FriDudes - Getting Real. Pursuing Truth.

• Reflections and some Deep Takes from some of the most beautiful places on this earth.
• For pics and vids, go to...
• https://www.fridudes.com/post/sequoias-to-sierras-oh-my

• Yes!  You are in!  It's been awhile.  Where have I been?!  In the mountains!  Yes, epic trip to the Sequoias, Sierras, Yosemite, Tahoe.  Some of God's masterpieces.  That will be a future episode.  For now, some more good fruit from good trees.  Another Abundant Life and Overflow story that must be told.  Do you love inspirational stories?  Life change?  Impact?  Me too!!!  Meet Misty and Donna, on site at Abundant Life Church in Indio, CA, serving the unhoused and shower services provided by Overflowshowers.org.  We discuss where and how Misty and Donna got involved and created something called Compassion Cafe, maybe just maybe you'll be next to do the same or maybe you will help them/us, here you go...
• What a bright light!  Love it!  Praise God!  If you are so moved, hit us up at FriDudes.com for more information.  You can also learn more by going directly to Abundant Life Church in Indio, CA.  You can also learn more at Overflowshowers.org.  If you call yourself a Christian then your Jesus's words are crystal clear in Matt 25:40.  Do onto the least of these and you do unto me."  Jesus' words.  That's what I see with Spirit Filled, Abundant Life, Overflowshowers.org and their other locations.  If you are part of that in anyway, donor or volunteer, you are part of this story.  For you that are not quite sure, where are you complaining the most?  That's usually an indicator of where you best serve.  Just a humble reminder, I used to complain about the unhoused.  So be careful where you complain.  I would ask what is wrong with them.  Why don't they just get a job?  And for the ones that get involved.  You learn it is much more complicated than that.  It also explains why governments and their billions can't fully solve it either.  For this is a heart issue.  Heart change = life change.  Now go, love God, love others.  Matt 22: 36-40.  That is exactly what you just heard.  Everything else you are trying to do, everything, hangs on doing those two first...Loving God, Loving Others.  It is that simple.  We humans can make it complicated.  

• Yes!  You are in!  Thank you!!  You are in for a treat.  For I get to introduce you to a very special person:  Robert.  He was hopeless, homeless and hooked on fentanyl.  What turned things around for him?  Here you go...
• Thank you Robert, what a shining Light!  Think about that.  Hopeless, homeless and addicted to fentanyl.  Now full of Hope.  Jesus Christ in is in the heart transforming business.  A skeptic can try and debate.  One can't argue that result.
• Special thanks to Abundant Life Church in Indio, CA.  If this tugs on your heart and you would like to look into starting your own Compassion Cafe for those unhoused.  Check out this beacon.  Misty, Chris, Beto, Gilbert, Jonathan, Tammy, George and so many more.  I'm blown away by their volunteer ratio.  
• Special thanks to Overflowshowers.org (Gary, Jackie, Ryan, Katie, Lori, Matthew and so many volunteers and very generous supporters).  All making that moment recorded and so many more possible.  If you served and donated in any way, you are a part of that.  Extra thanks to a good and faithful servant named Laguna Dave who got me out in the streets for the first time serving the homeless in the streets of Coachella Valley.  Opened my eyes to see others like Robert and Taylor for the sons and daughters that they are.
• Co-founder Gary once said that government won't solve this...and he's right.  CA is up to $24B in tackling this issue in the last few years and it got worse.  $24B!  
• Go back to Robert.  This is a heart issue.  If you are an addict or know an addict, you are not getting better until you really, really want to get better.  The heart must change.  
• Ending on a prayer note...

• Yes!  You are in!  We are all wrestling with something.  How do I know that?  Rom 3:23.  For where there are flaws, there is friction.  So how do we solve this?  Here you go...
• Dr. Lorrits, back for another play of the day.  You got to Name it to Tame it.  Brilliant!  If you would like to hear more of that play and I highly recommend it, check out the Bryan Lorrits Podcast, "Scarlett Letters: Overcoming Shame", published on the 14th of July 2024.
• Avid listener, you know my wrestling matches and my biggest holes dug.  I've confessed my debts and I am still a work in progress.  
• James 5:16
• New International Version
  16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
  
  
• For the avid Bible reader, you know about Paul's wrestling match.  
• Romans 7:15 in the Bible says, "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate".
• You ever notice that he doesn't Name it.  He doesn't name his struggle.  In fact, the MonDudes group was just discussing this.  Wondering what it is.  What was the struggle?  For those heaven bound, perhaps we will find out.  
• Ending on a prayer note

• Yes!  You are in!  Once upon a time, we did an episode called 'Expectation - Reality = Disillusionment'.  Odds you are disillusioned somewhere in life right now.  Or you know someone that is, so this 'Play of the Day' is for you.  Whether you are married or not, this applies.  You went into something thinking one thing.  And now it is quite another.  Here you go...
• Wow!  He's baaaaaaack!  Pastor Warren works his way.  We only share mic drops on this podcast and this is definitely one of them.  You can hear the rest of that one and the entire series for that matter at DailyHope.com.  As for that Play of the Day, check out 'Learning to Trust God, Part 1', published on the 12th of July 2024.  
• Wisdom is perspective.  
• This message doesn't have to apply if you are married.  Maybe it is a broken relationship.  Maybe it is your job.  Maybe it is a trip.  Maybe it is your church.  Your pastor.  This podcast, haha!  
• This is a test.
• Live on this broken planet long enough and you will be disappointed.  How do you handle it?  Are you content in all circumstances?  When I have my A game I am.  Problem is that I don't always have my A game.  
• Phil 4: 11-13
• Philippians 4:11-13
  New International Version
  11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
• Easier said than done, I must confess.  You think you have this locked down...oh perfect one!  Have you been fully tested?  Raped?  Lost a child?  Then you haven't been fully tested.  You are not done until you are done with this broken planet.  
• Best check yourself before you wreck yourself.  You are not perfect.  Rom 3:23.  That's why you do need Jesus Christ, Rom 8:1.  And since we know that nobody is perfect then why on earth are you expecting perfection during events and human relationships?  
• Nobody in their right mind wants to be betrayed.  And nobody likes being let down.  Yet it happens.  To all of us to a degree.  So wouldn't we be wise to keep expectations in check.  Lord, I want Italy yet if you want me in Bangladesh.  So be it.  Lord, show me Rom 8:28 out of this unmet expecation.  That's ultimate Faith.  It's easy to declare Fatih if everything is perfect.  Show me someone that has endured hardship and still shines Faith and I say there is Power.  There is Light.  Matt 5:16.  
• Ending on a prayer note,

Yes!  You are in!  If you've been rocked with a loss, this one is for you.  If not you, then give it a listen and you'll know who could be strengthened by another Abundant Life story.  Meet Brother Gil.  Here you go...

Yes!  You are in!  Meet Beto, my back up brother.  Literally, he helps me back up the Overflowsshowers.org trailer into place at the Compassion Cafe at Abundant Life Church in Indio, CA.  Better yet, he shines Light.  Check out his story...here you go...

Yes!  You are in!  In for another treat!  James from Compton is back!  This time with his bride, Sister Cathy the Versed.  My nicknames for both of them by the way.  Terms of endearment.  What good can come out of Nazereth?  A LOT!  Compton?  A LOT!  An unlikely meeting in an unlikely gated community.  Reads like many Bible stories.  Least likely doing amazing things.  A story of hope for any of you feeling imprisoned (literally or figuratively).  Does this broken planet need more Hope or hopelessness?  More Hope coming up, here you go...

• Yes!  You are in!  Meet John from Mecca, my brother from another mother and one of the most interesting people you'll find in the Coachella Valley of California.  Odds are that you dig money. Preface, I'm not a fan of the prosperity gospel.  It's clear that God doesn't give us everything you/I want.  Yet how much do you trust?  Can you out give God?  Maybe you believe and practice all what you are about to hear, yet would you back it like that Sunday School teacher did to John from Mecca?  Here you go...

Yes!  You are in!  Father's Day on the way or not past as you hear this.  Bottom line, odds are you had a sucky dad.  Even the best earthly dads are flawed.  Yet this isn't a downer message.  It is meant to be encouraging.  Here you go...

Short and sweet on this one.  Bottom line, you do have a perfect Father.  Most of you get that.  Most you still need to be reminded of it.  The wisest of you also know him as Abba.  No, not the super Swedish band from the 70's.  Abba as in Daddy or one of the sweetest terms of endearment you can say in your relationship with the Heavenly Father.