Finding Our Way

From the transcript...

I got William Barclay. I like William Barclay. Barclay’s good. Barclay’s good.

Let me read it. I wasn’t going to, but—well, no, no, no, I got it. There was a reason I brought it. You’ve got to hear what he says.

Ephesians 1 (William Barclay Translation)

This is a letter from Paul, who became an apostle of Jesus Christ because God willed it so.

To God’s consecrated people in Ephesus, the loyal Christians in the Lord Jesus Christ:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for He, in the heavenly places, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing because our life is bound up with the life of Christ. It was through this connection with Christ that, before the creation of the world, God chose us to be His own consecrated people and to live lives faultless in His sight.

In His love, He had already destined us for adoption into His own family through the work of Jesus Christ. For this was the purpose of His will. All this He did that men might praise that glorious grace of His which He gave us in His Beloved—and through no merits of our own.

It is in and through Christ and the sacrifice of His life that we have been liberated—a liberation which means the forgiveness of sins. It all happened because of the wealth of His grace.

This grace He gave us in superabundance to equip us with all wisdom and insight. He revealed to us the secret of His will and of the purpose which long ago He had in Christ.

This purpose is finally to bring to their conclusion all the events in history and to make of all things—things in heaven and things on earth—one perfect whole in Christ.

And we too have received a share in Him, for this was our destiny, in the intention of that God who works out everything as the purpose of His will directs. The purpose of all this was that we Jews, who were the first to set our hopes on Christ, should cause His glory to be praised.

And it is through Him that you Gentiles too have heard the message of the truth—the good news of your salvation. It is in Him that you took your decision to believe and received the promised Holy Spirit, who marks you out as His— that Holy Spirit who is the first installment and the pledge of all that one day you will possess.

That’s a good one. The final end of all this is the liberation of God’s own people, so that His glory may be praised.

From the transcript...

We got a beautiful day. It’s nice and shady right here. So I want to read it out of the New King James.

Are you going to read more than one translation? Yeah.

But you’re going to start with the New King James? Yeah.

Okay. You want me to read one? Because that’s what everybody’s used to. Read them first 11 verses.

In the New King James? That’s what that is.

Oh, I thought you were going to read me to sleep. I get to read you to sleep? Yeah.

You want me to start at the top? Yeah. Verse 1 through 11.

Okay.

Ephesians 1:1–14 (NKJV) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

From the transcript...

I can remember when I was eight years old. I can remember going back—I don’t know if you remember Whisperer Pines Church—go back behind the baptististry, behind the choir loft back there, Sunday school. Step in that little hallway, that first room to the right.

Sitting in a chair there beside my mama, and Brother Leon was on his knees, squatting before me, talking to me about the Lord. I was wanting to get saved. Eight years old.

Yeah, he was talking about whenever your eyes were open, there were some glimpses of Him back then because of what I was hearing in church. Even though it was what I would call not a pure gospel grace message, it was a gospel message that I grew up on. Even in that, He was working—trying to open my eyes, shining the light.

Then when I was 16—I know I’ve talked about this before—but when I was 16, my brother, I was there at Whisperer Pines. He preached a message on hell. Man, I didn’t want to go to hell. I went down and talked to Brother Winters, the pastor. I said, “Man, I didn’t want to go to hell.”

Anyway, I got up out of the altar, talking to him, saying, “I’m not saved. I know I’m not.” He said, “Why?” I said, “Well, the Bible says you’ve got to have faith to be saved. I don’t have faith.”

But I didn’t want to go to hell. Lo and behold, here I am—37 years later.

In this episode Larry and James talk about the victory of Jesus in history.

From the transcript...

But the Lord orchestrated the events

of getting this book to print. The title of it

is Before Time, Our Origin in Christ. My good

friend Andrew Maui helped me put this together

and got me started down that road. And the Lord

just, boom, put it out there. even try it wasn't

even anything i was it was on my radar it's just

the lord decided he wanted to do it so he did

you can get it at amazon .com just search the

title and my name james alderman or you can come

to our website findingourway .co probably the

best deal is coming to the website because i

think shipping's $4 .99 for $9 .99 for the book

but if you buy two you get one free or if you

buy more than five i'll ship them to you for

free so you can get to get you can get the deal

there plus you get to communicate with me I want

to read you just the first sentence on the back

cover of the book.

In this episode Larry and James continue the conversation about hope.

From the transcript...

I hope you're having a wonderful day. Enjoying

all that Papa has for you today. I wanted to

take this time to ask you to join me in celebrating.

Man, I like to celebrate. I just celebrated.

Ha! Woo! I just celebrated my birthday here.

This is the first part of this month. I almost

told you how old I am. I'm a young lad. Strong,

57 years old. The reason I'm here talking to

you right now is I've written a book. It started

with video, taking transcripts, working with

that. God has done this thing. I've often talked

about writing a book. I haven't written that

book that I often talk about writing, but one

day I will. But the Lord orchestrated the events

of getting this book to print. The title of it

is Before Time, Our Origin in Christ. My good

friend Andrew Maui helped me put this together

and got me started down that road. And the Lord

just, boom, put it out there. even try it wasn't

even anything i was it was on my radar it's just

the lord decided he wanted to do it so he did

you can get it at amazon .com just search the

title and my name james alderman or you can come

to our website findingourway .co

In this episode James and Larry meander around the concept of hope.

From the transcript...

I just wanted to jump in here and say thanks

for tuning in. Hope you're being blessed by our

conversations. Ask you to reach out to us. I'd

like to hear from you. Finding our way. You can

find where the show is, all of our podcasts,

YouTube, everything's there. We've got a little

blog. There's a place that says contact us. Hit

that and you can send us an email. We'd love

to hear from you. I think I told you a week or

so ago about a shift. Something shifted in me,

in my spirit. When I realized afresh, there are

people in this world that get so depressed, lose

all hope, they don't want to live anymore. Yeah.

And when I got the news about an individual that

had taken their life, I didn't know him very

well. I knew him, hadn't seen him in years. But

just getting the news, something in me shifted

that made me want to be more intentional. more

aggressive as it were about getting our message

In this episode Larry and James share various experiences and thoughts regarding validation.

From the transcript...

I'm just saying, there's the wide open spaces—fields of grace. Ooh, living in my Father's face. I'm telling you, son, mess around here and I'll get on pace with the Holy Ghost and say something.

Tapped into your poetic self.

Yeah, yeah. We'll be dancing.

Anyway, we can walk down through that psalm some more. Maybe that was the road we went down at that time. Might have been. Went to that lake or whatever. Might have been.

Well, the thing about where the Father said, This is my beloved Son—the validation of that. Theologically, we hang our hat on that about, This is proof. Jesus is God. He is the Messiah. This is the launching of His public ministry, and all that good stuff.

And how important it is in a relationship to express what you think, feel, and believe to those who are in relationship with you. You need that.

But the idea of validation—trust, trying to get with that—is that sometimes we're looking for validation that only our Heavenly Father gives us.

In this episode Larry and James discuss the purpose of God and His goodness displayed.

From the transcript...

I was thinking about that passage you read earlier when Jesus was baptized. I don't even know what I can say about it, other than the Father, verbally to John the Baptist and those who could hear, said, This is my beloved Son, in whom—or in Him—I am well pleased.

That's Jesus’ beginning, and we always say “His ministry.” I don't even know how I look at that anymore, but He lived His whole life—it was a ministry, from birth to ascension. But anyway, neither here nor there.

Just thinking about it, because for me personally, what Jesus must have heard when He came up out of the water and heard the Father—This is my much-loved Son. I'm very fond of Him. Yeah.

Because that's the longing of my heart: to hear that. Not that I don’t, but every time I hear it, I want to hear it again.

It's kind of like, think about in your family or in your marriage. You love one another. You tell your wife, “I love you.” She tells you, “I love you.” But you like to hear it again. Yeah, you need to say it again. Even though it's a given—there's not a problem, there's no question of if it's true. It's not that.

In this episode Larry and James talk about King Jesus.

From the transcript...

I think we're good. So you don't want that book?

What book?

That book.

No. I'm good. We are ready to go.

Do we have… What were we going to talk about?

Oh, I don't know. Oh, I was just going to say, I did… coming down, I… listened to that guy and talked to Ronnie. I ain't got nothing. I mean, we're going to start this day with zero from Larry. I normally, you know, give some thought. Ain't no thought today. You got it. Today is a take-no-thought. Take no thought for your life.

It's a good looking truck right there.

Oh, yeah.

You're talking about that red TNC? That red one's pretty sharp. That red one's pretty good. Silver Island.

Y'all want to get up here out of the way?

I'm trying to think. Don't let me forget. You've got to remember this now. I need to find somewhere to get my fishing license, so I'm over here. I told my father-in-law I'd go fishing with him Monday. He wants to leave his house by 6 Monday morning. I'm going to come over Sunday.

You need to get on before then, yeah. Spend the night Sunday.

This is your neck of the woods, so I'm not quite sure. Probably a convenience store.

In this episode Larry and James discuss ultimate reality and the life that is ours now.

From the transcript...

Yeah, think about it. I'm going to read these two verses. Remember I told you I was reading Ephesians when I wrote this. I'm going to read these two verses and you tell me what it says that we have to do so that we can somehow or another get in on that.

Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful Heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus, all because He sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate Him with all our hearts. And in love, He chose us before He laid the foundation of the universe. Because of His great love, He ordained us so that we would be seen as holy in His eyes with an unstained innocence.

That was all done before He did anything. Right. That's His eternal intention, plan, desire that's unfolding that we're awakening to—we're beginning to see—but it's all in love. Yeah, I find later, according to His great pleasure, according to the riches of His grace. What is love and grace and pleasure, right? That's a vastly different view of the God I grew up on. Well, well, one where we grew up, you just read from the Passion. We can't read from that book.