• Private Group for Christian Moms with weekly lives with Angie Tolpin
• Weekly podcast Q&A with episode behind the scenes content. Just type in your question!
• Exclusive biblical resources such as the Courageous Marriage and Redeeming Childbirth series.
• Exclusive access to the courageous kid’s podcast. Play it for your kids to stir up good discussions.
• Monthly LIVE Q&A with the Tolpins; ask the anything.
• Powerful Biblically minded community.
• Topic-based discussion groups.
• You get your own profile and can connect with others.
• Growing libraries of LIVE replays

All Ministry Resources: becourageousministry.org

Our Courses

• Parenting Mentor Program, self-paced online program that equips you to biblically parent during unprecedented times.
• The Homeschooling Blueprint, the online program to boost your effectiveness & help your kids thrive.
• Postpartum Course, The First-Ever Christian Postpartum Course.
• Cultivating Biblical Friendships  The course that helps women build lasting Godly friendships.

• Financial Giving, is important to support our family and expand the impact of the ministry. We aim to impact 10 million  legacies. We are in full-time ministry as a large family, so everything makes a difference. 

Thank you for being part of this movement to equip 10 million families and their legacies with Biblical truth to raise confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

From Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children, as too many from Christian families are walking away from their faith by the age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Welcome to the show. Hey guys, are we to ignore or expose evil?

How do you do that when you’re a mom? That’s. I mean, really, that’s the bottom line.

Or even a dad that’s busy and working a job.

I know, so, you know, obviously this question might be really obvious to you as a Christian, right? Because you’re like, well, we’re not supposed to ignore it or maybe not.

I mean, maybe we always see no evil being exposed when we go about when we talk with friends, when we go to church. Right. Maybe we’re not seeing that with people around us and communities we’re part of.

Yeah. I mean, there’s definitely a a human struggle to take the rose tinted glasses off, like I used to say all the time in the first season of the podcast. Right. Um, but I think that there is a need for us as believers to have a really important conversation right now. Is is probably the most relevant time in, in history of America right now. We’re talking about we’re.

Shooting this the day before the US elections.

In 2024. That’s a big deal. It’s a big deal.

It’s a big day tomorrow. And that’s when this episode actually comes out. So we’re like, that’s pressing on our minds, probably pressing on your minds. And most importantly, we want to do what’s going to equip our children for the UN. The different let’s just call it a different future they’re going to experience as adults.

Yeah, it’s interesting because as time goes on, I’m sure that you’ve had conversations with your parents, maybe your grandparents, and they lament about how much things have changed in a negative way, um, from when they were a child. And, and I definitely hear that from the older generations, too, where they’re literally in they’re appalled. They they can’t believe that our country is where it is right now. And I’m sure that regardless of where you are in the world, you’ve probably had similar conversations with people.

Imagine for a second you’re bumping your grandkids on your knee and they’re asking you, hey, hey, grandpa, in this happened in history. What did you. What did you do about it? What were you doing? What did you do about it? Right.

Because a lot of the the historical and family history stories that we hear are actually that our grandfathers went to war and they were activated and they were political, and they were involved in their communities and they were business owners, and they were, you know, so there were some really intense stories.

Yeah. So I think about those things. I actually have grandkids right now. Yes. They’re not old enough to ask me those questions, but I’ll be having grandkids for the next 20 years. Probably. Is that right? Or even.

Longer? Yeah. In 20 years, that’s when Xander will be 23 and he’ll just be getting started. So for the rest of our life, we’ll be having grandkids and great grandkids. It’s going to be rad. Yeah.

It’s amazing. What an amazing thing. So yeah, you know, it’s interesting time. I want to share a key scripture with you guys right here in Isaiah verse 20 says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. That’s the people that are saying, what’s bad is good and what’s good is bad. Woe to them. Of course, a lot of them don’t care because they don’t believe in God. We hope they do right. We hope people come to the Lord. We hope there’s a revival and people start stop calling what’s bad good.

Well, and he’s literally saying, woe to those who do that. Yeah, woe to you. It’s a bad thing if you’re calling good evil and evil good.

Isn’t that our society today?

Who do that? And so here’s the deal. We have to discern what is truly evil and what is truly good, so that we can rightly identify it and not fall into this sin of calling something evil when it’s good and calling something good when it’s evil.

I have some things I want to share with you, and we’re going to this is just the intro. We’re going to dive in. I think this is going to be one of the pivotal episodes. I hope you share it out there, because I think people must hear this message. It’s so important. Thomas Paine said those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigues of supporting it, and there is real fatigues in supporting freedom.

And we have to undergo them.

And sometimes it’s as small as you say something true in a circle that you’re in and it’s unpopular, or you’re correcting something that’s wrong and you get some pushback. That’s right. That doesn’t feel good.

Or maybe you even lose some friends, right? Like, if you’re recognizing that, let’s say there’s a common sin that you all participate in when you’re together, right? And it’s you’re feeling convicted or maybe you’re you’re going, okay, I’m going to have to confront them. I’ll just use one that I an experience I had many years ago. Ladies group I’ve shared this in regards to our marriage seminars that we’ve done in the past and the courageous marriage course. Don’t ever wives, here is a little wife tip. This is just a side tip. You’re welcome ahead of time. Don’t ever let people who are friends become part of your inner circle who will talk bad about your spouse, because that’s one of the that’s one of the things that’s the most toxic. Right? And so I remember many years ago going to a ladies group, and there was this toxicity of women gossiping about their husbands, and there was this pressure or temptation to commiserate and to add on and to get involved in that. And I remember coming home talking to Isaac about it almost.

In tears, actually. Yeah, I was.

So I was so upset by it because it was so negative. And I was sad for the marriages, but I also was like, wow, I don’t know if I can be friends with all of my friends.

And is there something more? Are there a group? Is there a group of women somewhere where that’s not happening? Right.

And so I’m just using this as an example. I’m not saying that this is happening in all ladies groups, but and that was just and it wasn’t even a ladies group like at church, it was just it was a bunch of women from church who went out to dinner together. And I, you know, I, I share this with you because sin was happening in that moment and I knew that I was going to have to if I was going to continue hanging out with them, I was going to be called to call evil evil, to stand up and say, I don’t think this is a good idea. We shouldn’t be talking about our husbands this way or whatever it is, and that I would potentially lose those friends from doing that. Right. And so whatever your circumstance is, whatever the temptation to sin is, whatever the evil is, that you are frustrated or maybe agitated, your spirit inside you is agitated by, we want to urge you, encourage you, give you courage to do the right thing. Yes, to do the right thing. Because this is about what is right and true and noble and godly versus what is evil, sinful, wrong, and not true a lie, right?

I mean, you just think about America for a second. I mean, America exists by exposing evil at the face of persecution. I mean, that’s how our country came to be. It’s how it stayed for a long time. So good and still an amazing country. But we’re at the precipice of some very dangerous change.

And and really, when it comes to that, what is the biggest factor for change in the future? It’s that we would be educating our children, all of us, the people who can discern true and right and good. Yeah. Are educating their children and equipping them with biblical truths so they can be wise. Because one of the scriptures we’re going to look at in a little bit here, it actually tells us that your wisdom is not wise if it’s not biblical wisdom. And so we have to teach our kids biblical wisdom so that they can actually discern what is true and what is right, so that because then if they’re equipped with how to discern, then we have to also equip them and encourage them with courage so that they stand up and they make a change in their generation. That’s really, truly like the only hope. I mean, that, and obviously we need to be pressing into our community and our kids friends as well. Yeah. And and this all comes, of course, stems from our love for Jesus Christ. Obviously, we want we don’t want to read the Bible just to have wisdom. We want to read the Bible because we want to know God. And so discipling your children, that’s just kind of a given. If you’ve been listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast for any length of time, you know, we’re really big on discipleship and and really getting to the heart of things because that’s what God cares about the most.

Well, hey, I encourage you to go be courageous. Ministry. Org for all resources. The different podcast shows resolute man, heart of the home Angie does, uh, a podcast that comes out every Monday called heart of the home. 70% of the content is there, but if you want all of it, the Q&A live and the newer episodes and all that stuff and community, plus the Courageous Marriage series, if you really want to understand biblical marriage and help your marriage. Go be courageous in your app store but so many good resources and make sure you’re on our email list. And part of the reason we did the app too, is because as the world is changing, it’s going to be harder to share truth out there. For example, we just started a church and every single story that anybody shares gets taken down, it gets removed. Every single one. We haven’t even experienced that would be courageous ministry to this level.

No. Literally every time I’ve tried to share about the church and reshare one of their posts, it gets removed within five hours.

They call it inappropriate or spam, or they say.

You’re trying to gain likes in an.

And then a button. A button pops up where you can contest it and they promise to get back to you. And they contested it 15 times.

And yeah, no, they never no response. You never hear from them. But you know, okay. So as we’re talking about the importance of teaching your kids good between the difference between good and evil, right. That’s essentially what we’re talking about today. How to expose evil. You can’t expose evil if you don’t know the difference between them. So step one is, is figuring out what is good and evil. Right. Discerning that. And that comes from the Word of God. And you know, there is also this other conversation that we’re going to be having in today’s podcast. And this is regardless of what country you live in, it’s incredibly important that you teach your children the history of where their freedom comes from, both biblically through church history as well as your country’s history. So for us, since we live in the United States and like Isaac said, the election is tomorrow. It’s incredibly important that you’re teaching your kids the Constitution, that they know the Bill of rights, these kinds of things. Which leads me to want to share with you guys about an incredible resource called Master Books. It’s one of the homeschool curriculums we’re using this year, and I’m actually going through their civics and Constitution curriculum with the kids this year. So cool.

And so one of the things that I remember as I look back on my education in the public education system compared to homeschooling, whether we were doing classical conversations or we were doing all extra other curriculums on the side, whether they were online or through other programs like master books. One of the things that has been redemptive for me as a parent is learning what I actually should have learned in the education system, right? I remember loving government class when I was in school, but I also remember that it being heavily focused on how the government branches work and how lobbying works, how how everything works. And it was less about memorizing and and being able to orate the Constitution and like knowing the Bill of rights. And how does that actually impact your life on a personal level and what you know, what is worth fighting for? And how did we get these freedoms? And what’s interesting is when you start studying, like obviously being homeschool parents, over the years, we’ve kind of paid attention to what year did they take prayer out of schools? What? When did they take the Pledge of Allegiance out? When did they change the Pledge of Allegiance? All these different things. Right. And one of the things that we’ve noticed is that because the education system has been run by the government, the more corrupt that the government becomes, the more corrupt the education system becomes.

Yeah. Um, it’s kind of like that quote attitude reflects leadership. And so as parents, we need to be activated. We need to know what our kids are learning wherever it is they’re getting their education from. And we need to step in the gap. And we actually need to teach them what is true and what is right and what is noble. So I, I know I’m only focusing on one aspect of master books right now because they have so many different curriculums. They have every grade level. They have over 30 different options for biblical, um, biblical based, creation based science program, which is incredible options. But when it comes to history and government and civics and your constitution, you do not want to mess around. It would be worth getting the curriculum and adding it on to whatever else you’re doing simply to make sure that you’re getting truth. And so I just want to share that with you guys because I’ve been super impressed by it. It’s Master Books.com you can go forward slash courageous also to kind of get more information there. But master Books.com.

Yeah. And get Angie’s favorites and things like that with the courageous master Books.com forward slash courageous. Hey, uh, let’s look at Scripture and we’re going to start there. Are we to ignore or expose evil? And what kind of examples are we being for our children, who are probably going to have more pressure against them in an evil sense than our generation? So the first scripture is, uh, John.

Three verse 20, which is, you guys, I just love that this is in the Gospel of John. It says, for every one who does wicked things, hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Big difference. Yeah, right. It’s the difference between exposing truth, being willing to walk in the light as he is in the light. This is the book of John. But then we see in first John, um, that there’s this incredible chapter in chapter one that says that we need to be walking transparently, exposing our sin, walking as children of the light and being in the light, because when we aren’t, our sin actually impacts our relationship both with God but with other people and our fellowship with other people. And so that’s what you see today when you think about evil and people walking in darkness, what does it actually do to their relationships? It affects relationships. It affects the closeness of those relationships. When people are in sin, it affects their relationship with other people.

Hey gents, I just want to I want you to hear this, that even if you have sin, that is secretive you. It’s affecting your relationships because it’s affecting you and how you show up to those relationships, whether it’s your wife or your children, the guilt, the shame, these kinds of things. There’s freedom in Christ by repenting, but also getting accountability and help so that you don’t continue in, that we don’t want to trample on God’s grace through deliberate sin. We want to get help and get out of that and shed some light on that darkness that’s happening. So it’s so important as examples that we are walking strong so that we can actually do these things. People who don’t walk strong and have these secrets and things like that, it’s very hard for them to expose evil when you know what they’re participating in some.

Yeah.

And I think that ultimately when we’re raising our parents, our kids, right, when we’re parenting, um, to recognize that our kids are born into sin, that that is there’s a sin struggle, this fleshly struggle, it’s called humanity. And to have understanding like walking with your kids, with an understanding going their kids. Of course they’re struggling with this right now. Of course they’re struggling with being selfish. Of course, you know. But instead of just leaving it at that, which I think a lot of parents do because they don’t know what the next step is, to take it a step further and sharing with them the hope that they have in Jesus, and their need for a Savior to help them to cover their sin, that they need to repent. They need to take ownership. Yeah. Not blame shift. Oh, it was his fault. No. You own what you did. Okay. I know that he has his sin, and I’ll deal with that in a minute. But you own what you did. Yeah. And you take responsibility. Confess and repent. Because that’s a muscle that has to be practiced with people.

And if it’s not practiced, then sin will bog us down and we’ll be in this bondage. And this slavery is what the Bible describes sin as is. It’s bondage. And if we’re in bondage, then we’re not free in Christ, experiencing the grace and the forgiveness that he has for us, because we’re still walking with guilt and shame, because we haven’t confessed and we haven’t received the forgiveness. It’s once we confess and repent and we receive the forgiveness, the free gift of forgiveness, that then we are freed up and we’re no longer walking in bondage. And we can actually focus on the things that God has set before us. Amen. And we can be activated and we can actually correct other people because we don’t have this like thing in the back of our head going, oh no, you shouldn’t say anything. You’re a hypocrite. You do this and this and this. But if you’ve already taken care of this and this and this, you’re freed up then to go to your brother and sister with a clean heart and say, I’m concerned about you because I see this.

That’s right, that’s right. This is a key scripture right here in Ephesians. We’ll do more of this in a second. But 511 will start with it says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. So it doesn’t just say, expose the unfruitful works of darkness. It says also to take no part in them. There’s two things happening there to go with. What Angie was just saying is let’s take no part so that but instead expose them. It’s hard to expose if we’re taking part. Yeah.

So it’s two action steps. Yeah. Choose not to take part. Say no. Just say no. And you know. But then also expose what’s evil. Yeah. Expose the sin.

So are we the light.

So then are we to ignore or expose evil? I think the Scripture says it very clearly that part of our job is to expose evil. We all have different jobs, different ministries, different seasons in life, different things going on. It’s going to look different for different people. Some people stay at home mom that has five little kids at home or more. That might be the almost the only way. Focus. You know, that’s a lot of work. And so don’t feel bad if that’s your focus, do that focus really well. That’s an incredible that’s the most important thing, right is to equip your children to make sure they understand this. They live this out and so that they are equipped by experience to live it out and teach their kids down the road. But, you know, so we all have different things that we’re doing. I don’t want to heap on things on people’s shoulders that they’re not capable of. But surely when we’re out and about, surely with other people, we need to be courageous. We need to be bold, we need to be brave. And God will give us the courage if we’re walking strong with him. But these times we’re living in right now, this election season, whoever wins this election in the United States, it’s it’s not going to be pretty, uh, of course, uh, you know, I am praying and hoping the Republicans win the United States across the board, all across the nation, because that is the group that’s representing freedom and the best things from a Christian perspective, actually, even if they aren’t believers, whoever you’re thinking about, it’s really, really important.

Option, policy wise.

Policy, it’s about the policies. You got to get out and vote and do that no matter what, because that is part of doing that. Everybody can do that. That is part of taking action to expose you.

It’s interesting too, is that from the perspective of what I’m seeing is that this really has become a battle between good and evil. And there is a there is a sinister evil that is happening in our country in regards to even the health like, you know, I’ve, I just seen what is happening with the Making America Healthy Again initiative and all that has been being exposed. A lot of those things were conspiracy theories that for years I was like, there’s something weird about this. Why do they have to put fluoride and, and all these different minerals in cereal? And, you know, and now there’s even more evidence about what is happening and the differences between the cereal in our country compared to the cereal in other countries.

Fluoride and water making children. It’s a neurotoxin.

Yes, it’s a neurotoxin. And yet you go to dentist office and you have to say four times no fluoride. And even then you have to like, literally stand over your child and say, is that toothpaste got fluoride in it? Like it’s insane. How many teratogens, how many enemies can go out trying to hurt your child. And so, you know, there it can be overwhelming for the mom. That’s my point, is that for the mom who has the five kids at home, when you want to expose evil like in your mind, if there is a push to put fluoride, let’s just use that as an example. In kids toothpaste at the dentist office, in the cereals, in the water, it’s literally like everywhere, right? And as a young mom, you can almost feel overwhelmed going, how do I help my child? How do I protect them from this? And that’s just one evil. There’s then you’ve got like gender confusion happening on another spectrum. You have all these different things. Meanwhile, we have an election happening tomorrow, and one side definitely is representing more freedom, like you said. And the other side is actually representing more control in death.

They’re actually representing death.

Yes. And I mean, that’s very that’s that’s obvious based upon even the rallies and the what was happening at the DNC and with the with the different, um, the mobile Planning Parenthood, mobile, um, mobile homes that were giving.

Abortions.

And stuff. It’s like it’s all about, they say women’s rights, but there’s no rights for the child. There’s no rights for the baby. It’s about death, actually. And when you think about the health of the woman and what she goes through because of that loss and because of how traumatic that is for her body, and there’s no follow up care and there’s no they don’t they don’t care about us so well.

And so here’s a balance that everybody thinks about, right? Especially Christians. And it’s good to think about this balance, the balance of your witness for Christ and standing for truth.

Okay, let’s just take a moment from the podcast for a second, because I want to talk to you about a spiritual discipline of worship and leaving that legacy of worship. That was something that was super important to Isaac and I. But neither of us had musical skills, and so we paid thousands of dollars over the years to have our kids learn instruments from piano and guitar, violin to voice lessons. And I don’t regret any of it because they’re very capable. But there is a better, faster, cheaper way through Voorburg music Academy.com. The Vote Burke method approaches music differently. Instead of teaching theory, note reading and tedious technical skills. First, they skip straight to giving students a love for music so that they can’t wait to sit down to practice with. By ear training and song based learning, students see immediate results and learn technique, note reading, and theory in a context that will stick with them forever. And what makes it even better? They can earn visual reminders of their hard work with the vote methods rank system that mails badges and rank pins right to your doorstep instead of learning music in an isolation boat music. Academy.com encourages families to learn together. In fact, with my Code Courageous, you can get 20% off all your children learning piano, guitar, mandolin, violin or ukulele for less than $30 a month. That’s right. Say goodbye to budgeting hundreds of dollars a month for just one child to take lessons. On top of that, the vote method provides community with thousands of other like minded Christian families to celebrate with and learn from. Students are given accountability, performance opportunities, and live feedback from their instructor and printables to help them stay on track. Unlike traditional music lessons that students soon forget, Wartburg Music Academy creates lifelong lovers and players of music. In just a few months, use my Code Courageous to get 20% off every month your family is enrolled and learn music in a way that sticks. Now let’s get back to the podcast.

So the balance of how do I keep my witness strong for the Lord?

I love people and.

Love people.

Well.

While at the same time Disagreeing or standing for the truth, or proclaiming what’s true, or making a decision that looks odd to people but is right. And these kinds of things, or, you know, more. It’s, you know, where is that balance? And I think that the we do need to care about that balance. But the care of the balance has actually not loved people. Well, the care of the balance to an extreme has caused the opposite to happen in much of Christianity.

So what it has done is it has actually masked and hidden evil. And what’s wrong in darkness.

Because of passivity?

Because of.

Passivity.

Right?

Christian passivity.

Right.

Which is not what we experience, at least in our land in in history. Right? In in past generations, what we’ve seen is bold people who are willing to stand up and even willing to die for freedom.

Well, John Adams, for example, said the true source of our suffering has been our timidity. Humidity.

Wow.

It’s powerful. So then you start to ask yourself, okay, am I equipping my children for a different tomorrow? Right? I like how you put that earlier and not knowing what the future holds, but also kind of I mean, Jesus does give us his word. And so as Christians, we can tell, like, you know, that eventually things are going to get harder for all people, right? Um, but there’s there’s this element of trusting God and loving him so well that evil actually creates this righteous indignation in your heart. Like when you see injustices, like holy injustices happening, like the death and murder of babies that should actually affect us as believers, there should be a righteous anger in a sense where we’re where we are like upset by it. And it it literally leads us to weeping. Right? And there are so, so many believers. And I don’t mean this in a, um, judgmental kind of way. But there are so many believers that I think the longer that that has been around, or the more that they in a loving attitude towards other people who have had abortions and things like that, they almost become desensitized to it the longer that it is around and available and legalized. But just because something is legalized doesn’t mean it’s biblically lawful. And so when we have the heart of God and we’re very close to the Lord, and we’re searching the word and we’re searching it to know him and we’re in relationship with him, he transforms our hearts and our heart breaks for what his heart breaks for. And you know that if he took special care to craft and create another human being in a womb, that he cares about that baby. He does. And so when it’s murdered, his heart breaks. We know that from the word. We know that from the character of God that is displayed in the Bible. And so if we want the character of God and we want to be like him and we’re seeking after him, we become transformed and we desire what’s good and what’s true versus becoming desensitized to the evil.

It’s so true. So what do we do? How do you expose evil when we’re busy? When we’re trying to just take care of our family? We’re trying to provide with rapid inflation because of poor leadership in your country. You know, these kinds of things. What do you what can I do to expose evil? And I think the first thing to do is to walk strong with the Lord so that you’re able to discern what to do. Isn’t that interesting?

Well, it’s kind of like that example that I gave earlier at the ladies group, right? Like it took discerning. If I was to say, I don’t think that it’s a good idea to throw our husbands under the bus, or if I was to, like, depending on how I say it, that’s a matter of discernment also. Right? And who you say it to. So in that moment, you know, maybe there’s 12 women there. Do you say it to the whole group or do you wait and pray and maybe just share that with a couple people, or confront the ones that we’re talking about, about their husbands privately, that the decisions that I’m talking about right here, they require discernment.

They do. And we have to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, Scripture says. So in that situation, this can be any situation. But in that situation, we can’t just say the answer because it depends on who’s in that group. You have to discern who’s the leader in that group, the really the ringleader. And maybe it makes sense to go and just talk to them and share with them so that you’re not blowing things up in a group setting. That could be more challenging. Or maybe it is the right thing to do that. So you have to discern. You have to be wise. You know, what is the best way for this to be impactful? And a lot of times it’s not the first way we think of. I want to challenge everybody listening. God is very counterintuitive to human wisdom. God is very counterintuitive to humanity because humanity is fallen and God’s perfect. So God has infinite wisdom, infinite knowledge, infinite understanding can see the future and all these things. So if we’re not tapped into that, we might fall to our first responses. And those first responses might appear to be good in human conditions. But what if there’s something even better to do? And so wait on the Lord, pray about it, and take action. Sometimes you can’t wait on the Lord because you really feel like you need to do something right? Then do it. But really say a quick prayer and try and be walking close to the Lord. So you’re hearing from him?

Yeah.

So as far as making that discerning call, I think that there’s an element that a lot of people skip today that I think is worthy of bringing up, which is seeking wise counsel and praying. And so sometimes when you’re in that situation, like the example that I gave in that moment, you could say a quick prayer to yourself. You could just, you know, quietly in your mind, praying to the Lord and asking him for wisdom, asking him for boldness, for courage to say something. And maybe you say a few things, or instead of commiserating with people, you turn it around and you decide to praise your husband. Maybe that’s what you do, right? And you choose not to be a part of the darkness, but you choose to be a part of the light. That’s just one example of how you could actually expose evil is to choose to walk in the light boldly by doing what is true and what is good, right? So doing the opposite. So instead of talking bad about your husband, praise him.

Of course, this is just an example. This isn’t a marriage episode. No no no.

No. But it’s just an example, right? And so a lot of times people need those examples. So let’s just say that maybe you’re in a situation where you don’t like what your kids are learning, right? Maybe there’s been some wayward examples coming home. And or maybe your kids are completely just not even being taught, such as what we were talking about before, right? Like the Constitution and the Bill of rights, maybe you choose to do extra work in your own right and you get a curriculum that you can do with your kids, right? Like what? What I’m working with with with the olders. And you start teaching them and you talk to them about trying to be a light to the other people when they’re talking about things like the election or they’re talking about what they’re learning regarding government. Right. Start asking those questions in your classroom or whatever it.

Is right here.

It says in Ephesians, just to read a little before what we read before is six through 11. It says right here it says, let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light. What a great scripture to teach your children. For the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. And then it goes into that Scripture. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them so good. All scripture references are courageous parenting.com at the podcast blog, so make sure you get that if you’re driving or something like that and you want to teach these to your children because they’re so good, so good, right? So you have to realize, I think that you make a difference. I think one of the things in exposing evil is that you do matter, that your voice does make a difference, that every time you speak something, there’s a ripple effect, positive or negative, in society and the people around you because of what you said, people do hear what you say. They may not register it sometimes and they may sometimes, but we have to stay the course. We have to trust that God is going to give us the words to say and the courage to say them. And even when it’s uncomfortable, we do it in the most loving way possible. But sometimes love looks like, you know, very direct communication when there’s evil and danger, right? Jesus came into the temple courts and was flipping tables. There’s no way to flip tables with merchandise on them and a nice, loving, warm way.

Oh, let me get that for you. I don’t think.

So.

No, flipping tables is like.

Yeah, Jesus. Obviously intense.

So there are times for that. I just want to say there are times for, like, pulling people out of the fire, as it says in the end of Jude. Like, you have an option, you know, to, to encourage them. If that’s not working, you have to pull people out of the fire. Who are you allowing to burn around you? Right. What country are you allowing to burn around you? Right. We do need to vote. We need to take actions. We need to be an activated citizen for good things.

So verse 15 in that same scripture, Ephesians chapter five, verse 15 says, look carefully, then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of your time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So this scripture actually gives us the two opposing things. So you have foolishness. And on the other flip coin is knowing what the will of the Lord is. So being foolish is not knowing the will of the Lord. How do you know the will of the Lord? Isaac? How does someone know the will of the Lord?

Well, you.

Have to be reading the word. You have to be talking to God. You can’t have a relationship. It’d be very. You can. But it’s harder to have a relationship with God that’s growing if you’re not communicating with him. Do you have a relationship with your spouse if you never talked to each other?

Right. It’s a big.

Deal. So you have to be in a pursuing relationship with Jesus. Yeah. And how you do that is through spiritual disciplines like praying and fasting and doing communion, which sets you in a posture of reflecting on the sin in your life and repenting of that to the Lord and receiving his. Can I just.

Say, I am so enjoying doing communion every week again?

Yeah, with the church.

I know, it’s been amazing.

Yeah, it’s something that we’re supposed to do as often as we meet. So churches, let’s do communion more often, right? That’s my encouragement because it is a good thing and it is the will of God to do communion. Um, and so this is that would be something if you’re listening to this podcast and your church doesn’t do it every week, I would challenge you to challenge the church on their priorities, because communion should be done more often. And that’s just not my opinion. That’s purely what the Bible says. So, um, but making sure that you’re using your time wisely. This is saying making the best use of the time because the days are evil. And so this was obviously written back in biblical times to the church of Ephesus, but this applies today as well. It applies forevermore for all time. The days are evil, period. They have been evil. They are still evil. They’re going to be evil in the sense. So as Christians, being able to discern what is evil and using our time wisely to fight against that evil is what God’s encouraging and exhorting us to do here. Look carefully how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise. You can’t have wisdom if you’re not reading the Bible. You can’t know the will of the Lord if you’re not reading the Bible. Making the best use of the time because the days are evil and therefore do not be foolish. He’s literally commanding you. Do not be foolish.

You mean the days are evil? So we can’t just hide under a bushel and just do what we want and not care about what’s going on?

No no no no no, not at all. That’s not biblical. That’s not what we as Christians are called to do, right? I mean, if we were to even go and read that scripture about where Jesus is saying that we’re, as the church, supposed to be like a city set on a hill, and we’re not to put anything over us like a bushel. Right? Reminds me of that little children’s song, this little Light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. And it just goes on and on. It says hide it under a bushel. No, I’m gonna let it shine. Do we, as parents sing this song with our kids, but then not live it out.

I want to just share.

That’s important.

I want to share a powerful story about history. Nazi Germany. There was 18 approximately 18,000 churches in Germany when Hitler was coming into power and started having tyranny in imposing a dictatorship over the people in harm and freedoms were being lost. There was about 18,000 Protestant churches. And um, uh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sharing very early the dangers of the government there and what was happening. And the churches were very passive. They were trying to, you know, make sure they were strong witness for Christ. Therefore, we’re only going to talk about biblical truth, and we’re not going to speak out against evil. And they became very passive. Well, Dietrich Bonhoeffer started this group that was about, no, we are going to stand for biblical truth, but we’re also going to resist and expose evil. We are going to do both, because that’s what the Bible that is biblical truth. Actually, the full picture of the Bible. And so he created this group and only I think it’s 300 or 400 churches joined. There’s 300 churches joined this group that were doing that. I’m sorry, 3000 out of the 18,003 thousand of the 18,000 joined, uh, exactly what the government wanted, even to the point of putting Nazi flags in their sanctuaries.

Can you believe that Christian Protestant churches flying the Nazi flag out of fear of the government, and therefore did whatever the government wanted? And this, you know, this author, I read this book and he makes an argument. You can think about it. He makes an argument that the real problem was the 12,000 churches. The remaining 12,000 that tried to stay neutral, tried just to to not take sides and to stay completely neutral. And the argument is if those 12,000 would have gone the way of Bonhoeffer and the other 3000 churches. They had the culture, they had the people. Pretty much everybody went to church back then, right? And so they had the populace and they had the influence. But because those 12,000 churches were so neutral, um, travesty happened in history. That’s crazy. Like complete tyranny over people groups. And so it’s just it’s just terrible to think about that. And now you think about today, you know, what is the church’s role? And I think we need to learn from history. Yeah.

You know, the sermon on the Mount is a very powerful sermon. We’ve done a couple podcast episodes on this concept of peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers, right? And how peace and righteousness kiss right. And so true peace can’t exist without truth. And we’re talking about exposing evil and and putting truth under the lampstand, if you will. And so recognizing that to be a peacemaker means you actually have to be courageous. Of all of the Beatitudes, being a peacemaker requires the most courage because it’s requiring them to correct sin and to help with the reconciliation process to Jesus Christ, which cannot happen unless sin is exposed, unless lies evil, sin is exposed and brought into the light. Right. But then you go down to the very bottom of the Beatitudes. It says in verse ten, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, and for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And do you want to know something? When you are, when you are choosing to stand up for righteousness and you’re trying to expose light the darkness by bringing it into the light, whether that’s sharing on social media, something that was super encouraging. I mean, you’re going to get blasted by people who oppose you. Yeah, right. But if your heart is to expose evil so that other people are not in the dark, but are questioning and having to be bothered by the truth, which is a good thing, and that can lead to further conversations down the road that then eventually can lead to even you sharing the gospel.

And that’s incredibly important. Right. So if your heart is pure before the Lord and you’re not just doing it to like, just be a menace and cause division, but if your heart is, I am exposing the evil works of darkness because this is not okay. That and then you’re persecuted. God says, blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness sake. So when you are sharing about the evils of abortion, blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness sake. If you’re being persecuted, it’s because other people don’t want to see the truth and they are believing lies to justify sin, which is evil. And that is not righteous. It is the opposite of righteous. And so if you are exposing evil, you are walking in righteousness. But you know what’s interesting? The very next part of Scripture, right after the Beatitudes in verse 13 of chapter five of Matthew, it’s the salt and the light. Mhm. It’s the salt and the light Scripture that says you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It’s no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. Verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

Amen.

Amen. So here’s the unprecedented times tip at the very end. Parenting tip, which is, if we are not going to be the salt, then how do we expect our children to be the salt and being the salt has more of a cost. Today, at least in America. Around the world, there’s already been a cost in most places, but in America, there’s an increasing cost to actually stand for truth and be a light. And part of being a light is just not going along to get along. But actually speaking truth in love is the best way you can. But not letting people go, being deceived, not letting bad things happen to other people the best we can within our jurisdictions, and in preparing our children for a world that’s going to be different down the road and not fearing it, but trusting God and taking action. The people that are most easily able to trust God are people of action.

Um, you know, it’s it’s interesting wherever, when when you’re on social media, what I see a lot what I see because my algorithms are set for me. Right. What I see a lot of is people saying, um, and they’re totally right. And it’s, you know, we’re you know, Jesus is the only one who can save, right? So, yeah, neither party can save you regardless of who wins in the election. Jesus is your savior. Remember that. Don’t make it 100%. And I. I so appreciate those posts. I so agree 100% in alignment. But here’s the thing if Jesus is our hope and he is our salvation, what are we as his people doing to shine the truth and the light of Jesus during our this is our time. Yes, we are meant for this generation right now. Our children may be too young to be the ones that are in government, the ones that are running the churches, the ones that are making impact in the communities. But you are not too young. You are. You were created by God in your generation for a specific purpose and many purposes.

But what is it that you are called to do if you believe that Jesus is the hope? First and foremost, the Great Commission starts in your home. Raise your kids to know Jesus, because if they grow up and they’re part of the next generation and they truly love Jesus and it’s a heart relationship, they will not be foolish. They will not fall for evil. But it’s all about that core relationship with Jesus. This is the other thing. Again, if Jesus is our hope, why are we as Christians so scared to share that truth with people on the road, in the restaurant, wherever we are? As Christians, we need to be mobilized to truly share that hope with other people. Because if we don’t do it now, how bad is the next generation going to be? Do we want to make the world a better place, meaning more people are saved and it’s easier for our kids to be doing ministry? Or are we just sitting relaxed, chill, not getting activated when God literally made us to be activated?

It’s game.

Time. So let’s let’s be in the game and not on the sidelines. Thanks for joining.

Us. See ya.

Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be Courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

Also, we wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online Parenting Mentor program.

Isaac and I created a powerful biblical curriculum. Here’s how it works. Each week, we release a video session with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

This is an incredible, self-paced program. We cover everything from tending to their hearts, handling obedience to overcoming mistakes most Christians are making. But more than that, it’s a supportive community. You’ll have access to our private group in the Be Courageous app, live webcast, and direct access to us.

If you’re interested in joining our next online Parenting Mentor program, secure your spot now at Be Courageous Ministry. Org that’s Be Courageous ministry.org.