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 105: Back to Basics Strengthening Faith in Modern Times (Part 2)
"Did you know that cultural and community experiences, like shared meals and even regional traditions can strengthen faith and fellowship within a church community? Today, we explore Biblical discipleship within genuine Bible-believing churches, and embracing grace, faith, and fellowship with Pastor Pappo's guidance."
Uncover the essence of Biblical discipleship and learn how to identify a genuine Bible-believing church with Jesus at its heart. With insights from Pastor Pappo of Staten Island Christian Church, we discuss the cultural and religious landscapes of the Dominican Republic, Chicago to Staten Island, enriching your understanding of faith communities. Whether you're new to scripture or seeking to deepen your convictions beyond family traditions, we offer practical tips for engaging with the Bible and highlight the power of fellowship in nurturing a strong community of faith.
Journey with us through the profound themes of grace and faith, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Galatians and reflecting on God’s acceptance through Christ's sacrifice. Experience the spiritual and cultural richness of our reflections, including a delightful nod to Puerto Rican coffee, as we explore the religious climate of various Christian denominations. We wrap up with a heartfelt prayer for protection and guidance, extending an invitation to visit Staten Island Christian Church, and we share our anticipation for an upcoming Super Bowl Sunday meal that promises fellowship and fun. Join us for an episode filled with spiritual insights, cultural connections, and uplifting community experiences.
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Email us: team@playsonword.org
Lord you know. Hey guys, you are now listening to Plays on Word Radio.
Speaker 2:It's the best.
Speaker 3:People that are out there need to find a Bible-believing church that the Bible is preached and taught and everything, and just go from there, because if Jesus is not at the center, nothing else is going to matter. Jesus has to remain at the center and His Word has to be preached. The Gospel has to be preached, the gospel has to be preached, and then I think that's going to develop into seasoned, mature disciples and when those disciples multiply, now we have a nice group of people that are really solid in their faith.
Speaker 2:You're the only name. You're the only name. You're the only name.
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 2:Amen. Thank you very much, katie Kenney and Josh Taylor. Welcome to everybody listening to Plays on Word Radio. It's another Friday. If you're listening to this on Friday, maybe you're streaming it on Saturday, sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday. It's all good. Yeah, we are going to. Well, did you guys enjoy our discussion with Israel De La Cruz, otherwise known as Papo, pastor Papo from the Staten Island Christian Church? We had him here last week. We didn't have him here. Through technology, we were able to interview him, but we did not complete that interview, so we are going to continue Check it out.
Speaker 3:Christians. I think they need to continue Peter said it Continue to crave the pure milk of the Word. They've got to get back into the Word and not just the Word. I think, going back to Acts 2.42, as Christians, you have to commit yourself to learning what Jesus taught. I've gone through Bible teachings about the importance of apologetics, like you know what I mean the importance of knowing why you believe what you believe.
Speaker 3:because you know what I mean, you're going to say, well, I believe, because my great-great-grandmother believed that no, no, it has to come from you and a lot of Christians. They need to understand and go into the you know to evaluate their faith, your conviction, because you know. You need to know what it is that you believe, because your beliefs do not translate into your action and why you value in life. And I think as Christians they need to find people that are out there. They need to find a Bible-believing church that the Bible is preached and taught and everything, and just go from there, because if Jesus is not at the center, nothing else is going to matter. Jesus has to remain at the center and His Word has to be preached, the gospel has to be preached, and then I think that's going to develop into seasoned, mature disciples and when those disciples multiply, now we have a nice group of people that are really solid in their faith. Amen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, christ didn't send us to just have people saved. He sent us to make disciples.
Speaker 3:Make disciples. Yes.
Speaker 2:The question is okay, everybody always wants to say well, hey, are you saved? Do you know Jesus? Are you saved? Okay, and people say yes, I wonder if you tacked on a question onto that well, are you a disciple? What does that mean? What is it? What even does that mean? What does it mean? What does it mean from to to? You know, to be a disciple follower a follower of Christ and unfortunately, yeah.
Speaker 2:a lot of Christians think that they inherit salvation from their parents because their mom went to church or dad went to church, or they know, a relative. Forget about even going to church. They had faith. They were people of faith. There are a lot of people that go to church that aren't even in the body of Christ, but they go to church.
Speaker 3:I know, yeah, that's another challenge that we have.
Speaker 2:You encourage the believer to get back into the Word. What about? Oh man, it's just I can't understand it. It's too much to understand what you know. Oh man, it's just I can't understand it. It's too much to understand. What would you say to them, man? Well, it starts you know it starts small.
Speaker 3:You know like I usually tell people when they want to. You know there's so many Bible-reading plans out there, but I always tell people start with the gospel, what are the gospels, get to know Jesus and then later on you know what I mean. Gospel of John, and that's why you're going to need other believers because, yeah, we all, even pastors, we come across passages that was like whoa, whoa and you need to apply. You know the context and certain principles of biblical interpretation to really understand. But that's why you need the fellowship of other people to help you understand that. You know God does not want you to be in isolation. He created our family for a reason and we all are going to need each other to strengthen one another and sharpen each other as well.
Speaker 2:Amen. The journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, that's right.
Speaker 2:You could look at the Bible and be like that's too daunting of a task, it's too big, it's too much. But I think if you start somewhere and the other thing is, a lot of people will try. I'm just going to read Genesis straight through and you get to Leviticus and it's like whoa, wait a minute. I actually like Leviticus because I see Christ everywhere in it. So it's like, wow, this is great, but it can bog down. You know you can get bogged down and be like I don't know what this is all about. But you know for the person that it seems overwhelming to them about the Bible. You know they make there's so many audio Bibles now. Yes, if you go for a run or go to the gym, you actually could put the Bible on man and you could get through the entire Gospel of John in a workout.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:The Gospel of Matthew. You could blast through it, just listen to it while you're on the exercise bike or whatever there are. The Lord helped me. I remember the first time I I dedicated myself to read through the entire Bible. I had read a bunch of sections but I I had not read through the entire thing. I remember when I got to Ezekiel I was so lost man, I was like I don't, I don't know what's happening here. I remember when I got to Ezekiel, I was so lost man, I was like I don't know what's happening here. I am completely lost. And the Lord had me go to and this was days of early like early high-speed data this is like 2000-ish somewhere around there. And Bible Gateway was pretty new.
Speaker 2:But they just launched their audio with Max McLean on it, like the audio Bible. So I saw the speaker icon, so I'm reading. Let me try reading it here. I'm reading it and the Lord kind of brought my attention to the speaker icon. I clicked on it and now I'm reading and listening as I'm reading and I was able to get through the book and I got through it.
Speaker 2:Wow, the Lord was able to bring certain passages back to my remembrance after I had just gotten it in me, and there are techniques. It depends on how important it is. Yes, yes, you know, I think if I was to tell people hey, I'm going to show up at your, your door tomorrow morning with a million dollars, or let me flip that. Uh, you up at your door tomorrow morning with a million dollars, or let me flip that. You come to my door tomorrow morning and I'll give you a check for a million dollars, I bet you people wouldn't have trouble getting motivated to do that, that's true, you know what I mean Like if they thought there was a real possibility of me giving them a million dollars.
Speaker 2:Here we've got something far greater than any of the wealth on the earth. Amen, we got stuff that million dollars means nothing in eternity, but but the things that that are in the scripture do mean things for eternity. You know they have an eternal impact. Yes, it's all about how you prioritize it. I don't know if you wanted to add anything to my sermon there. I didn't mean to go on that rant.
Speaker 3:No, no, I agree with you. It's how badly you really want it, how badly you really want to get into that. It's priority. It boils down to that?
Speaker 2:When do you make time and how do you or do you make time for the Scripture? What is your normal routine? Do you have a normal routine, would you suggest?
Speaker 3:your normal routine, like, do you have a normal routine would you suggest I do? Like sometimes, you know, like around three, three in the afternoon depends, like I'm I'm usually. I usually stay up late and you know, and I I make it a priority that I might be watching tv, but I turn it off and then I read a book or I read a portion of the scripture and, uh, you know, before I go to bed, because I don't want it just to be my, the last thing that I saw smart, you know what I mean. So at least, just like amen, detach myself from that. But yeah, I do it. I do it more during the.
Speaker 3:You know, as a pastor you had to read it to prepare sermons. But I want to read, not just for that right, I read it more like, and I've been privileged because I went through the same thing that you did with I have a CD of the NIV one time and I listened to that because you know you have some names. It's like, how do you even pronounce that name? Yes, so listen, and I got to read. I have read the Bible through at least five times in my life because I got different versions and I like to compare sometimes. So I did a new American standard Bible and I V, I did the English, the ESV no, santa Biblia, no. Santa Biblia, no. Oh, okay, I did. I did the net Bible no, and the new American standard, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's almost like wow be able to compare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great, yeah, because one thing you didn't know about me in high school I had never read a book in my in its entirety. You know I had never read a. You know a book. And then I go to college here and the first thing they tell me is you got to read that book and write a report. It's like I was like you gotta be kidding me, like really. So that created, you know, a thirst in me to read, and you know I love reading some theological books or whatever apologetics, but then the Bible, always reading. And right now I'm currently in the book of Romans. I'm doing the ESV again, yeah, sometimes I'm taking and finally in the book of Romans, like chapter 5.
Speaker 2:So doing it again, because you know it's almost when you read again new things like wow, romans, chapter five is probably one of the oh my goodness, the most important of while we were still sinners, man, god demonstrates his love. This is the most I mean unbelievable demonstration of love. You think about how you know. A demonstration of love. This is the most radical demonstration of love that has ever been. And he demonstrated his love that, while we were still sinners, christ died for us. That's mind-boggling to me.
Speaker 2:It is, and I've been pondering Romans, romans five for 20 years. Man just sitting in it's, it is not left my, my psyche. Man, wait a minute, he's wait a minute, ok, he, this. This is how he demonstrates his agape love for us. That Christ died for us, that christ died for us. I mean, wow, I can't comprehend that. Let me try. I got and it's. I tell you, man, to this day, it's just the whole romans, romans 5. You know he talks about adam, the whole. Tell us about romans, man, what's god shown you, because you've been through it a bunch of times has he shown you anything? There's nothing like the Lord showing you something new after you've even taught it Like, hey, look at this. You didn't catch this the first time?
Speaker 3:No, and Paul's passion for his own people. You know what I mean. Because, again, it's this idea that people thought that they can be justified or declared righteous by the observance of the law. And his point is all this like it's not, it's all by faith in Christ, for all have seen for sure the glory of God. We only justify through faith. And it's like man, his argument right. There is so on point. And you're right. You get to that point in Romans 5, and it's like man. It's like you see the unconditional aspect of God's love, why we were still sinners, like he died. It was like man.
Speaker 2:And that to me. I just finished teaching Galatians for Calvary, southport. We just got through Galatians. Which much? It's basically a lot of similar crossover, similarity. Yes, I got through that and I've been pondering this whole concept of it's not works. And if we find ourselves saying, oh, I have to do whatever for God to accept me, then we've missed something, because we're not acceptable. That's the point. We're not acceptable, right, that's what makes what he did amazing. The only reason we're acceptable is because of Christ Jesus. What he did.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 2:Because we are not acceptable. But he is Amen. That's the thing that blows my mind. I'm telling you, it blows my mind when I think about it. And then, on top of that, the other thing that has just blessed me so much is this idea of him as my good shepherd, like we say the Lord is, is he? Oh, he's the good shepherd, but let lately man, it's personal. He's my, that's my. The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 3:Amen yeah.
Speaker 2:Meaning he's the one shepherding me. I'm not shepherding him, and if I go too far off the rails, he's the shepherd that's going to pull me back. Yeah, he's responsible for caring for me as the dumb sheep, and it takes so much pressure off of me to be this special smart sheep or this sheep that's acceptable in his eyes. He's saying just be a sheep, abide in me.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And I am your shepherd and I'm telling you. I don't want to say it was a light bulb moment, but it's just something the Lord has been pressing farther into my soul. He's my shepherd. I need to just chill. Amen, yeah, right, Amen Is he, or is he not my shepherd or your shepherd, you know? And when you make it personal. Like that Psalm 22. The Lord is my shepherd man. I take ownership, that's right. Wait a minute. He's my shepherd man. I didn't mean to Ran on that either.
Speaker 3:No, no, that's good yeah, preacher brother.
Speaker 2:I'm drinking. I'm drinking Puerto Rican Coffee right now. That's it, man, yeah, yeah, man. So you know that's, and I and I kind of doubled it up a little bit so I got a little extra caffeine. My brother Orlando, he wants to, he wants to start a coffee coffee company. So and now, now that I know I have some connection to the DR, you know I mean, yeah, got the whole Caribbean locked up here. Man, that's right, I need, I just need to find somebody from Cuba, and then then we're, then it's on.
Speaker 3:That's right, baby.
Speaker 2:And Jamaica. That's right. When was the last time you visited the DR?
Speaker 3:Uh, 2023. Oh, wow, okay, yeah, 2023. Oh, wow, okay. Usually I try to go every year, but last year we couldn't go, hopefully we can go. We have plans for this year, hopefully.
Speaker 2:Okay, what is the climate like down there? Is it primarily Catholic? Is there any church presence down there? Are they believers a lot of them down there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of believers. I mean, the country itself is predominantly Catholic, but you're going to find a lot of evangelical churches and a lot of crazy churches too. You know what I mean. But, yeah, you have Baptists, Methodists, I mean, you got all kinds Assemblies of God, mormons, I mean, even though you have cults over there too, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Which brings up another thing I know you're passionate about, which is apologetics. Yeah, being able to give a reason for faith that lies within you, mm-hmm, give a defense. Yes, you know, apologetics doesn't mean apologizing, meaning saying I'm sorry, no, no, in fact, when somebody says I apologize, technically they're not saying that, they're not saying forgive me, that's what it's become, that's what it means. Now, you know, forgive me, I'm sorry. But when they say I apologize, that's really they're saying. They're saying I want to give a defense, I'll give a defense for what I did Technically from a hermeneutic or from a study of the language.
Speaker 2:So I try not to say I apologize to my wife. What I say is I'm sorry, I regret that I did that, I'm sorry. I say I say I'm I'm sorry, I regret that I, I regret that I did that, I'm sorry, I regret I did it, but I've actually changed. I'm like, uh, you know, I apologize unless I really really messed up, which is kind of often. So I, I need to apologize and I'm, let me, and all of you laughing right now online, listening to this podcast right now. Shame on you because you're nodding your head, saying, oh, I know, it's true. Oh man, yeah, well, this has been fun, bro. We definitely are blessed to know you. Same here, brother, know you are in the trenches. I really would encourage anybody in the New York, new Jersey, area to go visit Staten Island Christian Church. It is a loving fellowship and the shepherd there loves the Lord. Yeah, we're trying to make our way back, will.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:We will set something up. I'm going to put a link in the show notes for the church so you guys can find the church and I don't. You guys have like a Facebook page or anything like that. I don't use Facebook, but Katie does. We'll put the links up for you. Is there anything coming up or anything you want to let anybody know about that's happening besides the play that we come up?
Speaker 3:We usually have a meal Super Bowl Sunday. We have soups and all kinds of you know, but that's after the service. So, okay, we invite everybody to come to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah saturday saturday morning okay, what time saturday?
Speaker 3:oh, saturday at 6 pm.
Speaker 2:Saturday afternoon oh, it's in the afternoon, okay. Yeah, men's fellowship, yes, okay. So it's not a men's breakfast, it's a it's no, it's a fellowship.
Speaker 3:Yeah, more dinner amen.
Speaker 2:how long are you going to be there In North Carolina? Yeah, until the Lord changes the call man, because right now we're camping out, but we're still traveling doing the plays man.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're working our way back. We have a play New Jersey coming up in January. Okay, in a couple weeks we're going to be at America's Keswick for a pastor's conference.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, last year. I remember something, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a fantastic pastor's conference that Keswick puts on and you can bring your wife and it's one of the things we look forward to every year going up there. So we're going to be up there for that and then we're supposed to be coming back. We have a few different spots when we're coming back and the Lord's blessed us with a nice trailer Stuff in and no more packing up the Cadillac, the car anymore.
Speaker 3:I know right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, the trailer, we can put the boat in and put all kinds of. So well, papo, why don't you close us in prayer, bro, and, and, and we'll, uh, we'll, put all this, this information, on the website. We thank you for being on the plays on word radio program yeah, my brother, let's pray, father.
Speaker 3:God, we thank you so much for the opportunity you have granted us today to to be able to, uh, to reconnect and talk about things that concern your kingdom. Thank you, lord, lord, for my brother, fred and Etienne, and I pray, father, that you continue to bless this ministry and place on word Lord, that you continue to utilize that ministry to reach to those who do not have a relationship with the Savior. And Lord continue to give them strength and keep his mind sharp. And, lord, just pray for our protection. We know that the enemy is always lurking around. Not wanting anybody to come to you, but, lord, I pray that you bless him and his wife and their ministry. Lord, thank you for what they do on your behalf.
Speaker 3:Lord, I pray also for our church here in Staten Island, christian Church. Pray, lord, you continue to guide us. We know that we want to do anything that is not of you and, lord, we need you desperately to continue to show us the way. And, lord, may we set our minds to do your will and not our own agendas and not our own will per se. We bring honor and glory to you and we thank you that you loved us in such a way that you sent Jesus to die on our behalf. May he always get the glory in our lives. And, lord, thank you again for this wonderful time that me and my brother can connect and just talk and laugh and just talk about kingdom things. It's all about you, jesus, and we pray all these things in your powerful name, amen.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen, amen, amen. Well, thank you guys for joining us on this episode of Plays on Word Radio. God willing, we'll be back next week if the Lord tarries. Until then, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord 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 playsonwordorg.
