Well educated spiritually trained and ready ready to build careers and make a difference in America these young men and women were challenged with a commencement address by none other than Vice President of the United States Mike Pence what a good man that guy is the vice president is a very strong Christian essentially Evan Jellicoe and belief proud of his faith standing up not ashamed to proclaim that faith Mr Pence challenged the graduating Liberty students to live out their faith live it out unashamed and bold and ready for the challenges which can and will confront any Christian any real Christian in today's culture the topic of the pence speech was be ready be ready be ready graduates just be ready said pence as you go about your daily life he admonished the graduates that throughout most of American history it has been pretty easy pretty easy to call yourself a Christian and indeed it has been don't you feel that way not only were we the older so-called silent generation proud to be Christians but we lived out our faith without intimidation and without any aggressive challengers such as our happening today in fact we the Christians were the majority and hardly ever had any kind of threat or intimidation as we practiced our faith not just in the churches but anywhere and in public but not so today said pence in fact in many ways just the opposite the fight is on and the challenge from parents to the graduates was as you live out your daily life you will be required to fight the fight of faith and boy will you ever that is of course if you are a real Christian and not ashamed of the Gospel in fact bold and proclamation and you are unwilling to compromise and you should be. And hear the words of vice president Mike Pence some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have a little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs let me repeat that. Vice President Mike Pence said some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance How about non for traditional Christian beliefs in fact that is absolutely true to proclaim the gospel or walk the walk of faith is to run the risk of ridicule shunning even the threat of physical violence as government at all levels and the courts and our educational system and so much more not only do not tolerate Christian beliefs but actually attack them do they ever. Tolerance from these radicals these socialistic progressives is only offered to those light kind and like minded worthy of a tolerance of the new progressive order willing to follow and live by their new rules controlled in the public square even more so controlled and contained in speech limited by the new boundaries of hate speech and essentially willing to cede power to these new intolerant tyrants and boy are they ever they are said pence your constitutional anime's and always will be so there's no dialogue there's no compromise there will be no tolerance no get along no acceptance you are with us the new socialistic progressives or you are against us these progresses are saying and so said pence and then he reminded the graduates again be ready be ready because he said you will be asked not to just tolerate things that violate your faith but you will be asked to and divorce them and Doris them you cannot said pence merely tolerate wrong in itself abortion how would you tolerate abortion or gay marriage or euthanasia or growing drug use or pornography and the like you like all others will be required by them not to endorse them. Will you. Boys not me then said pants you are going to be asked to bow down to the idols of a popular culture you will not be allowed to resist or you will pay serious and severe prices you will bow down to bail no matter the constitutional protection of freedom of religion at best you may be allowed to practice your faith and worship only within the 4 walls of a church or a synagogue or perhaps even a mosque interesting isn't it that they don't have a lot to say about Islam and Muslims I wonder if the progressives have the courage to take on Islam as well as Christiane that he and Judaism you will watch ever growing anti-Semitism as well as anti-Christianity and you graduates as you take on the real world you must be ready be ready we know if we are honest that it has been pretty easy to be a Christian to call yourself a Christian but attacks will come at you like never before you would be required to graduate said pence and in fact all of us you know that as well already in the fray as we are to put on the whole armor of the gospel to protect and defend and at the same time to wield the sword of faith in the battle against Bale and the idols of this new popular culture because said vice president Mike Pence Oh very well things are different now things are different now boy are they ever so you the graduate said pence and by extension to all the rest of us have a decision to make you have a decision to make and that decision he said is that you must to Val as a real Christian if you are born a real Christian to stand. Firm and you do that he said by giving a reason for the hope that you have and to proclaim that hope with gentleness and respect he might have added that you should do so if you are allowed to do so if you are allowed to do so no matter your Constitutional rights if you are allowed by this new order this new ruling order with authority to do so pence gave an excellent Commencement Challenge to these 8000 some graduate students boy was strong it was good it was real from a real vice president and a real Christian for those of us who believe in and champion the Christian faith to know that there are potentially a 1000 new Christian warriors defenders of the faith in the fray is indeed inspiring at least to me no matter how many of these a 1000 accept the challenge and really and truly live out their faith more than enough of these graduates will do so and we are already in the fray should encourage and support them in every way possible my hope and my prayer is that these young men and women will become future leaders in America the real doers for God and Country Maral and men and women of character who will stand up for our constitutional rights and for law and order and for freedom of religion and for the truth of our faith. We count upon them to counteract and even change and reverse reverse the incredible it moral and anti-Christian Judeo Christian positions taken by these radical socialistic progressives. If they come to the real world having been immersed baptized educated and motivated by the real spirit of deliberately they will indeed make for us and for all a better better world the great author and writer g. K. Chesterton once said the following Christianity has not been tried and found wanting it Christianity has been found difficult and left untried and boy that is so very true and we read that again. Christianity has not been tried and found wanting has been tried it has been found difficult. And left on tried. Boy isn't that a call in its own way for the practice and the stand up for real true Christianity if trying Christianity was difficult in Chesterton's day it is now far more so in ours so the temptation not to try it not to live it out will be greater than ever for it really will be extremely difficult boy will it ever. Only men and only women with true passion and belief real Christians will stand up and fight the fight of faith in this unbelievable hostile hateful world to Christians and Christianity it is my prayer that these a 1000 graduates will embrace the new difficulties take up the cudgel and champion the Gospel of Jesus Christ as never before. Liberty University would have them do that and so would Jerry Falwell Sr founder and so would Jerry Falwell Jr the one who carries on and so would I. And my fellow American and my fellow Christians I pray that you would as well the views expressed here on the Crawford stand are those of the Speaker and Mr Crawford wants you to join the discussion tell him what you think of what was discussed this week in your email to him at stand at Crawford broadcasting dot com And when you want to review what you hear go to our website Crawford broadcasting dot com The Crawford stand is a public affairs presentation of Crawford Broadcasting Company and the station serving God and country I'm Bill McCormick great teachers and good news on the bodies 670. The following program is a special presentation from am $670.00 calle t t. 5 Friends this is mad wired with Crawford broadcasting thanks for joining me today as we talk about retirement but not the usual perspective that you might think about retirement as respect with Bruce Bryant the author of a new book The retirement Reformation Bruce welcome thank you for making time for us today Matt it's good to be with you and your listeners I look forward to our conversation it's important it is important and before we get to the book Bruce tell us who Bruce Bryan is and how you came to this point in your life now Bruce brand's money is spent 30 years working with retirement plans particularly with faith based organizations and and helping people to prepare for e what we would call a future funded ministry over in the middle of this process and the end of this process probably about 4 or 5 years ago it it became really really clear that there were some issues that go way beyond money and when people think about retirement see their investments or money or fear those are the kind of things that go through their mind and that there is so much more that God has in mind for us when we realize that retirement as the world calls it in fact made have been a have a 30 year time period met 30 years. Now that's amazing to think about considering that we as Christians know that we're supposed to have an eternal perspective that this world is not our home and yet sometimes in retirement we tend to focus on the Comfort years as some call them or the leisure years as some might call them so tell us about the retirement Reformation What are you speaking to specifically in this new book What We realize is that not only is it 30 years but unfortunately many Christians and there's about 30000000 of us that fit into that age category between 55 and say 104 and the majority of those when asked what are you going to do in retirement come up with an answer or some version of nothing. It is all focused on leisure and while when when we're challenged when we say Does God have a call on your life and are we to be faithful for a lifetime The answer is yes however we simply don't act that way and so the retirement Reformation the heart of that is to be able to bring this to the attention of that 30000000 group of people and then to be able to change thinking therefore to change actions and if we are able to accomplish all of that in fact the work that's being done for the kingdom will grow and multiply and in a really astounding fashion what's the impact of this take it easy view of retirement for some people. Well it comes in lots of different versions matter of fact the probably the clearest definition of what culture says is retirement is that our culture says that it's 1st of all it is one homogeneous period it's pretty much all downhill physically and mentally and then you die and the goal is to jam as much leisure as you can into those intervening years there's a whole series of things there that are are in error and don't play out as I would read my Bible. I see. Many people feel like once they hit retirement it's time for them to enjoy their life that they have been working hard to build towards Is that correct that is totally correct and what happens after about 6 months of quote unquote vacation or playing golf or doing whatever there comes the realization that there's not a lot of meaning and purpose in that and when we don't have meaning and purpose it means that we're also robbed of a whole dimension of joy and we don't experience the fruits of the spirit that can come when we are on the path that God has pre-ordained for us now does this preclude that some of these people were not active in church or that they don't understand that they need to continue to be active in their church or in ministry Well I think part of it is a definition of what active in church means unfortunately our church churches most of our churches tell the seniors that are part of their congregation and a growing part they tell them 2 things number one don't stop giving. And secondly don't be grumpy just don't get in the way of all the good programs that we've got for the millennium goals and for our youth and for all these other programs just kind of just be happy stay out of the way but don't stop giving and what a what an opportunity lost there is there and the complications that have come at because because of that 30 years when we think of it there can be 5 generations alive at the same time and so you've got all the Jim intergenerational issues you've got all the issues of our society that are then being reflected in in the in an older generation everything from divorce suicide and bankruptcy and all of the things that we think of that impact people from you know from their twenty's to their sixty's are now showing up there and so the needs are continuing to grow and 10000 people are turning $65.00 every single day of the year that's a lot of folks that God could years of ministry has and it's a lot of people that and if we the way I read my bible is that God has a plan for life and that plan was started before time began we were then born we have our d.n.a. And then the experiences that we have by the time we hit that 607080 year old period we've got tremendous experience and God has a specific plan for us during a unique plan during those periods also and we're just unfortunately ignoring too much of it Matter of fact one of the things in the in the retirement Reformation book that we talk about is in fact the 3 stages of retirement that there aren't just one but there are 3 of them and they are unique and distinct also pulled together a group of 15 thought leaders in this area if you go to our Web site at retirement Reformation dot org You can access the retirement Reformation manifesto and the the 10 principles that we lay out there that are. Or the foundation of what is and will continue to be and grow the retirement reformation and again we're speaking with Bruce Bryan Smith the author of the book the retirement Reformation How long is this problem in going on Bruce in your opinion. I think it's been going on for a long time I think it actually started back when when when we began to see him in the back in the fifty's when we began to see. Some of the senior. Housing Projects that that began sunset the sun cities for example in Arizona now across the country and so if it began with I'm tired I deserve something better our culture reinforcing that and then like the frog in the kettle we accepting it now does this also speak to that person who didn't plan so well they have a smaller pension income and social security but they're still an active believe her can they also be a part of this without having to worry about it coming into their small income. Absolutely there's no cost involved with this it's really it's the challenge of a change in thinking and whether in fact because for whatever the reason and whatever the circumstances there aren't financial resources and having to continue to work and and have a tight budget that doesn't mean that God doesn't have a plan for how we are to reflect Him in all that we do have lots of freedom and flexibility because you have the resources or you have reduced freedom and flexibility but you still have opportunity absolutely Now how did you come about this issue what was it that brought you to this place where you decided I need to address this issue in the church at large here in America. I came to that because for 30 years helping people to plan financially for retirement I was I was perplexed for many of those 30 years and why it was so difficult to get Christians to take those actions that would that would prepare them for the future when I finally realized that we were primarily talking about how to do that and what's really more important is why you do things our energy our passion comes from the why and and as an industry in the financial planning world we were talking about the how and the presumption was that well if you just told them how they would do it and it's not true so we have to move over to the why and then we look as Christians what's our why our why is huge because it's too it's in reflection to the grace that God has extended to us the eternity that we have in front of us and in response to that to be able to continue to be active between now and the time that we're called home do we have time for me to tell you one quick story absolutely. Let me tell you a story a story about Peg in pages 93 peg lives in Tucson and. And Peg was a missionary in had a very active life and God prepared her for each stage of her life but now she's $93.00 she's not well probably within a year perhaps 2 of dying and she's in an assisted facility and so every morning she gets up around 730 and kind of checks to make sure she's there 1st of all and has little bite to eat and and walks for a little and climbs back in bed and next to her bed is a table in mat on this table there are her pills and a water bottle and a telephone a telephone book and about 9 o'clock every morning she takes down that phone book and she turns to where the dog or page is and she goes down the column and dials the next number on the list one someone answers here's what she says Good morning my name is Pake and I want you to know that I'm praying my way through the phone book you're next on the list how many I pray for you. And I 93 she has a mission that God has prepared her for and she's following those footsteps as a man we should all follow her example so well indeed so the answer then to all of us out here what would you say is that answer during need to refocus I think as you mentioned in the book refocus our vision very much so 1st of all to understand the issues 2nd to refocus the vision and have that focus be reflected on what God gives us in His word what the power of the Holy Spirit leads us to and being open to to the issues that are there as a matter of fact we've kind of based the the retirement reformation on John 1516 and then here's where Jesus says you did not choose me. I chose you and called you cite you might bear fruit fruit that will last and whatever you ask of my father's name he will give it to you and then in verse 17 he says And don't forget to do a little brothers. The book you mention the website. Draw to a close to. The book is the retirement Reformation and the website is the retirement Reformation dot org retirement Reformation org I would then direct you at that website to the manifesto in the information that's there and then the growing amount of resources that we will I continue to have available friends the book is The. Bruce. They can order it on the websites or in all the places that books are sold whether it be Amazon or Barnes and Noble the. Friends or good perspective a new perspective for all of us as Christians especially as we did in the retirement or what our role calls retirement we need to rethink what that is Bruce thank you for this new book for your heart for God's kingdom in this way. Forward. Thank you met in. Sager and already Good Sam I Hi everyone and welcome to our program it's so nice to hear from you we love when you join the conversation so please keep those e-mails coming to us or you can also join the conversation by talking to the regular through the screen or through your smartphone. All the time smart people apparently do it all the time so we want to talk you know we embarked on this series segments about or convers