Episode 1569: Interview with James Early About His Message The Bible Speaks to You

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining us on episode 1,569 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

James Early: Hey there, I'm James Early and I want to invite you, encourage you, and challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so you can impact the world by using your time, your talents, and your treasures to live out God's calling in your life along the way.

Learning to see yourself as God sees you is so important and a great way to do that is to listen to this episode of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Imagine you had six iPhones or Androids. If you're an Android user and you taped one to your head, one to your shoulders, one to your [00:01:00] waist, one to a knee, one to your foot, and one to your back. Turned the video camera on and walk down the street. You get back home and you look at all the videos. Which one is correct?

Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself.

Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's podcast episode, I interview James early. I ask James about how he works to use the mindset of Jesus to transform both personal and professional lives. James also shares how his own experiences in prison ministry has changed his views [00:02:00] on life and on others. And James also talks with me about the value of unity without looking for uniformity.

I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living. Assemble the Puzzle of your Calling by Mastering your Time, your Talent, and your Treasures. You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it, as well as purchase a copy there.

I'd love to see you. Get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. James Early is a Bible teacher and helps. People learn to think, pray and love. Like Jesus. He gives talks and conducts workshops on the Bible to churches and groups as well as online. Since 2008, his Bible study workshops at the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Connecticut have transformed hundreds of lives.

In the fall of 2019, James started the [00:03:00] Bible Speaks to You podcast, which is listeners in over 200 countries, and focuses on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus. Through his Jesus mindset coaching program, James helps people embrace the mindset of Jesus and rediscover their God-given ability to think and act more like Jesus.

He lives in Beth El Connecticut with his wife of 34 years, and they have three grown children. He loves hiking and organic gardening. Welcome to the show, James. Hey, Scott, it's great to be here. Absolutely. It's great to have you this morning. So I talked a little bit in the intro about some of the things you've done, some of your journey, but I always laugh and say intros are kinda like Instagram photos, they never show the whole story.

Why don't you unpack for us a little bit, tell us a little bit more about your journey and what's brought you to this point where this is the message that you feel you're called to, to spread in the world.

James Early: That's a great question, Scott and I love to talk about this. I grew up in a family.

We went [00:04:00] to church, we actually read the Bible together. We had a little daily devotional, so I was always familiar with the Bible and I guess I got my first Bible that I really started reading when I was in about the third grade. It was one of those little things about the size of your pocket and I was so proud of that.

Tiny little print. But I carried around with me and as I got older let's say around in high school or so, I started questioning things. I had those kinds of questions about why is this true? Why do, what do I believe? Am I believing this stuff just because my parents took me to church or whatever?

And that's when I really made my faith, my own, and I became not just repeating words that I'd heard, I'd been actually trying to put things into practice and one of the first early experiences of me interacting with the scriptures and actually realizing you have to live them and not just talk about them and say you believe them.

Was [00:05:00] is that passage where I think it's in one John. Where it says, if you love God, if you say you love God, but you hate your brother. You're a liar because how can you love someone you don't see? When you don't love someone you can see? And I thought, oh my gosh, I'm a liar. 'cause I have a little, I have a little brother.

Still have a little brother. And we did not get along. It was mostly my fault. I would pick on him, I would beat him up. He could just look at me and make me mad. I would allow myself to be made mad. I can't blame it on him. And when I read that and I had started realizing, hey, I really want to follow what Jesus said and what I'm, how I'm supposed to live my life, I realized.

Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to love my little brother. And I did. I made a conscious choice to love him instead of criticize him, be judgmental of him, feel like he was being judgmental of me. And that was one of the first times when I actually put my faith into [00:06:00] practice and I saw the difference it made.

I only lost my temper with him one other time after that. And that was like a year and a half or two later. I really, it helped me grow as a person, not to lose my temper with him. And and he noticed, my parents noticed, they didn't know what to do with me because I would just lose my temper uncontrollably and because I was frustrated for whatever reason.

Anyway, so I stop and pause on that because that was a real pivot point for me in my life in putting my faith into practice and, went up to college and worked and all those kinds of things, but. Through all of that, I was always trying to get a better idea of not just what I believed, but how to.

Live a Christian life, how to put the teachings of Jesus into practice in my daily life. And so that's been my focus And oh, probably when I was [00:07:00] a, either a senior in high school or first year in college, some there, I went to a big church convention and there were all these speakers and all the people, the only thing I remember from that conference was what one speaker said. Her prayer throughout her life had been, dear God, prepare me for what you have prepared for me. And that has stayed with me. I've said, God, whatever it is you want to do. With me here I am. I had my ideas of what that might be. But I can remember the first time I felt a real sense of calling and purpose was I was in high school and I watched the 10 Commandments with Charlton Heston and there are a couple of moments in there where you wide-eyed and thinking about God, and then he sees the burning bush and there's this sense of purpose and I all of a sudden felt like, oh, I've got a purpose.

I had no idea what it was, but I think, and as time has gone on, and I've seen all the [00:08:00] dysfunctionality, I'll say within the Christian Church as a whole, people arguing and debating over policies and doctrine and theo theological beliefs and who's right and who's wrong, and who's a heretic and who's not, who's in and who's out.

And I thought, you know what? That has always troubled me and I feel like part of what I am called to do is to try to bring some unity to the body of Christ. Not that we all agree and on and are on exactly the same page on everything. Because different members of the body of Christ, just like a human body, have different perspectives and different functions and different roles, and they see things differently, they act differently, that sort of thing.

So I have, that's where I am in my part of my calling. Fast forward, I got married, we are in Connecticut now. I've been married for 35 years as you said, and I started going to the prison in Danbury, Connecticut. There's a Federal Correctional Institution [00:09:00] and somebody asked me to help them out with their weekly bible study ministry and I said, okay, sure.

That felt like a right step for me at the time and. Over a period of years now, since 2008, going every week and teaching outta the Bible, I, it has helped me appreciate people from lots of different denominational backgrounds and how to minister to them. And I'm not trying to teach doctrine or theology as much as I am.

How can we follow Jesus? How can we be more like Jesus, think and love like Jesus did. I found my voice in doing that and people would say, oh, Mr. Early you've changed my life. You've restored my faith in God. And just have some wonderful stories from that. And I'm still doing that actually currently I realized, hey, I have something.

God has given me a way to talk to people. In a way that's helpful. And so [00:10:00] how can I get that out to a larger audience? And that's when I started my podcast. The Bible speaks to you about five and a half years ago. And now people are listening to it all over the world. It's really humbling to see. I, and I got the best fan mail, I guess you could call it.

Just earlier this week, a lady wrote me and said. James, thank you so much for your podcast. I love it. It's so helpful. It's brought so much healing to my life. I've shared it with my friends. They all love it. I feel like I've gotten to know Jesus better. Through listening to your podcast, I think, okay that's what it is.

I don't know who she is or where she was in her relationship with Jesus, but boy, that just made my day. And so right now my whole focus is how can I help you? How can I help your listeners? How can I help whoever I'm talking to in whatever circumstance? How can I help [00:11:00] you? Think and pray and love like Jesus did.

Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. We don't always act like it. We're not always using the mind of Christ to make our decisions to respond and to people and treat them the way Jesus would. So that's that's where I'm right now in my ministry and who I am. I'm trying to reach out. I'm also, I'm coaching people in that.

I also am mentoring churches to help them embrace their communities. How would Jesus embrace their community with love and healing and their message of hope and salvation? That's where I am right now. So talk

Scott Maderer: a little bit about how your faith has evolved as you've gone through this journey.

You mentioned the prison ministry and how that's opened your eyes to some things, but how has your faith changed as you've gone through these different periods?

James Early: I love that question. Not everybody asks that question, and I think this is important because. Hopefully we are all maturing [00:12:00] in our faith and in our relationship with Christ, and we see things more clearly than we used to.

When I was first serious about my faith, as I mentioned back in high school, oh, I thought I was right. I had to prove everyone else was wrong and I was gonna, I would argue, debate, theology and all that stuff, and. I have mellowed out on that before, but when I started my prison ministry and I had people from lots of different theological backgrounds, denominational backgrounds, cultural, social, economic backgrounds all kinds of stuff I realized that.

My faith was becoming more based on following Jesus instead of debating theology. I'm really done with the theology debates. That's interesting. I talked to a guy just this morning and we were sharing how we disagreed on some major theological issue, but. I said, you know what? You believe that, I [00:13:00] believe this.

The whole thing is we still are trying, we're both trying to follow what Jesus taught us to do, and hopefully, we'll all as we keep doing that, we see more clearly. I think the biggest transition for me has not, has been not basing my faith on what I believe theologically or doctrinally, but is. Based on following the teachings of Jesus, loving my neighbors, myself, loving my enemy, praying for those who abuse me and oppressed me back there to what Jesus said in the Beatitudes.

When we actually do what Jesus said, he said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. That's what I'm focused on. And, if I need to be straightened out on some doctrine at some point, hopefully I will be receptive to that when it happens. And I have changed my perspective on things as as life goes on.

But my focus now is on the biggest change, I would say, in this evolution of my [00:14:00] faith has been. Realizing that we need to base our faith, our Christianity, our relationship with Jesus on. Obeying him doing the things that he asked us to do, thinking the way he asked us to think, loving the way.

He wants us to love people. I think too many people have more faith in their theology than they do in God. They have a better relationship with their doctrines than they do with Christ. And okay, we could all be wrong on our doctrines to some degree. You probably are. But it's a place to, it's a place to start.

But I know. I know what it means from experience because I've had to work at it to love my enemies. That's hard to forgive someone who has hurt you to forgive yourself for the mistakes you've made. All these things that to me is the real Christian walk, and so that's where I am right now in my face.

Scott Maderer: And I think too, even the order that you just set it in, which is important I think a lot of times, there are people who believe if I follow [00:15:00] the commandments, then I'll love Jesus. You didn't say it that way, you said it the way it said, which is, if I love Jesus, then I'll follow the commandments.

It's out of that relationship that comes the ability to do those things that you know to look at it and go I'm doing the best I can to follow all of these things, and the best I understand them and. I might be wrong, but I'm gonna do the best I can anyway. Exactly.

James Early: And the more you follow Jesus, the more you love, the easier he goes.

And the more you love him, the more you follow him, and the more he keeps building on it on itself as you go.

Scott Maderer: Yeah. But it's like the, does belief come first? Or does action come first? And the answer is yes. Because belief leads to action, which leads to belief, exactly. It's a loop. It's not a

James Early: straight line in a way, they are so closely related. And it's important to. I think maybe the real issue is what is your motive? Why do you believe, are you believing because somebody scared you? Is somebody forcing you how to, you've been manipulated [00:16:00] theologically to believe a certain thing.

I think for me, it's all about let's get back to what Jesus said and and I think for some people, you're right. They have to just like different styles of learning in school. Some people have to do something before they believe it, other people accept it, and then they do it and maybe it doesn't make any difference. It's like you get on the, you get on the, in the process and you keep going.

Scott Maderer: And it is it's like any other shift in belief or mindset or things in terms of, it's a process on an event, you don't, yes. You can have light switch moments that make big changes, but.

Even like you talked about with the prison ministry, it's not like you walked in the very first day and you were completely transformed.

James Early: And here's an analogy with math, in first grade, kindergarten, whatever you learn, two plus two is four. You start to learn in a year or two, the multiplication tables division.

Then you get into all these other things, algebra and geometry and calculus and everything you. [00:17:00] Learn builds on the next thing. You don't stay all the time. Just studying two plus two is four. And I think that's true in our faith. As we grow, we just keep going. We keep up. The more you apply what you learn to your life and the way you treat people and the way you.

Love God and everything. It allows you to learn more and grow more and reach out in new ways to, and share your faith or whatever, to let your light shine. So it's a growing process. It's a living, growing thing, our faith. And you don't just stay in the same spot. If you're really practicing it, you're gonna get better and you're gonna grow.

Scott Maderer: How do you see coming up with the mindset of Jesus and beginning to, like you said, have the mind of Jesus. How do you see that transforming people as you have worked with them and worked with them in a coaching environment?

James Early: Oh gosh. I've seen so many [00:18:00] wonderful things in my own life and working with people.

Just to give a real brief. Overview of what I call the mindset of Jesus, or as Paul calls it, we have the mind of Christ Jesus. Think of how Jesus started his ministry. He didn't start off saying, you're all a bunch of miserable sinners. He said, Hey, I've got some really great news. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Now you're gonna have to. Repent, which means completely change your viewpoint. You're gonna have to change the way you look at things in order to be able to believe and accept and see and participate in this kingdom of heaven. But he was so conscious of the presence of God's kingdom here, right? Right now.

And when we shift our perspective from ourselves, from what the world is telling us is important, what from what, the world is not just telling you, us sometimes screaming us, screaming at us, saying, this [00:19:00] is the way things work. When we get a higher perspective from I'll say from Heaven's perspective, what if we could see things through the eyes of Jesus that could see that heaven is at hand?

You start seeing yourself. Other people in a different light because let's just imagine right now. You're in heaven and you see all the people that you dealt with and interacted with on earth. You say, oh, they're so and I'd love you. And they're, there's none of the weirdness there.

None of the problems. There are none of the hurts and mistakes you made, and you just see someone as a pure child of God. You love them. They love you. There's no weirdness or jealousy or feeling of inadequacy or superiority. There's just. Love and appreciation for the beauty of God's creation. What if we could, what if I'm saying if, 'cause it can be tough, but when you can look through that lens and look at people now through that lens, it change and look at yourself through [00:20:00] that lens.

It changes the way people. It makes you, when I get. On an airplane and there all these people used to be and say, I wish these people would be quiet. It's like now it's oh my gosh, these are my brothers and sisters. These are children of God. It makes me more compassionate and I can see why.

When Jesus was out in the crowds, he was moved with compassion. He saw them in a light, in a different light. Then here are all these people trying to get my attention. If you're in a crowd and people coming up and grabbing you and shoving you and say, Hey, they want to talk to you, it's ah, get me outta here.

Jesus said, no, come let me help you. I've got something I can share with you. And so I think it changes whether it's in your personal life, your professional life, your church life, if you're in school, whatever you're doing, if you're the janitor. In a building or if you're the CEO, what, whatever, or if you're a, I was a full-time stay at home dad for 10 years.

It doesn't matter what you're doing. If you have that mindset of Jesus that can see [00:21:00] God's kingdom as present, look through that lens, you just see things differently. You treat people differently. And I think that's how Jesus healed people. The blind person comes up to him, the people that are all these, the leper, whatever.

He could see that person with his human eyeballs. Okay, this problem, this person has such and such a problem, but in the kingdom of heaven, I believe he saw who they were spiritually without that problem, without that disability, without that sin. He saw that so clearly that it like turned on a light bulb.

It was a light bulb moment. For that person, and they were healed. So to everybody around from the earth's perspective, this guy was lame or blind or had leprosy, and now he's healed. But from the perspective of heaven, nothing changed. This whole idea of the mindset of Jesus, there's a lot of other parts of it too, like he didn't come to do his will.

I think when we get [00:22:00] rid of our human will and our human opinions and preconceptions about how things have to happen, and we're just an obedient servant to whatever God says, we only say Jesus only said. He heard the father tell him to say he only did what he saw the father doing. That's a communication, that's a relationship with the father, that all goes hand in hand with all this.

As the more we tap into that, Jesus expected us to follow his example in everything he did. And the more we have that mindset, the more we will start following more closely. In the way he interacted with people.

Scott Maderer: I always something you said early on too it I think we're going to be surprised when we get to heaven and we look around at some of, there, there's gonna be a moment of you.

Really, they're here. Because some of the people that we probably thought were going the other place, are gonna be right there beside us and we're gonna be surprised by it. If, other than the fact that, when we get to heaven we'll be perfected. But it's, [00:23:00] there's that moment I think of, again, like you said we get into the I, if I'm right, then everyone else has to be wrong, as opposed to.

What could I do that to treat people right? What can I do to live the right way? What could I do to reflect the gospel in what I think and what I say and what I do exactly? And I'm not gonna worry about whether they're right or wrong. I'm just gonna reflect the gospel and that's my job.

James Early: Just love the way Jesus did.

And I don't think you can go wrong with that.

Scott Maderer: Let the, I my comment is I like to tell people, the theological difference thing is above my pay grade. I don't, I'm not responsible for straightening that out, that's somebody else's job. That's right. There you go. My job's just to love on people and do the best I can to do that and amen.

And there, there are days I don't do it well. There are days I do it well, so well, and so we, we learn and we keep going forward. Yeah, totally. So how do you see for you [00:24:00] personally how has it been a struggle or. What's the practice, I guess is the best word for it that you've used to help you keep that focus?

'cause you've said earlier, you're human. You don't do it perfectly every day. And you mess it up too. So what is the practice that you use or the perspective you use to help you get back into that mode? Whenever it does go wrong on that day, when it doesn't work the way you want it to?

James Early: One obvious thing, and this is in a way kind of a pat answer, but it's a pat answer 'cause it's so true. I try to have my own daily Bible study and prayer time, and some days I get. Really well. And some days, life happens and you have to race off to do something or you're in the middle of it and something, your basement floods or whatever, or an emergency or whatever.

So I think the first thing for me is I try to stay grounded in [00:25:00] these in the encouraging word of the Bible because, and. The, another thing I do is I keep a journal. I've been keeping a journal since 19 1981. Wow. I have about 12, 13, 14, 15 journals where I've just, I don't write every day, but I try to write down, it's not a diary.

It's writing down my conversations with God. My experiences of faith. Sometimes my failures, sometimes it's wrestling with a, an issue like, I don't understand this. Or I've, I, I did this sin again, God, I'm trying to figure this out. How can I, I'm just, it's a way for me to express my hopes, my fears, my failures, my successes.

And and that's been helpful. I think and to answer specifically your question, sometimes I will go back and read something I wrote a year ago, or five years ago, or 10 years ago. I thought, [00:26:00] oh wow, that's really, it's just what I needed. Sometimes in my Bible study, I'll just open the Bible up at random.

Now, not every time, but a good 70 to 80% of the time, there's something that exists That is exactly what I need. Sometimes it's some random thing and but it those are kinds of things. The other thing is I usually know sooner or later when I have blown it, if I've had an, not recently but years ago, I would have a argument with my wife and I'd lose my cool, and, say, say things in a tone of voice that were not very nice. Let's just put it that way. I know that happens to a lot of marriage marriages. It's hard to apologize that instant, but at some point, owning, taking responsibility for the mistakes you've made and saying later, I'm sorry for my tone of voice. I'm sorry I said [00:27:00] those things.

I misunderstood what you said. This is what you know, et cetera. It's being accountable for your actions, not blaming him on someone else. Taking responsibility for what? You did and what comes outta your mouth. And that's not always easy. It's easier to blame somebody else. There are all these little things that kind of all work together and if I'm really stubborn on a given point, somehow God will get my attention.

And you have to because I have made the conscious choice and the commitment to follow Christ. I think that. That has opened my heart, at least to be willing, when those corrections come to say, oh, okay. If you haven't made that commitment to follow Jesus, then you don't even hear those rebukes probably.

I can't speak for anybody else, but all those things together help keep me on track and keep getting me back on track. And sometimes I'll like. Be all self-righteous about something and I'll be reading [00:28:00] the Bible. It's oh man. Busted right between the eyes, and, but because I have that love for God and love for the Bible, and love for Jesus, and love for trying to be obedient, it's like it, it talks me I don't know. Does that answer your question? I'm all over the place. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's all over the place.

Scott Maderer: But I think that I think that's important to, to reflect on is it is because it's not really about doing the things, it's, it, you are talking about it from the point of view of there's a lot of different things because it's more of a lifestyle or a mindset or a, an approach than it is.

I do these three steps and everything's perfect, it's not, everything's perfect. And it's, and I think that's important for people to hear, because we do have these feelings sometimes of, you hear from somebody love like Jesus do, do all, and it's oh they must be so much better than me.

They're somehow perfect, or they're somehow holier than me. We do this to pastors all the time. We [00:29:00] put 'em up on a pedestal and then something happens and we go, oh. What do you know? They're actually a person, it's like they can screw it up too, it's yeah, they can, because they're still human.

They're not, they've had a specific calling, but that's not the same as being made perfect. So I'm Methodist in background and John Wesley's famous saying is on to perfection. And the point there, his point is you not ever really get there but you are supposed to be working

James Early: that direction.

We we work with it, we work that as our high vision and we have moments where we feel closer to that. And that's good. And that gives us hope to keep going forward. But it's not every day. And it's not every moment, yeah. And so hopefully we learn from that and keep going forward.

Scott Maderer: So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but is there anything else you'd like to share about this journey you've been on or the podcast with the listener?

James Early: Yeah. There, there is actually, I mentioned [00:30:00] earlier about unity in the body of Christ, and that has become increasingly important to me especially in light of, we don't all agree all Christian denominations not, do not agree on various doctrines and practices and, ceremonies and how to worship, and we have all these different things and that used to really bother me.

I've really come to see that anyone who. Accepts Jesus as the son of God. That's my cutoff point for, okay, fine. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. The analogy that has helped me a lot is a modern version of Paul's. Definition of the church as the body of Christ. Imagine you had six iPhones or Androids if you're an Android user and you taped one to your head, one to your shoulders, one to your waist, one to a knee, one to your foot and one to your back.

Turned the video camera on and walked down the street, and you'd come to a cat, you'd come [00:31:00] to a waist high wall, you'd come to a pretty view what all these different things. You get back home and you look at all the videos. Which one is correct? Which one is the accurate portrayal of what your body went through?

Especially think of the difference of the one pointing backwards. If you, when you come across that cat, the video on the foot, the cat is a monstrous, it's a demon. If you at the waist high wall. The one camera at the waist can just barely see something over. The people down below say we just can't see what's going on.

The people above said, oh, the view's beautiful. Now translate that to the body of Christ. Some people say we're just not meant to understand these things. And other people say no. I see so and this is what God has revealed to me. And we think, oh, they're crazy. I can't see anything but a stonewall in front of me.

And so it's helped me realize we all had to have a different place in the body of Christ. And we all need the whole body of Christ. I think what happens is sometimes the people who are [00:32:00] think of themselves as being in the right hand of the body of Christ, they look down at the people in the left foot of the body of Christ and they say.

Oh, you don't look like me. You don't act like me. You don't think like me. You don't have the same perspective. Things differently. You describe things differently. You have a different function. You must not be a Christian. I'm gonna try to convert you to agree. Agree 100% with me. Be exactly like me.

Even the right hand and left hand are different. They're mirror. Reverse images of each other, but they work together and the foot and the knee and all the different parts in a human body work together as a whole. And so part of my hope is for the Christian Church as a whole, the whole body of Christ is for us to, there's no way to unite on doctrine, but we can unite just in Jesus.

In our desire to follow. Him. And I don't [00:33:00] like, as I said earlier, all this theological debate stuff. That to me is not what it is anymore. It's about how you're practicing Jesus's teachings in your life.

Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So my brand is inspired stewardship, and I run things through that lens of stewardship, and yet I've discovered over the years that's one of those words that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you? I.

James Early: Oh gosh. I think it means things on lots of different levels. On a basic day-to-day level, you have to be, take care of yourself, your environment, be. Mindful of how the impact you're having on your sphere of influence.

That could be people, it could be organizations you're a member of, certainly the church, it can be the the environment the land. I'm a. I organic, I garden organically because I don't want to put all these chemicals in the earth, and I [00:34:00] don't want to be eating those chemicals. I need to steward myself in a sense, I don't want to fill myself with poison. I don't want to eat a bunch of junk food. I want to eat wholesome things. I want to leave a wholesome impact. Now. That's what I'm doing. Individually. What can we do, say as a church body or as a business body or as a, maybe you're a homeschooler and you have a homeschooling group whatever your organization or organizations you're a member of, what can you all do to leave to take care of the resources that you have to provide to ensure that they're there for future generations?

I think it's. And then you take that onto a, a city, a statewide, a nationwide in a national global level. People don't always agree on that sort of thing. I think stewardship is the key of it, is looking beyond what's in it for me. How does this affect just me? It's about thinking about not just other people [00:35:00] today, but thinking about other people.

10 years from now, a hundred years from now. I did a podcast a year or two ago about how much do you love the people that haven't even been born yet? What what are we doing to, and that can be just taking care of the earth, environmentally and ecologically, as I said, but also look at it from a faith-based thing.

It's like, how am I living my life that will ensure that? The awareness of Christ is still around a hundred 500 years from now. Not that it's completely dependent on me, of course, but what influence can I have in that? And so I think stewardship is about toing beyond your immediate situation to see future generations.

We have an obligation to take care of things for the present, but also to. Help them be available for FU the future. [00:36:00]

Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. James, imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine. And with this machine, I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years.

And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back, see your entire life, see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

James Early: You know what, I have been in that time machine. Last August I was in a, this group of guys and everyone in the group was to have a three day solo retreat, and there were all these workbooks and questions to ask about what is my purpose and what are the things holding me back and all that stuff.

One of the exercises was to go to an historical site. And look at the legacy that those people [00:37:00] had left, whatever the historical site was about, and think about the legacy that they left, that. Now there's this historical site that we're trying to remember five minutes from my house here in Connecticut, there's a state park, Huntington State Park, and in the winter of 17.

94 to the spring of 1795. This area was a winter camp for the Revolutionary War soldiers. They weren't fighting, they just, they camped during the winter 'cause you couldn't fight during the winter. There was too much snow back then. And there was a problem because the week after they got there, there was such a heavy snow.

The supply wagons couldn't get through from Danbury, Connecticut. The, after several weeks they had no food left. Spirits were. Very they were about to mutiny. They were gonna march on Hartford and complain. The General Putnam found out and he saved the day. He gave of his personal stores and there's a bronze statue of him and they're still talking [00:38:00] about it.

And it's not quite 250 years ago, but I rounded it off. So the assignment was to go find out what their legacy was, and then the question was, what legacy do you wanna leave behind? And I was thinking. So I was out there walking this beautiful state park with these big trees and this, bronze statue of General Putnam.

And I'm thinking, God, I don't need a statue of me 250 years from now. I don't want a statue of me somewhere with a blacks with my name on it. And I don't EI don't know if somebody will remember my name. 250 years from now. I said I won't be around to know. So that part's not important to me, but I said, God, my prayer is that some of these ideas that you have given me, this core message of mine right now, that we need to think and pray in love like Jesus.

And how does that impact the way we live our lives and treat other people? My prayer is [00:39:00] that. That will remain in people's hearts that, whoever I talk to will pass that along to someone else. Maybe my podcast will be around in some changed form, maybe something I've written. We have manuscripts and books from.

Longer ago than 250 years. Who knows? But my hope is for the legacy I le leave, if I could look back and want that, it would be let's focus on living and the way Jesus wanted to follow in his footsteps. Quit arguing about the things that we don't need to argue about and how can we.

Live our lives in a fuller way. That's what I hope my legacy would be, and that's what I'm working toward. I think it's a good idea to say, okay, what can I do to maybe make sure that those ideas gets passed along?

Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue [00:40:00] on this journey?

James Early: I'm working on a, I've got a little ebook I'm working on. I'm. I want, I'd love to mentor churches more if a church that's, I know some churches are growing and doing well, some churches are struggling. I know some churches that have just a few members and they're trying to hold on. I'd love to work with those churches and help them.

I have done some online bible studies and classes. I've done some speaking live events and I'm open to. To that I'm talking to a lady. Next week about, she's got a conference shoot we're gonna talk about if she wants me to be a speaker. This is not about getting James early out there.

I mean nobody cares who I am. It's about the message that, that is so important that we need is, the world needs Christ right now. The world needs the way of Christ, the way which is Christ. [00:41:00] And and. I'm not the only voice. There are a lot of people talking about this in lots of different ways, and I think all the different voices, they're all a little different.

They're coming from different angles and we can reach more people, and so that's what I hope is on the horizon. But again, I don't know how God's gonna work it all out. I'm just trying to. Follow the breadcrumbs he puts in front of me and keep the vision that he's given me.

And that's where I am right now.

Scott Maderer: So you can find out more about James over at the Bible speaks to you.com of course. I'll have a link to that in the show notes as well. James, anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

James Early: Yes, there is actually. I, first of all, I appreciate you listening.

I hope there's been something that's helpful and if you would like to find out more about me, obviously, as Scott said, you can check out my website. I have created a special page just for your listeners, Scott, [00:42:00] if you'll go to the bible, speaks to you.com. Forward slash stewardship. There's a page there, there's a way to sign up for my podcast.

And when you do, I'll send you a little prayer guide. It's just a bunch of bible verses that talk about how to pray with the mindset of Jesus that a lot of people have found helpful. There's also a playlist of previous episodes I've done that talk about. How to think like Jesus, the mindset of Christ, these kinds of things that, that I think you'll find helpful.

And then if you're really interested in digging deeper into this whole idea of embracing the mind of Christ, I have a coaching program, the Jesus Mindset Coaching program, and there's a place on this little page I'll send you where you can sign up for a free, no obligations. One hour coaching session with me.

It's not just a discovery call. It actually, [00:43:00] I go take you through a little bit through this process to see if this Jesus mindset coaching would be a good fit for you. And if not, that's fine. But if so, I'd love to work with you and anyway, that's the best place to, to get in touch with me. I'd love to hear if there was something helpful in this.

There's a contact tab on the website obviously, but I'd love to hear from you and, yeah, that's the, that's all I've really awesome got to say on that.

Scott Maderer: So I'll put a link to that as well over at the Bible speaks to you.com/stewardship. I'll have a link to that in the show notes as well.

Thanks so much for putting that together for everybody. James. I do the same thing when I go on podcasts but not everybody does, and it's really nice when you put a page together like that and put everything in one place, so I appreciate it.

James Early: Absolutely. This has been a wonderful conversation.

I really have enjoyed you asked some really great questions and thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being on.

Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for [00:44:00] listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes.

Rate all one word. iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review, and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.