Archives: Episodes

Up the carpenter went to Jerusalem, a very special man soon to be crucified and then, in mighty triumph, wondrously resurrected from the dead.
He dined with his disciples, a last loving supper with them to celebrate his body and his blood. The communion, the meaning of the Living Christ had begun.
They found him, the Romans and the Sanhedrin did, they tried him, found him guilty although no man so convicted had ever been more innocent and sentenced him to death, the cruelest and most brutal death possible, a public crucifixion.
They nailed him to that wooden cross. Ironic is it not that a man who lived and worked with wood died on wood.
But before he died he uttered unforgettable words:
MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
WHY?
Stunning, shocking words, almost impossible to believe. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of Glory, the SON of the Living God believed that this God the Father had forsaken him! It is impossible to know how he felt, how awful that death must have been for him. For, in that crucial moment, when worlds collided, when heaven and earth met in a tumultuous and cataclysmic way, when the most powerful earthshaking event in all of human history was about to take place, the one whose life was taken so that he could give life to all others felt forsaken! He felt abandoned by the God who sent him for this mission. He was in that sense like us, a man, a human being with emotions and feelings as we have. On that cross, he was like us.
And it was in that dark moment as though God had departed, forsaken this man. It might well have been that this holy God could not look upon the ultimate and tragic event. For on that cross, in the blood and body of that person, in that death unto sin were in fact the sins of the world, all of them and all of ours. Perhaps God had in fact withdrawn until that ultimate act was finished and when done, there would be propitiation, remission, which would take away the sins of the world. Perhaps the agony, suffering and meaning of that event needed to occur all by itself.
Our Lord knew what would happen. He knew what he would have to do, what God required him to do, what his mission was. And yet, he asked as a man:
LET THIS CUP PASS FROM ME
Saying, in effect that he could only wish that he would not have to go through this monstrous ordeal. But then came the realization, that eternal realization that it was not up to him, whether or not this fate, this mission would go away and he uttered the ultimate words of submissions:
NOT MY WILL BUT YOUR WILL BE DONE, FATHER
This crucifixion I endure because you would have me do it.
And so our Lord, the carpenter who made living things from wood was to die on a deadly wooden cross. He would die in pain, excruciating pain, in agony, awful agony. He would die exposed physically, body naked and mutilated and subject to ridicule. He would die with ultimate humiliation, mocked by so many. He would die blood, sweat and tears everywhere, the worst possible death the Romans could deliver. And all the time innocent, guilty of:
NOTHING
Small wonder he said:
LET IT PASS, PLEASE LET IT PASS!
And so he died, the blood, the remission for our sins, for us complete. But, on that third day came the most miraculous, wondrous event this world of ours has ever known. There came on that third day the resurrection, the back-to-life of Jesus Christ, our living Savior and the Prince of Glory. From that brutalized dead body of a carpenter came the resurrected and risen Savior of the world. The power, the ultimate universal power of God Almighty at work.
The tomb where he was buried was empty and that is the CRUX of Christianity. If Christ be not risen, says Apostle Paul, then our Christian faith is in vain, worthless. Of all men we who believe in a Christ not risen are most miserable. Then we are of all men deceived and spiritually deranged. Christianity says Paul without the risen Christ is worthless. Yet it seems so difficult to believe. Coming back to life after death is just simply not humanly possible. Except that, ALL THINGS are possible with God, all things including the resurrection of the dead. But the tomb was empty, no body found, as witnessed 2,000 years ago by three women Mary, Mary Magdalene and Salome. They came to this tomb of Joseph of Arimathea to anoint the body of the crucified Christ only to find the messenger of God, an angel who pronounced the three most important words for every believer in the risen Christ:
HE IS RISEN
Go and tell, the disciples, and Peter, and start the spread of that Gospel, the good news to all mankind the world over. Hallelujah and praise the Lord.
So we sing on Easter Sunday:
CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY!
HALLELUJAH!
Let us sing with praise and worship for that man tried and convicted, crucified, dead and buried was in fact, hallelujah, raised from the dead, resurrected by the power of God, eternal life in him and because of our belief in him, eternal life for us.
We know, we believe that Christ is risen and we who are Christian are one with him. We pray that the love and forgiveness of the Christ of Calvary shall be the portion, the salvation of all mankind even as we sing in praise now and for eternity:
CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN
HALLELUJAH!

Is Senate Bill 4 too harsh for those seeking to enter the U.S. but doing so illegally?  Will Congress act to pass more common-sense immigration legislation before November 5th?  What about the "shocking" claim from Democrat Congresswoman Katie Porter that the Senate race in the California Primary was rigged?  With the amount of "outside influence" in this race, is it possible that she may have a point?

That, says the scriptures, THE CROSS is an:
OFFENSE.
The meaning, the thought, the application of the cross is indeed an offense to the NATURAL MAN. That is, the man or woman who has no belief in Christianity. This natural person, man or woman, is offended by the notion of the cross. In fact, this anti-Christian person is offended by anything about the cross, including the blood of Jesus Christ.
For Christians, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, was the act of the son of God who laid down his life for mankind, for the sins of man and woman, and without, says the scriptures, this shedding of blood there is:
NO REMISSION FOR SIN.
None at all.
But the concept of sin generally and the need of humankind to accept that propitiation for sin is offensive, even mythological. Some critics, atheistic, even go so far as to call the crucifixion and the shedding of blood:
BARBARIC.
They go back to the Old Testament, to the very book of Genesis, where there was a sacrifice of an animal, the shedding of that animal’s blood as atonement, remission for sins, declaring that to be barbaric as well. But, again, for Christians, without the shedding of blood, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, there is no remission for sins, none at all. Sin and blood, and of course crucifixion, say the natural man and woman, is ridiculous mythology and stokes the passions of these anti-Christians in this day and age, perhaps as never before.
But sin, the coming short of the glory of God is indeed a reality. In fact, it is everywhere in deed and in heart. Evil is a reality, and there really is no cure for it, except ONE! And that is the saving grace of our Lord clearly manifested to us at Calvary, Golgotha, THE CROSS. Thank God for the cross and Christ!
Jesus of Nazareth was tried before Pilate, and the verdict was:
I FIND NO FAULT IN HIM!
But the mob cried out:
CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!
Pilate, politician that he was, honored the tradition of the time, to release a prisoner to them and Pilate chose Barrabus over Jesus, so much for justice.
To Calvary, he went. Weakened as he was, Simon of Cyrene was conscripted by the Romans to carry the cross of Christ and the Golgathan drama began. Nails were driven into his hands and feet, and there he hung, suffering, parched with a terrible thirst, the crown of thorns on His head causing his blood to drip and his spirit to yearn for the end. He felt all alone, even abandoned by His Father, as he took upon himself the sins of the world, of you and me. In that lonely state, he cried out:
MY GOD, MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
But then, mercifully, it was over. And his parting words were:
IT IS FINISHED!
That ultimate act of redemption was accomplished once and for all, for all mankind, for you and for me. There were those at the time who saw the event, witnessed the horrible act of Roman crucifixion, and watched the innocent Jesus of Nazareth suffer. They witnessed his body taken down from that cross, and the man Joseph, wrapping it in fine linen and laying the precious body of Jesus Christ in that very own and special tomb.
That was Friday, but then came Sunday. On the third day, this son of the living God, with the power of God, rose from the dead, and accomplished the greatest event in human history:
THE RESURRECTION.
Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph or’e his foes. He arose the victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. Blessed are we, by the millions and millions, who have never seen but who believe, nonetheless.
BLESSED ARE WE!
And we are indeed, for Gentile and Jew, anyone for that matter, all humankind, can have the incredible benefits of the crucifixion and the resurrection, a life of reconciliation here and life eternal there. Death is destroyed, for there now is no more death. We who believe will live eternally with Him so that the life we now live is redeemed, cleansed, and forgiven by His BLOOD. And we will be raised like HIM in our very own resurrection morning to know HIM and to live eternally with HIM.
Thank God for that third day. Life here and now is one of joy, unspeakable rejoicing, praise, worship, and thanksgiving because of this great offense, the cross of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.
So, my fellow Christians, on Easter Sunday and every other day, may we praise God for Jesus of Nazareth, and:
THANK GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT!

In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, the guys discuss the State of the Union address, the hostile reaction to Pastor Jack Hibbs' Congressional prayer, and Ken Buck's resignation.

Hollywood is increasingly finding Jesus - and the results could be profound.
Those are the words of Billy Hallowell, writer for the interesting publication THE WASHINGTON TIMES.
Finding Jesus in the world of Hollywood can always be suspect for such a finding may be superficial and could be the finding of a Hollywood Jesus and not a Biblical Jesus. Nonetheless, it can be hoped that the real Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ of Glory is what is being discovered by Hollywood and Hollywood-ers and that the corrupt culture of Hollywood, and the entertainment business generally, may in fact, at least to some extent, be:
BORN AGAIN.
What a blessing that would be, would it not?
Coming out of Hollywood and the entertainment world, says Hallowell, is an “agonizing stream of debauchery and hedonism.” Indeed, it is, and if that stuff is not aggressively anti-Christian, it at least cares nothing about morality, much less Christian values. Perhaps there is a revival of some sort in Hollywood, and maybe the entertainment world and business generally, and we who believe in the real Jesus Christ can only hope that such a revival and Christian enlightenment can be based on strong and solid biblical truth, fostered by the Holy Spirit, and result in real transformation, not only of the individual but the industry itself. How good that would be.
We can only hope and pray that the so-called stars, actors and actresses who wish to be famous by the tens and tens of thousands, can indeed have a real born-again experience, experience real salvation, and bring to the entertainment field the love, charity, and sense of forgiveness which only true Christianity can offer. That and only that would really make a difference. And I for one do pray that that is the Jesus which this so-called new Hollywood is finding. If so, the results could as Hallowell says, really be profound and work for real change in what is probably otherwise a god-less industry.
Our culture does indeed reel with division, hatred, mistrust, and anger. If we can find leaders, men and women of character, faith, and real morality, that indeed would make a great difference in our once-great country.
So many of these actors and entertainers have indeed achieved fame, notoriety, and of course money, and the more of that, the less it seems of meaning and value. So many actors, entertainers, sports figures, and personalities of all sorts, keep looking and hoping until there is a real finding of the ultimate happiness, Jesus of Nazareth. Faith and belief in Him, the salvation provided by Him, is the ultimate answer, the ultimate happiness, and it would be wonderful indeed if the entertainment world would find the REAL HIM.
One of the problems the people in this industry face is that the Call of the Christ echoes loud with a summons to not be of this world, but to be transformed. To be a real Christian says the scripture, is to be in the world but not of the world. Hollywood inhabitants do not seem willing to place their all on the altar, to be willing to give up fame, fortune, money, power, influence, and stardom to follow the babe of Bethlehem and the carpenter of Nazareth. But that is evidence of real faith and that is the only way that their lives can be transformed and the industry in which they live itself can be transformed.
Recently, Hollywood has produced some very interesting Christian respectful and Jesus-oriented movies and other products of a higher moral order. What example is the film:
JESUS REVOLUTION.
To the astonishment of Hollywood executives and businesspersons, that film was a box office hit, drew strong reviews, and made very good money. That, said Hallowell, sent “shockwaves” through Hollywood.
Then there is also the TV series:
THE CHOSEN
that is cinematography well done, copy and storylines which are in virtually every way biblically authentic, and well watched by millions of viewers. If such programming does in fact honor Jesus Christ in a real and uncompromising way, thank God and thank Hollywood. That would mean more of this programming being produced and made available. If that in any way spreads the gospel and results in the salvation of souls, again PRAISE THE LORD. Hallowell firmly believes there is a real revival in Tinsel Town and he may be right.
Now comes our celebration of Easter, the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord, the real Jesus, and I for one do hope and pray that anything which comes from Hollywood which in fact respectfully and lovingly represents the real biblical Jesus would be of enormous value to our angry, hate-filled, and divisive country at this critical moment in time. Jesus states clearly that HE is the way, the truth, and the life. It is HE who has come to give us life more abundant, that our joy might be full, that our rejoicing may be great in Him and that true and real happiness can only be found in Him. Amen. Amen and I hope you feel and believe the very same way, do you?
Hollywood has always been ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, perhaps even anything too moral, never acknowledging the fact that this gospel is the power of God unto salvation and the only force in this world which can really transform in a fundamental and eternal way the lives of human beings. If anything, ANYTHING in Hollywood can be changed, born again, and its self-produced change for the better, may God be praised. We should pray indeed that Hollywood and its inhabitants, the actors and actresses of the world, continue on the path to find the real Jesus so that indeed as Hallowell well states:
THE SPIRITUAL RESULTS CAN BE PROFOUND!

In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast the guys review the results of Super Tuesday 2024 and what's next and they discuss the 9-0 SCOTUS ruling that keeps Trump on the ballot in 2024.

What a joy it is to be a Christian, a real Christian. A biblically based Christian. A Christian who believes as a life-long credo:
FOR BY GRACE ARE YOU SAVED THROUGH FAITH
AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES,
IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD
NOT OF WORKS
LEST ANY MAN OR WOMAN SHOULD BOAST.
That, my friends, is the real gospel, simply put as the real gospel is. The grace of God is almost undefinable, without boundaries, limits, magnificent, perhaps the chief characteristic of God the Father Almighty.
The faith that saves NONES, is a simple one as well. It is faith just like that of a little child. Children, the strongest evidence of what faith means, loving, trusting, hopeful, single-minded, uncompromising, and unconfused. That is the kind of faith by which salvation occurs and lasts a lifetime. What a shame that child-like biblical faith is challenged, so often not preached in the pulpit, and is exactly what the NONES need and are undoubtedly looking for.
I have little confidence in surveys, surveys of any kind, the best a survey can do is highlight an issue, a problem, a way of thinking, but when sampling the opinions of a few hundred people leads to conclusions drawn sometimes for millions, the inadequacies and inaccuracies of those conclusions are painfully evident. Now comes the most recent Pew poll.
The more educated those NONES were, those who are so-called atheists or agnostics, that is the more intellectual the none-believer was as a result of education, the more it seems they believed in themselves, their own thinking, their own determination of truth, and ultimate values (if any) and the less they were willing to accept the absolute truth of any religion, and especially the gospel of Jesus Christ. The educated were more critical. They were especially critical of religious institutions, churches, denominations, and what they termed overly zealous religious people, whatever that means. These NONES thought the pulpit was weak, pastors compromised, and the power of the message missing. In many cases, they were probably right about that, but instead of looking around that, or deeper into the truth of the gospels, they simply wrote off religion and any concept of salvation, especially salvation by grace and faith. Rather than the God and the Christ of the Bible, these so-called educated NONES
constructed their own version of GOD, which had little or no relationship or similarity to the God of the Bible. They chose for themselves what they wanted to believe and discarded the rest. They happily acknowledge the fact that we live in the age of POST-TRUTH, the end of the age of absolute truth and the end of any kind of formal religion with claims to such a truth. These new NONES were part of the WOKE generation and they relished their easy god and their very own made-up religion. They embraced the fact that this new wokeness had strong elements of Marxism and although anything from the pen of Marx was totally contrary to the truth of the gospel, incorporated those Marxist generalities into their religious thinking and beliefs. Nothing could be more anti-Christian, REAL CHRISTIANITY and it is nothing more than a brand new and powerful insidious way in which the powers of evil attack the powers of righteousness and those with simple, child-like, bible-believing faith approach their beliefs.
Paul reminds us that these end times will bring forth many false teachers, false beliefs, compromises to the real gospel, and challenges to the concept of salvation by faith through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is happening big time, my fellow Americans and fellow Christians. Avoid it and them like the plague.
Many believe that the church has become infected with theological liberalism, woke-ism, even Marxism, all of which denied the resurrection, the bible’s authority, miracles, the virgin birth, and salvation by faith. Reconstruction and redefinition are the new rages with regard to religion generally and especially and hurtfully, the very real and wonderful Christian church. As one theologian said:
‘MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS HAVE GOTTEN DISILLUSIONED WITH CHURCHES, RELIGIOUS LEADERS, AND PASTORS WHO ARE CLEARLY ABANDONING THE BIBLE.”
What people want, and especially the NONES, is truth, loving truth. Searchers for this loving truth, this real truth, want more than anything:
AUTHENTICITY.
The real, the real gospel. Real truth, uncompromised. So many in this generation hunger for faith, hope, and love, all of which are the essential components of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To know HIM is to know Truth, absolute truth. And there He is, ready to be known, accepted, and believed in. What an opportunity to present the gospel to this incredibly compromised, needy, day and age.
David Closson, of FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL, said the following:
WE DON’T NEED TO DRESS THE GOSPEL UP. WE DON’T NEED THE LIGHT SHOW, THE ROCK BANDS. I THINK THERE IS SOMETHING UNIQUE ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL (AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO BE SURE). AND IF CHURCHES AND CHRISTIANS REALLY PUSH INTO THEIR COMMUNITIES, I THINK THEY WOULD FIND A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD BE READY TO HEAR THE GOSPEL AND TO RESPOND TO IT.

Amen. Go ye into all this generation with the power of the gospel, the real gospel, and watch, you just watch the real results, the saving results which will be produced by your life and your testimony by:
THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD ALMIGHTY!

Inevitable, was it not my fellow Christians, that artificial intelligence, the so-called AI would step into the pulpit?
This people-replacer, so say the experts, can be either friend or foe. It can either be an aid to the pastor in terms of preparation and time, like the concordance, the wrap-opt, the microphone, and existing sophisticated bible research software; or say the foes, AI can actually write the sermon for the pastor. If the sermon originates from a non-human source, why bother to go to church at all?
The potentiality for AI use can be addictive to any pastor, to any Christian preparing materials looking for a shortcut, unwilling to invest the time for real human preparation, a God-required responsibility of any pastor, at least to this point. It is, in the words of one Jared Bridges, where:
AI IS COMING FOR YOUR PASTOR!
The real problem occurs when this brand-new technology doesn’t nearly aid the pastor in doing his responsible preaching, but instead does it for him! To be sure, AI indeed saves time, and to some, that saved preparation time can allow the pastor to “reroute that time to other ministry goals.”
One pastor stated:
‘When I need examples or applications for a sermon, I go to ChatGPT for ideas.”
Having been called upon generative AI can produce applications for a sermon, not from a mind and heart dedicated to the things of the Lord but from the code base and algorithm of the AI chatbot itself. So, the question may be, is the chatbot born again, has the chatbot experienced salvation, is the chatbot led and influenced in preparing the materials by the Holy Spirit, does the chatbot have a soul, does the chatbot pray and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit before it tells the pastor what to say?
So then, if any pastor, any preacher was to use AI methodology in sermon preparation, in outline, priorities, applications, and illustrations, that is a shortcut which allows them to avoid hard work, the hard work of preparation, the pouring of a spiritually led, Holy Spirit led heart and mind to the testimony to be given to those who hear. Says the scripture, study to show yourself approved, laymen and pastor. Study don’t shortcut. Be a workman or woman for God. WORK! Work in preparation for the delivery of the sacred Word of God to a congregation entrusted to you. Then and only then will that workman, the Lord’s workman never be ashamed of anything written or prepared, delivered in the power of the gospel to those who hear. There are no shortcuts in the work of the Lord, NONE!
The more AI is used, the more a pastor trusts a soul-less AI with known biases to interpret the meaning of the Word of God. By its very title, ARTIFICIAL, much of what AI produces is indeed soul-less, a matter of fact, and any sensitive hearer of the word can discern the fact that the material does not come from the heart and mind of a human being nor does it contain the real wisdom, love, and emotional impact of the Holy Spirit. There is absolutely no way that a chatbot can interpret the real meaning, the real spirituality of the Word of God, NO WAY!
But that doesn’t stop the founders of Pastors.ai, or ChatGPT, or SermonAI among others. They continue to produce materials, outlines, suggestions, illustrations, and applications drawn from sources everywhere and unknown. But the sites always produce the following disclaimer:
‘Since an AI generates these thesis statements and outlines, please use them with caution. Notably, AI likes to make things up so don’t trust anything it says at face value.”
So, that is the bottom line. In sermon preparation, pastor, AI is untrustworthy, and should not be taken at face value, so perhaps the real issue is not don’t trust it, but the real issue is:
DON’T USE IT!
To be sure, AI can write sermons. They can do the work of a pastor however worthy or trustworthy. In fact, with sermon.ai, the sermon it can write for the pastor is written at the level of an honorary doctorate, so they say. In fact, AI has the capability of writing that very sermon in a different voice. It uses the illustration of voicing that sermon in the voice of none other than:
BILLY GRAHAM.
Can you believe that? If I were Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham organization, I would get the lawyers ready to stop that nonsense.
So, my fellow Christians, do we want a sermon prepared by a machine or a human being empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, which? AI simply cannot do the soul-transforming work required of a real sermon honoring our Lord. Machine sermons cannot fully bless a congregation and this shortcut for the pastor severely curtails his own spiritual development. Lose-lose, don’t you think?
There are no shortcuts in the work of the Lord. We need to fight the fight to the end, run the race to the finish line, press on for the prize, work for the night is coming, study to show ourselves approved, and in all of that, in the call of our Lord, there are no:
SHORTCUTS.
We the Christians, the congregations must hold our preachers to a much higher standard, a standard which is set and strengthened by a heart generated by love and grace and not generative AI, not generated by a prompt. We need heart-open pastors, not automated ones, not spokesmen weak in the flesh but mighty in the scriptures. We need the power of the Holy Spirit in sermons, not the applications and prompts of AI. Another sign of the end times, don’t you think?
So, pastor, we your congregations, say study to show yourself approved, be a workman rightly dividing the word of truth. Spend the time in the book and the things of the Lord and teach us sermon after sermon of HIS faith, hope, and love.

In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast we discuss Laken Riley's murder.  She was a 22-year-old Christian Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered by Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal alien caught and released by the Biden Administration.  Ibarra had been arrested and released three times before committing this murder.

Post Roe Abortion, and Can Conservative Politicians Save America?  It appears that Trump would support a 16-week abortion ban.  Is that enough  to  hang on to 100% of the Pro-Life vote?  Is it too weak? Will independent or undecided  voters think it is too restrictive?  Also, what if God's plan for the Church in America doesn't hinge on Donald Trump?  Will anyone in the Church embrace that?  Have so-called Evangelical Conservative/Republican voters been a good representation of Christ and the Gospel?