356 | Putting Christ Over Career, Doing “Satan Checks,” and Establishing Ground Zero (Cameron Arnett)
Episode Description
In this episode, award-winning actor and speaker Cameron Arnett shares his story of choosing Jesus over Hollywood and how that decision shaped his future. Tune in to discover key principles for staying strong in your faith, doing “Satan checks” when your marriage is under attack, and trusting God to fulfill His promises.
-
Cameron Arnett is an award-winning actor, director, producer, and speaker. He’s well known for his appearances in Miami Vice, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and films including the Kendrick Brothers’ The Forge. Cameron has been married to his wife, BJ, for nearly three decades.
-
· It is through faith and patience that you inherit the promises of God.
· Do a “Satan Check” when you feel attacks on your marriage.
· Put Christ over everything you think is your sustaining power, including your career.
· Make the Bible and the Holy Spirit your foundation for being a man, a husband, and a father.
· Ground Zero is about knowing who you are based on what the King has said about you.
-
-
Podcast Intro: [00:00:01] Being a great father takes a massive amount of courage. Instead of being an amazing leader and a decent dad, I want to be an amazing dad and a decent leader. The oldest dad in the world gave you this assignment which means you must be ready for it. As a dad, I get on my knees and I fight for my kids. Let us be those dads who stop the generational pass down of trauma. I want encounters with God where He teaches me what to do with my kids. I know I'm going to be an awesome dad because I gonna give it my all.
Cameron Arnett: [00:00:39] Take a moment, taking a weekend and reboot. Go back to the written Word and find out who you are. Everything will come out of who you are and who you see yourself to be. And if you don't find yourself and practically see Jesus opening the Scripture, then saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He identifies Himself. Find your identity, your marching orders, go and recommit to that.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:01:03] Hey guys. Welcome back to DadAwesome. My name is Jeff Zaugg and today, Episode 356, I have Cameron Arnett joining me. We were introduced by a mutual friend, Kent Evans, who's been on the podcast. He leads a Manhood Journey, another amazing fatherhood ministry. But Kent was like, You have to know Cameron. He's the actor who played one of the key roles in the movie The Forge. So as, as you've heard, if you've been listening to DadAwesome, we talked about the movie, The Forge. It was released like four months ago. But Cameron not only is an actor in this film, he's been in 45, I think it's 45 is the number, of films. He was in Miami Vice. He was in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He had a first phase of his career in acting and then a rebuilding of 20 years of building God's way. And career is such an important topic as dads, how do we engage employment, career, calling? Where we put all these precious hours as we try to steward and be a provider for our family? So Cameron's perspective, here he, he launched a movement called Christ Over Career that we'll talk about here today, but I'm just so thankful that he joined me and this conversation, I am going to jump right into it. This is episode 356 with Cameron Arnett. Now, you've been married 27 years to B.J., is that correct?
Cameron Arnett: [00:02:34] That is correct.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:02:35] And I did a little research and found a little bit of what, B.J., your wife, said about you. This is a several years ago, but I think it's still true. So here's a few of the things she says about her husband, Cameron. She said he's wonderful, strong, anointed. He's a cheerleader, a friend, a protector, a partner in life. And then she had these two statements, she said, he's a man who loves me and loves my son forever. She was praying for that and you were an answer to that prayer. And then she was praying for a man who is sold out to Daddy God, first. Just a sold out chasing Jesus. And so those are things she says about you. I was going to ask you, what would you say about your wife? Describe her for a little bit.
Cameron Arnett: [00:03:18] Wow, That is, that woman is the help that God made for me. She is Proverbs 31 personified. She is beyond description. I think the marriage that we have, we've never seen, you know. We've never viewed it. This is something that God has done. And when I came here from California, I was a bitter, hard, I mean, callous. I have been through the wringer. And but, but I knew on the inside core of me that I was the man of God. And I told that woman, if you will love me the way the Bible tells you to, I guarantee you who you will get is exactly what the Bible says. I know who I am on the inside, but right now I am unable because I have been through so much and it's put an outer shell on me that I need to shake and that woman loved me like no other. She loved the, the, the, the brick off of my shoulders. She went through but she, she never quit. And she's given, given me a home when we had absolutely nothing. When we were sleeping on the floor for five years because people had reneged all their promises to us. That woman gave me a home and made me feel like I was a king. I have nothing to say, but how grateful I am. You know, the scriptures say that, that land and home and from, you know, fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. And I'm telling you what, that woman is from the Lord. So I'm grateful, man.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:05:07] When I hear you describe your wife in her words as I read what she said about you, it it stirs me. Even in that season of five years that you described it just like that, I mean, going through it, the valley, like I want to raise my four daughters to actually have things like that spoken over them and then them to marry young men who they would speak things like these characteristics that your wife spoke over you. So it just, it does it stirs me. But also, I'm thinking of the dad listening right now who's in that place sleeping on the floor. Feels like everything's been taken. What would you, just a little bit of counsel for that Dad, what would you say to bring them a little hope in this moment?
Cameron Arnett: [00:05:54] I would remind each and every one that God is faithful. And He fails not, His orders truth. He confirms his work with following. What He is looking for is that unconditional trust that will allow a human to go through whatever they're going through in faith. It is through faith and patience that you inherit the promises. And so you have to deal with the fact that where you are now is not who you are and it's not where you're going, it's somewhere that you're going through. It's a snapshot of your entire life and you've got to remain faithful to the Word of God. Do not go back to leeks and garlics. Do not forsake having radical obedience to God. Once you start making those kind of decisions, what God will do is unravel all of the lies that you put together that you thought was God and He will give you the life that he intended before the foundation of the world. That's His intent for you. Don't let anybody else lie to you. So whatever you're going through right now, God's faithful. Continue to make God decisions. What would Jesus do in that situation? Answer life the way that Jesus would. And eventually what has been preordained will begin to connect and it'll take you exactly to where you're going, because God will not, we won't owe any man anything.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:07:27] Yes. And even what you said there of like, He'll unravel the, the things that you thought were God's voice that actually were lies. I know you guys have a, you and your wife have a little like tack like a tool or a strategy to help get this right. You called it a Satan check. Did I get that right in my research? Tell us about that. What is that?
Cameron Arnett: [00:07:48] You did your homework. Yeah. Satan check. Man, That was, you know, something that we instituted early on in our marriage because God said to me that our job is not to agree with each other. Our job is to agree with Him, and we'll find ourselves together in Him. And so the Bible became our final authority, no matter what we thought, said and did, we got to check with the Word. And so we were part and parcel of each other. So anything that came against the Word, anything that came against our marriage, against our thoughts or would, would attack us within each other, you name it, we called Satanship. We would realize, wait a minute, that thought is a Satan thought. And so, or we'd be having, you know, life would be going the way that God wants and all sudden, one day, you know, he knit picks you, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick. And so we call, we call that play. We call that audible, Satan check. So we stop everything and we recalibrate. And we take a look at him for who he is, what he's trying to do. And it's us against, you know, the three of us, Father, Son, you know, the God and us together against the issue. And we put it in right perspective and we see it for what it is. And we stop the pick from happening and we regroup. And Satan check was just a quick way for us to be able to say, hey, let's go ahead and stop, drop and roll, you know. Yeah, man, that thing work like, like, like, man, like that God was behind it, man. He, it was really an insight that He gave us to do and it functioned, this function.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:09:26] I love that, just like it's tactical. And my one of my good friends, Pablo says, he's like, there's some, who else is in the room? Like awareness. There's another player in the room.
Cameron Arnett: [00:09:36] I like that.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:09:37] Man. If I, if I could use both those tactics together, like I would save hours of just being hurtful to one another. It's like, what do we do? It's there's another player at play here. There's two characteristics about your parents that I just I read about. Your mom you said is a fighter, was a fighter. And then your dad, you said at some, some point he was playful. I know, and I know you didn't have a lot of time of, you know, with him present, but that he was just. It was playful. And those are two characteristics like, I want to be true about me. I want to be a fighter and I want to be playful as a dad. Would you talk about those two characteristics and how you saw them in your parents?
Cameron Arnett: [00:10:18] Yeah, my, my mom's determination is like no other, man. I've seen that woman get up, you know, I'm saying she is a wise woman. She's a determined woman. She's a fighter, you know, even when she had been attacked personally health wise, this woman, you know, she'll, she'll grab two water bottles, you know, a big gallon of water bottle and walk down the driveway exercising, you know, the kind of person that she is. And she taught us how to fight, how to maintain, how to go forward. You know, no matter what the issue was, we don't quit. We won't stop. We don't, we don't give up and we don't give in, you know. So that's kind of her temperament always. And the remembrance of with my dad, was he you know, again, he died early on in my life, but also with a divorce early on in my life. But my remembrances of my dad is that he he would go out of his way to chase us around, to to have a good time, to to play, you know. And all this stuff that I remember is him, man, he was a, how would I say, definite individual, meaning that when he spoke, we knew, you know, that was it. But the foundation of it was that we would just have a good time. You know, he was a joyous, run around, you know, wrestle around kind of a guy. And it it gives me pleasure to think about those times. I could see him running after us in the yard. And we lived in Long Island, New York. I could see him running after us and trying to catch up and, and talking all kind of, you know, just fun stuff. And I'm glad to have those memories.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:12:15] Yeah. I was chatting with my six year old this morning about, it was Psalm 63, about the shelter of God's wing that we're protected and then that we sing. It's in the same verse that they're singing. And you don't sing if you're not safe. If there's a threat, you're not going to be singing, if there's a threat. But the same is true with play. Like if, if you're, if you're not safe or you're not going to play, you're going to enter that playful state. And just how kids need playful dads, right.
Cameron Arnett: [00:12:42] Abba Father.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:12:44] Yes. Yes, we are safe. We have Him so we can be playful.
Cameron Arnett: [00:12:48] That's exactly right. And, and the thing for dads to understand is that you don't lose your footing. You don't lose your validity, your power, your strength by being playful. You know, as a matter of fact, if you have that as your foundation, the time when you have to be a disciplinarian, the time that you have to lay down the law, whatever it may be, it's wrapped around the Abba side. The jump into your lap side, the knowing that regardless of, of the correction that needs to be made, it's made behind and, and surrounded with a love that is caressing, you know, that is, that, that is welcoming that kind of thing and so its up to us to be able to marshall in the right following from your correction, if you'll have the foundation of being able to have camaraderie as well.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:13:54] Yes. Yeah. One of, one of our dads in the, in our community at DadAwesome messaged me this morning, messaged a group of us that are in a small get together saying that his divorce is final. It's you know, he's just heartbroken, but it's final. And he's stepping into the next chapter as being a dad, walking out this journey of love and pursuit of his kids in a divorced chapter. Now, your story had that part because you were married before. You were talking about, talking about your wife of 27 years. But there's another chapter of loss. And then there was a pursuit of reconnection with your godson. If I have this right, that led, led to the next chapter, and I know we won't get into every piece of your story, but I'd love, can you share that chapter of pursuing your godson or a little bit of even actually the like marriage ending, and then that brought into the next?
Cameron Arnett: [00:14:46] Yeah. You know, and it goes, the Christ Over Career that I have on, kind of came out of that because what happened was when I was in Hollywood, I was a, you know, I was a real Christian. And so they, I had finished doing a movie of the week in Toronto, Canada, came they called me while I was in Toronto. My manager said, Hey, they want you for this series. They want you to come in and audition. I came in, audition, got the role, you know, name in lights, the whole shebang. That's what was coming up next. But then they had the, we want Cameron to do the partial body nudity kind of thing. And so I had to let that go and all hell broke loose. Well, when all hell broke loose, that means everybody also broke loose. And so I, I found myself alone in California, no family, you know, no agent, no nothing. And I'm done. And so in that period of time, and it was like a maybe about a two year span of time, I had lost my home, evicted, lost cars, lost everything in suits around the warehouse, sleeping in the back room of a woman who was on welfare. And that's when I had my desk, I had my books and I had a sofa. That's all I had left to my name. And I'm studying one day, and the Lord said, Hey, you haven't seen your godson in six years. Why don't you try to find him? And so when I did, when I, when the Lord spoke to me, I had a box of cards that, you know, in networking, you just get people's cards, that kind of thing. So I had a box of cards and I went through all those cards and I found the card that was the best friend of my godsons mother. So I called her and she said I got these numbers for her, you know. And so for a month I'm calling those three numbers to find my godson. And after a month, and she tells this side of it, you know, her side better than I do. But, you know, after a month, you know, this is when we had an answering machines. The answer machine, she saw the answering machine, the receiver falls off the hook. I'm like, Hey, hello, hello, Hello. And so she finally picks up the phone and I'm looking for Cameron, which was my godson. And in that first call, we ended up talking for five hours on the phone. And on that first call, I think about the third hour, God says to me, that's your wife. And, you know, it's like, you know, when things are going and it stops and stands still. That's how it felt to me, all right. Because I heard, I knew I heard God say this your wife and I haven't seen these people in six years. I don't know nothing about this woman of 6 years span of time. And, so we're still talking, another hour goes by and God said, This is your wife. And so by the fifth hour, man, we're getting married out of obedience. I'm telling her you're marrying me. Because God said. And it was abrupt. It was hard. And I was that hard guy, you know. And it was nothing nice about it. But on her end of the spectrum, on her other side of the of the world, here in Atlanta, God was preparing her. Her father was her, her adopted father was dying and she was taking care of him. And he's the one that said to her, your, your husband, your children are coming. So when I said that to her in those five hours, that clicked in because she will be prepared by God on the other end, on the other side of the world, because I was in California, of the other country anyway. And so she's like, she's saying yes, based on obedience to what God has said and revealed to her. And it was crazy. And so I, I, I was an associate pastor at that time, by that point. And I said to my assistant, hey, this is what God saidm I'm going to go ahead and fly over to Atlanta. And if I, when I sit across from this woman, I'll know if, if I heard from God or not. And I get to Atlanta and she does what I thought was this thing that is a no no to me, all right. She was late picking me up at the airport. And I don't do late. I hate late with a passion.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:19:14] I knew that about you. That's why I made sure I was on time today.
Cameron Arnett: [00:19:18] And so I'm, I'm, you know, I'm like, I said, I'm this tall guy, and I'm just standing outside of Atlanta airport, and I can hear the doors open and I'm fuming. She comes out all cheery. If you know, you know, if anybody knows my wife, she is a joyful, you know, on the fire. I mean, you can't be around her and be angry for long, right. And so, that doesn't mean a stranger. So she's coming out all cheerful. I'm thinking this woman is late. God, you did not give me a late woman, you know I don't do late. So I'm going, I'm, I'm having that conversation in my head with with God, right. And so we get in her blue Mommy van, turquoise, Mommy van. And she's driving and we stop to talk, and once we start to talk, God said again, this is your wife's. And that's when I think I accepted it the most, was at that point in time, I knew we were locked in. We were, we were, we were going to be obedient to God. Not that we didn't love each other, really didn't know each other. I was the godfather of her son and that's why I was there. And that was, that's how God reconnected us. And so that's how it went, man. And we find ourselves courting for almost, almost a year, I think. And, and, and, and I'm trying to think back because sometimes I know what happened, I sometimes I get my my chronological order mixed up, but and then we end up getting married and, you know, fall in love and follow God, obey God. And it's the best decision that God ever made for me to this point, you know, other than receiving Him as my Lord, man, the best thing I ever did was marry B.J. Arnett. And we have been together now for, I guess, 28 years, married for 27 years or 27, 26, one of the two. Hard to go back and think chronologically. But, man, it's been blissful, it's been wonderful. We've been through many attacks from the outside, not from the inside out. You know, we've gone through so many things from the outside that has really forged us to being even stronger together because we had to kick out a common enemy. And, and we did that by the strength and the power, by the fortitude of God together, because we had decided this is it, that He's it. And as a matter of fact, we, a decision that we made early on in our life, what that, and it, it was almost like for the first seven years of our lives, really, we decided never to be a part, in that we would never be somewhere else apart from each other. So we made decisions that, that made us not be able to be apart. Having one car, you know, those kind of things. And it's almost like when you're raising a child, the first seven years are the most formative, you know what I'm saying. And so we used that model for our marriage. And we, we, we became one in those seven yearsm so much so that now when we are apart, we're always the same, saying the same, we're thinking the same, we're going in the same direction. And it's been, it's been part of heaven on earth, man. So again, I'm grateful.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:22:52] Cameron, part of what makes that story, testimony and the acceleration of like she's someone you didn't even know, to five our phone call, to flying. What makes it I think even deeper impact for me is I feel like I've spent time sitting in your living room because I, twice watched the movie The Forge and realize now, I didn't know at the time that you guys were married, I thought it was an actress playing your wife. Okay. So B.J., I mean, she's delightful, so talented. I love her already, even though I haven't, you know, just because of, you know, the, the way you guys portrayed this couple and this going through the unimaginable and still staying missional and on mission to pour into others. And I know that's an extension of your hearts. And it was such a gift. And we've talked about the movie The Forge a couple rounds on this podcast because of its impact on me. But part of the reason it's impactful is God's timeline. You mentioned earlier, faithfulness and about He is faithful and that dad that I was mentioning that messaged me this morning, sometimes things speed up in unimaginable ways and sometimes then there's a whole nother season of sleeping on the floor, as you mentioned, in the start to marriage, right. It's just, we don't know. But the seven year principle of choose to tactically arrange your life to be closer, closeness, the closeness dial that you guys did. I mean, that, that alone is a takeaway for all the dads saying, well we know it's the most, those seven years are the most impactful, you know, these dads with young kids, this is critical. But what, what actual dials in our life have we turned to make the closeness, almost force the desire because of decisions we make upstream? Would you unpack it, just unpack the principle a little bit further for us and how it would affect dads?
Cameron Arnett: [00:24:42] Yeah, you know, I call it the V method, when it comes to raising children. You have, your tied at the bottom, you're tied, you're tied, you're tied, you're tied, you're tied. And then by the time that they're a certain age, you can have a conversation with them. And what do you think? And what do you think we should do about this? Then, then you basically taught them and trained them to think and see how they can see. So therefore, now you can collaborate in conversation. And it's the same thing that we're dealing with, with a marriage, is that, you know, you have these two people, hopefully that are spending time with the Lord and becoming singular with Him, so much so that when they come together, they are two single people. I mean, and when I use that word singular, I'm talking about total people. It's 100%, hundred percent that comes together and form 100%, you know. Not 50/50, out of a deal. And so, but to arrange life, you know, only be in one car, you know, making sure that, that will we're working on, we're working on it together, not separately. Making sure that if I travel here, you're traveling with me. You know, it's, it's, it's a definite, on purpose, intentional time of not only being together but speaking on the same things. I disciplesd my wife, you know, a husband is a cultivator. That's the whole point of husbandry. And so the whole point of that woman that God made, took out of you and made for you must still now be trained and raised up by you to make sure that we're all heading in the same direction. Because my thing is that it has to be formed. It has to be cultivated. It has to be put together. And that, that is intentional. That doesn't just happen. I think that when we get married, we need to understand that. And I think when you take a look at Old Testament, right. Betrothal, they, they, they had a 1 or 2 year period, that they did nothing else. You don't go to work, you don't do this, you don't do that. That's why you have to have the dowry and all that kind of stuff. And you have this whole family that comes around you, something that we've lawfully civilized our way out of being a civilized people, you know, unGodly people. And so our systems are different. And so we have to, on purpose, reconnect ourselves to the right system, which is the kingdom, which is the trunk is the Jewish traits, if you would, so that we have life as God intended. I don't think a lot of people understand and do that, or don't take the time to do that or don't take the time to realize that if they don't do that, they won't have what God said, you know. We, we, it almost feels like sometimes you're taking a step backwards. But really what you're doing is making sure that you don't, that you take away the possibilities of pitfalls that you have to correct later.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:27:53] Yes. Specifically, career just feels like it's one of those up into the right, you just dad's you know, you wait a certain amount of years and you start having kids, and your career's at that pivotal point that it has to be everything, give it all there in the most critical season for family and for pouring into marriage and kids. And and I would imagine the entertainment industry, professional actors, actresses, you know, producers like the film entertainment industry that, you know, you know, so much and I know so little about. What have you seen forge, any transferable, like fatherhood principles? Have you seen any like, hey, and you don't even have to say who it was from, but have you seen anc principles, you're like, Yup, they're getting it right in the dad life? And that could actually be a tool that's shared and can be helpful for us listening.
Cameron Arnett: [00:28:46] I think for us to really find the, the points in times where, yeah, they're getting it right, is we have to go backwards because so much of entertainment and film have been insidious darkness in the previous past years. There was a time when in entertainment that any script that was written had to go through a censorship board, if you would, of Christianity in order for it to even be deemed something that's viable to be put on screen. And because we pulled out of that, things just got darker and darker and darker. So you almost have to go back to the father knows best kind of days. You know what I'm saying, you have to go back to the June Cleaver and all that. You have to go back to that kind of stuff to realize when people had respect for marriage and manhood and womanhood and, you know, and sometimes when you say that to even Christians, they look at you like, you know, like you have three heads. It's because we've become so worldly that now we don't even understand that the principles of God were so, so intrinsic within the culture of America, founded upon Christian principles, and how far we are now as a nation and as a people and so much so also as a Christian church that we're not nowhere near where God had intended. And so when we start talking about the roles of men and the roles of women and all these kind of things, the division of labor in the home and and raising children like we, we sometimes find that Christians are not with that. Because you know, I am woman, hear me roar, kind of a thing. You know, I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan. You know, that's what we became. And so we brought that into the church. So I think that what I find in entertainment is now that we are now in the faith based film realm, we're beginning to reintroduce those kind of principles within culture. Because when you take a look at The Forge, Joshua Moore and Janelle Moore, that's Cameron and BJ Arnett. We asked, you know, Steven and Alex, were you sitting in our living room? I mean, because when we read the script were like, wait a minute, these people dress like us, talk like us, have conversations that we've had, do what we do. How did you know? And it's the Holy Spirit transmitting to them what to write in the scrpit of what we were living? So we look at it as, now God taking on us on the micro of living within the four walls of the church, we past for almost two decades, to now being national faces of discipleship worldwide from The Forge perspective. But that's how we live, and that's how we've been living all of our lives as a married couple. So it's, it's again, watching God's faithfulness to saying, I see you, I know you, not more than anybody else see you and know you. And so discipleship is key, but we're now beginning to see the traits, the principles of manhood, the principles of womanhood, the principles of marriage, because now we're seeing the faith based side of filmmaking, and it's taking us back into the realm where the church is saying, wow, yeah, we left that behind. I mean, even discipleship, I mean, the, the, the, the, the great thing that come out of this is that you see pastors saying, oh my gosh, that's right, that's who we are. That's what we're supposed to be doing. Oh my God, I got to go back and implement some things. I got to go back and restructure some things and I haven't found anybody that's got condemned. I found people that were in like minded and that is promising. And that's the same thing that people are saying with the marriage of Joshua and Janelle. My God, how you guys work together, how you guys did this together, how you guys made decisions together and, you know, all that kind of stuff. Well, yeah, that's how Cam and BJ Arnett, live.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:33:07] Yeah. Watching it was just, it was magnetic of like, I want that as far as marriage, communication, passion, serving others, like those things you just mentioned. I want to go to ground zero for a moment. And I know this is, this is one layer of this movement, Christ Over Career, that is the reason we were introduced. And, and the, the idea of knowing who I am, who we are and whose we are. This two parts of that changes everything that I know, if you didn't have this ground zero, you wouldn't have heard God's voice to go pursue marrying BJ, like there's all these like, there's, there's this is foundational for everything. Could you unpack why ground zero in this part fuels everything with Christ Over Career?
Cameron Arnett: [00:33:57] Yeah, the ground zero aspect of it is the fact that I found myself with an option to either go after what I've been working for all my life, what I expected all my life. This was the culmination of this work, right. Starring role. You know, you know the potential of the growth of millions of dollars and you know, going to further that. But doing it, you know, Satan's way. That was my ground zero. You know, coming to that point of actually, you know, choosing or deciding that I'm going to either keep my commitment to Christ first, or I'm going to go for the fame and the fortune. And making that decision to stick with Christ, took away everything else. But that's what's important to the church. It wasn't until see, for me, when I made a decision, the decision wasn't hard to make. It's the unraveling that is difficult because everything had to also leave me. Because now I was making and standing and doing what Jesus would do. And far from idly choosing to do what Jesus would do. And so everyone that didn't want to be uncompromising and do it how Jesus would do could not hang. You know, Jesus said to the disciples, are you leaving, too? I mean, a bunch of people left, right. And so that was the hard part. And now, as a full blown Christian that's been living for Christ for all these years now, making those kind of decisions, is watching the church still be what she's not supposed to be. Because I thought when I made that decision, that's what Christians do, right? And that's, wouldn't any Christian make that decision? It's not until I started teaching and, and giving my testimony that I realize how many Christians would not have made that same decision. Which is why we are where we are as a church, as a kingdom and as a people, as a nation at this point. And so we go about now teaching and training and people and having a King and being in His Kingdom. Because we don't vote in the Kingdom. He is the commander. He tells us what to do, and that's what we do. And we don't have that mindset in America. We're voters. We are choosers. We're deciders. You know, we our own people. We are independent. That just doesn't mesh with the King, the message. With a King, with, with a King, all right. So, so far away from that and we haven't made a ground zero decision to put us back in an alignment. And so this is what Christ Over Career, this is what Cameron and BJ Arnett, that's what we are. Christ Over Career is calling the Church back to the Lord, and keeping him at the helm of every decision. That's our mantra, if you would. That's our mission, our purpose, our everything is to reintroduce the Church to the King. And then ground zero begins, unraveling happens. And if you remain and allow him to continue to unravel through life, He begins to put together. And when He puts together man, he does it fast. You know what I'm saying? As long as you don't make new decisions, that puts you, you know, ten steps back.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:37:53] The name, having career in the name of the movement, I think to me it caught me because it's one thing to say, you know, Christ first or this or that. But like the career being just what feels like the in so many times opposition to living as a loved son is because I have to prove and earn that I am loved, right. It's a, can you take that a step further around why you chose like, why is career so tied with even the name of the movement?
Cameron Arnett: [00:38:22] Well, because, careet, Okay, if you go back. Gosh, man, I don't want to make this so long. But when you take a look at scripture, Jesus was sent to reboot the system. So He's, the whole point of Christ Jesus and us being born again is to get us back to Genesis 1 and 2. And then 1 and 2, we find out what our purpose, what our DNA is. Let us make man in our image and let them have dominion. We find out who we are and inside of us is who we are, whether we're doing it right or wrong. And so as mankind, we want to go conquer something, especially as men. We're going to go ahead and beat it up, conquer it, bring it at home, you know, that's who we are. And when you take the warrior spirit out of man and you find insipid and flat. No good for nothing. That's what Jesus said, people, you're not doing anything for anybody just to step on you and walk around on you. You've lost your salt. And so, that career aspect is who we are. We're conquerors. We're, we're supposed to be creators just like our Creator. And so, we spend more time, rightfully so, in an area of creating, and that's our careers. You take, you ask a man, you know, who is he? He'll tell you what he does. Okay. And so Mammon is a false God. And so we have to put Christ over mammon. Career is when we think and what gives us the false perspective that we all have power. Money is this false power. Achievement is that's false power. And so we have to put that false power under the One who is the real power. And until we give ourselves to Christ in that way and are willing to die to power, to freedom, because now freedom is our God in America. So until we're willing to put that God under God, then we're nothing and can do nothing. So Christ Oer Career is about putting Christ over everything that you think is your sustaining power. Everything that you, that you put your hands to, that you think actually makes you, you. We spend all of our lives in that career space, man. We give up life. We lose our health, you know, trying to become. We work for hours a day if we have to, to fulfill a vision that is outside of God, you know. And we don't, we don't even know what it's like to live in His Kingdom and give His Kingdom 20 hours a day. That's Christ Over Career.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:41:14] Cameron I could, I could ask 20 more minutes or, you know, ask two hours more questions on that specific. But the nice thing is you've already created a 3 or 4 part video like helping bring us into the vision and the different layers of of Christ Over Career. So I will share that in our show notes, to our listeners. And maybe just as a landing point for today's conversation and just so grateful to you for taking time to connect on DadAwesome. But you wrote about, I don't know, six, seven years ago, a children's book, A Good Man: A Child's I Could've, Would've, Should've story. And as a just reframing that book title with my landing question, if you could go back and just encourage some dads listening, there are a couple of years in a marriage, there, they've got a couple little kids on the home front. What are just top of mind, two, three, four, like bits of wisdom that you would want to pass on to that young dad as you, as you say goodbye?
Cameron Arnett: [00:42:13] I would say, you know, take a moment, take a weekend, you know, and and reboot. Go back to the written Word and find out who you are. Everything will come out of whose you are and who you see yourself to be. And if you don't find yourself in Christ, we see Jesus opening the Scripture thar saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He identified Himself. Find your identity, your marching orders, your sameness, you are supposed to be Christ in your skin. Conform to His image and likeness. Go and, and, and recommit to that. Commit to a relationship with the Holy Spirit because God will tell you who you are in the streets. But He'll, the preceding word. Where to go, who to marry, what to do here, you know, what to say there, comes out of the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, then you basically stuck in the little guys. So those two, the combination, one, two punch, head, tails of that, is they must go back and breathe that in. Begin to infuse, invade every area of your life with what you find those two things, those two together. Invest them in the rest of your life. Make the written scriptures and the Holy Spirit the foundation of, of being a man. Make that the foundation of being a husband. Make that the foundation of being a father. Make that being the foundation of your career. Make that being the foundation. Whatever it is. Get your jumping off point and your preceding word from that. And I don't care how short or how long you've been in your marriage and in your parenting, God will restructure, reframe, put together and revitalize all of that and your life and the life of those around you will never be the same.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:44:17] Thank you. Thank you. Would you say a short prayer over all of us dads?
Cameron Arnett: [00:44:22] Father, we do worship you. And we thank you, Lord God, for being the perfect Father, the unfailing Father. The One who is our prototype in everything that we think, see and do. We ask Lord God that you upload from your Spirit that is within us, an understanding of You. Because through eternal life is that we might know You, the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son that You've said. That we might enter the course and be one with You in such a way that even as Jesus said, if you see Me, you've seen the Father, we may say if you've seen us, you've seen Jesus. There is no difference. And so, Father God reveal, fortify, cause to flourish that sameness with you in our hearts and cause us to accept that sameness. You are well pleased with us, oh God, You have ordained, You have called us and we acknowledge all the things, all the rightful things that You have made of us. And we commit ourselves to continue to look into the perfect law of liberty. And we determine ourselves not to forget. We have seen. As You are so, we in this world, and so we thank you, Lord God, for the power and the strength of Your spirit to cause that to remain. We worship You and we give You praise. In Jesus name, Amen.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:45:56] Thank you so much for joining us for episode 356 with Cameron Arnett. All the conversation links, the links to Christ Over Career this movement that him and his wife lead, links to the key quotes from this episode, and the takeaways, and the transcript, all that's going to be found at dadawesome.org/podcast. I also want to invite you guys, we would love to hear from you. We've been kind of casting the net wide saying, Hey, send us a voice message. We'd love to hear feedback on this episode or questions or topics you'd love to hear covered on the podcast, or just a little bit about how DadAwesome has been helpful for you and your family. So these are all options, but leave us a voicemail. It's linked in all the show notes. Leave DadAwesome a voice message. It goes up to 60 or 90 seconds, so not that long, but we'd love to hear your voice. We'd love to hear your feedback and we'll look forward to playing and featuring some of these voice recordings on future podcast. Guys, thank you for being DadAwesome. For pressing in, learning, just choosing to spend time on this journey with us. And we're so grateful for Cameron Arnett and what he inspired us today. But I want to encourage you guys, be dads of action and pray right now. Take a pause right now as this episode ends, God, what do You have for me to put into action from what I heard today? Let's be dads, being DadAwesome is not just a let's be prompted to think and chew on and ponder. Let's be dads who take action, pursuing in the hearts of our kids. So have a great week, guys.
-
· 12:50 - "The thing for dads to understand is that you don't lose your footing. You don't lose your validity, your power, your strength by being playful. As a matter of fact, if you have that as your foundation, the time when you have to be a disciplinarian, the time that you have to lay down the law, whatever it may be, it's wrapped around the Abba side. The jump into your lap side, the knowing that regardless of the correction that needs to be made, it's made behind and surrounded with a love that is caressing."
· 37:11 - "Christ Over Career is calling the Church back to the Lord, and keeping him at the helm of every decision. That's our mantra, that's our mission, our purpose, our everything, is to reintroduce the Church to the King. And then ground zero begins, unraveling happens. If you remain and allow Him to continue to unravel through life, He begins to put [it back] together. And when He puts together, he does it fast. As long as you don't make new decisions, that puts you ten steps back."
Connect with DadAwesome
Learn about our Fathers for the Fatherless events in 2023:https://f4f.bike/
Follow@dadawesome on Instagram
Make a Donation to DadAwesome (tax-deductible)
Join the DadAwesome Prayer Team
Receive weekly encouragement by texting "dad" to 651-370-8618