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Hi Wally,

Please disregard the first copy of the email sent. Gotta love fat fingers on an iPhone anywho…

I feel strange writing this email to you a complete stranger, but I value your honest and human way you express your life in Christ.

Have you ever felt that God doesn’t really love you? I have been feeling very disconnected with what I know from I hear about His love to how I am feeling His love.

I often have felt that God really does not love me at all. I pray often and well the prayers I pray for others do often have a positive outcome whereas when I pray for myself the opposite seems to occur.

I really often wonder why I am even here. I have felt many times that my suffering and emotional pain does not matter to God.

I know there are others going through worse than I am but it really hurts to think that in my times of need I am alone.

I know I rightfully deserve the punishment of the human sinner yet I feel like God cares nothing for and about me. I have stopped praying for the things I most desire, a husband, kids and grandkids.

I want to believe in God but I feel he stopped believing in me. I really want to trust in Him, but I am losing my ability to care. I have been praying and trying to move forward in my life because 5 years ago I stopped living and pretty much have been merely existing and surviving.

I have lost hope in having a biological family and I am now losing hope in ever finding a little Joy in work/life.

How do I start trusting in God again?

I hope you are being blessed in your life.

Thank you for being you.

Hey girl, my fat fingers have sent many an email before I was ready too:)

I am sorry you are in such a bad headspace. I feel like I need to be very very clear with you. God DOES love you. I get what you are saying because I have felt that too.

I have felt like my prayers go no where and I am overlooked by God on a daily basis. I feel you. I don’t get too much into spiritual warfare but I can tell you that you are buying into a lie about God and yourself.

I do believe that Satan uses our doubts to cripple us and keep us from becoming who God knows we can be. God’s promises are true whether we feel them or not. God says I will NEVER leave you or turn my back on you. God says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. The God who made everything you see knows you intimately and loved you enough to die for you.

So, when you are feeling you aren’t worth much or the world tries to reinforce that notion in you, go back to what God says about you and believe that.

Something you said struck me about prayer. You said you pray for others and you see positive outcomes but the opposite seems true for you. I have definitely felt that in my own life but here is what I learned.

First of all, you are only seeing other people’s highlight real. You don’t see all the other stuff going on. You don’t see their doubts, fears, and unanswered prayers. Usually we only get to see the good stuff in people’s lives on Facebook so we assume everything is great for them, but that reality is anything but real.

I get that you have desires for certain things in your life, we all do. One thing to consider is sometimes we can get so focused on making the dreams a reality that we miss the real stuff God is trying to do in our lives. He might have a different plan for us.

I had no intention of being in radio, let alone Christian radio, and I certainly had no idea 21 years ago that I would be talking to you today, but God did.

For me to avoid feeling like you have about prayer I changed the way I prayed. I began to pray less for outcomes and more for God’s will to be done in my life.

I then asked Him for the peace and strength to follow and handle whatever that looked like. It might seem simple but it changed me forever.

It also changed what I thought was important and refocused me. I found that as I sought God’s will it drew me closer to Him and changed my desires. It actually helped me see people, my life and the world around me differently.

I hope that maybe these thoughts can help you out a little.

take care

 

 

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So here is an email I got regarding the death of Robin Williams. I will be honest it shocked me.

“This morning on the show you talked about Robin Williams like he was such a great guy. In reality he was a vulgar comedian who was also a bisexual. How about admiring some of the great men and women of faith. I have no respect or admiration for those in worldly entertainment. I am done listening to the Wally Show. Too bad a “Christian station” can’t have more Christian content.”

I will freely admit I am confused by how we can all read the same Bible and come away with such different viewpoints on love and grace. Here is my response to him. Feel free to give me your thoughts.

I will be honest, if this is how you really feel it is probably better you do not listen to me anymore because I refuse to hate people because of their lifestyle choices. If you and I continue to have conversations they will probably degrade and ultimately look nothing like Jesus, and that is not good for anyone.

Here is a thought for you though. Did you know that the people Jesus had the biggest problem with weren’t the sinners struggling in sin? It was with the pious religious leaders of the day. I am sorry you are filled with such anger that you can’t see the pain of children losing their father, or a wife losing her husband, regardless of one’s lifestyle. I find that sad, and I wonder what hurt you have in your life that blinds you to that.

I talked about Robin because we share some similarities, one being struggling with being happy even though on the surface everyone expects us to be. I am sorry you missed the point, because it was an honest moment that I think others can identify with.

I think you might have confused being kind with condoning. I never endorsed his lifestyle choices, but I had a good experience when I met him, and I wanted to share that. Yes, he was a vulgar comedian many times, but he wasn’t always that. He was an addict, but he wasn’t always that.

It is tough paint someone with one brush. I don’t think that is fair. In that same spirit I am not going to paint you as some religious zealot who hates people to somehow make himself feel better about his own standing with God. I am going to say that I think I caught you on a bad day and I believe that you do normally extend grace to people because that is one thing we are all going to need one day. So, I am going to start by extending it to you today. I hope you will pass that on.

Take care

 

 

I’m sorry to bother you with this selfish question. My only child, 27 years old, died 9/9/13 due to medical malpractice. In FL the only ones that can sue for malpractice are spouses and dependent children. My daughter had neither so the doctor got away with it.

My daughter was handicapped since birth and my best friend. I’m trying my best to keep functioning, but it’s not working. I miss a lot of work days, my job is in jeopardy, lost pay has me behind on my bills and honestly I just want to die.

If God is forgiving, do you think he’d forgive me if I tried to join my daughter in Heaven? I really can’t take much more.

I am so sorry you are struggling so badly. It is understandable. That was your daughter and I can’t even begin to imagine what you are feeling. I know that it is not God’s will for you to join your daughter. It is so hard to understand, but you might be able to one day help someone who feels like you do now. I know that probably seems impossible, but I think that is what that verse in the Bible means by all things working together for good…It might not be our good in this moment, but there is purpose to our pain.

I can feel your hurt and anger for this doctor as you say “he got away with it.” I don’t know the pain of losing a child, but I do know the problem with harboring anger or resentment. In the end it only consumes us. That doctor sleeps at night not thinking about what you are dealing with so it is only destroying you which I think is the last thing your daughter would want.

As hard as this is to believe, forgiveness will set you free. It does not absolve him of anything he did wrong, but it does let you move forward by giving up your right to be angry. I can’t tell you enough how freeing it is when you give the anger to God and extend the forgiveness that God gave us to others.

I used to pray for God to change others and then I realized that the heart He needed to change was mine. When I started praying that He would change me first it changed my other relationships and my world.

It takes time to get to that place. In the mean time check out the song Losing by Tenth Avenue North. It is all about what you are going through and it is very powerful. Let me know what you think of it.

 

 

If I was going to commit  adultery I would probably consider Christy Brinkley. Shocking statement? That is how I felt when I hear the host of a Christian radio station consider getting a tattoo as though it is ok to do. Please read Leviticus 19:28. 

That was a nice shot, although it was not needed cause we could have just had a conversation about it. I am bummed you felt the need to start from such a negative place here and with such sarcasm but we are in it now I guess.

I can tell this is a passionate subject for you. It just isn’t for me. I am sorry. I have read the verse you are talking about many times and it refers to taking a mark for the dead which is about taking part in a pagan custom. I don’t think that equates to a random tattoo.

Even if you want to come at it from the body is a temple angle then no Christian should be over weight either. I don’t think there is any way God’s grace and blood are not enough to cover a tattoo let alone just a conversation about one.

Did you know the Bible actually says in Isaiah, that God has your name tattooed on his hand, so I am thinking like most things with God, it is not about the tattoo itself but about the intention and heart. That is what God seems to judge. We as people really tend to judge the outside. I appreciate your thoughts but I am not on the same page as you with this one. Sorry.

 

Wally,

I’ve realized you can’t change people’s minds. There is no convincing people.

I’ve tried witnessing to a friend to no effect. I’ve tried being a good Christian example to no effect. I’ve studied hard to make sure my beliefs line up with the Bible so I can talk to other Christians who might have the wrong ideas about the Bible or the wrong opinion about God… and all that still to no effect.

We’re always told in church that we need to go out and change the world and make a difference. But how are we supposed to do that if the world won’t change?

I had big plans on what I wanted to do to serve God after I graduate, but now I’m thinking what’s the point? I’m never going to be able to convince people about God and the truth of the Bible.

The crazy thing is it is not your job to convince them. God never said that. He said it was you job to tell them. We don’t save people or change them, only God can do that. We tell them who Jesus is and why they need him, but after that they have to ultimately decide for themselves. That is the whole point of free will.

I know it can be frustrating when people don’t get what seems so natural to you, but people come around in their own time. You might never know the difference something you said today will make in someone’s life years from now.

So don’t give up. Tell them and certainly don’t let it stop your passion for God. If you remember there was someone else, Jesus, who told people exactly who He was and they missed it. So really, you are in good company. Keep the faith and keep sharing yours.

 

TO Wally(if you get this email)
Does God really care about people? does he care about when people go to hell or to the abysses? he does kill people(Noah’s ark)

Those are really big questions. I think God does love and care about people, but He also has a sense of right, wrong and rules. Just like when your parents would punish you, it didn’t mean they didn’t love you. We have rules in our society we all agree to live by and there are consequences for breaking them. God is the same way there are rules. As for hell that is the easiest thing to avoid, and it is sad that people chose to defy God and pass up on the way out of it when salvation is free, yet people everyday think they know better than God and want to do things their own way. That is the blessing and the curse of free will I guess.

It took me years to get to the point where I understood that God is infinitely more powerful than I am and He doesn’t owe me and explanation. I wrestled with the same questions you have asked and thinking God owed me an explanation, kept me from going deeper in my faith. I realized that what happens when we die and who goes to heaven or hell is his call and not mine.

What that helped me do is make sure that I do my job, and that is to tell people about God. That was what He asked me to do, not decide who was saved or not. So that is what I try to do. I hope this helps a little I know these are huge questions that don’t seem to have a concrete answer.

 

 

 

 

I’d like to get some Clarification about something you said on the radio . You stated that you don’t want a political figure in office like wiener and though I agree with it I think we would disagree about the “why” part. Your words were because if they cheat on their spouse, they will cheat on you, on their taxes…

So are you saying once a cheater, always a cheater? I’m not going to tell you what that sounds like because I think you already know. In our historical and biblical past there have been many men and women that have done great things with sketchy pasts. Our hearts define us but only God knows our hearts. It’s easy to judge someone for something you would never do, but have you ever done anything wrong? Christians are not very forgiving and not very different then the secular population. Same percentage of divorce and adultery. But yet an adulterer can not be trusted?

Don’t get me wrong I’m not talking about wiener, I don’t care about wiener. I’m talking about you and me and other Christians that are like you. I am a Christian if you wondered. People know I’m a Christian by the way I speak and how I love my God, and I love much, because I was forgiven MUCH.  But you wouldn’t vote for me, you wouldn’t follow me, you wouldn’t be my friend. You wouldn’t have followed David, or any other Great leader with a sketchy past would you?

Obviously this struck a nerve with you which was not my intention.  I too have made a million mistakes in my life and I believe God does forgive us.  I am not talking about this in a judgmental “I am a perfect Christian way” I am saying that our leaders should also be moral people regardless of faith. I am not making this a Christian non Christian thing.  I am saying Public officials should have morality clauses because infidelity is a character flaw and I do believe if people will cheat on their spouse odds are there are other areas they will blur as well.  This isn’t about making someone believe like I believe or forcing them to adhere to Christian standards, this is about finding people of character regardless of their faith to lead us as elected officials.

I believe pastors who fall can be restored just like David was.  However, there has to be repentance on their part and accountability to the body that governs them.  In the case of Anthony Wiener he demonstrated neither of those two things.  I don’t think he should have been elected and was thrilled he wasn’t.

I will say that I find it funny you feel I was being judgmental of people because of my opinion of their words or deeds yet you made judgements and assumptions about the kind of person I am based on your perception of something I said.  So, I guess in the end we are not that different and can still be friends:)

 

 

 

You are spot on about our expectations of others; however, your answer to the woman who asked about how to deal with her sister-in-law who backed out of watching her step-children was ALL wrong.

Why is she the one who is arranging childcare? Where is her husband? Those are HIS kids, and that is HIS sister! I bet if the sister backed out on him, he would have no problem having a come to Jesus meeting with her about it!

The stepmom obviously works so having more mouths to feed and more laundry to do should be enough extra work for her to cover. Your making her feel guilty about her expectations for help is out of line!

If it came off as a guilt trip that was unintended.  That is the realist in me.  To continue to expect something from someone who will never give you that is crazy and only is hurting her, so it is her best interest to find other options for her own sanity and for peace in the family.

It’s not about guilt, it is being practical.  If I keep going to a pizza place that doesn’t serve steak, but I keep trying to order it there, I am only going to be let down and get frustrated. However If I go to a steak place when I need steak then I am happy and when I go back to get pizza they will be happier cause I am not asking for something they can’t give me.

 I hope that is more clear.  I was not coming down on her at all.

 

 

I am curious as to what you think about Christians and how they react and treat unbelievers.

There is a Facebook page I follow called The Christian Post, which covers news topics dealing with Christianity. I cringe almost every time I read comments on stories, because every time a non believer asks about a Bible verse or says something negative, it seems that the majority of Christians reply to them with snarky and hurtful remarks that make the unbelievers turn away from God even more.

Now, I know that we are not to tolerate sin and stand up for Jesus, but where do we draw the line? Is it right to put non believers in their “place” just because they disagree with us on certain issues?  Would Jesus approve more of OUR behavior as Christians, or would He almost be more in the corner of the non believers who are simply lost and need guidance? Sometimes I am ashamed to have the title of Christian. Not because of Jesus, but because of how we have dragged Him to the cross over and over again with our hatred.

Just curious as to what your thoughts would be!

It is so sad that some believers treat non-believers so badly.  They are not reacting as Jesus did.  Jesus welcomed honest questions and the funny thing is the people he had the biggest problem was the church folk.  He didn’t have a problem with sinners. In fact, it seems he preferred to associate them.

He had a soft spot in his heart for the lost.  You can point out many examples in the Bible of how Jesus loved the sinner even though he did not condone the sin.  One of the best stories is about the woman caught in adultery.  Everyone else wanted to kill her and the irony was the one person, who had the right to judge her, Jesus, was the one who did not.

This is also a good illustration how even in our sin, the safest place for us is at the feet of Jesus.  My first question to Jesus is going to be what did you write in the sand that caused people to drop their rocks?  I think he was listing people’s names and their secret sins, but that is just a guess.

The Bible also talks about how we are do deal with sin. I  Colossians 4:6 the Bible says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt…”  Grace is first and should be abundant and dealing with people’s sin should be the seasoning.  I think many times we substitute seasoning with smiting. When it comes to dealing with people’s sin I think we need to Love them first, introduce the to God, and he will work on the sin.  It is not our job.

 

 

Hi Wally,

I’ve been a fan of your show for some time but I have to have my say on the unchristian comment you made yesterday about Tino Wallenda crossing the Niagra Falls.

You said, “he is tethered why do I want to watch something that wont end it in a crash or something?” Pause and let that sink in for a moment..I heard a spiritual silence to your words all over your listening audience. Check the status of your heart brother, your motivations and where your walk today is. Whom do you serve? your words? are they edifying to Jesus and his servants? or to your own ego and self gratification?

First you are missing the point. The point is that he had Huge worldwide coverage and the first thing he did is give thanks to Jesus, focus on Him, then the second thing he did was give thanks to Jesus EVERY STEP of the way across the Falls. ‘Thank you Jesus’ …. “I give you thanks Jesus”.. “Thank you Jesus, my righteous king,” Wallenda said this as the mist from the falls rose up around him. You see he focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, worshiping him with everything he his and everything he does, with his words with his actions.

And for the record, Tino’s grandfather was killed falling off a high wire stunt in Puerto Rico and yet Tino Wallenda DID NOT want to be tethered for this stunt. ABC who sponsored the 1.3 million for this and was televising it said it was the only way they would allow the airing of this historic walk. Tino Wallenda is a hero in the faith, completely sold out for Jesus and will be part of the cloud of witnesses that you read about in your bible.

You need to apologize on air and then repent to the Lord Jesus for failing to give Him his righteous glory through his servant Tino Wallenda.
—
Peace and Blessings

I am sorry that hit you wrong. Most people could tell I was joking around. I disagree that there was a spiritual silence over the audience. When I truly say something off base I get a ton of emails from people. For me that is usually a good barometer that I have messed up. So the good news here is, yours is the only email I got regarding this so maybe the majority of people took it in the spirit in which is was meant with and that is humor.

I can tell you are a devout believer and you want to make sure people are not lead astray. That is my aim too, so in this case I think we can both breathe a sigh of relief as it appears not to have caused anyone to stumble.
Take care