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Music.

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To the official podcast of the Love Times Two Project. Change the culture and

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the politics will follow. Hey, welcome back to the podcast. So glad you could be with us today.

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We've got a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.

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The world is moving at a very rapid pace. We all know that.

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But you know, God's at work. He's always at work in ways that we see, ways that we don't see.

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Even in a world that just seems like it's so angry and divisive and hurting,

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He's at work. And isn't that amazing that not only is He at work,

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but He calls us into that work for His glory and not for ours.

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Let's always remember, God is at work.

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Now, you know, when we talk about our world today, we always need to understand

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that the culture, which is really the hearts and the minds of the people,

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that's the easy way to put it, it's always upstream from what's going on around us.

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That's because there's a cause and an effect.

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So when we see so many things that seem to be going south in our world today,

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we hear a lot about the need to change hearts and minds.

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I've said it a lot. I'm sure you've said it. Everybody around you has probably

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said it at one point or the other. The question is, how do we do that?

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Because changing minds is one thing. Great marketers can change our minds on

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a lot of things like where to shop, which laundry detergent to use,

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whether we're going to try the new Mountain Dew flavor that's going to come out, whatever.

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But the heart is something completely different.

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All of our hearts are bent away in rebellion against God, and this is the root

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of everything that's wrong in our world today. It's the root of abortion.

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It's the root of abuse, lying, selfishness, racism.

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Everything that is contrary to God is rooted in the sin nature of our hearts.

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That's the status quo of the world's heart.

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It's baked into us because of our sin nature going all the way back to the fall.

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And yet, in a media-driven world, it's really become come so easy to ignore

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that part of it and to frame all of our solutions in political terms.

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But we make such a huge mistake when we do that because politics is always downstream

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and the culture is always upstream.

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In every single instance, the upstream eventually will determine the downstream.

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So here's truth. If we really hope to change hearts and minds,

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we have to understand two things. One, any true changing of the heart must be rooted in the good news of Jesus.

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And And second, it must be on display in how we treat others around us.

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Faith without works is dead. God's Word tells us that. Others around us see it.

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Only through Jesus and the proof of our love and how we treat others will we

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actually see a positive upstream change.

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Want to change the world? Well, let's look upstream.

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Well, I'm going to tell you a little story just to set the stage here.

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It was the farthest thing from my mind. Culture change.

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It was the farthest thing from my mind years and years ago when I scored a campsite

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reservation conservation along the Virgin River in Zion National Park.

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Now, the only thing crossing my mind was what it was going to be like to wade

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into the cold waters and sit streamside with my wife and kids listening to beautiful

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sounds, listening to the stream running gently over the rocks throughout the night.

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Literally, I was thinking this is going to be like heaven on earth.

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Most surprising was the fact that I landed this campsite deep into the spring

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reservation season at a time when most sites at Zion and other national parks are completely booked.

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So I went to this site, I'm thinking

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waiting list, when this wonderful opportunity fell right in my lap.

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I booked it without a second thought, booked it as fast as I could,

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and life was awesome until I decided to have a talk to a park ranger.

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So as is our normal custom, you probably do the same thing.

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When you make a first-time visit to a national park, we took in the Zion National

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Park introductory film at the Visitor Center, and we actually learned quite

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a few things that we didn't know about Zion, especially when it comes to flash flooding.

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The park's film at that time made very strong mention of the possibility that

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throughout the park, flash flooding can occur, even warning visitors against

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hiking into the various slot canyons that, quite frankly,

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Zion is famous for, and urging constant preparedness in any activities involving

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the Virgin River and the many other streams.

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So I'm thinking flash floods and the Virgin River, like this is the exact same

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river that we were set up on, just a dozen or so feet from the water's edge.

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Hoping to ease my mind, I chatted with the ranger after the program and after

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the usual, hey, where are you folks from and do you have any questions?

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I was really glad that he asked because I did have one huge question.

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How will we know if we are at immediate

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risk of a flash flood since we're camping along the Virgin River?

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In other words, how much warning are we going to have if that occurs?

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And he must get this question like a thousand times because he didn't miss a beat.

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He looked me right in the eye and he said, you will hear a loud rumbling sound

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coming from the upstream and the water level will rise dramatically.

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And if you're fortunate, get this, if you're fortunate, you'll have about 60

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seconds before a wall of water will hit, carrying away everything in its path.

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Well, the ranger's warning changed everything from that point forward.

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I promise you, it changed everything at Zion. So now the sound of the stream at night was overshadowed by,

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you know, lying in the camper, listening for, you know, a low rumbling coming

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from upstream, you know, waiting in the stream became, it seemed like a death defying feat.

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Wasn't that bad, but you're certainly nervous after you've seen all this stuff

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about flash flooding. and when we arrived at the trail that's famous in Zion,

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I think it's called the Narrows, really narrow slot canyon, we saw these warning signs.

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We stopped, we took pictures, we turned back around, but nearly everyone else,

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frankly, just kind of funneled into the slot. We were following the rules and said, oh, we're not going to go in there because

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actually you could drown, but most folks just went right into the slot,

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taking the chance that what happens upstream is going to stay upstream,

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but it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way when it comes to rivers, and it doesn't work that way

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when it comes to talking about the value of human life.

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It really doesn't. So even today, if you go to the official Zion National Park,

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the website's going to have these warnings. It will tell you that flash floods are a sudden increase in the depth and speed

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of waters in the rivers, streams, and washes due to heavy rain from thunderstorms.

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Floodwaters carry large debris like tree trunks and boulders.

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Flash floods can occur at any time at Zion National Park and actually throughout

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the entire desert southwest. It also says flash floods are unpredictable. That's why they're flash floods.

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Flash floods can be deadly. And death most often occurs from blunt force trauma.

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Never would have guessed that. Before this, I would have thought it was drowning.

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Slot canyons are particularly dangerous. Flash floods can happen with sunny skies overhead.

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And I really love this one. If you didn't know the answer to this,

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you know now. You can't outrun a flash flood.

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So the site continues on. It says, become familiar with the signs of an impending

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flash flood. The site continues, become familiar with signs of impending flash floods.

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You're going to see a surge in water. You're going to see a change in watercolor.

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You're going to hear a roaring water sound, and there's going to be increased

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debris in the water, like to a very large degree.

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The point of all of this, the reason I shared that story is that there are always

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signs when there's a flash flood that's coming.

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So upstream always matters when you're camping. it always matters in life,

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it always matters in culture, and it always matters in how we treat others, actually.

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If there's one truth that we all have to understand about how our world works, it's this.

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Who we are as a people is always decided upstream, sometimes slowly,

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sometimes in a flash flood, but it's decided upstream for better or for worse.

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Now, where are we bringing all of this? Well, to this point,

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for all of us that are working to show compassion for pregnant moms and to protect

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unborn children and to provide healing and hope to those who have experienced abortion.

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And we don't want to forget that part of the equation. We must understand and

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embrace the priority, here it comes, of the upstream.

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It's an absolute must. If we fail to do this, if we fail to do this,

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here's what's going to happen. Women will continue to be abused and exploited.

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Children will continue to die. And every pro-life law, frankly,

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that has passed will eventually fall to the wayside, maybe five years from now,

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maybe 10 years from now, but they will fall. Why?

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Evil understands the upstream as well, and it is working to keep the upstream in its grip.

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Yes, the battle's at the statehouse and it's in Congress and in the state referendums,

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but all of these eventually are downstream from the battle to win hearts and minds,

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or what I refer to as the cultural tipping point. You've heard me talk about that on the the podcast.

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You're going to hear me talk about it more because we have to grasp this.

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We have to understand the upstream. We have to understand the importance of the cultural tipping point.

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Culture is always upstream from politics.

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You show me who captures the hearts and the minds of the people,

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and I'll show you who defines the value of life.

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We're going to reach that cultural tipping point long before 2030 in one direction or the other.

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And that is exactly why this is such a critical time.

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I know it's so tempting to believe that we can count on personalities or parties

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or organizations to save the day.

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But in reality, none of these are able in the long term to withstand the flash

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flood of a shifting culture.

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Hey, it's also tempting to think we can solve all the world's problems by reading

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or writing endless blogs, watching our favorite news outlet for hours at a time.

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Hey, we have to be smart enough to realize most of the news outlets are geared

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towards ratings and geared towards making you angry, geared towards fomenting division,

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because that's what drives the money for the network or the podcast or whatever.

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Or it's easy to snipe away at everybody on social media. That's the easy stuff.

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Quite frankly, anybody in the world can do any of that.

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Getting worked up and angry is easy to do. If that's what you want to do,

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it's really easy to do that in our world today.

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But the much harder work is to change hearts and minds. And that's all upstream.

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Because upstream is where it's at. And we're going to talk a lot more about it in the months ahead.

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Hey, that's it for this episode of the podcast. If you like what you're hearing,

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Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to.

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Give us a great rating as well. We would really appreciate it.

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You know, it's no secret. We're facing some giants in this entire discussion sphere.

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So we really need your financial support as well. Visit lovetimes2.org slash give.

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That's love, the letter X, the number two, dot org slash give and make your

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most generous gift right now. It's really going to make a difference in our work to change hearts and minds

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to a Jesus -centered view of the value of every life created in the image of God.

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Hey, until next time, never forget, change the culture and the politics will follow.

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Music.

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Thanks for listening to the official podcast of the Love x2 Project.

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And never forget, change the culture and the politics will follow.

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