Pastor Doug Seaman on Miracle: Revealed Mysteries Surrounding the Greatest Birth in History
Pastor Doug joins us again on the podcast and invites us to consider the miracles surrounding Jesus' birth and how His birth is still speaks to us today.
Send questions for BackChannel with Foth to aaron.santmyire@agwmafrica.org
For copies of the book- Cry of Deliverance- https://www.cryofdeliverance.org
Transcript
Hey there, and welcome back to the Clarity Podcast. This podcast is all about providing clarity, insight and encouragement for life and mission.
And my name is Aaron Santmyire and I'm going to be your host. Today we have the phenomenal opportunity to have with us back on the podcast Pastor Doug Seaman.
And this is a special Christmas episode where we'll get to learn from him on his book Miracle. I want to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas.
And as we move into this festive season, my prayer is that you're getting to spend time with family and friends. Just an opportunity to be grateful and thankful for the gift that God has given us in his son. And just this time, just to ponder and remember.
And that's what Pastor Doug will do for us today. He gives us an opportunity to ponder and remember and to really think once again about the miracle that is in this story.
You know, I grew up in church, and sometimes you. You heard the Christmas story so many times, you kind of move through all the miraculous events took place that led up to it.
Just a phenomenal conversation with Pastor Doug. He talks about the importance of Mary.
ow that speaks to us today in:Just a really a phenomenal time with him. Getting to learn from Pastor Doug, and he's somebody that's ministered myself, my family, and it was an honor to have him back on the podcast today.
Do want to ask you to continue to subscribe to the podcast. I know the podcasts that I subscribe to are the ones that I listen to.
They come onto my feed every Monday and Tuesday, and I know what I'm going to listen to throughout the week. Also, please continue to send in your questions for Backchannel with Foe. That's where we get to sit down with Dick Foth and get to learn from him.
And Dick always provides us wisdom and insight from his life and experience and just really enjoy having Dick on the podcast. Well, before we jump in, just want to wish you a Merry Christmas once again. Well, there's no time better than now. Let's get started. So here we go.
Greetings. Welcome back to the Clarity Podcast. Excited to have a friend of the podcast with us today. Pastor Doug, welcome back to the podcast.
Pastor Doug Seaman:Thank you so much, Brother Aaron. Good to be with you, my friend.
Aaron Santmyire:It is an honor. It is an honor.
So we were just talking a little bit about the snow outside before we hit record, and it is beginning to feel like that the holiday season is upon us. Upon us.
So, Pastor Doug, for the people that don't know you and spend as much time as I have with you or didn't listen to the first podcast we did together, will you share a little bit about yourself before we jump into your book Miracle?
Pastor Doug Seaman:I've been a pastor for 35 years, had the great privilege of pastoring your family, your parents for many of those years, and presently your dad's pastor. And that's quite a blessing and honor.
Had a part in seeing your mom credentialed and sent forth in ministry and have just enjoyed being that partner to the family for many years.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah. And what a blessing. I guess the first time we recorded together, my mom was still living.
Since that time, she's passed, our family has been blessed by the church and blessed by you and Pastor Pam just in this season. Yeah. Of grieving and mourning. So it's. But really, really appreciate it. Pastor Doug, you have a heart for Pakistan.
Will you share a little bit about that?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
So I started international ministry 17 years ago against my will, but the Lord won the argument in the battle. And so off I go. Started in Eastern Africa, as you know, East Africa, and really had an eye opening experience.
Learned so much from the East African church and grew in my evangelistic ministry. Then that kind of opened some doors. And in the last seven years, I've been going in and out of Pakistan quite a bit.
This will be my third trip this year. Very remarkable, the doors that God is opening not just for me, but others, not very many of us, of course.
It's a challenging area, challenging culture, but the Lord has been very favorable. The church there, small but very strong. And I'm looking forward to going back over in a few days and doing some outdoor events.
People think that that's impossible, but it's not. And we have just great favor with the government and with the people.
You know, there are areas that we avoid, but there are areas that we go into and. And the Lord really blesses.
Aaron Santmyire:Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, we're going to talk today about, like I said, your book Miracle. And I love the stories throughout the book.
And you're a great storyteller. You're. You're a great pastor and preacher, and so I'm obviously a great storyteller.
Would you share maybe a story, a Christmas memory, and maybe something about the way Christmas changed in your life before your dad, when your dad was not, had not given his heart to the Lord, and then after. Does that make sense?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah, absolutely. My family was pretty rough and I, for many years, I didn't talk about it, just didn't even think about it. It's just what I grew up in.
And it wasn't abusive, but it was certainly fueled by alcohol. And those were tough, tough days.
My dad had been a student athlete at Penn State, pretty elite wrestler, and was the captain of their team for a few years and had great success. And he was one of those guys that worked really hard and played even harder, as they used to say. And so we were pretty wild.
And when I was eight years old, we got into church. My mom went one Sunday and then came back and invited, so to speak, my dad and I and my sisters and we went to church and life began to change.
And one of the great Christmases was it had to be. It might have even been that Christmas we got into church. If I remember right towards the end of that summer, we would have these huge parties.
We lived on a farm, non functioning farm, a construction business, so there were no animals or anything, but a lot of property and barns. And we would have these big parties. Not we, but my parents, they would host parties that would go all weekend. They were bonfires and alcohol.
And I just, I won't even take the time or even talk about what happened there, what I saw happen. Who knows what I didn't see, but I saw things. And then we got in church and everything began to change.
And that Christmas, either that one or the next, the pastor had us kids bring our favorite toy.
And I don't remember what I took, but I just remember he had us come up, we were very small community church and had us come up on the platform and show the toy that we got. And I just remember thinking, wow, this is really great.
I can only tell you that a year later, about two years after we started in church, my dad quit drinking altogether. And it was a radical transformation for us. It changed everything, changed the culture of my family, it changed the relationships that we had.
There were people that had been in our circle regularly. I never saw again.
Aaron Santmyire:Wow.
Pastor Doug Seaman:And it was dramatic. But yeah, that was a cool Christmas because suddenly Christmas for me took on a meaning at church.
When my dad quit drinking, I said to the Lord, I don't care what you want me to do, but I'll do it. What would have happened in my life would not have been good. And I don't know why the Lord stepped in and rescued us. I've asked him a hundred times.
I'll never know, but he did.
Aaron Santmyire:Wow. Wow. What an amazing testimony.
And along this theme of miracle, as you said, when God intervenes in situations like that, man, it changes a family's trajectory and changes the destiny of it. And amazing. You highlight in the book the importance of the words that the angel spoke to Mary. Do not be afraid.
we're Getting Ready Christmas: Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah, I think we've said all through our lives and I think every generation does. Wow, these are really difficult days.
And there are things happening that are, are certainly fear inducing and there's uncertainty, but that's always been the case. We at times have feelings of great strength, individually or collectively, but that's only based on our pride and arrogance.
The truth is that none of us individually, not nationally, do we have the answers or the power to fix our problems. So the angel speaks to Mary and I, I would say through Mary, into all of us.
Listen, if you're gonna, if you're gonna take on the role that God has for you, no matter what business you run, no matter what medical practice you're a part of, no matter where you find yourself, God has put you there. And if you're gonna face it daily and the problems that come with life, you're gonna need to know how to live without being afraid.
And there is no way in today's world that we can do that without faith in some. Somebody that has lived it, died for us and is living on our behalf right now. And that's the Lord Jesus.
Aaron Santmyire:Good word. Good word. And so in the book you, you share, that kind of way Mary overcame fear can also speak to our lives today.
Can you share a little bit more about how she overcame that fear and how those practical, practical principles we can use in our life?
Pastor Doug Seaman:I think in the last, I don't know, few decades, we've gotten a lot better at telling Mary's story.
My fear always is that in the Protestant Church, we've been reluctant to go far enough in telling Mary's story because the Catholics take a pretty strong view on her that we would not support or agree with. But in doing that, we sometimes stay too far away from her. She's Remarkable. And the Lord finds her. We all know today she's very young.
Of course she's unmarried. We don't see much in the way of parental support for her. I believe it was there, at least to a point.
But what we do see is that God has brought Joseph into her life and he's got some other family members that he's getting ready to remind her about. So maybe mom and dad are already out of the picture. And the fact is God shakes her when he speaks to her.
So in everything she's got going on in her teen life, the drama that every teen girl faces, in spite of all of that, God starts showing her even more things to be afraid of, like you're going to be pregnant, and the baby you're going to be carrying is not just any baby.
And so her focus on being attentive to what God's saying, not rushing ahead of him, but just being in the moment, as we say today, and really trying to hear what it is that the angel has said to her and that focus on not being afraid. Heaven doesn't speak a lot of words to us or to Mary. So it's really important that we listen to the words that heaven does speak and that.
Aaron Santmyire:That's the idea of the necessary details. And you share that. You know, once Mary hears, she also gets the necessary details that end up leading her to Elizabeth's house.
Can you just unpack that a little bit? On you said, it doesn't speak a lot of words, but the words that we. We hear, we need to not. We need to focus in on what he.
What is shared and how that played out in Mary's life.
Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah, she has this moment where she has to decide, what am I going to do? The angel has left. You know, all of us have, I think, at times, had these great prayer encounters with the Lord. Maybe we weren't even praying.
But the Spirit of the Lord really invaded our life for a moment. And in that season, we have to decide, okay, what's next? And I think the danger is that we decide what's next. She never left that word.
She's got Joseph. She may or may not have living parents. She may or may not have support at the local synagogue. But the angel spoke about a person.
The angel said, hey, you have a cousin who's going through the same thing. And at the end of the visitation, Luke transitions to the next stage, and that's Mary making a decision based on what was said to her.
The angel didn't say, hey, go find Elizabeth, but he did say, when you get all this going in your soul and it's running around 90 miles an hour and you want to know what to do next, you've got somebody that we've already been in touch with, and she's a little further down the road than you. And so Mary just packs up and says, you know what? If.
If the angel knows about Elizabeth, if the angel has visited her and she's pregnant at her age, surely she can help me deal with what I'm going through at my age. That's true.
Aaron Santmyire:And you figure there's a little age gap there. And. And it's amazing how God does bring people in our lives that are a little fr.
Further down the road and can speak and give us wisdom and direction. So this idea, you know, as she begins to journey, you. You share that, that we're all travelers. And in Christmas is about travelers.
How do you see Christmases about travelers?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Look at each group. Okay, Once. Once we have Zechariah and Elizabeth kind of off to the side, and we begin to focus on the Savior.
We have three groups, Mary and Joseph, and we have the. I would say next, probably the wise men, but scripturally, we're going to deal with the Shepherds.
So each of these groups is really going to travel, which is crazy. Why would God make this kid, Mary not only have to carry this child, but travel halfway across Israel, give birth to this child?
I mean, I'm sure some of your listeners have gotten to a point in a season where they said, how much more can I take?
And I love the story and how Luke captures it, but if we read between the lines, you know, there's at least a day or two where Mary is saying, oh, no, you've got to be kidding. I mean, what. What more can go wrong? And of course, the what more is she gets to Bethlehem and then decides, oh, it's time to have the baby.
And when you look at all these groups, the traveling for us in life in general and at certain seasons can be really frustrating. You travel internationally, I travel. It's just really difficult.
And for folks that are going to see family during the holidays or maybe making a visit to family anytime during the year, and they know it's going to be tense, there's going to be anxiety, somebody in the family has done something or said something. All of these groups were dealing with that. They had things to overcome. They had to trust that the Holy Spirit was leading them to the right place.
If you look at each of those three groups, it was really a difficult journey for Each of them. And they had to leave things and they had to believe for new things.
Aaron Santmyire:It's a good word. Good word. Pastor Doug, one of the things you.
You touched on in the book was this about being, being on a journey, and that sometimes those raised in the church have the hardest time on the journey. Maybe somebody's listening into the podcast today.
Maybe they were raised in the church, maybe there's parents listening in, and they raised their kids in their church, and they're struggling with either parenting their kids that are struggling on the journey, or they're running into that challenge themselves. Can you speak a little bit more about that?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah. I don't know how in America, we're not all broken, really, beyond being able to speak.
When we look at the last five years and the discovery of all of the abuse that has taken place in the church.
As somebody who's been working in and for the church for a long, long time, I want to say to every mom and dad, every person who's attended church, if you've been the victim of abuse, verbal, physical, especially sexual, listen, the church failed you, but the Lord never will. And there aren't words to describe how broken your life has become and what was taken from you. But there's still healing in the gospel.
There's still restoration and mom and dad or grandma, grandpa.
If you've been given the assignment of continuing on a journey with your maybe adult son or daughter, and they are not following the Lord, they may even be over in an LGBT lifestyle, and you are just crushed. You don't have answers. You feel guilt and shame and embarrassment and all those things that the devil's trying to make you feel.
I want to remind you today that the Lord is with us in our burdens. Christmas for this gang, all of these participants in the story, Christmas had a burdensome element to it.
When you watch and follow the wise men, I mean, it's incredible to see their journey, but they are threatened their life.
They don't know the threat that they're under until heaven stops them and says, hey, you need to go home a different way because Herod's going to seek you and he's not wanting to have lunch with you. And when you think about the shepherds and what they were doing in leaving all of those flocks and running to declare.
And the first time we see them declare the king, they're in front of him. This is him. He's worthy. We've inspected him, and he is the perfect sacrifice. That can't be the last time they declare you know, they've begun.
They didn't end. When we meet Jesus, it's a beginning, not an ending.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah.
Pastor Doug Seaman:So for all of you who have grown up in the church or those of you who are in the church and you're raising, you're trying to raise kids in a healthy way, or your kids have gone through being raised in church and so far have not manifested the fruit of that. Don't give up, all right? When you started with Jesus, it was the beginning of a journey. Your journey's not over yet. The story isn't finished.
And your son and your daughter can be fully redeemed. Your grandkids can be fully rescued.
But you've got to begin to learn that journey, to learn the power of prayer along that journey, praying for others and really crying out for the souls of the people that you love.
Aaron Santmyire:Good word. Good word and the timely word for the. The season, the season that we're in.
Pastor Doug Seaman:See that you know how. How burdened I am for those who have been abused in the church world.
Aaron Santmyire:For sure. For sure.
And, and we, as you shared, you know, it is something that we need to apologize for and recognize our responsibility and, and at the same time, point people to the gospel. And the healing, as you shared the healing that comes through the gospel. Yeah. Powerful word, powerful world.
Pastor Doug, this you share about the revelation that the wise men, the star took the wise men first to Jerusalem rather than going straight to baby Jesus. Can you share the. The importance and significance of that?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah.
What I think we miss so much when we're reading through the Bible or preaching it or whatever, we forget how much fulfillment is taking place, how much Old Testament prophecy is being fulfilled, literally. And we see it today to an extent, but in the New Testament, we're seeing it like line by line by line.
And oftentimes our, our Bibles, our modern Bibles, will have a footnote or you'll see the one who's quoted, whether it be Jesus or Paul, and you see that they're referencing or whoever's writing on the behalf of Jesus. The gospel writer sometimes will say, he said this, quoting from Isaiah the prophet, or whoever it might have been.
So there's certainly a recognition of how much is being fulfilled. But oftentimes, as we dig, we find out there's even more that nobody even mentions in the Bible, but it's there for us to discover.
And so the prophet Zephaniah says, hey, Jerusalem, it's going to be announced. And I'm paraphrasing, it's going to be announced in your streets that your king has come. Well, that's where it has to start.
The announcement has to be made there.
And what's really fascinating to me is that God says in one place, the announcement will be made in Jerusalem, but the birth will take place in Bethlehem. And it's like, well, why not just make it simple and do everything right?
And I don't know the answer to that, but the wise men come into Jerusalem and they're announcing it. Sure, it comes across to us as a question, but it's not really a question to them. They're just looking around saying, where is he? Where is he?
Because he has to be born and we're on our way to find him and we need direction. We assume that all of that's coming from Daniel. That Daniel, hundreds of years before, is a prisoner of war.
And he having been elevated because of his gifts, because of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life, he gets elevated again and again. And there's no way that he's there and not sharing with them all of the prophecies that he knows.
Then he also shares with them the prophecies that he receives, the dreams that he's interpreting for the king, and the rock that is not cut by human hands, and it crushes all the other kingdoms of the world.
So the wise men have come looking for this guy, and they've seen the star and they come into Jerusalem and they're announcing exactly what God said would be announced. The Lord has arrived. And to me, it's just. It's celebratory because here they are.
They're not in the right city yet, but they're in the city to announce it. And then they are directed on down to Bethlehem and there they are able to. To see what they came to see.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah, I think that's what I love about reading the book and going through it. The idea that, as you said, sometimes we read through scripture and even the story of.
Of Jesus's birth, sometimes we read it quickly and it becomes a. I've heard this for, you know, I'm 48 now. I've heard it for a lot of years.
And you jump over and two or, you know, can have two or three verses, and there's a lot of prophecy and miracles that have taken place. And we just kind of read it real quickly and it's over with in, you know, two seconds. But pondering. And I think that's.
That was the value of, of me having the opportunity to read through it and, and just once again ponder and Think about and be thankful for God's gracious hand and just the miracles that have taken place that, yeah, just brought Jesus in. But you do an excellent job of pointing that out and giving us space then to ponder it. And so, yeah, it was.
Pastor Doug Seaman:I appreciate that. I think that I want to look back when I'm in God's word.
I want to get the context, of course, but I want to look back because his hand, his promise, his guidance, his governance is always at work. And so he's bringing everything from yesterday into today so that he can complete his work tomorrow.
And even in looking at Mary, you may read the book, those of you who are listening.
And if the Lord leads you and you get the book, you might read it and you might not agree with my take on the importance of Mary's life physically, genetically, that God is protecting the tribe of Judah. He's protecting then one, one line down through the tribe of Judah.
Because it's not just Jesus and the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary that makes him who he is. It's also her because she's the one giving the residence to the Holy Spirit to do his work. He's certainly the divinity, but she's important as well.
And I just took a couple of snapshots out of the Old Testament in tracing the value that God places on protecting Judah from the Canaanite corruption.
And then within the tribe of Judah, you can see as you read the lineage there in Matthew and in Luke, you can see that he has begun to trace down through the generations and to keep that family. I believe that she's brought forth. I don't mean in the sense that Catholics believe.
I just mean that she's brought to a place where she is truly special, not for the sake of Mary, but for the sake of the Messiah. It's always about Jesus. It's never about any of us, including her.
She'd be the first one to say it, but it's proof that God was watching for the coming of the Messiah. Of course, His Messiah, his Savior, from the very beginning. He promised it in Genesis 3 in the garden.
And then you see him immediately after beginning to make provision to get that woman that would bring the seed, a woman whose seed would crush the serpent's head.
Aaron Santmyire:You know, I think that's one thing that's lost.
At least I'll speak for my generation is many, many of us don't know our grandparents like our great grandparents didn't, you know, I mean, and so you look in the Bible and how important you talked about the. You Know our ancestry and genetics. And it was obviously important because it's in scripture.
But even for us today, you know, it's not something we think about. I mean, you highlight that and talk about it, but it's. It's something, you know, I.
On the average person on the street, if you had to, I would, you know, I'm not a wagering guy. But if you had average person on the street, could you name your great grandparents first and middle name?
ou're not asking, hey, in the:But I think we lose some of that in our current generation. And you. You re highlight that or you highlight that for us to know, hey, it's important and help us to focus back in on it. So good stuff.
Pastor Doug Seaman:So in the Old Testament, Paul says we have all those things for our example. So there, it's kind of a genetic literal, following the Jewish roots and family. But for the New Testament, it's the lineage of faith.
And so every one of us, heaven can trace our lineage right back to the apostles and then to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Not one of us is saved having our lineage go right back. Whoever introduced my family to the kingdom of God and whoever introduced them.
And you can trace that right back. And I guarantee you heaven knows that that lineage.
Aaron Santmyire:Wow. That's powerful, powerful, powerful.
So you also write about those in the know, those on the go, and those who had nothing to show which of these groups resonated with you and you. And. And can we see the miraculous in all three of the groups?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Absolutely. Yeah. So as a preacher, you know this. You're always looking for those praises you talked about telling stories.
And I just want to mention to everybody, I did this book four or five years ago. Five years ago, I think, actually I was in Pakistan when the Lord. When I felt like the Lord had really put it on my heart strongly.
And I brought it all together and hired a team. But honestly, I did not put in the legwork and the homework that it deserved. And so a year or so ago, the Lord. I was just praying.
I felt like I had really, really disappointed him or not fulfilled what could have happened with this book. And so I started doing some homework, and I found out that I could hire an agent.
I thought I had to become a good writer, and then an agent would find me. I had no idea that you can Hire these people whether you're any good or not. So found an agent and she didn't even ask me, do you know how.
How to write? And they went through a lot of project concepts with me. And I said, I'll be honest with you. I really have. You hear her and the writer.
I have you in my life because I want to redo this book. And they kind of objected at first, but I explained to them why. I said, I don't think I did my best, and I don't think the.
The truth really came across. They are the ones then that suggested we want you to do a personal story to introduce every chapter that.
Aaron Santmyire:Okay.
Pastor Doug Seaman:That you talked about. And so I got started in redoing it and I really kind of got the heart of it again. And I think I'm more. I'm proud of it now.
I'm disappointed in what I let go out the first time, but I feel like it's a. It's at least got a rhyme and a rhythm to it now. And one of the. One of the things that I do as a preacher is, of course, threes, groups of threes.
And. And I saw these people in the story, the Christmas story or the manger story, the birth story, and I saw that they're. They're in three categories.
And you've got the people that are kind of on the inside, the ones that are real church centric and they've got all the lingo. And then you've got the ones that are just kind of making the whole thing happen.
They're funding it and they're working hard and they go a thousand miles an hour. And you've got the poor ones that don't have anything of this world but are rich in spirit.
And unfortunately, I probably identify the most with those on the go, you know, And I'm trying to transition away from that and not be any one, but to be all of them, to remind myself that I'm poor, even in spirit. And I have to have the Lord to not just be seeking the destination.
You know, the wise men got to their destination, but they didn't forget why they went there. And they didn't stop and say, oh, man, if we give him all this treasure, we might not have enough to get home. They. They got to their destination.
They achieved their objective. For those of you who are like me, they accomplished. They accomplished, but they stayed and worshiped.
And then you had those in the know that really had the inside track on what was going on. Heaven was speaking directly to them. And yet they never got arrogant about it.
They stayed very humble and were overwhelmed by the fact that heaven had found them, spoken to them, given them an assignment that had been prophesied for thousands of years before and would be spoken about for thousands of years afterwards. You mentioned us not knowing our great grandparents names.
Most of us couldn't name all of the leaders who were in government at that time, even though the Bible names them. Their names have all passed from history. But we know the Savior's name.
We know his mother and father, we know his cousin Elizabeth and Zechariah and John. And we know all of the people that the Bible names associated with him. And we know most of all his name. And that's pretty, pretty amazing.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah. Good word. Pastor Doug, you were talking about when the wise men, they stayed to worship.
How do this worship and we see in this nativity scene in the Christmas story, how does that speak to us, what it really means for us to truly worship the Savior today?
Pastor Doug Seaman:Oh yeah. What does it mean? The more I try to do it, the less I'm certain that I know anything about it.
I think when I'm telling the Lord, I worship you, I try to follow that up by saying meaning. And this is the way I've been saying it in the mornings. Lord, what I mean by that today is that I surrender in every area of my life.
I fully surrender, but only you know whether I really am. You know my motives, you know my objectives, and you know what's hidden and what's revealed.
And so I worship youp because I realize that yout have the, the value, the worth to hear me honestly, to know me fully, to forgive me eternally, and to welcome me. And I, I come into that presence without, without having any ulterior motive. And I say to you that I submit in every area of my life.
Yeah, I hope that's it.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah. Good word. Many of Pastor Doug, he's a, he's a, he's a regular walker.
So when he talks about his morning times of prayer, it's not a, it's not a five minute. How long are you walking now, Pastor Doug? It's not a five minute walk.
Pastor Doug Seaman:No, no. It's probably four days a week. It's a, it's a three hour walk.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah.
Pastor Doug Seaman:And then sometimes just no matter how hard I try, I can only get two hours.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah.
But when you talk about worshiping and coming into that place to, in prayer, like I said, it's not, I just wanted the listeners to know it's not a, this is not a Five minute in passing. This is something you're. You're dedicated to and. And is.
I've listened to you share about it is something that really has impacted your life, for sure.
Pastor Doug Seaman:Yeah. It hasn't always been that way, but as I, as I began pastoring, like, I.
I was shaped by people who were people of prayer, but I struggled as a young pastor, young husband and father struggled to find that time. And I'm talking about, like, you know, serious time. But I always tried to make prayer part of my life.
And as I got older and my schedule was more flexible and my kids were out of the home, I just kept digging into that and saying to the Lord, help me, help me. I don't believe we're ever too old to start something in the Lord.
I don't think we're ever at a point where we can't give ourselves to something brand new or give ourselves more to something. And so I started. Somebody got me and started walking over seven years ago.
And against my objections, I found in my life with the Lord, I've objected to a lot. And those things that are of God, somehow I always lose that argument. And so I just kept doing it, Kept doing it.
And when I talk about three hours now, that all happened just six months ago, it went to a new level. And that was because of things that I felt like the Lord was really challenging me with. And I know what I face.
You know, you're privy to a lot of this, but to do what I do overseas, we fund everything. And so I have to pray in a lot of money. I'm not a fundraiser, and I don't have a big ministry here in the US So I have to pray in every dime.
And I know the kinds of dangerous situations that we've been through. In places like Pakistan, we work in some pretty restricted areas.
And to go there and to know that I'll be safe even if something goes sideways and I'm arrested or whatever, and because of the person, you know, I travel with, Dr. Paul, I. You've had him on your podcast.
And when you're living with somebody for a few weeks that spent ten and a half years in prison for the gospel, you don't want to roll in and say, well, I got three or four minutes of prayer in today. I hope that was enough.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah, yeah. True, true, true, true, true, true. One last question for you, Pastor Doug. The words, the Savior has been born.
How does the actions of the shepherds, how does that help us put back into perspective the miracle of the Savior and the Birth of Christ.
Pastor Doug Seaman:These guys had a role, a daily role, in bringing those sheep in for sacrifice. They inspected the sheep. They knew everything about those sheep. And yet the moment the revelation came to them.
Now, granted, they had all of heaven's armies standing there in the field with them, but the moment that revelation came, they abandoned their sheep. I'm not saying they didn't go back to work. They did. And the sheep didn't run away. There were those that would have been there to take care of them.
But you have to recognize the implications of what you've been given. And I want to encourage everybody that's listening. You start with what you've been given, and then God will give you more.
That's what I was sharing about Mary. She was given the confidence to know that Elizabeth could help her. And then she made the decision by faith to go find Elizabeth.
The shepherds made the decision by faith to leave the sheep because they believed that something was revealed to them. And when they found that someone, they would know that he was worth more than the sheep. Now, those weren't just any sheep.
Those were the most valuable sheep to the nation of Israel. These were what they did. What those shepherds did had been ordained by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He had spoken and given the commandments about the sacrifices and offerings, and yet they went to see the Savior.
And when you and I, as believers, when we catch a fresh glimpse of this savior, Messiah, at any age, in any position of life, no matter what, we're struck down by cancer, the loss of a spouse, financial ruin.
In the midst of that kind of challenge, we can go into the presence of God and get some fresh nugget, fresh bread, as many have preached and were taught. And when we do, we can run to the Savior and it will be enough.
Aaron Santmyire:Yeah, good word. Good word. Pastor Doug, is there a question I should have asked you if I was a better podcast host?
Is there something you're thinking, aaron, Aaron, I wrote the book. You should have asked this question, how.
Pastor Doug Seaman:To get the book.
Aaron Santmyire:There you go.
Pastor Doug Seaman:No, these were excellent questions. I've read a couple of books since I wrote this, and I thought, oh, why didn't I see that about the birth? Oh, that's such a great insight.
What I love about God is he is the word inexhaustible. I mean, there's no end. You can just keep digging and one marvelous revelation upon another.
And so if you guys want most books today, you know, you can find on Amazon or christianbook.com. mine is also available to you for free. How great is that?
Whether it be just one for you or to all your loved ones, if you just contact our ministry, we'll put those in your hands free of charge, no shipping. What we're trying to do is just broaden the base of our ministry internationally.
And so our ministry is cryofdeliverance.org cryofdeliverance.org and when you get there, you can email me or do. I think there's an order form there for the book.
Aaron Santmyire:Awesome. Well, I'll put it in the show notes. Also, Pastor Doug, will you pray for us? Pray that God will use your words of encouragement today and then also.
Yeah, just pray for this. This holiday season would love to.
Pastor Doug Seaman:Father, it's not a miracle. There are so many miracles involved with the bringing forth of the Son of the living God, the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the Gentiles.
There is no way we can identify all of them. But the Holy Spirit gives us insight, anoints us to see different beautiful nuggets of truth diamonds that we haven't even noticed before.
Wonderful gems of infinite worth.
And as we navigate through the holiday season here in the west and really around the world, it can be so easy to get caught up in what's happening in the world, the geopolitical uncertainties and instabilities.
It can be easy to be caught up in the church world, in the busyness of the holiday season, ministering to those who may still be grieving because of the loss of a loved one, maybe a spouse or a parent. Or we can be caught up in the busyness of trying to make sure that Christmas is just right.
And, Lord, in all of that, we can overlook the wonder of the gospel message. It all began with that woman who brought forth a son. And that son died on the cross for us.
I pray for every brother and sister mine listening right now, whether they be listening in their car, their home, they're listening while they're out walking, whether they're in America or any nation on the face of the earth. Lord, I pray that you would speak to them during this wonderful Christmas season. There's always hope that the miracle is always there.
Lord, I pray that Jesus Christ the Son, Jesus Christ our savior, would be alive for us, that he would be speaking to us and that he would be encouraging my brothers and sisters today and always. Lord, we're going to be careful to give you the thanks now and forever because you're worthy of it. You and you alone are worthy of it. Bless Dr.
Aaron Santomire and all of his family, his extended family that are part of his ministry through this wonderful podcast. Lord, may it be multiplied in effectiveness.
y that many thousands more in: Aaron Santmyire:Amen.
