Safe in the Arms of Jesus

Safe in the Arms of Jesus

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Guest: Dr. Dave Kistler

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 7/24/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:

Back in 1868 when America was recovering from the American Civil War, hymn writer Fannie Crosby, the famed blind hymn writer, she penned the words to safe in the arms of Jesus. And many believe that the inspiration for this hymn that she wrote in 1868 actually went back about a decade before when she had lost her baby, a little infant girl. And she wrote these words. Here’s one of the stanzas of safe in the arms of Jesus. It starts, “Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe from corroding care, safe from the world’s temptation, safe sin cannot harm thee there. Free from the blight of sorrow, free from my doubts and fears. Only a few more trials. Only a few more tears.” And that’s safe in the arms of Jesus. Well, with that, welcome to our Friday program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. And I am talking with evangelist Dr.

Dave Kistler, who many of you know him very well. If you’ve been a long time regular listener, you know Dave Kistler, one of the originals who started the Stand in the Gap Today program with Dr. Gary Dull and the honorable Sam Rohrer. So Dave, thank you so much for taking the time and being on. We’ll say in just a moment here, something about the special weekend that this is, but thank you for taking the time at this time to be with us.

Dave Kistler:

It is always a delight, Isaac, to be on with you. So thank you for the invite.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, Dave, your son, Nathan and your daughter-in-law, Amber, they are safe in the arms of Jesus. I mean, we are all safe in God’s arms through his providence, but they have gone home to meet the Lord, to be with Jesus. And we want to talk about the way that the Lord is really walking you and Betsy through this journey. This has been almost exactly two years ago. On Sunday, it will be the two-year anniversary. But before we talk about that journey that the Lord is using in your life and in your family’s life, could you maybe, and I know that many of our listeners know this and they probably remember Nathan being on the radio with you, but could you maybe just tell us a little bit about Nathan and Amber?

Dave Kistler:

Yeah. Thank you, Isaac. Delighted to do that. Of course, Nathan is our middle child and came into this world with somewhat of great difficulty. I won’t go into any of the specifics, but we knew God had a purpose for him and had his hand on his life. We just didn’t know it was going to be 34 years that he would have here on this side of eternity. But Nathan was multi-talented. He was a musician. He was best known for his singing, but he could play multiple instruments, taught himself to play the guitar, the trumpet. He could play harmonica, play the piano, violin. And he was just a Renaissance man in many, many ways. He met Amber when he was 14 and she was 15, and she became instantly the love of his life. And I’ll never forget him coming back to our trailer after meeting her.

And he said, “Dad, I’ve met the girl I’m going to marry.” And I thought, yeah, that’s sure. But boy, he never forgot about her. They got separated for about a decade or more. And then through some things God did up on Capitol Hill that we were involved in, the Lord brought their paths to cross again. And he proposed, and of course she accepted their proposal. His proposal to her occurred on the speaker’s balcony, which is a unique place there in the Capitol Building. It’s just off from the Speaker of the House of Representative’s office. And virtually no one ever gets to go there, but because of Nathan’s ministry on Capitol Hill, he was able to procure that location. And it’s just kind of a fairytale story. But then two years ago, we don’t understand all the whys, but God chose to take them home at the zenith really of their impact and their life together and their ministry.

And it’s been Isaac in many ways, obviously, the most difficult two years of our life. But on the flip side of that, because of God’s amazing grace, abundant grace, it’s been two of the most amazing years as we’ve watched God use not only their lives here on earth, but in some ways more significantly than even their already significantly lived lives here. God’s used their home going powerfully for his glory.

Isaac Crockett:

And Dave, when you described Nathan as a Renaissance man, there’s so many different things that different people knew him for because he was. And actually Amber very similarly in both of them growing up in very public ministry, you as an evangelist, her growing up in music ministry. And so many times when you see kids who grow up in ministry, they’re like, “Okay, I don’t want to be a part of that.” But both of them just so willing to be involved in so many ministries and to use Hollywood vernacular, kind of a power couple. And so when their lives got snuffed out so tragically, humanly speaking, so quickly, so unexpectedly, the sorrow of that, the grief of that, it really, it stings. But you have spoken very publicly, even at their memorials and funerals about the Bible talking about sorrowing with hope. And you’re the founder of Hope to the Hill Ministries, Hope International.

Can you talk to us about how God is giving hope even in this tragic plane accident?

Dave Kistler:

Well, great question, Isaac. Yeah. Again, there’s just so many things we don’t understand. We don’t know the ways of God, but we do know he does all things well. And the way God has continued to use both of them has been profound. It’s hard, Isaac, for me to go anywhere without somebody knowing who we are. I was in a grocery store just about a week and a half ago and a lady, I know she kept looking at me and I was conversing with a lady immediately behind me in line about dog food. And so when I got the items that I was getting, including dog food started in my car, this lady that was behind the one with whom I was conversing came up to me very quickly and she said, “You’re Dave Kistler.” I said, “Yes, ma’am, I am.” And she said, “Well, I follow you on Facebook and I follow the tragedy.” And again, it’s always statements like this.

I just want to thank you for how God has given you and your wife and family grace to walk through what the world would consider an unspeakable tragedy. And she talked about how it had impacted her life so dramatically. And so we can’t go anywhere without that happening. And it happens repeatedly every week. We hear stories and God continues to open doors. And I’ll tell you, our ministry is appropriately named. We named it Hope Ministries International years ago before we ever, ever would have ever envisioned something like this happening to us. But the God that we serve is a God of immense hope. And Isaac, we know we’re going to see them again very, very soon. And because of that, we live with great anticipation. And when I walk the halls of Congress now, not audibly, but I can just hear Nathan’s voice cheering us on saying, “Dad, keep going, keep going.

Jesus is coming to get you soon. So keep living for God and keep serving him aggressively.” And so man, we serve a God who’s rich in hope.

Isaac Crockett:

And it’s hope even in the hardest, humanly speaking, the hardest circumstances. And we know the Lord is our shepherd and Psalm 23 promises us that yay, that we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We fear no evil because for us, it’s not actually death. To die physically, it is not death. It’s just the shadow of death. And the shadow, of course, is cast when something blocks between us and the son. And at the light of the son of God, there is no death in him. We have eternal life and there’s so much hope in there. Well, we’re going to take a quick break to hear from some of our partners. We’re going to come back and talk with Dr. Dave Kistler more about the impact and what God is doing, the hope that he’s giving, even in light of this two-year anniversary of this tragic plane accident.

But we’re also going to talk about some of the other things going on. We want to catch up on some cultural issues going on today. I don’t think you’re going to want to miss this program. Call others and have them tune in, share this podcast link. If you’re listening online, we’re going to be right back on Stand in the Gap today. Welcome back to this Friday program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and I’m talking with evangelist Dave Kistler. And many of you remember him and recognize his voice right away. And we’re talking today about safe in the arms of Jesus. We are right on the cusp of the second anniversary of the homegoing of Nathan and Amber Kistler who died in a very unexpected way in a plane accident in 2024. And as we talk through that, Dave, I keep thinking of the passage in two Corinthians where Paul, at the very beginning of the letter, as he’s introducing himself, he talks about grace and peace from God.

He gives this doxology of blessing God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, calling him the God of all comfort in verse three. And then in verse four, he says, He comforts us. It is He who comforts us in all our tribulation so that we may be able to comfort them, which are in any trouble by the comfort where we ourselves are comforted of God. And he talks about the sufferings of Christ and how Christ went through that in our consolation is in Christ. And that when we suffer, we also are comforted with the consolation of salvation. Verse seven, our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you also be partakers of his consolation. And Dave, this idea that we receive comfort through our salvation, we receive comfort of God. And then God uses us as his arms and hands to go out and comfort others, that is something that we don’t get to choose when we’re going to do that.

I remember when my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he was going through the pain of that. And he would talk about, it’s kind of like a shelf. And as children, we’re just going for the sweets of the shelf. We’re not going for maybe the things that are healthiest or best for us. And God chooses these things, these trials, these afflictions in this case. And I’m just wondering, Dave, if you could maybe talk to us a little bit about how going through the difficulty coming up here, the second anniversary of the plane crash, how God has given you grace and hope and how he has used that to open doors for you to share that comfort, that grace, that hope with others.

Dave Kistler:

Yeah. Isaac, I could go a thousand directions, but I think I’ll go here. Obviously the ministry God’s given us for the last 41 years has been a global ministry. So Nathan traveled with us all over the world. And so a lot of places that many people have read about in a book or seen pictures of in a book, our children have been there and actually seen them live and in person. But I want to go here. We’ve lived where we live here in this part of Western North Carolina for 30, going on 31 years. I grew up here, but we’ve been residents here. My wife and I and our family living in the house that we live in for 30, 31 years almost. And last September, actually latter part of August, a lady reached out to me, part of a local political group here in our area.

And she said, “Mr. Kisner, would you be willing to come and open our annual meeting? It’s a big deal that they do. Would you be willing to open it in prayer?” And I said, “Oh, I’d love to.” And she said, “Can your wife come?” And I said, “I think she’s free that Saturday evening and will be able to join me.” And so over the course of the next several weeks between the first time she called me and the event itself, she kept touching base with me via text saying, “Now your wife’s going to be here, right?” And so not making a nuisance of herself, but she was very insistent. And I thought it’s a little odd. Well, anyway, the time of the evening event came and of course Betsy and I dressed up. And sure enough, I opened in prayer. There were some speeches and so on.

And then this lady got up, she’s one of the leaders of the organization. She said, “We’re going to give out our annual Reagan Leadership Award. It’s something that this group gives to the person that they deemed to have had the most profound impact on the community over the last 12 months. And it’s kind of a big deal.” And as she starts reading the bio, my wife nudged me and she said, “Honey, they’re talking about you. They’re going to give that award to you.” And I said, “No, they’re not.” Well, sure enough, they did and called us up on the platform. And it was a very moving thing. And I just said, I said, “Look guys, you need to aim way higher.” I mean, there’s people that far more influential in the community and have done more in the last 12 months, but it was a very kind gesture.

And then we sat down and then the same lady got up. She said, “Now we’re going to give

Out the first of what will be now an annual award. A second one we’ll give out, but it’s never been given out before. This is the inaugural year.” And she said, “We call it the Charlie Kirk Legacy Award.” And she said, “The person to whom we’re going to give it, you’re going to see their image on the screen.” And they had a couple of big screens. And our son’s image came up, actually a video of him singing the Lord’s Prayer in the Capitol rotunda. That video’s been seen by millions of people all over the globe. And they gave the Charlie Kirk Legacy Award to our son, Nathan, posthumously. And so we went up on the platform to receive that. I mean, obviously we wept copious tears and expressed gratitude to the community. Then Isaac, that whole gathering, which is basically a political gathering, took a different direction.

There was one final person that spoke, and while he was speaking, this same lady stepped off the platform, came up to me and leaned over and she said, “Reverend Kisser, would you give an invitation at the end?” I said, “I can do that.” So I got up at a political gathering and just basically shared the gospel very, very briefly and gave a public invitation. And we had five people that responded to give their heart and life to Jesus Christ. That had never happened in the history of our community and the history of this longstanding event that has been done many, many years. And it was the talk of the town that God stepped into the middle of that and saved people at a political rally. Now, my point telling you that is this, all of that happened because of how God is continuing to use the legacy of Nathan and Amber in a powerful way.

And I dare say this, Isaac, none of that would have happened probably had Nathan and Amber been alive. But because of their homegoing and how God, as was said, of Abel of old, he being dead yet speaketh. Well, that’s true. Amber and Nathan physically are not here on the earth, but man, is their life not just speaking. It’s screaming a message of God’s love and hope, tremendous hope. And so again, it’s just been amazing to watch. And we’re just on the front end of it. There’s a lot more that God’s doing that I could share. I won’t take time to do it, but it’s an amazing, amazing thing that we’re watching God do.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, as we continue to follow this theme of being safe in the arms of Jesus, and it’s just so incredible when we give our lives to him and we follow what he asks us to do, the places he takes us. As you were just talking about in your life of evangelism and then in Nathan and Amber’s life, what they were able to do as such a young couple, what God did through them and then even in their homegoing. There’s a lot I would love to spend time on it. And I would encourage our listeners to go back and listen to programs from last year at the first anniversary and other times that you’ve talked about this where you’ve been able to go into a lot of detail. But for time’s sake in this segment, maybe you could get into a little bit of the Hope to the Hill ministry that Nathan did such an incredible job directing and the relationships that he built, how those relationships are still being used and how God is using that legacy that he had even in Washington DC.

Dave Kistler:

Very quickly, I’ll say this. Isaac Nathan was our director of our ministry on Capitol Hill for 10 of the 20 years it’s been in existence. And when he became the director, because he’s young, he has new ideas. I mean, he took it to a whole other level. And we just finished a major, one of the most significant outreaches we have ever done in our 20 year history of ministry on Capitol Hill. And it was presenting a Bible called the First American Bible. The only Bible ever commissioned by Congress back in 1782, six years after we became a nation. We presented an exact replica to every member of Congress. And I will say this, Isaac, I called specific members of Congress. If I named them, everybody listening today would know who they are because you’d see them almost every day on the news. But Nathan had become dear friends with them.

And by extension, we become dear friends with them. And Isaac, I can pick up the phone, make a phone call directly to the personal cell number of many of these members of Congress and get an appointment in a heartbeat. And the reason I can is because of Nathan’s impact

Isaac Crockett:

And

Dave Kistler:

How much they loved him. And so his influence is going on well beyond his homegoing.

Isaac Crockett:

Dave, there’s so many things I would love to ask about right now, but one of the things that’s happened recently, we talk about unexpected deaths is the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. And I know you’ve posted some on Facebook about this, but just in the little bit of time that we have left in this segment, could you maybe talk about the public reaction? There were a lot of people that were very respectful tributes to him, but at the same time, there were some very disrespectful and almost like celebrations because of people across the aisle that didn’t like him. Could you just kind of give us your thoughts on the response in our culture today and how we as believers ought to respond when somebody does pass away?

Dave Kistler:

Well, when we live in a culture that celebrates the death of someone, even a political foe, there’s something wrong. It says something about the person that makes the comment. I didn’t always agree with Senator Graham. There were times I jokingly have said to people, there’s times I wanted to hug him. There’s other times I’d like to take my arm back and take a swing at him because he could be at times frustrating. You never knew on what side of an issue he might particularly fall, especially in the last decade or so. But I was heartbroken when Senator Graham passed because of a lot of reasons. And there was nothing in me. There would be nothing in me that would ever want to celebrate someone with whom I have tremendous political disagreements and would even consider them maybe a political enemy. So we as Christians need to be filled with compassion.

And when someone passes from this life or is going through a difficult time and we disagree with them, that is not the time for us to unload and celebrate their difficulty or certainly celebrate their death. So it was an incredibly telling thing. To be honest with you, Isaac, I got angry. Okay. I just did. And I tried to temper that in what I said on Facebook, but it made me angry that people could be that insensitive, that unkind, and that unfeeling. Lindsay Graham was a human being before he was a senator. And he was someone for whom Jesus died and someone that Jesus loved as is true of every human being. And so we need to remember that at all times, but especially at times when someone passes.

Isaac Crockett:

That is really good advice, Dave. And again, just the work you’ve done as an evangelist, as a preacher and different things with funerals and things, but now how much closer home that is with what you went through two years ago. And for all of us to think that way, to think about what God has created and the human eternal life and toll of this. Well, we’re going to take another quick break. When we come back, we want to talk about some of the other dangers that are out there. Some of these dangers that are happening as we remember though that we are safe in Jesus Christ. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap Today. Well, welcome back to the program. On this Friday edition, we’ve been talking with evangelist Dave Kistler about the hope we have in Jesus Christ and being safe in the arms of Jesus.

And this comes whether we’re grieving as they’re coming upon this weekend, the second anniversary of the homegoing of their son and daughter-in-law and other friends who went down in a plane crash two years ago. Or whether just finding that hope in Jesus through all the chaos and darkness of this world. A lot more to talk about. We want to talk about some of the cultural trends going on. But before we dig into more questions for Dave, I want to see if our program producer, Tim Schneider, if he’s able to come away from the board and come to the microphone and just give us some of the information of what all’s happening at Stand in the Gap Media.

Tim Schneider:

Well, yes. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for that introduction. Isaac. Want to let you guys know we are on social media. We’re on various platforms. One of them is YouTube. If you’ve not checked out our YouTube channels, we encourage you to do that. We have three great YouTube channels, American Pastors Network, Stand in the Gap TV and Stand in the Gap Radio. Check them out to see our archives and all the great content being produced right now. You can see if you go on our Stand in the Gap TV particularly, or even American Pastors Network. We’ve been covering a lot of Stand in the Gap TV programs about the Sermon on Amount. I think we’re up to posting about episode 13 or something like that series that’s been happening over the last couple of months, but you can find that and a lot of other archive things and each channel has some different things.

So Stand in the Gap TV obviously has all Stand in the Gap TV programs, but American Pastors Network has Stand in Gap TV programs plus other things. And Stand in the Gap Radio has different content over there. So check out all of them and subscribe to our YouTube channels by searching for those channels, American Pastors Network, Stand in Gap Radio and Stand in the Gap TV. And when you subscribe to these channels, you’ll be notified every time new content is posted. Also, we continue to ask you to pray for this ministry. Thank you for those of you that do pray. And if you’re not regularly praying for us, please do keep us in your prayers for all the things that the Lord has for us to do. We certainly can covet your prayers and we thank you in advance. Also, if the Lord is blessing you through this ministry, please consider giving financially.

No amount too big. No amount too small is too much, especially during the summer months when giving seems to nose dive. In a lot of ministries, we please ask that you don’t forget about us in your giving. And if you are blessed by this ministry, please consider giving so we can continue to do the things that need to be done. So there’s always lots to talk about here, Isaac, but that’s some of the stuff. And I’ll go ahead and send it on back to you.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, thank you for all of that information and great reminders. Just so thankful for these resources that God has provided through the American Pastor’s Network and through Stand in the Gap Media. And thank you, Tim, for the work that you’re doing. Well, let’s get back to our discussion with evangelist Dave Kistler. Dave, you’ve been called to preach. You are an evangelist. The Lord has given you ministry opportunities all over the world and you preach the good news. But in order to preach the good news of the gospel, you also preach about the bad things, the bad news of sin and different evil ideologies that come with sin. I sometimes call that stuff stinking thinking. And there are some really bad stinking thinking things out there that seem to be growing, almost snowball, like a snowball effect going on in our culture. And you’ve been speaking about them very boldly.

And it’s this socialism, communism arm, and also Islam and this strange kind of marriage that they seem to have, this red green alliance as it’s sometimes been called. But the communism and Islam ideologies are just really, really growing. As a preacher, as somebody who is in Washington DC often, you’re on top of what’s going on in the culture and politics. What is this threat of this kind of communism in Islam ideology? And why are you as an evangelist so concerned about it?

Dave Kistler:

Well, let me say this. I read a book many, many years ago. In fact, I would like to recommend it today to our listening audience. It’s called How Do You Kill 11 Million People by Andy Andrews. Andy Andrews is a New York Times bestselling author. How Do You Kill 11 Million People? The title of the book, it’s just a small book. You could read it probably in one sitting. If you read for a half hour or 40 minutes, you could complete the entire book. But in that book on one page, there is a statement made by a German Christian that is worth the entire price of the book, just that one page. Because he tells this story. He said, during the Hitler’s Nazi regime, before the crackdown came on the churches and the ownership of Bibles and all the things that happened under the Nazi regime, he said, “We would go on Sunday morning to our churches.” And he said, “We would sit in our church buildings.” And he said, off in the distance, we would hear a train whistle.

And we knew the minute we heard that train whistle that very soon thereafter, we would hear the clanking of the wheels rolling across the train track. And then we would hear as the train came in very close proximity to our church building, we would hear the screams and cries of the incarcerated Jews in those train cars packed in there like cattle on their way to the death camps. And he said, “So what did we do?” He said, “Here’s what we chose to do. We sang our hymns more loudly to drown out the cries and the screams of the women and children in those boxcars.” And he said, “Now all these years later, I can still hear those cries in my sleep.” Tragically, when it comes to communism and Islam and the twin threat and the twin evil that they both pose, not just to the United States, but to the world, to be silent with respect to those two things is the same thing as not saying anything about what was happening in Nazi Germany.

And we know history, many of the pastors refuse to stand up and speak out with respect to what Hitler was doing. I refuse to do that. Isaac, I just refuse to do that. I have an obligation to sound an alarm. It’s not going to happen in our public schools. It’s not going to happen virtually anywhere other than the only redemptive hope of America from the standpoint of addressing these issues is going to be the pulpit of pastors and of churches that are courageous enough to speak. Islam’s a 1500 year advance around the globe at the tip of a spear, at the end of a sword has always been surreptitious and subtle. And communism has been the same way, but the end result of both of them is the destruction of the nations that allow them in. America has been pretty much immune from both. But what we’re watching happen currently begs for preachers, courageous preachers to stand up lovingly but directly and call out both evils for what they are.

Not hate the people enslaved in either one of them, but call out the ideology itself as pure evil and out of the pit of hell because that is where both of them originated.

Isaac Crockett:

And these ideas are not new. And I even look at our own political sphere. And I think of Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, has been pushing a lot of this for a very long time where President Barack Obama, some of the things that happened even under his administration. But some of the newer, younger faces of this, and I can’t help but think of New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani and others kind of on his platform. What warning do you have about some of these younger ones? And I’m thinking particularly of Mayor Zoran Mamdani. What warning do you have for American Christians as we see these sort of political figures coming and gaining influence, not just with the younger folks, but especially with the younger folks, but even some of the older folks as well?

Dave Kistler:

Isaac, let me say this. Zoran Mamdani is viewed by some as an anomaly. And in many ways maybe he is, but there’s a grand design behind what’s happening in New York. Him becoming mayor of the most significantly impactful city economically in the world is anything but insignificant. We just came about a month ago from Romania. I had never been in Romania before. It was an amazing thing. I could talk a lot about the impact on the young people, which was primarily the target audience to whom we were ministering and how many young people came to know Christ and the powerful impact of packed public auditorium with young people in Romania. It’s just amazing, Isaac. But the question I was asked by Romanians, especially those who were a little older, was this, what is happening in America that you’re embracing Marxism and communism? And they would cite Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York.

And we need to remember that Romania is now just 37 years removed from Nikolai and Elena Chachesku who ruled Romania with an iron fist under communism. And they talked to us about the rationing of things and how terrible it was under communism. And the question is why are Americans, especially younger Americans, it seems, embracing it? Well, Isaac, our blessings in this country in some ways are becoming our greatest curse. We don’t know the evils, the pure evil of communism and Islam firsthand. The Romanians know the evil of communism because many of them lived it. They are thriving now, thriving. And I mean absolutely economically and In every other way, thriving under free enterprise capitalism. And so I would issue this warning to Americans and especially New Yorkers, we’ve got to make sure with the help of Almighty God that Mamdani is only a one term mayor, one term, and that the fiasco that will be New York City under his leadership and it’s already started does not continue.

The problem is people are moving out of New York. They have been for decades. They’ve been moving out of New Jersey, the high income taxes in both states. And the difficulty with raising a family and running a business in both locations has caused people to move out and find more favorable terrain like Florida or Tennessee or North Carolina or Texas. Well, if people continue to move out, all that’s going to be left in New York City proper. And I do think Mamdani has this as its goal is to get out of the city any influential people and ultimately turn New York City into what has happened in Dearborn, Michigan, is happening in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a host of other places, turn the once great city of New York City into a Muslim enclave. That is not an overstatement. And those that think that Islam and communism, those two torn evils do not have that design and that could not happen in New York City.

They need to think again because I think that’s exactly what’s happening.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, as you said, we need to be speaking out on this and we need to be praying. We need to be speaking out. We need to be doing whatever we can to exert whatever influence in the sphere that God has given us and pray for a righteous nation and for a righteous people as we return to the Lord. We’re going to take another quick break. We’re going to come back to wrap things up. Talking with Dave Kistler and looking at being safe in the arms of Jesus. We’ll be right back. Jesus, my heart’s dear refuge. Jesus has died for me firm on the rock of ages ever my trust shall be. Here, let me wait with patience. Wait till the night is oar. Wait till I see the morning. Break on the golden shore. Well, that is the beautiful third stanza of the Fannie Crosby hymn, safe in the arms of Jesus.

That’s the hymn we started with today as we talk about on this program, being safe in the arms of Jesus, God’s providence and care for us individually as families and even as a nation, if we will turn to him. And it captures very perfectly, Dave, what you’ve been sharing, the hope that you’ve been sharing for all of us through the difficulties that you and Betsy have gone through in the last two years with the sudden news of this plane crash and the homegoing of your son and daughter-in-law. But it also reminds us that in a journey like that, we have confidence and comfort that we will see our loved ones. If they know Christ, we’ll see them and we will see Jesus Christ. And even for our nation, that is the hope. That is where we need to be looking to. And so as we wrap up this conversation, it began with the anniversary of the homegoing of Nathan and Amber.

It touched on some of the things, even you talked about Senator Graham’s passing and the reactions to that. And then we got into some very serious stuff with the Marxism, communism, Muslim ideologies that are just starting to really run rampant. So I’d like to get into some final reflections. We just have a little bit of time to wrap up. But Dave, this idea of resting firmly on the rock of ages, Jesus Christ, how has that hope helped sustain you personally through this as you minister to others and yet have the Lord ministering to you and your grief? And how has it also helped you to know what’s right and wrong, like the prophets of old, to call out what’s right and to call out what’s wrong, not to just kind of ignore it like the Germans did when they heard the trainloads of Jews going by.

How does it help us with these cultural and political shifts that we’ve also gotten into today?

Dave Kistler:

I think none of us are our own. We’re property of the Lord. We belong to the Lord. We’re his by creation. We’re his by redemption. And when Nathan was a little boy, we yielded him to the Lord. I have no doubt that Amber’s parents did the same with her. And when Nathan came to know Christ as savior as a young man, when Amber came to know the Lord as Savior, they became his doubly. His by creation, his by redemption. So really we’re all in the hands of the Lord. We’re at his disposal to be used as he sees fit, as he chooses, and sometimes what he chooses is not at all what we would choose. And so when we remind ourselves of the fact that we belong to him, we are not our own. We’ve been bought with a price. And God has our permission, though he doesn’t need our permission, but he has our willingness to take and do with us, with our children that which he chooses and deems to be the best.

And Isaac, we remind ourselves all the time, we don’t know the end from the beginning like God does. We do not know what, humanly speaking, may have been out there for Nathan and Amber. We don’t know if maybe some prolonged illness may have been out there in front of them. And God shows to spare them from any of that. Isaiah 57: one, which was a verse quoted by a member of Congress at the memorial in Washington DC, the third of three memorials done in honor of those that perished in that plane crash. Congressman Greg Stube quoted it. And it says this, “The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart.” In other words, good people, godly people die. The world doesn’t know them. And if they did know them for the most part, they probably wouldn’t care. But it goes on and says this, “Now the righteous perish and no man lays it to heart.

Yet it says the Lord has taken them away, the righteous, to spare them from the evil that’s to come.” And Congressman Stube made a point that I have never forgotten. He said, “Maybe God knew there was something that he didn’t want Nathan and Amber to have to go through, that maybe we’re going to have to go through.” And so he just took them away in his mercy and grace. And boy, that ministered to me then. It’s ministered me since every time I see Greg, I remind him of that comment and thank him for it. So we trust God. The same is true when it comes to what’s happening in our world. We know that God’s got these things under his control. That doesn’t minimize in any way our obligation to speak up and try to resist the evil. We’re stewards of the country God’s given us.

I’m a steward of the nation I’ve been blessed to be born in and grow up in as I travel literally around the world and have done it for 41 years and see what other countries don’t have, that God has so abundantly blessed us with. We have an obligation to try to pass that on to our children and our grandchildren. How ungrateful would we be not to want to do that? So I believe Jeremiah 29, where God told the nation of Israel, you’re going to be in Babylon 70 years. You need to build homes, you need to raise families, you need to seek the peace of the city where you are because you’re going to be there a while. And because in its peace, you’re going to find peace. So we need to be engaged. We don’t just need to be focusing on heaven, though that is our primary focus, but we have obligations down here.

And so I try to live in the tension between those two citizenships, one in heaven, one here, and two responsibilities, one that’s eternal and one temple, and try to fulfill both responsibilities well.

Isaac Crockett:

What a great reminder, Dave. And my mind right now is going back to, I haven’t traveled around as much as you have, but I am thinking of Romania 25 years ago. That was a trip I took with my dad for a preaching campaign that he was a part of. And I just remember coming back to America from Eastern Europe for mostly being in Romania for a few days for a preaching campaign, how thankful I was to be back home. And just that feeling of belonging, but also the blessings that God has used through our godly, godly heritage. And so we do pray for our nation, but even in those 25 years since that trip that I took, I am concerned about the direction of our nation. And I know that many of you listening, you feel the same way. You see these shifts and changes happening, but we have hope.

We have hope as Christians, not just as Americans, but as believers. And so Dave, what encouragement would you offer to listeners today? When we watch the news, it feels negative. Much of it, maybe not all of it, but much of it. And when we look at things, and I think sometimes there’s people crying, the sky is falling or something. But there are true legitimate concerns. But as Christians, how would you direct us to encourage us not to take the direction our country is going as a burden, but how to have hope and how to have effectual real change in our nation?

Dave Kistler:

Well, I think our ministries and hope ministry is international for a reason. I’ve always been a glass half full kind of person, but I will say this. I keep going back to Jonah, the book of Jonah in the Old Testament where God sent Jonah and he reluctantly, reluctantly after a fish ride that changed his mind, he got to Nineveh and he preached to them. Yet 40 days in Nineveh, not might be. Nineveh shall be destroyed. God’s judgment was going to fall. And yet he preached that message and God averted the judgment. And the judgment was delayed. All the revival is, which is what is America’s greatest need, a revival from the throne room of God. All revival is a postponing of God’s judgment. We understand America’s going to have to be judged at some point for our transgressions, but can there be a postponing, a delaying, as we look at it from a human perspective, a postponing of that judgment for a period of time?

And the answer is yes. Yes. And if God would do it with the nation of Assyria and the city of Nineveh, he can, and I believe that he will do that in the United States of America. So what would I say to the American church and to American Christians? Let’s get as right with God as we can individually. And then let’s bombard heaven with an appeal to the God of heaven. But he will once again, even in the midst of wrath, remember mercy and send one last spiritual awakening to the United States of America before Jesus comes back. And when that happens, there’ll be people swept into the kingdom of God, not in ones and twos, but in hundreds and I believe thousands. And so it’s for that that I’ve preached for 41 years. It’s for that that I prayed. And Isaac, I believe this.

I am on this planet strategically right now. So this time, the last 41 years have been a wonderful journey.