Now it's time to put me on the hot seat.

And you are already there.

I'm already on the hot seat.

All right.

And I am interested how you're going to respond

to this first question.

Marilyn says, a few friends and I all go to the same church.

We pray together several times a month at one of our homes.

Our pastor has indicated that he disapproves of this,

because our meeting is not an official church function.

Are we doing anything wrong?

You know, I marvel at the narrow-mindedness

of some pastors.

They are not taught.

They're not learned in-- You know,

John Wesley was with a friend, and they

went into a fish market.

And two women who were just going at it-- I mean,

they were screaming obscenities at each other.

And Wesley said, let's get out of here.

And the friend said, no, stay and learn how to preach.

Those women learned how to do it.

Of course, meeting together-- you read the New Testament.

They met together in homes, and they shared their food.

And the original Communion service

was people having a meal-- the Seder

or some other meal in their own homes.

I mean, you want to encourage-- the pastors ought

to encourage people to pray wherever they could.

All right.

Exactly.

All right.

Dear Pat, I have read The Secret Kingdom two times,

and I'm going through it for the third time.

I understand The Law of Reciprocity,

and give in many ways, but my question

is, please explain The Law of Use in terms of money.

I understand the three servants and the five, two,

and one talents, but I need more please.

All right.

There's a fundamental law in the universe.

I think Einstein said it is more powerful

than any law he knows about. s It's

the law of compound interest.

The exponential curve.

And what Jesus essentially was saying, if you use something,

the more you use it, the more you will have.

And the less you use it-- I'll give you an example

from physical strength.

If you take a light weight, two pounds,

three pounds, five pounds, whatever,

and you're doing weightlifting.

And you take it, and then you add a little percentage,

like 10% more, and then you add 10% to that.

And before long, you'll find that you're

doing a press with 500 pounds, or 50 pounds, or 1,000 pounds,

or whatever.

And your muscles will grow tremendously.

But if you bind your arm to your side for a year,

or you don't use it all, when you get through,

you couldn't even lift a coffee cup,

because you've lost everything.

Unto him who much is given, much will be required.

And if you use what's given to you, will get more.

Whether it's music, whether it's studying,

whether it is some skill, whether it is speaking,

whether it is whatever-- that's The Law of Use.

And it is the foundational law of human growth

and development.

Great answer.

All right.

Denise writes in, what does the Bible say about eating pork?

I was told because it's in the Old Testament it does not

apply to us.

I'm confused.

Well, in a sense, the Lord gave all foods.

He said they're all clean.

But a pig doesn't have an extra stomach.

A cow has extra stomach.

And a pig eats garbage, and the garbage is processed directly

into the meat.

And so, if you don't cook pork you

can get trichinosis and all kinds of worms,

because the meat has these worms in it.

But pork, now, if they process it properly, is very clean

and it's very nice.

They say "the other white meat."

It's good.

But they didn't eat pork in the old days,

because these pigs were rooting around in the garbage.

And the garbage was being processed into their meat.

But it was listed as an unclean animal.

And God gave them specifics as to what they should do.

If they had a cloven foot, and they chewed the cud,

and so forth, you could eat that meat,

and the others you couldn't.

Why?

Well, I think primarily it was a health issue.

You know, like oysters and things,

they're not healthy for you, because they're

out there scavenging around in the garbage.

So that's where it all is.

But we are free from that now, in the New Testament,

because the Lord says so.

All right.

Bacon.

I can't imagine--

You can even eat your bacon and go eat a pork chop.

OK, go ahead.

Donna says, when I was growing up,

I endured a lot of emotional and physical abuse from my mom.

In my mid-20s I went to her and told her

that I forgave her for everything she had done to me.

Her reply was that she had done nothing for which she

needed to be forgiven.

How does God see this when someone doesn't

think they need forgiveness?

Good question.

Well, that's between them and God.

It's not between you and God.

It's not for you to determine who needs to be forgiven

or not.

But you did the right thing.

You went to her and said, I forgive you.

And if she isn't astute enough to realize

that her abuse of you as you were a young girl

had profound consequences in her life,

well, that's her problem, not yours.

But you've done the right thing, and now

you just get on with it.

You forgave her.

You are free from that.

Otherwise, you'd have been carrying a burden of hate

all your life.

So that burden is off your shoulders.

You are free.

The fact that your mother doesn't have sense enough

to receive what you did means that she is insensitive,

and then I would say you pray for her

as you would for any other heathen.

And I ask that God will bring mercy and forgiveness

into her heart.

And even though the mom didn't come back with an "I'm sorry,"

that's probably what she wanted.

But a lot of times, we don't get that.

So we still have to let it go.

Let it go.

Absolutely.

Well, our Power Minute comes from Psalm 46.

"Be still, and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted on the earth."