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Minnesota, this is WB7AOT. All right, Darrell, good copy on the Utah SDR. Thank you for being there. We got you all checked in. And that's Darrell, WB7AOT in Ham Lake, Minnesota. What a place to live, Ham Lake, for a ham radio operator. Okay, real good. Any other check-ins, please come now. And thank you for the relay. All right, test time 87MAX. I received a request from Beck Alfalfa 5 Yankee yesterday. He needs an MFJ819. That's the SWR wattmeter. Has anybody got an MFJ819 that they're willing to part with? Beck Alfalfa 5 Yankee needs one. Thank you. I have a prayer request, too. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, copy. That's for Darrell, WB7AOT. Okay, he's going to have some sort of a scope procedure. We need to pray that goes well. Thank you for telling us about that prayer request. Go ahead there, Beck. That's it. I just wanted the prayer request. And thank you for advertising for the SMUR1 meter. I really appreciate that. F-O-P-A-L-F. Go ahead. Yeah, you recall tomorrow Darrell will be going in. He's been having some issues with his urinary tract and his prostate and all the above. We prayed for him probably two or three weeks ago, and as you recall, then tomorrow is the big day. So, yes, we need to be lifting Darrell up. Over. Copy that, Scott. Thank you for filling in the blanks there for me. And we'll be praying for Darrell, WB70OT, his appointment tomorrow for a good procedure, an accurate diagnosis, and a proper treatment plan. that will solve all of the problems that he's struggling with. So thanks for that, Scott. We'll cover that in closing prayer. Is this the center call site? Okay, this is Mike 5 Foxtrot. Okay, there is Will. Mike 5 Foxtrot. Good morning, Will. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing great. I got the lab report back from the call up. I said, no cancer, and they want me to come back in another three years. They have all the fun and excitement. again three years from now. Looking forward to it. KM, bye then. All right, Will, good. Real good, Will. Will had a colonoscopy, and the pathology report came back no cancer. So that's an answer to prayer. And so, Will, we are really happy for you. Doesn't have to go back another three years for one of those procedures. So anyway, Will, good report and good answer to prayer. Thank you for that. All right, praise the Lord. All right, any other check-ins, please come now. Thank you. All right, the net electric dollar is Peter, KJ7BA. And Peter says good morning to everyone, so good connection there. All right, I'm continuing to scan my SDRs, and any voice check-ins that wanna come, go ahead and come on. KJ7PWM. All right, I got KJ7PWM, that was Brian, and I think there was somebody else in there. I'll get back to you in a moment. Brian, KJ7PWM, how you doing? Good, good, good. Okay, all I heard was that you're doing good. Brian, if there's something else there that I wasn't able to copy, just go ahead and shoot me a text message on that. Okay, other station was trying to check in along with Brian. Please come now. Okay, thank you. Okay, there is Mark, KJ7PVT, good morning Mark, come ahead. Alright, copy that Mark, no prior request, just wait for the study to start, appreciate you being there. Alright, any other check-ins, please come down. WB7VZL. All right, we're going to get started with the West Coast Bible Study. We are in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. We're going to be reading the whole chapter today. But before we do that, I just want to remind us all that what Paul is doing here is jumping around, that are not necessarily sin, but because of their background, they've been conditioned to think that they are sin. So how do we deal with that? Do we just run roughshod over someone's conscience? Well, the answer is no, we don't. We restrain our liberties to accommodate the untrained consciences of others who perhaps are thinking things are sin when they're not, but nevertheless, the conscience "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is none other god but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge. lest by any means this liberty of yours becometh a stumbling block to them that are weak. For if any man see thee which hath knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple. Shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh, while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. W7UAR, back to net. However, some of the believers really stumbled across this because they understood that eating this meat was representative of worshiping demons, really. And so they really struggled with that in the conscience. So though, as Paul is pointing out here, though many of the Corinthians there were correct theologically in that there's no harm in eating the meat, they completely disregarded that. God and think you have it right as well as you think you do, then you would love the brethren as you love God. So love for God and love for the brethren is preeminent because one thing that you'll discover as you follow God is that it will create humility. And the more you know, the more you realize how little you really know. So what is important, Paul's theme really throughout a lot of this Corinthian letter is the importance of that love, that true sacrificial love, not only for God, but for the brethren. And though you might be theologically correct on something, if it is a problem that causes a brother to fall or stumble, then by all means, you need to be a brother to the brethren. to be practical about it and understanding about how it might impact others. And we'll start there. KB7 is that example. Yeah, Kevin, thank you for that commentary. And, you know, when it talks in verses 1 and 2 there about knowledge and love, those two And so we see this constant connection between knowledge of the truth and love that then utilizes that truth in such a way as to bring blessing into people's lives instead of bludgeoning them with that superior knowledge. I think we all know people who are highly knowledgeable of doctrinal truth and theological precision. And yet, they're heartless when it comes to how they treat other people. And so the truth is supposed to be a blessing. It's supposed to be that which builds people up, not that which beats people down. And so this connection here in verses 1 and 2, where it talks about the relationship between knowledge and love and knowledge and promise. ride bears a lot of reflection and thought. All right, other corvettes, please come down. Alpha Romeo. OK, we had a double there. I heard Mark, KJ7PVT. Mark, go ahead. And this is real, I was looking at my NIV. I was looking at the knowledge.. I like that. That is a good, succinct summary. Yeah, so thank you for that. Appreciate that. You know, knowledge puffs up. Now, it, doesn't have to, but it has that tendency to. You know, Paul is not being anti-intellectual here. He's not saying, don't go and gain a high level of knowledge with reference to the Scriptures. Paul himself, obviously, had an extremely high level of knowledge regarding the Scriptures, and he wasn't puffed up. He's a very humble man. And so this isn't like, well, you've got to be stupid and humble, or you've got to be knowledgeable and proud, and those are the two options. Those are not the two options. You can be very knowledgeable, and you can be very loving, and you can be very humble, but it's hard. And the reason why it's hard is because we tend to have a temptation towards pride, and we tend to have a temptation towards selfishness. And because of pride and selfishness are easily cultivated by an extraordinary and unusual level of knowledge, especially of the scriptures, we have to be super on guard against that. So the more you know, actually the more humble you ought to be and the more loving you ought to be because that is the proper application in the Bible. and usefulness of knowledge. All right, Mark, great comment there. Other comments, please come now. Alpha Romeo. Okay, Alpha Romeo, go ahead there, Mark. Yeah, so I was just reading about kind of the background on this 'cause I wasn't super familiar with it, but one of my questions was kind of like, well, why were believers eating the meat of these idols? Why was that a thing? And what I read was kind of interesting. It said, well, first of all, these temples, these pagan temples were the main meat supply for the community. So that's where animals were sacrificed and people would go there. So whether you bought the meat at the butcher, you were almost certainly buying idle meat, whether you wanted to or not at that time. The other thing they said is this is like the major central social life for a lot of these communities. And so as these people were coming to the knowledge of Christ and beginning to change their beliefs, you know, Paul's point was like, look, it's not that the meat itself is bad, as you guys have pointed out, but for some of these guys, you know, it was like this was something they were kind of mentally having to distance themselves from. with anything to do with idol worship. And so this was creating this stumbling block. And anyways, it reminded me, man, this was probably a month, month and a half ago, but I think in Romans you guys were talking about this, and I think somebody brought up the analogy of alcohol. And to them it was like, look, for me, alcohol is not a big deal, but I know that there's sometimes I'm in an environment where for other people it is. And so when I, when I, I know that and I'm in that environment, I tend to refrain because I don't want it to be an issue for them also or something like that. And anyways, that kind of came to my mind and just the idea of our love for our brothers and being able to recognize their needs and the things that might trip them up or cause them to have a stumbling block should be more important than the fact that they're not our own knowledge that maybe in this particular area, for me, that's not a big deal, right? Or something like that. Anyway, W7UAR? Yeah, Mark, excellent comment and good analysis of the passage and the issues that are involved there. And thank you for the illustration about alcohol. That fits exactly into this passage. And basically we have two things at work here, don't we? We've got liberty, Christian liberty, And then we've got the issue of love. And love for our brethren always trumps, it's always more important than the exercise of our Christian liberties. You know, if we're by ourselves and that brother with a sensitive conscience is not around, by all means, enjoy your Christian liberties. But if they're around out of love to them, you deny. your Christian liberty because you don't want to create any offense to their conscience you don't want to encourage them to go contrary to their conscience and you want to wait on the Holy Spirit and the truth and knowledge to gradually transform that conscience until it is biblically trained and you're exactly right mark a lot of this echoes what was going on in Romans chapter 14. There, it was the Jews who were struggling with feast days and fast days and dietary regulations. And the Gentiles are going, hey, not a problem for us. Well, now we've got these Gentiles coming out of paganism, and they used to sacrifice to these idols. This used to be their worship. Well, now they've gotten saved. They're serving the true and living God. And it's like, man, for them to go eat that meat offered to idols would be like for them to, in their conscience, go back to their old idol worship. They can't do that. So here you are without a background in idolatry. To you, it's just meat. And indeed, that's all it is because these idols really don't exist. And yet, nevertheless, here is a fellow. who came out of that background. And, you know, Mark, I kind of liken it to people who have come out of an alcoholic background. Boy, you know, you don't take them to a restaurant that has a bar in it or something of that nature so that they are not put in a place of being triggered with reference to a previous temptation. And, you know, that's... true with lots of different sins that people struggle with. So an awareness, selflessness, putting the needs of others ahead of my own desires and privileges, that's the ethic that we need to have as believers. All right, other comments on this passage? Please come out. Is that it, Ken? Yeah, we gave you some of that. Very good comments. And I think everybody just on the right track here with understanding and application of this. And this does still exist today. You know, in Romans 12, 3, and as well as throughout the Word of God, we're warned not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. In fact, if it's just knowledge that was important, demons know the Word of God better than all of us. But they're far removed from a relationship with God. So with that relationship with God does come that need to have a love for the brethren, which flows naturally from our love from God, which first is initiated by Him. But I like also how Paul establishes that theological foundation in the recognition that there is one God. uh you know Like in verse 6 there we talk that Jesus, that God the Father and Jesus are one. You know, there are these others, false idols, are not true gods at all. Quite interestingly, the LDS used this area of text of many gods as their way of showing, trying to show people that, see, there are many gods. Right. but if they would just read the rest of the text, unequivocally, Paul here emphatically demonstrates, no, there's only one God revealed through Jesus Christ and God the Father, and of course, the Holy Spirit inferred here. So, just a side note, but it's important to have that context of this, the Romans and 8 here because if the LDS ever knocked on your door and wants to try to convince you that there are many gods, this is the text they will use. KB7 is that example. Yeah, Kevin, thanks for sharing that with us. I really appreciate that. Because, you know, in the midst of this argument about whether we should eat meat offered to idols, theology. That is about the doctrine of God himself. And so that's in verses 4 through 6. And he says, concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other god but one. So all these false gods, what Paul is saying, they don't even exist. Verse 5, for though there be there that are called gods, whether in heaven and earth, as there have gods many, and lords many. Now that phrase obviously has a context, and the context is those who are called gods, but that really don't exist. And so, you know, if you study the religions of the world, the pagan religions, the other religions, there are literally thousands of gods that people worship across the world. And what Paul is saying here is those gods are figments of men's imaginations. do not even exist. And so the idea that we would move from being humans to becoming gods and running our own planets, as though, I mean, really that's polytheism. Mormonism, LDS, is a polytheistic religion where each person eventually moves to becoming a god and ruling his own planet and producing his own children on that planet. Well, this passage they use to support it really rebuts it, because it says very clearly in verse 6, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. So while we worship a single God, there is a plurality of persons in that single Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But other than the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit in one person, there are no other gods, and so we are not triteus we don't worship three separate gods we worship one god uh eternally manifested in three persons so kevin thank you for pointing that out uh and for the error uh in the twisting of scriptures that is used to take a passage that's saying there's only one god and trying to use that passage to say there are many gods uh that's really a sad example of exegesis and really easily refuted all right comment from this passage. Please come down. Good morning, AK6OK. Good morning, Jeff. AK6OK. We've got you checked in. Brother, do you have any comments on our passage? Negative. I was not here when you read it and I just sent you a prayer concern. I've been here late today. Okay, copy that. I just got the prayer concern. Just read it. I will cover that. We close in prayer, Jeff. Thank you for that. All right, that's Jeff, AK6OK. All right, any other comments anybody wants to make on the passage? And we are in 1 Corinthians 8 there, Jeff, 1 Corinthians 8, the whole chapter. All right, any other comments? Please come out. Papa Alpha. Papa Alpha, please go ahead, the cop. You know, right there, and we've covered it multiple times this morning, but it's just so apparent to me that in verse 8, chapter 1, or chapter 1, verse 8 no chapter 8 verse 1 yeah where it says knowledge makes arrogant but love edifies we've mentioned many times or I have anyway and to me it's very clear that there's a difference between worldly smarts and godly wisdom that's why we consistently encourage consistently that we seek God's wisdom because in God's wisdom there is the overwhelming thread of God's agape love that Kevin alluded to. Agape love comes with godly wisdom. In Worldly Smart, it's just that. It's knowledge it's common sense I remember as a young man with the guy we were building road down a hog back and we come to a little knob and the landing was on past this knob that overlooked the canyon where they were going to set the yarder but we were building the road in there and when we come up to this knob there was a natural bench around the right-hand side of the little knob and there was uh it was extremely steep around the left-hand side of this knob well that uh the forest engineers you know the uh the educated ones they had they had it flagged and and spaked uh to cut you know a 30 30 foot cut through here around the left-hand side of the knob and then as we got around the knob continue down the hog back to the landing well The cat-scaler looked at that and he shook his head. He says, "Why do that when we have a natural bench around the right-hand side and I can be around the knob in, you know, an hour?" And to me, I tied this between the two, having this foundation and an understanding of this scripture. This is what it looked like to me. Well, the right-hand side would be using godly wisdom. with his natural bench, and sometimes the worldly smart isn't near as smart as what the world would like to let on to be there, Max. And something to pick. Yeah, Scott, well said. You know, education without experience and knowledge without love winds up making some pretty poor decisions and make things a lot harder than they need to be. And, you know, I think, Scott, that's the reason why it says in Ephesians chapter 4 that we're supposed to be pastor-teachers, those who lead the church. Now, the idea of teaching, of course, is, you know, a bunch of information. But the idea of pastoring is that you're shepherding people's hearts and lives and that you have a concern for how things are going with them. And so I think that, you know, you have the knowledge, but you also have the wisdom combined together in one person. And that's what it takes to be a pastor teacher. And so you have a love for people, and you have a love for the truth, and you use the truth in a loving way to build up those people and help them get through that obstacle so that they can get through it. get to the destination in heaven. And so you're right. The foresters out there who never ran a cat, never built a road, have no idea about how terrain and tractors work together, made a poor decision. And here's a guy who doesn't have the college education, but he's run a cat for a thousand miles through forest building roads. And he knows better than the educated guy just because of his experience. applied to situations, well, that becomes a problem if people don't know how to do that. So, Scott, good illustration and good comment. Let's be practical in our application of knowledge, and let's do it in such a way that it brings blessing and not unnecessary difficulties. All right, WB7MX here, looking for more comments on our passage. Please come down with your calls. I will. Thank you for that great comment. All right, other comments come up. Is that XM? Is that XM? Go ahead. I hope my voice holds up here briefly. You know, one thing to consider here, too, in the context, and this is why I think Mark's comment on alcoholism was spot on, too, because many of these members of the church had come out of idol worship, certainly, and in their minds, they have realized they were turning away from this idol worship and eating the meat just probably brought back that association they still connected that with part of that idol worship so as part of their repentance they're trying to turn away from their past in their past worship of idols and going into the temples and all that was involved with that so for them this was very difficult psychologically and mentally for them to to disassociate the eating of that temple meat from that activity, as would be an alcoholic who's, you know, turned away from their alcohol. They're working through that with God, by God's grace. And so for them, the drinking of that alcohol would bring back all that was associated with that lifestyle. of being an alcoholic. So the love here, the compassion, if you will, is part of that understanding of that association and that effort of that believer to try to disassociate from their past. KB7 is that example. Yeah, Kevin, well said. And you know, Kevin, that's one of the reasons why we refuse to serve alcoholic wine in the communion service. There are some churches who say, "Oh, you know, it needs to be alcoholic." No, it doesn't. of the symbol is in the crushing and bleeding of the grape. It's not in the alcoholic content. And so we never served any kind of alcoholic wine in the Lord's Supper, nor is it necessary because alcohol or non-alcohol is not of the essence of the symbol. What is the essence of the symbol is the crushing of the grape and the juice that flows out of it, Remember our priests used to supply us with holy water. We'd make the sign of the cross with it, etc. But you don't see any indication of any of that in the scriptures themselves. So when you look in the New Testament, you see what baptism is. It's a symbol of conversion and what happened in that conversion, and therefore it's only suitable to apply to converted people. And infants certainly don't have the capability of exercising faith. and that's why they have godparents who exercise faith on their behalf. And then they're supposed to confirm that when they get to be 13 years old in the process of confirmation. So, different process that different churches practice, and I think we just have to look and see, what is the example of the New Testament, and just follow that. All right, Bec, great comment and question. Thank you for that. Okay, we are about out of time. I think we have time for one final comment. Any more comments, please come down. Will, KLA 5 Foxtrot, go ahead. Yeah, and one of the versions that I'm reading, I have a comment on the, it has a footnote on verse 3. Verse 3 says that if anyone loves God, he is known by him. And the comment that I have here is that some manuscripts read the person who loves has full knowledge. So people that love God, New King James are based on majority text, and that's probably part of the reason for the difference in reading there. But I'll look into the Greek on that after we get off the net and see what we can come up with here. So in any event, it's not what the King James says, but if any man loved God, the same is known of him. And so when you love God, God knows that. He knows who you are. And he... All right, hearing nothing, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer. Our kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage that once again teaches us to be loving and selfless. Father, we see our Lord Jesus Christ being loving in that no greater love has a man in this than he laid down his life for his friends. And we see Jesus being selfless. work, that things would heal up there, and that his eye would be trouble-free. And Lord, as he goes to have the other one replaced sometime in February, Lord, I just pray that that procedure would go well also. And then Father Kevin, KB7ZXN asked us to pray for Connie. Connie indicated that she's to go through that procedure again. Father, thank you that the procedure went well, the outcome was good, and Lord, we are extremely grateful for that. Lord, we just want to pray today for our dear brother Darrell, WB7AOT. Father, he's going in for a big procedure, and I just pray that whatever his medical needs are in the area of urology, Father, that you would give a clear diagnosis, a plan of treatment, Father, that would resolve the problems and due to lymphedema and other things. Lord, I pray that you would bring that swelling down. Lord, we pray that there would not be pain, there would not be excessive swelling. And Father, may those lymph nodes all drain really well. And Father, may they know a good recovery of their function of their legs and feet. Father, we just want to pray for Mike in 7FFM for recovery for his taste buds. and your mercy and your grace to each one of us. Thank you most of all for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who brings that goodness, mercy, and grace to us. Father, may we love him, may we live for him, may we be loyal to him, and stand up for him, even to the point of persecution to death. Father, help us to be faithful to death, and we know that you will give us a crown of life, as you promised the church in Smyrna there in Revelation 2. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.