Here we go.
Do you know this is our Christmas show? This is it.
Is that why you're dressed that way? I am, I am.
I actually wear this to the gym today.
I've got a lot of, you know, strange looks, but you know
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Oh, by the way,
welcome to what's Good with John and Joyce over this holiday season.
There's so much good, so much to be grateful for.
We're so grateful for the you
you know, tuning in, either listening, watching and doing a little bit of both.
Make sure you subscribed to us on YouTube.
It's free, and share it with everybody you know.
Or you can screw this.
What I pretty much on any platform, you know, iHeart, also Spotify,
Amazon, wherever you get your podcasts from all over the place that way.
Yeah.
And Joyce, we have a very, very special guest here today.
A gentleman has become a very, very dear friend of mine.
And now he's a dear friend of yours.
And he is we talked to before.
The cameras are rolling.
But just a gentleman who really, I think, illustrates
and exemplifies what's so beautiful about this season and every time of year.
I know this time of year, people have a tendency
to be a little bit more joyous, but also a little bit sad,
or depending on their is the right time to it is no, there could be money problems,
like you're going to buy gifts for everybody and all of that,
but we want to bring the meaning of Christmas.
Exactly. So.
And this gentleman does that. Yes.
Ever since I found out that he opened up his home to people on Thanksgiving
and Christmas and 4th of July, Memorial Day,
people that had no place to go, right, opens up his house
that that pretty much exemplifies everything that's good about the world.
But what's good about this man?
And he's doing God's work.
And, Steve, thank you so much for coming. Steve Carr.
Yes, the car man, and I love your, you know,
your props there that you brought in any special meaning today.
Rob, you told me to get into the holiday spirit.
You know, you already told me that you stole the Santa hat idea, so I was left.
Unfortunately, we had offer you. You had it.
You were wearing it.
Well, yeah.
You know, the crown of the of God.
But it's, No, it's, you know, every every Christmas,
you know, the staple or the the holiday. Christmas.
You know, hallmark, you know, mail roll movies.
So I, you know, I got my dog, I got my flannel shirt in my carpentry
equipment.
So, I mean, it was either this or, you know, the tree farmer.
And I didn't think that it would be enough to carry around a big tree.
You know, there's your little Christmas. It is.
But that's, you know, I
it could be the craft shop in my, little warehouse or work house.
So women house there.
Anyone who watches hallmark movies knows this story.
Oh, my wife's been starting to.
She started watching the hallmark movies back in the summer, like so many other
the too.
And I walk in and she just sees me kind of roll my eyes.
And then what happens?
I roll my eyes, Joyce, to see, and I get into it.
Yeah, I get every single time I know guys that watch a hallmark movies.
But you do personify that.
You got the dog, you're a carpenter.
She comes into your life.
You used to know her back when.
But I was saying earlier, it's like, you know, I'm the kid in high school
that only had one leg, but one grew up one, the other one grew in finally.
And now, you know, you know, now you're the hot farmer or or and or.
Well, I appreciate that.
That's a
that's that might be a little, above or above it, but beyond of a stretch.
But I appreciate that one.
Well, Steve, tell us a little bit about, you know, your story.
You know, as as people are tuning in the West Coast with John and Joyce,
and you know what
you're telling us a bit about, you know, kind of
had a sheltered childhood growing up in his sense.
And then you kind of found yourself, you went through some bumps, you know,
and long and winding road, as they say, and you got to where you are now.
But what really impresses me about their value is your heart,
your compassion, your love for others.
And you don't just say it, you live it.
Yeah.
As far as the sheltered comment, I mean I don't want to, you know, no
discredit to my family and stuff.
I mean they were protective.
I had a, I have an adventurous older brother
that maybe led a path to where my parents went.
No no no no no, not this time, you know.
So it wasn't, it wasn't like, you can't do this.
It's just like, you know, we know better.
So, you know, shout out to, you know.
Yeah. Mom and dad are awesome.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And my brother to my gosh, you know, he's my best friend.
Yeah.
God is the journey.
And it's it's, Who
who I've wanted to be or who I've thought I wanted to be.
Throughout my life, I didn't realize and understand the purpose of it.
You know, it's like I like throwing parties.
I thought it was because I was a partier, you know?
Or I like to help people because I thought I just, you know, made me feel better,
less about myself, you know,
it wasn't until,
you know, I tried to really seek my purpose with God. And
God started talking to me, you know?
Hey, I know this. You know, someone that.
When did that happen, though?
Steve, do you remember the time that it happened,
or was it just a part of the journey?
But any light bulb moment,
I think we always hear the voices.
We just don't know which one it is because the the devil can sound the same.
I've learned the the, the closer you get to God,
the more you recognize his voice.
And, So how long I can remember
as a kid, you know, saying, oh, this is probably the right thing.
And because it was the right thing, it was from God.
And then as I got older, it's like, this feels like the right thing.
And then I realized something very important.
My plans suck.
So usually that
was the wrong voice that I was listening to.
But more recently, probably past three years,
I've really I finally delve into the Bible.
I had a Christian journey,
from the outside.
And if there's one thing
that I could pass on is don't doubt the Bible.
Right?
You know, it's if you if you want answers that are there
and to be very clear, there are different,
types or translations of Bibles that are easier to read and understand.
Yeah.
And when something hits our ears softer.
But it gives us the eagerness to learn
more that lesson was valuable.
So if you read something
that might be a, translation
of the word that you understand.
Somewhat.
You can seek more information from it.
But it came from that initial seed of understanding.
And that's only going to come
from listening to the word.
It changed my life.
It started on a New Year's Eve resolution.
I was I was done with New Year's resolutions
I failed again, my plan fails and everything I was not losing.
Well, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Right. Exactly, exactly, exactly.
So I was at a party and everyone was like,
oh, you got to have a New Year's resolution.
I'm like, no, I'm done.
I'm done in person before me.
Said they're nope, not going to do it.
And and the host said, you don't leave this.
You don't come to the house next year unless you have a New Year's resolution
this year.
And they I felt them scrambling.
And in my head I'm scrambling to and it got to me and I'm like,
first thing that blotted and it blurred out of my head was I,
I'm going to read the Bible this year.
Wow. And oh, that go over well.
It was it's funny, you know, because it was mixed reaction.
Right. People going, oh,
oh okay okay.
Next. And what's your story? You know what I mean. So they quickly moved on.
But it it fulfilled that need for that one point, that one purpose.
And then the next morning
I woke up and I'm like, I got another universe resolution.
But this time, this time it's different
because it's a promise I made to God.
Oh I got to do this one.
Oh yeah. Do it.
Here's the problem I didn't know the Bible.
The only rendition I could find online was King James.
So it was like the hear this that was that with it.
And I'm like I can't do this 365 days a year.
So I did a little research I ordered on Amazon
a chronological order of the Bible.
And, and it was in a couple of the New Living Testament or the Living version and
kind of understood it.
I was like, okay, this this makes sense.
Okay. Like, I can do this.
And that was three years, four years ago.
And I have, made it my New Year's resolution
every year since to read something about the Bible
or New, a new version of it, or, you know, a new book, new translations,
just because I'm so much of a better person.
Yeah.
With God, that says it all for, you know, first of all, this is amazing
because someone actually follow through on a resolution. Yes.
And it was a transformative resolution.
And I love that we're talking about this, that this is our Christmas show
and Merry Christmas. But it's the birth of Christ.
So this fits in so perfectly.
What we're talking about is the rebirth of me.
Yet what? Love that.
What better gift when you're the greatest gift, the greatest gift you think about?
That's faith.
And again, I'm in all the holiday parties and the time with the family
and going to the tree lightings and all that.
That's that's a lot of fun. Right.
And the Christmas party for the business.
But as I get older too, and more and more into the word choice,
we talked about this.
I just want to learn more and more about my Heavenly Dad.
I want to I want to become a better person.
And what triggered into hosting opening my home because
now hearing God,
God told me, open your, open your doors.
And I'm like, okay, you know, yeah, okay.
I'll host this year for family gatherings.
And God said, no, no, no.
Open your home.
Like, okay.
So yeah, maybe some family that I haven't invited in a while.
God said, open your home.
And then I reflected back
to when I had gotten divorced, and with the whole custody,
sometimes I had the kids on holidays and sometimes I didn't.
There were times when I didn't have the kids and I was alone,
and I just wanted,
more than anything, just a place to witness families.
And when God said, open my home I went,
I know some people that need a home, like I needed a home.
And I just started inviting people
that I may have just met in passing, but I knew they had a similar situation.
And God just kept on saying, open your home, open your home.
And I'm like, okay, the most open
I can be is I'm going to post it on social media.
Did you two I did, I post on every year.
It's the best thing I've ever done.
I just open up.
I'm like, here's the rule of thumb for Easter and for Thanksgiving.
If you don't have plans, you do now.
I provide the stables for meals like this.
For this Thanksgiving, I did a 24 pound,
turkey and I a, 12 pound ham,
2 pounds of of green bean casserole,
8 pounds of smashed garlic potatoes.
Steve, I don't have a place to go for the next couple Thanksgivings and Easter.
You were invited.
You were invited, Joyce. You said a heck of a chef.
He loves you.
So you did all this cooking, did it?
Look, I love it, I love it, I love that, I love it.
Yeah, it's. And it's. And here's the thing.
I can tell everybody, I call them comfortable cobwebs.
Everyone is so afraid of opening up their homes because they have to prepare.
It's like, oh, my God, I want people to see, you know,
I don't want them to think I live in this pigsty.
Right? Here's the thing.
When you're open your home, the beauty of it is.
You're opening your heart, okay?
And as Christians are people just in general.
We're dirty as can be.
Yeah, right.
That's why we seek God is to get clean.
So think about.
Think about showing up
in heaven and saying, give me a second, God.
I'm going to look around to see if there's any cobwebs here
because I don't want to go in there.
If there's cobwebs.
Right. My home's open.
If cobwebs are your biggest problem, you don't have to come back.
I love that you said comfortable cobwebs.
Yeah, because that's what they are, right?
Because you know what?
I listen, I think I'm relatively clean.
You know, it's not.
It's like, you know, the house just weeks ago was beautiful.
Forgive the dead bodies laying across the floor.
But you know, there's obviously within reason of choice.
Yeah. Yeah.
Exactly. It it was being on the show.
That was how you got it? No. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah,
he knows me now.
Okay. So it's
letting yourself
go with the understanding that it's it's not about showing off your home.
It's about opening your heart and
vulnerability.
And that's how Jesus built a lot of his ministry over food, safe tables.
Right. Safe tables, food.
You know, it was all, you know,
with the disciples getting together to break bread and drink wine and,
and of course, the first time he performed that miracle,
but he turned water into wine. Was it a wedding?
So many events were at over.
Food and conversation.
You can learn a lot about people by the way they treat their wife,
their kids at a table have them over for dinner.
You can see the real person at that point, and that's what you're doing.
And it's almost counterintuitive because when I was a kid,
you opened up your house a lot.
People were able to come in that, my friends with bang on the door,
we let them in.
And nowadays we live in a cocoon culture.
Ever since Covid,
where people want to nuzzle in, I don't want anybody banging on my door.
I don't want people come over my house anymore.
You don't talk to that stranger.
It might be dangerous
and you're going on social media and inviting people you may have met
just once at a store.
Yeah, it takes a boldness, a courage, a trust in is 100% trust.
And that's where it comes to from surrendering to God.
You know, if you ever want to learn how to trust,
surrender to God and not just say it, I mean, challenge yourself.
Let's
talk about earlier that surrendering comes in.
It's a change of perspective.
You know, you have
it's not that the problems went away, per se, or they've changed.
It's not like my life, you know, the this person's nice to me
now, or that person is, you know, a decent person.
Those outside or external things are still present.
But when I surrender them to God, they're no longer my problem.
And anything you surrender to God,
I can guarantee you the infinite God that that I worship.
It's not a problem for him, right?
You know what I mean?
So it's kind of like in in that that statement,
it's saying surrendering to God.
The problem disappears.
Is there anything too big for him?
It's like, I remember when Moses and, they were in the, in the desert
and a lot of the Israelites were complaining.
And then Moses was talking to God, and then God said, Moses, Moses, Moses.
My arm gotten shorter.
That makes me laugh every time I hear that picture.
I'm just saying it's my I'm getting shorter.
Is there anything I can't do.
So it's not like you know, bless me father, not because of how good I am
but because of how great you are tapping in his supernatural power and ability.
Yeah, it's it's about love.
Yeah, it really is. I,
I had the
the question one question in might when I was, you know,
trying to really dedicate and surrender to God my biggest fear became a reality
because you have to love God more than anyone else.
God first.
Now, especially going through a divorce and everything.
Your kids are the most important thing in your life.
And I was telling
God that he was the most important thing in my life.
And then the question came
because I was talking with my son, and I'm trying to explain to him, trying
to witness to him and explain to him that you got to put God first.
God, you got to love God more than anyone.
And my at the time, ten year old son or 11 year
old son looked at me and he goes, so dad, are you saying you love God more than me?
There was a
fear that came over me at first, I couldn't be perfectly honest.
And I'm like, I've got to tell him the truth in this,
like, what is the truth?
And I just looked at him and I said,
yes, I love God more than you.
And he's like, oh, that's real nice, dad.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, you got to understand something, buddy.
Without his love, I would never know how to love you.
There you go.
That's it. And I'm like,
I'm learning how to love like a father.
Yeah, from the father who loves.
So now my son and my daughter have nothing to worry about, right?
Because I'm protected from God and they're protected from their father.
Yeah.
So it was, it was such a powerful moment.
And I remember those words distinct distinctively because
I never knew what I was going to say until that moment.
And God put those words in my mouth.
And now I can't forget them.
And I want to tell them to everybody because it was the most powerful,
impactful moment of my faith.
That is so, it's I know it's me.
Want to shut up on the mountaintop?
Yeah.
I think we know that God doesn't give us a spirit of fear.
And when you said that, I mean, that just.
I think resonates with a lot of us that
without loving, having a strong faith
and we're talking about, you know, God, the universe,
whatever you want to call it is to us, you know, God
that allowed you to say that to your son, which is life changing
for both your children and horrifying in the natural, horrifying
in the natural world to say that.
But then you got the right words after that
to say, if I don't love God first,
I don't have the knowledge of how to love you.
You know, the way that you should be loved.
And they got that right.
They understood that.
That's just like, wow,
that's that's very fast forward.
My kids witness me every morning doing my devotional, reading the Bible.
My son
read the Bible for the first time this year.
Gosh, he read the whole Bible every day.
What are your kids name every day?
Eric and Carla, Eric and Carla. And,
I mean, my my daughter got baptized,
and my son's just has this.
He has this curiosity, but he has this discipline of reading the Bible.
And it was like I.
I wanted it, but I couldn't ask of it.
And, God is so good.
It's why his plan is so much better.
It did a little public service announcement.
Don't try it on your own.
God's got you. Yeah. Okay.
You got to surrender.
Yeah.
And surrender everything every once in a while.
I do have to remind myself to surrender my mortgage payment over to God.
I do.
I have to say it like I lose the worry of it.
Yeah. Least story of it. Yeah.
Because you know what he's going to provide. Yes.
Or he's going to give the lesson that's needed.
Losing a home or losing something financially
might be because you worshiped it.
You made it an idol.
And how do you know that you have to get rid of it until God says
no, no, no I gave you a chance to work this out.
Yes. I'm going to take it from you now because, you know, when you're
when you're a kid, okay?
Don't play with a hammer or run with scissors.
You run with scissors. What happened?
Mom? Dad comes over and goes.
I'm going to take these away from you, okay?
Does that mean
I could never cut cloth or paper or anything for the rest of my life?
Not until I learned to respect those items.
So he is our father.
And he's a disciplinarian. Yeah.
And I pray a lot I mean father teach me how to pray,
how to get to become closer to you.
Teach me when I drift during the course of the day,
which we all do as humans have to focus back on you
each and every day, realizing that the reason we worry is because we're
trying to manifest outcomes and God is the source of our income and outcome.
We have to be good with it either way, if it's something that we don't like.
So, father, I don't know if I like this, but you know better than I do him
and surrender to him like a song. Surrender.
I listen to this song a lot.
Show me the way.
Yeah.
And that gets me fired on every time I hear it.
Because I know it's a song in the secular, but it makes me think about God.
It's got a very spiritual way.
Show Me the Way by Styx or Show Me the Way by Peter Frampton.
Yeah, they both have very spiritual undertones to them.
Yeah.
And, along with a lot of Christian music, which I love, of course.
Wow. So when you invite
people over, do you pray for or like protection of your home at,
or do you ask God to send the right people to you?
It's interesting. No.
And now that I'm thinking about it and it just it's coming to me.
It's a reason.
Because I don't have fear.
Because it came from God.
It would.
God wouldn't have told me more than my Lord if he told me to fear it.
Right.
You know, I just I recently, you know, heard about you know
there's that fear not is mentioned 365 times in the Bible and for every day.
Well that's though and you think about that the significance of 365 is, listen,
we need a daily reminder that if it's from God you don't fear.
It's.
It's why you need to surrender to him.
Right. Because we're not supposed to fear.
And when Jesus said do not be afraid, do not worry about tomorrow.
That wasn't a suggestion.
That's a commandment, right.
And we and we just we we disobey that daily.
As humans.
One of the things with fear in the Bible that was, that was something
that was very difficult for me because I was like, how am I,
where am I supposed to fear a God that is supposed to be
for me and loving?
And then this is where the translations are,
are jumbled because the same word for fear
is also Revere.
So but it's just a matter of the context
of the phrase that that the English translation, they put fear in there.
But there's usually a subtext to saying
it could be Revere because it's this, right?
Because it's coming from the Greek or Hebrew.
Yeah, yeah.
Correct.
So, every time I see
the word fear in the Bible now when I'm doing my devotional time,
I immediately I almost intentionally first
say Revere because
I love Revere much better.
Yes, of course.
Now, I'll admit this.
I had to look it up in the dictionary because I was so used to hearing fear.
I'm like Revere, is that another word for fear?
It's complete.
That's why.
That's why when I told everybody that, that was like, oh my God.
That's why when I tell people that I really fear my wife.
Yeah, it's actually baby, baby, I Revere you.
And even though she likes to hear the fear or to,
Now tell me, with the
people you brought into your home have some of these people become friends?
No. No family.
FAM, family. But that's even better.
Good answer.
One of the best.
It's a hallmark movie.
One of the best things about when.
When God put this on my heart and I opened up on Facebook was
people were saying, well, what do I bring? What do I bring?
I want to bring something. I want to bring something.
And I would tell them, I'm like, first and foremost, bring yourself.
You can't bring anything else.
Bring that.
Next bring a friend.
Bring someone else that doesn't have it.
But if there's a meal, a dessert
aside something that reminds you of family
gathering, of that holiday, of that Easter, something that made you go.
When I bite into this, I go, it's Thanksgiving, I
bring it.
Yeah. Share it with us.
Let us be a part of that family experience. Yes.
And it's just
multiplied.
People that showed up one person, one year, the next year
they show up with 2 or 3 or even.
It's even more of a blessing.
You know, there was some downsides.
Like people that used to come, they don't come here. They didn't come this year.
And I was like, oh, no, I hope everything's all right.
But they talked about
what they were doing and other people wanted
one to experience that and do that themselves.
So they invited them to their house.
So it's like a domino effect.
And instead of instead of, you know, people coming to my house,
they're going to another frame that they haven't seen in.
And many years.
And they're trying to they're expanding their, their family.
Oh, God used you for that.
Now I don't have any of that.
Yeah.
God, just if you don't and you you always have plenty of food, right?
If not, you can go get some more and, you know, get some pasta, whatever.
Lesson number 487,000.
When you're hosting a big party with a lot of food and you don't happen,
people don't show up and you cook enough to feed an army
by to go containers.
Yes, yes. Yeah, I mean that. Yeah.
I make sure that I have enough for a sandwich
in the morning or the next for lunch, but everything else has got to go.
Desserts, everything.
So I, I tell people, I don't care
if you saw it in the garbage outside when you leave.
Pack up enough food.
Pack one for your neighbor. Put it.
You know I don't want this food here. Right.
This year we're supposed to have 30 people.
And the morning of 12 people couldn't make it home.
So I had a lot of food leftover
and made a rain out of to go containers.
There was so much to go, and I still had this big platter,
big thing of of a smashed garlic, smashed potatoes
and green bean casserole in my my mom's homemade stuffing.
My mom part of the tradition.
Now my mom comes up
the night before she stays over and she helps me break the family.
That's so.
Oh. What about your son and daughter?
They participate, depending on the year.
This year I did have them.
So did I did I did so, you know, it was, you know, again, there's.
But now every holiday is a holiday.
It's not a holiday with my kids.
Is her holiday without my kids
or what I'm going to do and what I'm not going to do, it's.
This is what I do.
And whoever's there is, there for a merry Christmas.
Everyone, to hear this.
This is the way to celebrate every holiday.
This this is a gentleman who encapsulates.
I love the whole feeling of Christmas. Thank you. Sharing them.
Thank you so much for all you do and bless others are amazing.
Hey, before anyone leaves
you and I have some Christmas cookies, I made a whole thing of Christmas cookies.
Are are you so full?
I believe I've been warned that you are an amazing, Well, yeah.
Maker. And, So. Okay.
All right, so my butter crunch shortbread cookies.
Some people call this pecan hands off.
My favorite.
Okay, so, anyways, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
It's been a pleasure.
Hosting next party with. Okay.
So, well, thank you so much for tuning in to what's good, John.
Enjoy.
Subscribe for free on YouTube or any other platform
that you want to watch us and or listen to us.
We appreciate you.
Merry Christmas, happy holidays.
Whatever you celebrate, we appreciate the fact you're celebrating with us.
And, lots of health, happiness.
And we we pray for your family all throughout this season
that we love so much and beyond.
And Steve, thank you so much for blessing us as well.
Yeah, he blessed me.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Merry Christmas everyone. We love you.
Bye for now.
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