Ep.041 Jesus in our Lives – Christmas Special. Real-life testimonials of how Jesus touches our lives in 2024: Live Show Discussing Spirituality w/ Mark Zaretti

Episode transcript:

The transcript will be available soon, in the meantime please share this podcast with others.

It was really quite special because we had testimonials about how spirituality, and in particular, awareness of Jesus has affected many different people. And as a bonus to you, I’m going to share another testimonial with you that didn’t make it into the live show, but I wanted to share it with you so you’ll hear that towards the end of this podcast episode. Just my way of saying thank you and happy Christmas to you. But before we dive into the actual episode, I wanted to share one other thing with you, which is a lovely piece of feedback by Marigold0, who writes, it was such an amazing, inspiring and uplifting show. How wonderful to hear so many beautiful testimonials to Jesus and what it means to have him present in our lives.

For anyone thinking about dipping a toe into Mark’s live shows for the first time, I highly recommend tonight’s episode in particular as a gentle and awesome way to experience Mark Mark’s guidance as a spiritual teacher who always delivers each show from a place of truth and love. Thank you, Mark, and God bless you.

Wow. Well, thank you, Marigold0. And also, look, the show is nothing without you, the listeners. So I thank you, those of you listening to this podcast. And I agree it was really uplifting and inspiring to hear people like you sharing their testimonials.

So let’s dive into episode 41 together.

Good evening, everyone, and this is the 19th of December, and this is discussing spirituality with myself, Mark Zaretti, and with this guy below me, Nik.

You’re live, Nik, so you can say hello.

NIK: Hi, everyone back again.

MARK: It’s great to have you back. Actually, we were chatting a bit before we went live and you, you. I said, yeah, it’s episode 41. And you were like, what? Can’t believe it’s 41 episodes. Can you remember what number you were last time you were on? Is it 33? 30. Round about there, I think. 30.

NIK: 33, I think it was.

MARK: Yeah, time flies.

NIK: Yeah, definitely.

MARK: And we’ve got.

NIK: Thanks for inviting me back.

MARK: Absolutely. I think there’s some unfinished business because there was so much we wanted to talk about last time that we didn’t get a chance to talk about. And so thank you for agreeing to come back on and we can carry on just talking about things. But before we dive in, I just wanted to say hello to everyone who’s joining us. So we. We’ve Got in no particular order, but we’ve got panther9, narrow0, username, watt, Scottish bird, Toshi, and.

And everyone else who’s listening. And look, if you’re listening again on, on the podcast, I really appreciate that as well.

Or watching again on Rumble, Remember, just to like it, share and subscribe if you haven’t done so already, guys. But I am here with Nik and last time we kind of talked about some quite interesting stuff, Nik. I think we started off talking about demon face syndrome and a few other things. But the thing I was really excited or wanting to talk about was the spiritual parenting, I think, is how I put it last time, side of things. Because you’re in a blessed position where you’ve got three lovely kids and a lovely wife. And so that’s a whole different dynamic to kind of draw upon.

So much of life, so much for what is spirituality goes hand in glove with so much of what is life. Because to have kids, to be married, this is all about love. And so, yeah, you know, what a, what a, what a wonderful set of, you know, situations to be in where you’ve got being a parent, being a husband and all the other roles that you fulfill in life. And so I really wanted to get into that. But what’s what, you know, what’s what’s coming around the corner, Nik, I’ll give you. Click. Jingle Bells Crimbo, as some people call it.

Christmas. Christmas, yeah, as you know, it’s probably derived, is derived from the word Christmas. And in the last episode I talked about how Christmas, or Jesus was completely miss, just not present in the shops, really. And it’s like the message of Christmas seems to have been lost. And in the kind of teaser for this show, I was on Facebook and LinkedIn and a few other places just saying, we’re going to be looking at this tonight. And I deliberately wrote, you know, do you think that there’s too much Satan clause, I mean, Santa Claus, you know, and let’s bring Jesus back into the picture. So last week, last week, one of the things I did is I sent out an email and I invited people to just share their own experiences of having Jesus in their lives. And I’ll definitely be asking you about that, Nik. But throughout this episode, I wanted to share what other people have experienced. And I’m really grateful in advance to everyone that has taken the time to send us their testimonials. So we’re going to kind of be going through them as well.

But yeah, I think a good starting place really would be to just have A look at one of the testimonials and see what people are saying.

So in the chat I just have to laugh because in the chat Marigold0 has said Jesus is the reason for the season. Indeed, indeed. And the season to be jolly.

That’s going to stay with me to the end of my days. Marigold0. So thank you for that. That’s the first time I’ve heard that one.

So, yeah, coming up. Welcome back, Nik. So give you a little round of applause. Thank you for coming back, Nik. It’s great to have you back on the show. It’s kind of. Thank you. Nice to have you here. And the main topic really for today is Touched by Jesus.

So we’re going to start with this one. These are all in no particular order really on the right of the screen there you can see an excerpt from the email that I sent out to people. And if you miss that email, then it’s free. Just sign up to our mailing list. And occasionally I send out emails and that’s how you’ll find out if we’re doing something for the show or if there’s a video that hasn’t gone public yet. You’ll be the first to know if you’re on that, on that mailing list. So that’s a good thing. And this is what Lorna has said in reply to that email. So hi, Mark, thank you for the email and sharing your sentiment on having Jesus in your life. As a child I listened to Bible stories read to me at Sunday school and knew that I liked this person named Jesus who was being portrayed as I grew up and through my teenage years. I now recall that Jesus didn’t feature so much in my head, but and I emphasize but I always had him somewhere at the center of my being. Now fast forward a good few years and Jesus is a true and important person in my life. I have mellowed in later years, softened somewhat and I’m ever mindful of how I treat other people and intend to do and say the right thing whenever I can. I love thinking of Jesus in situations where I now ask myself, what would Jesus do? He walks beside me every day. And for that I am truly grateful. Thank you and God bless Lorna.

So yeah, a really nice kind of little testimonial there. I use the word testimonials, but it’s just people sharing how Jesus has touched them in their lives. And was there anything in that Nik that really kind of resonated or.

NIK: Yeah, it did it actually reading the last couple of sentences kind of, you know, didn’t. Didn’t make me cry. But, you know, I certainly felt a bit of emotion there. Certainly. He walks beside me every day, and for that I’m truly grateful.

When I hear testimonials like that, I’m not envious or jealous, but I didn’t really have that as so much in my earlier life.

I think we talked about in the show last time I’d been to a church with the school and things like that a few times, but my family kind of never. Never really took us to church and. And pushed that side of things. And I kind of wonder, you know, now I have feel I have that strong connection with Jesus and God, but I don’t feel like, you know, what. You know, what a waste that’s been that I didn’t before. I’m just grateful that I do now. So when I hear that, you know, Lorna saying how grateful she is that she has that and, you know, he walks beside her every day and for that she’s truly grateful, that that really, you know, means something to me.

MARK: Yeah, I mean, maybe now you appreciate it. If it had always been there, almost like because it was indoctrinated in, or it’s just habitually there growing up, maybe it wouldn’t have had as much value as having not had it and now having it. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s almost like the contrast makes it more valuable. It does experience the absence of it. Yeah.

NIK: I guess there’s a stronger argument that you could say is that, you know, well, the fact that I’m more mature and older and. And I’ve still found God and Jesus, you know.

MARK: Yeah.

NIK: It makes it a stronger argument for it being real.

Not something like you say, indoctrinated into.

MARK: You in a young age. Yeah.

NIK: Not saying that’s what happened to Lorna. I’m just saying I can see what you’re saying.

MARK: Who knows? But. But it’s almost like. Yeah, it’s rather than. Well, real is one way of putting it. I. I kind of see it maybe is of your own free will. It’s a choice that’s been exercised. You. You know, it wasn’t just there, always there, and therefore you’ve never questioned it. It’s something that’s been presented or come into your world and you’ve gone. Yeah, I choose to have that in my world. Therefore it’s more of your free will.

NIK: Maybe realized would be a better word.

MARK: Yeah, the what. What I like in what Lorna said was he walks beside me Every day. Not. It’s not a past reference. It’s. It’s a present. It’s something that’s in the now and therefore has value now, rather than just nice stories that she started at the start saying, you know, stories at Sunday school, because you can always still draw back on them and go, remember that story of Jesus? And that inspires me. But I really love hearing her saying, he walks beside me every day. I think that’s a really nice sentiment.

I mean, we touched on something actually just now where we were talking about the fact that you didn’t have this, you know, so much God and Jesus in your life in the past.

How you’ve got three kids. How old’s the eldest?

NIK: He’s in his mid teens. Yeah.

MARK: Okay. So that means there’s probably been enough time from when he was a younger lad to now where you’ve become a more spiritually awake person. And so one of the things I’m really intrigued with because hopefully there’s people listening to this who are maybe can identify. Maybe they’re just starting to think, you know, is there more to life than all of this? And maybe they’re thinking, what has Jesus got to do with spirituality? I thought this was about spirituality. Why are they talking about Jesus and God? Well, we’re not actually talking about religion. We’re talking about Jesus, a person who was a spiritual teacher and God, that which is one thing everywhere. And if people are, they can also use the word the source, if they’re more comfortable with that. So that’s where hopefully, certainly where I’m coming from. And I know your background, Nik, so I know that that’s where you’re coming from as well.

But you’ve been through this arc where you’ve gone, well, I didn’t have this in my life, and now I’ve got it in my life. And as a parent, you know, parent of a teenager, there must have been a time when you didn’t have this to fall back on or this side of life, bringing up your kids and things. So I guess my question would be, how does Christmas or this time of year contrasts from, say, five years ago, six years ago, when maybe you weren’t this side of your life hadn’t blossomed.

NIK: Yeah, it’s a good question. And if you don’t mind before, because you’ve said a lot there, and I was going to comment on some of the things you said before we get into the Christmas part, what I find wonderful with, with my children is obviously my youngest is probably. I’ve Pretty much been, you know, understood Jesus more, accepted Jesus into my life and, you know, and it’s not been a taboo as some people would have thought. You know, I think you know what I mean by, you know, there’s always. It was almost like uncool to speak about Jesus or that. Certainly when I was brought up, you know, with peers and things, that’s the kind of thing that wasn’t. And I’m a bit embarrassed about that, if I’m honest.

But it’s lovely to see that my children, particularly the youngest, asks me a question about Jesus and I can see that he totally adores and understand, well, understands it, adores Jesus and he talks to me about it and it’s. And he just accepts it for what it is. And it, and it’s not through what we talked about before indoctrination, because I certainly, I talk openly about Jesus and I talk about God and if they ask me a question, but I don’t. I’m not there with the Bible and thumping and, you know, and like, you know, you must come, come and listen to this verse and, or whatever it might be. I, I definitely not like that. But I talk openly about it and as a result, my children do. So I love that to start with and I love the fact that they just accept, not that they accept everything I say, but they accept it as normal. And maybe that’s the point I’m trying to make. Is that the taboo bit or the bit uncool bit maybe pushed, pushed me away from it when I was younger, which I’m a bit sad about, like I say. But anyway, coming to your question. Sorry, coming to your question about Christmas, though, I did, I do like to ramble. Coming to your question about Christmas, though, even now, like last year, maybe the year before, although there was some weird stuff going on with lockdowns, but, you know, the year, the year before, part of me wanted to sort of do a grace, which I’ve never done grace before, but at least say something. But there was still part of me that was like, oh, you know, are they just going to think, come on, dad, just let us have a day where we could just get on with, get on with our presents and eat our dinner. So there’s still things that I’d rather, you know, bring more of Jesus into. Into Christmas is. That’s what it’s about.

But there’s certainly it. There’s certainly more thought goes into it now than it did five years ago. Personally, obviously, I think about it a lot more, whether my kids did when they were pulling paper off at 6:30 in the morning. Maybe not so much but you know, I think it’s important that as a parent and my wife, you know, she, she accepts and believes Jesus as well. Maybe it’s more incumbent on us to bit more of the meaning of Christmas to our children.

MARK: Well that you said something in all of that which is how your, for your kid, I think you said it was your youngest, he’s got a natural or he’s got a love for Jesus and Jesus is in his life.

But I wonder if it’s because Jesus hasn’t just been a story or a character but has been something that you’ve been like. You’ve been demonstrating that you’re engaging with Judas Jesus to your son. So Jesus is real in his world. You’re demonstrating that Jesus. It’s like Lorna’s testimonial Jesus walks with me now and you’re demonstrating you’re walking with Jesus to paraphrase kind of what you’ve been describing.

And so for your son it’s not just dad’s telling me these stories about some guy from 2000 years ago to inspire me. It’s no, Dad’s demonstrating and mum is demonstrating that Jesus is a real thing in our lives. Do you think that’s an element of it?

NIK: I think that is an element of it. But then there was a very niggling bit here saying yes, but I also tell him that Father Christmas is real as well. So I need to, yeah, I have to balance those two things and there are times that maybe that was something that was going to come in the show, I don’t know. But there are times and I’m like ah, the magic of Christmas.

MARK: Are we harming or are we doing.

NIK: The right thing here? But yeah, I’m not, I’m not here to say, to say anything about that and I apologize for any spoilers I might have done there for anyone watching.

MARK: Yeah, I doubt that There are any 6 year olds right now watching this show.

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean look, you know I dropped a big hint at the start when I said Satan clause. Oh, hang on. Santa Claus just rearrange the letters. But symbolically Santa is all about you are rewarded for good behavior and reward is material. In other words, you get a material gift for being good. And you could see how despairing parents would use sat in the threat of not getting presence in a lump of coal in the sock to get evoke good behavior. But the, the deeper message is quite damaging I think spiritual, spiritually which is that the reward for good behavior is material gain. Whereas actually we talked about this a lot. But to bring things back to spirituality, the reward for good behavior, well, what is good behavior is when you’ve been guided, you’ve done what you’ve been guided to do, which is to make the right choice. In other words, every choice that we have, every moment that’s a choice, can take us closer to God or further from God. And the right choices are the ones that are prompted by our soul, by our spirit guiding us. And if we follow that prompt, we become more spiritual, we become closer to God, we become more good. And so the reward isn’t. And then you get a nice car or a nice toy. The reward is. And then your soul gains in its level of goodness and you become closer to God. In other words, you walk more closely in the footsteps of Jesus, because that’s the whole point. He showed the way.

I think we’re going to keep bouncing around with various things because I think this is going to be a bit more of a laid back show. But do you want to give everyone a break from me? And do you want to read out Tommy’s testimonial and I’ll bring it up on the screen far away?

NIK: Okay, so Tommy says having Jesus in my life was not thanks to an epiphany event, but rather thanks to my dear girlfriend and my affiliation with the wayback group. A gradual awakening. I’ve come to learn that I have always had Jesus in my life. I just wasn’t aware or conscious of him. I had always resisted the notion of Jesus as I’d always associated him with the church and its religious doctrine, patriarchy and ritual, which I’d always instinctively rejected.

The way back showed me I could have God and Jesus in my life without the heavy cloak of religion attached. Since my relationship, love and respect for Jesus has grown. Jesus shows us all the way of love and light if we open up to him.

I’ll at times ask myself, what would Jesus do? And I’m amazed how this simple question can be so allaying. I’m equally amazed how often I forget to ask it. Jesus seems to dare me. He dares me to be still when chaos ensues. He dares me to resist when typically I’d react. He dares me to breathe when anger dominates. He dares me to smile when I have a heavy brow. He dares me to look and love when I am blinded by ego. The more Jesus dares me and I listen, the more I grow closer to God. I will Forever be dared by Jesus in this way. And I love him for it. Jesus presence, Jesus is the path to my higher self. With love, Tommy.

MARK: Thanks, Nik.

And thank you, Tommy. And thank you, Lorna, as well, for the previous testimonial. It kind of, I’ll say it, but it goes without saying. I’m grateful to everyone who gets involved with the show because this isn’t the Mark show. This is the. The way back and it’s your show. It’s based on the questions that you guys asked me. And a lot of the direction that this show goes in is actually stared by you. So if you’re asking me about particular topics, we’ll go down that road. You know, down that road. And I was chatting with Nik just before and we were kind of saying, well, we’ve got a few ideas about what we want to talk about, but it’s certainly not scripted. We’ll just see what. What unfolds. But I think I want to bring in. We did touch on earlier, Nik, that. Because what I just said ties into that. That it’s down to this show is for you, the seekers of truth, yourself, Nik, and others like you and I was. We were reflecting about the kind of the scope of the content. Like last time you’re on here, Nik, we were talking about demon face syndrome.

And we’ll probably get onto some stuff in a bit, but I kind of acknowledge the fine line. Do you want to have a. Do you want to explain what we. What we mean by that? Because we were talking about it a little bit before from your perspective.

NIK: Yeah, I definitely will. And just before I do, I obviously I read out Tommy’s testimonial there, but that I’m grateful for that as well because there are a lot of things in there that resonated with me. But we can come back to that if we have time. But it was. It was actually a really, really nice thing to read out that. So thank you, Tommy, for giving me the opportunity to do that. But yeah, so the fine line that we were talking about. So we were just touching on about experiences like what should we call them? Supernatural or extraordinary or whatever you want to call them. Just. Just things that you wouldn’t commonly see. And I gave that example when we were just speaking earlier about how those sorts of things. I mentioned it before. I was into looking at pyramids and Egyptians and strange, you know, things. Unexplained things.

And I didn’t. Other than the demon face, which obviously, as we described, was quite a weird thing for me to experience. But it only lasted a couple of months, however long it was.

I kind of expected that I would see lots of weird things and ghosts and. And I almost was like trying to not manifest these things, but, you know, almost there was a part of me that wanted to see them, but then also there was a part of me that was probably quite frightened if I did. And I was also, essentially, I was always a little bit shocked at how I didn’t see them. But more recently, when you and I have talked about other things, I think I afforded you a video of a guy going to some scary location in Australia in the middle of nowhere in a cave, and he absolutely frightened himself to. Nearly to death.

And. But when we talked about it, it made a lot of sense to me. It was like, as much as that is quite exciting for him, and it got quite a lot of viewers on watching it. You know, really my view is that perhaps he shouldn’t be going anywhere near that sort of thing and you should steer well clear of it. And that’s kind of the fine line we were talking about. There’s that. That level of truth and seeking the truth and wanting to know, but also that being wise and responsible and thinking, well, that’s obviously a bad thing. I need to steer clear. So I think that’s what you meant, Mark, by the fine line.

MARK: That’s what we were discussing. And what I said back was, for example, with the demon face, if you imagine someone is experiencing that and they came across the episode 33 that we did, then they suddenly have valid spiritual information that informs them. And because they now have that knowledge, they now have choice. In other words, they can seek appropriate help or they can understand at least what’s going on in their life and maybe that will reduce the fear that they’re experiencing. And so this is where we were talking about the fine balance of the line because see what comes up in a bit. But there’s this stuff that young children experience, night terrors and things like this.

And the reason why this conversation happened was because, well, do we bring it up or not?

I guess my driver is. Well, is this spiritual value?

If discussing it means that people that are affected by it will have useful information that can maybe free them from the problem or at least contextualize the problem, then there’s real value in it.

Someone saying, my volume is a lot quieter, so all I can do is that. And that. Is that any better?

But yeah, the.

If I can give them useful information, then that is helpful, that helps them move past that problem, then it has value. Yeah, if like that guy who went into the kite, the cave to seek out ghosts or under reptiles, I don’t know what he was looking for under their reptile beings in a secret military base or something, maybe. But if he was seeking out a problem, then is there any spiritual value other than, other than low level entertainment sensation? Maybe if he’s making a film, some sensational story to, you know, make great clickbait and get more followers.

And I think a lot of people are, and I’ve been guilty of that as well in the past, getting excited and looking into things. But there hasn’t been a spiritual motivation. It’s just an entertainment.

And I think for me that’s the line is there’s this duality is the good stuff and the bad stuff.

And what I, you know, I’ve repeatedly said is if people can remain neutral in the world but not touched by it, then they can look at stuff whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, and what’s important is the knowledge or the information that they get from it that can help them make the right choice moving forwards in their own lives. So the reason why I brought it up is because I put it to the entire audience is that we’re coming to the end of this year. 41 episodes, you know, is quite something. And it is your show. So so long as the questions are always have some spiritual value, I think that the, we’re open to discussing things that maybe people wouldn’t ask, you know, normally, but if it’s got a spiritual value, like understanding this might actually help people, then I think we should always speak the truth and look at things from a place of neutrality, you know, but it is navigating that thin line of, is this like a lot of shows, they’re quite fascinating, but there’s no spiritual value in them. It’s just interesting information about UFOs or pyramids or this or that. For me, there’s always got to be a spiritual take home which comes back to what would Jesus do? I think if, if someone had asked him a question about, you know, what, what people might consider a conspiracy, but then he’d still use it as an opportunity to teach spiritually.

NIK: I think that’s a good example. If you think, I mean, I’m guilty of this sometimes talking about the chosen and for anyone that is listening, that hasn’t seen it, it’s, it’s well worth watching. But when, when Jesus is in the chosen and, and he comes across someone that’s demonically possessed, he doesn’t, you Know, he deals with what he needs to deal with. And obviously I accept this is just a television show, but he deals with what he deals with.

And then. And then that’s the moment done. And the disciples or the others that are around him don’t then go up to Jesus and say, oh, what is that? You know, what. What’s that behind that demon? And what caused that? And wasn’t that great, the way he did that? It’s like he dealt with it. He’s not talking about it any further because that’s not the important part. The important part is he learned that the demons are bad, I’ve got rid of them, and now we can move on. And I think that maybe that’s a good way of explaining what you were just saying there, Mark.

MARK: Yeah, but. But also, he didn’t dismiss that they. He didn’t deny that they existed.

NIK: No, definitely not. But he didn’t make a thing about them, did he?

MARK: So, yeah, I think that’s it. It’s that the real life, as I said, is light and dark, hot and cold, yin and yang. Yeah. And I think the analogy would be, you imagine if one of the disciples saw him drive out the demons and then they decided to go off and investigate demons for the next 30 years. Yeah, they kind of missed the point. Jesus there. And that’s hopefully where the work I do. I do talk about a lot of stuff that is a bit out there, but bringing it back always to Jesus, God, spirituality. And what does this mean for you personally? You know, how can you actually use this? And if sometimes it’s just cautionary, don’t get involved in. I don’t know. Well, I try not to tell people what they should or shouldn’t do, but I give them the information. For example, there is no such thing as good magic.

And I explain why. And therefore, if someone persists in doing magic, even if they’re just doing sleight of hand, then once they’ve got that information in their head, they’re now operating on a choice level rather than. Rather than an ignorance level, you know, so it kind of moves them up a level in terms of where they’re coming from. It’s not that they don’t know.

NIK: Yeah. It’s almost empowering. I’ve got a good example which might make you smile as well. But again, we talk about my youngest who’s, you know, he’s only eight years old. And, you know, they talk about things at school again to that age where they talk about things like that. And he was telling me about had I heard about a Luigi board, which I thought was hilarious.

MARK: The Italian.

NIK: Exactly.

MARK: Yeah.

NIK: I said, no, I’ve heard of the Mario board, but not the Luigi board. But yeah. So anyway, the reason I say this is as much as that was funny. And I corrected him, said, no, it’s called a Ouija board. Oh, yes, yes. I think that obviously stands for, I assume. But the I, it rather than me say, oh, yeah, no, they’re for checking on ghosts. And, you know, this is what they’re used for. It was like, because of knowing that there’s no benefit whatsoever to go down that road. It was like, yeah, that I know what they are, but they’re very bad. And you know, and I said to him, funnily enough, I said, well, Jesus would never use one of those. I can’t guarantee they wouldn’t, but I’m pretty confident they wouldn’t. Wouldn’t use one of those. So, yeah, and that’s what it’s given me, that like another parent, and this isn’t me criticizing another parent. I’m just saying the, the knowledge that I’ve had through these years of, you know, knowing you, Mark, in the way back and, and, you know, growing spiritually is that I know not to entertain that wisely. I hope not to entertain that in any way. And it’s like, cut it off straight away.

MARK: Yeah. And I think if we just bring it back to what Tommy said, let me bring it back up so we can see it.

There’s a lot in what Tommy said that I think is really, really good. And it’s so.

I think nice is a good enough word. It’s nice to hear what he said and it’s nice to hear it said by someone that. Where is it? He says something like, oh, yeah, the way back showed me I could have God and Jesus in my life without the heavy cloak of religion attached. I think you kind of alluded to the heavy cloak of religion earlier as well, Nik, when you were talking about when you were younger, it kind of didn’t appeal, hopefully, as well as kind of providing that middle road where, look, we’re not saying.

I’ve covered this in other podcasts and I’ll put a link in where, you know, science says there’s no such thing as Jesus and God or, you know, it’s just all nonsense, it’s just photons or whatever.

And then you’ve got spiritual groups where they say, well, no, God doesn’t really exist, or Jesus was just made up stories or misinterpreted astrology. So they’re kind of denying on both sides, whereas here we are, you’ve had access to the light and sound as well. You’ve been initiated. And again, I’ll put links to stuff if people don’t know what we’re talking about here. But you’ve meditated on the light of God.

You know, you’ve walked the spiritual journey, as have I, and you’ve had all of those experiences. I know there’s probably overlap between what I’ve experienced and what you’ve experienced, but you’ve also experienced things that I haven’t and vice versa.

And yet here we are, having tripped the light fantastic, also acknowledging Jesus and God. And it’s a quite a nice place to be. And under that umbrella of what, you know, what the way back is, which is really nice position for me to be in because I’m not saying, I’m not saying follow me, I’m saying follow Jesus. I’m just here to point the way, you know, I’m not monetizing this. I’m not doing this for a living. So it’s really nice when someone like Tommy comes back and says, actually the way back has revealed to him something that’s of great value and he now has Jesus in his life because it’s, that’s the point. It’s not he now has Mark in his life or the way back in his life, it’s he now has Jesus in his life. That, you know, it’s a very energetically clean and feels really good place to be to say, look, it’s not about the way back is just a vehicle to get people like a signpost to point towards Jesus. And Jesus taught the way and it’s ultimately the way back to God. So I’m really, it’s really nice of Tommy to, to share that testimonial. Let’s have a look at the next one. Actually, while we’re, while we’re on that page, we’ll tag team it. Nik. I’ll read this one out then.

So this one’s from Tonya and this one came in via a private chat on one of the forums that I’m involved in. So thank you for this, Tania. Jesus has always been special to me, but not as inspiring until I welcomed him into my heart. And everyday living with him, I have found a greater love, kindness and calmness in my life, teaching me the true meaning of what it is to be a good human being and not getting so worked up about stuff.

Thank you, Jesus for showing me and encouraging me to grow and for bringing me more joy and connection to the world and to others.

And then she puts prayer hands at the end.

It’s just lovely.

Yeah, it’s interesting because different. Different things.

It’s. It’s like Jesus. There’s a lot of similarity, but there’s also different qualities that people are getting from their relationship with Jesus, whether it’s him bringing more kindness and love and calmness into someone’s lives.

I’m just going to bring up the chat, actually, because panther9 has just asked, why do you think it’s difficult for people to have Jesus in their lives?

Can.

NIK: I don’t know if my. My connection’s dropping in now, but hopefully you can hear me. Okay.

MARK: No, you’re good. You’re good.

NIK: Okay, cool.

I think that’s a great question from Pantone, and I think it’d be good to hear it from different angles. So, obviously I spoke about that. I didn’t come from a religious upbringing, and yet there was still some awkwardness about Jesus having Jesus in my life, you know, And I can still feel it. Like, that doesn’t bother me now, but I can still feel it. I could still imagine some people would be judging me for even talking about Jesus now, which is their problem, not mine. But I didn’t have that sort of upbringing, whereas I know Mark, and hopefully. Well, I. You can speak about your upbringing, but, yeah, you perhaps come from a different way, if you want to speak about that. And. And yet we probably both have had some sort of reluctance at some stage in our lives to. To accept Jesus into it.

MARK: Yeah. I mean, so I was brought. No, there’s no. There’s no secrets. I’m very honest about things. So I started meditating when I was seven. Not every day, but it was. I didn’t know the word meditation, so I didn’t say I am now meditating, but I just would lie on the floor, close my eyes. I found a crystal when I was out, a little quartz crystal, and I intuitively put it on my brow and then intuitively started doing breath meditation. I didn’t know the meaning of the words. Years later, because this is, you know, I’m coming up to 50, so this is well before the Internet. You couldn’t just Google stuff.

I found a copy of Lar Watson’s book Supernature, and he started talking about druid sleep and things like that, and that piqued my interest. And then when I was at University of Manchester, I met someone and I told them about meditation and then they told me about meditation. They Obviously knew more than I did. And they introduced light and sound meditation. But in between, from about. Well, from when I was very young till about the age of 12, 13, I was going to church every Sunday and I went to Sunday school and I was an altar boy and I served on the altar daughter. And so I had that. But I cannot really. I mean, other than the stories. And I probably learned more from the Christmas hymns than I did from Sunday school because, you know, they’re a bit more fun.

Jesus was introduced to me, but it was just some guy, a story. There was no real connection. And not being Roman Catholic, there was a lot of guilt. So you had to go to confession and say to Mum, but I haven’t done anything wrong. Well, I probably had, but, you know, and she said, just make something up, you know, I’m sure you’ve done something wrong. Just think of one of the things, you know. So I go in and I just, forgive me, I have sinned and I’ve done this and I’ve done that, you know, and. And then it would be like, we’ll say three Hail Mary’s, one Our Father and don’t do it again. I’m like, how’s that. How’s that work? There’s. In other words, there was no real connection. And then when I found out about Light and Sound, it was John Yar’s the Path. And the meditation was phenomenal, but the philosophy and some of the other stuff was a bit challenging. And he was very proactively being derisive about the idea of Jesus and God and, you know, going quite close, sailing very close to the wind of suggesting that he was the ultimate power and authority. And because the meditation was great, you figured, well, if I don’t agree with him, he’s going to kick me out, which he would. And he did.

And because you didn’t want to lose the amazing states or experiences on the inside, then people toed the line and he was giving people books that ridiculed Jesus and getting them to read them and stuff like this. So there was a proactive campaign on his part for the whole time I was there to besmirch the name of Jesus and to make it ridicule it. And so for me, getting a welcoming Jesus into my life, I had to overcome the inertia of that negativity and the apathy of my religious upbringing.

But for me, it was also completely different because I once. Once you’ve attained enlightenment, there is nowhere for anything to hide. And therefore, if Jesus exists and you’re going to come across it, you know, so it’s not a question of does Jesus exist? It is Jesus exists. So it’s a choice do I want Jesus in my life? And it wasn’t like instant I had to work on myself before I was ready for Jesus in my life, if that makes sense.

So, yeah, it does.

NIK: And it’s like, it’s. I guess there’s various things. It’s like you literally had a person that was put trying to push you against, you know, turn you against Jesus. You had religion that. And I’m not here to not religion. You know, it’s been around for long before I was and, you know, probably long after. So that’s not what I’m saying it. But there’s, you know, there was. I guess it was a restrictive thing and it was only accessed by a certain way, that sort of thing. So there were lots of things that we had to overcome to get to where we are now, which I guess in a way makes it, well, stronger, if anything.

MARK: Yeah, I think anything you’ve had. Yeah. Anything you’ve had to fight for is something you value, you know.

NIK: Yeah, but it’s why those things. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know, whatever this, this John person you mentioned is. Whatever his reasons were. I don’t know. And whatever the reasons were that I guess religion being quite controlling, perhaps, and other things and I guess society trying to make it. In my case, it’s uncool or whatever. You know, that’s. That’s societal pressures and a bit of ego as well, I guess. So there’s many things you have to overcome, I guess, to get to where maybe we should.

MARK: I mean, that’s. That’s definitely one of the reasons why I wanted to do this show was to kind of bring Jesus back into the focus as a real and present person rather than a historical character. And to kind of claim Christmas back on. On behalf of.

Because last I checked, he doesn’t have a podcast or a live show, so, you know, somewhere. So if for those that can speak, then what will you speak, I guess is the thing. So are you going to just talk about UFOs and. And the Andromeda galaxy, or are you going to actually speak about the highest truth and Jesus is God, and to seek the truth is to seek God. So it always comes back to Jesus and God, and I think to those that have a voice and don’t use their voice, in other words, to know of Jesus, but to. I’m sure there’s parables about this, like, don’t hide your light under a bushel or something like this, you know, in other words, it’s an opportunity to speak the truth to more people, that maybe, maybe one of these things will inspire them.

One of these testimonials will inspire people. But that’s very much why I wanted to do this show just before Christmas is to say it’s Christ’s mass. Now this stuff you’ve touched on about religion and, you know, religion, we can do entire shows on that down the line, but it does bring some value to some people. And so I’m not going to knock it, but it’s based on belief, whereas what we’re talking about is experience. And experience always trumps belief, you know.

But yeah, let’s see what else. I’m just mindful of time. So let’s have a look at the next one. Do you want to. Ah, right. So it’s Rachel’s testimonial now. So if you bear with me, this one is a nice audio one. So I’m just going to play this and hopefully the volume’s okay. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to hear this, Nik, but I’ll.

NIK: I can read it there.

MARK: Yeah, yeah, you can read it in front of you then. Okay, so let’s play this.

Press the right button.

RACHEL: Having Jesus in my life means that I can look back at the words that were written about him and I can learn through how he was, how to be, how to be better, how to be good.

And having Jesus not just in the pages of history, but in my actual present life in spirit means that I am beginning to understand what unconditional love is and that I am never alone, always guided, always comforted.

And it’s deepening my understanding of what being spiritual means and how to be spiritual.

There are too many blessings to name or to count, but I do know that Jesus makes me feel in awe and humbled and inspired to get closer to God and to follow his ways.

MARK: There we go.

So that’s really, really lovely and thank you, Rachel, for sharing up that audio.

There’s actually. I’ve picked up on a theme that’s running through all of these.

Sometimes it’s more covert, sometimes it’s more overt. That when we’re talking about Jesus, we’re talking about God, you know, you can’t divide them and separate them out. So, you know, because she said, I do know that Jesus makes me feel in awe and humbled and inspired to get closer to God and to follow his ways. And I think that’s a really nice reminder that the way that Jesus was there to teach, to inspire, to lead by example, was to bring yourself or to aspire to be closer to God, to come back to God, the loving God, you know, because there’s a.

If you watch ancient aliens on Discovery Channel, it seems like everything, you know, all of these aliens, maybe they’re. Maybe they’re the gods. Maybe the pharaohs were the gods. Maybe the people that build the pyramids were the gods. Maybe that character is, you know, it’s like, okay, put your hands up if you’re not one, you know, Whereas what. When I say God and in reference with Jesus, I’m referring to that which is the source of everything, that which is before time, that which has no edges, no limits.

In other words, that you could say that one true God rather than beings from another planet or dimension, that kind of thing.

I think one of the religion, Hinduism, has something like 6,800 gods when you get down into the lower ranks. So let me be. I’m just clarifying what. What’s meant when we say Jesus is God, you know, but. Yeah, that’s a lovely testimonial over to you, Nik.

NIK: Yeah, no, it was great. And thank you, Rachel. I didn’t hear it, but I got to read, so. And again, it’s the fact that it’s the present tense that you read in here, which is nice. And I get that bit about, you know, I had a. Chris, I must be when I was christened, I assume. But I had a book that had pictures in it, which I did look at as a child. And it didn’t mean a lot to me because, like, say it was a historical thing and it wasn’t brought into the now. Maybe that’s what was missing. But I did thinking of that, you know. Well, Mark, as you know, I like my sport and I used to be a much bigger fan of Manchester United football club. And, you know, he used to really, really take it seriously, but not so much these days. But they had a young player. The reason is there is something to this story. They had a young player who scored a goal the other day. And in the interview, he doesn’t speak huge amounts of English, but he just said, I give all the thanks to God. And for me, I was just like, he didn’t just say it as a platitude. It was, you know, he meant it. It was like for him, that was what he meant. And I just thought that was a wonderful thing to hear. And if more people spoke like that, if they meant it obviously not, you know, didn’t just say it, but if they meant it, you know, and I think that would be good. And like you say, the. In a lot of these famous podcasters and people that have got a platform, they either choose not to or they just don’t have Jesus or God in their lives, which is a bit of a shame when they have that voice to never bring God into that discussion. Some do, but many don’t.

MARK: But maybe it’s. Maybe it’s.

I would never underestimate that those who are ready are being guided because one thing you’ve talked about and I’ve talked about is, you know, I went through various arcs of knowing about Jesus and then almost being encouraged to reject him, and then from a spiritual stance beyond the realm that we’re familiar with down here, realizing the truth and then embracing it and yourself, you said, well, I didn’t have it much when I was young, but I’ve come to it later in life. Maybe we weren’t ready, maybe now we’re more ready. And I think that, well, in the book, that one back there, which is Spiritual Life, explained the wake up call, I talk about how we are being guided, but first of all, we need to be receptive to that guidance. And so I think if people are ready, they’ll be guided to resources or information or people who can help them make the next step in their journey.

The problem is, I think equally is that the, the proverbial forces of darkness put up a very good show of presenting things as, you know, good to distract people and lead them astray. So, yeah, I’ve heard some very crazy stuff about people, you know, come on this course and you can be enlightened. Turn up on a Saturday, you’ll be enlightened by a Sunday. And you know, and then you are God and you don’t have to do anything anymore. And it’s like, okay, is that actually going to move people forward spiritually or actually just box them into a belief system of dead ends? But yeah, I digress. Someone said something in the chat though, which I wanted to share. Username. Watt has said I was in a similar wasteland to Mark being actively pushed away from Jesus and God by an authority figure. I just thank Jesus so much for accepting me, me back into his fold. So grateful. Yeah. Which I guess if you’re listening and you’re thinking, well, Jesus hasn’t been a part of my life, or worse still, I’ve proactively dismissed and poo pooed the idea of Jesus and stuff, then if you have a change of heart, my message would be, if you’re sincere and you want Jesus in your life, then it’s never too late. But you have to be sincere. It’s as simple as that. It’s not words. It’s not, okay, I want Jesus in my life. It’s not like an insurance policy. Okay, I’ll say it just in case it’s real.

And I think this is also really important. What comes first? The chicken and the egg. What comes first?

Knowing that Jesus is there and that Jesus in your life, or wanting to know Jesus and to have him in your life.

You know what comes first?

Perhaps this is just a rhetorical question, but feel free to answer it, Nik.

NIK: Well, there’s definitely got to be that want there. My opinion.

MARK: Yeah. I think there’s got to be a spiritual desire, meaning that there’s like, it’s not an intellectual thing. It’s coming from the heart.

Maybe it’s just the humility to recognize that we are not complete and that there is something greater than us, even if we can’t understand it. And maybe the gift is that Jesus came, God taking on human form to help us understand it, you know, by example.

Okay, so thank you, Rachel.

Do you want to read this one from Anon?

NIK: Okay.

So Anon says, Jesus brings warmth to my heart. Without Jesus, my life would be grey and dull. Love would be missing. He is the light and the way, showing me how to live my life in challenging times. Even just a thought of Jesus elevates me. Whenever I need help, I pray to Jesus and he always responds. He reminds me that I am good and that there is goodness in the world. He gives me hope.

MARK: Yeah.

NIK: Very nice.

MARK: Yeah, thanks, Nik. And thanks, Non, for that one.

NIK: Yeah. I was gonna say to Mark, like, do you have examples? Not that you have to share. I have an example if you want me to share. Where. You know, because, you know, it’s nice for Anon to say that, but to give an example where I go back to the. The ghost thing. I was reading something on YouTube a while ago.

It’s irrelevant really, but it was a story about Princess Diana, and her voice suddenly appeared on a. On. On an audio on the BBC, even though she was dead.

And this is not encouraging anyone to go look at this, but it came to me and I was watching it and I had this enormous chill and that feeling, like people say, someone’s walked over your grave, and it was horrible and really oppressive. And I just called out in my head, I called out to Jesus and just Said, please, Jesus, please can you, you know, help me here? And bang, like that it had gone.

So that’s an example. It’s my own fault for looking at that thing and doing that. But the point is that Jesus was still there for me. Even though you’re probably thinking, we might not have been thinking, he might be thinking, well, that’s a lesson learned for you. Don’t look at that silly stuff and then you won’t have to call on me, but if you do, then I’ll be there for you.

MARK: So we actually. There was an episode where someone had watched Bambi Thug in Eurovision Song Contest and they’d become quite affected by it in a negative way. And the. The upshot of that discussion was that you can give your attention to things that if you’re doing it from a place of neutrality, but then the wisdom is that if you are coming from a place of neutrality, you’d probably be guided not to give your attention to things that are dark and evil. But. But my point was, when that person asked the question, I had to look into it, so I had to look at that topic matter. So I went into a place of neutrality where I wouldn’t be affected by it, because from the state of the great state, then it’s just stuff.

So, yeah, there’s so many directions to come from it. Like, well, you shouldn’t have looked at it because you were guided not to look at it. But if you’d stayed neutral, you could have looked at, you know, that kind of thing. It goes round and round a bit.

But, you know, the.

I’m kind of bringing it back to. So Christmas now in your house versus, say, five years ago, you know, you’ve got young kids, you’ve got teenage kid. Is there anything different? In other words, how is having Jesus in your life? Because I know that five years is a long enough window that we can contrast from before. How is having Jesus in your life manifesting in your role as a father?

NIK: Yeah, I mean, I can only speak for me, obviously I can’t speak for the children and for my wife, but from my point of view, it’s made me think more about my actions and the way I hold myself and the way I behave in those situations. And I don’t make it about, you know, buying lots of extravagant gifts for my children and. And, you know, them having everything that they need. It would be more a case of making, well, hoping that we’re. I show how grateful I am for the things that I already have.

And I must admit to you, I’M not. You know, we don’t sit around and have a prayer and things like that. You know, maybe that’s to come, who knows? But certainly for me, Jesus is in my thoughts on every day. So it’s the same on the same on Christmas. But that wouldn’t have been the case five years ago, you know, there would probably have been no thought of. Of Jesus or God or very little. Anyway, let’s say. And we have some nativity scenes. Because I was going to ask you, Mark, you know, in our house, we have a few nativity scenes around just to make sure that there is.

And that’s come from my wife, you know, and I’m grateful for her for that. You know, having a few things around the house that actually tell you what the meaning is. And it’s the same reminder. A reminder. Yeah. Really? Yeah. And that’s that. I think that’s absolutely fine. And, you know, that’s what it should be because we do need reminding because there’s so many distractions in the world around us that you could go, you know, go a week without thinking of Jesus with all the distractions in there. So it has to be a conscious thing.

MARK: So going back to what Anon said, I just pulled out the line where they say, whenever I need help, I pray to Jesus. And he always responds as, I’m just curious. Have you kind of sat down with your kids and said, look, if you’re ever scared in the night, call on Jesus, pray to you? Yeah.

NIK: Yeah.

MARK: How did that go down?

NIK: Absolutely fine. Because I like, think for the way I might have thought of that when I was a child, and I might have been a bit like what you’re talking about, whereas my children just seem to accept it, like I said before.

But yeah, it’s.

I do. And that’s the first thing I say to him. It’s like I almost want them to understand that, you know, as much as I love my children, I’m nowhere near the amount of love that Jesus God would have for my children, which is some people maybe would find that hard thing to do. And it’s like, how can you say that about your children? But ultimately for me, that’s the truth.

MARK: I’m just going to read out what Scottish Bird has said. Kindness to family members at Christmas is so important for me. I mean, do you think reading between the lines, what Scottish Bird is saying is like demonstrating kindness and you’re talking about demonstrating love and demonstrating really as a parent is your role.

Could your role be to show your children how Jesus would be by being that towards them.

NIK: Ultimately. Mark. Yes. The. The whole setup and scenario and the situation around Christmas almost makes it. Well, it’s a challenge ultimately, isn’t it? You know, I. I agree with Scottish bird and panther about the kindness to the family. I would never, you know, that always is an important part for me. But the whole Christmas giving and the presents and the endless adverts about it and, you know, I’m you probably same as me. Mark, remember as a kid you’d have like an Argos catalog or whatever it might be. It’s like flicking through it to follow of thing that you’re going to get. I mean, that’s not what Christmas is about. Sorry. There are other chains available, but not as many as there used to be.

MARK: Come from a big family. And mom, bless her, she’d be hiding presents around the house because obviously with five kids, you know, you try trying to hide stuff. And then we’d all get a main present, which just be like a toy or something. And then we’d also get something we need, like socks and pants and stuff like this. And so you can imagine all five kids, they’d open the door, we’d all dive in and pass presents around and sit there unwrapping stuff.

And then mum couldn’t remember what she got everyone, so she’d go around the room and ask each of the kids, so what do you like your present? You know, what did I get you?

And she’d forgotten to put my present under the tree. So what I had was a pair of socks.

And I. And I. I couldn’t. I couldn’t be more than about seven or eight.

But I remember feeling I didn’t want to let her down and seem ungrateful. And so I was like, oh, I’ve got these really nice socks. And then my mum’s face kind of felt. When she realized that she’d actually just forgotten. And she felt really bad because all the others were like, oh, I’ve got the toy I wanted and stuff. But there was something in that. It made me realize, you know, I’m kind of looking back on it as a kind of a small moment of significance where it was like, it was more important to me to not drop the mood and to be grateful for what I did get, you know, And I genuinely thought I just didn’t get a present this year. Okay, well, these socks are great. I need a pair of socks. Thanks. You know, you didn’t think it was.

NIK: Because you were bad then? Yeah, probably a lump of coal in the Socks.

MARK: Yeah, but, yeah, you know, these little, these little things. But I’m grateful for the way I was brought up and it wasn’t particularly materialistic.

And yeah, Scottish bird has just said, let’s just read this out.

I agree, Panther9. But as this is about Christmas predominantly, that is why I said about, said that. But 365 days is very true. Yeah. And this was something I actually meant to say to you, Nik, is I guess Christmas is a time when it focuses us.

But what if we’d lived every day like that all throughout the year, remembered that, say as the father of the house, you’re the opportunity and this is a spiritual opportunity and this applies to women as well. But talking to you as a father to demonstrate your kids the best qualities of Jesus as best you can so they look up to you and then you look up to Jesus. So it’s like I’m showing you kindness as best I can and love as best I can. And I’m acknowledging that the kind of, the, the highest bar of kindness and love is Jesus. So what you like in me is an example of what to seek from Jesus and let Jesus guide you in that direction. And you know.

NIK: Yeah, and I agree with you, Mark. And it’s one of those things I often think is. And I try not to, you know, think of it from an ego point of view, but I think about.

It’d be interesting to know what my children actually think about the way I brought them up and how they’ll think of it in, you know, 20 years. But you know, it’s, it’s irrelevant really. All I can really do is like you say, lead by example. You know, I’ll never, I’ll never be Jesus walking and, and being the way he was. But I can only aspire to be like that. And I’m not trying to be cheesy here, but that’s, that’s the truth. So the. What would Jesus do? I’ve often thought about whether after me saying about my brother in law having the band, whether that’s something as a reminder. I shouldn’t need anything as a reminder, but something as a reminder to just be that every day. And you know, this, this is the time that focuses us, isn’t it?

MARK: Yeah, it is. And I think that episode where I talked about Loose, I said that the, the one day of the year where there’s actually less negativity on the planet is Christmas Day because people on some level are thinking about Jesus. So I think this is why this show is so special and it’s a real privilege to be able to do it just before Christmas. I’m mindful of time, so I’m going to read out Susan’s lovely testimonial here. So having Jesus in my life and in my heart has been and continues to be a transformation, transformative experience in so many positive ways. Through Jesus presence and teachings, some of the many things I have in my life are peace, joy, hope, and faith. Jesus has helped me to become more loving, forgiving, and resilient. And he is not only my beloved spiritual teacher, but also my inspiration and role model. As Jesus truly does lead by example when life presents challenges, I feel blessed to be able to turn to Jesus as my friend and comforter. I really value and appreciate his presence. My experience of welcoming Jesus into my life and into my heart has only been a positive one. I am far richer in spirit for it. Christmas Day is such a joyous opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge Jesus and to give thanks for his goodness, unconditional love, humanity, and teachings with love, humility, and gratitude. Susan, that’s lovely. There’s one thing I just picked out of that, where Susan says, my experience of welcoming Jesus into my life and into my heart, that reminded me that.

So when I talk about Jesus in the context of being a teacher on the way back, I’m reminding people that it’s a conscious choice that you’ve got to choose to have Jesus in your life. It’s not just Jesus is there be a good person, it’s Jesus is there be a good person. Understand what spiritually that means, you know, because the root of good is God. But you have to welcome. There has to be an intention. I welcome Jesus into my life. I welcome God into my life. And one of the nice things we were chatting about in one of the online meetups, and someone said, every day I start that day by acknowledging Jesus and then acknowledging God. And I think that’s a really wonderful thing to do.

Yeah. Did you. Did anything kind of resonate in there for you?

NIK: I just, I mean, all of that was fantastic from Susan. I really like reading that, and it just sounds like Jesus has had such a. An amazing impact on, on her life. But the fact that the bit you picked up on welcoming, that’s not the only testimony you read out that said that about welcoming Jesus in. So I think that’s, you know, and personally I’ve done the same and repeatedly do the same and say, you know.

MARK: I think that’s partly, I think that is partly because some of these people have benefited from the teachings of the way back. And, and so they’ve heard me talking about it in terms of to proactively go out and with the intention of welcoming Jesus into your life. It’s almost like don’t take it for granted.

Strive, reach out for it. If that makes sense.

There’s another lovely testimonial. Do you want to read out the one from C?

NIK: Yep. Okay, I can see that.

So C says, when I realized Jesus was alive and thriving and here to help us and guide us.

MARK: Wow.

NIK: My life has never been the same since. I am enriched and will never let society, media, etc fool me again into thinking he isn’t real, isn’t currently living on a higher vibration. Yeshua to me is love, guidance, hope, peace, strength and most importantly, as he said himself, my roots to God. There is nothing that matters more in my life. I’m so overjoyed now. Blessings to everyone. See?

MARK: Yeah. And the, the reference to Yeshua, I, I alluded to this. I can’t remember if it was last episode or the episode before, but the letter J did not exist 2,000 years ago. It’s kind of a Latin anglicized contrivance and even in Italian they don’t have a J. So Jesus wouldn’t have been called Jesus. And there’s a whole other rabbit hole that we could go down into the, the origins of the name Jesus Christ, which kind of springs out of the meeting of the Council of Nicaea. But just to kind of be clear and keep things simple, firstly, thank you C for that testimonial. It’s lovely.

If you say the name Jesus and what you mean is Jesus, the Son of God, God that took on form, died on a cross and you know, in other words, if what you mean is that which is good it then even if you use the name Jesus, it’s okay. You know, if people are interested, I can do a show one day on that other side of things like the origins of the name and stuff like this. But it’s not the point I’m trying to make is it’s not that important in terms of your faith and your connection because there is a wisdom to things. So if what you mean is this, that which is God incarnate, the one, the Savior of humanity, then you know, some people will just say Christ or Jesus or Yeshua. They all get the same thing. You know, what’s important is what’s in your heart, not the pronunciation, if that makes sense.

Okay, I’m just going to pause things here because I did promise you that I would give you A bonus testimonial. And so this wasn’t heard in the live show. It’s a special gift for you listening to this podcast. Now, this came in from Anonymous and this is what they wrote to me, actually on Telegram.

When I need to be inspired to be the best version of myself, Jesus is my inspiration. He taught us how to love one another individually and as humans together. When I’m feeling out of balance or low, I call on Jesus for comfort and to feel uplifted. He has guided me and is full of compassion for our human experience because he has lived life on earth too. God bless Jesus and I’m so grateful to welcome him into my heart and life.

Anonymous. So I’m grateful to Anonymous for that testimonial. And let us now return to the episode what a Friend we have in Jesus. This is a beautiful hymn. Just reading out something that Scottish bird has shared now being a family man. Nik, I know that you probably want to get some sleep because it’s been a long day and I know you’re up late last night.

Just wanted to ask you a quick question.

Is being a spiritually awake parent different from being apparent?

NIK: Yes, because I can. I can speak. I can speak from both sides. So, yes. But it also comes with, in my opinion, greater responsibility.

And that’s not cheesy line about power and responsibility. But I do feel more empowered and therefore I do feel that I have a important role to play in bringing up this next generation in my children in the right way and leading by example.

MARK: Well, I mean, there’s so much. There was.

If you think 2000 years later we’re talking about Jesus and his example. So I think that there is great power in the example that people set. And to be a good spiritual person before your children, I think is just a wonderful gift to them, really, and a legacy that you’re passing on. Just as Jesus inspired, you know, hopefully you or inspires because it is present tense.

Someone. I’m just going to read out some of the comments in the chat because it’s lovely. So I would not be where I am today on my spiritual journey towards God without the love, guidance and support of the way back. Oh, that’s. Thanks. I thought. That’s. That’s lovely, Marigold, I actually thought you were going to say of Jesus, but, you know, the way back is here to point the way to Jesus.

So it’s, as I said, near the start, it’s really refreshing to say, look, I’m not asking you to follow the way back or to follow me I’m saying the value is in the direction. And Panther 9 said, Me too, Marigold, as well. So that’s really, really nice. You know, there’s one last testimonial, and I think I should read this one out. So this right at the start, I said, I sent an email to people, and in that email, I shared of that moment, my own testimonial. So I thought I’d finish the show by reading that out. When I realized who Jesus really was, that he is real and present in my life, and then when I opened my heart to him and welcomed him in, it changed my life in so many subtle ways. Many of the edges and corners of my personality softened. I finally had a role model who inspired me to be a more loving person, who showed the strength in being kind and doing the right thing. But most of all, I started to understand the depth of the words, what a friend we have in Jesus. I’ve never felt alone since, so. And the nice thing is, if you asked me today, I’d probably write a different testimonial. And if you asked me in a week, I’d write, in other words, I think that the relationship with Jesus is dynamic and it’s of the moment, you know, because ultimately being spiritual is being present. But we’re coming to the end of the show, as ever, I don’t think we really touch the sides or even skim the surface of being a spiritual parent. So they might even have to be a part three. They might have to get you back on the sho, Nik. But I’m gonna. I’m gonna let you have the final summary, the final say, but please acknowledge Jesus.

NIK: No, I do. Yeah, no, I 100 do. And I think the theme that I’ve seen running through things, maybe others have as well, is the. And you put it in your final sentence. I’ve never felt alone since. And that’s the wonderful thing for me is that even without the way back, to those that know that I know you and I’ve been in the way back, even without the way back, that connection that I have and I feel with Jesus cannot and will not be taken away. And that is such a wonderful feeling to have. So that’s how I would close things.

MARK: Okay, well, on that note, then I’ll just say I’ll put myself back up. I’ll just say, thank you, everyone, for joining us.

Christmas is just around the corner. Hopefully now we can all remember to keep Jesus at the forefront. It’s a choice. I’m not saying we have to, but. But we have that opportunity to remember that it’s Christ Mass Day and yeah, let’s all be spiritual beacons. It’s not about bashing people over the head. It’s not about saying oh no presence are bad. It’s just saying. And what about also considering this side of things? And as Nik is hopefully, I believe, truly demonstrating towards his kids is to be the best version of ourselves. Not just Christmas Day, but every day. And maybe just Christmas Day is a good practice, a good focal point to start that journey if we haven’t already done so. So on that note, I’m just going to say wherever you are, lots of love. God bless you. Thank you for being awesome and joining me for this episode. I’m truly grateful. As a spiritual person, I hope it’s inspiring to realise that you’re not alone and that more and more like minded people are enjoying this live show or like you right now, listening to this very podcast. You’re part of an awakening community and together we’re all finding the way back to being genuinely more spiritual. So I invite you to reflect on what’s been the most helpful thing you’ve got from this particular episode.

Now, who in your life would get the greatest benefit if they knew this too? So please help them by simply sharing this episode with them, since sharing is caring and this episode is completely free to listen to and download. Speaking of which, if you’d like even more free spiritual resources, downloads, videos, ebooks and articles, then head on over to the waybackgroup.org next episode. In this episode I’ll be answering more spiritual questions to help you and your loved ones make more sense of life. So remember to subscribe and set those notifications so you don’t miss out. Who knows what we’ll learn together and the next question might even be yours. Perhaps there’s a reason you’ve been guided to listen to this. So God bless you. And remember, take what you now know and use it to grow.