Hello and welcome to one on one. We are so pleased that you've chosen Christian programming to be in your homes and we are honored and blessed that you have chosen us, Buddy and Veronica McLaughlin, to come and to break the bread of life with you and bring the good news. And yes, it is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, we need good news.
We need more good news, Veronica. We need to share it, boast about it. You know, let's go to the highest mountain and yell about it, write about it, preach about it, teach about it. That's what we're doing.
We're doing it with all of our hearts. But we're encouraging everyone that's hearing air voice today to do the same. Yes. It is the good news of the Gospel that saved us and set us free and can do the same for the world.
If we just keep pronouncing the goodness of Christ. Absolutely. And when we declare it, it's important that we declare our blessings every day. Yes, we go through some hard circumstances.
Yes, we go through some fiery trials and vattles. But if you would lay them side by side and count your blessings and then look at the things that are going on around us, we get tunnel vision. I know that I do. I get very focused on some of the negative things instead of the positive things.
And that has a tendency just to suck the very life out of you and suck out the passion in your life. That's what we're going to talk about today. The passion. Passion is your first love.
It's your joy. It's something that you just love to do. It's someone whom you love to be around. And when the enemy can come in and take to steal, to kill and destroy, to take that first love or that passion from you, then you become oppressed.
And then you become depressed. And then before you know it, you're like a deflated balloon. You have no joy. You know, you always when you're around people and you're talking with them, you're in their homes, you know, wherever you're together, you're always looking to see the things that interest them.
You know, what common ground do you have kind of thing? Our neighbor is a great example David. He loves astrology. He does.
And it has beautiful pictures. We post them on Facebook. Amazing. It is truly when you look in the galaxies.
But his passion has driven him to get the best equipment to play about the clowny days. As this table. I mean, when we see him sit that telescope out in the front yard, I mean, it's huge. It's like the Hubble telescope is out there and he's got all the computers and lines and they're in praying for clear skies.
It's been two weeks. Yes. And I can't get a picture. Especially the super moons that have been out just recently, we had the strawberry supermoon.
And it was pretty amazing. God loves to show off in the heavens. So David likes to catch you there. He drags out all these wires.
I mean, all these electrical hookups so he can track the galaxies or the star that he's looking at. I mean, he really gets into it. And the results of it are really beautiful with what he does post. It's really stunning.
Now I've got another friend who has done real well in life and he loves muscle cars. So the first thing he did was built this huge garage to park them in and would just park them. We could go look at them, fire them up and listen to them. I mean, it was just loved the old muscle cars.
I'd say his wife really loved that. Well, that's why it was very far from the house of the garage. But you can sleep with your muscle car tonight. But he loves the muscle.
It's his passion. Yes. You know, and when you're in the sales world, that's one thing that you always do. You look around to see what in the common people have a lot of people like sports.
You see all the sports memorabilia around their homes and they talk the sports in their offices and you know, my office, I've got beautiful pictures and I've got pictures of my family and then Bibles and nice thing. I mean, that's my passion. That's what I love when someone comes in. You know, we love to be involved with nature.
We love to be outside. We love to be doing fun things together. So that's my passion is my family, but I have the same passion about work and a lot of people do. You do.
We're very competitive and people. I win. I win a lot. And we'll cheat when necessary.
Of course. That's my passion. Oh, but we know that with all the things we're passionate about, the thing we want to leave with you today and we're just going to put it on the table to begin with because this is really what it's all about. It's all about loving God first and foremost putting him first and all we do.
Let that be our passion. Let that be what we wake up praising God for all the wonderful things that he allows us the blessings that you were talking about. When you do pile up everything in your life, I can assure you the blessings are going far outweigh the times and challenges that we've gone through when it's been more difficult. Absolutely.
And with our passions, we sell out. We sell out, you know, when we got married, we were passionately in love. We sold out to each other. Word.
Our. We sold out to each other. Continually sold out to each other. You know, in the beginning, it was really sold out to each other.
You know, with God, we don't need to lose that first love. But with God, we need to be that passionate about him. We need to be so sold out for him, that first love for him that we love him and our lives are his lives. I remember saying that prayer to him on my knees saying, God, my life is your life.
Do with me as you will. That's my passion. God, use us. Use me in a way to touch your people.
It's the love that we have for him. We're talking about all the passions with the cars or hunting or sports. You know, people love that. But when you love God and you put him first and foremost and you're sold out to him, you're so passionate about him.
But the enemy wants to come in and steal that passion. He wants to come in and steal that first love with the circumstances, with the trials, with the journeys of life that life can be so very difficult. You know, even in a marriage, you know, it's hard being in a marriage many times raising children and the financial difficulties or illnesses that come along. And so many times you get tired and you just get weary.
That's what the enemy wants to do in our Christian walk. To take the passion that we have for the Lord, he wants to steal that from us. We have to be on guard so that we will always be passionate about God. We will always be sold out to him.
That's why I love David in reading about David, King David in the Psalms. You know, we hear him crying out many, many times, God, where are you? God, I am in distress. God, I need you.
God, my bones are waxing old. But then as you go on in the Psalms, you see that he's praising God. He's blessing God for all the many things that he has given him. And a prime example is Psalms 20 in verse 6 through 9.
It says, now I know the Lord saves his anointed. Why? Because David had been saved numerous times. You have to remember David is the one who killed the bear with his hands who killed the lion.
Also with that stone and slingshot he killed the goliath. So he knows, I know the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from heaven, his holy heaven, with a saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses.
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down, they have fallen and we have risen up and we stand upright. Save the Lord. May the King answer us when we call.
But when I read this, I am reminded that David is saying, remember, he's going to save us. He's going to be there for us. He's going to save us with his right hands. You know, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses.
But I trust in God. David never lost his passion. No matter what he went through and even went down the path of sin, he never lost that passion for God that he would cry out and he would say, when I cry out to you, Lord, you hear me. Isn't it good to know?
Well, you know, David was a man after God's own heart. I mean, that was the words from heaven, that he was a man after God's own heart. He knew that other kings and, you know, the chariots and horses are very significant here because he's talking about the strength of kingdoms. You know, what makes them strong and inetrable?
They have strong armies. They have resources at their disposal that makes them strong. But David also says, look, you know, I've seen them fall. You know, without God, it's wonderful to have all these resources.
It's wonderful to have all these things. But we're going to watch them fall because God, when you put him first and foremost in everything that you do, the victory is assured. I mean, that's what David hung his hat on, so to speak, was knowing and having that confidence because he called upon the name of the Lord so many times. The other kings, they called upon their captains.
They called upon their armies. They called upon the knowledge of warfare, of strategy, to be victorious. David said, look, I'm calling upon the name of God and then my victory is assured. And I know if you do not, what is going to happen?
You are going to fall. It's just inevitable that you will not survive this simply because you're putting your trust and your faith in things that are not of the Lord. Your passion has robbed you of victory. Think about what I just said.
Don't let your passion rob you of having a relationship with God because I'm going to tell you if you put God first, he says he will give you all things. Press down, shake them together and running over. If you're putting first and foremost, there are so many times the world's war is great. The toys and the things that interest you can lure you away from precious time with God.
If nothing else today, just stop and think about how much do I say thank you to the creator of this world who takes the time to come and to sup with me. He says he'll come and sup with you. If you'll open the door, he's knocking and you enter in and have dinner with him. What a wonderful thing that we can do when we call upon the name of God and when we do that, the assurance we have is victory.
The assurance we have is that we'll allow God to do for us what he did for David. God is no respecter of persons. So he assures us through his word, through his promises that we have those same promises, those same securities, those same opportunities to have the victories in our life. If we'll just allow God to be the one Veronica that we turn to, that we search for, that we pant after like a deer pants after the water brook as David says in another song and he loves God so much that he's telling us here in his word he's speaking out to the kingdoms of the world.
Hey look, I'm telling you how to get this thing right. Tell you how to get it right. You get it right by getting God in your life. Here is a God shaped hole in all of our hearts and nothing can feel that but God.
We've seen people. We've seen people addicted on drugs. Their lives are just spiraling out of control. We've seen people hooked on pornography that they're trying to feel that void.
We've seen people hooked on the lust of life, the power, the fame. We know them. We've seen them. We've talked to them.
We've pleaded with them to let them know that the only way to enjoy this life is not the toys as Buddy was saying. You know, that's all well and good. But if you do not have your first love, if you don't have your priorities straight in life, if you don't have the love of Jesus Christ penetrating your life, being first in your life, then everything else is vain. Everything else is empty.
Everything else is going to pass away. You know, I remember a bumper sticker, Buddy, that I like that. I looked at it and he said, I'm not of this world. You know, we get our hopes.
We get our minds. We get our affections on this world. We forget that we are just traveling through here. This world is not my home.
I remember there was an old song I would used to sing in the church. This world is not my home. I'm only passing through. Oh, if heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do?
We're only passing through here. But the enemy wants to get our focus on the things of the world. The things of the world are going to pass away their temporal. And it tells us in 1 John, chapter 2, beginning in verse 17, John is telling us and the world is passing away.
You know, every day we see it. We look at around us. We look at our children and we're saying, where did time go? What's happened?
You know, yesterday I was just 21 and well, I'm still just 21. But, you know, wow, where has time gone? It says the world is passing away and the lust of it. What is that?
The things of the world. The thing that want to occupy our time. The things that want us to be distracted. The power, the wealth, the money, the greed.
We see it all in the world, pulling it. It's wanting to suck us in. And he who does the will of God, but he who does the will of God abides forever. This is a short verse, but it's very powerful and it's a great promise.
It says the world is passing away. Basically, it's saying the only thing that we do for Christ is going to last. The only thing. Everything that we see in a hundred years, but it just blows my mind.
You know, a hundred years from now, where will we be? Where will you be? A hundred years from today. Probably not breathing on this earth.
I know that I won't. But the decisions that I make, the passions that I have today for Jesus Christ, knowing that I'm going to spend eternity with him, that's my home. That's my goal. That's my passion.
And you know, my real passion is to see him face to face. That's what I've always dreamed of. Imagine even as a child, even as a little girl, I would have dreams of Jesus. I would see him and he would look at me and he would speak to me in those dreams.
He's always revealed things to me in dreams. And I know his face. I know his voice. But I really want to see him face to face, not in a dream.
That's my passion. That's why we are doing what we are doing today because we love him and we want to do his will. He said, he who does the will of God abides forever. That means that we're going to spend eternity with him forever.
We want to do his will. That's our passion. That's our love. And if you've watched us for all of these years, you know that that's our passion and our love.
It's not the fame. It's not the money. Not once will we ask you for money. If God tells you to do it, he'll provide for it.
He'll speak to your heart wherever you may be. But we will not ask simply because we love him and we know that his passion is to get out the word of God. And buddy, we do that with all of our hearts. We do that with everything that we know in us so that we can shake off the lusts of the world.
We shake off the things that the enemy wants to come to us with. And remember that bumper sticker, this world is not our home. I'm not of this world. I think I'm an alien.
I am not of this world. But what you're talking about are two different things. A lot of people mistake enjoyment for fulfillment. And what Jesus does for us and will do for anyone who receives him is get them fulfillment.
It's like children. You get around the Christmas tree. And you know, there's so much excitement. There's so much build up.
And then all the gifts are passed out and the kids are tearing them open and getting into sitting inside tearing them open. And when they're finished, they're always looking for another one. They're looking to see if they missed one somewhere because there is such a measure of enjoyment in each present that you get to open, but not fulfillment. Or you wouldn't be looking for another one.
And that's what happened with us when Jesus came into our hearts is we were fulfilled. It fixed all those gaping holes we had in our lives that we thought needed to be filled with the pleasures of the world with other things that the world trained your mind upon success and bright lights and fame and all the fleeting things that the world offers. We thought that was what it was all about just like everyone else. We were young and Veronica still is.
I was young and we enjoyed the things the world had advertised to enjoy especially me because I was living in the world. That's the only thing that I knew. I didn't know Jesus. I had never met him.
I had never met the one who could assure me that I could be finally for field because I was looking for the next party, the next person today, the next job, the next thing that I thought was going to fix everything that was messed up, that was going to take me to the next level, that was going to take me to wherever that place of utopia that I wanted to be. I didn't know where it was. But I do now. My utopia is in heaven.
My utopia is eternity because this life is but a vapor. It's so short. And it's a shame to waste it here on this earth chasing all these fleeting desires that are just about a moment of enjoyment but never fulfillment. But I can assure you, I can tell you, I can tell you firsthand because I know how it changes your life when you receive Jesus into your heart.
When you say, God, I want to live for you. I don't want to live for myself. It's desires anymore. Yes, you said, you'll give me the things that I need if I first put you first.
And that's what we're asking you to do today is to make Jesus your passion. It's okay to have these other things that you're engaged in. But the first love needs to be in your heart, the one that can give you eternal life foreverness because all these things that we have here on this earth, I don't care what it is, if it's fame, power, beauty, if it's money, if it's chasing all the desires of your heart, none of those will last. They're all going to be left here when you leave this earth.
They'll all be left behind. They're only on loan to you. But the one thing I'm telling you about today is forever, is eternity, is what God wants for you. He wants you to be fulfilled.
He wants you to have that assurance that victory is yours. We stand at the graveyards and we preach funerals and we know there are those who go on and don't know the Lord. And unfortunately, we know what that means. The Bible is very clear about the two choices that we make.
And today we're offering you a choice. God is offering you a choice. We're just the mouthpiece that He's using to lay it in front of you right in front of you right now. And all you have to do to receive this gift, to get your life straightened out.
Then you can enjoy all the peripheral stuff. All you have to do is say, Lord, forgive me of my sins, for I know that I'm a sinner. I know you died on the cross, for my sins you were buried and you're roasting on the third day. Forgive me, forgive me, Lord, and make me new.
I hope you just did that. I do. Now, what we ask you to get yourself into a good Bible-based church, get into the Word of God so you understand the beautiful promises that are yours. You can see through history how we can do things and not make the same mistakes.
It's such a beautiful Godbook. The Bible is just chock full of energy, chock full of beauty, chock full of information that is designed to help us, each and every one of us, that have the passion to do that. I really hope you've made that choice because boy, you've enjoyed a lot of things. You're finally going to find fulfillment.
And fulfillment means wholeness, means you got it all together. And I know it'll take time, took me a lot of time to feel like I had it all together. But I'm telling you, Jesus, that animal will throw all that stuff away that you just asked me to forgive you for. I'm going to cast as far as the east is from the west and never to be recalled.
So you can rest assured, again, assured in Jesus that he will love you and he will stick with you closer than a brother. Yes. And you know, David told us in Psalm 34, 8, he said, come and taste and see that the Lord is good. And those who seek the Lord, you will not lack any good thing.
You know, it's God's good pleasure to take care of us, that we don't lack any good thing, that we can walk in healing, that we can walk in that joy, we can walk in that contentment. Because when we come to him and we taste of him and it's like, wow, where have you been all of my life? I remember when Buddy gave his heart to the Lord the very night when we got home and I had been praying for him for two years, the salvation that's the part of our testimony that really launched this ministry. But I remember he looked over at me and he said, wow, why didn't you tell me it was this good?
And I'm like, well, I've been trying to tell you that until you really taste and see until you can get rid of all of the other junk that's in your life and empty everything out. And we know we've had junk in there, we've had temptations in our lives. When I was 26 years old, I signed a country music contract with Mercury Records in Nashville. I was ready on my way to start him.
My name in lights. And then I got a phone call from my grandmother and she said, remember, you were called, you were an anointed and you can't take that anointing just anywhere. It broke me. And I said, God, I don't want to lose your anointing.
I'll give everything else away. And do you know God opened the door for us to be a Christian ministry? It wasn't that he wanted to take something away from me. He wanted to give me the fulfillment of ministering to you today.
There's nothing in this world that we love more, that when we are on television ministering to you or in Colosseum, Zarena, and churches and we see the tears staying faces in front of us looking up at us saying, God has changed my life. That's our passion. That's our heart. And we're praying that it will be your passion and heart as well because there's nothing more for feeling.
And you may say, Veronica, I can't be on TV or I'm not a preacher. Well, you can sure pick up your phone and you can sure minister to somebody. You can write somebody a card or a letter. You can even be nice to somebody.
Going through the drive-through that's having a hard time or walking through the grocery store. Minister right where you are planted and I'm telling you, you will be fulfilled when you put Jesus Christ first in your life to do what he has called you to do. You know, he doesn't want to do without us. We all have a part to play.
So don't miss your opportunity to follow your destiny. Whatever that is, we are here because God has a special, special plan for each and every one of us. It may look different, but God is using us all together to bring forth his plan for this great harvest that's coming. And I'm telling you, the best is yet to come.
We're getting ready to see the harvest of so many billions of souls. And when that happens, then we are going to receive the return of Jesus Christ. What an exciting time to live for Jesus. We counted an honor and a pleasure to come into your homes each and every week until we see you again this time next week.
Remember, God is always thankful. Hello everyone. Veronica and I would like to thank you so much for partnering with Duffsong Ministries through these many years. We appreciate your support, your love.
We look forward each week to coming and being a part of your life in your homes. Bring you God's Word. We are so humbled to receive your praise reports of salvation, of healing and restoration. We are excited to take this gospel across the world.
We know this next season is bringing great harvest for his glory. Thank you. And remember, the best is yet to come. We look forward to visiting with you again soon.
Until then, remember, God is always faithful.