Roe V Wade

LIVE EACH DAY WITH PURPOSE PODCAST
EPISODE 16: ROE V WADE with NICK LOEB

 

Nick’s Movie, Roe V. Wade premieres tonight, Fri, Feb 26th at CPAC!
Roe V. Wade, Available On Digital + On Demand April 2nd!!!

 

Nick is a producer, director, and actor with a distinguished career in front of the camera, as well as working in corporate development, motion picture finance, and production. During his career, he has worked with entertainment greats such as Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Gerard Butler, and Jon Voight, among many others.  His next film is Roe V. Wade, a project that he wrote, directed, produced, and also has one of the leading roles, playing Dr. Bernard Nathanson.  Roe V Wade is releasing in April.

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Fairytales Do Come True

 Amy J. McCart

Christian, wife, mother of 4 kids ages 6, 7, 9, &  11, like most moms, Amy does her best to get her kids to all their sports, theatre, & after-school schedules.  She has had two books published and looks forward to writing many more. In the meantime,  most school days she can be found helping out in her kids classrooms as room mom and helping her husband run several of their business’. Aside from their 2 podcasts, Family on a Mission and Kingdom Success, they have some real estate business’, a network marketing business, an options trading business, & some additional family ventures. Amy loves volunteering her time but also comes alive at any public speaking opportunities that arise. She is passionate about helping this next generation run after Jesus and encouraging them to pursue purity in their dating years. Her perfect day looks like writing Bible studies and books until about 11:00, re-emerging into her home, and speaking at Youth or Woman’s Conferences across the country…. but for now, getting hugs from 6 and 7 year olds at school is a pretty perfect day too! She is in love with her hottie husband of 20 years and also enjoys working out.
You can follow her life on Instagram and Facebook @amyjmccart.

What brought you to write your book, Fairytales Do Come True, When God Writes Your Love Story?
I always knew I was going to write this book and that it would probably be my first book because I lived it out and saw it to its finish. A testimony of how God is so faithful even when you feel like you’re not worthy. It’s a fairy tale story, one of those stories that should be in a movie. I just didn’t know when I was going to write it. So, in 2010 after my first child was born, I just felt it was time and I began the process of writing. I typically wouldn’t consider myself that sort of a writer, I write devotions and things that dive into scripture. So, writing Christian fiction was a little different. But it was awesome and has been neat to see how it’s impacted, people.

What is the process of writing a book and getting a Publisher? How did High Bridge Books get involved? Well, I have a really interesting relationship with the Holy Spirit. When I wake up and have my quiet time, I might journal and read a little bit from what I’m currently reading. I may read through Proverbs, a Bible reading plan, or a specific devotion. But I always take time to stop and listen to the Holy Spirit, allow Him to speak to me, or just be still, and stop asking questions. One morning while I was in my quiet time, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Alright it’s time to start your book.” I was just starting to get through all my answers of why it wasn’t the right time to start and I’m like well, but I don’t have a publisher or an editor. Who would do the artwork for the cover? I felt like the Holy Spirit came back and said, “You don’t need any of that stuff because you don’t have a book. The first step that I need you to do is write the book.” But I don’t know how to write a book, I’ve never written a book, and I was just giving Him all the reasons why I couldn’t do it yet. So, He gave me a very simple plan and said, “I want you to write for one hour every morning before you have your quiet time, for four mornings a week.” My response was probably getting a little legalistic, but I didn’t want to spend time writing before I had my quiet time and spent time with the Lord. I always want to give my first fruits to the Lord, my first part of the day. He said, “This is me asking you to do this. This is part of your first fruits, you’re giving first to the Lord.” In that season of life, I had just resigned from Corporate America and my first child was nine months old. So, from the time I woke up at 7 am until about 11 am I had that time to write, with a 20 min break around 9 am to feed my son. I’d set a timer and just type. I wouldn’t go through and edit or try to fix anything. I just wanted to get the entire story out on paper because there’s a lot of hard parts to the story. So, that was kind of the process of writing the book.

Now the process of finding a publisher was pretty seamless and easy. My husband has a podcast, called, “Kingdom Success Podcast.” He interviews Christian business people in the marketplace and had interviewed this gentleman, Darren Shearer who is the publisher of High Bridge Books. I was at the point in the phase of my book that I needed a publisher, so I sent him an email and a copy of the manuscript and the rest is history.

How many mornings, weeks did it take you to write the book? It was September 2010 when I felt lead to start writing because the Holy Spirit had given me a deadline. He told me, “I want you to be done writing by December 31st.” Since I had never written a book before, I didn’t know what that would look like. I was about a week late on my deadline, but I finished the first week in January 2011.

How did you get into speaking? We’re business owners so I’ve spoken on the business side of things. More opportunities came about as our business became more successful. Speaking in front of an audience from a couple of hundred people to about 18,000 people. Though I look forward to breaking out into the speaking circuit as an author.

How did you start writing devotions? I’ve always been a writer. After I broke free from Corporate America and embraced my role as a mom and a business owner. I had a lot of time to spend doing what I like to do which is researching and looking up the Greek and Hebrew meaning of words. One morning in 2010, my husband said, “Why don’t you start a blog?” So, I did and to date, have written over 500 posts. Probably half of them having to do with Proverbs 31. While reading through Proverbs a lot of them reference the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman. Which is another book I have on my list to write. I’ve already started on it because I knew I could pull content from my blog.

Were you able to use a lot of the content from the book for the study guide?
The study guide was a whole new entity. One of my best friends, Stephanie Rice has a gift for discernment and knows what content needs to be there. She thought this was a book young girls needed. We wrote the study guide together, going chapter by chapter. I would begin writing and she would go in and read what I had written and add anything or remove parts. We prayerfully did this together. The study guide was my cup of tea. Because digging into the Word is what I love to write about. The study guide was fun to write, but the first section was challenging. If you’ve ever read the book, “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers, this book would be today’s version of her book. The first part of “Redeeming Love” is very difficult to read because there are some really hard sections. In the first section of my book, you’re looking at the life of the main character who is living in the world, a non-Christian life doing what college students do. She’s partying and getting herself into some bad situations. The study guide allowed me to delve deeper into scripture. From a Christian perspective, I was able to give warnings that I wasn’t able to do in the book. Whether the main character was flirting and getting into a bad spot. Being forced into things she didn’t want to do that would be considered borderline rape. The study guide allowed me to look at and identify warning signs and red flags for the reader.

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What dating advice would you give to single women? Probably, save it all for marriage, everything. Every piece of purity should be saved for marriage. When you meet your dream man, the last thing you want to be thinking about on your wedding night is someone from a past relationship. You don’t want to have any flashes of being with another guy. Thinking of how he did things differently or did he do things better than your husband is doing them? That is the last thing you want to think about when God brings you the man you’re going to be with forever. You don’t want those intimate details of the past flooding into your new life. And they will unless you just have spiritual amnesia or by God’s grace, he lets you forget everything that you’ve ever been through. That, unfortunately, didn’t happen with me because I remembered a lot of that stuff and I think the enemy wants to tarnish what God meant to be beautiful. He’s going to try to sabotage your thoughts and bring back that past relationship or that boyfriend. Honestly, if you believe that God can bring you this knight in shining armor riding in on a white horse and everything you dreamed. Then he’s worth waiting for. He’s worth you saving foreplay, fondling, and other things that you can get into when you’re in a relationship, just for him. I would just say to every single woman it is worth the wait. I want to emphasize that if you’re engaged it’s not even worth giving some of that away during your engagement. It’s worth saving what God designed for marriage for that wedding night. The more a female gives herself away all of those things just chip away at you and they bring you down. Sure, we can receive healing for all of that, but it just begins to chip away at our hearts. I feel it’s worth saving it all for marriage.

For women struggling with memories of their sexual past. Is there something you’d recommend to help them through that? Well, this might be an interesting perspective, but, if somebody pees in a pool it’s very diluted with water and chlorine. But if it was in a cup you wouldn’t want to drink that because it’s disgusting and not diluted. The same happens with sin in our life. When we put something in our mind it stays there but we can dilute it by putting good in. I would say it’s the same thing with women who had sex before they were married or maybe have been with a lot of people in their life. Let’s stop that behavior, those sexual activities, and those physical relationships. Stop putting the bad in and begin to dilute them with the Word, let’s saturate ourselves with good Christian books. Start with being in the Word and having a regular quiet time every morning where you’re just pouring good in. Some of those images may never completely be gone or they might be. I’ve been married for 20 years now and we say that we’re still on our honeymoon and it just keeps getting better. But I had a lot of experiences from my past. I don’t remember things that I had done, but I think that’s because of just years of diluting it with good. I’ve been pouring in the good, whether it be listening to a good podcast, good audio, reading a good book, being in the Word, or having regular quiet time. I think that married women can overcome that and dilute a lot of that stuff. I also think it might be helpful to be open with your spouse. I had experienced more than my husband had. He’s the knight in shining armor and yet I had a black sheep past. I had some baggage and he had very little. He got saved at nine, spoke at a church when he was ten, and started FCA at his high school. He was the homecoming king, prom king, and Mr. athlete, but he was sold out for Jesus too. He is what gives me hope that you can love Jesus and still be popular and look cool.

Is it possible for someone with a black sheep past to meet an amazing man of God, her knight in shining armor? It’s absolutely possible! That is what this book is about! Maybe we should change the title to, “How the Black Sheep Married the Knight in Shining Armor.” Because it is possible and I’m a true example of it. Your readers will just have to read the book, but my past is pretty checkered. But, when I turned my life over to the Lord and started living for Jesus, when you surrender it all to Him you’ve been forgiven! You’re as white as snow, your sins are as far as the east is from the west. Jesus forgets it all and he went to the cross, shed His blood so I could be forgiven for all the stupid stuff I did in my past. When I ask for that forgiveness He’s already forgiven and forgotten so from then on, it’s just me needing to forgive myself for the things I’ve done. When the enemy brings it up and says, “No, you’re not good enough for him, or you’re not worthy of someone like that, or you don’t deserve him.” You need to take every thought captive under the obedience of Christ Jesus and say, “No! I don’t know who you’re talking to satan or enemy but last time I checked I’d been forgiven of all of that.” Just as it says in scripture, in 2 Corinthians, “I am worthy because the blood of Jesus has redeemed me, and I’m forgiven.” In the book, it mentions an old song called, “What’s Sin” by Morgan Cryar. If you’ve never heard the song, you need to look it up on YouTube and listen to it. The lyrics are very powerful, and it says, “As far as the east is from the west, I’ve said what sin? What sin?” Because God doesn’t see that sin anymore. We just have to get to the point where we don’t see it, that instead, we see ourselves as redeemed from the curse and the past. I do deserve that knight and shining armor.

For any female who has a checkered past, has a black sheep past, she can start new today, and ask for forgiveness. This doesn’t mean she won’t make mistakes still, because we are human. But every day is a new day, you can start new and be forgiven. It’s as simple as asking. I never dreamed that I would be married to the most amazing person on the planet. That when I met him that I could live a life where he is still a knight and shining armor. Not just through the courtship process but that it could be possible to live a happy and fulfilled life and be in love after 20 years of being on a honeymoon. It is possible because with God all things are possible. I’m a living testimony of it for sure. I’m sure thoughts of needing to settle happened back then but when I got sold out to the Lord, I was radically changed and did a 180. This changed the direction of my life and God just started to change me. My dream during that time was to marry a knight riding in on a white horse across the beach, that’s what I had always envisioned. I wanted him to be a Godly man and leader, but I also wanted him to be like a hottie. A big guy with big shoulders, a big back, and looking like a football player with a solid jawbone. I wanted him to look good, be fit, and just be attractive. So, I made a list of everything I wanted in my husband and God brought him to me.

What would you say to women who have baggage full of past regrets? Is there still hope for them to have a holy and amazing marriage in the future, just like women who may have a past of few or no regrets?
I would say absolutely! Again step 1, is going back to forgiving yourself first. After you have forgiven yourself and when the enemy tries to bring it up again. Go back to applying 1 Corinthians 10:5. If it’s the condemnation from your past, say out loud, “I refuse to take on that condemnation. I have been forgiven, my past is wiped clean, and Jesus has forgotten that sin. I am white as snow.” Just as it says in Psalms 103:12, “It’s as far as the east is from the west, so far, has he removed our transgressions from us.” That’s what this book talks about, someone with past regrets being able to receive their knight in shining armor. Once you’re forgiven you can believe that God will bring you the valiant, amazing leader, handsome, wise, treats you like a queen, knight and shining armor, the man of God you’ve dreamed about. It’s not a pipe dream. God’s no respecter of persons, He doesn’t show partiality just as it says in Ephesians 6:9 “If He can do it for me, He can do it for you.” We’re still on our honeymoon. Some people say, “Once you’re married, if you can make it through the first year or through the first five years, maybe you’ll make it. But, if you’re a believer of Jesus, every year should get better and every year has gotten better. We keep learning and growing in the Lord. We’ve become better parents, our finances have increased, and God keeps making it better. To someone with past regrets, don’t set your sights any lower than what God has designed for you because it’s someone awesome and amazing.


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Faith In The EndZone

 

Photo Credit: NFL

Scott Hanson serves as host of NFL RedZone, as well as co-host of NFL Network’s NFL Total Access along with Lindsay Rhodes. In addition to his responsibilities for NFL RedZone and NFL Total Access, Hanson also serves as a host for NFL Network’s on-location coverage of such events as Super Bowl, NFL Scouting Combine, NFL Draft, free agency and more.

Hanson joined NFL Media in 2006 as a national reporter covering all 32 teams. He transitioned into studio hosting in 2008, and was named the host of NFL RedZone during its inaugural season in 2009.

Produced by NFL Network, NFL RedZone whips around every NFL game on Sunday afternoons delivering the touchdowns and most exciting moments live and in high definition. NFL RedZone and Hanson are widely praised by the fans and media.

Hanson graduated Cum Laude from the prestigious Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University while playing football for the Orangemen. Hanson and his teammates were a combined 20-4 during his Junior & Senior years.

His other broadcasting stops included Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, WFTS-TV (ABC) in Tampa, WICS-TV (NBC) in Springfield, Illinois and WPBN-TV (NBC) in Traverse City, Michigan.

Outside of his broadcast career, Hanson is passionate about world travel, adventure and serving those in need.

He has run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain… Climbed Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa… Hiked the Great Wall of China… Gone great white shark cage diving in Australia and Mexico… and visited 6 of the 7 continents (with only Antarctica remaining).

He considers these adventures perfect “training” for the heart-pumping action of an NFL RedZone Sunday afternoon!

His involvement with various, worldwide Christian charities has seen him serve the needy in Africa, India, Russia, the Amazon jungle, Haiti, the Philippines, Mexico and domestic locations in the USA.

You can keep up to date with his travel and sports, play by plays by going to NFL Redzone and following him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  

 

Photo Credit: NFL

How did you come to faith and what is your testimony?
I was raised in a religious home. We were at church every Sunday and was raised that faith was important. But it wasn’t a personal relationship. It was more religion and what my parents did. When I went to college, I wanted to live the college life and turned away from the faith when it became my own decision. Whether that was with worship, what I was going to think, or how I was going to live my life. So, I kind of turned away from everything. I thought God wasn’t real, I thought the Bible was fake. I pretty much was living in the world and wanted to do my own thing. I went into my television career and TV was everything to me. You could say TV was my God. TV was going to give me what I thought was going to be my joy, fulfillment, happiness, and purpose in life. But living that way, my life spiraled down and led to the lowest point in my life, when I was about two years out of college. Which was from a breakup over a relationship. I had been seeing a girl, we had gotten serious, and broke up. It was a bad break up and nothing made sense in my life. I came across a movie called the King of Kings. It’s one of the Hollywood accounts of the life of Jesus, from the 1960s. I rented this movie and watched it, though I had no reason to rent this movie. I just knew from my childhood upbringing that this Jesus guy preaches about love, peace, forgiveness, and how he came to change people’s lives. Yet, all of that is missing in my life at this miserable circumstance that I was in. I watched this movie and when the actor portraying Jesus came to the Sermon on the Mount, the words spoke right into my heart. They just made sense to me, became alive to me, and I was like wow, I’ve never looked at this Jesus guy this way before. Keep in mind I’m not a believer at this time, I’m not someone who would profess faith. But these words seemed to make sense, there seemed to be truth to this. So, I started reading the Bible and I began to think He’s real. I ultimately said, ” Ok God, if you can take a life the way these people say, the way this book says, the way Jesus said and change it, redeem it, then here’s mine! I prayed a simple prayer and asked God to come into my life, asked Jesus to be number one in my life, and my life has never been the same! My attitude towards my own life changed, my attitudes about God, and the truth of His Word changed. My life has been on a different trajectory ever since. It has been the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me.

Photo Credit: NFL

What is your favorite scripture verse and why?
Well, it’s all highlights but I think it would be one that your readers are familiar with and that’s Proverbs 3:5,6. Which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” To me that means a lot of things, to trust in the Lord with all your heart, means He is real, and He is worthy of 100% of our attention, devotion, and obedience. Then it says, “lean not on your own understanding.” That was something I had to come to terms with when I came to faith. I’ve been gifted with many blessings, but, I’m stubborn and pig-headed a lot of times and can easily go my own way. Then it says, “in all your ways acknowledge Him,” meaning acknowledge Him, live your life as if He is real as if His word is real. Acknowledge Him privately, acknowledge Him publicly, and He will make your paths straight. He will show you the direction and ways that otherwise I don’t believe would be available to us. I don’t mean riches, prosperity, or anything else like that. I mean peace, fulfillment, and a purpose in life that we didn’t have before. So, that’s my favorite verse.

Photo Credit: NFL

Can you share your experience on your mission trip last summer?
I served with two different ministries, Kenya Children’s Fund and Orphan Outreach. We visited four different schools where I spoke to hundreds of students. The students are all African kids born and raised in Nairobi and the surrounding areas. They love it when a mzungu comes to visit because I look much different from them. Mzungu is the Swahili word for white man, it’s not a prejudicial term but a descriptive term. The fact that I got a chance to tell these kids that I came thousands of miles, not because I would profit from it but because God loves me, I love Him, and He loves these kids. I wanted to share that with them, and you could see that with certain kids it would just click, it meant something special. There were other kids who I’m sure were children of faith who probably thought, “Wow the same God that I worship, the same God that loves me, and that I love. This guy, that came all the way from Los Angeles, CA, loves that same God too.” That shared faith connected us. Now, in terms of a long-term impact, I did some work while I was there and ultimately made a financial contribution that I think will last longer than what was my simple time there.

Phot Credit: NFL

What are some of the things you take on your mission trip for the children?
What I try to do when I travel internationally and go on a mission trip is to bring an entire suitcase full of toys for the kids as well as leave the suitcase behind. I see hundreds of kids throughout my trip and pack small little items where I can give something to everyone. Some of the things I take are balloons, superballs, glow rings, and snap bracelets. In terms of what kids get at school, their provided with food which is one of their foremost needs. The only food they have access to is food that has been disposed of by Nairobi citizens that they get from a garbage dump. In the morning, at school, they get a kind of oatmeal type substance that can be put in a coffee cup and they drink it. It’s a food that can be mass-produced very easily by the school and they have a big supply of it that they cook every morning. They also get a uniform which the kids are very proud of. If you go on my social media accounts, you’ll see pictures of the kids. They love coming to school where they can see their friends, be safe, have shelter, and get a meal. In terms of material possessions like blankets and stuffed animals, I don’t know what type of material possessions they have. I’d be surprised if it is very much. I only went into a couple of homes and those I saw have very little, what they have is very basic. They don’t have electricity and most of them don’t have running water.

Photo Credit: NFL

How does your faith impact your life, both professionally and personally?
One of my favorite authors is CS Lewis and he wrote this, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.” That quote encapsulates how I look at my faith. God is not only someone that I look to and turn to, but, by Him and through Him, I experience everything else in the world. My life makes so much more sense when I have my eyes focused on God. So yes, it informs every area of my life, including my television sportscasting which is a very secular career. I believe in being excellent at what I do and being a Christian who talks openly about his faith. A lot of people think Christians are crazy, that their bible thumpers, that they’re this or that and other notions. I think if you do a job in the world and work with people who are at any level or anywhere on the faith spectrum. Yet, you are excellent at what you do, that might give you some credibility. Others may look to your example and say if he or she is a Christian maybe it’s something I should check out, maybe there’s something more to that Christian faith. Because, you may be someone they look up to, admire, work well with, or someone they respect. So, my Christian faith impacts every area of my life.

Photo Credit: NFL

Can faith and football, sports in general co-exist? If so, how?
I think faith and football can and do co-exist. Football is about challenges, about winning and losing. It’s about battles that are inside of a game with rules and context. A life of faith is a life where you have challenges, hurdles, questions, doubts, and moments of joy and moments of awe. I think that a life of faith gives context, perspective, and a foundation for any walk of life. Whether it’s a football player, sportscaster, doctor, lawyer, teacher, mom, whatever you do. A life of faith can be and is beneficial to understanding everything else that is going on in the world. It helps you to deal with the ups and downs and put them in perspective.

 

Photo Credit: NFL

Can you tell me about the Discipleship Playbook?
This was something a couple of years ago, that I was approached about by Paul David Tripp, who is a Pastor, Author, and Speaker. He is friends with many of the Philadelphia Eagles players and has become a spiritual leader to some of them. He approached them wanting to start a men’s outreach seeing a great need for the church within sports, especially with male athletes. An outreach that would talk about faith, football, and what it means to be a man in today’s society. So, when setting this up with the Philadelphia Eagles, they expressed interest but wanted to wait until after the season, which was in the summer before 3 football seasons ago. That season they went on to win the super bowl. So, there was a lot of interest in people wanting to be in, around, and involved with the Philadelphia Eagles. Tripp gets a call from the Eagles to proceed forward and I get a call from Tripp. He said, “Hey Scott, we know that you’re a sportscaster and you’re a believer. We’ve seen your posts on social media, would you come on board and MC the event?” So, I came in and kind of helped direct traffic as speakers like Nick Foles, Carson Wentz, and some of these big-time football players spoke about a life of faith within the context of a football career. It was an awesome experience and the Discipleship Playbook is now available online to churches and individuals all around the world.

Photo Credit: NFL

In the next 5-10 years, what do you hope to accomplish for God’s Kingdom? What impact do you hope to have?
To be honest, I don’t know if the timeframe really matters to me as much. I would say my same goal ten years from now is the same as one week from now or one month from now. Which, is to be obedient, living a life of faith that I know God would have me live, and be the man God wants me to be. However, that impacts His kingdom or how He uses me to bring glory to His Kingdom is ultimately His work. I just hope to be as Abraham Lincoln was when he responded to one of his advisors on God’s involvement during the Civil War, when said, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Photo Credit: NFL

What do you want your legacy to be?
This might sound kind of churchy but the moment of my last breath on earth and my first breath in eternity, I hope to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.” If I can yield my life to God’s plan and His purpose and if He chooses to use that to impact other people. Then, my life would have been a success whether it ends when I’m one-hundred or whether it ends in a week. I don’t think it’s the years that matter as much as the impact!

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