Tuesdays with Tata Classic: Let There Be Light

Hey, are you ready to change your 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

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And the good news is, you can start today. Thanks Lisa.

Hey, so glad to have you listening today. I'm Dr. Lee Warren and I live in Nebraska in the United States of America with my incredible

wife Lisa, my father-in-law Tata and the super pups Harvey and Louis.

I'm a neurosurgeon and an author and I'm here to help you harness neuroscience, the

power of your brain, faith, the power of your spirit and good old common sense to help you,

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Well, from our back, we are actually recording on the banks of the North Platte River.

We are babysitting Harvey and Lewis here. Lisa's at the store,

So we may have an interruption here and there. But friend, if you hear a little,

Harvey and Lewis just considered a praise report, I guess, from them. Yeah, right, yeah.

They seem to be contented. They're satisfied. They seem to be.

So I'm really grateful for these talks that we have on Tuesdays with Ta-Ta Dad.

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

So we got, I was looking yesterday, Actually, earlier this morning, days ago.

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

Amen, amen. Well, in the spirit of that, Tata, what you got for us?

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

and it really struck me because this is God talking himself, because in In verse 20, it begins, Zechariah 8, 20,

thus says the Lord of hosts, peoples shall come, even then 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 20, verse 23,

thus says the Lord of Hosts, in those days 10 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 five, And where Jesus is, 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, and 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 that it 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 some of that.

I want to know who are you? What does that mean? And maybe they would be like the other people

that would say, I myself am going. And maybe we would be the witnesses that Jesus was talking

about it. That's right. Because we'll be reflecting His light. We're not, we're not the,

Jesus says we're the light, but 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,

and in that vein of thought, then what does that say about us?

We have to have peace with ourselves. And we have to have peace with God.

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

And we're not gonna 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 word.

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 adorn 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,

more 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.

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.

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's 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. We live by faith. The things that we don't see, that's the things

that we see in our heart. The things we don't see with our eyes. And so where 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.

That's the work. Beliefs. 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? Do you miss your son? Of course we do.

And so during this period of time, 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.

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

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 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 that 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 Jeff Nelson, who's a worship leader at O'Kills 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. 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 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 and 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. When 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. And 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. And my friend, Clay Risk, that we met down in Florida.

When I spoke at the church last year in Bonita Springs, and we're gonna be there about, Lord willing,

dad, we're gonna 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 and at that, when we were signing books at that church after the talk,

And he told me that he had read my book, I've seen the interview, and it meant a lot to him.

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, 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.

That's right. 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, 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 gonna find all of a sudden your life looks like somebody else wants to grab onto 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. Cast. 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 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, you know, 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.

And there's one, every morning, when Tata comes into the room, and 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 both like to sit in the dark and read our Bibles.

But you need a little light to find your way so you don't trip over the dog bed or something,

when 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 Luce.

Fiat Luce. 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 you were saying, let light be loosed.

But I finally looked it up, and that's not what it is. It's a 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.

Let light be created. And it was.

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

He is light. So do you recall that piece I sent you about a match burning?

It casts 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, let us.

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.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He existed in the beginning with God. And 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 Gillen talked about it when he was on the show,

Dr. Michael Gillen.

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 when you're talking about Jesus made physics, he made photons, he made the light.

And so when you're wondering how you're gonna find light in this dark world, Jesus gonna 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 too,

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 Luce. 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.

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.

But we, it's something that is so hard to describe sometimes.

There's moments when I seem to have a clear understanding of it, then it just goes away.

And the world says, 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.

Let's try it.

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. Not today. 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

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, 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. It's a 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, Hatha, there's just one question left.

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

Start today. They better start today.

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

and the good news is you can start today. I'm Dr. Lee Warren.

I'll talk to you soon. God bless you, friend. Have a great day.

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