Let There Be Light (Tuesdays with Tata Classic)

Good morning, my friend. Dr. Lee Warren here with you, and it's Tuesdays with Tata.

We are still on sabbatical for another week, and Tata is in San Antonio.

He'll be coming home soon, but we're gonna bring back a classic Tuesdays with

Tata episode today called Let There Be Light.

And I'm doing this because in the new season, we're gonna have a whole episode

about what light is and exactly what God did when he created light,

and it might surprise you.

And remember that scripture in 1 Corinthians 8, it says, anybody who thinks

he knows something, take care, because they may not know as they ought.

And we're gonna learn some things about light. And we're gonna start today with Tuesdays with Tata.

Let there be light. Tata's gonna teach us about fiat loose.

And we're gonna get after it in just a second. But don't forget,

my friend, if you wanna become healthier and feel better and be happier,

the good news is you can start today.

Hey, are you ready to change your life? life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule.

You have to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place where the

neuroscience of how your mind

works smashes together with faith and everything starts to make sense.

Are you ready to change your life? Well, this is the place, Self-Brain Surgery School.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and this is where we go deep into how we're wired,

take control of our thinking, and find real hope.

This is where we learn to become healthier, feel better

and be happier this is where we leave the past behind

and transform our minds this is where we

start today are you ready this is your podcast this is your place this is your

time my friend let's get after it i'm really uh i'm really grateful for these.

Music.

Talks that we have on on Tuesdays with Tata, Dad.

It's come a long way. Amazing. That's a long time. It is. It's amazing.

So we got, I was looking yesterday, actually earlier this morning,

the days of, see, there's Harvey. Let me let him out real quick.

Okay, Harvey, go outside and play, buddy.

You just got famous. You're on the podcast.

I was looking at the stats, Dad, and in the last 30 days, the podcast has been

downloaded in almost 80 countries.

My goodness. So wherever you are in the world, friend, we are with you and praying

for you. And we're grateful for you.

And grateful that you spend a few minutes of your life every week with us here.

And I certainly hope that our thoughts are beneficial to you.

And I echo Lee, what he said about, and I pray that, my prayer for you is that

you maintain the thought of the season.

That Jesus is the reason of the season. Amen.

He came to be like us, and he's coming back to take us home. Amen.

Amen. Well, in the spirit of that, tell us what you got for us today.

Well, there's a verse and a reading, some scripture in Zechariah chapter 8.

And it really struck me because this is God talking himself.

Because in verse 20, it begins, Zechariah 8, 20.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, peoples shall come, even the inhabitants of many cities.

The inhabitants of one city will go to another, saying, let us go at once to

entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. I myself am going.

Could that be said of us? Do we want to go seek the Lord's favor? I myself am going.

But I want to take you down to verse 23.

Verse 23 thus says the Lord of hosts in those days ten men from the nations

of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew saying let us go with you

for we have heard the Lord is with you,

so that to me is a very powerful thing but think about that keep that thought

in mind and look at what Jesus said in Matthew in Matthew chapter 5 and where

Jesus This is part of the Sermon on the Mount,

of course, that you probably know that in chapter 5, verse 14,

you are the light of the world.

And then he goes on to talk about a city set on a hill.

It will be noticed. It will be seen. And no one lights a lamp and puts it under

a basket because he says that someone would set it on a stand so they would

give light to the whole house.

That's right. And then he sums it up by saying, in the same way.

Did you see that? In the same way, let your light shine before others so that

they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So maybe, think about this.

And I pose the same question. Could this be said about us?

That people will see how we live and how we conduct ourselves and they'll say

to themselves, I want to go with you.

I want i want some of that that's right i want to know where you what does that mean,

and maybe we would they would be like

the other people that would say i myself am going and maybe maybe we would be

maybe we would be the witnesses that jesus was talking about that's right because

we would be reflecting his light we're not we're not the we're jesus says we're

the light but we We get the light from him. That's right.

Because he is the light of the world. And so we are reflecting his light.

And we pray that that's what we're doing. So in that vein of thought,

then what does that say about us?

We have to have peace with ourselves. That's right. And we have to have peace with God.

And if we don't, we're not going to be that light that Jesus talks about. Wow.

And we're not going to be the one that other people will look to and say,

what is different about you? Why are you like how you are?

Why do you have the same spirit in you that you profess and you show us?

Because someone said it a long time ago, I hear you, but how you are speaks

so loud that I cannot hear you. Oh, wow.

So actions, someone said it else another way, actions speak louder than words.

That's right. Especially with children.

This is what Paul was talking about in Titus 2, 7, Dad, when he said that in

our, you know, he says in your life, in everything that you may adorn the doctrine

of God our Savior, This idea of our lives are so attractive.

The word adorned comes from the word that we use for cosmetics, cosmeo in the Greek.

And it's basically saying that our lives are supposed to make God's truth more

pleasant, to smell better, to look better, to be more attractive.

Not what Peter talked about, about tickling ears and fanciful things that aren't

true, but that our lives are supposed to bear out and make more attractive the

truth that can save people. That's what you're saying.

Absolutely. Because what it is, and where it starts with, when I'm saying it

starts with us, by that I mean it begins with us because it speaks to the hope that we have.

And if we have hope and we have faith, then we will live our lives differently. That's right.

That's what I'm always getting at when I talk about Christians are supposed

to be happy, as Randy Alcorn said.

That happiness doesn't mean that you just paste a smile on and act like everything's

okay. hey, happiness has a deeper, this idea of makarios in the New Testament

has an idea of caring about us, this sort of invincibility that.

Whatever comes along, it won't be able to knock us off our feet that we will

have this sort of power and resilience and peace and hope about us. That's right.

Because that's what's attractive to lost people, to hurting people.

That's right. How do you manage to go through the same life I do and you seem

to keep your chin up and I can't? Like, what is it that you have?

That's what those 10 guys are grabbing on.

That's right. That's why they grabbed ahold of his robe, that man's robe.

Well, and the other part of that is, and I know in my heart of hearts that someone

might think, well, that sounds easy.

But how do you do that? It's not easy.

This month is really hard. It is. It's hard for both of us.

And next month will be even harder. Yeah. January is Nanny's birthday.

The month she died. That's right. All that in the same month.

So how do I deal with that?

Well, I have hope and I have faith. And I know that I believe that what I see

is not all there is. That's right. We live by faith.

The things that we don't see, that's the things that we see in our heart.

The things that we don't see with our eyes.

And so where do we have to begin? Jesus, I'm still, I just am in awe of the

disciples when they came to Jesus and said, what is the work that we have to

do? And Jesus said, believe.

Yeah, that's the work. Believe.

And so that's what we do, and that's what I do.

And is it easy to, because one day is the same as the day before,

but at the same time, do I miss my wife? After you, Mr. Son, of course we do.

And so during this period of time, and so, but it all boils down to one thing.

We still have a choice. We can agonize in our own grief and pain and suffer through it with that.

But at the same time, if we have hope, we can suffer through it. That's right.

If we don't have hope, you probably won't. That's right.

And if you don't have faith, you probably won't. and if you don't believe that

Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he came to be like us,

so that we could be like him and see where I've landed and what I've tried to

understand is that I enjoy life, yes I do, I'm not going to deny that I always have.

But one thing that I've learned is that sometimes it brings you sadness and

sometimes it brings you gladness that's right But what I've tried to do is be

kind to myself in this process. That's right.

So in thinking about that, it begins where we have to decide we're going to

either be happy or we're going to be sad.

That's right. It's a decision. That's right.

And like we've said many times, you can change your mind.

You can change your mind. That's why I've been camping out in 2 Peter chapter

1 lately. And by the way, when you said you can be happy or you can be sad,

it reminded me of our mutual friend, Jeff Nelson, who's a worship leader at

Oak Hills for a long time now. He's in Abilene, Texas.

And he always used to say, you can get glad in the same pants you got mad in.

That's right. That's right.

Shout out to Jeff if you're listening. But I've never forgot that.

I've got a picture in my office, Dad.

It's over to the right of the chair that you sit in in the morning of Jesus laughing.

And Jeff Nelson gave me that. It's a pen and ink drawing of Jesus, and he's laughing.

And you just see this Jesus who knew what he was getting into when he came here, and he knew.

The struggles that we face, and he knew what we were going to do to him.

And yet he found a way to be happy.

That's right. Because he experienced the same thing we do. That's right.

He was tempted and tried in every way that we are. That's right. So nothing new.

But the Apostle Paul says, though, that none of us have suffered like he did. That's right.

To the point of shedding our blood. That's right. That's all I was going to

say about 2 Peter chapter 1.

And Tata said a while ago, you said people might ask how it sounds easy.

You make it sound so easy to keep your chin up and be this person that adorns the truth.

But the second Peter, Peter gives us the secret. He says God has given us,

in his divine power, he has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

Not some of the things we need.

He hasn't obscured it. He has given us everything we need. And he goes on to

say what it is that we need.

And it's his great and precious promises. He says, make every effort to live

according to the promises, to hold on to the promises. So you need to go get you some word.

My friend Clay Risk that we met

down in Florida when I spoke at the church last year in Bonita Springs.

And we're going to be there about, Lord willing, Dad, we're going to be there

together in November of next year.

They've invited us to come and do a book launch event when Hope is the First Dose comes out.

But Clay came up to me when we were signing books at that church after the talk.

And he he told me that he had read my book I've seen the end of you and it meant

a lot to him and and he pulled out of his wallet a piece of paper that was folded

up he said I want to give you this and I said what is it and he said it I was

going through a rough time in my family.

I'd kind of lost my way and kind of lost my hope for a while.

And I started writing down these promises in Scripture, and I put them in my

wallet so I would always have them with me.

And it was just a list of all these things that the Lord is with me as a plan

for me, a plan to prosper me and not to harm me.

He'll work out everything for good, and He'll rise to show me compassion,

all these verses that He had in His wallet.

And He said, you know, every time I started feeling down, I would just pull

this piece of paper out and just read through these promises.

And that's exactly what Peter's talking about, friend. And he's saying,

grab on to some promises that will help you navigate those hard times.

And that's how you're going to find all of a sudden your life looks like somebody

else wants to grab on to you and hold on for dear life.

Because you're helping them going down to find the truth.

Well, and since you're talking about Peter, but our memory verse in our family

has always been 1 Peter 5, 7.

Cast all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you. He cares for you.

We did an episode about that. Your life verse, remember?

We did back on Tuesdays with Tata, we did that.

Well, you know, it seems like this, all this talk about light and truth and

promises and holding on, it seems like it'd be a good time to have another Tataism, doesn't it?

Yeah. Beth Maxey from Tulsa, we love you, Beth. You always encourage us and write in.

And she said a few weeks ago, I think we talked about it last week,

she said, I want more Tataisms.

I want you to explain some of these things Tata says.

Says and there's one every morning when tata

comes into the room i'm most of the

time i'm up before you but she's always pretty close we always

both get up pretty early and it's dark

in there we like we both like to sit in the dark and read our bibles and

and but but you need a little light to find your way so

you don't trip over the dog bed or something and you're

getting your coffee and i'll usually turn my phone light on and

when i do tata always says what do you say fiat loose fiat

loose so and he said let there be light right so

i always thought when i heard you say that i had never

looked it up and i always thought loose was l-o-o-s-e

like like you were saying let light be loosed

but i finally looked it up and that's not what it

is it's the latin word fiat loose l-u-x loose

and it means so i did a word study on it in the latin and what it actually means

if you literally translated let there be light when god said let there be light

in the latin it's basically saying let light be made that's right let light

be created that's right and it was that's right.

That's right. And he was the first one because he is light.

He is light. Do you recall that piece I sent you about a match burning? Mm-hmm.

It cast no shadow. That's right.

In him there is light and there is no darkness at all. That's right.

So I want you to get this, friend. When God said, remember, the creation scene, he says, let us.

Right? Let us. That's right. God's not there by himself.

Jesus and the Spirit are there with him. And the Gospel of John,

John sets the scene, chapter 1, in the beginning, the Word, capital W referring

to Jesus, the Word already existed.

That's right. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

He existed in the beginning with God.

This is it, verse 3, God created everything through him and nothing was created except through him.

The word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. That's right.

So I want you to get this, friend. Michael Gillan talked about it when he was

on the show, Dr. Michael Gillan.

When God said, let there be light, and in Latin, in the original,

in the Hebrew, he said, let light be made, and Jesus made it.

That's right. So you're talking about Jesus made physics. He made photons.

He made the light. And so when you're wondering how you're going to find light

in this dark world, Jesus is going to make you some. That's right.

And all you have to do, and sometimes it sounds so easy, and I've questioned

myself about it, is all you have to say is, Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God.

And I believe that you did come and I believe that you lived and I believe that

you died and I believe you rose from the dead again and that you're coming back that's right,

Fiat lus. Amen.

Jesus said, if anyone would come after me and follow me, what did he say?

He must believe that I am he. Where am I trying to quote, Tata?

It's John. No.

I'm going to have to look that up. There's a verse in John where Jesus says

something to the effect of, if you're going to believe me, you have to believe.

That I am the one the Father sent and that the Father is God.

That's right. And you have to believe that. And you don't have to do the work.

Paul says he wills and works in you to do things that he wants you to do. That's right.

You just have to submit to him. Well, and it's in our nature.

We want a list of things to do. And we keep lists. I keep lists.

We all keep lists. I keep to-do lists.

And if I don't write it down, I make a mental note of it that I'm going to do something.

Something but we we it's something that it's so hard to describe sometimes there's

moments when i seem to have a clear understanding of it then it just goes away.

And and the world says how could how could god come and become a man no one wants to believe that,

and no one wants to understand that and the only way we can understand it or

we can believe it is ask him. That's right.

You have to ask God for it. There's not a time when I open the scripture that

I don't tell God that I love him.

And I ask him to speak to me. But I also ask him to help me understand. Help me understand.

And it's amazing to me how sometimes it comes very clear. That's right.

But we only get enough of what we need at that moment.

That's right. We don't get an overdose.

We get the manna. You get enough. You get enough.

So friend, if your life has felt dark, we've been talking all month,

really for two months now, we've been talking about the new thing that God wants to do.

He wants to bring light into the dark places in your life.

And he wants to bring streams in the wilderness and make a way where there is no way.

And we've been talking about how you've got to let something dry up so he can

plant something new and bring something new about in your life.

And just heard Lisa Bevere this morning say something I've never heard before.

There's an old Mexican proverb that says, the enemy thought they were gonna

bury us, but they didn't know we were seeds.

And she says, if you're a seed, you get planted and you die,

but you grow up in the next season into a tree of righteousness or a fruit tree or something good.

There's an airplane going by. And so the idea is like, you let this thing die

off in your life that's been killing you and choking you out.

And you let God do something new. And you say, let there be light, Jesus.

And Jesus will make it. And he'll light up that path for you.

That's right. And he'll show you. We used to sing an old song.

Just have a little talk with Jesus. Have a little talk with Jesus.

So if you're struggling with something, friend, if something is bothering you,

if something is plaguing you, if something is dragging you down, stop.

Just stop. And have a little talk with Jesus. Have a little talk with Jesus. That's right.

I'm going to let Harvey back in because he's having a talk with us on the outside here.

So, you know, Tata, I think it would be a good thing. I'm going to play at the end of this episode.

I'm going to play a song, Here Am I to Worship, because it starts with light of the world.

You step down into darkness. Open my eyes. Let me see.

We're going to finish with that. And just, friend, this is a great time right

here at the end of the year.

So time for you to do some reflecting. those places that you haven't been adorning

the truth, maybe it's because you need some light.

You need to let God's light shine into some of the dark places in your life

and turn out to be one of those people that other people grab onto.

That's really the whole thing. It's like a bucket line. Somebody helps us find

it, and we help somebody else find it.

That's right. And we help each other get through there. So I guess,

Tata, there's just one question left.

If somebody's going to say, let there be light, when should they say it?

Start today. You better start today.

Music.

Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast is brought to you by my

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Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up by my friend Tommy Walker,

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And go to my website and sign up for the newsletter, Self-Brain Surgery,

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Remember, friend, you can't change your life until you change your mind.

And the good news is you can start today.

Music.