Changing Worldviews

Guest (Male): Welcome to Changing Worldviews Podcast with Sharon Hughes, broadcast journalism you can trust to bring you the truth regarding the issues of our day and the worldviews behind them. Now, here's Sharon.

Sharon Hughes: I'm recording this week's show on Friday, on Good Friday. In my office, I'm going through files and boxes of papers, as you can just imagine. A lot of files on a lot of issues. I also have held on to magazines throughout the years that have been their Easter and Christmas issues.

I ran across a Time magazine of 1988 talking about who was Jesus, a startling new movie that raises an age-old question. What movie are they talking about? You may recall back then a movie entitled The Last Temptation of Christ. The magazine covered what they called a holy furor, where boycotts and so forth were done against the movie about Jesus that was clearly blasphemous, depicting him as fearful and unsure of his mission, that he married Mary Magdalene and had an affair with Mary Martha's sister, and on and on.

I mean, crazy things like Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I'm sure everyone has heard of that one. In this movie, one scene they ask Lazarus to compare being dead with being alive. They said, "I was a little surprised there isn't that much difference between being dead and alive." At times they made Jesus to look ridiculous, made him sound like he was mumbling. In one sermon he said, "Um, uh, I'm sorry." The film by Martin Scorsese, who at one point was an altar boy and wanted to be a priest, obviously turned against not only the idea but turned against the biblical account of the true Jesus.

Another movie came out that was controversial as well. You'll remember Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in 2004. It was completely opposite of The Last Temptation of Christ. It depicted the biblical account of Jesus's death on the cross and resurrection. If you recall, it was also controversial because some thought it was just too violent.

In reality and according to Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel, who played the part of Jesus, it didn't go as far as the biblical account which says that Jesus was so marred by the beating that you couldn't even recognize him. Gibson didn't want to go that far because he thought it would be too much for the audience to take.

Truth. You know, if you've been with me for any time, that we are interested in the truth. We are interested in the way things really work and the way things really are. Who can know how things will really be except God? He's the only one that knows. He gave us the Bible that even talks about things that are going to be happening in our future known as the end times.

As we've talked on the show in recent weeks, many thinking it's the end of the world, all you have to do is read Matthew Chapter 24 and you will hear Jesus himself talking about what it will be like at the end of the world. He says there will be famines and earthquakes and pestilences and wars and rumors of wars. But that's not the end. This pandemic is not the end, but very well may be what Jesus said, the beginning of birth pangs.

So we want to be alert. We also would do well to read the rest of Matthew 24 and if you're daring enough, the Book of Revelation. There's some very interesting things that I've been researching, you probably have yourself. An author that I read years ago who's no longer with us, David Wilkerson, was the founder of Teen Challenge, which you probably have heard of. It is a very effective organization that helps teenagers and also went on to help adults that were addicted to drugs and alcohol and so forth on the streets. Just like the Salvation Army, a high rate of effectiveness of helping teenagers and like I said, later on adults to get free from the devastation of those addictions.

He was also pastor of a huge church in New York. He had an uncanny ability to have a sense of hearing from God what the future may hold. In back in, I think it was 1988, he had what he called a vision where he saw a plague coming on the world. I'm quoting him, "And the bars, churches, and government will shut down. The plague will hit New York City and shake it like it has never been shaken. The plague is going to force prayerless believers to radically pray and that out of all of this will come what he called a Third Great Awakening in America."

As we've reported, Bibles have been flying off the shelves. People wanting to know if this is the end of the age and frankly, story after story after story of people turning to God for answers, turning to God for help. I don't know if it's a tradition of yours to watch different movies about the events of Easter, but Dwayne and I felt like we wanted to watch Mel Gibson's The Passion again this year, which we have.

Being fresh on my mind, we brought up the show that we did when the movie came out with a couple of pastors who watch what goes on in our culture. I want to bring that to you today. It's interesting to note that the movie The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson is still the number one independent movie of all time.

Of course, if you recall, why was it an independent movie? It is because it was so real in terms of the biblical account of Jesus. In our postmodern time, studios did not want him to depict it the way that it really was. Mel Gibson ended up funding it himself. Not only was it the number one independent movie of all time, it was a great success not just monetarily. If you read his account of what went on during the filming and also that of Jim Caviezel, who was struck by lightning during the scene while he's on the cross depicting Jesus, I'll tell you more about that when we get back from this break. Very interesting stuff, so stay with me.

Guest (Male): It's Friday. Jesus is praying. Peter's sleeping. Judas is betraying. But Sunday's coming.

It's Friday. Pilate's struggling. The council is conspiring. The crowd is vilifying. They don't even know that Sunday's coming.

It's Friday. The disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd. Mary's crying. Peter is denying. But they don't know that Sunday's coming.

It's Friday. The Romans beat my Jesus. They robed him in scarlet. They crowned him with thorns. But they don't know that Sunday's coming.

It's Friday. See Jesus walking to Calvary. His blood dripping. His body stumbling and his spirit's burdened. But you see, it's only Friday. Sunday's coming.

Sharon Hughes: You are listening to the Sharon Hughes Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Just follow the links at the bottom of the page at changingworldviews.com.

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Guest (Male): Today, Jesus would have been the one celebrating the Black Lives Matter movement, shoulder to shoulder with his neighbors, especially those who are immigrants or refugees. Jesus would furiously defend our warming planet, regardless of whether that activism was popular.

Sharon Hughes: Just go to changingworldviews.com and click on the donate button or send your check to Changing Worldviews, P.O. Box 995, Cedar Ridge, California, 95924. We'd love to send this to you and thank you ahead of time for helping us cover airtime costs.

Thanks so much for staying with me. Some more interesting things that happened while Mel Gibson was producing the film The Passion of the Christ. There were reports of people being healed, one of a little girl, I think she was like eight years old and she was the daughter of one of the crew members and was on the set while things were being filmed. She had epilepsy really bad, something like 50 seizures a week she would have. She was healed.

Others were healed. The fellow that played Judas in the movie as well as another part of the crew who was Islamic converted to Christianity during or after the film was finished. During the scene of Jesus on the cross, Jesus being played by Jim Caviezel, we listen to an interview by him, maybe you heard it, but he talked about, and it was of course documented by everybody else that was there, he was struck by lightning while on the cross. Another individual was struck twice that was at the foot of the cross.

Not only were there people that were in uproar about Mel Gibson making this movie because of the realistic depiction of Jesus as the Son of God dying for the sins of the world, but obviously there were spiritual forces that just did not want this movie to be made. Instead of me just running on here, let's go ahead and play the segment of the show that we did following the release of the movie The Passion of the Christ. My guests were Pastors Steve Reyes and David Hughes.

Let me just tell you a little bit about them. David Hughes is the former host of Liquid Radio. He helped formulate an international Bible college in the Congo and yes, he is my son. I'll give you a chance to get to know him a little bit and Steve Reyes has ministered around the world and today is the senior pastor of a congregation in California.

Theaters across the country are showing The Passion of the Christ, but only a select few know what it took to make a film of such great significance. Obviously, Jim Caviezel is one of them. It wore on him to the point where he was angry and yelling at God.

Jim Caviezel: At one point I remember yelling out, "You obviously don't care. Here we are breaking our backs for you." At that point this cross is swaying from four feet from one direction to the other. I'm on a thousand-foot cliff. If that thing snaps, I'm toast. It was over and Mel didn't know what to do because we were in the middle of a shot and all of a sudden the wind coming up this canyon, it's like going to the Grand Canyon and sticking a cross at the edge of it. It's all cemented in and you think you're safe, but then when those winds go, it's going back and teetering back and forth.

The hypothermia was horrendous. You're itching all over the place. I had a shoulder separation, if you've ever gone through one of those. I thought, "Well, we got it." The next day we watched the film and it looked great and whatnot. Mel says we can't use it. I said, "What do you mean we can't use it?" literally yelling at him. "What do you mean we can't use it?" He says, "If they're focused on that cross, they're not focused on my Jesus. They're going to be looking at that thing going back and forth." He said, "Forget it. No, we're doing it again." Well, that went for another five weeks just the crucifixion scenes alone.

Sharon Hughes: David Hughes' experiences in several different cultural environments including India and Africa provided him with a valuable perspective on the importance that culture plays in the formation of beliefs and values within a society. Steve Reyes is founder and director of Integrate Ministry Associates and Partners. His background as a youth pastor and single adult pastor as well as an international evangelist in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Japan gives him an experienced perspective on the impact society has on various age and ethnic groups. Well, welcome gentlemen. Thank you both very much for joining us today.

Steve Reyes: Thank you.

David Hughes: Hey, how are you doing?

Sharon Hughes: Let's start out with some statistics. The Passion made $117.5 million in its first five days, having rocketed to number one as the box office blockbuster. It was the seventh best three-day opening movie ever in time, taking more money than the rest of the top 12 combined during the same time. I guess Mel Gibson, everybody knows this, he put up 25 million to budget the movie mostly because the Hollywood studios passed on it, so he had to put it in theaters through independent distributor Newmarket Films. David, as a culture watcher, what do you attribute this amazing success to? Is this movie a perfect fit for a visual experience-oriented postmodern generation?

David Hughes: Well, I think definitely putting an image or several images to what many people have had in their minds just from hearing stories or reading the Bible or things that haven't had a real pictorial element to it, this definitely adds an image that is very realistic, very historical in nature to add to that context that we already have. It has been definitely impacting our society. Even if you haven't seen it, I find it interesting, I was just looking on Gallup Poll's website, only about 15% of Americans have seen the movie. That is obviously a large amount of people, but because of its impact and it's being talked about so much, even those who haven't seen it are talking about it. So it's obvious the impact is there.

Sharon Hughes: What do you think, Steve? Is this a perfect movie for a postmodern generation?

Steve Reyes: I completely agree. I think it's clear that the movie has had different levels of impact. I would look at one type of impact, something I call a personal conviction impact. That is how the movie has touched, changed, affected individual moviegoers. I think we've seen some neat things.

For example, I think we're familiar with the story of a former neo-Nazi who admitted finally to bombing a youth group's headquarters in the 90s. This goes back a little ways. Here's this event that happened that's all settled and no one knows what's up and this neo-Nazi watches this movie and as he's being arrested, the only comment he had was as he looked to the camera, he said, "Well, Jesus lives." This movie affected him to the point where he had a powerful personal impact.

Kind of keying off of what Steve was just saying, this movie has had a huge impact on those who maybe at one time in their life had been exposed to some form of belief or faith in Christ and the message that he was portraying and maybe have walked away from that and it certainly served well to reignite the faith and the conviction of many people who maybe have kind of let that go by the wayside in their own personal life.

In terms of just internationally, I actually received an email from a friend who is associated with some missionaries in the Middle East, particularly Kuwait and Qatar. In Kuwait, the theaters actually removed all other movies like their multiplexes where you can see multiple movies and shown strictly The Passion of the Christ in all of the theaters in order to accommodate the demand among the predominantly Muslim population there to see this movie. Also in Qatar, one missionary reported that more people are getting the message of the Gospel of Christ through the movies in that nation in a two-hour period than he's been able to connect with all the years that he's been ministering there himself. Whether for political reasons or just out of interest, they're obviously being exposed to it.

Sharon Hughes: We're going to have to take a short break, but when we come back, we'll talk about some of the scenes in the movie and if Mel Gibson used shock and awe or stark reality. So stay with us.

Guest (Male): It's Friday. The world's winning. People are sinning and evil's grinning.

It's Friday. The soldiers nailed my Savior's hands to the cross. They nailed my Savior's feet to the cross and then they raised him up next to criminals.

It's Friday. But let me tell you something. Sunday's coming.

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Isaiah the prophet said that Jesus was so disfigured and he was beaten and bruised so much that he was hardly recognizable as a person.

Jim Caviezel: We didn't even go there. We didn't even go to the full what we read and what you're reading right there. We wanted people to get a visceral reaction of he's still human, you still see him and keep them both because there's something about how it can be so repulsive and so much that you kind of shut off and we didn't want that. We wanted to take it to the point but keep people there.

There were a lot of miracles. One of the guys was a Muslim on the film, one of the guards that beat me converted, had a real big experience in there. We had so many prayers worldwide of what we were going through and I really believe that was important. All I felt was a giant tremendous slap on my ears and about eight seconds of like a pink red static in front of my eyes.

You had a literal miracle on the set. I mean, what did you attribute it to? You could have died. People get hit with lightning playing golf and they die or get incinerated. Yeah, it was the hairiest thing about it. Jan, who came up to me, had already been hit and three lightning strikes on one film, one guy getting hit twice and me getting hit obviously the one time. What the heck happened to his hair? I mean, I looked like I went to see Don King's hairstylist.

Sharon Hughes: I want to talk about the violence of the movie, but before I do that, I just want to comment and play a little clip here. It's an amazing thing to see the turnaround in the news media on this movie, as we know. As a matter of fact, Geraldo Rivera had this to say.

Guest (Male): This was a wonderful film about Jesus. The Prince of Peace must be worried about our violent world because it has been a bloody and deeply troubled day.

Sharon Hughes: Yeah, what he said there first was kind of hard to hear, but this was a wonderful film about Jesus and then he referred to the Prince of Peace being concerned about what's going on today. What do you make of that?

David Hughes: It's interesting. I didn't get the chance to personally see that show. I did witness, however, a show that was put on by Peter Jennings on ABC called Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness, which was also a very favorable portrayal of the ministry of Jesus, really keying off of his inclusion of the poor, the degenerate of society as being a part of being equal with all other people in terms of the availability of salvation and redemption to them. Which again seems to be a total turnaround.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but it's kind of funny what money can do when you've got a movie that's making $400 million. It's amazing how Hollywood perks up to that. But I do think obviously there has been a real positive note that has impacted because people even in positions of influence and in the media that speak a lot of things that may not be a real Christian worldview, many of them do have Christian backgrounds and this has probably touched them.

Steve Reyes: I would make the point that the violence was exactly what a lot of the earlier commentary was putting down. A lot of the critics early on were saying the violence this, the violence that, and made the connection, wrongly so I think we've seen, between violence and then what might come as a result in terms of anti-semitism. There was some really crazy kind of comments, they're going to burn down synagogues and the whole thing. I think we've seen that since that did not pan out, that argument with regard to the violence.

The second had to do with whether or not the violence was gratuitous. I read an article by Rabbi Aryeh Spero in the Wall Street Journal explained his position and says first of all, it was not in any way anti-semitic. I think this guy would know. But he made a really, really good point where he says that how people actually viewed the movie made a difference as to whether or not violence was gratuitous or necessary.

He says that while Jews focused on the Jewish faces in the movie, the Christian audience focused on the countenance of Jesus. Each group saw a different movie. I think that's an accurate explanation, that you're going to see really what you want out of that movie. Do you see the suffering of Jesus as something that was necessary and as myself, a Christian minister, believes a real accurate description and judgment on sin? I think it has to do with perspective.

Sharon Hughes: I understand that Mel Gibson wanted the viewers to feel as if they were really there, actually witness versus having a detached perspective and to be in words of another author inescapably drawn into the realism of the two-hour depiction of 12 hours. He said certainly no punches were pulled, no emotions were spared, no sensitivities are coddled. The viewer sees the scourging because there was scourging, he sees blood because there was blood, he sees pain because there was pain. So do you think that Gibson went too far either of you in the depiction or do you think that has been a lot of what has stirred the questions of who Jesus is and why did he have to die?

Steve Reyes: I would say no, he did not go too far because those events at least happened. We know more than that happened, but they at least happened.

David Hughes: I totally agree with Steve there. I think that it's important to see the way it really happened. I think that throughout history we often minimize or cover up the brutal reality of different events and when I think you see the reality of it, it impacts you the way it impacted the people who witnessed it firsthand, meaning the disciples of Jesus and the early believers. So obviously impacted them to the point that they made an incredible impact on society as a result. So I definitely feel that the realism was important.

Sharon Hughes: How about that ugly baby that Satan was carrying? Why? What was that all about?

David Hughes: I actually read an interview with Mel Gibson, so I'm going to say it as I heard it from the horse's mouth, is that he throughout the movie wanted to portray this kind of ambiguity of the innocence of evil but obviously the darkness that it really is underlying it. Even the character of Satan himself was played by a woman, they shaved her eyebrows, they did a lot of makeup work on her to kind of make this gender-neutral figure that seemed almost innocent and attractive at first, but obviously the grotesque evil and the baby was literally another depiction of that. That was out of Mel Gibson's mouth.

Steve Reyes: I've had some of the reactions have been really fun along those lines actually, everyone claiming antichrist to this, that, and the other. I've seen a parallel in the word that everybody has seed that they bear fruit that becomes part of them. I think it was real consistent with some of the values in the scripture that describe that there is evil but there's not just evil itself, it doesn't remain, it actually has progeny, if you will, that which goes on beyond it.

David Hughes: Steve, I agree with you there on that interpretation. I think it also was seen in the children that were harassing and mocking Judas, driving him to the hill where he ultimately hung himself. That also is not necessarily out of the Bible, but the pictorial image is there.

Steve Reyes: Could I add that by the way, Satan does not look like that at all? He looks a lot nicer. The Bible says he comes as an angel of light and the devil doesn't dress so ugly. He comes quite presentable.

David Hughes: Steve, I agree with you there in terms of that's maybe underneath it all, that's what he looks like.

Steve Reyes: I have another example about that personal impact. There's the one about a Texas man who watched The Passion of the Christ and felt compelled to confess the murder of a woman who had been carrying a child. Earlier they had thought Ashley Wilson, who was 21, had hung herself until Dan Leach was the name of the guy that confessed, saw the Gibson film and what he said is he had carefully planned the killing to make it look like a suicide, but after watching the movie wanted to confess.

I have two quick ones that have actually happened in our own congregation. One was the very first Sunday after the movie was released, I sat behind a mother and her younger daughter, daughter was in her early 20s. Just during a time in the service when you kind of greet one another, meet some new people, I was introducing myself and found out that the reason the daughter was there was because she had seen the passion and had actually been away from church for several years and by the end of the service had essentially recommitted her life to faith in Christ, which was pretty cool.

Another thing was that there was another woman in our church who has had severe back problems for years and while sitting in the theater during one point, I think during his scourging, when Christ was being scourged and there was a recount of the statement "by his stripes we are healed," she felt something odd in her back and when she left the theater she was completely healed. So that was pretty powerful.

Sharon Hughes: I remember hearing the story of a young boy that was healed on the set during the filming of the movie. Is there anything either of you wanted to add that we haven't talked about?

Steve Reyes: I want to talk about the money thing. I'm here on the left coast, excuse me, the west coast, and it's really amazing what money can do and I think we know that as the cash registers kept clicking, there were guys in Hollywood jumping out of windows that had said no. But it's amazing because what happened in Brooklyn, there's a Brooklyn theater they're reporting applause, we've got healings in theaters, we've got stuff like, well, I'm on the west coast and everybody got up after the movie and it was incredibly quiet.

My thinking in that regard is that once again you're faced to deal with the fact by virtue of how America votes with its pocketbook that the people are for this kind of movie, this kind of entertainment, this kind of message. Whenever the masses make a statement like that, the elite that try to run things for us get really upset. So I've just found a real renewed pleasure and zeal. Charlton Heston got grief early on in his movie and then that went on to break every box office record. To today, they still run it today. So I'm really looking and hoping for a different sort of movie direction.

David Hughes: Let's jump back to the idea of the anti-semitism of the movie. I actually came across an article from the Jewish Telegraph Agency which is a global news service for the Jewish community. It's been in existence since World War I. In it, the article starts with this, "You heard it here first, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is actually good for the Jewish community."

They go on to state a finding by a guy by the name of Gary Tobin, who is the director of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research out of San Francisco, that conducted an independent poll of over a thousand Americans who had seen the movie and found that 83% of those who had seen the movie did not have unfavorable feelings towards the Jews and this movie did not change their feelings that they already had.

Here's the significant part, 12% of those who did see the movie actually had a more favorable view of the Jewish community and were less likely to blame the Jews for the crucifixion of Christ. So here, right out of the Jewish community, we're seeing pretty hard evidence here that shows that this film really isn't anti-semitic and that was simply some kind of a ploy of the media to generate a story.

Sharon Hughes: I think we can say that they got it right. Okay, well listen, I want to thank you both very much for being with us today.

Steve Reyes: My pleasure. Thanks a lot.

David Hughes: Thank you.

Sharon Hughes: What is it about Jesus that 2000 years after he lived on earth, people are still finding the same kind of devotion as his followers had and were depicted in the movie The Passion? There were several very stirring scenes when Mary Magdalene was alongside Jesus's mother wiping up his blood from the scourging and she flashed back to when she first met him.

The scene where the religious leaders were getting ready to stone her to death for committing adultery and Jesus asked them, we know this from the Bible, he said to them, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." Of course no one did. He saved her life and thus changed her life, which was the beginning of her devotion to him. If the passion were a musical, I think Mary would have sung a song with similar words to an old Christian song and I'd like to play a part of it.

Guest (Male): [Singing] All my life, never knowing what I was reaching for. Never could I find any reason for always feeling somehow there must be more. Then there came a light searching out my heart in the blackest night. Touching me with love that I knew was right. Lord of all, filling up all my life.

Looking back, Jesus through my life you were everywhere. Picking up the pieces I'd scattered there, holding them for me 'til my heart could care. You gave me life. You made my spirit new. Now I give all my life to you.

Sharon Hughes: As we go into break here, I just want to encourage you, if you've never seen the movie The Passion or if it's been a long time since you have, I encourage you to see it again. Parts of it very difficult, the beating of Jesus, the treatment of Jesus, the dying on the cross, very realistically presented but very powerful. Stay with me. I've got more ahead.

Guest (Male): It's Friday. He's hanging on the cross, feeling forsaken by his Father, left alone and dying. Can't nobody save him? Oh, it's Friday. But Sunday's coming.

It's Friday. The earth trembles. The sky grows dark. My King yields his spirit. It's Friday. Hope is lost. Death has won. Sin has conquered and Satan's just a laughing.

It's Friday. Jesus is buried. A soldier stands guard and a rock is rolled into place. But it's Friday. It is only Friday. Sunday is a coming.

Is there really modern-day slavery in our country? Yes, and it's called human trafficking. Men, women, and children across America are being lured into this sad reality. Victims are promised jobs, wealth, and opportunities for themselves and their families, but instead they endure isolation from the rest of the world and are often mentally, physically, or sexually abused. It is important to learn about the harsh reality of human trafficking so we can help end this form of modern-day slavery. A message from the Christian Medical Association.

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Coming to you from the Sierra Nevada Foothills of Northern California, you're listening to Sharon Hughes, saying it like it is.

Okay, now because it's Easter, I want to play a couple of clips that I think will be encouraging to you. One is of a man who almost died of COVID-19 in Ireland and tells a very heartwarming experience that he had in the hospital. The other is by a little girl. I mean, like we say, out of the mouths of babes, you are not going to believe, you're just not going to believe it. But first, the young man who almost died but has survived. Here it is.

Guest (Male): There was two nights particularly in the hospital when I honestly didn't know whether I would make it or not. I was under incredible pressure, but I remember really crying out to the Lord and asking him to help me and asking him to even supernaturally just do something that would encourage me and bring me through. I remember the next day, and you've got to understand this in the isolation ward when no one else can get in, when no one else, no pastor, no friend, no family member, when no one else was allowed in, God sent a cleaner.

All of a sudden this cleaner had come in and he was like a ray of sunshine and he began to chat to me and he asked me how I was and he began to talk to me and say to me about hanging in there. He said to me that he was a missionary in Nigeria for 14 years and he began to tell me how God had saved many, many souls through his ministry. Just this last couple of years, he had found himself back home in Northern Ireland and he's encouraged my heart. He's telling me about souls and about the love of Jesus and the love of God.

I'm just sitting calling, "Wow, when God needs to reach you, he knows exactly who is the right person." In that moment of time it was a cleaner. No one else could get in, God sent a cleaner. He left that day and he says this as he stood at the door. He says, "Son, could I pray for you?" I said, "Absolutely." As he began to pray at the door, he couldn't touch me, he began to ask God the Holy Ghost to visit me. He began to ask God to heal my body and touch my lungs.

He stood at that doorway and he pleaded with God Almighty to spare my life and to continue to use me. Then he left. What was incredible was that after he left, he periodically would walk past my window and give me a thumbs up. That night, I remember starting to turn around. Could it have been the prayer of a cleaner?

That night I began to desire a packet of prawn cocktail crisps. I asked the Lord, because no one could get them to me, I said, "Lord, is it possible that you could get me a packet of prawn cocktail crisps and a tin of coke?" Because that night I began to turn. The next morning cleaner came. He brought in a bag and in that bag was two oranges, tin of coke, and a packet of prawn cocktail crisps.

Don't tell me that God doesn't know. God knows our every need. He knows every desire. He just passed the bag through the door, he couldn't come in. He just says, "It's a gift from the Lord." I sat up, I ate them crisps. God is a God, folks, who is personal. He knows the deepest desires of our heart. He knows what we have need of. I want to encourage you out there today. God knows what you've need of. He knows your heart's desire. He is an incredible savior. Never underestimate what God can do with you. Like to that cleaner, you know who you are, if you ever see this, thank you for hearing the voice of God and reaching someone like me. For you that are saved, keep your eyes upon him. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. For you that doesn't know Jesus Christ, I would encourage you lift up your eyes and look to heaven and with a cry from your heart say, "God be merciful to me a sinner" and go home justified just as if you had never sinned. May God bless you and may you know the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Ghost. What a savior. Amen.

Sharon Hughes: Powerful. Powerful. Well now, I want to play for you something absolutely incredible. It's of a little girl, I think she's about four years old and we did some research to try to find out who she is but we're unable. Nevertheless, it speaks for itself. Listen, out of the mouths of babes, you can hear her heart.

Guest (Female): I want to tell you about God. God is Jesus and Jesus is God. Jesus came to earth to die for our sins and he raised from the grave so that we can have eternal life and live with him forever in heaven. It's a great thing to talk about because God is the one who will set you free from sin. Sin is the bad stuff we do and the bad stuff we think and the bad stuff we say and the bad stuff we do and the bad stuff we say, like lying and not being truthful. Sin is just on our hearts but God takes it and puts it on his own son while he's dying on the cross. He took our sin so that we can live with him forever. And that's amazing. It's amazing that God takes our sin and gives it to Jesus and Jesus dies on the cross and raised from the grave and we can have eternal life with him. That's crazy, but I just want to talk to you guys about that because I know I love Jesus and I love you. Goodbye, everyone.

Sharon Hughes: Isn't that beautiful? Out of the mouths of babes. Well, thank you for spending this time with me. So until I see you next time, this is Sharon Hughes saying it like it is.

Guest (Male): Thank you for tuning into this episode of Changing Worldviews. You can follow Sharon on social media or listen to her on many online platforms. Just go to our website changingworldviews.com for all the links and until next time, stay informed, stay alert because we are indeed living in a changing world.