Pivotal People
Join us in conversations with inspiring people doing amazing things. Their insights and experiences help motivate all of us to find our purpose that fits with our abilities, gifts and life situation. Get a "behind the scenes" look at successful people making a difference in the world and benefit from their advice for the rest of us. Our guests include authors, artists, leaders, coaches, pastors, business people and speakers.
Pivotal People
Cultivating Spiritual Change with Vince Miller
Meet Vince Miller: Author, speaker and bible study author for men. Vince's website Be Resolute (beresolute.org) is the largest online library of men's bible study resources and is a wealth of useful studies for every format and topic.
In this episode, we discuss the new study "Forging Godly Men" which I did and found it applies to women as well! Vince shares his personal journey of growing up with a single mother post-divorce and his quest to find a father figure, which led him to his grandfather's structured, faith-centered home. This pivotal chapter of his life instilled values of patience and spirituality, leading him to a life of ministry devoted to teaching men about faith.
Vince shares stories that give insights into the challenges men face, emphasizing the importance of seeking internal change and a new identity in God. Vince candidly shares the brokenness of his personal experience to inspire others to seek an authentic relationship with Christ.
For those eager to grow in their faith, Vince Miller offers a wealth of resources tailored for spiritual enrichment. From daily devotionals and Bible studies to engaging speaking engagements, there’s something for everyone, both men and women alike.
Connect with Vince and discover his Bible Study resources at https://beresolute.org/
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I'd like to welcome Vince Miller to the Pivotal People podcast. Let me tell you about Vince. He's an author and a speaker to men. He has written 31 different books and he's hosted on platforms like RightNow Media, faith Life TV and Faith Radio. One of his most popular resources he has a website called Resolute. He's the founder of the website. He has a website called Resolute. He's the founder of the website. It is the largest library of men's Bible study resources. I've been on it. It is fabulous. It has daily devotionals for individuals. It has Bible studies you can do as an individual. It has Bible studies you can lead with a group that require no preparation as a Bible study leader myself.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh, I'm in on that Just about everything. So you got to check that out. His most popular resource is called Men's Daily Devo and it's read by hundreds of thousands of people, if I'm reading that correctly. So I said to Vince before we started this if you just heard his bio, you know he's been in ministry for 29 years. He's devoted his life to, you know, helping men draw closer to God. If you just heard his bio, it's pretty intimidating. You're like, well, this guy can't understand me because he's obviously perfect. But I did his Bible study, which is called Forging Godly Men. It is absolutely directed to men. I am not a man, however. I have two sons and a husband and I thought I'm going to read this to understand their perspective. And what I discovered Vince is, 99% of it applies to women too, so this is good for everyone. Welcome. Thank you so much for taking your time. I can't wait to talk about this great study.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, stephanie. I am so excited to get to know you better and thank you, as a woman, for doing a men's Bible study and then realizing it's applicable to anybody, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Well it is, although it was interesting because we are socialized differently in some ways. And I can remember I said I have two adult sons, one is 28, one's 31. And the day the second son was born I was a little disappointed, I'll be honest. I was kind of hoping for a girl. And the nurse said to me you know, I have two sons too, and let me tell you why that's good, me, you know I have two sons too, and let me tell you why that's good. Because, as women, having sons is the closest we're ever going to get to seeing the world through a man's eyes. And she was right.
Speaker 1:My sons faced issues I didn't face, and Vince's Bible study takes those head on. So what I loved. I said you might be intimidated by him, but because he wove his personal story in which is so incredibly relatable, I think people are really going to draw closer to God through this story. So could we start there? Could you kind of give us a little background on your childhood? I see stages, you know age two, age eight, all the way through age 20.
Speaker 3:Absolutely two age eight all the way through age 20. Absolutely so. As a young boy, obviously, I was grew up with my mom. For a couple of years I spent it with my mom and dad. They divorced and my mom went without a husband for a number of years, remarried again, got divorced again, and this left a lot of questions in my life as a young teen.
Speaker 3:So about the age of 12 or so, I began to kind of want to inquire more about my biological dad. I was allowed to spend every other weekend over at his house in those days and I, just as a young man, I think there's something that comes out of you in your teen years where you have this a little bit of this mystery about who your biological father is, wanting to understand more about him, wanting to understand how he looks at life, his masculinity, who he is, and you see him as a hero to you, regardless of how good or bad your dad may have been. Anyway, I remember being at home one time getting ready to go over to my dad's house for one of those every other weekend visits and telling my mom look, I want to spend more time with him because he wasn't allowed to spend much time with him. He wasn't a great guy, just put it that way Came back from Vietnam very wounded from life, addicted to opiates, et cetera, and my mom really didn't want me to spend even every other weekend with him. But uh, you know, there was this intrigue and I continued to beg and implore and pester my mother as you can imagine a young 12 year old boy doing it and then one day she came. She said fine, I'll talk to him about it. She says go spend the weekend at his house and when he, when you get back, I'll I'll talk to him about that. So you know, we came back from the weekend at his house and when you get back I'll talk to him about that. So we came back from the weekend to visit at my dad's house. We're driving to my mom's house. We happen to be at one of those old white Ford Broncos the OJ Simpson kind, not the new guy and he dropped me off at the house and I could see my mom's waiting on the front porch. She is walking out to meet me. We kind of crossed paths.
Speaker 3:She encourages me to go into the house and of course I ran into the house, ran into the backyard, came out the side back of the house and begin to listen into a conversation. Because, honestly, stephanie, I was a little intrigued by seeing this moment, because I'd never seen my mother and father together before. My father rolled down the window and he leaned into the window and I listened to a conversation. I could barely catch it, but I could see that through this conversation her demeanor changed. They began to argue, there was cursing back and forth to each other and then, finally, I heard a statement that deeply wounded me and was going to change the trajectory of my pursuit. But I heard my father say to my mother I don't want to spend more time with him, you spend more time with him. And then he drove off and, to say the least, stephanie, that was the last time I really ever went over to my biological father's house. My mom didn't say much to me about what had happened. She didn't know that I had overheard it. My dad didn't know that I had overheard that, but that was one of the last weekends I spent with him.
Speaker 3:And then, from there, it began this mystery of trying to understand who I was supposed to be as a man, who I was going to find as a model of a man? What did it mean to be a man? And there are a lot of events between that moment and then one of the coming moments that would really reveal to me the path of what it meant to be a man. And essentially I'll kind of cut this story short here. But what eventually happened when I was about 15 years old, so three years later is my mom did divorce again. My grandfather, who is a man of God, came over to her house and implored her to let me come live with him so that he could see the model of masculinity through his life, and I'll never forget that moment. It was quite an endearing moment, but I packed my bags and I moved in with my grandfather and came to discover that life in his house was much different than life in the house that I grew up in.
Speaker 1:The Totino's pizza rolls. I was like I loved your story about you know first coming and the dinner, the family dinner, because we're real believers in that. So talk to me about that and how important that ended up being for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know. So the drawing the story out just a little bit. My grandfather came over and just implored, my mother, said let me parent him for a while, because my mom could see that I needed a man in my life and she felt inadequate to be able to do some of the things that I needed to understand and learn. So my grandfather was a retired Navy veteran at the time. He played golf every day. He didn't have a lot to do. So, you know, he took me under his wing and I moved into his little wartime home. He had a little house in the California Bay Area that I essentially grew up in from age 15. And he turned the garage into a bedroom. So you know, it's a one, two bedroom, small one, two bedroom wartime home.
Speaker 3:And so they made a room for me in the garage and got it all set up and I moved in and I came to discover that life in my grandfather's house was much different, stephanie. I mean much different. He's a military guy, very structured. He believed in God. My mother was at most an agnostic, my dad was an atheist. So I'm being exposed to a whole new worldview and I remember that I was sitting at my first meal at their house and it was just fascinating. The first meal, stephanie. Meals, right, are such spiritual experiences.
Speaker 3:But I remember we went in to sit down at this little table, little kitchen, you know, dinette area, and my grandfather had his seat.
Speaker 3:My grandmother had a seat for her and I could choose from one of the other two seats and I plopped down to one of those seats and my grandmother was a short order cook her entire life.
Speaker 3:That's what she did. She was a cook and so she treated homes as kind of, she was treating us to a meal at the diner, you know, and she would go and cook and prepare and bring stuff in, and and of course, I sat down at the table and my grandfather sat down and my grandmother's bringing his stuff in, and she begins to set something down on the table and I reach for it and my grandfather smacks my hand, actually smacked me pretty hard. He smacks my head, he looks at me and he says, son, we don't just go ahead here. He says we wait until your grandmother has served all the food. And I grew up, as you read in the book, I grew up in a house where we never sat down for meals, stephanie. We never had conversations and I mostly ran to the freezer to get Totino's pizza rolls which I absolutely ate today, or a Swanson TV dinner.
Speaker 3:Remember when they were called TV dinners? A Swanson big boy TV dinner A hungry man, I think, is what they called it at the time. That's what I was raised on Food that was made in a microwave that I ate by myself in front of a TV watching MTV back in the day Now I've just dated myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're my age, I think yeah, I think we're close.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have children about the same age. So he slapped my hand and I'm like, oh, this is a different dinner time experience than I expected. You know. You told me to wait.
Speaker 3:So my grandmother set the rest of the food down on the table and I reached for something after it was all set down and he slapped my hand again and he said son, sorry, but we also wait for your grandmother to come sit down and join us. And then, of course, she sat down and I looked over at my grandfather like kind of hesitantly, wondering if I should reach out again for the food. And he put up his finger and he just said and now we're going to pray together, so close your eyes and bow your head and let's pray. And I just watched him because I had never witnessed prayer like this before. I just watched my grandfather pray. And I looked at my grandmother and she closed her eyes and bowed her head. And then my grandfather said amen, raised his head and he looked at me and he says then next time you need to close your eyes and bow your head. I'm not sure how he knew that I didn't do that.
Speaker 3:But then I reached for something and we ate and I ate fast. I mean, I ate too fast, stephanie, because I didn't understand manners, I didn't understand how to eat, I didn't understand how to have a conversation, any of that. I ate as fast as I could. And I got up from the table and he grabs my shirt and sets me back down and says son, we wait for your grandmother and I to finish eating and then I'll give you permission to leave the table. And I kind of felt like I was in a mess hall at a, in a military experience of some guide where you know.
Speaker 3:But the funny thing was it was very enjoyable. We would have conversations here, we would talk about our day. My grandfather asked me about school. We even talked about how we saw God working in the day, which was an unusual conversation for me the first time and then we even made plans on what was going to happen the next day. Stephanie, you understand this. Meals are valuable times and, of course, this meal took a long time, predominantly because my grandmother ate one pea at a time, put one pea on her food and gnaw on it and eat, and she was just elongating the experience. But I discovered that mealtimes were the type of experiences and it was like that at every single meal. And I want to let you know today I'm much older, I've had kids of my own, I have one grandchild and I just realized that what my grandfather engaged in in at the table was a discipleship experience, which is a tool that he used to teach me about Jesus. So that's a little fun part of my story that I include in the book.
Speaker 1:What an incredible gift, what a special man he was, because, as I'm listening to this, he taught you how to respect women. You know, he let you know that hearing about your day mattered. He made you feel important and valuable. And you know what? You were 15 years old, so he was stepping right in the middle, he was catching up. You lived with him until you were 20? Is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yep, I lived with him until I was about 20. There was a couple of times that I kind of came and gone. I came and went, but I stayed with him between the ages of 15 to about 17 and a half. Then I moved out and then I came back for probably about six months to a year and then he died when I was 20.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sorry. So what you described in your book. I think this is a super important chapter and the reason we're spending time on this is because your study is so good. But people might be intimidated by the title, thinking that you know they're not varsity enough Christians to be able to do this. So, by the way, it's a super easy study to do when the format is really good, like with really good fonts, to let you know where the important parts are. I like that. I like that. I know what to highlight.
Speaker 1:But so you had you hit some bumps in the road. Okay, so could you talk about that and then tell us I so loved the Colossians three story.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, there's a bump in my story. You know, by the time I turned about 17, or so, I kind of had what I would call my rebellious months. It was about a year or so, maybe at most. But I think I hit a moment where I just wanted to go figure things out on my own. It wasn't anything bad about. It had nothing to do with my bio dad, it had nothing to do with my bio mom, it had nothing to do with my grandparents, I think it was just I hit a rebellious stage, I think, and I just sought life on my own.
Speaker 3:But there was a pivotal moment where God's word did something significant in me. So what happened in my teen years after I moved in with my grandfather is he made me go to church every Sunday, which you know, if I lived in this house and I was there, I had to go, but it was a pretty unenjoyable small church, just put it that way. There was maybe 30 people in the church and they all had blue hair. That's what I called them blue hairs at the time, because when the incandescent light shined, just right, their hair all looked blue. In other words, I was the youngest guy in the entire church.
Speaker 3:But there was one particular day where I remember listening to a sermon and I caught just the end of it because I was kind of phased in and out and this preacher that was preaching on this day just said if you read Colossians 3 every day for a month, it'll change your life. And, stephanie, what I heard was, if you read Colossians 3 every day for a month, god will magically show up and make your life better. Every day for a month, god will magically show up and make your life better and, to be quite honest, I love that. My grandfather spent this time with me and raised me and discipled me and gave me guidance as a man, but I still knew there was something missing. There was something missing. So I went and I got my grandmother's Bible. I actually still have it. I kind of stole it.
Speaker 1:No one minds if you steal their Bible.
Speaker 3:Exactly. I came to discover that. But anyway, I went up and I it was this old King James Bible, you know, the one with the kind of chalky pages and the zipper that closes on the leather cover, you know. And I got that and I started reading Colossians 3 every day because I thought that God was magically going to show up and show me and disclose to me something. So, you know, I got about 15 days in and kind of got excited. I got 20 days in, got excited, I got to the last few days and with anticipation, I'm believing that when I get to day 30, that something's going to happen.
Speaker 3:I really was convinced of this. I don't know why. That is not what the pastor said. That is what was happening in my mind and my heart and I think it was that I wanted to test God. I wanted to see if God would do something great. Well, anyway, I got to day 30. I read Colossians 3 again. I closed the Bible and I just kind of sat there and waited and, stephanie, nothing happened. Okay, well, that was kind of my test with God. I was trying to understand is God real? Does he answer prayer? Does he do what he says? Does he do what he says he's going to do, and when other people say he's going to do that thing, will he do it. And no kidding, I closed the Bible and for me that was kind of like a little bit of a litmus test to is God real? And is what my grandfather sang about God real? And is the people that my grandfather is following, like this preacher, is it true? And because I didn't get an immediate answer, I kind of began to start to walk away. I began to pick up on the agnostic and atheistic things that my mom and dad were saying about this guy named God and this person named Jesus. So anyway, I kind of began this rebellious stage.
Speaker 3:But six months later I am away from home, I have left the house, I'm going to do life on my own and I'm partying it up. At the age of 17 and a half, I think I've got life all figured out. And then all of a sudden, I wake up one day and I'm very disgusted with my life. I'm realizing that some of the choices that I've made aren't working. And then, all of a sudden, I had a deeply spiritual experience one morning. I walked over to a mirror, I looked at myself and my eyes weren't seeing a very clear picture of myself in the mirror. It was kind of like I was seeing a funhouse picture in the mirror it's probably because of some of the partying and drinking, et cetera that I was doing. And I rubbed my eyes and the funhouse mirror of myself didn't go away. And I rubbed them again and it didn't go away. And I stood there looking at myself going what am I doing to myself, which was a bit of a metaphor for what was happening in my life.
Speaker 3:I saw Vince living a very disfigured, messed up life and then I just spoke out loud and I said God, okay, I'm paying attention. If you're real, speak to me. And the strangest thing happened the words of Colossians 3 came back to me, every single word, because over those 30 days of reading Colossians 3, I had subsequently memorized every word of it Because I have a good memory. Since then you've been raised with Christ, set your minds on things above. And I just started saying it out loud and the entire chapter came back to me as clear as day. And I'm like God, if that's the life you want me to live, then things need to change.
Speaker 3:The party ghoul of the country. At the time I packed up all my things into this old Volkswagen truck. It was a 58 Volkswagen truck, which was really cool in California at the time. But here was the problem it was stuck in second gear and I knew that those verses were a call for me to return back to my grandfather's house, to go home, to seek reconciliation, to begin to pursue God, to bring about a change in my life. And it all happened with the last three, stephanie. So, no kidding, I packed up what little belongings I had, put them in the Volkswagen truck. It's stuck in second gear and I made a seven hour trip home, driving 21 miles an hour on a California freeway, with people flying past me.
Speaker 1:I bet they were happy with you. There was smoke billowing out.
Speaker 3:you said yeah well, there was smoke billowing out the back, but the worst part was the engines, you know, heating up because I'm driving in second gear for seven hours. So I had to open the heater box on the cab and smoke is flowing into the cab and I got the safari windows open the front, so trying to clear air out. And, and, honestly, on that drive home I had an incredible spiritual experience again with an old poet. His name is Bob Dylan. Yeah, bob Dylan, and this, like I know, this fun house picture of my life. I heard that song and it just grabbed a hold of my soul.
Speaker 3:You know, I drove those seven hours and finally arrived at my grandfather's house, the house that I had moved into, and the truck died in front of his house.
Speaker 3:And then I made the hardest walk that I've ever made in my entire life, stephanie. I got out of that truck and I walked toward the home and in front of his home there's this big picture window in front of the house, behind which sat two lazy boy chairs facing a television, and my grandfather would sit there in the afternoons, take a nap, pray, and I could see him reclining in his lazy boy with his hands behind his bald head sitting there and as I'm walking toward the house, stephanie, I'm not sure if I can actually walk up to the door. I mean, I hit this moment where I just stop and I'm paralyzed. I'm on the first step walking up to the door of his house, and I stop and I'm about to turn away when I look over in the window one last time and I see that the lazy boy chair has been vacated. He's standing now at the front door, at the top of the stairs, and he looks down at me and he says, grandma, as he turns his head to the kitchen our son has come home.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh.
Speaker 3:And he put out his arms and invited me to come up the stairs and embraced me and he says you are welcome here, but things have to change. That was easily the most significant moment of my life. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was calling me the prodigal son. I read it years later and I was like, oh, I see, I see what you were saying there. Our son has come home. You were calling me the reckless, aimless, worthless prodigal son.
Speaker 1:Thankfully he didn't give you half his inheritance for you to squander that.
Speaker 3:Exactly, but man, the love and grace and mercy and forgiveness I experienced in that moment I needed. And then, honestly, after I kind of got past that phase, everything started to change for me. I started to get really definitive about my relationship with God. And, you know, a couple of years later he died. And then that's when I really made a decision that for the rest of my life I was going to do for other men what my grandfather had done for me, which is disciple, mentored and provided me guidance to become the man that God wanted me to be. That's a little of that. I'm giving you more to the story than just Colossians 3, but it's all interwoven together in the story of our lives, isn't it?
Speaker 1:And I so love the story which I'm so glad you shared it today. And I'm so glad you shared it in your study, because one of my favorite authors is Bob Gough and he said you know we could if we're believers and we really want other people to experience the same peace and contentment. You know we've tried everything else and this is the one that's worked for us. So naturally we want people we love to feel the same way. So how do you do that? Well, you know you could quote them some Bible verses, which is like, you know, speaking a foreign language and you could have. We could have started with that conversation today and you would have some great Bible verses. But Bob Goff says you know what, instead of quoting John 3.16, how about if you just tell people the real vulnerable stories of how God showed up in your own life? You know, just share that, because that's actually our testimony. Right, and we don't need to use big, you know, church words like that.
Speaker 1:The hard part is that so many of us. It takes a long time you have to be as old as I am to really say it's okay to be vulnerable. You know it's easier to quote a Bible verse and it's easier to recommend a book and it's easier to go to a Bible study than to say you know what? I had some real bumps in the road and this is what it was, and this was my experience. And I'm not here because I'm perfect, I'm here because I'm not, and I finally found a place where he's like you know, I was here the whole time. How wonderful that your grandfather just completely modeled the love of Jesus, not a, but you know what he also said. But here are the rules. And you were like good, I can be free of that stuff, I'm not allowed, that's right.
Speaker 1:And I'm listening to it, thinking how great Vince that you turned around at only 17 and a half.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, life could have been a lot worse, but God just used pivotal people in my life. Pivotal people yes. Pivotal people to guide me and direct me to Jesus, and my need for a Savior and Lord.
Speaker 1:And you have. I can't imagine how many men's lives you've touched. Let's get specific on the study here, because I told you I loved it so much. So specifically, it is called Forging Godly Men. It is a clear, compelling look at what it means to be a man of God. It is a five-lesson Bible study for men which delves beyond societal views to explore Jesus' life, to understand authentic masculinity, emphasize repentance and align with God's intent.
Speaker 1:So I've already told you I really liked it because it is, first of all, it's short. Okay, you get right to the point. You don't have a whole bunch of fluffy church words that you have to, you know, wade through, super easy to highlight. The format is really good in terms of knowing what's important, one of the things that I really found. There are so many good pieces in here. We're not going to tell them all to you because then you won't buy the study but there is one I'd really like to talk about a little more just to give people a taste of it. One of the neat things about Vince's ministry is on his website he has a link called we'll pray for you.
Speaker 3:Need prayer.
Speaker 1:Okay, need prayer, that's it, need prayer, and so you know, think about. This is the socialized part, vince. A lot of men don't feel really safe telling people what difficult things are going on in their life. Women, my gosh, we do it all the time we go on walks together, but men have a harder time. So it's interesting how many prayer requests Vince gets and he was able to say you know, here are the top five areas that matter to men. As a wife, I was surprised. Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the top five things that matter to men. Let's get into those. Yeah, I mean the top five things that matter to men. Let's get into those. But what I thought was also neat for all of us is, like, when you ask for prayer, don't we have a tendency to pray that God would change the circumstances, instead of saying God change who? I am right, we want to be transformed. We want to be transformed, but do we really want to be transformed? Do we just want everyone else to be transformed, but do we really want to be transformed? Do we just want everyone else to be transformed?
Speaker 3:That's right, that's so good.
Speaker 1:Could you share with us these top five areas and what you've learned about what men are going through that they might not tell everyone, but they will tell a stranger on a website?
Speaker 3:That's right. So it is kind of interesting, isn't it, that? I didn't intend for this to kind of become an experiment of sorts, but that's what it became. And after hundreds of thousands of prayer requests received and prayed for other men which I would encourage guys to hit that button if you need a prayer but I came to discover that there's only five things that men ask for prayer about, five pretty specific categories. By the way, it was marriage, finance, sin, health and career. So I'll say it again Marriage, finance, sin, health and career.
Speaker 3:And I would hear these requests, and, of course, over time, you become pretty good at praying for these requests, but it was so so rarely, Stephanie, that I would hear another request, and this request would bring me to tears. It often read like this Vince, I don't need a change to my circumstance, even though my marriage is falling apart. Here's what I need. I need a change to my circumstance, even though my marriage is falling apart. Here's what I need. I need a change to me and for me, it taught me something, stephanie, that I think is valuable. That people need to hear, whether they're men or women, is that often our prayer requests are filled with the desire for God to change our circumstances. Because, well, I think we falsely sell God on the fact that we're changed people and that, if you just changed our circumstance, we're going to be better people, which is a life built on our morality. We're selling to God, right, the fact that, oh, we're better now. Bro, just, can you fix the situation that I blew up over here? I promise I won't ever do it again, which I don't believe. There's anything wrong with asking God for him to change our circumstances. Sometimes he does, and that's great. We should celebrate that. But I think the deeper and more important prayer is the prayer that says God, regardless of my circumstances, I need you to change me. And that is the scariest prayer that any believer will ever pray.
Speaker 3:Man or woman, is to say God, it doesn't matter what the circumstances of my life look like, it doesn't matter what my marriage looks like, my finances look like my sin looks like my health looks like my career looks like. I need you to change me, because I know if you change me, then everything changes, and that's the truth of the matter. That's exactly where the gospel story hits the hardest, doesn't it? It hits the hardest at the moment that we deal with ourself. How deep and sinful we are and how much we need a new identity from the father.
Speaker 3:You know, just going back to the story of the prodigal son, that is the story of the prodigal son. There are two sons in the story. One is self-centered and one is self-righteous. They're both trying to earn the love of the father, but by different means. They both want the inheritance of the father. But one returns to be completely changed. He's willing to lay down his own life, become an identity-less servant in the house of the father and the older son. It's actually the older son that then becomes the problem in the story, because he doesn't want his circumstances messed with. He wants his inheritance. He doesn't want his double portion taken away again.
Speaker 2:He doesn't want this younger son to threaten his future inheritance.
Speaker 3:And even the father comes out, who is representative of God, of course, and tries to implore him to come into the celebration because God is exceedingly wealthy and he's never going to run out of riches.
Speaker 2:But the son doesn't see it that way. He sees that the older son thinks he's going to run out of riches, sees that, you know, the older son thinks he's going to run out of riches and therefore, because he's got this defeatist, depletist mindset.
Speaker 3:He can't get beyond the fact that what God wants is him to come in and celebrate and enjoy him the presence of the Father. And I think so many Christians miss this one, whether we are new believers, that are, you know, coming from a life of self-centeredness, or old believers who built our life on our own self-righteousness. What we need to understand is it is we who needs to be changed, that we're given and imparted an identity. We don't earn it. We're given and imparted an identity by the Father and it endlessly, it endlessly restores us into right relationship with Him. If we could just learn that lesson, then I think our prayer life would change and we would pray for these things differently. I still think they're the popular prayer requests of men, simply because I think God uses these tools to get our attention so that we will come to the Father who loves us.
Speaker 1:Oh man is he great, or what? Well, God is great. I'm saying Vince, Vince is great and you have all kinds of oh.
Speaker 1:I want to say also that your Bible study comes along with the video series, so you can use a video series and I think this is just a great, a great series for people who are on the fence about this God thing. And maybe you're like Vince's grandfather. I mean, how brave was he. I mean he stepped in. He really talked your mom into something that could have been challenging for her. He made her feel good about it. Is your mom still alive?
Speaker 3:No, she died maybe about 20 years ago or so from.
Speaker 1:I am quite certain she'd be health related, pleased to see the direction your life took and the legacy you're continuing of your grandfather. Yeah, that is so beautiful, so tell everyone. I'll have this in the show notes, but I don't think people really go to show notes, so people need to listen right now. How can people find you, find your website, find your resources?
Speaker 3:Just go to vincemillercom. All kinds of resources there for men who want to grow in their faith daily devotionals, Bible study, videos, books, resources, tools that you can use for your men's group. Vincemillercom is the easiest way to find us.
Speaker 1:And if someone's listening and they're like you know I really don't have a group you might eventually this. I did it on my own. I mean it was a great study on your own. You don't need to have a group to do this. You can do this on your own. I don't think I'm a godly man, but hopefully I'm a better woman.
Speaker 3:I'm so honored to have you do it. I love, stephanie, some of the things you said about it today because honestly, it's yeah, it's a study designed for a man to go through, either on his own, one-on-one or with a group, but in the end, it's the gospel story. It's timeless, it's applicable to all of us and it's just the gospel story that helps men see it through maybe a masculine lens, so they have a way to understand it and articulate it so they can grow in their relationship with God.
Speaker 1:And also it is having a group, a safe group, a small group where people can feel comfortable sharing that stuff. And yeah, anyway, thank you so much. I look, I'm going to keep an eye on you and see if you're ever speaking in my town.
Speaker 3:Great, I would love to join you guys anytime.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, because he is a speaker. So if any church or any group wants him to speak, he has that information on his website too. Thanks so much, vince. I wish you the best of luck in 2025 with your I guess that would be your 30th year of ministry.
Speaker 3:Yep, I'm excited. Well, I'm excited to see what God's going to do for the next decade.
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