02.19.2023 Isaiah 41.10 Fear

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

podcast, ararat, physiology, fear, serve, programs, website, sabbath, people, called, life, god, discipleship, feel, episode, boiling water, conditioning, apa format, book, udemy

SPEAKERS

Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller: 00:24

Welcome. Thank you for joining the podcast. This is discipleship conditioning. This is actually the first episode, kind of. I'll explain later, how it fits into a kind of first show. I like to open each show with prayer requests. This is a faith based podcast. And we have a website domain up and running araratphysiology.com, Ararat in Ararat is named after Mount Ararat, which appears in Genesis as the mountain that Noah's Ark rests on as the water subsides. And so we have our domain of araratphysiology.com. And all our emails are @araratphysiology.com. And so if you have any prayer requests, my family and I would love to pray for you. And you could reach us at prayer@araratphysiology.com. Like to open with our mission, sort of the who, what, why, and our answer as to why we're here. The who that we serve our men who have ever felt persecuted over their God given qualities. We're going to explain this in depth throughout our shows together. But we feel that there is a unique persecution against men, and even to a little bit higher degree Christian men. I would say the same holds true for Christian women as well. But we're going to look at the biblical aspect of that this podcast will exist to mainly serve men, and do so through a Christian lens. We hope to bring people to Christianity, we hope to educate people on Christianity, dispelling some myths that may exist. And share the good news share the good news of Jesus Christ through the Old Testament in the New Testament. We are not Bible scholars. We are normal people just like you. And we hope to share through our experiences in ways that can benefit you. So sort of the what we do through our anecdotal experiences, which would mean our our basically our personal accounts, and the scholastic work of the Bible, the most scholastic work there is, meaning it is the most, the highest level of truth, and trustability existing. So the Scholastic work of the Bible, we teach how God's word impacts every facet of our lives. And so each episode is going to be titled based on a Biblical verse. Today is Isaiah 41:10. And we're going to look at that verse, and we're going to apply it to our lives. Now, obviously, we're going to be speaking primarily from what's going on in society, and our personal experience, but as prayer requests come in, and that will dictate the nature of the episode for future shows. This is going to be set on an every third day schedule. And we're going to omit Saturdays, to observe the Lord's Sabbath. Now, while we don't feel that we're necessarily commanded, based on what Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament, to observe the Sabbath, and we understand that that is a touchy subject for some people, we feel that if it's strong enough to be a commandment in the Old Testament, that if we are able to serve in that way, if we are able to honor God in that way, why not? And so we observed the Sabbath as a time of rest, reflection on the week previous rejuvenation, and of course, we dive into God's word each Saturday and have a family Bible study. So today is a Sunday today some Hey, February 19. As I mentioned, this is the first episode, kind of. I actually started this podcast back in November, November 1 of last year, and recorded 25 or 30 episodes by the end of the year, and had a strong attack of fear. And so what delayed this podcast starting until I'm nearly 40 years old, and the end of 2022 placed a strong gap in this podcast. Talk a little bit about that over the coming episodes on what led to stopping and what we're going to do differently going forward. This is something that we plan to continue and continue long term. I plan to give it at least a year. I want to see the fruit that it yields and regardless of whether the podcast is continued after the year, our website, araratphysiology.com will will certainly continue with everything that we have going on over there. So why do we feel the need to serve in this way, as part of our mission, we feel we're faced with a problem of societal influence outweighing Biblical influence, which leads to our succumbing of the evil tactics intended to destroy us. I've had a number of friends phrase it as if we're the frog in boiling water. And you've probably heard that analogy before. If we are a frog thrown into boiling water, we're going to jump right out. So that's analogous or similar to, you've probably seen the old Austin Powers movies. It feels weird to call them the old Austin Powers movies. But anyways, he was sort of frozen and then thawed out 40 years later, or whatever it was. So if you took somebody that was in his shoes that was sort of thought out after about 40 years, what you would feel in society would be like boiling water, it would be something that would be very blatant and apparent and you'd be shocked by it. But the part of the analogy of the frog in boiling water is if you put a frog in lukewarm water, and you slowly increase the temperature, it will boil alive. Regardless of whether that is actually true or not. For our society that holds weight, in that things have changed year by year, little by little in small increments in a way that we don't notice as much. And it takes a strong dedication to the Bible. And those principles taught within scripture to recognize how far we've deviated and how far we've come. So our goal, our answer is to serve brothers and sisters again, although this podcast will be geared towards men from a Christian lens. That's primarily because I will serve as the host. My name is Dan Miller, the owner, founder operator of Ararat Physiology and araratphysiology.com. And since I will be the host speaking as a man, I will better be able to serve men because of my understanding from my experience and what Scripture tells us. For my sisters out there, I hope that I can shed light on how men are and what men should look like in terms of what the Bible commands us to look like. And if you are unwed I pray that there's something in this podcast that helps you search for the right man. If you are wed, I hope that you can share this with your husband and that he finds some sort of value in what we're doing here. So we're not limited listeners to any any specific side, any specific gender, any specific denomination, any specific anything. We welcome all, but the podcast will certainly be spoken to from the man's point of view and will be spoken to through a Christian lens. But we want to serve brothers and sisters with authenticity through our calling in ministry as teachers. I highlight the word authenticity because as I in my head have made 10 mistakes already. Who knows is how many it's been, those mistakes are not gonna go away, I want to be real with you, I want to be authentic. And so I'm not going to edit any of these episodes. I'm a father, one daughter and another on the way, actually, exactly a month from today, due date is March 19. I didn't realize that till I just said it, that's pretty cool.

Daniel Miller: 10:25

But there's going to be baby crying, there's going to be kids coming into the office, I'm sure my wife will knock on the door from time to time, there's going to be interruptions. And that's life. I don't want to one, perfect this and make it seem as something that it's not, I want it to come across as authentic and real. And to just from a practicality standpoint, we'll get into what we do at Ararat Physiology. But it's a lot, we have a lot on our plate. And we are not software people. We are not editors. We're not even podcasters, we're doing this podcast discipleship conditioning, because we feel called to do so as part of our ministry and part of our business in serving God. So we're very much fish out of water here, as we'll probably be apparent, but we're going to keep plugging ahead. And we're going to do our best to serve people. Now, in terms of sponsor, I've gone back and forth on this a number of times. When I first started this podcast back last year, I just assumed that sponsorship was part of it. And whatever podcasting hosting website that I went through, would interject ads, and let me record specific ads and place them and those sorts of things. And I spent a lot of time looking at podcasts that I enjoy seeing how they do things. And also looking at the feedback that listeners are giving. And what I found was, most listeners would rather be directed back to a website to purchase T shirts, programs, merchandise, whatever, than be interjected with some advertisement. And so at least in the beginning, we're going to be self sponsored. And so we are directing you back to our website. And we're going to spend a moment here describing what we do. Because this is the first podcast, we will spend a little bit more time describing what we do, and we'll keep it concise going forward. If this model continues to work, and people are directed to the website, and we see programs purchased and those sorts of things, then we'll keep doing it that way. If not, we may open the door again and look at external sponsorship. So just know that's where our heart is. But again, we are self sponsored as of now. The website is araratphysiology.com. All our emails are @araratphysiology.com. We offer blog style articles, I'm going to create articles that pair with this podcast. Whether that be a show script, or that be a brief write up of what was discussed sort of a reflection that will that will take place after this podcast is recorded. This is part of the reason why I'm going to record every third day is that will give me a couple of days to squeeze in time for the blog associated with the previous podcast. And again, we're not going to work Saturdays. We don't feel that that is part of what we're called to do in the Sabbath. And so today is Sunday, February 19. Three days will be Wednesday. And then three days from there will be Saturday. And so there won't be an episode on Saturday, three days from there would then be Tuesday. And so we'll record Tuesday, and then so on and so forth. So it'd be every third day unless that third day falls on a Saturday in which we will have that day off and then go three days from that point. I thought about going just bumping it to Sunday if it falls on a Saturday, but if you do the math on that, it ends up being a two day a week podcast where it's Sunday and Wednesday and then you hit every Saturday which bumps you to Sunday. And so I chose to go three days after Saturday to keep it on a fairly consistent schedule of every three days minus the Sabbath. We also write nonfiction books. I'm working on a third book right now, the first two books are great transitions to our topic of fear today. They remain unpublished due to a lot of fear in that. But this is the third book I'm working on. It's called a year without television talks about the influence of TV in our lives from a sin perspective. And also have a number of book ideas. If you go to araratphysiology.com. And you click on the tab books, you'll see all the book ideas that we have, and I've listed them as items for $5. So if you're interested in one of those titles, please consider a $5 donation to that book. And when I reach a certain number of donations for the book, I will jump into full scale production of the book. That's a way of me knowing where the demand is, and directing my efforts accordingly. The first and main thing that we've provided at Ararat Physiology is strength and conditioning programs. I have an extensive academic background in kinesiology, exercise science. And I've been building strength and conditioning programs since 2012. So we have a number of strength and conditioning programs for a number of sports. If you go to araratphysiology.com, you click on programs, you'll see all the sports that we currently have. You'll see at the bottom, there's a request for an additional program, if there's an additional sport that's not represented, and we sell those for $100. We put an extensive amount of research into each of those programs to ensure that whoever purchases that program knows that what is written is backed up with the scientific research on what is appropriate for athletes. As a full time profession for the last almost six years, I've taught anatomy and physiology. I've also taught chemistry and a number of other subjects, pathophysiology, medical terminology, etc. But the main course has been anatomy and physiology, whether that be basic, intermediate or advanced anatomy and physiology. I've also started teaching some exercise science programs through a local university. And I feel comfortable, we feel comfortable supporting just about anything within the biology realm. So biology is a subdivision of science, anatomy and physiology is a subdivision of biology, exercise, science and exercise physiology is a subdivision of anatomy and physiology. And some would argue kinesiology is a subdivision beneath that some would say it's synonymous with exercise science. Regardless, we feel comfortable creating courses on those subjects. And so we have three courses published. One of them is actually translations of the Bible. It's a free course. If you're interested in what are some of the differences between translations that exist. And then we have a how to build a workout course that will show you how to design your own scholastic based article without the need of a personal trainer or strength and conditioning coach, you can use that for the rest of your life. And so for a small fee of usually it's listed at around $20. Sometimes it's on sale. You get a course that's going to help you build whatever workout you'd like to for the rest of your life. We feel that that is beyond worth tha. Most personal trainers this day are charging between $50 and $100 an hour and more so to build the program for you, just as we do when we build a program for someone. We also have a course on APA format. As a college professor, I've seen students struggle with APA format. And so I have a again $20 course unless it's on sale for how to create an APA compliant or APA formatted document for students that need to at their various institutions. We have plans for a number of anatomy and physiology based courses to come through stay tuned for that. These are all published currently through udemy.com. Udemy.com is a fantastic website that offers courses for different instructors. And they offer them either free or for a fee. And it drives traffic to that. So it's good for us because it gets people who we may not have reach to be able to see.

Daniel Miller: 20:20

Thats going to link through our website. So if you, if you still go to araratphysiology.com, click on courses, click on the course that is interesting to you that you're looking at, it'll take you over to Udemy. That helps us because the links in those pictures and in those links within our website, take you directly through a link provided by Udemy. That gives us a little bit higher commission from the what would occur if you just went through udemy.com and found it that way. It's actually, if you find it that way, it's a fairly low commission for us. So we're hoping that the majority of sales we make are through the website to yield a higher commission, it is possible in the future we will look to host our own courses on our website. But right now with a fairly high commission offered through that method, we're going to stick with Udemy at this point in time. We also offer faith based podcast, which is what you're listening to now. We call it discipleship conditioning, which pairs with another service that we have. Discipleship conditioning is essentially where I meet with brothers and sisters and I disciple them. I meet with them through either locally if you're in the Boise, Idaho area, or I meet them through Microsoft Teams, video chat sort of thing. And just talk about life. Talk about career advice, talk about Biblical advice, talk about all sorts of things to help people navigate. We live in a world with a lot of pain. And thankfully, my wife and I have overcome many different versions of that pain. And we've done so through the grace of Jesus. And we feel called to share that grace, we feel called to share that with people to help them along their journey. And discipleship conditioning is something we're very passionate about. And we hope to have five to 10 people on a weekly basis that we meet with and we help through that process. Because that does take from what we do otherwise, in providing for our family, we do charge for that. But we are always open and willing to meet him with individuals. To help as much as we can in the limited amount of free time that we do have. When it starts taking away from the free time in the work life balance is when we charge. But up until that point, we want to serve brothers and sisters like we're called to do. Not a normal service that we have all the time and this applies only to local individuals in the Boise Idaho area. We also offer a summer camp. This is a strength, speed, agility camp. And there is information on the website araratphysiology.com click camps or go to araratphysiology.com/camps. Either one works. And we have all the details for the local camp that we're going to have. It's going to be a two week camp. And it's going to be in Greenleaf Idaho, which is west of Boise. And so if you're in the area, and you have a athlete between the ages of five and 18, please bring them out. And we'd love to serve them for a couple of weeks and help them become better athletes. And we're going to incorporate prayer, we are at a local Christian campus so we can do that. Feels awfully strange to say that we can do that we should be able to pray everywhere. In fact, I do. And sometimes we get in trouble for it. That's okay. So good reason to get in trouble. But we're gonna have this summer camp, we're going to pray and we're gonna get better at serving God better at the gift of our bodies that He's given us and the athletic performance and gifts that we've been assigned. More information about any of those offerings that we have, you can inquire at hello@araratphysiology.com.

Daniel Miller: 24:38

Let's get into our Bible verse of the day. Before we speak to that, let me shed a little bit more light why I've had a gap in podcast recording since the end of December. I mentioned earlier it was due to fear. Part of that I think was healthy fear. There's there's a fear of the Lord that's needed and I definitely felt that. I felt as though I was relying too much on translation of the Bible, too much on my own personal commentary, as opposed to just sharing anecdotal experience. And so that's a distinct change that's going to occur starting today and moving forward. I'm going to read scripture, I'm going to read a verse or multiple verses that are applicable for the topic. And rather than translate it or provide commentary, which I believe is outside of what I'm called to do, I'm going to fear the Lord and I'm going to focus on the experiences that He's provided for me, and share those experiences with you rather than commentary. There are many more qualified individuals, for commentary, I can recommend some of them to you if you'd like to reach out via email. And you can look at them for commentary and translation. I do have future aspirations of a second master's and a doctoral program, sort of a second doctoral program in Biblical Exposition. And so perhaps in the future, I will be more able to talk on the matter. But as of now, I'm going to read a verse or a set of verses, and then I'm going to talk about my experience with it, or our experience with it. So today is Isaiah 41:10. I'm always reading out of the English Standard Version, it is the version that speaks most loudly to me. But I believe that all versions available, have a purpose. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (ESV Bible, 2001, Isaiah 41:10). That is very reassuring. The other type of fear that I had delayed in this podcast, I think, was just a devilish attack, just trying to get to me and tell me that you're no good. I had a student a few months back told me I was monotone. So I'm sure that thought crept in as well. Like, who's gonna listen to a podcast by you? You don't have the podcasters voice, you don't even have a radio voice. What are you doing? All this negativity and all this fear associated with it. And then from a logical standpoint, with a child on the way, it'd be our second child, with the wife, with all the different aspects of araratphysiology we do, and the full time employment that I have outside of Ararat Physiology, and the working at my daughter's school that I have outside of Ararat Physiology, my schedule is jam packed and I partially like it that way. I'm someone that does well with stress and does well with overworking myself. But I want to remain balanced. And I have a fear of over stretching those bounds and disturbing work life balance a little too much.

Daniel Miller: 28:23

And I'd never want to do that for my family. If there's one thing that I'm confident that I was put on this earth to do, to be, it's to be a dad, to be a father. And so that's my first priority above and beyond any of this other stuff. And as long as I keep that in focus, I'm good. But fear is attacking me saying, you're not a good dad, because you're doing this or your schedule is too full, you can't possibly do all these things to a high level. If you're a jack of all trades, you're a master of none. And so believe it or not, even though to the average person, it sounds like I and we are providing a lot of services, and we're doing a lot of things. And I think to the average person, that's true. Believe it or not, I have dwindled that down from quite a bit more. Over the last few years. I've really had heart to heart with myself and prayed on the matter of what do I want to be good at and what do I want to dedicate my life's work to? How do I want to serve individuals. And what I've come down to is that I need to use my spiritual gift which from Ephesians 4:11, I strongly believe its teaching and so that's helped me narrow things down. The other thing that's helped me narrow things down is when the doors open provided by God. So everything we do this podcast included, trust that we have prayed nightly and continuously to discern whether we are called to do this or not. And at this point in time we feel we're called to include a podcast as part of what we do and we love you. If you go on our website, that's the first thing you'll see, you'll see a pop up that says, we love you. And above and beyond all things we want to serve you. We are typical individuals who have idolized money for far too long. And we're working on stopping that. We trust that God will provide and the money will come if our hearts are focused on the right things. And so trust that first and foremost, we want to help you, as a brother, help you as a sister in any way that we can. And if you feel that you've received value in us, you pray on it, and you feel called to support us, either through a donation or a product, we would be honored that you would choose us for that. That's our focus going forward. And that is our step over fear, if you will. Fear is going to come back up, I promise it will, I know it will. I have lived too long to know otherwise. But we're going to keep our eyes on God. And we're going to follow His lighted path.

Daniel Miller: 31:13

I like to conclude each episode with a few things. One, I've found it very beneficial in my life, that when a decision is needed, I need to pray on it. I'm not always going to receive a thumbs up or thumbs down. Because I don't have the ability to perceive God. Through His grace, through His Son sacrifice through the Holy Spirit, I have inclinations and I have feelings and I compare that with Scripture and I compare that with wise counsel. And if I pray, I assess Scripture and I look for advice through wise counsel. I can make the majority of the decisions I need to make in my life. Some are easier than others. But I recommend that you do the same. That when a decision needs to be made in your life, seek prayer first, seek scripture second, seek wise counsel third. If you need prayer, again, reach out at prayer@araratphysiology.com. If you need wise counsel, please reach out at hello@araratphysiology.com. And what I'd like to conclude every week with is the Lord's Prayer. This comes from Matthew 6:9-13 and it reads, “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
 but deliver us from evil” (ESV Bible, 2001, Matthew 6:9-13). Amen.