The American Soul
The American Soul
Seeking God's Will: George Washington Carver's Laboratory of Faith
What happens when you lock the door, put away the textbooks, and simply ask God to reveal His secrets? For George Washington Carver—whose discoveries revolutionized American agriculture—this seemingly simple approach produced hundreds of innovations that scientists with sophisticated laboratories couldn't match.
This episode explores Carver's extraordinary spiritual journey and scientific legacy alongside Jesus's teachings in Matthew 6 about seeking God in secret. Though offered enormous salaries by Thomas Edison and others, Carver refused, choosing instead to continue his divinely-inspired work at Tuskegee Institute. When asked by a Senate committee how he made his discoveries, he famously replied that while the Bible didn't mention peanuts, "it tells about the God who made the peanut. And I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did."
But this powerful testimony challenges our modern priorities. How many of us make time for Netflix, social media, and entertainment while struggling to carve out moments for prayer or Scripture? Like a nation that wants God's blessings while keeping Him at arm's length, we've become spiritual fair-weather friends—seeking divine intervention when needed but embarrassed to acknowledge Him publicly.
Through Carver's remarkable example and Christ's timeless teachings, we're confronted with a profound question: What might happen in our lives, families, and nation if we truly followed Proverbs 3:5-6—"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths"? The answer might just transform everything.
Want to experience more spiritual insights that bridge faith and American identity? Subscribe to the American Soul Podcast and join our community dedicated to drawing closer to God both as individuals and as a nation.
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully we'll all get a little something out of it. Hopefully it will help us all draw a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to support the podcast and tell others about it, to spread the word, thank you so much, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much, incredibly grateful for your prayers, need those. And for those of y'all who are new today. I'm glad you're here. Hope you enjoy it. Hope you get something out of it. Hope you come back. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for all the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us, both as individuals and as a nation. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast and share it. Be with them, their families, bless them, guide them, surround them with your angels. Help us to do your will, father. Help us to trust in your timing. Help us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, not here on earth. To store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, not here on earth. Forgive us our sins, father. Help us to actually be repentant, penitent for our sins. Help us to get our priorities in the right order to put you and your kingdom and your righteousness first, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Guide us in all that we do. Be with our leaders here in America and in the nations around the world, where people are listening. Give them wisdom and courage, strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you. Be with those, father, please, who are alone, hurting, scared, injury, illness, heartache. Comfort them, help them to feel your peace. Help us to come to you with our burdens, father, with our heavy loads, knowing that your yoke is light and easy. Forgive us our cowardice and our unbelief, father. Help us to do your will. In God, my words. In your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word. Is it at the top of your priority list or the bottom? Is it even on the list? Have you made time to pray? What have you given your time to today? Are you working out right now? Are you going for a run? Are you watching sports TV Netflix, hulu, prime how much time did you give to that? How many episodes of whatever TV show did you watch One, two, three hour and a half, two hours, three hours? How much time did you spend scrolling social media today, yesterday? Scrolling social media today yesterday, 30 minutes, hour and a half, five hours. How much time did you spend reading your Bible? How much time did you spend listening to a sermon or praying? How much time? If you're married, how much time did you give to your spouse time? If you're married, how much time did you give to your spouse?
Speaker 1:It's not hard, folks, it's not difficult to give, to put things in the right order. We just don't do it because we want to do what we want to do and then, once we do that, with little to no regard for what God wants, then we look up and we can't figure out why everything's gone sideways and it just is that simple, folks, and I and I harp on this each day on the podcast, because if you look around our country, if you look around your community, you see the heartache in marriages and families. You see the pain of putting the wrong things first. Maybe it's in your own family, marriage, individual life, maybe it's in those around you and loved ones, but you see the problem of pain and grief Paused by not having our priorities in the right order. It's kind of like our pastor the story I tell so often when he talked about the fact you know, if you go in and you get fired from a job because you refuse to cheat, lie and steal, that's okay. You know you're following Christ. If you go into a job and you get fired because you refuse to wear the color of pants that they told you to, you're just an idiot. You're not being persecuted. There's enough persecution in the world, folks, without us looking for more by getting our priorities out of order and following ourself over God.
Speaker 1:William Manchester, last line, churchill Biography, august, I think, of 1939. There's a quote in here by Manchester. This is his own writing here. He was talking about the polls. They were, britain was putting a lot of pressure on them to concede certain things to Germany, and his comment here is the polls, wary of yielding an inch to the Germans, believed that any concession over Danzig would lead to new Nazi demands. The Germans wanted this little port or town passage, danzig, and the Poles didn't have any desire to give it up for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1:But the bottom line is they understood that when you give to the left communists, socialists, nazis, fascists, doesn't matter what it is, what group Islam when you give them anything, there's never satisfaction, folks. There's never truly a point at which any of those people that follow those ideologies look up and go okay, now we're good, now we're good, we don't want any more. They'll tell you that beforehand. They'll say look, if you would just concede on this point, that's all we're good, we don't want anymore. They'll tell you that beforehand. They'll say, look, if you would just concede on this point, that's, that's all we really want.
Speaker 1:Feminism is a textbook example. We just, we just want men and women to be treated equally. That's not really what they wanted. Anyway, they wanted them treated the same. We, you know, we just want we. They wanted them treated the same. We don't want to destroy marriage and the family. We don't want homosexuality or LGBTQ lifestyles or anything like that. We just want to be treated the same. And then, of course, we look up and now it's well, the homosexual group. They just you know, I just want to love who I want to love, and then it turns in well, I just want to marry who I want to marry, and then it turns into well, I'm a man, I know I'm in a woman's body, or I'm a woman, I know I'm in a man's body, but I'm really the opposite. I just want you to treat me the way I feel. Feminism is just a part of leftism, really. Communism, socialism, nazism, islam, all of them. Folks Yielding an inch simply leads to new demands.
Speaker 1:Sir Howard Kennard, talking about the potential of the Nazis invading Poland, he said if Hitler decides on war, it is for the sole purpose of destroying Polish independence. What's the real goal of the left in America today, really across Western civilization? It's not any of these short-term statements that they make. The goal is to destroy liberty and to destroy freedom, to destroy the independence of individuals, and at its core, it's anti-Christ. That's the purpose, that's the sole purpose of those ideologies. You have a lot of little, but the end result you could phrase it as the sole purpose of cancer is to spread right, and the only way that it can spread is by destroying the host and America and really any civilized nation. Because of the free will that God requires, we've served as a host for leftism, feminism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, right Some have taken better hold than others but we've served as a host for this anti-Christ, these anti-Christ Islam ideologies, and the only purpose of those ideologies is to spread, and the only way to continue to do that is to eventually destroy the body.
Speaker 1:Horribleisha was a member, I believe, of Chamberlain's cabinet when all this was going on. I think he was the only one that really, or maybe one of a couple members of the cabinet that really understood even a little bit what was going on, even at this late stage with the Germans, and he wrote a comment in his diary he said, talking about his response to Chamberlain on a particular issue. He said I urge that our only effective reply was to show strength and determination, that in no circumstances should we give the impression that we would weaken in our undertaking to Poland. Anytime you show weakness, you show equivocation to the left, to feminism, nazism, socialism, communism, islam. They're going to take a mile. Anytime you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile. Anytime you show weakness, they're going to take a mile. Anytime you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile. Anytime you show weakness, they're going to come after you. And that's really what we've been doing. We've become soft and we've tricked ourselves. We've convinced ourselves that we're doing it because we're being loving. There's nothing at all loving about encouraging people to continue in sin or encouraging our country to continue in sin, to continue rejecting God, and it just opens the door for more demands and more destruction.
Speaker 1:Matthew 6. Giving to the Poor and Prayer. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you when you pray. You are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Speaker 1:And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom and and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
Speaker 1:Fasting the true treasure, wealth mammon. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face, as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men but by your Father, who is in secret, and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also.
Speaker 1:The eye is the lamp of the body. So then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth the cure for anxiety.
Speaker 1:For this reason, I say to you do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon, in all his glory, clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes, the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Do not worry then saying what will we eat or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles, eagerly, seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself.
Speaker 1:Each day has enough trouble of its own, isn't that the truth? How many of us worry about tomorrow? What we're going to do? Where we're going to go? How are we going to make enough money? What's in our bank account? Are we going to buy gas? What are we going to make enough money? What's in our bank account? Where are we going to buy gas? What are we going to make for dinner? What if we just worried about today? What am I going to do right now? I'm not talking about planning, folks. Obviously you have to plan for the future, but there's a difference between planning and worrying. What if we were only really concerned with what am I going to do in the next hour? How am I going to serve God? How am I going to love my spouse? How am I going to raise my children, teach them, lead them? What am I going to do at work?
Speaker 1:Verse 1,. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven. Verse 3, but when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing. How many of us give and we want other people to see what we give so that they know that we're really good people how many of us really go to any effort to hide what we give so that they know that we're really good people? How many of us really go to any effort to hide what we give? I mean, that would be pretty hard right To not let your left hand know what your right is doing. Do we work really hard to give to the poor without anybody knowing that it was us except God? I think a lot of times we make excuses. I make excuses or I'm just too lazy to actually put the work in that would be required, and it's better to give than not to give folks. But how many of us really work at making sure that our left hand doesn't know what our right is doing when we give to the poor? But our left hand doesn't know what our right is doing when we give to the poor and when we pray?
Speaker 1:Verse 6, right, but you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father, who is in secret, and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you Definitely, especially men. As husbands and fathers, we need to set an example to our wives and our children of praying. But beyond that, how many of us go into a room and close the door so that nobody can tell that we're praying and pray to God? There's no reward in that. Nobody's going to think you're a really humble, super great guy because nobody can see it. But God, how many of us believe this verse? Close your door and pray to your Father who's in secret, and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Doesn't necessarily mean, folks, that it's going to be some kind of financial reward, by the way, doesn't mean that it's even going to be a reward in this life. There's no guarantee of that.
Speaker 1:You see later, right Verse 19, 20, 21. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also there. Your heart will be awesome. Who's to say that when we go and we pray in secret, that that's not storing up for ourselves treasure in heaven. Wouldn't that be awesome? Again, I can't, for whatever reason. I'm stuck on this app idea. Wouldn't that be awesome to be able to do these things that God tells us and see our eternal bank account? God tells us and see our eternal bank account. How much do you think that would change the way we act? Right, every time you went and prayed in secret, you got a little donation to your eternal bank account. Every time you loved your spouse or you got a donation. Every time you put God first, you got a donation. Be pretty sweet, folks. I think that had changed the way we acted quite a bit.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of times in this Matthew chapter six right, there's also verse 18 talking about fasting. Then you know fast, don't let people know that you're fasting. When you fast, smile, grin and bear it right, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men but by your father, who's in secret, and your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Just that idea of just making sure that we're doing things for God to see, not necessarily for men to see. We're going to talk about somebody in a minute who used to go into a room and lock the door, and then verse 24, there's a lot more here, folks, but I'll read this and we'll move on.
Speaker 1:No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. How many of us pretend at serving God, but we're really chasing the wealth of the world? And maybe it's money, maybe it's accolades, fame, professional achievement. How many of us, though, serve God as our primary each day? That's, our primary goal is to fulfill our responsibility and our roles as a man or a woman, a husband or a wife, a father or a mother. Those are our top goals each day. How many of us, as opposed to?
Speaker 1:Well, I know that this is what God wants me to do, but I really want this promotion. I really want to go do this job overseas. I really want to go do this job overseas. I really want to. I know that God wants me to be a loving husband, but my wife's not really doing her part, and I'd rather go hang out with my friends anyway. Or I know that God wants me to respect my husband or submit to him, but I don't really feel like doing that. I'd rather go to work each day and submit to some random boss so that I can climb the corporate ladder. Or I know that God, as a a child, told me to honor my parents, but they don't really deserve it and I don't really feel like doing it today. I'm going to just go my own way and chase what the world tells me to chase. You can't do both folks. You can't chase the world and chase God at the same time. I've tried it over my life multiple times. It doesn't work. It always, always ends up poorly, poorly. So today we're going to talk a little bit of. This is in the American Patriots Bible. I'm sure there's some quotes. I didn't look in the Founders Bible, but I would bet that there's some of this there. But I'm going to pull the vast majority of this out of America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes. I'm sure you can find a bunch of this in other places.
Speaker 1:George Washington Carver he's a chemist, right, he's famous for looking at the peanut, but soybean, pecan, sweet potato. He was trying to find ways to use these crops so that farmers in the South in particular weren't so dependent upon cotton and at the same time, when they were growing these crops, it gave them food for themselves. He was raised by his uncle Moses and Aunt Sue Carver, because his mother was kidnapped when he was an infant. He was sickly as a kid. That kind of reminds me of Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt was sickly as a kid. That kind of reminds me of Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt was sickly as a child, went to school in Missouri, kansas. Graduated from Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, actually had a painting titled the Yucca, or Yucca, that received an honorable mention at Chicago's World Fair in 1893. He had a faculty position at Iowa State College of Agriculture but he left it to join Booker T Washington at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Speaker 1:Made a lot of discoveries there A few hundred different discoveries about the peanut, over a hundred about the sweet potato. A lot of other things. I think one of the most interesting little tidbits here is non-toxic colors which they eventually put in crayons right, and a way to derive rubber from milkweed, which is to to me just fascinating. He was friends with Henry Ford, was visited by Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D Roosevelt, knew a lot of very famous men around the world Thomas Edison, gandhi, people, always I say always, but a few people at least. Mr Ford was among them. Thomas Edison was one. Offered him a ton of money to leave Tuskegee. Edison, it says here in this little clip, offered him a six-figure salary Hard to even imagine how much money that would be at that time and he turned him down. And he turned him down. He was giving speaking in 1920 at the YMCA of Blue Ridge, north Carolina. He was introduced by the president of Blue Ridge, dr Willis D Weatherford, and Carver got up kind of laughed apparently and said I always look forward to introductions as opportunities to learn something about myself.
Speaker 1:Years ago, when I went into my laboratory he said Dear Mr Creator, please tell me what the universe was made for. The great creator answered you want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask for something more, your side little man. Then I asked Please, mr Creator, tell me what man was made for. Again the creator replied you are still asking too much. Cut down of the extent and improve the intent. So then I asked please, mr Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made, that's better. But even then it's infinite. What do you want to know about the peanut, mr Creator? Can I make milk out of the peanut? What kind of milk do you want to know about the peanut, mr Creator? Can I make milk out of the peanut? What kind of milk do you want? Good Jersey milk or just plain boarding house milk? Good Jersey milk? And then the great creator taught me to take the peanut apart, put it together again, and out of the process have come forth all these products. Among the numerous products there on display, there was indeed a bottle of good Jersey milk. Claims here that about three and a half ounces of peanuts could produce one pint of rich milk or one quart of boarding house blue john. I'm not familiar with boarding house blue john. I guess it's not as rich as rich milk. Still, pretty impressive, impressive.
Speaker 1:1921, carver was invited to speak before the Senate Ways and Means Committee in DC. Talk about the peanut and other props. He was initially only given 10 minutes to speak, but the committee became so enraptured that the chairman said go ahead, brother, your time is unlimited. Carver spoke for one hour and 45 minutes. This is an exchange at the end of it between the chairman. And the chairman said Dr Carver, how did you learn all of these things?
Speaker 1:Carver said from an old book. What book, asked the senator. The chairman, carver replied the Bible. Chairman said does the Bible tell about peanuts? No, sir, but it tells about the God who made the peanut. And I asked him to show me what to do with the peanut. And he did His laboratory, his lab. He called it God's little workshop. He never took any science books, textbooks, into it. He would just talk to God. You know, a lot of us would laugh and scoff at that, especially those of us that are science-minded and say well, that's ridiculous, you can't do that. Or maybe you're in the world of finance? Well, that's ridiculous, you can't do that. Seems pretty limiting to an all-powerful God. Maybe the limiting factor is really our faith. 1924, he spoke in New York, new York City's Marble Collegiate Church.
Speaker 1:God is going to reveal to us things he never revealed before if we put our hands in his. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me. At the moment, I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless.
Speaker 1:I wonder how many of us want God's help but we refuse to see ourselves as helpless. We want God's guidance but we refuse to accept where he tells us to go and we don't even really talk to him, not earnestly, just kind of as a by-the-by. We want truth revealed to us. We want to know what we're supposed to do and where we're supposed to go, but we don't spend any time reading his word or praying, and if we do, it's just a check in the box, it's just something to make sure that we did it that day. We want our pain, heartache, fear, anxiety taken away, but we just want God to do it in the same fashion that we would get it done from a genie in a lamp. We don't really want to talk to God that much. We don't want to develop that relationship with him. Certainly this is true as a nation. We want God's blessings on America. We want all of the great things he's given us for so long, but we don't want to do the hard work. We don't want to serve him as a nation publicly. We want the blessings but we want to put him in a corner.
Speaker 1:It's like one of those friends. Have you ever had one of those friends that only wants to be friends with you when they want something? Perhaps, even worse, one of those friends that only wants to be friends when they want something and the rest of the time they're embarrassed by you and they'll avoid you in public. I remember reading a little excerpt at some point over the last couple of years talking about Churchill, his wife, mrs Churchill, and she knew what she was getting into, for the most part when she married a politician. But it was still hard when people that supposedly were her friends because of something her husband said, would walk all the way across a road just so they didn't have to cross, walk past her, or would turn into a store as if they hadn't seen her. And that's basically what we've done as a nation. We've put God in this little corner and we've said, ah, we don't, you're kind of embarrassing God, we don't really want, we don't want to acknowledge you, we just want you to give us what we want. Seems kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:Carver, too, talking about going in and locking his door right and uh, he would if I didn't say that that's part of it. He would go into his lab and he would lock the door. He said only alone can I draw close enough to god to discover his secrets. Seems like a pretty good reading today. I had had no intention of doing that, really, folks. It just kind of matched up with Matthew 6. Don't let your left hand know what your right is doing. Go in your room and close the door and pray in secret. When you fast, make sure everybody else thinks that you're not fasting. Do it in secret. Jim Hardwick was from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. His brother, harry Hardwick, was the head football coach at US Naval Academy, tuskegee in 1928 and asked Carver to talk about some of his observations of God.
Speaker 1:As a very small boy, exploring the almost virgin woods of the old Carver place, I had the impression someone had just been there ahead of me. Things were so orderly, so clean, so harmoniously beautiful. A few years later, in the same woods, I was to understand the meaning of this boyish impression, because I was practically overwhelmed with the sense of some great presence. Practically overwhelmed with the sense of some great presence. Not only had someone been there, someone was there Years later when I read in the scriptures. In him we live and move and have our being. I knew what the writer meant. Never since have I been without this consciousness of the Creator speaking to me. The out-of-doors has been to me more and more a great cathedral in which God could be continuously spoken to and heard from man who needed a purpose, a mission, mission to keep him alive. Had one, he could be God's co-worker.
Speaker 1:My attitude toward life was also my attitude toward science. Jesus said one must be born again, must become as a little child. He must let no laziness, no fear, no stubbornness keep him from his duty. If he were born again, he would see life from such a plane. He would have the energy not to be impeded in his duty by these various side trackers and inhibitions. My work, my life must be in the spirit of a little child, seeking only to know the truth and follow it. My purpose alone must be God's purpose to increase the welfare and happiness of his people. Nature will not permit a vacuum. It will be filled with something. Human need is really a great spiritual vacuum which God seeks to fill.
Speaker 1:How many of us get up each day, folks, and seek to know the truth and follow it? Really seek to know the truth and follow it? How many of us get up each day and we ask for our purpose to be God's purpose alone. How many of us seek each day, through our actions, to improve the welfare of those around us and our community, our family, our community, our church, our nation? That is definitely not my goal every morning, folks. It should be.
Speaker 1:Some mornings I even pray it, but even then, sadly, too often, there's a pretty big difference between my prayer and the intent of my heart. God, I really need this promotion, I really need this job. I really need this, whatever. Oh, by the way, help me to do your will while I'm doing that. Oh, by the way, help me to do your will while I'm doing that. That's a better representation of the condition of my heart.
Speaker 1:Often there's so many around us folks that are so desperately in need of God and Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, you know that, because at some point in your life you have been desperately in need, probably multiple times, maybe on a daily basis. That's what I feel like often, sometimes desperately in need Of God. To fill that void In your heart, in your soul, that pain, sadness, loneliness, to give you direction, all the things the world offers. They're really good at giving us goals and directions for the short term.
Speaker 1:Money, you know, you can work really hard and amass a lot of money. Sex feels good right, you can chase that a lot. Alcohol and drugs feels good. You can chase those. Fame, right. Being well-known popular you can chase that all the way up the ladder in Hollywood or professional sports. But at some point you get to the end and you figure out that no matter how much money you make or how much sex or drugs or alcohol you take in, or how famous you are, how many people you know, you know you write somewhere along the line you get to the end of it and none of that stuff is going to help you and there's just nothing else left to do. It just doesn't fill the void.
Speaker 1:With one hand in the hand of a fellow man in need and the other in the hand of Christ, he could get across the vacuum and I became an agent. Then the passage I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me, came to have real meaning. As I worked on projects which fulfilled a real human need, forces were working through me which amazed me. I would often go to sleep with an apparently insoluble problem. When I woke, the answer was there.
Speaker 1:Why then should we believe, we who believe in Christ be so surprised at what God can do with a willing man and a laboratory? Some things must be baffling to the critic who has never been born again by nature. I am a conserver. I have found nature to be a conserver. Nothing is wasted or permanently lost in nature. Things change their form, but they do not cease to exist After I leave this world. I do not believe I am through. God would be a bigger fool than even a man if he did not conserve what seems to be the most important thing he has yet done in the universe. This kind of reasoning may aid the young.
Speaker 1:When you get your grip on the last rung of the ladder and look over the wall, as I am now doing, you don't need their proofs. You see, you know you will not die. In 1939, george Washington Carver was awarded the Roosevelt Medal and the declaration with the award said to a scientist humbly seeking the guidance of God and a liberator to men of the white race as well as the black One. Last quote of his the secret to my success. It is simple, it is found in the Bible, and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. His last little comment earlier about when you get to the last rung in the ladder. That reminds me of one of the scenes out of the Chronicles of Narnia that I've talked about here before, where one of the characters is looking into heaven, into the you know, the virgin of heaven in that story, and we can't really see what he sees. But we can see his face as he sees it, and just the joy and the light and the overwhelming happiness. I think that's probably something akin to what Mr Carver was talking about. When you get to the last rung in the ladder and you can look over the wall and you see heaven, and that's pretty awesome. Better than anything the world has to offer is the hope that Jesus Christ offers.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. And verse 7. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Excuse me, it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages, if you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.