really is a discipline, but I look at it as a privilege. It’s not that I have to, but I get to, you know, I look at it as it’s enjoyable. I get revelation as I memorize and meditate on the word. And so obviously, also I have the calling to portray Jesus. So it goes, it coincides with my calling. But I encourage everyone you know, get the word in your heart and, you know, memorize a chapter even there’s smaller books try and memorize in the book of Colossians. It’s only four chapters. I mean, to start with the it’s a good start, and maybe even there’s other places, smarter, the smallest salt Psalm 100. It’s like four or five verses. So yeah, meditate on the word. I listened to the word. But um, yeah, by the grace of God, I guess I’m not trying to compare myself to anybody else. There’s people that have memorized a lot more than me. I know that, but it’s not a competition. So, I just, I’m thankful by the grace of God, I am, who I am, and I am what I am and, and he’s given me a great calling, and I’m I want to fulfill it to the utmost for God’s glory and the advancement of his eternal kingdom.

Santiago Leon
And God’s blessed me with good memory skills. Yes, but it might be supernatural. I don’t know if it’s natural.

Eric Olson
I think it’s a combination. I think. I think there isn’t a supernatural aspect for sure it, you know, not only aspect, it might be primarily supernatural, but I think you know, our choices have consequences. So if I neglected the supernatural gifts, then the gift could dry up and God doesn’t remove the gift but it would be Not not be extremely underutilized. So when I put my natural talents and discipline in time and devotion into meditating with the Lord and speaking the words, then the supernatural gift is, you know utilized. Does that make sense?

Santiago Leon
It makes perfect sense. I know what you mean. I know what you mean Ain’t No, I use this talent. Of course, there’s people out there that have a talent, of portraying of memorizing technology or being in the law. It’s just, you know, guy that has not made every person the same. You know, I mean, gotta realize that everyone has their specific talent. We’re all the same. We’re all robots, it would not be interested, that I can tell you,

Eric Olson
so. Yeah, and that’s the Bible, you know, in First Corinthians 12. And I think other places as well. It gives the metaphor, if you will, of, like, created our own body and our body has many parts, but it’s all connected to one body. And that’s the same with believers. Like, you know, the hand can’t To the eyes, I don’t need you, right, we all we need each other. And so the key is the body has to work together to to function properly and to do what it’s called to do. And so like Santiago, you and I have different giftings. But we’re collaborating because we’re part of the same body of Christ. We have the same Holy Spirit, we have different giftings different talents. But we’re working together for God’s glory, and we’re collaborating the spirit of faith and love, and it’s for His glory. And then, you know, as you grow you, you have other people that you can bring on board that have other talents and, and when you do it in a spirit of true collaboration, teamwork, and fellowship, not trying to compete against each other, because that can, you know, bring in divisiveness and the wrong attitude. We’re supposed to do everything and brotherly love so then that that is really the witness of the kingdom of God at work here on earth when when we’re operating as very different distinct individuals, but at the same time, we’re connected on a unit but we have a unified And one Lord one faith in one God and Father then we can it can be a very fruitful and beautiful and powerful you know, thing that happens

Santiago Leon
in Jesus name and I and I don’t think we got to your contact information.

Eric Olson
Oh yeah I guess so gente de if you didn’t know stands for Jesus makes the difference that my ministry my wife and I our ministry was the theme of our wedding. We’re growing it little by little slowly but surely. Hopefully soon here. I’m collaborating with Thiago. I feel free to share that and and i gotta have information and to get him so we’re going to be updating the website big time and he’s coming weeks and months and doing a big big launch relaunch and maybe some soft launches up there. And so Jmt d.bi z is our website and it’s also we have a Facebook page, Facebook, forward slash GMT, bi z and Best way to contact me if you want to reach out to me with a question or suggestion or you’d like me to minister at your church I travel places it’s been all over um

Santiago Leon
he has the van ready email

Eric Olson
say what

Santiago Leon
Eric has the van ready to travel oh

Eric Olson
yeah just ERC Eric just like in America right ERC at JMP big so just Eric at JM TD big shoot me an email and that’s a great way to contact me right now in the future there’ll be more ways but we have Instagram handle to short a Twitter handle when I mean not really posted on Twitter very much but anyway but that’s Jmt RPI z that that’s where you can find my emails on that page on our website as well. So shoot me an email please and we create apparel and all sorts of stuff and

Santiago Leon
and if you live in the twitterverse you can reach him as well at JM TV. biz, no period. So, okay. Eric Olson also another question, should the NBA come back? Or should just cancel it altogether?

Eric Olson
Wow. You know, you know, there’s different opinions. My opinion is for, for this year. I mean, it’s a bummer. But I don’t, logistically and pragmatically, I don’t see how you can really haven’t come back right now and finish the season. I mean, you know, we’re in almost, you know, we’re approaching mid May. And I mean, unless they did some type of really reduced they, I guess they’d have to launch right into the playoffs and maybe, I don’t know if

Santiago Leon
they want to dive right into it and play it in one location, but we’ll see what happens. It’s not a sports show, guys.

Eric Olson
Think so happens just, sadly cancel it for this year and then hope get prepared. And healthy for the next season you know to be able to start in the fall. That’s my opinion Yeah.

Santiago Leon
Which is very good for a player like Zion Williamson is a heal up that knee. Let’s end with prayer with praise Jesus name we Lord, we thank You, Lord for today. We bless the people that are watching or listening, Lord, we pray for a magnificent weekend. And we pray, Lord for a safe reopening of America these next couple of weeks or days depending where you’re at, in Jesus name. And remember, the best is yet to come. Eric Olson. It was a pleasure.

Eric Olson
Always a pleasure. Jesus makes the difference. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai