Plays On Word Radio
An in-depth look at the Word of God, the Plays On Word community, and the Plays - with original music - we perform, that are based on the Word of God. New episodes drop Fridays at 7AM EST! To find out how Plays On Word Theater can perform 'LIVE on YOUR STAGE' and to support this missionary & podcast visit: https://playsonword.org/
Plays On Word Radio
Ep 82: Prayer and Biblical Reflections/ Dr. Gary Kohl & Ben Abalos (Part 2)
"How can humor and modern-day references make biblical stories more relatable for today’s audiences? We’ll discuss this along with peace through prayer, the virtues of Christ, and the importance of typology in Scripture."
How do YOU find peace amidst life’s anxious moments? Join Pastor Teddy, a.k.a Fred David Kenney, Jr., as he opens this episode with a heartfelt prayer. Drawing inspiration from Philippians 4:6-8, Pastor Teddy emphasizes the omnipresence of God and the profound peace that comes from focusing on virtues like truth, honor, and purity, all of which are embodied in Christ. This episode is a comforting reminder of the power of prayer and the guidance that Scripture offers in our daily lives.
We also highlight the creative ways biblical stories can become relatable through humor and contemporary references. Reflecting on our recent play, we discuss the memorable "Pyramid Depot" reference, shedding light on how such elements can make spiritual lessons more engaging for modern listeners. Our conversation touches on the importance of typology in the Bible, aiming to inspire a deeper, renewed perspective on scripture. We wrap up with expressions of gratitude for our supporters, including Reverend Dr. Gary Kohl and Ben Abalos from Belair Baptist Church in Bowie, Maryland.
PlayGrounds Guests:
Dr. Gary Kohl & Ben Abalos
Belair Baptist Church
Belair Baptist Christian Academy
Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Instagram
Plays On Word Facebook
Email us: team@playsonword.org
Lord you know. Hey guys, you are now listening to Plays on Word.
Speaker 2:Radio. It's the best.
Speaker 4:We'll be right back. You're the only thing, you're the only thing, you're the only thing.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.
Speaker 4:Amen, amen. Thank you very much, mr Josh Taylor. Welcome to everyone listening to Plays on Word Radio. Thank you, katie Kenny as well for that intro, and Isaac Wabamba and Albev Ah and Tana from Albania, from Vlora. Shout out to all y'all. Shout out to all y'all yeah, we are back in our Southern Command after a short Northeast tour. Praise the Lord, we had a fantastic time. I described that in our last episode and we also visited with the Reverend Dr Gary Cole and Ben Abelos from Bel Air Baptist Church in Bowie, maryland, and we're going to now.
Speaker 4:Everybody listening right now, one thing we can all do is we can pray. And our dear brother Isaac Wobamba in Uganda you go back a few episodes and we spoke, and he visited us and we spoke. He sent me an email, he said, and I asked if I could share this and he said yes. He said my dad is not well. He needs a replacement of a pacemaker in his heart. He has had one since 2015, which has weakened with time. Please join us in prayer for him, with your fellowship. His name is John, for him, with your fellowship, his name is john, and so I just want to lift up john right now.
Speaker 4:Isaac wabamba's dad, heavenly father. I just want to lift him up to you right now, with this whole audience of people listening right now, where two or more gathered there. You are in the midst, lord of us, and I just want to lift him up that you would provide for a new pacemaker if he needs it, and or that you would heal him altogether, so he doesn't even need it. Lord, we just commit him to you and ask your will to be done in his life. That you would indeed heal, lord, and provide whatever is necessary. Give the doctors wisdom, and we ask this in the name, above every name, and all God's people said Amen.
Speaker 4:I hear it digitally, even though we are separated from time right now, because some of you are streaming this at different times. The beauty is our God is outside of time. He knows the beginning from the end. Look at that. He knows the beginning. So when he says something, you can bank on it, man. You can bank on it. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. You can bank on it, man, you can bank on it. I will never leave you nor forsake you. You can bank on that. You know, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, withgiving. Let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. You can bank on that. Let me just continue on that. Back on that. And then he also, let me just continue on that.
Speaker 4:He says finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things, and the god of peace will be with you. And of course we know, and that's also Philippians, that's Philippians 4.8. Of course we know, if you look at every single one of those things. Finally, brothers, whatever is true? Well, who claimed to be truth? Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but me. By me, he says Father, your word is true. Who is the word? What is the word? Who is the word? In the beginning was the word? The word was with God and the Word was God. Christ Jesus is the very incarnate Word of God in the flesh. So that's what incarnate means. But so I mean whatever is true, that's Christ.
Speaker 4:How about the next one? Whatever is honorable? Let's think about that for a second. We can think about a lot of honorable things Means worthy of honor, but there's one that is the standard when it comes to being worthy of honor, and that is Christ Jesusesus himself. He is honorable.
Speaker 4:Look at the next one whatever is just meaning right, just, it's a. It's a. It's a shortened form of justified. If something was knocked over, it would be unjustified. It's a construction term, but when you put it right side up the way, it should be proper. That's justified. You graphic designers out there know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4:Whatever is just Christ? He's the standard again of just right. There let's move on. Whatever is pure I don't even need to, I need to spend time on that. Whatever is pure? He is the standard of pureness, pure perfection, pure holiness, pure righteousness, meaning without blemish or stain or any kind of corruption. So again, jesus is the standard of pure, standard of pure. Whatever is lovely takes me back to the story of Manoah and his wife, samson's parents and the angel of the Lord, a picture of Christ in the Old Testament. The pre-incarnate Christ, the angel of the Lord, the one that speaks as God, with the authority of God, accepts worship and everything. This angel of the Lord appears before Manoah and I'm not going to go into the whole story, but Manoah said to the angel of the Lord he says what?
Speaker 1:is your name.
Speaker 4:After this whole thing, he says what is your name? So that when your words come true, cause, basically, the angel of the Lord told him you're going to have a son and his wife was barren, couldn't have kids, and so, uh, when this comes true, what's your, what is your name? And the Lord says to him why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. So some of the translations put a question mark right next to that Seeing it is wonderful. So Manoah took um like a goat and grain, and offered it on a rock before the Lord, and the Lord himself calls his name Wonderful. And then, if you look at Isaiah 9, 6, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be on his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful. Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace. That's in Isaiah 600, 700 years before Christ was even born. Yeah, some people, let's just look at that for a second. You know, this child that is born and the son that is given, he's going to be called Wonderful. That's going to be one of his names. Wonderful Counselor, mighty God. Whoa, that's heavy, right there. Everlasting Father. Some people get tripped up on that right there Does not mean that Christ Jesus is the Father.
Speaker 4:From a Trinitarian perspective and Orthodox Christianity, we understand that there's Father, son, holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself in three distinct persons. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the Son. There are three distinct persons, but one God. The Father sends the Son. The Son prays to the Father. The Father and the Son send the Spirit Spirit. We are in the Son. The Father is in the Son, reconciling the world to himself. It says in Corinthians the Holy Spirit is in us. We are in God, god is in us.
Speaker 4:This idea of where it says Mighty God, everlasting Father, it can be better understood that he is the father of everlasting or everlasting life. He is the like if I was to say like dr j. Well, I'm taking some of you back. You guys might not know, you basketball fans, dr j is the father of the of the slam dunk, and really he's not. But I'm just, you know, I'm trying to get some context here that we can grab onto. Yeah, the father of the slam dunk, let's just use that. Or I don't know. Richard Petty is the father of NASCAR. Well, this person that's being spoken about is the father of it, the everlasting father, or the father of everlasting. Who is that? That's Christ Jesus. Who is that? That's Christ Jesus, who is wonderful.
Speaker 4:So Paul tells us back to our original Philippians thing there, all these different things we can dwell on and think on If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, of praise. You know the Old Testament, not even the Old Testament, new Testament and Old Testament, anytime somebody tried to praise and worship an angel, they were like no man, don't worship me, worship God. Yet the angel of the Lord accepted worship, and so did Christ Jesus. He accepted worship this. So did Christ Jesus. He accepted worship. This is a little email thing there, sorry. The angel of the Lord accepted it and so did Christ when he walked on water and he grabbed Peter and they both got back to the boat and they jumped in the boat. The disciples fell down and said truly, you are this, they were. It says they worshiped him and said truly, you are the son of God, meaning he's the, the son of God, the, the one, the Messiah. But they worshiped him and he accepted it.
Speaker 4:Now, in the book of Acts, one of the Herods, king Herod, he was worshiped by the people. They were like this is the voice of a God, not a man, and God struck him down man, because he didn't give the glory to who it belonged and he was eaten by worms. What a way to go, yeah, so yeah, I don't know how I got on that rant, but I just, you know, I just wanted to share that, share that with you. We also I don't want to say have lost, because when we know where someone is, they're not lost but a Plays on Word supporter, lillian, from Calvary Baptist Church in Oceanport, has gone to be with the Lord and I would just ask you guys to remember just her family and the family of believers at Calvary Baptist Church in Oceanport, because they are on the Plays on Word team. They've been part of the Plays on Word family for some years now and we love all of them. So just keep them in prayer and her family in prayer. Lillian, the Lord knows who you're talking about. The Lord will absolutely. If you remember, he'll know exactly.
Speaker 4:I have one other person I got on my list here. Let's see if we can find it. Ah yes, our dear dear brother, john, uh, from down in Bayville. He's also one uh, a supporter and on the plays on word team and he's been really dealing with going through really hard physical stuff. I'm not going to go into detail, um, but he definitely needs prayer, him and his wife, for provision for health. And if you just remember to lift John up from Bayville plays on word, the Lord knows exactly who you're talking about. He could really use some encouragement, he could use some healing, he could use provision, him and his wife.
Speaker 4:And I'm just bringing these prayer requests to you guys because it's time. We're in a time where we really need to recruit more artillery for certain things. So I just please put John on your list. Put Isaac on your list. Put Bob, whose wife just went home to be with the Lord. She was fighting a battle of cancer for a long time and we love Bob. It's just a dear brother of ours and our brother.
Speaker 4:Let's list up Steve also, steve and his wife Margie. You guys know I see a lot of people nodding their heads. I know them. Yeah, lift up Steve also Steve and his wife Margie, you guys know I see a lot of people nodding their heads. I know them. Yeah, lift up Steve as well. Just overall health, both of them, everybody. So I just wanted to put those prayer requests out there so that we can multiply our effectiveness and just petition the Lord on behalf of these brothers and sisters. And there's one other person, a brother that I recently met, everett, and his son was diagnosed with cancer. So please just lift him, his family, his son up. A lot of needs Could make a whole episode about that, but in fact let's do that now, lord, I just lift up everybody we just mentioned right now.
Speaker 4:Lift them up to you, lord. You know what needs to be done. We as a group lift those burdens and those requests before your throne. We say thank you, lord, for hearing, thank you for answering, lord, god, may you just dispatch a bunch of your servant angels to comfort and to do your will, lord, when it comes to the people that we just lifted. Up to you. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. All right, you guys, I tell you what. Let's. Let's go back to Bowie. Any thoughts? Did anything stick out? Did you like anything, dislike anything? Pyramid Depot Pyramid Depot yeah, they've been having sales there. People love that.
Speaker 3:The Pyramid- I appreciate your ministry because you put a visual effect to things and it really kind of blends the story together. I like the way you blend, blended the whole thing and then you, you kind of paused somewhat in between, uh, when it was an obvious reference to jesus, you know down the road somewhere and, uh, you know that the same type of thing. I think that was very effective the way you did that.
Speaker 4:So amen, yeah then there's there's humor in it. I had a guy come up to me last week and he said you should have marketed this whole thing as a comedy. I was like, okay, Instead of gospel yeah.
Speaker 4:Early on we had somebody that did not like the comic references. She thought it was almost sacrilegious and it was almost wrong. But one of the things that I've noticed is, the next time you see this play or any of the plays we do is um. A lot of times when there's a difficult situation or a really deep emotional situation, we'll turn around and drop one of those things to kind of snap you out of it and like you end up laughing because pyramid depot, the idea. Okay, they're building pyramids. It's ancient egypt, you know, we have home depot, that's a contemporary thing. Okay, I can relate to that a little bit. And so the concept of humor, and I I can't take any credit for that. The good lord, I'm telling you, he gave, literally gave me all everything, even the humor stuff. Yeah, he, he hit me with it. I was laughing when he was putting this whole play together. I'm like, can I say that Pyramid Depot?
Speaker 3:I mean, jesus spoke in contemporary terms in his time. Okay, obviously, yeah, okay, I think that was great.
Speaker 2:But the, as Pastor said, the pause and the emphasis on the type and the anti-type is very effective.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I really appreciate that I tell you I've had some people come up to me in churches that I just assumed they knew that and they were there. And they tell me that's the first time I've heard that.
Speaker 4:And there, and they tell me that's the first time I've heard that like and I'm like, really right, I'm like, yeah, I'm like like the first time that they see how joseph is a type of christ. He points to christ in a lot of ways and, uh, for me that's an excitement because it's like that means okay, it's yeah, it's more than entertainment. It can't, because if it's just entertainment, I'm, I don't want to do it. I'm, I don't feel like doing it. If it's just entertaining, I don't want to do it, I don't feel like doing it. If it's just entertainment, it cannot just be just entertainment.
Speaker 2:If it drives people into the Word, then to me that's the goal, I'm sure, as you said, when they read Genesis through chapter 37 through 50, they will read it in a different light after watching this.
Speaker 3:And I like too how you know you emphasized the line of Judah. You kind of brought that up, you can see why. Judah of all the 12, you know there's something special about him. And the other one too, about the off reference to Reuben. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:See the biblical scholars, the people that know their Bible. They're like wait a minute. That's right, ruben. He went up onto his father's couch. Yeah, that was not a good one.
Speaker 3:Can you imagine?
Speaker 4:the mess that that caused. Think about that for a second. Like you have 12 brothers and Ruben, one of your brothers, is now fooling around with your mom, and it's just that creates all kinds of brothers. Have enough trouble just getting along. I can't even imagine the fights that that possibly caused. And we know that it was something that did not get swept under the rug because on his deathbed, jacob was like you're my firstborn, the source of my strength, but not here, Not anymore.
Speaker 4:You went up onto my account and this is like how many years later, man, you know? So yeah, I think the Bible is a reflection. You know, jerry Springer has nothing on the Bible Like the Bible shows us. The Bible shows us humanity. People that think the Bible is just all flowers and whatever. No, the Bible shows real ugly stuff like that. The Lord deals with everything. Okay, any other thoughts? Well, god bless. Okay, any other thoughts?
Speaker 3:Well, God bless your ministry. How's that?
Speaker 4:Thank you I appreciate it and may God bless this church here and the school. I'm so blessed to see all the students. I met a bunch of the students and I'm just like wow, they're in a Christian school here and a lot of them are just being loved on and being taught in a way that the world would not teach them. The world would leave out certain things. So this is just a cool situation.
Speaker 3:The school belongs to the Lord. God's blessed us. He used to teach here. His wife still teaches here. School belongs to the Lord. God bless us. He used to teach here. His wife still teaches here. His one son, the Marine son, graduated from here a couple years ago and his son now is a senior and he will have been here all 12 years. He's the second one We've had one of our other teachers whose daughter graduated a couple years ago. Praise, god, you know, be here all 12 years, praise.
Speaker 1:God. So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he is just his sons. His both sons are just fantastic young men. They're just really really fantastic young men.
Speaker 4:That is a testimony to you and the Lord in your life. Yeah, so going back to when you were a 20-year-old kid and your.
Speaker 2:What was he saying your?
Speaker 4:uncle was a chariot with you.
Speaker 2:My dad-in-law, father-in-law. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And you thought you were going to teach him something. And the next thing you know you're walking out praising God, thanking Jesus.
Speaker 2:He labored for two-some years. Yeah, it's never At every opportunity. Yeah, yeah, wow, what a testimony to him and his faith, you know.
Speaker 4:That's true, Just long-suffering, and that's an encouragement to me and others to not give up To just you know, somebody you think is not coming to the Lord. It's easy to throw in a towel and be like, ah, they're not going to. But he didn't give up on you. The Lord empowered him to continue to share Christ with you, which is that's an encouragement. Man, a lot of believers, a lot of brothers and sisters need to hear that we need encouragement now in this generation more than ever.
Speaker 2:And what you do. Let me just tell you this that I believe a lot of people are inspired to engage in the ministry by knowing you and watching what you do.
Speaker 4:Amen, thank you. Thank you for it. One of the things. That's one of the reasons we do what we do, because the way we operate, we try to get the church or wherever we're going to, we want them to be involved in the work of evangelism so they can go out. They don't have to preach, that's right, but they can go out and invite somebody, that's all. We're Just invite somebody and you're on the team, you're part of this team. Invite somebody to come out, invite a co-worker, a neighbor or something.
Speaker 4:And now it's not just me. I'm going to do my part, katie's going to do her part, the Lord's doing his part. But the people that come there's more of an agenda here than just come see a play and laugh and sing. No, come on out. And we've seen people that we've invited to plays come to a church where we had the play and they said to themselves, well, this isn't so bad. And they come back on Sunday morning and next thing, you know, some people have stayed in those churches. We've seen some churches, we've seen some church growth where people have stayed and started attending and become contributing members of the body of Christ, even getting saved and giving their lives to the Lord and then contributing to the work of ministry and that's really it.
Speaker 4:It's not. You know it's really easy to say, oh, just come talk to the pastor, I want to talk. You know it's really easy to say, oh, just come talk to the pastor, I want to talk. You know. But can you imagine if the body recognizes the gifts that they've been given and their calling? Watch out world. You know what I mean and I know it sounds like you know I'm what is the utopian type of Christianity, but I honestly believe if the body of Christ knew what their gifts were from God and knew what their calling was from God, we would see a different world.
Speaker 4:We would see. I think we would see a different world. As far as what you know, I know the Lord has gifted me to preach and teach and he's allowed me to be a complete fool and I know my calling. And my calling is to encourage the body of Christ, the church, and secondarily, my secondary calling is evangelism, to preach to the unsaved. But my primary calling is to the church, to encourage them to get into the word, prayer and stuff like that. So I run with that and uh, I just I'm always excited when I see the body of christ excited about the lord. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know the enemy doesn't know what to do with that. The world doesn't know what to do with that. So I thank you guys for the work you're doing. Be encouraged. Thank you, plays on Word, for sending us here to Maryland and, god willing, they'll have us back. Maybe we'll do another play for them and keep these guys in prayer and if you're in the Maryland area, stop by this church. If you don't have a home church, come on by.
Speaker 4:Check out the Reverend. He's going to be bringing the word. I think tomorrow he's in Revelation. If I'm not mistaken, bring Revelation 4 and 5, if I'm not mistaken. If I wasn't preaching tomorrow, I'd come down, you know. So you guys have tapes of your stuff or anything. You going to record any recording. Oh man, I'm going to have to ask somebody to use their cell phone to just put you up on Facebook or something so I can watch this sermon, because I got to get back into Revelation. So anyway, thank you guys. May God bless you and thank you for sending us out here. All right, guys, god bless you. Amen, amen, amen. Well, thank you, reverend, dr Gary Cole and Ben Avalos from the Bel Air Baptist Church in Bowie.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're part of the Plays on Word family as well. In fact, you should keep him and Debbie and keep the whole Bel Air family in prayer. How about that? Alright, so next week we got something special for you. Oh, you're gonna love next week. Until then, the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Speaker 1:This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at
