Podcast by Pastor David
19 January 2026
The Duffel Bag
Pastor David: Hello. I want to share a story with you. It's a true story.
I just call it the duffel bag. You'll understand why in a minute. I have for many years, probably 20 plus years, I've ministered along the border of Texas and in Mexico, in Texas, and all around. But I lived on the East Coast and would fly out to Texas frequently to a very close friend of mine, in fact, my best friend.
He would ask me to come minister at his church, his parents' church, a friend's church, or someone else that he knew. We had Bible schools, and we started quite a few churches.
So there were always places to go and minister the good news. There was this particular time I flew out, and I ministered in one church in the morning, and then I was scheduled to minister in another church on another part of town in the evening.
So my friend brought me back to the hotel, ministered in the morning, went out to lunch, and then they brought me back to the hotel so I could freshen up, and rest, and get ready for the evening service at a different church.
So I was there in the hotel and was praying, as you know, as I do, and seeking the Lord about. if there was something specific He wanted me to minister that evening.
And it was really, really cool, really interesting.
The walls inside the hotel room were kind of stucco color, kind of a light tan, if you will, color. I was sitting on the edge of the bed. I'm wide awake, praying and reading the Word, my Bible, and preparing for the evening service.
I look at the wall, and I see a shadow. It's like to begin with, it was kind of zoomed out, if you will. What I see is a person; all I see is the silhouette. It's a shadow, but it's like animated. This person, I see, where it's like they've got one arm with one hand up towards their shoulder.
It zooms in, and I see it's just the silhouette, but I see the person's face, and their shoulder, and their hand, if you will. If you were to take your arm and bend it all the way up to where your hand is at your shoulder, that's what I saw, just the silhouette of it, because it was a shadow. But I realized, hey, that's me.
I was looking at the wall in the hotel, and I'm looking at an animated shadow, and it was me. I knew it was me. And I'm like, wow. I'm just fascinated, just staring.
Well, then it zooms out to where I could see the whole person, my whole body, and all the way down to my feet, and I'm walking.
I've got this duffel bag and the strings to it are on my shoulder. Then I stop, the shadow stops, and bends over, opens up the duffel bag, and starts putting things in the duffel bag. I knew while I was watching it, it was cares, it was burdens, it was concerns.
God was ministering to me. Put your burdens on Him, put your cares on Him, put them in the duffel bag.
I see me just stuffing one thing after another. It was like cares, concerns, and burdens, stuffing them in this duffel bag.
Then, the shadow throws the string over the shoulder again, and it's still a full screen, if you will, where I'm seeing me from head to toe, and the duffel bag. The duffel bag was so full of stuff.
It was not only going, the strings I'm holding at my shoulder, over my shoulder. The strings went all the way down, and the duffel bag was so full, it went all the way down and folded, and drug behind me for several feet. If you could picture a really full bag, and I'm six three, so it was a big bag. So it was at least more than half the length of my body.
It hit the ground, and it was dragging the ground several feet past that. So it was a really full duffel bag. Well, He showed me walking while my feet and legs are walking in this shadow.
It's like watching a movie on the wall, except it was real, and I was awake, and I knew it was me, and it was my shadow. I'm walking, then the camera zooms in again back to where it started, to where it's my face, the silhouette. I could see my hand over my shoulder. Then He started ministering to me.
Holy Spirit said, 'Cast your burdens on Me. Put them where they belong. There's nothing that should come between you and Me.'
Then the camera zooms back out, and this was the cool part: that long duffel bag was now just two strings hanging over my shoulder. The whole duffel bag had just worn in two while I was walking, and whatever was in that duffel bag was gone.
There was nothing over my shoulder except the string and a memory of what used to be there.
He led me to the ministering that He did for me. I'll give you some scriptures, but what He ministered to my heart I want to share with you because it's so important.
Number One: our cares, and burdens, and concerns, I don't want to say worries, because the Bible says worries are a sin, but even worries, everything that you can consider a burden or something that can weigh you down or is just bothering you, it's heavy on your heart, or whatever, all of those things, none of them belong between you and God.
Here's another thing. Even the blessings, even miracles, even healings and things that are of God, they don't belong between you and God. He wants nothing between Him and us. He just wants that relationship between us and Him; that fellowship between us and Him.
You can go back and picture Adam and Eve and the Father walking in the garden. That's what He wants with us.
That's exactly what He wants with you and I. He wants that fellowship. He doesn't want anything in between us. Those burdens and cares, concerns, whatever it is. He doesn't want anything, even good or bad, nothing between us.
Put things where they belong.
You know, I learned that I ministered that, that night, and it definitely was for many of the people, but it was for me. And I'm sharing it with you because I believe it's for every believer.
I see myself for years after that, you know, I just start to get overwhelmed. Maybe this, that the other is going on. And I go, whoa, timeout. The duffel bag.
I need the duffel bag. And I just visualize myself taking every one of those cares and burdens and sticking them in the duffel bag and then putting them where they belong - behind me, not in front of me, not between me and God, behind me, so that I can pray and fellowship with God one on one, like He wants us to.
Here's a couple of scriptures that I'm sure you've read before, but they took on a whole new meaning for me after that experience.
Psalm 55:22. Easy to remember. 55:22. Psalm. 'Cast your burdens upon the Lord.'
First Peter in the New Testament, 5:7. 'Cast all your cares upon the Lord.'
He literally wants us to give Him our burdens, but most importantly, the cool thing He taught me in that visualization of watching my shadow up there with that duffel bag on the wall in the hotel room I was sitting in was, it's literally that simple.
Put your burdens where they belong, behind you, not in front of you, not between you and God, behind you, and then just keep walking.
Stay on your path, stay on your course, and God will take care of all those things.
Give them to Him, and He will. Trust Him, and He will. Pray and say 'God you've got to take these', like we just read in Psalm, in 1st Peter: Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. Give Him your burdens, give Him your cares, and He'll take care of them.
Get back to fellowshipping with God. 'God, I love you. Forgive me of my sins, and what would you have me do today? You know, thank you for this and thank you for that. You're a blessing.'
Love on God. He wants to love on you all the time, 24/7. I hope this turns into a blessing for you as it has for me over the years.
The duffel bag - each one of us have our own duffel bag but until that moment, I didn't know how to use it.
Hopefully, this helps you know how to use the duffel bag in your life. Put all your burdens and cares behind you, throw them over your shoulder, and get your eyes back on God, and God will take care of it.
Amen. Be blessed. God bless.
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09:05
04 January 2026
Stuck In The Sand
Pastor David: Hello. I want to share with you a story that took place. A true story.
When I was young, I was around 18 years old, and I was in college, and a close friend of mine and I who had graduated from high school together. We were active in our church, especially with the youth.
The pastor and his wife approached the two of us and asked us to come up with an activity and take the kids in the church that were getting ready to graduate from high school.
They asked us if we wouldn't mind finding an activity, something fun to do, and celebrate graduation with the new graduating class. So at that time, I lived on the East Coast, very close to a beach, and there was one section of the beach that allowed vehicles on it. Not many places along the coast on the East Coast allow that anymore, but at that time, they did, and it was fun.
People during the day would go there, not so much camping or anything, but primarily drive down there to have fun with friends and family, and go fishing and things like that. But we knew graduation was going to be late in the day, and my friend, he and his dad both had four wheel drives. One was a jeep, and one was a large pickup truck that was raised up in four wheel drive, with big tires, and his dad said we could use it.
So what we thought we would do that didn't cost anyone money was we would just take all the kids and go on some trails and have fun in the four wheel drive.
Another thing we did was you were allowed at that time to have people in the back of the truck while you were riding around. I don't think they allow that now, but that's what we did. We had fun. We took the truck, went down to the beach, and had fun.
If you've ever been on a beach, you know there are tides - there's low tide, high tide, you know, ebb tide, right in the middle. Well, when we got there, apparently it was low tide, and we were having fun, having a blast.
There's soft sand, as you can appreciate, as you get closer to the dunes, and then, when it's low tide, right where the water has been, it's normally more packed, and it's easier to drive on. So we were having fun. We were hopping dunes, as we called it. You know, where you drive over a sand dune, not ridiculously fast or anything, but it's just fun. It was fun for us. So all of us were having fun.
It started to get dark because we started when it was daylight, but it was late in the day after they graduated. We were just having fun and got on that spot on the beach, and my friend's driving because it was his dad's truck. The music minister from the church was with us, my friend and I, and a handful of youth. There were probably graduating that year, six or eight kids. I say kids. I was only a year older, but we were having fun and got stuck when the tide started coming in.
We got stuck on that part of the beach that you knew if you waited long enough, it was going to be covered in water because the tide was rising and the water was coming in. Well, there's a lot of vehicles on this section of the beach because there weren't many places you could drive on the beach.
On this particular section of beach, there were constantly vehicles. It seemed like, well, the later it gets, and the darker it gets, the fewer vehicles. You know, people didn't want to be out there. Here we get stuck, and there's a group of us, so we're all pushing and pushing.
When that sand gets really wet and soft close to the shore, it's like a suction cup. And it was just like, man, we could not get that thing unstuck.
So we told all the graduates, all the kids that had just graduated, you know, 'Go have fun on the dunes. We're going to figure this out. We'll find someone to help pull us out.'
Not long after that, only a few minutes or so, it's like dust/dark at this point. Two guys, I remember thinking at that time, older guys. Now, I don't think they're so old because I'm older, but they were probably, I'm guessing, probably in their 30s - 20s, or 30s. And they were coming down the beach on the sandy part, and we said, "Hey, we're stuck. Do you guys mind helping pull us out?"
I think we even had a strap in my friend's dad's truck. They said, "For 20 bucks, we'll pull you out."
Well, you have to understand in that area, I mean, people just didn't do that. You know, everyone helped each other. If someone was stuck, someone else pulled them out because you knew the chances of you getting stuck were pretty strong.
So, I mean, it was really uncommon, and I just blame it on the Holy Spirit because I'm a pretty mild guy. I'm, you know, 6'3". So I'm not a real small guy, but it takes a lot to get me riled up, or flustered, or whatever word you want to use.
But, boy, I just felt the Holy Spirit very strongly and uncharacteristically, I walked up to the driver's window, and I said, "We're out here helping kids celebrate their graduation, and we're all children of God. You can't do us this way. You can't charge us to get out of here. All we're asking for is a few minutes of your time. Just pull us out."
The two guys started laughing, and they were being ugly. My friend asked me because he knew, because we were going to go out and get pizza afterwards. He knew I had some money in my pocket, and he said, "Dave, don't you have money?" And I said, "Yeah, but they can't do God's children this way. This is wrong."
I felt very strongly about it.
So anyhow, these two guys drive off laughing at us. I had just wagged my finger in the driver's window and told them, 'You can't do God's children this way.' And they drove off.
Then my friend got mad at me.
He was like, "Dave, my dad's truck's going to get swamped and ruined." And it would ruin a truck. It could ruin any vehicle. He said, "It's going to get swamped and ruined from the salt water. Just pay the guys." And I'm like, "No, this is wrong. You just can't do that to someone else when they're down and out." And then he got angry, really, really angry at me.
So the music minister was there, my friend and I. Well, my friend was so angry, he said, "You guys walk that way, and I'm walking this way. I'm going to find someone else who will pull us out, and you guys go find someone else."
And we started walking, as it turns out, south. The music minister and I started walking south, and my friend was walking north on the beach.
I mean, it was not far, but it was so dark out there, maybe two or 300 yards. We walked south, and here there's a truck stuck in the sand up to the axle, and it was these same two guys.
Well, without seeing anything, and again, I just believe it was the Holy Spirit. I walked straight up to the driver's window, and I said, "See, I told you."
Both of them, both of the guys in the truck said, "Look, we're sorry. If you'll pull us out, help us, help push us out. We'll go down, and we'll pull your truck out." And we said, "Okay." So that's what we did. So we helped push them out. We hopped in the back of their truck.
They drove back up the beach, and we hollered out, "My friend came back," and he got in the truck, in his dad's truck, and they pulled us out of the sand.
Well, he was still upset, so he still didn't want anything to do with me for that moment. And it was God, you know, it just was because he went off in the sand dunes to go find all the kids that we brought out there. And the music minister and I went over to thank the two guys for helping us.
They actually said, "Hey, do you have a minute?" And we said, "For what?" And they said, "You know, when you said you can't do God's children this way. We're down here from", and it was a city that was, oh, a two-and-a-half-hour drive away.
They said, both of them said, "We came down here to the beach to cheat on our wives. We want to know more about the God that you're talking about because we don't have any doubt that what you said and told us we needed to hear."
So we said, "Sure." So we got in their truck, and we drove a little further south down the beach, and there was a pier down there. And we started talking to these fellows, and they confessed, and we didn't know them, and they didn't know us, but the situation that God orchestrated ministered to them, and it hit them in the heart. And they said, "You know, tell us about this God." And it wasn't long and drawn out.
I mean, it was within 10 to 15 minutes. They both said they wanted to get saved. "How do we get this God that you have? How do we have the same confidence that you have? How do we find the same peace that you have?", because I was willing to let my friend's truck stay stuck in the sand, but I was doing it with conviction.
I knew that, I knew that, I knew that this is what the Holy Spirit wanted me to say to them. And they both accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior right there, right then.
Then they both said, "Look, we're really sorry for what we did earlier, and thank you for being here and sharing with us about your God. We're both going back home." And it was like I said, about two and a half hour drive each way. They said, "We're both going back home to get back with our wives. We shouldn't be down here in the first place."
Then they drove us back to my friend, and at this point, everyone's happy. Then we went from there out and got pizza, but the most important thing was being stuck in the sand.
I think all of us go through times in life when we're stuck in the sand, you know, what do we do? Well, trust God. Don't run to your own instincts, run to God's.
'All right, God, you're teaching me something. Or maybe I shouldn't have done something, I got stuck. Or maybe I'm right in line with your will and got stuck.'
What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to say? What do you want me to pray?
Sometimes in just life, we can get stuck in the sand of our own life, a situation, and say, "God, I need your direction. I need to know where to go, what to do," and He will guide you. He will direct you. He loves you. He loves you so much. He lets you witness about His love to others from time to time.
Well, this has always been a blessing in my life, stuck in the sand, and it's a true story.
I pray that it blesses you and your loved ones, and friends, and maybe total strangers. Be blessed. If you're stuck in the sand, seek God and watch Him turn it into a blessing.
Amen. God bless.
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11:00
18 December 2025
Why Do God's Children Suffer?
Pastor David: You know, there was this time, not so long ago, where it seemed like I was getting call after call after call of Christians, people who I knew love God, worship God, but they were suffering, you know, loss of a job or this or that or the other, different things in different lives. But the common thread was they were all suffering, and they were all in this particular situation, believers, strong believers in many cases, and spirit-filled Christians. So I took it to the Lord, and I was asking God, why are so many of your children suffering?
And He showed me something I will never forget. You know, how God can say one word and create a universe. He can paint a picture that takes centuries to describe with one word. He's so awesome, so incredible.
Well, in this particular case, I had a real heavy heart for my brothers and sisters in Christ, and God knew it. And when I asked Him in prayer why so many of his kids were suffering, He showed me, and I was awake. So I've heard people call it - you know, there are visions, and there are dreams, and a lot of people talk about an open vision. In other words, you're awake and maybe even talking. Your eyes are probably open. Not necessarily, but in a lot of cases, and you see something, and you know it's from God. Well, it was one of those situations.
And the way He answered my prayer was that I saw His hand, gigantic hand, pulling down this pouch. I don't know if it was made of leather, but it kind of looked like leather. It looked like a giant leather pouch, and this giant hand, and I say it was giant because there were a lot of people standing up in this pouch.
Countless, a lot of people. So the hand was huge. The pouch was huge. And I saw this hand pulling the pouch downward, straight down. And all of these people, their hands were reaching up, and they're all looking up. But here was the interesting part. The four corners of the pouch had what looked like giant rubber bands on them. I didn't see what they were connected to. They went, you know, way up, like they were connected to something high in the sky. But this hand was pulling this pouch down. All these people were in it.
And then He spoke to me, and He said, sometimes I have to pull my children down to make them look up. And that was it. I didn't see the hand let go of it, of the pouch. It would have shot the people straight up in the air. But it caused me to think of so many things.
I mean, and you go through scripture, and you start looking. But that was His answer to me. And I had a heavy heart. And I was like, wow. And then He showed me that, and I'm like, oh, my goodness. You make the complex things in life so simple. It was like He was forcing His children. You're going to look up because you have to look up. You get your eyes off of your circumstances and situation.
You got to look up. And if He let go of that pouch, I assume that would be the equivalence of the Rapture we read about in First Thessalonians. So it was interesting, but it reminded me of a scripture outside of the Rapture. It reminded me of Luke 21:28.
Luke 21:28, in the King James says, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
What does that mean?
It means get your eyes back on God. If you are looking at circumstances and situations, what does the enemy love to do? Satan loves to distract, and manipulate, and deceive all the way through the Word.
We know those are his common character traits. He lies and deceives, always seeking who he can kill, steal, and destroy. As we hear and read in the Word. So what does Jesus want us to do?
Well, John the Baptist was probably the best messenger that said, look up, look up, look up. He told every believer, look up. Get your eyes off of your circumstances. Get your eyes back on God. Focus on God. Look at God.
Don't look at this situation or circumstance. Look up. Get your eyes back on God. Because when you start looking at God, you start getting your heart back in line with God.
You start asking for forgiveness because He's a Holy God. You start loving on God because He's loving on you. You want the things of God when you're looking at Him, and He wants to bless you as His children, because He is love and everything He does is to our benefit.
He even said, all things work to good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. So get your eyes back on God is what He's wanting you to do.
You can be down and out if you're a Christian at some point in your life, sometimes many points in your life, you will be pulled down because the world does that. The world hates God. The ways of the world are against God.
So you have to expect that you're going to get in those situations where you need to, as David said in Psalms, he had to reassure himself in the Lord. He had to pull up, you know, his own bootstraps, if you will, and start looking up and encouraged himself in the Lord, is what he said. Encourage, encourage, encourage yourself in the Lord. In other words, reminding yourself, yeah, I know God loves me.
I don't care what the world says. I don't care what Satan says. I don't care what anyone says. In my heart, the truth of truths. I know God loves me, and I'm going to get my eyes back on Him. Even if they weren't off of Him. He wants you to focus on Him because something's about to happen.
Maybe He's protecting you from something. Maybe He's delivering you out of a situation. Maybe He's helping you avoid a situation, but get your eyes back on God.
So I'll never forget that God's hand pulling down a bunch of us in that pouch, and there were rubber bands on each corner. I look forward to the day when we're all looking up, and He lets go of that pouch, and we get to go home in the twinkling of an eye.
But God bless you. Be blessed. I hope this ministers to you in Jesus name.
Have a blessed day and a blessed week.
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06:28
15 December 2025
Once Saved Always Saved?
Pastor David: From time to time and over the years, I'm asked the question of what does the Bible say about once saved, always saved? Well, there are a couple of scriptures that stand out.
First, in Exodus, chapter 32, verse 33, the Scripture says, And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
Well, what does the word blot mean?
The original word that was used was machah in this particular scripture, and it literally means to erase, to rub or stroke, or wipe away. So there's no question it's talking about removing a person's name from the Lamb's Book of Life. That's referenced here in Exodus 32:33. So if you put two and two together, in order for a name to be removed from the Book of Life, it had to be added to the Book of Life.
So if all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and your name is then added to the Book of Life, this is a scripture that says that it is removed as a result of sin. Well, so what does it say in the New Testament, since that's the Old Testament, and Jesus came, and we are no longer under the law of Moses, according to Romans, we are now under grace because of Jesus.
So what does the New Testament say? Well, there's a good scripture in Revelation 3:5, and it says, he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.
So, he uses a different word in the New Testament instead of machah; the word used in the original text in the New Testament was exaleipho, which also means to smear out, to obliterate, to erase, blot out, and wipe away. It has the same message, except under the grace of Jesus, He says, he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment. Key word is, you have to overcome. And I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life. Well, it doesn't vary in my opinion that Scripture is saying the same thing that we just read in Exodus.
In Exodus, he said, if you've sinned, I'm going to blot your name out. Now, the difference is that we have the blood of Jesus and His grace. We're not under the law anymore, but the punishment and wages of sin are the same.
And you need to walk in forgiveness. You need to ask for forgiveness, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So as I read the Scripture and these two verses I believe sum it up, the question of once saved, always saved in Exodus 32:33, and then what we just read in the New Testament in Revelation 3:5, once saved, always saved is not scriptural.
I don't believe it is. I believe we have to continually ask for forgiveness. I believe you can be saved and backslide and turn and get away from God, and you need His redemption, which He provides and provided for all eternity through the cross that He died on and shed His blood for you and I on.
So once saved, always saved. I don't believe once a sinner, always a sinner is true. And I don't believe once saved, always saved is true, according to the word of God as I understand it. So hopefully that helps.
What do you do if you sin and you don't want your name taken out of the Lamb's book of life?
You ask God for forgiveness. That's what Jesus did on the cross. It's so beautiful. It's for all of us, you know, Father, forgive me of my sin, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
I would go a step further and even say, Father, forgive me of all my sins, committed knowingly or even unknowingly. Sometimes you can do things that's a sin and not even realize it until God points it out or Holy Spirit points it out to you.
There's examples of that in Leviticus where a person made a certain expression and caused someone else to sin, and they didn't even know it. They didn't realize they were causing someone else to sin, and they were being held accountable because someone else sinned.
Just always, and I recommend start every day early with Father, please forgive me of all my sins. If you're a parent over a household like the book of Job tells us, he got up in Job one and two and asked God to forgive not only himself but all of his household. Because there's that patriarch authority, where if you're a mom or a dad and you have children or you have your spouse, you have children and grandchildren and so forth, you have the ability and the God given ability to ask God, please forgive all of my household of all of their sins.
Job did. It's in Job one and two, you'll see it. I would encourage that every day - better off, you know, overcome through the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony, and just try not to sin, be conscious of it.
And if you do, be really quick to ask God. Oh, please forgive me if you've hurt someone else. Please forgive me. Tell them I'm sorry. Please forgive me. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Amen.
Amen. Have a blessed day.
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05:46
28 October 2024
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05:56
28 October 2024
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03:47