Your Final Questions of 2023 #113

Brian, Terry, and Dan tackle your toughest questions in this podcast.  Will our pets be in heaven with us?

Is it a sin to question God?   How does Christianity compare to other religions?  Are “near death” experiences and glimpses of heaven real?  Join us as our guys answer all of these questions and more from a Biblical perspective.

You’ll hear about the lessons each of these men learned from their parents.  They reveal how their parents led by Godly example and give advice for keeping your children and grandchildren on the right path.

Finally, you’ll hear about some of the exciting plans that are in store for Fearless Faith Ministries and this podcast in 2024.  You don’t want to miss a minute of this episode of Finish Strong!

Transcript

Dan Wheeler: 0:02

Well, we like to answer our questions on our Facebook page for fearless faith. And whenever we open it up and ask for questions, we get just flooded with questions. And so our last podcast, we didn't even get to half of the questions. So tonight, this is part two of all of your questions as many as we can answer. I'm your host, Dan Wheeler. This is finished strong, and Terry Steen and Brian Roland. Join me. And guys, we never lagged for questions. Never

Terry Steen: 0:32

left for questions. It seems appropriate that this is the last podcast of the year for us. Can you believe we've done this for three years now?

Dan Wheeler: 0:42

It's hard to believe. Yeah, it seems like we're it's still pretty new. But Brian, we've been doing our morning cups of inspiration for almost, it'll be eight years in February going up. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's, let's get right to the questions. All right. This first one comes from Jim. And he asked us how we pray for the people we reach who asked us for prayer with our, you know, Facebook page with our, you know, podcast, and YouTube and all the things we get a lot of questions and we get a lot of people who ask us for prayer. So I whenever I see someone who asked for prayer, I stop what I'm doing. I pray for them. Right then. And I try to you know, make it just not just a quick prayer heard thing, but really pray for them. And I think you guys probably do the same thing, don't

Terry Steen: 1:36

you? Yeah. Yeah. You almost have to write then. Because it's there's so there's so much going through there that it's out of sight out of mind if you don't do it right then, huh? Yeah.

Brian Roland: 1:49

If I remember when our neighbor, Christine had her back problem, and we were with her and Tom. And you were here again. And we were going out the door. And I said, Hey, Dan said chose us to pray for us a prayer, you run right back in and start the prayer.

Dan Wheeler: 2:05

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And she felt better. Did she do? Yeah. Well, that's good.

Terry Steen: 2:10

There's way too many Christians that will say I'll pray for you. Right, and then don't do it. And I think that's phrase fearless faith has helped me be more proactive. And if someone says they want prayer, whether it's all on the phone, or whether it's right there with them, you just stop and pray with them right then.

Dan Wheeler: 2:29

Right? Yeah, I see so many people on Facebook, when someone's going through our time, well, I'll be praying for you or sending prayers. And you do wonder, but yeah, we do. We want you to know, we do pray for each and every request that we receive. All right, this next one, the question, Terry, I think you're gonna lead us on this one. Is it a sin? to question God in stressful situations that comes from Sherry and on our Facebook page?

Terry Steen: 2:58

I would say no, it's not a sin. I mean, he understands God created our emotions, God created our feelings he understands when we go into stressful situations. Go back and read Psalm. If you look at David, David, question God, many times throughout Psalms, and God is not afraid of our questions. God is not afraid of us to share our emotions with him. He created the emotions. But I guess the key is, at the end of the day, we have to trust God, we have to believe that he's going to guide us we have to seek the positive emotions, not the negative, but he it's definitely not a sin. to question him. He understands that.

Dan Wheeler: 3:47

Well, I was thinking of Gideon, when God told him he was going to use him against the oppression that was coming against Israel. And he asked God for fleeces, he made God give him signs, even after God told him he was going to do that. And then let's see there. I all the other guy that came to mind was Thomas, he doubt he said, Until I wrote my hands into, you know, the nail prints on his hands. And I feel the scar and aside, I don't believe that he's resurrected. And then Jesus showed up in person and said, Yeah, go ahead, Thomas. If you're going to doubt, check it out. My hands

Terry Steen: 4:28

and yeah, he was very patient with us as any Yes. Yeah. Brian, here's

Dan Wheeler: 4:34

one for you from Kathy, will our pets be in heaven? I mean, we all love our pets. And sure we're talking about rainbow bridge. But what do you think?

Brian Roland: 4:44

Well, we shared this before, and I'll tell you my personal feeling is that yes, they will be there. And I'll back that up by saying over in Revelations 19. It talks about crash returning on a white horse. So where's the horse gonna come from? It's gotta be coming from him. Have a nice, it's it's crazy turning on a white horse because talks about later to the Antichrist tries to imitate Christ by going into the temple on a horse. And he's trying to do the same thing, but that's here on Earth, but he's going to be coming back on a white horse. And then if you look over in Isaiah, chapter 11, it talks about Messiah coming from the lineage of Jesse, but it starts talking about what's going on in the future too, with the Messiah. And in that, in heaven, it talks about the wolf and the lamb will will dwell together the Leopard and the goat will lie together, the calf and young lion will be together there, the cow and the bear will graze together, the children will play with with around cobras holes like and stick your hands in Viper's nest and will not be happy, bitten by these animals. So yes, I think they're going to be there. And another reason is, and this is my personal thought, dogs don't hurt and cats, net animals don't have souls. But angels don't have souls either. But there's Angel spirits. And I believe that they can do well with some of these animals. But I see how the healing that comes from animals, and how people that strongly friend they have here on earth that the Spirit that God has placed with them. We put this together and go, you know, I think someday I'm going to walk up there in heaven. And my first dog Rodney is going to quote me as an angel saying, Hey, I like the way you treated in New York. You know, that one time you were really wrong. We believe that there you're gonna be in heaven with us.

Dan Wheeler: 6:23

Interesting. Good thoughts. Terry, we've had a lot of questions about the rapture, the church, you know, there's pre trip, mid trip and post trip. But we've also had a lot of requests from the from Jean and Bev and Betty Lou asking about John Hope coming back.

Terry Steen: 6:41

Yeah, John, of course, as you know, he's my brother in law, we've had him on a number of times been very popular. So why would we as layman want to take on some of those end time discussions? Why don't we leave it for John, if he messes up? We'll blame it on him. I like that. I like the good. So so let's just have him on turn of the year sometime. We'll get him on soon. And then we'll just have a special podcast just for some of those questions.

Dan Wheeler: 7:11

I like that plan because no doubt he is more of a theologian, the weir boy to see

Brian Roland: 7:17

more notes taken when he's

Dan Wheeler: 7:19

missing. We got a question from Robin to want to know how do other religions compare to Christianity? I'm going to tackle this one they it's estimated that there's something like 4200 Different religions on the earth. I mean, there's all kinds of isms Zoroastrianism Tao ism. Brian, you remember when we worked on the New Age? isms, you know, Buddhism, I'm going to talk about the Big Five Judaism. Okay. They mainly believe in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible and the 10 commandments, and they, but they don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, that they missed him his own people. I'm talking about Orthodox Judaism now. Then, Islam, you know, Mohammed, he was being persecuted by the Christians, and he kind of created Islam, Islam is known as the way of the sword. And it's basically preaches that Muslims are going the right way. And Jews and Christians are the infidel. So that's very different from Christianity. Hinduism, God is basically in everything, and everywhere. And so that's finding God In Nature, a lot. And, and then they also believe in karma and reincarnation, that you know, what goes around comes around and you'll come back in another life. Buddhism, Gautama Buddha basically believed that the goal of Buddhism was to escape our physical body, and that that's what we need to do, so that we can have a deeper spiritual relationship, but there's no really not a mention of God or a savior. The only one that does much to the Savior is Christianity. And by the way, all those other people that founded on Mohammed, Buddha, they, their tombs are not empty. Hinduism is just a belief that Gods everywhere Christianity has a tomb that's empty, because that's right, the Savior has risen. And Christ is the only leader of any religion who claimed that he was the son of God. He was basically equal with God. And he predicted that he would die and raise again and three days and scriptures ready written 800 years before he ever came here, Prophet side is coming so to me, you know, lot of people say, oh, all religions are gone in the same way. No, I don't believe in all religions are gone this way, except for one, boom, gone back away. That's Christian that tells me guys, it's the truth. Yeah, good job. And I don't need to be told that we know when you have a personal relationship with Jesus, a question from Maryland, Maryland. Were we involved in VBS and church camps?

Terry Steen: 10:29

That's an interesting question. I did. I don't know about you guys. But we of course, our church always had VBS every summer, which was some fun to look forward to. But then we had a couple of churches around our neighborhood that would have it. And so my mom was sick of the boys and would shoot us off to another VBS to get us out of the house for the morning anyhow. So we went to two or three of them over the course of the summer. And really, they're great foundational schools to help you learn the Bible and learn more about God, you can't go wrong with that. I went to a couple church camps as I got a little older. And those were very impacting to me, some of my greatest spiritual experiences, and sensing the presence of God were at at church camps when that's the focus, and you're around other Christian kids your age. Yeah,

Dan Wheeler: 11:29

I was actually saved at a church camp. So they're very important to me. And I went to VBS. One of the songs I remember learning Brian, as a child was climb, climb up sunshine mountain.

Terry Steen: 11:41

Doing the motions. Yes, right. Yeah.

Brian Roland: 11:47

We did to my sister and I went to Vacation Bible School, we loved it. And then our church camp, I actually started going there. Oh, no, I think it started like in seventh grade in junior high and then on and looked forward to it every year, just loved it. Just loved it, loved it. And then my senior year, they actually had had, after my age group, they came out and they had a special camp that if anybody wanted to come back again, and I went back for that second one that year, too, it was just such a great time.

Dan Wheeler: 12:14

Well, that leads us into our next question, Brian, how do we This is also from Maryland. She wants to know, how do we keep young people in church later so that they remain Christians? It's one thing to send him his kids. But what about when they're growing up?

Brian Roland: 12:28

Well, that's that's the most important thing is to send them as kids and to get him in the church and Sunday school and that, so that they're learning right from the get go. And proverbs 22 Six that says, Train up a child, and the way you should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And I think there's something there that people miss. It says, Train his way she go, and then there's a pause. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. I can't tell you anybody that I can think of that didn't want to try something on their own at one time or another. And I remember go into my dad and talk to him one time. And he says, Brian, this is what's going to happen, this is what's going to happen. And I'd say yeah, well, maybe that's what you say, but I want to learn for myself. He said, okay, but I'm just gonna tell you, when you know what everything he said, it happened. It happened just like you said it would. But my parents always they brought me up that way. They brought me up, right? They taught me right. And then here's the key, keep praying for him. Keep praying for him, and cover. Just gotta keep covering him. Because and keep on but God is still working on him. And he says they will not depart from it.

Dan Wheeler: 13:35

Well, yeah, you know, I think a lot of parents just if their kids don't want to go to church and say, Okay, no problem, we'll stay home. That's not the way I mean, until they're adults. They're under my roof. They're going to church. That was my philosophy.

Terry Steen: 13:49

And they need to lead by example. And then they need to establish the family priorities. There's so many families out there that take their Sunday mornings to go play sports, but don't take them to church, right? And they're establishing priorities that are going to be ingrained in these kids as to what's really important in life. And then the church needs to be welcoming. The church needs to provide that learning opportunity environment for kids to want to go to church. So it's it's two sides.

Dan Wheeler: 14:19

Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I think if the kids learned that if they cry, or they put up a fifth that they get out of it, then then you don't you've lost control of so it is important. All right, here's one from Judy, do you believe in near death experiences and glimpses of heaven? And I do. You know, Brian, you were there. Beth will see in heaven. There the end of her life during the last day or two of her consciousness and she said it was beautiful. My mom, when my grandmother was dying, we're taking care of her and she told my mom Marge I Need some water but hurry up? Because I know Today's the day I'm going and she was seeing people she said, Mark, do you see who's next to you? That's Uncle Johnny. And over here there's Dawn. Dawn is here. My mom's like, what? She's looking around, but she she was seeing it. So I think God gives glimpses of heaven. And I'm gonna recommend a book and I've got a reach for it. Because it's called Imagine heaven by John Burke. This is a great book. And after Beth died, I was out on a Friday night, I went where Beth and I used to go on a Friday night when I was off, and it was a Barnes and Nobles, and there was a Starbucks there. And we'd always drink coffee, and we'd get books and look at them or magazines, then we'd put them back and leave. And that was fun. But I, I walked over and I said, Lord, man, I need some there's a book of a table just with books that were on sale. And this one caught my eye. And I got it. I've recommended it to so many people, these are near death experiences, he interviewed 100 people, many of the people who were Christians who had died, had very similar visions of heaven. They talked about the intense color, they talked about how you just know things you communicate, you don't have to speak. But there were others who had the experience of hell and heard screaming and the demonic figures. But you know, what do you guys think? I mean, the Bible does have a couple examples. Glimpses

Brian Roland: 16:24

of that's about with John and revelation. I mean, he saw heaven, it was either a vision or he was taken there. But he describes it the best that he could for his knowledge in that day of what he knew and how he could describe it, which was hard for him. And a lot of times to describe, but he did see that. So that's one instance, in the Bible that talks about seeing, my mind

Terry Steen: 16:43

goes to Elisha and his servant in Second Kings, the sixth chapter, Elijah is with his servant, he's in a city. And the there's this king, that's after Alicia, because Elijah was revealing information that only God could tell him. So they get up in the morning, they look out over the city, and there's all this army of soldiers, and the servant was scared. He didn't know what to do. But he said, he said, Oh, my Lord, what should we do? And here's what Elijah said, don't be afraid those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elijah prayed, oh, Lord opened his eyes. So he may see. And the Lord opened the servants eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire, all around Elisha, pulled the veil back, and allowed this servant to see the spiritual power, and the angels that were there. And we have those same protective angels and forces that we can always see. And every now and then the veil will get pulled back to reveal that to us, won't it? Yes,

Dan Wheeler: 17:58

certainly will. But while we're in the flesh, it takes money to survive and live. And Terry, this next question is for you since your CFO. How is fearless faith ministry supported financially? Well, you

Terry Steen: 18:15

know, that's one thing that we have never put a strong emphasis on. As you know, we've never taken a salary, but it does cost to exist and do all the things that we do. So basically, it's through financial donations, we have individuals that have committed on a monthly basis to help us, we have individuals that just do a one time gift here and there. But we have an established 501 C three organization, so we're able to take tax deductible donations. And we're doing that and the Lord's been blessing us in that way. As we've just finished our Giving Tuesday, that comes up once a year. And we base we're just like dollars away from hitting our $3,000 goal. So we are very grateful and thankful. But I will add that our YouTube channel is coming so close to being able to be monetized we're about if I remember right about 500, viewing video hours short of YouTube's requirement to have ads put into some of our podcasts that would allow us to generate some revenue through that. So we're probably going to play around with that and see if that's beneficial to us or not. And maybe that would be another source. We have products available. On our website. We have our devotional book. We have a few mugs left, and then we have Dan's book. So some of those are also available as fundraisers. So that's kind of that's kind of how we keep this engine moving forward.

Brian Roland: 19:59

I was gonna mention that on YouTube, the ads that they put in there, they're supposed to be appropriate to our viewers. They would they would be right. They would set those out. And they'd be inappropriate to that. And that's it. Okay.

Dan Wheeler: 20:14

But we can't I can't believe how these questions we have trouble getting thrown. But Brian, will have you a lead on this one, from a guy named anonymous. How did your upbringing influence who you are?

Brian Roland: 20:30

Very much. So as I said before, about leading being a child, and that's how my upbringing was. But another thing was that my family every night after dinner, we would have what we call family altar. And it was a time where we sat around the table, and we read a devotional, and then got into the Bible talked about it. And my buddy, one of my best buddy, Mike and right, the Crosby needs to come over and listen with his time to sit there. So he can verify this, but we would always have discussion. And that was the one thing that happened in my family, there was no generation gap thing going on. My parents always wanted to know what I was thinking. So I would tell him, and then my mom would say, Well, why do you think that? And how are you backing that up? And I had nothing, you know, I got it from a teacher, I heard it on the street, anything, you know, but that was my belief. And she'd say, okay, she never said that was wrong. She said, Okay, she was, well, here's what I believe. Here's what we believe. And she told me, and then she didn't back it up with Scripture. And every time she would do that, I had to back down because I believed the Bible, too. And I was going to be my foundation. I was gonna live I just wasn't prepared for it yet, because I wasn't intelligent enough and wasn't studied enough. But that really hit home because she always put back hers up with the

Dan Wheeler: 21:47

Bible and couldn't debate with Mama Joe could Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I feel the same way. I mean, my mom, I remember her making me kneel when we'd pray to show respect for God. We'd have devotions. And I have very vivid, vivid memories of that. And, you know, when you are old, you will not depart from it. Boy, I her prayers have gotten me through and pulled me back from the edge. Many times

Terry Steen: 22:13

my parents did the same thing I do remember Friday or Saturday night frequently. We get together have to all sit there, read the Bible, turn around, get on our knees, and then everyone had to pray. And it was very unique. And doing that because it taught me to pray publicly, it taught me to formulate, there are so many people that are Christians that are afraid to pray out loud, because they haven't done it enough right to really learn the importance of that.

Dan Wheeler: 22:40

Right? I just hope your dad didn't make you do that in front of the fireplace. Well, a fire was good, because that could be smoking. That's a joke. I visited Terry's home one time in college and his dad put in a new fireplace. And I think he forgot to put it in a flu or something. Didn't go high enough

Terry Steen: 22:56

in the smoke all started coming back in.

Dan Wheeler: 23:01

On you. You're going down. It's really smoking. And he's laying right from a gun. Oh, if you guys don't want me to put it, I won't. I should have put it and he's just laying there. hardly see each other. So it's smoke. Terry, how do you keep little things from bothering you? That's a good

Terry Steen: 23:18

question. Because with me, it's not the big things. I can handle the big things, but when a million little things start adding up I can I tend to lose it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's it's frustrating, because the Bible tells us the importance of counted all joy when you have the situations in James one. And then Philippians four, it talks about how Joy should be deliberate and intentional. So we know what we're supposed to do. But that little stuff can really get to us candidate. And I think for me, from a practical standpoint, I would say the thing I tried to do is look at the big picture. If something's going wrong, it's a little thing. It's a little thing, but it's irritating. But if you step back and look at this and go, what's the worst that can happen? What could this how impacting is this really going to be to my day or to this project or to this situation, and know that our debt, our days, and our steps are directed of the Lord, he knows what's going to happen and go on. And he's allowed that to happen to see how you respond to it. So if we can get those that kind of thinking in our head, I think that would help. There's so many that saying that says your bad days are somebody's good days, we have to keep everything in perspective. And if we'll have that mindset, I think that'll help. Yeah,

Dan Wheeler: 24:45

Brian, I'm gonna go to you after a brief comment on this next one. What was your favorite period of period of life? We were kind of talking about this one the other day and for me, it was high school and college. When I think back to playing sports and just the camaraderie and I think is because you're with a lot of guys your age and friends your age who are just trying to figure out life and you're figuring out together I mean, I remember the time we did laundry, college Terry, I'd never done my own laundry and I think we died a lot of stuff pink. Waste, erase the laundromat and see who could do it the quickest and get back to the door are

Terry Steen: 25:23

our wives would die 1000 deaths if we did our laundry that way now, because we just took everything we had jammed it in to save 75 cents, or the dry powder, the soap in that stuck into Wow. College to mine was college too, because you didn't have responsibilities yet. But yet, it was the first time you had freedom. So you had freedom, but you weren't accountable or responsible. So that was a sweet spot in life to really have some fun, wasn't it? Yeah. And Brian,

Dan Wheeler: 26:02

he liked it so much. You tried several colleges

Brian Roland: 26:06

a little longer. I wasn't sure if I still like the better high school or not, though. But you know, that was great times. And I agree. I thought of that same thing. But I have to say right now, I'm having the best time now. Because of everything. I've gone through everything. I've learned everything that I can read in and out of what goes on in life today. I can enjoy life a lot better. And I'm what God has placed us. I love it here. And I think maybe the best time right now. Good

Terry Steen: 26:29

for you like that song.

Dan Wheeler: 26:30

I wish that I knew what I know now. Yeah, I wish I knew then what I know now. Okay, what quality of life do you value most in others? Brian?

Brian Roland: 26:43

when this question came up, I first thing I thought was honesty, honesty and the person because so many people will will tell you one thing and do another and they'll so blatantly lie right to you. You just go on as if it's nothing's ever happened. And, but I really look for honesty and a person. And I know it ties into a lot of other things, but Tripler that you guys share, but it all seems to come together, but honestly is mine.

Terry Steen: 27:09

Terry, I think mine's a little variation of that. But first thing that came to my mind was integrity. I think that is so important in a person. And if you find someone that has true integrity, that are the same behind closed doors, as out in public, you know, you've got someone a value and a friend. Yeah. First

Dan Wheeler: 27:30

thing that came to my mind is loyalty and loyalty of having friends like these guys, you know, we tease each other a lot. But I know that if anybody said something against any one of us or about us, we would rise to their defense and say you don't know the sky. Yeah, that's that's not true. And, you know, you fight one you gotta fight all three. Right? That's that we're fighters. Okay, we don't promote that. Yeah. And finally, what is this is the final question for 2023. Guys. Yes. What is the routine you do every day? Terry, you can start us off. Well,

Terry Steen: 28:11

typically in the morning minds three fold or throughout the day. But the first thing is, get up, have my devotions and pray if if you don't do it first thing in the day, there's so many things that can get in the way and take you off your your plan and off your course for the day. And then typically, I will do some physical exercise. And then the third piece of a routine would be to read I try to read every day. So I'm trying to develop my spirit, my body and my mind every day. And if you get the routine and the habit of doing that, and get it instilled. It goes so far for you.

Dan Wheeler: 28:53

That's good. Brian, do you have any

Brian Roland: 28:54

following it?

Dan Wheeler: 28:58

was really good. I'll

Brian Roland: 29:01

go to the end of the day. It's the end of the day. Right when I'm getting in bed, I will lie there and I will review my whole day in my head as to what when I went to a place what I did, right what I did wrong. Somebody's handling on God, I blew it that time. blew it again. But I've reviewed the data see what what, how I handled myself and if I if I was pleasing or not the guy? Yeah,

Dan Wheeler: 29:25

that's good. The first thing I do is I open my Bible app. I look at the verse of the day, I hear a little one minute message there. Pam and I have our devotions that we take our little dog for a walk. And then when we come back I usually play our videos on fearless faith to see what you guys are up to and see if I did an okay job. And And that night we close the day with prayer and we kneel both times and it's really been a powerful experience to keep us close and I think it's important for couples and families to do it. Well guys, what a year. I guess after the new year, maybe we can talk about resolutions goals we have for the new year, but I think we're kind of out of time on this one. It was fun. It was

Terry Steen: 30:12

a great year guys. I've enjoyed it so much. It's been

Dan Wheeler: 30:15

such a great year and who knows what I know the Lord has good things in store for us in 2024 Amen. Looking forward, so should we give a happy new year on the count of three? Okay, I'm going backwards. I hope this doesn't throw you off three to one said three to one I went three. To one. Well, obviously, we all need the Lord is one that gets us rose, and we need our producer John Matarazzo. We want to thank him, but another great year of podcasting. Remember, this is all about finishing strong. God bless everybody.

John Matarazzo: 31:02

Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finished strong and fearless faith, check out their website, eth faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong