Arlo's Podcast, Life So Far
Mark of the Beast coming soon. Who will take it and who will not. Biggest eternal decision one can make in this world.
Arlo's Podcast, Life So Far
Seasons of Change: Reflecting on Faith, Identity, and Spiritual Resilience in Canada
What if the changing seasons could teach us about human adaptability and purpose? Join us as we reflect on life, spirituality, and societal values through the lens of personal experiences and nature's resilience. From the anticipation of longer days in Vernon, British Columbia, to musings on "Arlo's Soul Talk," our conversation takes a thoughtful turn toward cultural identity and the sometimes overlooked contributions of those who built Canada. We weave in stories from Alberta and current encounters to provide a personal perspective on identity and recognition in today's complex world.
As we navigate the profound themes of faith and spirituality, we delve into the grand vision of God's kingdom from the book of Revelation, exploring the delicate balance between divine intention and human free will. Our journey touches on Israel's prophetic role and the temporary nature of our world, with a heartfelt nod to the power of gratitude and faith. Through a lighthearted anecdote about being perceived as religious, we underscore the irony of superficial gestures while expressing gratitude for the opportunity to connect with you, our listeners. Prepare to be inspired by this exploration of faith, identity, and the quest for understanding.
Good morning, 9.59 am in Vernon, british Columbia, and we're still avoiding winter. There's no snow and still about 35 Fahrenheit, and we're still kind of around freezing or above freezing. I don't know what it's like where you're at, but every day that happens shortens the winter up a great amount, because right now 15th today, I believe it is and six days the days start getting longer. That's like a whole new deal again, and I hate when they start getting shorter. I just cringe. Now I'm looking forward to them getting longer. So that just shows you that all you got to do is wait.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I've been wondering about the theme of my books and the name of them. I put it, I started a deal, I called it Arlo's soul talk. Now I'm not as far as I'm concerned. I want to stay with that because that's what I do. I talk about things that I think affect me and you and the human race really, because so many of us don't really understand or have a clue as to why they are here and when they are here, they don't really understand for what reason. That's the thing that I'll just keep talking about, I guess.
Speaker 1:I see it's so prevalent in society. It is just as prevalent as can be to have the idea that here's a person gets born. Oh, look at that nice young baby. Oh, isn't he a cute baby. Oh yeah, he's gonna grow up to be a nice looking guy, isn't he nice looking? Oh well, yeah. And then pretty soon, oh yeah, he's walking. Look at that he's walking. Well, that's not it, that's. That's nothing wrong with that. As a species, we have a pretty slow learning curve. We don't come out running and jumping like birds, do? Not all birds, but some.
Speaker 1:I've often wondered about the kill deer. I don't know if you understand or know what a kill deer is, but they actually like nesting just in the gravel. They just put a nest in the gravel and their eggs are speckled and whatever. You can't even recognize them. You could step right on them, you wouldn't know it. But anyway, they're hatched right in the gravel in the spring and the chicks are, you know little things, that with their feathers on and everything, and the minute they're hatched they're out and running. And just true, I mean, they're they, instant, instant little chick killdeer. And if you come close to their nest the mother or the father, I don't know what it is they'll run around in front of you hijacking their wing down and squawking and try to lead you away from the nest. So when they're leading you away, you know it's over there, not where they want you to go. But anyway, I used to think that you know they're quite the deal.
Speaker 1:The other one is the California quail we have here in British Columbia. I mean, they're just about 100% coming out of the gate. They get the shell off them and I think maybe she feeds them. I don't know what she feeds them, but they do Like. I really don't know too much about them except I live with them and I see them all the time, but it takes no time at all and they come out there like half three quarters of an inch or maybe an inch in size and they're going, they're running and they can run fast. I mean, that's another example of nature.
Speaker 1:I honestly believe that nature is survival of the fittest. It certainly looks like we Humans worship disabilities, cripples, whatever. I don't think that's right. I mean Jesus Christ, when he was on this planet he healed cripples and people like that. He didn't worship them like a cripple, he healed them to make them whole. Here the well, I'm going to say this. It's almost like you're going to get me into trouble, but I'm going to say that in my view, right now in Canada, canada is a country that has to try to be sort of careful what they say and what they do.
Speaker 1:They don't want to, you know, offend anybody. Oh, no, no, no, we get down to the lowest possible denominator so we don't offend anyone. I would think that the most ideal Canadian right now, according to government regulations and rules, would be a crippled gay Indian woman. I think that would be the ideal Canadian in their view. I don't see that. I mean, in Canada they celebrate everybody except white race, canadian man or woman, not them, no, and they celebrate from any other country in the world that comes to Canada. That's who they celebrate. They don't celebrate the people who built up the country in the last hundred years, who came here, most of them with very little money and had to heck out of living on a farm.
Speaker 1:Because when I grew up in the late 40s and 50s in Alberta, canada, in the central area parkland of Alberta, canada, in the central area, parkland of Alberta, I grew up in an agricultural country. The whole industry of that era was basically agricultural, plus mining and lumber, and there wasn't we didn't have any big manufacturing deals. Where I lived there was some. In, you know, big-time cities had them, but not where I lived. It was farming. Or they'd go to BC to work in the lumber mills or they'd go to BC to work in the mines, because BC had way more mines and lumber than anybody else.
Speaker 1:In the building I'm living in here now in this rest home I'll be 91 in April, but in this building the other day this guy had moved in here. He must have moved in here about a year, maybe a year ago or something. Big, tall guy, very well-dressed and all that sort of stuff, and he was from Switzerland, originally. From Switzerland originally. He came to this country when he was 17 years old along with about 14 others. About 15 of them came from Switzerland to Vancouver Island to work as high riggers for I think it was Macmillan Bloedel and they were doing you know like I forget how they call it, but it's the high-rigor logging and they'd work in the mountains of BC and they'd run these big cables up the mountainside on the tops of big trees and a cable going down from there to where the log was cut and dropped and they'd hook onto that, pull it up and down the cable. It would go all the way to the bottom and I guess it was pretty efficient. Anyway, he lived in here and well, he died the other day.
Speaker 1:Now you know, I don't know how a person should approach this, approach this, but the idea that people have is so out of touch with the reality of why we're here and I don't know why. It is in schools or education or whatever does not cover that or talk about it. No, it says you've got to go to school, you've got to get, you should go to school, you should go to university. You know, go to university for five, six years, come out with a degree so that you can get more money when you get. That's most likely true, but the emphasis of why we're here is not met. Basically, we live in a country that says well, you know, you'll go to school and you'll learn this and you'll learn that, and 12 years later you can leave there, which means you'll be about 18, 19, and then you'll get a job. Oh, yes, and you'll get a job. Well, I'll get you a job, you'll have a nice high school diploma or if you do that Now, I'd say maybe 50% do that.
Speaker 1:Most of them will quit in grade 10, 9, 10 or 11 no, not that, no, there'd be, there'd be a higher amount than that, but actually a Finnish high school. But anyway, the idea is that you're going to get a job. First thing you got to do is get a job, and it's important because that's part of the part of the hierarchy of our life and our families and everything else. Get a job. All right, you get a job. It used to be that you could get a job that would pay you enough to get married to a girl, a woman, start having children and buy your own home on one salary. If you were a postman, you could do that. If you were a mechanic, you could do that. If you were a bus driver, you could do that. If you were a mechanic, you could do that. If you were a bus driver, you could do that.
Speaker 1:Not anymore, but anyway, the idea was you would have children and whatever and get a job. That you could. You know in most cases, but I'd say maybe 60% or so would end up with a pension of some kind. 30% to 40% never have a pension, and the idea is that you're going to work for 30 years or 40 years maybe, and then you're going to retire and you're going to have this retirement. The government's going to help pay your small pension, plus your own savings and whatever, and you'll do that for maybe 20 years and then you die. That's supposed to be the formula for a successful life in Canada.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't think it's very successful, because that is not the reason you were born. The reason you were born is that God was going to give you the opportunity to become one of his future sons, and in that case you are going to live in another, another era I, of of what is it called? Well, spiritual. We would move from a physical world into a spiritual world and the idea was you would live for so long and then you had this time to make up your mind and to acknowledge that you wanted to live with God forever, and you believed that Jesus died for your admission to his family. Now, that is the actual reason why God created everything. That's why he created the universe, that's why he put the sun and the moon where they are, where the earth is. So the earth is the correct amount of distance from the sun, so the temperature is right for you, so you and I can exist on this planet in a physical form and we had to have a tilt in the Earth so that we could have seasons, so that we could grow crops, so we could have food and eat and live, and live for anywhere from 40, 50 years old to 100. And, if we're lucky, we understand why we're here and we make the the necessary moves to satisfy God's requirements. And that's why we live in a universe of stars and moons and suns, not because they're there for any other reason. They're there to support the growth and the, the existence of his future sons.
Speaker 1:Now, how many people look at it that way? Not too many, I don't think, but they should, because that is the actual fact. You can't change that. You can argue about it, do all kinds of stuff like that, but you can't change that. Now we get, we get into the business.
Speaker 1:You know if, if you read the Bible, you find out that the religious people in Israel at the time that Jesus was on this planet and when he became 30 years old you had to be 30 years old before you were considered a man After 30, he stayed for about three and a half years and preached the gospel and told people about the coming kingdom of God and how, to what you had to do to become there. People did not realize it at that time and even now very few people realize that God Almighty, and the Word, which was God and was with God, which created the word, created everything. God had the word speak everything into existence, that it was decided before there was a world, before there was anything, that the Word was going to become a man and the Word was going to die for the sins of the people that God was going to create on this planet because they couldn't keep his laws and they would be then subject to the death penalty. So, in other words, if he didn't do that, he could have had all the people galore and he'd have to kill them all because he broke his law. Now, that's quite a thing. I mean, that is not a guessing thing. That is what actually happened and that's not a guessing thing. That is what's actually happened and that's where we're at.
Speaker 1:And this is all done so that the creation of God's kingdom to come, the world to come, can be, you know, realized and how God, in his power and his wisdom, whatever wanted to create a large family of sons. Now and here I say sons, I mean that sounds like God is discriminatory or something, but he's really not. He wants to create a great city, which he talks about in the book of Revelation. If you want to read that 1500 miles square, 1500 miles high, bigger than the whole United States. It's a big city, 2.2 million square miles. Anyway, he's going to do all these things and he will do them. We're not here long enough to see one end from the other, but we can have a glance in the middle. And the thing is he says, if you believe what I'm telling you, and that I sent my son here to specifically do that, and that we decided this a long time ago, before anything at all that had to be decided before he could go ahead and create this, create this universe, and to create, you know, earth and Moon and stars and natural resources on this planet, planes and lumber and iron and all the things that are here for his people.
Speaker 1:Now, why is it that this world runs on an opposite direction than God wants? Why does he allow that? Well, one of the reasons I think he allows that is that you're forced to make a decision. He knows what you're going to decide beforehand, I'm sure. I mean he would know everyone, which I'm going to decide on and you and I don't, but he does.
Speaker 1:Now, I guess, at the culmination, we're getting to the point where I think we are getting to the end of this disposable planet and are getting to the end of this disposable planet and you know, we're not going to be any more Sun, no moon, no see, totally different earth and heaven, a new heaven and a new earth. So everything we're looking at here is disposable. You come here, you make a decision, yes or no and I think he made it with two choices. And Satan is the negative choice, jesus Christ is the positive choice, and it had to be a free will choice that you wanted to be his son and live with him forever. But it's a blank thing. You don't really know what that's going to be like, what I mean he says you will live at that time. There will be no day, no night, there will be no night. It will always be daytime or not daytime, but no night. Moon, he says, is his light and Jesus Christ's light, that they will light the whole thing with a different type of light, basically a holy light.
Speaker 1:Now, a new heaven and a new earth must have something. I mean there must be some kind of light on the surface of the planet that he's going to create. He talks a bit about it. He says there will be, you know, he says dogs and whatever. On the outside of this the gates will never close. They're open all the time but they're guarded by some angel of some kind. There's three gates on each side. These gates are like a huge size of a pearl. Three gates on each side, that means twelve, all four sides of three gates in that area, because that's a long way from one end to the other. It's 1500 miles. So 500 is a gate, 1000 is a gate, 1500 is a gate. And those gates are named after the twelve apostles.
Speaker 1:Now, now you get into the dicey stuff. The foundations are no. The steps, the 12 steps of the 12 disciples or whoever they are, these are lost and tribes of Israel and whatever, and it goes on like that and a whole bunch of things. Where the tribes of Israel are his people. Now, they're not the majority, that's for sure. So who's going to be here? Are they in the minority and yet they are the controlling group? I don't know, could be. God says that Israel is his land, that little sliver in the Middle East out of the whole earth is his. Yes. The United Nations has meetings and meetings and meetings and there were 50 sometimes. They voted to destroy Israel, got to get rid of it, just got to get rid of it, and in the end, that is what the final war will be about 200 million men, armies, going to try to descend on Israel to destroy it, and they're going to be wiped out. So all that stuff has to happen. I think it's very, very interesting that all this is there. It's in black and white.
Speaker 1:One of the things that has bothered me in my 90 plus years now is that I didn't know or I wasn't told about, even in church for 60 years in the Lutheran church I don't remember one time they said you should read the book of Revelation. It's like it didn't exist. And once I found out about that and read the book of Revelation, it's like it didn't exist. And once I found out about that and read the book of Revelation, it covered practically everything and it was God's last, jesus Christ's last letter to the earth, to the people and planet. Remember the last thing he said when he was rising up and leaving. He said do not be deceived. He knew they were going to be deceived, like when I see people now.
Speaker 1:Well, let's put it this way when I was growing up in the late 40s and whatever, we didn't have television. We had a radio with a six-volt battery and we didn't have electricity. Western Producer it was called a little sort of a week. I don't know if it was weekly. No, it wasn't, it was monthly Western Producer. And other times I think we got the some I forget it was the bigger paper come maybe once a month.
Speaker 1:Now when I say that you realize, what I'm saying is that as a young guy I was only what would you call it approached or whatever, with any outside ideas, maybe once a month, or maybe once or twice a month with ideas, editorials, reports on this, reports on that. You know who got elected here, whatever that, what the price of grain was and all kinds of stuff Very, very different than it is now. And the difference between that and now is like night and day. Now you are bomb bombarded, whether you realize it or not, many times a day. Sometimes some people are you know, if they're in the fall. Wow, if they got a iPhone or any kind of phone, they get stuff coming in all day, every day. If they watch TV, they're bombarded by a lot of negative stuff or negative about something else, especially in politics. And it's gotten to the point now where you know one group tries to run down the other, whoever has the most media usually wins. They can lie more than the other guy can.
Speaker 1:Now it took me a while, quite a while, to realize that when people say you know, what do you think of this, what do you think of that? You know, I think this. I think, oh, yeah, he's a good guy, we should vote for him. You know, I heard he's this and he's that and I didn't. I didn't go into that for a long time, but eventually I did around well, I don't know 70 something, and I started realizing how badly people are led astray, are being manipulated like sheep Worse than sheep people and with the simple idea that media tells you this or that and you believe it's your idea and you can get very upset if anybody disagrees with you. Oh well, he's a good guy. Oh, I got a vote for him. I'll tell you, he's the other one. Oh, he's terrible, he's terrible. And I'd say well, why is he terrible? Don't you watch TV? You know that's usually the answer, how ludicrous that is.
Speaker 1:I think women are more susceptible to this than men. Men are bad enough. I think women are even worse they are. They can believe so strongly on something that you can't talk them out of it or tell them that they have to research this on their own. Don't believe just what you're told. So it gets to be that you can't believe what you think, because what you think could be terribly wrong. But anyway, we're in that. That's the stage we're in and we're not going to get away with. We're not going to get away with that or get out of this. It's only going to progress. Anything that is against nature, against human beings, against family, against this, against that will only increase, not decrease. You know, I've never been.
Speaker 1:I had no ideas about what was right and wrong, except what Jesus Christ said, that I had to go by. I couldn't say that this was right or that was wrong. I mean, I most likely had some sort of an idea about it. But the end result was or has been for me at least is that I either believe what Jesus Christ said or what the influencer says, who influences media and whatever else, and that is the. That's Satan. I mean, it took me a long time to realize that Satan actually is the God of this world, not Jesus Christ or God. God controls the world, but he's not the God of this world. That was forfeited.
Speaker 1:Adam couldn't handle it. He believed his wife. When he believed his wife, everything went downhill. Now you don't hear women talk too much about that, but that is why the woman was seduced by Satan, and why? Because Satan's biggest problem is vanity and jealousy. That's what's his downfall. God has judged him for that and he will be tendency for vanity. All you have to do is go into a big drugstore and see what they're selling, and they're selling 99% pretty well all geared towards women's beauty products. That's because women are vain and it's a fact. You can't get around that Women are generally, if they were honest, want somebody to say oh, you're looking nice today.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're just beautiful, you know. Oh, yeah, next day. Oh, you're just beautiful, you know. Oh, yeah, next day. Oh, you've got to tell me again. I think I told my wife one time in jest and I think she somehow got around to saying well, I don't know if you love me anymore. I said, hey, come on. I told you I loved you in 1956. Oh, I guess that doesn't really work like that.
Speaker 1:But the idea that God wants a family and God wants sons, and who knows how many sons he never exaggerates not one bit. He just says this, that, this, that, and when he says sons it could be millions, billions now and he says sons now. I know there's preachers and different religions they talk about. You know, god loves his sons and daughters and blah, blah, blah. I would agree on earth, but in his kingdom I do not believe there's going to be two sexes for one reason the wombs not required anymore because they're not neither. He says they neither marry or do anything in his kingdom. So reproduction is done Now.
Speaker 1:If that's the case, why would God allow two sexes to reside in his kingdom forever when we see the results on this planet of the battle between the sexes all the time in law? In this, the difference between men and women are stark differences when it comes to emotional things or whatever else, emotional things or whatever else. And the thing is, there's not going to be any discrimination, as far as God is concerned, between men and women, because when a man dies, if he goes to to, if he's resurrected and whatever. He's resurrected as a son of God, which is different than a man like we are. And if a woman dies and is resurrected as a son of God, she's resurrected. The same as the man, is in the same category, and I don't see anything wrong with that. So there's no discrimination against women as far as the world to come, because we would both be changed. We wouldn't be the same as we are here, either one.
Speaker 1:Now you want something to do in your old age. Just contemplate what it might be like if you're going to be resurrected into, resurrected into the kingdom of God and if resurrected into the kingdom of God, and if you're going to be resurrected to be in Jesus Christ's government for a thousand year period, because when he comes he's going to resurrect. Resurrect people, all the people that are in his book of life. Now that's the important thing. If you're not in the book of life, there's a good chance you're not going to be in his kingdom. Now that's a big thing and, yeah, that's what a person has to look forward to and realize the magnificent of that. You know the?
Speaker 1:I can't understand people who basically think get a job, get married, grow up, have children, work like a dog for a while, retire and die. To me that is total, total failure, total failure, total failure. You failed this life, you failed this planet Because you didn't take the great offer that God and Jesus Christ offered to you and you couldn't be a bigger offer made when everything's been done for you. You didn't have to do anything except realize what they've done and accept it and believe it and be thankful for it and thank God for it and say I want to be your son and live with you forever. Thank you very much. Now, how in the world are people going to understand that? I mean, you can have a business, you can have all kinds of things on this planet, live this way, but if you don't realize that it's temporary and there's going to be, you're here as a condition of a future world. This is how you step from this earthly existence into a, an existence that is forever, forever.
Speaker 1:You know, I understand how a person can get enamored with the things on this planet and get so enamored that it's just great. I know I'm pretty sure my daughter's in that category, but I mean, I sit here and watch golf on the Golf Channel and I watch these huge, great golf courses. I'm sitting here in the winter, look outside and see the snow and I look under my big 55-inch screen and it's total green, just lush. And they're down in Augusta, georgia, miami, somewhere or some other place in the world in the winter where it thought you know a person could get so mesmerized by how beautiful this is, like I mean, golf courses especially, are trimmed and manicured to the nth degree. They're just horrendously beautiful. Ah, you could get enamored with that.
Speaker 1:And then you say, well, you know, the world is so beautiful and blah, blah, blah it is, and you could thank God for that and you thank God for the experience you had living on this planet. But it pales into insignificance compared to what he's going to do for those who love him. That is such a difference to what we're kind of used to in this world. Not money can't get them with money. You can't get them with deeds. Going to church every day, counting beads, doing this, being nice to everybody, now, that's not going to get you anywhere. You're gonna die. You're gonna just die. Won't going to just die. It won't be anything for you. You have to be accepted. You have to accept the fact that God has done all this for you and you have to accept it and tell him that you're thankful for it. Well, anyway, that's one kick at the cat.
Speaker 1:I had somebody say to me are you getting religious or something? I said well, I don't know, could be, it could sound that way. I said I doubt it, you know, because I haven't taken up a collection. You know, bob Hope said the plan looked like it might be going down. He said I better get up and make a collection, do something religious. Well, he's quite a guy, eh? So anyway, we're going to have to say goodbye. It's been really. You know, I really appreciate the fact that I can talk to you and we can meet this way. I don't really know you yet, but maybe someday we'll meet. In the meantime, I thank God for the chance to do it and I thank God for you. Thank you very much.
