You’re listening to a brother asks and building better Builders video education series production Hello friends and brothers this is Justin Jones with Masonic Improvement I joined with my co-host brother Dennis Yates hello Dennis hello everybody glad for uh glad for this opportunity to to have this interview
Tonight I’m SOC excited to introduce our guest tonight um and and you’ll understand why here in a little bit but um you know this guest has his his own uh business coaching businesses so his business is helping businesses so you know us we always like to to explore and
And tear into how we can do things better in our Masonic journey and I’m going to tell you this brother not only does it in his own business but he also does it in the business of Freemasonry he also assists is assists Us in so many different ways with uh from the inside
To the outside uh friends Brothers I’d like to introduce you to Brother John ngie also known as coach thank you brother Dennis I I truly truly appreciate the warm introduction and I hope I can live up to half of what that you’ve stated so far well we’re we are very excited to
Have you here you know we we have a lot of of of Brothers on the show with different backgrounds doing different things but rarely do we find someone who is actually doing the same thing that we’re doing or or I would say in a better way I mean you’re you’re a little more
Effective sometimes than what we do and and if it wasn’t for you I know Justin wouldn’t be back in Freemasonry and I certainly wouldn’t uh wouldn’t have much to do with my time during the day if I wasn’t looking at your random building thoughts every day and and plugging away
On on those internal discussions wow I’m WellMed Justin what did I do to contribute to your rethinking so I’ve I’ve mentioned I mentioned your name on this podcast several times before because um from my ears burning it was around 2007 or eight in that ballpark uh there was a period
Where I I left Freemasonry because it was it was not meeting my expectations At All by by any any stretch of the word I mean just so I I just walked away for probably a year or two and it something never really sat right with me because I
Felt like it was it was so much more like maybe I had missed the mark Or maybe I I don’t know it just didn’t sit right because I know Freemason had been around for a very long time and it didn’t succeed as long as it did by reading minutes and having chili dogs
For dinner and it was around that time I started doing research online just looking into the fraternity in your websites was one of the few ones that was actually out there that had any kind of relevant information in regards to providing more more depth to uh Masonic
Concepts you had some videos that were posted I must have watched them four or five times each one and so with with what I learned from the stuff that you were teaching at that time uh it it reinspect to the fraternity and and fact mic Improvement probably probably would
Not exist if well it wouldn’t because I wouldn’t have returned a free masonry but also the the content you’re putting out and seeing you on Facebook and everything it inspired me to to step up as well so you were it’s a huge honor to have you here we’ll put it that way
Because you you were my inspiration to come back to Freemasonry and equally WellMed by what it is that you’re now sharing with me I I had no idea I rarely get an opportunity here back from what I call the field I just basically spread that bread upon the Water
Continuously hoping that it’ll nurture and hopefully it’ll Inspire and I had no idea that well coincidentally it was 2009 where I wrote and published my first book and that was building hyam followed six within six months building Boaz and it was like a Cascade of books
Following I think I’m up to 16 now published and I’ve got 12 on the back burner at various stages three of which are coming to the Forefront but I I just I think this stuff that I’m sharing needs to be shared it’s it’s not been shared before
In the way that I’ve been sharing it and it’s very much what it is that I thought I should have been getting from the very beginning and I wasn’t in fact a good brother at the lodge that I was entered pasted and raised in he is the Catalyst I complained to
Him Don I I said uh I’m not getting the the stuff that I want and he said what do you want and I said well I’d like to have some lectures on Masonic education he says great write them up I’ll make sure you have time and at the lodge to
Present them and I was like be careful what you pray for man and incidentally as a result of his encouragement to do what it is that he suggested I wound up publishing the first book because after doing the presentations and the lodge people were coming up to me asking me
You know where can I get this stuff you know have do you have a writeup and after 12 or 13 writeups I said you know I’ve got enough for a book suffice it to say that I wound up getting my Perpetual membership as a result of
That within a you know very short time of the encouragement and I’m still hammering away at it and if I am blessed with time God willing I’m I’m going to keep on publishing as much as I can because I figure when we all come back we’ll have
An entire library to read and relearn all this stuff yes yes love that there’s a been a number of really good Masonic books that’s how they’re written by my brothers compiling their lectures and their Pres presentations so U yeah that’s that’s fantastic and that’s how it started it started as a
Compilation one after the other targeting just a general topics then EA fellowcraft to Master Mason and by the time I got done with the fourth book I wound up having enough material to actually tabulate a bunch of aphorisms and then start targeting specific topics like Ruffians and some
Me and what have you like the uh the eighth one in the series which should have started the Craft series is the building freemen was actually I got back channeled somebody way up there basically challenged me and said you’re you’re redefining things and I said no I’m merely describing what I’m seeing
And there huge difference between describing what I see and you know defining or redefining and all you’re using the word is and that therefore it’s a dis let me let me go ahead and write a book and maybe that’ll help explain it to you in this way it’ll all be footnoted
And all the references but I said The more I read the more I realized that the terms Freemasonry and masonry were really not being used a majority of the time synonymously they were being used distinctly different of course and there were people using them synonymously with no guilt whatsoever because well they
Didn’t know any better but when I read through the literature it became very obvious to me that there was a distinction being drawn by the two in the use and as you know dictionaries are historical uses of how a word is put forth over time and as I was reading
Through the literature in the 17 1800s I recognized quite distinctly that these words are being used differently and of course prior to 1717 the compound word Freemasonry did not even exist and yet you have Scholars well I use that term very Loosely saying oh well you know the English language is
In its Youth and therefore hyphens and spaces were okay and I said well yeah but when you read it within context you recognize quite literally why they had hyphens and spaces between the word free and Mason because if you read the way they were applying it it wasn’t
Freemasonry and yet there are brothers out there publishing books and getting quite a lot of notice taking the old manuscripts and getting rid of the space and getting rid of The Hyphen between free and masonry and taking utterly free license in bastardizing and misrepresenting what was originally out
There and so that was the eighth book in my series I had a fun time with that one oh very nice that’s a that’s a conversation we have a lot with uh with people is is the difference between masonry and Freemasonry and I’d like to hear your take on it since since you’ve
Written a book on it you are somewhat of an authority on on your your uh on your thoughts anyways on your speculation so I would love to hear what what you have to say brother Dennis before before I get into another Soap Box you’ve talked a lot about it you say
With others what is it that you’ve walked away with based on the conversations that you’ve had multiple times with Brothers what is your take well it it seems like with with masonry it seems like a a surface a surface layer of of thought that goes into it it’s a very literal
Thought process in in looking at the catechism and and the and all the ritual that we learn and and with Freemasonry of course it it’s in in what I get from it is that it’s it’s more of an enlightened speculation of of discussion and philosophy and and theology whereas when
When you look at masonry in Texas it’s it’s all about the exact literal uh workings of every of every uh symbol that that’s that’s in the in the repertoire of the ritual so for me it’s it’s a matter of a distinction between um a literal um and a
Speculative mindset on how you approach uh your masonry or Freemasonry that’s kind of what I get a great thank you gives me a a nice bearing on your experience and your conclusions and I love the way you threw speculation in there when I look back at all the conversations I’ve had
Ironically I wound up with exactly the flip side of what you came across with I found that through my studies whenever I heard the term Freemasonry it applied to the organizational structure and the organizational laws and the organizational traditions and etiquette the organization hierarchy the organizational lore and even the
Organizational history you know when I hear Freemasonry I think organizational mindset and that means that if you’re going to do ritual by God you do it word for word do not you know take any poetic license if you have to pronounce the word a specific way we’ve got that
Written down in the back of a book somewhere it’s all control about what the organization wants to see happen as a result of people engaging in what we Loosely considered membership when I think of masonry I look at what the ritual is telling us we have to do to become better
Men I think about the Entered Apprentice degree and Looking Through The Eyes of the ritual writers and saying what were they trying to communicate what did they hide in plain sight how do I have to transform my mind so that I can take the words and the intent that was written
Down in many different ways across many different jurisdictions and apply that to my person so that I can become the better John the better being so when I think of masonry I think of okay I’m supposed to work on my heart according to the Entered Apprentice
Degree trying to get all my dogs in order make sure all my ducks in a row make sure I divest myself of all those things things that are excessive and harmful in my life and make sure that I build virtue left and right so that I have a very strong foundation for what
It is that I am asked to build further and when I think of masonry I think about its purpose which is clearly in from my reading if I look at The Trestle board The Trestle board basically reminds us to erect a spiritual building agreeably to God’s rules and designs as
Laid out in the great books of Nature and Revelation well that’s masonry’s purpose is to bring an individual up to the point where they can be able to understand the Master’s word get those rules and Designs start directing the spiritual building and as a result of building or should I say erecting that
Spiritual building I can then go forth into life and become a a spiritual asset to not only my myself but my community my brotherhood and what have you and of course in order to understand the Master’s word you have to be capable of deciphering it and that is what the
Fellowcraft work is all about the fellowcraft work is clearly training the mind to be able to understand the Trivium and the quadrivium and as you know the Trivium is all about symbols as they appear as words and the quadrivium is symbols as they appear as numbers and why the D
It’s real simple if if you look at the mission the purpose we’re supposed to erect a spiritual building and the only way you can do that is to glean what the Master’s words are in reference to rules and designs and you’re only going to be able to get that in two different
Directions one is the Book of Revelations and the Book of Nature and if you look at the Trivium and quadrivium the rivium is all about understanding scripture and when you hear the term Book of Revelations you’re not talking about the last book of the Christian text The Book of Revelation is
The revealed word of God which is written in scripture and you’ve got a variety of religions out there with scriptures of their own all professing or claiming that this is a revealed word of God well you’re not going to be able to understand any of that unless you’ve
Studied the Trivium you have to understand basic grammar you’ve got to understand the logic and most of all you’ve got to understand rhetoric which includes idioms which scripture is filled with idioms and you know simple thing like genesis 2 the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil well if you
Understand Hebrew good and evil basically means of all things the whole gamut you know everything from good to bad and so when you hear the term the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil we’re talking about the tree of knowledge of all things and if you read it literally
You’re going to say well that’s that’s has to do with morality no it has to do with everything everything from good to bad and everything in between and so the balance it creates Bingo and so we start out with the Trivium so we can read the
Word of God or what I call the Master’s word because once again the Master’s word is an idiom referring back to God’s word but God’s word comes in two forms one is the scripture and the other one that we all understand to have been spoken into existence which means what surrounds us
Which is the written word of God as it is displayed as nature and the only way that you’re going to understand nature is if you study the quadrivium because the quadrivium literally puts math onto to Nature to explain how it works and all the permutations of that
That go on and I count my blessings that I have an engineering background because when I look at nature I actually see equations I see how it operates and I count my blessings because not many people have taken the time to go that far down that rabbit
Hole so when I talk about masonry I’m talking about not only build building a better Builder which of course you know that is my catchphrase but I’m also talking about taking those Builders to the next step and having them erect spiritual buildings and that could be done first
Solo and then looking at society and family and building a spiritual building there because there’s many rooms and it just it keeps on expanding once you understand how to build your own spiritual building it’s just replication after that but you have to do it according to God’s
Rules and Designs which is again Masonic purpose and every single thing that I just went over has nothing to do with Freemasonry because Freemasonry focuses on the organization but the neat thing about it is Freemasonry has taken the time to put a structure in place so that if a
Message can be gleaned it can be run with and this is one of the reasons why I do what I do because by being a member of the freemasonic order I have been ordered to go out there and practice what it is that I preach and if what it is that I have
Embraced in my life as an obligation requires me to build or shall I say erect my own spiritual building I’ve done that and what I’m doing is I’m helping others recognize they can do it too you can do it in your lifetime you don’t have to be trans positioning off
Your deathbed you know to to get the Master’s word and to be able to complete your temple I said no all this stuff is supposed to be done here and now why because by God we’re supposed to be applying this stuff and that’s masonry and unfortunately there there’s not very
Many people who actually glean that message in our order so I’m hoping that will change there’s there’s two things I’d like to ask you about real quick based off what you said granted you can we can spend an entire six months to a year or a lifetime just unpacking everything we
Just covered right now um depending on how deep you wanted to go but the first thing I wanted to I wanted to bring you up is you’re talking about the quadrivium and the mathematics behind everything there’s a a saying and I don’t know that’s really attributed to
Anybody or if it is I I could tell you who it is right now but it’s basically along the lines of a little science will take you away from God and a lot of science will bring you to God and what’s that really resonated with me
Because I I mean I’m a Christian I’ve been a Christian my entire life however I’ve studied a lot of physics for my degrees and things like that and I’ve also done quite a bit of programming just as as a hobby over the years and once I really started diving into physics I
Realized the nature is made up of numbers and everything is quantifiable there there are rules just like programming There are rules set in place with with numbers behind it defining what happens and it’s it’s it it really spoke to me that there this is evidence of of a higher power somewhere out there
That that created everything with these rules and these are these are the rules Quantified you just have to you have to understand and see how to learn how to see that and so that that’s very interesting to me that you brought that up I was also going to ask with the with
Your definitions of masonry and Freemasonry which I I agree with I agree with your your reasoning and your logic it almost sounds as though the two could operate independently of each other well they do operate independently of each other there is not a thing I can ever say that I’ve done masonically that
Could be directly attributed to Freemasonry other than the fact that they provided me a a nice clear road map of something that I have already accomplished in my life MH and it was when I walked through the door for the first time and heard everything going on
In the Entered Apprentice degree I said well good God you know I got my act together I I got my heart together got my time management together so I did that in 12ep you know 11 years before so you know it’s like when I look at what
Freemasonry offers it’s map a very clear map but you have to take time to look and examine that map but literally I did a lot of my Entered Apprentice work during my 12ep days and for those of you who don’t know what 12ep is think Alcoholics Anonymous mine was
Codependence Anonymous pretty much the same 12 steps where you basically examine your life and you clean up your act got get rid of all your vices and superfluities get your time manager down pat and dedicate your life to making sure that God manifests God’s self with
Your support in your life well good gosh that sounds like freemasonary to me so when I got to the the fellowcraft it was like all right Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences well I just went through and got two engineering degrees do that count for anything and when I started
Studying the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences once again I did some refinement but God gosh I I went through all that and when you you look at the third degree you can take it as an insult literally you’re a Ruffian and you’re expecting to be provided with the
Master’s word and we’re only going to give you a substitute because you haven’t done the work of the Entered Apprentice and fellowcraft work or you can look it as a celebration an acknowledgement of the work that you did do and I took it that way I I was
Giggling at the substitute because it’s like you know doesn’t anybody else get that the Master’s word is right there well part of it is right there on the altar I mean it’s hidden in plain sight we’re calling it The Master’s word but the our Master is the Lord Our God and
There are his words and the addition of nature in that trustel board talk said well you’re right because when God spoke everything into existence we as men wrote down the scripture a whole bunch of different people transcribe what they heard God say and they wrote it down
Into a book so now we read it but how do you transcribe the word that was spoken into existence if not for the math to understand how it operates you know the rules and designs of creation and it’s beautiful it’s elegant and at that particular point it clicked for me like
Oh okay so here I’ve done the EA and fellowcraft work long before I even joined but I’ve never put it together the way that Freemasonry created a map and so my task was to basically decode the map so that Brothers can see what it is that masonry
Is asking of them and what Freemasonry is offering to them it’s not just a matter of going through learning a bunch of grips handshakes and signs and getting a membership it’s all right now you’ve got three road maps you know are you going to follow them or are you just
Going to be a member a a member of the freemasonic order or are you going to Mason up and become a Mason and so I’m I’m on my soap box I’ll stop well it actually makes sense it actually makes sense the way that you’re putting it you know because we basically had the
Same thoughts just difference of of which words were where so a distinction you saw there was a difference yes oh absolutely ABS wonderful I just wanted to tell you I’m listening to you talk about the the different degrees and and um and I’m U I’m thinking about a
Presentation that I wrote um with an apron and a brother of mine shared this this thought with me and then I expanded on it just a little bit but you know you have the when you start off as an EA the the triangle is is up right it correct
And and the square is down so the square could represent Earth and the the triangle represents Divinity so in that point in that instance you’re as far apart from God as you as you can possibly be because you’re still Earthly and God is up here well in the
Fellowcraft you think about how the apron is done and with the tools of the fellowcraft you’re actually reaching up to God you’re trying to you’re you’re taking the initiative to work towards God by using the tools that the fellowcraft gives then further as a master you have the two come
Together whereas you finally as as a master you come together with God and and you’re a master of of your of your existence with with h with God and I I just I was thinking about that the whole time you were talking I’m just sitting there going through it in my mind he’s
Saying exactly what I believe and mother nature is I I personally believe that there’s no way that you can you can defend definitively say that God is is um is a man or is is a male of male aspect it has to be both if you
Know for creation it has to be both and there has to be balance and and I I think about as a kid hearing the terms mother nature and you know and and then father God and and whatnot and and I’m looking at it now thinking that that is
The balance that is the balance you you have to have the the um the you know the the the physics in in nature to go with the spiritual of of uh Divinity to to have the balance in our universe that we need I I don’t know I I could be way off
Maybe I’m speculating a too a little too much with a little too much Scotch but that’s that’s my thought and I’m sticking so many different directions I’ll start with the apron what’s really neat is if you take a look at the apron you’ve got the four cardinal virtues which
Represent the square and you got the three theological virtues which represent the triangle and if you put the triangle on top of the square you literally create a house structure but if you understand that the house was created by putting the four cardinal virtues below the theological virtues you recognize that what you’ve
Actually created is a house of virtue and that’s exactly what it is that an Entered Apprentice is supposed to be building is a foundation for completing their Temple which can only be done by clearing the groundwork so to speak getting rid of the vices and superfluities and then strengthening the
Foundation now I’m going to have to go and rewrite that paper thank you I appreciate you this this is is the one of the deepest conversations I think we’ve had in a long time I love it like oh like I’m going to go back and do so
Much research in some of these things so this is this is fantastic I’m I’m loving this well back to the where you followed the thought of the apron into the concept of God and nature one of the things that I’ve discovered and I like Dennis
Prager’s take on it but I’ll get to that later because it just it resonates with me we personify God and as a result of personifying God you have whole cultures that personified God as a man and you had whole cultures that personified God as a woman in fact
If you take a look at the sun and moon in some languages you have the masculine sun and the feminine Moon and then you have it reverse in others and you notice that their their FA s because they don’t have it talked about God in the masculine sense or the feminine sense we
Have a a dominant portion of the beliefs right now with male Centric deity but if you understand one of the oldest faiths that has is still being practiced the Jewish faith throughout the entire text you have God being referred to both masculine and feminine and it all depends on what
Attribute they’re trying to assign to God based on the story and what their needs are what I love about Hinduism is they’ve got all these different masks for God and they all are not fooled by the fact that they’re just masks in their faith they understand there’s one
Central source and all the face is All The Masks of God come from that one source and their understanding of God is that in order for God to be of any use and O any help to a human being that person has to identify the aspect of God
That is best for them and so for one person one masks works very well and another person that mask is utterly out of the question they need an entirely different mask and how they best relate is to put a mask on God that they can relate to so
That they can have that personal relationship with God but none of them are fooled into believing that the mask is God it’s just a way that they have to hang a mask on so they can relate as a human being to God and so yeah it’s it’s a beautiful
Faith and and unfortunately there are a lot of individuals who are literal and they think that if you use a different name for God you’re talking about a different God there’s only one God but I call God one thing and you call God another and you have your a totally
Different understanding of God than I do and you have an utterly different experience of God than I do you’re not wrong I’m not wrong it’s our experience of God and you know it was funny somebody’s started hammering away on something I posted on my Facebook page
Uh having to do with the word Allah and they just tried to rip me a new one and I said you do realize that the word Allah is a transliteration for the word god literally when you say Allah in the language they think immediately God they
Don’t think oh Allah you know you know a specific God God no they think God and the interesting thing is if you go into certain areas of the Middle East the arab-speaking Christians and the arab-speaking Jews and the arab-speaking Muslims all refer to God as Allah because that’s the
Word literally we say Allah but when they say Allah we think Allah because it’s transliteration we don’t think God we say Allah but when they hear Allah they’re thinking God and right away I mean I’ve got these very literal people that they insist that no it’s a different God
It’s you really want to start reading what is called gramatical texts and studies about grammar in other languages and and look at the logic and maybe even the rhetoric that is involved and we’re talking about the Trivium study and a lot of people they haven’t even a clue
As to what it is that they’re concluding how falsely they are rendering their conclusions but if we go back to the Jewish faith of which the Christians have some of their texts in their text also there’s two different locations within the Jewish text about not creating idols and as a consequence of just
Living life I’ve recognized so many people that I know have created idols and have never come to really understand and experience God they they’ve got this thing that they’ve created and they put it in front and they act as if that is God unlike uh the Hindus who recognize
No it’s just a a mask so when you I can tell you go ahead go ahead I’m sorry go ahead I’m sorry you can tell me that’s great I’m I’m done I just I just want to say I want to interject real quick sorry Dennis you’re gonna have toit I
Just comment me oh my gosh not every Idol in our life is a golden calf and and people people expect something when you say don’t make Idols they expect that means don’t make don’t make a a False Image but sometimes the idols we have in our lives are in
Here and and that’s what I was going to say as well you know the beauty of Freemasonry masonry I’m going to use those to together because we’re we’re on opposite ends here just on theology but on or on words but the the beauty in the Masonic journey is that we can discuss these
Things with 100% conviction that we are students we are students of this thing called life when when I was younger um my understanding of God even as a good old southern baptist my understanding of God was an i an ideology it it was an idol you know it
It was this thing that I manifested in my head thinking that this was God instead of understanding the the depth outwardly expressed as well as inwardly it for me God was a literal thing up in space right it was it was he he was a literal thing the space wizard yes
And almost like the odds right but now I’ve I’ve come to this point to where I understand that that God is all things and in all things and of all things and is within me as well that I am part of that spirit I am part of that or
Organic thing that um that expands as as I go as my as I allow as I allow my intellect to to journey to uh to speculate God expands within me and without you know that it it’s just amazing to me that we can have these conversations that that’s the beauty of
Of masonry is is that we can have these conversations and not get stuck on the idols that we’ve had in the past and be able to get through to the nuts and bolts of of uh of our existence and and our purpose you may me think of a of a post
That’s on Facebook today Dennis in one of the Masonic groups and it was a brother was a Texas Mason and he basically said if he ever saw he had been a Mason for 47 years and he he had ever seen or season in the future a book
On that altar that is not the Holy Bible he is walking away from Freemasonry and uh it’s like 47 years in you still have not learned one one of the most basic teachings ever fraternity that’s that’s very unfortunate there are lodges around the world that don’t have the Christian text
On the altar there are other lodges around the world that for every member every Faith they have a book on the altar representing a members Faith which I just think is absolutely the exemplification of what we are all about but I understand in the State of Florida we’ve got literally an edict
Saying no the furniture of the lodge that’s how it starts out is the Holy Bible and goes into you know the Christian text but we allow for the book of the candidate to be put on the altar if it happens to be a different one it is left on the altar
Unopened or closed depending on what faith they are until the time of the obligation whereby it is positioned for the candidate to take their obligation on my own spin on this is that the book on the altar ought to be a representation of what should be edged
In a man’s heart if you have a representation on there it’s symbolic it really makes no different what is there because what’s etched in the man’s heart overrules anything that they might put their hand on it’s a nice formality of putting your hand on a book that
You respect and abide by but if you are going by the book in your heart no matter what book you put your hand on it’s the book in your heart that you really are handling during the obligation that’s my that’s an interesting yes that’s a that’s an interesting thought with with that
Thought you know we could almost have a a book with no words on it and and it would be just as much of a representative of of what it what the meaning is and what its significance is there anyways if if we did I I heard at one time one of my
Favorite um Masons he’s now passed he was the chaplain of of my Lodge for many years and um he would always say you know the when we say the grand architect of the universe he may be thinking of one God he may be thinking of another God and he
May be thinking of another God that’s the beauty of Freemasonry and you just explain the exact same thing that ultimately when when you hear the grand architect of the universe immediately in your head you’re going to your to to your representation of of deity and and
Not not thinking that has to be the same as anyone else you’re just going into your to to conversation with your representation of be that’s where a lot of misunderstanding comes from in our fraternity from from the from the outside looking in a lot of people
They’re not at a point in their life where they can understand that concept as you just explained it they think that we are literally praying to our own deity the Supreme architect Universe like we’re we’re a cult or we’re our own religion and they don’t understand this
Concept where God it’s just a name it’s just a label that we put on that deity to identify him and it like you said it doesn’t matter if you call them Allah or God or or Odin or or anything under the plethora of of different faiths out there um if as long
As you in your heart are praying to what you believe this everything else is just a label and and you I’d say it’d be nice to be able to educate these people but I don’t think that they’re at a point I don’t think they’re at a place where
They can come from that kind of understanding I agree with you I Love the Way Dennis switched up from your God and your God and and my God and all that too by the end of the of your description you clearly stated it’s our understanding of God and that’s where I
Go back to what I understand about the Hindus my particular understanding of God is going to be utterly different than somebody else’s and as I had said I mentioned Dennis he indicated why God is a male and I love his explanation because what my experience of femininity is that they’re loving and
Caring and they’re in meshing and they they’ll take over your life and being a caregiver whereas males basically say suck it up this is life this is what you need to do they go out there and do it or you’re just going to wind up suffering if you don’t and nobody’s
Going to pick you up and what I really love about it is the god that is expressed and described in holy RIT has got both masculine and feminine attributes and I’m more inclined to follow through on a leader that is a male than a touchy feely female that
Basically saying oh well you know you want to do this here let me help support you in that and you know a guy said says you want to do that go out here’s a lawn mower you know go on your ke I like it a lot and most of the time when I
Am reaching out I reach out to a male representation in my mind and in my heart where there are times when it’s neither masculine or feminine it’s just an energy I’m calling on and asking for guidance and other times I’ve got the nurturing all right I just want a Pity
Here so you I need somebody to kind of Soothe My Wounds and I need a more feminine take on it but I like the way the masculine image affects my decisions and ultimately what it comes down to is I always try to imagine God in the way that best
Supports me in my time of need and in my time of aspiration and inspiration so it switches left and right in between and it’s all over the place dominantly male but there are times when I I need a more feminine approach and I I say hey God
Here’s the approach I need right now and usually the masculine comes back I’ll tell you what you need yeah right right is that’s men’s approach in context of what you’re saying I was thinking about the Bible itself and The Duality of God as we as we discussed and it’s always stricken me
How the Old Testament is is so fire and brimstone it’s my way of the highway and the New Testament is is much more forgiving and as you’re talking I’m I’m seeing that Duality the the Old Testament is is very masculine and uh the the New Testament is is much more
It’s much more feminine even though the the predominant characters are all men uh most of them you still have a very the the the god from the New Testament is very different from the god in the Old Testament in that it’s it’s a lot more well it’s the New Testament is all
About forgiveness it’s all about it’s it’s very feminine in its nature when you compare it to the Old Testament well not to get too far on a tangent but I’m sorry th this is a great topic I I love this top not to get on
Too far of a tangent but you know that’s also why so many people mistake um the path of Jesus is you know only turning the other cheek and I’m okay you’re okay and this and that and not be and not thinking about the Jesus that flipped
The tables in the temple you know they they they forget about that Jesus but it’s all about the forgiving Jesus and the loving and nurturing and caring Jesus and and so yeah that’s that’s interesting that uh that you brought that up go ahead a flip side of uh of those stories that
You just said would you like a flip side of absolutely absolutely okay understand that the stories that you are reaching for have been feminized from a mascul take Jesus was asked what do I do and he said what do you mean what do you do well I just got
Hit on the cheek by somebody now if you don’t know the culture of the time and the rules and the Traditions you will come across with a very feminine take basically give them an opportunity to do the right thing give them the other cheek and hopefully they’ll be
Compassionate with you and and basically not hit you again but Jesus was a shrewd attorney the guy knew the law and he knew the people in the culture and the traditions of the time when somebody hit you in that culture they hit you with the back
Of their right hand you could not hit anybody with your left hand because that was that was a dirty hand because if you hit somebody with your left hand you would be sinning but if you hit somebody with the back of your hand you’re dismissing them you’re basically saying you are
Less than me and I can get away with that by hitting you with the back of my hand to show everybody that you’re less than deserving why because if you hit them with the Palm you are now hitting somebody as if they were your equal so if you wound up being hit with
The back of the hand if you quickly offer the other cheek well they’ve already hit you they’ve slapped like this and now they’re on this hand and if you quickly offer the cheek and challenge them if they don’t hit you with the Palm they’re backing down they have now degraded themselves in the
Front of everybody including you and if if they if they do hit you with the palm of their hand because you basically confronted them they’re now telling you that they are equal to you and you are equal to them so it if you if you turn the other cheek you’re
Literally confronting the aggressor and you are forcing them to make a decision you’re either going to back down and be less than me or you’re going to hit me again because I’ve now challenged you but you’re going to have to hit me with the palm of your hand because the cheek
That I’m offering you cannot be hit with the back of your hand so therefore if you hit me with the palm of your hand you’re now telling telling me and everybody who’s viewing that I am your equal so it’s a win-win situation in fact it’s actually a win or win-win or
Win lose because the person who is aggressing you you have now used the law in your favor and turn the tables on the aggressor you’re no longer being oppressed you’re now being short up by challenging the person who hit you with the back of their hand and Jesus was
Basically saying turn the tables on the aggressor give him the other cheek therefore you can’t lose you can only win or you could actually be rendered Superior if they back down and the same thing with the cloak and the same thing with the going the extra mile Jesus was basically
Confronted what do I do they want to clear a debt and they are asking me for the cloak off my back and Jesus saidwell give me your cloak and give me your shirt as well because Jesus knew that the person who was asking for the cloak was an
Aggressor yes the debt was due however the way in which they wanted the debt paid was unethical so what do you do with somebody who’s being an aggressor who’s unethical in asking you to pay a debt which might actually jeopardize your life because you’re taking the cloak off
Your back well you say what you do is you take your shirt off as well because the moment you take your shirt off you are now naked and if you are naked they will see you and if they see you naked that’s a sin and now they have to ask your
Forgiveness because of their transgression against you and now you are in the position of dictating how that forgiveness is going to occur well the first thing you could do is give me my shirt then the cloak and by the way if you want to be TR totally
Forgiven and not in my debt forgive my debt so what happens is Jesus knew the laws and basically said turn the table on the aggressor the person yes was indeed due the debt being paid however how they’re going about it was unethical so what you do is you turn the tables on
The unethical aggressor and you put them in a position where they now owe you would you want to hear that M walk too please absolutely absolutely gota finish the story okay you know I’m not here I don’t I’ve never heard this in my church no me either and
It’s unfortunate but again Trivium study the uh rules of grammar logic and rhetoric learn the idioms and traditions of the time and the laws and this stuff actually comes to light so let me let me go uh somebody said to Jesus Jesus they’re making us carry their equipment
One mile and Jesus said we’ll go the extra mile he wasn’t saying be overly generous you know do go the extra mile just just to prove that you’re the bigger person he was saying turn the tables at this time in their history they were in under occupation by the Roman
Legions literally under occupation and part of that occupational law was if a soldier asked you to carry their equipment one mile you were required to not only carry it one mile but do it for free and they were complaining to Jesus you know we’re being asked to carry this
Equipment a mile for free and Jesus saidwell go the extra mile why because all you have to do is grab their equipment and run down the road and you go two miles three miles four miles the the first mile is free but if they can’t catch up with you and you’re down the
Road five miles they owe you for four miles of carrying right how soon do you think the Roman soldiers are going to catch on that if they ask the people in this area to carry their equipment they’re going to have to run alongside the people who are carrying their
Equipment to make sure that the they’ only go one mile otherwise it’s going to cost them you know a week’s P pay in some cases because if if I were in that situation I would be running as far as I can you know Marathon Man I would be
Running and I would be demanding pay and if the Roman soldier didn’t pay me i’ go to his lieutenant or what Sergeant Commander whatever it is and I say hey here’s where I picked it up here’s where I dropped it off and he refused uses to
Pay me well that’s against the law so nice nice so you know Jesus was a very shrewd attorney he knew the laws and traditions and the etiquette of the time and in that culture he basically said to in every single instance turn the table and if you don’t believe me look at the
Context to which he said it you have heard the term eye for an eye but I tell you love your enemies why do you want to love your enemies because they are going to give you the very means that you can turn the table on them and be their
Superior and they will not take advantage of you if you understand how the enemy applies the laws you just apply the laws better than them wow but you know this is this is Trivium you know this this is knowing how grammar logic and rhetoric works and then going into studying and finding out
Okay you know here’s what was said but what is the context to which it was said in the times and the laws in that time and why would something so simple be missed particularly by the ministers who are preaching because it’s been very feminized and the masculine manner if
Somebody hits you on the head you turn the table and basically say okay you got me there but let me show you what that’s going to cost you you know masculine is you know we’re we’re going to have a a fist of cuffs and then we’re GNA have a beer afterward why because
We’re we get our Just Desserts and then we say okay that’s behind us what do we want to do next will you just beat me up say yeah let’s have a beer it’s extremely masculine but I’ll get off my soap I want to ask why do you believe that the New Testament has
Become so feminized interesting that you ask that that’s what I was gonna talk about actually if you look at the fact that the gospels Mark Matthew Luke and John you know them as Matthew Mark and Luke and John but it’s actually Mark Matthew Luke and John that’s the order in which they
Were written that’s not how they appear in the Bible these were Jewish ministers ministering to a synagogue these texts were written for a Jewish crowd who absolutely knew what each gospel was referring to in the Old Testament they were written with Jesus as the main focus but they were written
With references back to the Old Testament let’s cite an example where um whereas Elijah and Moses parted the waters Jesus walked on it and he parted the heavens you know the the reference was Jesus was the next one in line and he was doing things far greater than the other prophets well this
Particular Focus was not just masculine there was a lot of feminine influences in the synagogues in fact they they the synagogues didn’t just have male leaders they had female leaders and as a result you have a feminine influence on what was written because you were not only
Speaking to the male congregants but you were speaking to the female congregants and you had to have some way of making sure that you didn’t lose those followers they were very Progressive so when you start out with that as the context and then you build with letters for people who are basically following
These gospels you’re going to have that feminine tilt and you’re going to have that feminine influence the neat thing is that you’ve got a masculine oriented Focus Jesus the Christ and yet he showing all the compassion that you would expect from a a nice merger of both masculine and
Feminine traits which again was the target audience for when these stories are being conveyed to the congregation so it answer to your question Justin you had both a masculine and feminine focus at least the first hundred years and the interesting thing is that as the Jews who originated these gospels Lost Their
Audience what happened is Paul and and a few others started trying to get the non-jewish the Gentiles into the mix and unfortunately the Jewish people who lost interest in these were replaced by the Gentiles and the Gentiles didn’t understand the rich connection between the New Testament stories and the old
Testate connections so beautiful book that you might want to read is the Bible with and without Jesus it’s a beautiful book I read most of it there were like two or three chapters that I glanced through that just I had no interest at all in them but the majority of them are
A Christian and a Jewish scholar discussing how particular texts scriptures are understood by their religion and so the Jewish take was presented and the Christian take was presented and they multiple chapters multiple examples of how the entirety of a text is understood a specific way and it could be absolutely the opposite of
The other based on the Jewish understanding of how that correlates back to the Old Testament versus the Christians understanding of how something correlates back to the Old Testament if you really want to understand why there’s such a sism it’s because when you read the gospels and you don’t
Have a rich history behind you what happens is you hear the texts and you understand them in relationship to the Old Testament that’s should Jewish take whereas the Christian take is you read them and you go back looking to see how it correlates to the Old Testament as so
The approach is literally the opposite the Jewish take comes into the scripture and understands it within the context of Old Testament whereas the Christians hear the text and go back to the Old Testament to justify conclusions that they come to and which have been come to over ages
And two two different conclusions wow I’m sitting there listening to this and and you’re talking earlier about grammar logic and rhetoric and you know for those who who have not listen to anything you’ve ever said on the Internet or anything you know many people have said is you know grammar is
Is basically symbols that are made in order to get your thought across and logic is of course being able to um understand it and utilize it to some degree and then rhetoric is being being able to communicate thoughts between one person and another when we when we look at what
You’re talking about I’ve heard people in the past say well if you don’t understand um Arabic or if you don’t understand um the the symbols of of of a Judaism if you don’t understand any any of these other languages then then you just really have
No idea what the Bible is saying but you know in reality it’s not just about the symbol it’s also about what you’re saying exactly which is the point in time what what was going on at that point in time that’s something that I ref reference a lot whenever I’m talking about
Mason because we look at all these lessons that that we’re learning and as you stated earlier you can’t just consider you can’t just take things that face value when when you’re thinking about the ritual that we go through we have to look at what was the the architect of this ritual trying to
Relay to us in in in this moment and and then you have to take it back to the the 18th century or actually before that really it’s it’s more like the the 13th 14th century you to go back to some of these rituals and you really have to go back
To that time and see what was going on in their culture in in their in their world to understand what they’re trying to get across in in that ritual I I think it’s important that we think about that remember that when we’re talking about these things because it it is so
Relevant to the lessons we’re supposed to be learning I think the the trick to what you’re saying and I agree with what you’re saying is that not only do you have to look at the culture but you also have to understand a few things that every jurisdiction has slightly different
Verbiage in different places and that the English language itself has changed over time so much like you’re talking about the Bible you have to with the Bible you have to look at the culture and the historical context as well as the original language in that context
It’s it’s almost the same thing with the ritual you have to you have to look at the the oldest version of that ritual that you can and understand because a lot of things that are said in the ritual they’re not explained because it’s just assumed that people at that
Time would understand the significance of of what is happening uh and that that has been lost to time so I think I mean it’s a rabbit hole but I absolutely agree with what you’re saying what I use often in my talks is a term called semantic
Drift and I’ll give you an example what that looks actually two examples the term freeorn whether it be a compound word hyphenated word or a spaced word the term Freeborn was first used in the second oldest English manuscript the first one states that an apprentice and I’m paraphrasing Apprentice must be able to
Birth and the second manuscript like I think 58 years later says an apprentice must be able to birth that is to say Freeborn with all limbs intact and what’s happened is because of the idols of the marketplace and look up bacon on that one people people have bastardized this guessing what the term
Means and what they’ve done is they’ve taken Freeborn and rearranged the words say Born Free and that just basically means not born a slave and when you look at the manner to which it was used within context trying to explain able of birth and you really want to get a
Handle on what Freeborn was intended to mean when it was first used and then applied to freemasonic Ritual and entrance requirements you’d come to understand that you’ve got to investigate able of birth when you investigate able of birth you basically come across the following understanding that at the very beginning of their
Apprenticeship they must be fully capable of being shaped into the end resulting master of their training or by their training and therefore nothing would inhibit or prevent them from becoming a masterful person of their trade so the easiest way of understanding is they’re Superior stock their Excellence stock as in they have
No impediments mentally or physically that prevent them from being shaped into the master that is intended by the master who is training them however if you come with limbs lost well it might prevent them from becoming a master if they can’t communicate might prevent them from becoming a master if they
Can’t think through and understand and learn if they don’t have the mental capacity they are not Superior stock in all these particular cases because it would make it much more difficult for them to learn the trade and also be taught the trade and to have them use
The tools of the trade if things were missing mentally or physically so when you hear free born in this particular context it means basically that The Apprentice comes to the table fully capable of learning the trade with no no flaws that would prevent them from becoming a fully
Realized Master wow now let’s fast forward this word perfect assigned to the perfect ashler which first appeared in 1812 I think it is and finally was explained a little further in 1814 in some of the monitors that were created around that time the word perfect during the 1800s did not mean
Flawless did not mean smooth it didn’t mean equal sides the term perfect meant mature informed adult and if you look at the end goal of the apprenticeship is to turn a youth into a man and therefore the perfect ashler is one that is rendered as a consequence of
Doing The Apprentice work whereby when they come through the gate for the second time as a fellowcraft they are a man adult fully informed W mature yeah and unfortunately you have a lot of religious influences where people say nobody’s perfect and when I hear the phrase I’m saying okay do they mean
Nobody’s Flawless or do they mean nobody’s mature adult here because if it’s the latter God help us I’ve been just like that yeah thank God they didn’t know that I’m that’s all I’m saying they might not let me in and when you look at the perfect ashler it actually was
Referring back to the original statement which was a perent ashler which was basically a stone uh rendered to the point where it was usable uh or should I say suitable for the Builder’s use and it it there’s no raising an unsuitable ashler so when you’re talking about a perfect ashy you’re actually talking
About a perent ashler which is a stone that has been rendered and it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a cubicle Stone in the sense that it’s three dimensions a keystone is a cubical stone and so our statue and so and so forth but when it comes to the point where the
Stone has been shaped to the point where it’s now suitable for the Builder’s use then it’s raised and not before and when is it raised well if you go back to the beautiful metaphorical connection to the fellowcraft degree it’s by climbing up the stairs and and specifically the last
Seven of the 15 where you are learning the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences and you are raising yourself so good stuff so so I’m going to give you an example you were talking about grammar logic and roric grammar are the building blocks they are the way that we communicate the
Raw Essentials whereas logic we put the words together in such a way that we communicate truth or fallacy but rhetoric is where we communicate beyond the usual typical literal definitions of the word into the figurative and metaphorical realm I’ll give you an example of that in the
Genesis God puts his spirit inside the man and basically turns the humus into human the earth into an Earthling the you get you get the play on words here yes and as a consequence of the animation of dirt he turned Adama into Adam Adama means dirt or red clay into basically a
guy literally you could call the guy clay what happened was God says to the creature now I created all this stuff and I created you because before I created a whole bunch of humans in Genesis 1 but in Genesis 2 I created this Garden there was nobody here to
Till it so I have created you to till the soil which a lot of people don’t get and not only that but as things are growing here every tree of the garden you can eat of however in Hebrew it says it’s interpreted as butt however is you know
A butt in a tuxedo you can eat of this other tree however should you eat of this tree the tree of knowledge of good and evil or metaphorically was the idiom the tree of all things things knowledge of all things your life is going to change forever however in the Hebrew it
Says on the day you eat of this tree you will die surely die now unless you’ve studied Hebrew and understand that when a word is repeated it’s considered an exaggeration which basically a flag to the reader saying hey you shouldn’t take this literal this is a figurative
Expression so on the day that you eat of the tree you’re not going to die but your life is never going to be the same so God was speaking metaphorically figuratively to Adam fast forward beginning of Genesis three the serpent now is talking to the check and saying to her did God really
Say you could eat of all the trees well yes God did say you could eat of all the trees but what Eve says is well he said no we couldn’t eat of this tree because if we even touch the fruit we’re going to die well she was actually lying the first lie but
If you look at what the serpent said he asked a question a legitimate question and the answer is well yeah that’s exactly what God said you could eat of all the trees and when she responded as she did he turns around and says no God knows for
The day that you do eat this you’re going to become like him and knowing Good and Evil all knowing all things so what’s happened here is the serpent was literal he was just spoton it just straightforward just a facts you know like Sergeant Friday you know just a
Facts ma’am whereas God was speaking metaphorically which gives you a good idea that if you don’t study grammar logic and rhetor God speaks very figuratively and you’re not going to be able to understand it if you take God literally you’re going to be misled but you’re going to be misled by
Yourself because of your misunderstanding whereas when you talk about the serpent which kind of represents nature he’s going to tell it like it is literally no no no yes yes yes this that and the other there was no lie either by God or by the serpent in the
Garden but if you don’t understand how to read it and understand figurative versus literal you’re going to turn around and say well God doesn’t lie and if we take God you know seriously and take his words literally they’re going to die if they eat of the tree and
Therefore and you go into all these conclusions when it’s not even communicating any of that and if you look everything that the uh the serpent said was true because they did become I mean at the very end God in the end of Genesis 3 says look behold man has
Become as one of us knowing good and evil it’s like well didn’t the serpent just kind of say that was GNA happen you know and the interesting thing is we get into a study of logic where I have people say well it was because they ate
The tree that they are now mortal and they’re they’ve degraded and that was a sin and I say well you know then why did God ban them from eating the other tree and what was the purpose of the other tree we call the tree of life and didn’t
God at the end of the story say he’s Banning them because least they reach out and grab and eat of the Tree of Life they’ll therefore live forever and say myself well if they were perfect in the very beginning then what was the need for the tree of
Life so the study of logic now brings into question a lot of the conclusions that were provided to us in this particular story were absolutely off and you have to start looking at things a little bit differently and of course you know when you come to understand that the dichotomy of if
They’re ignorant how do they know they’re doing right or wrong so therefore if they ate of the tree before they knew what it was that was right and wrong or good and bad and good and evil then therefore how can a person be judged as criminal for taking an action
That they know no better of so therefore was Disobedience of God’s word a sin and if it wasn’t a sin then when did the actual sin occur that got them boosted out of the garden which you know it’s in the story but you gotta look for it interesting so logic you know just
When you when you actually examine text and you don’t look through it through the rose-colored glasses that you were provided as a youth they say when the minister says see they disobedient to God’s word there and they for it’s a sin and that’s why they got boosted out of
The garden and when it clearly says at the end the reason why they’re boosted out of the garden is because God didn’t want him to eat of that tree of life and live forever so it’s like all right so were they kicked out because of Disobedience or were they kicked out
Because he didn’t want them to hang around making a mess out of the garden I got you thinking there didn’t I yeah yeah that’s what what I was just thinking that you what’s cool is that you’re going to have probably 500 people going back and looking at their Bible
Because are you sure about that what did coach say there yeah exactly speaking of speaking of going back and looking I wanted to I wanted to let everyone know why I wanted you on this show so badly right now and that is yes the the yes the truth is revealed
So the the big secret is that brother John will be coming to Texas in January to visit us during our grand annual communication and hopefully you have a bunch of books to bring with you that you can sell I I plan on bringing 20 sets uh 20 sets uh I have 16 different
Books that I published and I’m bringing 20 each and uh I’m hoping I don’t have to carry any of them back very nice I I agree with you that whenever you go somewhere and you take your products you just don’t want to have to take them
Home and what’s interesting is I say 20 sets of 16 books but when you understand that’s 16 books times 20 that’s 320 books it’s like that’s what I’m going to be carrying truck yeah it’s it’s like I I started thinking about how many books is that holy crow that’s a lot of books
Well if you need help moving around just let me or dentist know so we’ll be happy to assist for that we’ve got plenty of brothers that’ll be there to help as well I’ll have a booth at the at the uh at the popup shop as well and or I’ll
Have a table there as well and so uh we’ll we’ll get you set up and and make sure that that you’re well represented there well I’m I’m very I’m gonna be right next to yours so that we can basically continue the conversation right right well the and
Also I wanted to let you know that we announced on our last um discussion that Masonic Improvement is having a dinner on Thursday night if you’re coming in on Thursday Thursday night we’re having a dinner with all of our Inner Circle members the um our our contributors to
The to the broadcast as well as members that have been our speakers in the past and uh some other friends from around Texas that uh that I know you’ll truly love and adore so um if you’re there by Thursday then hopefully uh you’ll be able to make that dinner with us
Start do what what time does that dinner start the dinner will will begin I’m telling everybody to get there around 6:30 to the bar and then we’ll we’ll begin the dinner at 7 um we have a private room that’s uh that is that is
Booked for us only and uh so we can talk about whatever we want to and uh and have a great time with Freemasonry and we’re going to have a presentation as well as uh as well as good food and discussion at the at the same time love to have the opportunity to
Break bread with you likewise at this time let’s go ahead and open it I know I know brother Nei is in Florida so his time’s a little different than ours so let’s go ahead and open up to final thoughts go ahead brother Nagi oh I’m just very much honored to get to
Know both of you I know Dennis more than I know Justin Dennis and I have interacted on the phone and through the private messenger Justin and I have had some interactions off the Texas Freemasonry website and always an interesting dialogue and discourse going on between all three of us when it comes
To the Texas Facebook page I look forward to those interactions when they start getting Ruckus it’s just it’s a fun time because some great ideas are being exchanged and not only they I consider them great they’re entertaining and I learn a lot from the interactions and I
Think that is a lot about what this Brotherhood is for so that that old saying steel sharpening steel uh everybody brings to the table their own understanding and we are able to refine our understanding by interacting and and being challenged sometimes Times by our brothers I I had a brother I worked with
Beautiful Jewish brother Orthodox and he would say to me you know John in our religion in my particular uh fashion of study we never study scripture alone in fact it’s kind of against the rules and I I say why and he said it’s real easy to fool
Yourself but if you’re studying if you are studying and you come to a conclusion you are obligated it’s a Mitzvah to share your conclusion with your brother and in turn it’s his Mitzvah to challenge you and basically require you before you leave to justify and back up your
Conclusions and I took away from that conversation some unbelievably strong heartfelt commitment Aid of my own that when I come across something to share it with as many people as I can to refine my own thoughts and refine my conclusions and show how I made the connections so that the best that I
Could ever produce will be produced because the brothers took the time to have me justify how I came to the conclusions I did and I don’t think enough of that is done in our fraternity I think something is said and people just accept it and they move on and it
That’s not good enough for me I want to know not only what your best conclusions are but I want to know the best thoughts that brought about those conclusions because I may learn from the way that you thought through that conclusion and if I can learn I want to
Make sure that you give me your best thoughts on how you came to your conclusion because I might want to adapt that same thinking and strategy with my thinking so what you have done here tonight is you’ve opened the door to further discourse further sharpening and further refinement and I look forward to
The potential of us continuing the conversation into the future I love that Dennis I assume you want to go last okay all right uh I just want to peig you back back off what you’re saying brother in that um if you look at the the earliest episodes of masonic Improvement it’s
Just it’s just me just talking and I realized I’m not really growing by just by just preaching right from from from YouTube and so that’s that’s about the time I started bringing on other people and that that really forced me to these dialogues that that I’ve had over the
Course of these last few years uh has really forced me to re-evaluate a lot of my pre-existing Notions and a lot of things that I I thought I was 100% sure about until I started hearing other people’s thoughts and their sides so there’s there’s a huge amount of value in what you’re
Saying and I I by that same token I’m not suggesting that people shouldn’t give presentations and they shouldn’t give lectures however if you’re if I’m doing it through YouTube I don’t hear any Fe back I’m not having discussions with people afterwards it’s just me talking good job submit you know
Upload submit and just just watch the likes come in or the dislikes however if you’re actually doing it in person with people that’s that’s an entirely different thing so I I strongly encourage like you’re saying share what you learn uh if knowledge that is not shared is knowledge ultimately waste is
Lost so it’s it’s very important to share what you learn and have that discourse and grow from that and that that’s part of I think that’s a huge aspect of Freemasonry and it’s a huge aspect of just being human is learning and growing by that with that said I also
Want to just um I want to jump back to something we talked about at the very beginning of this conversation and that you were you were a huge influence when when on me when I came back to fraternity at a time when there was not much information uh about Freemasonry online
In that time period it was there and know starting to grow there were some forums that were that were becoming popular uh there wasn’t really much on Facebook at the time and so you’re you are the the the light on the hill for me and I’m sure many other people and so I
I really appreciate everything you’ve done over these over these years to uh to to share that light and to to basically practice uh you were practicing Masonic Improvement before I knew it was even a before this was even created for I knew it was even a thing so uh you have a
Huge amount of gratitude for me and um think I’ll leave it at that thanks again Justin my brother I I hope friend um if a man a soul could be proud of the bread that comes back that he’s cast um no I love where where you’ve taken the inspiration
I I am WellMed by how far you have run with the inspiration that you claim came from this direction and if this is any indication of what is to come I am eager to live out a long life to see where you take it appreciate that all right Dennis well that’s kind
Of tough to follow went you always reget going you [Laughter] always okay so again to to state the obvious anybody who’s ever heard me speak online or or even in our Forums on Texas Freemasons on on uh any of the Facebook pages I belong to you you hear
Me state that I want you to challenge me I want you to change my mind if you give a compelling enough reason I am not opposed to changing my stance on anything that that I believe and that’s a fact I mean it it and that goes all
The way to the presence of God in my life that I am that much of a student of of living I am I I just want to live I want to evolve I want to become the uh the man of integrity that that I picture in my mind’s eye and
That can only happen when I entertain the thoughts of others and and learn from other brothers who who give me insight into their own Journey because we all have that Journey we all have our own insights based off the journey that we come from that are going to shape our
Our thoughts and and feelings on any given topic and unless I can open myself up to uh not sympathize but empathize with other people and see their journey through their mind’s eye through that rhetoric through the through the grammar logic and and rhetoric that we’re taught in in
Masonry when I can when I can see that journey and see their and understand their thoughts thoughts and and feelings on a topic I may just change my mind and I’m happy to do so brother ngie you challenge me regularly with your with your with your
Uh posts and and I love it because I and and you notice I I’m probably more outspoken than a lot of people and like you stated previously people tend to think that we feel like we’re know it alls because we say this is how it is well it is how it
Is in my own Mind’s Eye right so I’m speaking from my my point of view and and until I’m challenged with it I’m not going to change that and so it from my experience that’s what it is and and but you get it and and then you tend to ask
The questions that that make me have to look at myself and and the thoughts that I have on certain things and I love it I love it I love that challenge and and I’m grateful to have gotten to know you I’m I’m grateful that you that you’re on the show and I’m
Grateful that not only do we have our presence but you have your presence online which for those of you who don’t know go to uh coach. net that is John’s website www. coach. and that’s his website and not only can you learn about um Masonic um truths and and philosophies but you can
Also learn about business truths and philosophies that’s it’s what he does he he not only teaches us masonically but he teaches us um in the secular world as well so if if you need help in in your journey as a as a u as a man as a Mason
As a leader then I urge you to go to his website because it’s it’s a valuable resource to any man who’s seeking more life I would also like to invite you to the the um to the popup shop at Grand Lodge so that you can purchase his books and and
Uh I’m pedaling a few things as well I’ll have the flask so that you can drink while you’re read books what are you uh what are you selling at the popup shop I will have a few apron cases and uh and some flasks and and stuff like
That I I actually engrave flasks in fact I’ll have one for you I’ve got one for you we call them coffee we call them coffee flasks in Texas because they don’t like intoxicating Liquors in Texas they don’t hold hot liquids very well though I’ll just tell you that it gets hot pretty
Fast I had a brother had a brother feel his up at a at a reunion it’s like I would not recommend it right right but you know you’re gonna you’ll have an opportunity to meet with other authors you know Bradley kohany uh Chris Williams be there those are my two uh
Mentors and they’re always within earshot of me to make sure that I’m I’m in line at all times so that I don’t get myself kicked out of the fraternity but I I did want to say thank you and I did want to um relay that it’s it’s people like you not just us
That that are helping to to shape and mold this Brotherhood that we have into a better place you know there’s so many brothers that feel like they’re on an island out there and and they’re not getting the Freemasonry that they thought they were going to get you
Know just like Justin did I did a lot of people had the same story but we have this medium to where we can guide them to back to the fraternity and back to uh masonry as we see it and and now you’ve got me saying masonry instead of Freemasonry
But but you know thanks to thanks to you know the Pioneers like yourself and then us as the uh as the late bloomers you know we’re we’re touching people we’re bringing them back and we’re shaping this fraternity into what we what we see as as a beautiful gesture on mankind to Grace God’s
Presence that’s what I think our fraternity is all about and I thank you and I think all of our listeners and our guests and uh I’m going to be looking up these same things that you’re going to be looking up so don’t be mad I have a lot of notes
So I’ll be looking them up too well but I can’t wait until you get here I can’t wait well thank you again brother Niki and thank you brother Gates as always and I’m looking forward to seeing you in person both of you in person this January y’all have a good evening thank
You you’ve been listening to a brother asks and building better Builders video education series production
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