Barry Meguiar 00:00
Welcome to the Ignite with Barry Meguiar podcast. How would you like to have the time of your life for the rest of your life? How would you like to defeat fear effortlessly, knowing for sure God is hearing and answering your prayers and directing your steps and making everything work for good? This is exciting. Here’s the question: How would you like to ignite your life? Stay tuned.
Hi everybody. Welcome back to Ignite. I have an exciting guest today, exciting because every time we’re together, we’re quickly sharing our individual stories about the last conversation we had about sharing our faith, and his stories are even better than mine. I mean, I got a lot of great stories, but he is often talking about Brad Dacus, the owner, president of Pacific Justice Institute. Welcome Brad. It’s fun to talk to you on a screen and and, but more importantly, let our followers, if they don’t already know who you are and what you’re doing.
Speaker 1 01:06
Oh, thank you, Barry. It’s great to be here. I appreciate it.
Barry Meguiar 01:09
Tell them about tell everybody about Pacific Justice right quick.
Speaker 1 01:13
Oh, you bet I found a Pacific Justice Institute back in 1997 it was clearly a God thing, because he broke through a lot of barriers. We got it going, and we’re defending religious freedom, parents, rights, against the government, the safety of human life, all without charge. We know Barry. We have over 130 cases right now in active litigation, 37 offices, coast to coast, and God has been blessing us with a fantastic win rate, especially the last few years, probably the highest win rate we’ve ever had, and we’re just seeing God move and seeing him giving us incredible victories. We had a great victory just very recently for a Christian couple in Oregon, they were told they couldn’t be foster parents because of their Christian faith, and with regards to not wanting to hypothetically affirm gender confusion in a child if they possibly had one that was that way, and they said, We can’t compromise our faith. And we filed a lawsuit, and we just went on appeal. Ray hacky, our attorney in Oregon, did a fantastic job, and it’s just so exciting to break through barriers for people who want to live their faith, whether it’s in the workplace, in the public square, doing things like foster care, adoption in universities, it’s just an exciting thing to do. So we we defend religious freedom, parents rights, and we don’t do it just because we like the Constitution. The Constitution, Barry to us, is like the 50 yard line that it’s a great goal, but it’s not the final goal. The final goal is furthering God’s kingdom. That’s the touchdown for us, and we love to not just defend but also empower people to live their faith and share their faith. It’s an exciting time.
Barry Meguiar 03:01
Well, give us a couple of examples, quick, the stories of sharing your faith. But give them, give us a couple of examples, right quick, of the maybe two that are completely different in the breadth of cases you take on pro bono.
Speaker 1 03:17
Oh, you bet you know we’re defending in New Jersey, people who are teachers, who are told by the attorney general that they have to use pronouns. If a child says they want to change their pronoun, change their name, they have to do it, even if it’s a Christian teacher, and they know I cannot affirm confusion, much less change a pronoun. That’s blasphemy to the Creator. It implies a Creator made a mistake. They said, No, no, no, no religious exemption. You have to do it. We have filed a lawsuit against the attorney general in New Jersey. We have these kind of cases across the country right now and then, of course, we’re also defending a Christian preschool on the other side of the country. In San Diego, church run Christian preschool, they were shut down. One of the reasons they were shut down by the intolerant government of California was because they, quote, compelled the little children to sing Christian songs and hear Bible stories. It’s a church run private Christian preschool. So we filed a petition for cert to United States Supreme Court in this case. So we got some exciting cases going on all across the country, we do all our work without charge. That’s who we’re about, what we’re about, making a difference, trying to make sure everyone gets help, and no one’s left on the side of the road. For God.
Barry Meguiar 04:31
Folks are in distress right now, and need, need your expertise. How do they, how do they reach you?
Speaker 1 04:40
Oh, it’s really easy. And they can also get our legal insider at our website, we can request help. It’s simply, simply go to pji.org, pji.org. And in fact, we have something we just debuted. It’s a Church kiosk, kiosks for churches in their lobby and in these kiosks, Barry, you’re gonna love this. Are brochures on how people can live their faith in the workplace, in schools, the public square, evangelize. So it’s empowering churches. I love to preach and I love to preach, but I only preach in so many churches. Well, this allows us to help every church out there that believes in the word and have it ever there every Sunday, to provide them that that support for the church and the pastors. And these are all free, and people can sign up and they can get one of those at their church without charge on our website. So there’s exciting things coming down the road, and we’re really thrilled to see what God’s doing.
Barry Meguiar 05:40
You, you, you are tireless. Folks, understand this is a huge, it’s really a ministry. It’s a huge ministry. It’s coast to coast. 100, how many cases right now?
Speaker 1 05:51
Over, over 130 cases right now, we help thousands every year.
Barry Meguiar 05:55
So understand the pressures, if you dare call them, that they’re really opportunities. But in addition to that, almost every Sunday, Brad is in a church somewhere preaching the gospel. You do that continually. I mean, I can’t even comprehend you, how you do all that, in addition to everything else you do,
Speaker 1 06:17
Yeah, it’s, it’s a real joy to preach the word right now, I’m preaching out of Esther chapter four. It’s expository, verse by verse for such a time as this is the name of it. And of course, every sermon I give, I give people the clear gospel and opportunity for people to pray and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That’s my that’s my favorite part of the whole sermon. And to see those hands go up. And I’m telling you, Barry, I’ve been doing this a good while, and I am noticing a higher proportion of people raising their hands to receive Christ, a higher percentage. Clearly, the Holy Spirit is moving. I’ve talked to other pastors and other churches. It’s an exciting time to get off out of the bleachers on the field and to live there, live our faith and share our faith.
Barry Meguiar 07:02
Well, I think you, I know you agree with this as well, and I must say, thank you. Charlie Kirk, I mean, it’s a huge loss, but we, Karen, I have been sharing our faith every day since 1976 is our 50th year, and it’s always been easy, it’s always been fun, but now it’s like you can be blind and stupid. Everybody wants to know, everybody. Everybody wants to know where God is right now. So, the opportunity, the fields are white for harvest, the laborers are few, and that’s why we have Ignite America. That’s what we’re trying to do. Get you off the bench and into the game. Start having some fun. How are we going to, you know, in the problems in America are not the problems that are created by the world. The world is lost. You understand that? Right. Right.
Barry Meguiar 07:49
They’re lost. Satan actually has placed mass over their eyes so they can’t even see. In fact, they see evil as good, is what they see, and evil is as bad, so that’s why they’re proclaiming all this nonsense, incredibly ludicrous, stupid, demonic stuff, and doing it with fervor. You know, because they’re lost, they’re not evil, and they’re going to stay lost, unless we love on them, unless we tell them, God loves you, and I know you and I share this very clearly, but we have a lot of mutual friends in public service, and they’ve forgotten the main goal, getting people into heaven. And so while they’re fighting public policy and some of the great issues about going into what they are, which you can guess them pretty easily, but they do it with such militancy today on behalf of God, quote, unquote, and they’re fighting that battle, and they’re hating the people on the other side of that battle and losing all thought that the people on the other side of those battles are people just like us that need God, and they’re seeing us as hateful. And we can’t do that. We need to hate the sin, but love the sinner. We need to fight the battles, but the same time, recognize our most important role, our only calling in life. He said, this is what you do. You love your neighbor as yourself. Right. And when we love people on the other side, you do it so beautifully with your ministry. Everybody watched you, both your foe and your supporters are moved closer to Jesus because you, you got this, man.
Speaker 1 09:22
Well, I agree with you 100% you know, you know, it’s easy for Christians in our society today to be so politicized in our worldview, our thinking, that we see, you know, the side that we’re on as, okay, we’re, we’re the good guys, and the other side, they’re the enemy and and, we need to oppose them. And well, I get that. You know, we need to be faithful with the truth. But people are not the enemy. They’re just lost. There’s only two groups of people, those of us who used to be lost, and those of us who are still lost. Exactly. That’s it. And Jesus died for us, and He doesn’t want us to write off anyone. I mean, Jesus was such a great example of this, throughout his ministry, other people, people that the world and his disciples and others would have written off. He just, he just reached out to him right where they are. And that’s what I love about the true gospel. The true gospel is a God who loves us and can take us right where we are with whatever baggage we have. Our God is a God of love that that takes us right where we are. Was once visiting with a gentleman who is a transgender activist, and, and I was connecting with him, and it was, a it was a great story on how God brought us, connected us together and, and we’re on a TV program together and afterwards, I said, Hey, is there a way we can get together? I just love to connect with you, understand you. And and it opened the door for communications. And then we met again. And then, and then the third time I told him, I said, and this the Holy Spirit put this on my heart specifically. I said, you know, I know, I know you’ve, you’ve had some bad experiences and, and you know, some, some churches a long time ago, wouldn’t allow you to go to church dressed as you are. And I says, I get that, you know. But don’t let, don’t let human you know, in practicality, don’t let human deficiencies, shortcomings deprive you of that personal relationship that God wants to have with you right now. He knows everything you’ve been through. He knows all your baggage, everything you’ve gone through, and he loves you and wants a relationship with you right now. And you know what’s interesting is he, he looked at me, Barry, and then he, then he looked at the, in the distance, and he sort of folded his arms like this. And I thought, okay, he’s gonna cut me off. This is body language cut. He’s gonna cut me off. But he looked at and he then he says, I start watering and he finally said, it’s interesting you should say that, because the last two weeks, I’ve been thinking about the need for God in my life again and, and I just thought, awesome. That’s the kind of God that we have. You know, we look at the outside, but God’s looking at the inside. And what’s the worst that can happen? We can get rejected, you know? I mean, even let’s say, let’s say someone takes and they shoot us, there’s no better way to go than for Jesus. I mean, that’s how I want to I’d rather go that way than in a hospital.
Barry Meguiar 12:25
Absolutely, absolutely. I tell people, you know, if somebody wants to shoot me, you know I’m gonna do I can say, Great, make my day. But just a minute, wait a minute. Didn’t give me 60 seconds so you can shoot me. Okay. Do you know God loves you? Yeah. I mean, no, he loves you. He loves you as much as ever loved anybody, and after you shoot me, he’s still gonna love you. Yeah? Okay, you can shoot me now. Make my day. It’s, it’s freedom the lives that you and I live. It’s freedom we get to celebrate God’s love to us and flowing through us. Isn’t it amazing? It’s so much fun. You and I have more fun than we deserve. I mean, we’re always laughing. They can see us. They wonder how we can have so much joy. But you get joy when you’re sharing the Lord, He says, when you bear fruit by joy, remain with you and your joy will remain full. And it’s really true, isn’t it? I mean, we have you and I both have more fun than we deserve.
Speaker 1 13:26
You are totally right. And I think a lot of people don’t realize how much they’re missing out in terms of the joy. If we want to, I tell people, if they want to experience God’s joy to the max, if they really want to experience life to the max fulfillment to the max, choose to be obedient, and that includes to share your faith. And you know, a study was done, and it wasn’t that long ago, and it said that more than 7 out of 10 people were pulled who don’t go to church, or the 7 out of 10 of those who don’t go to church were said that they would go to church if they were invited by someone at work and invited to church. And it’s, it’s so easy. And then when we do just step forward and do that, just that little action of just bringing them that much closer to the Lord, there’s a joy that comes with that. I mean, God blesses us with that, that joy that comes with that. And then when we hold back. I don’t know about you, Barry, but those times when I hold back, I don’t have the joy. Yeah. No, it’s quite the opposite.
Barry Meguiar 14:30
It’s, it’s possible to do that, or just by being focused on something else, not meaning to you, can pass that opportunity. But I think God sets these, these. I mean, we see where you were in the middle of it, he just set it up. I wonder how many of those divine appointments I walk by, I’m distracted, and I picture God going, Oh May, I work so hard to put that together. And Barry just blew me off.
Speaker 1 14:59
Yeah, it’s. I’ve done it, I’ve done it. And, and you know, what’s neat also is when we do blow we do get distracted, God says, Hey, I still love you. Get back on the horse. Get back on the horse. And, and I that’s also really freeing too, that we don’t have a God who uses guilt to compel us, but rather the love of Christ and the grace of Christ.
Barry Meguiar 15:23
There’s no end of God’s love, that illustration you just gave, and they’re all this way, but you think of what God had to go through to work on him before, put those thoughts in his mind two months, two weeks earlier, right? Right. Right. And then he put it right with you, and he prompts you to talk to him right at the right. Think of how the Holy Spirit was conducting, orchestrating all that for you to have this privilege of sharing with him and leading him closer to Jesus. I mean, isn’t that amazing?
Speaker 1 16:00
Oh, it is, you know. And some people say, Oh, you travel, because I fly a lot to speak and preach. I’ll preach at any church, big or tiny, no matter where it is. I’ll pay for my flight, pay for my hotel. So anyway, so you do that, and you have no honorarium, no love offering required, you get invited, and you stick to the word. But you know, what’s exciting is on these plane trips. I just wish I had did a better journaling. Just, just a plane trip experiences on planes I remember was one time God sat me next to these two people who were from India, both, neither of them knew each other. By the way, it was just a weird coincidence, coincidence, not a coincidence. Coincidence. And I’m sitting right next to them, and I’m talking to this, to the female next to me, and and there was a male sitting on the other side of her, and I said, so, tell me, so you’re for me to go. I said, interesting. I said, So are you from, you know, Hindu faith, or I’m a Christian, but are you, you know, from a different faith, Hindu? Or she goes, yeah, it’s my background. She says, but a lot of my friends, you know, I’ve become Christian. I said, really? I says, Are there a lot of Hindus becoming Christians? She goes, Oh, yeah. In fact, my two best friends just got baptized. And then she asked me. She said, so, so what does it mean to be a Christian? And of course, I was too busy writing my sermon to be able to talk to her about this. So I know I’m teasing. So, so of course, I got to share with her, you know what it was, what it means to be a Christian, and, and how you become a Christian and, and I, the other gentleman, heard it too. He wasn’t a Christian either. And it’s interesting, some people just ask their question, well, then did you did you pray and lead them in the prayer to salvation? I said, I said, no, I didn’t. They weren’t ready to take that next step. You could tell you, follow the Holy Spirit. You don’t, you don’t, you know, cram it. But, but it was great, as long as they were willing to respond, and we were, it was, it was awesome. And they heard.
Barry Meguiar 17:56
Move everybody, every day closer to Jesus. You may be the first person or the 20th person to cross the line, but you want to move them closer. One of the early frustrations I had back 50 years ago was when I thought I had to get them saved that moment and what didn’t happen that moment. I got mad at God. I was frustrated myself and like it was my timing. It’s not my timing. Right. God’s timing. And I just want to love them as far as they’ll go, and then they’re in God’s care. They’re not, they’re not my responsibility. My responsibility is to share with them, right? I had, I often talk about being on a plane, and cared I got separated, by the way, Suzanne, can we talk about Suzanne for your wife? She, she’s you, man, she’s almost more than you. She’s fantastic. What a power couple you are.
Speaker 1 18:49
She’s, she was a full time youth ministry for 10 years, and she’s the one that went to the high school campuses. She did this, you know, outreach right after Columbine tragedy, she was out there, and she knows about living her faith and sharing her faith and discipling kids, and it’s just a it’s been a huge blessing to have her as my partner.
Barry Meguiar 19:13
She is your partner, your ambassador. What’s your height?
Speaker 1 19:17
I think it’s 5’2, 5’4.
Barry Meguiar 19:21
Yeah. What’s your and what’s her height?
Speaker 1 19:24
About 6’2 and a half.
Barry Meguiar 19:26
You see this couple, quite but in power, no, I mean, they’re each powerhouses, and they go out, and we go to a lot of conferences together, folks, we’re at conferences all over the country. I get to spend some time with Brad, but I don’t. I mean, sometimes, several times, I’ve saved you seats, and I want to come and hear the speaker. It’s somebody really important. I want to hear the speaker. And you say, Okay, I’ll be there better. And you come, and you’re there for about 10 minutes, and then you’re gone because you didn’t come to hear speeches. You’ve come to work the crowd, man, I don’t know anybody that gets more out of a conference. Every time I see you with somebody different, and you’re laying it down, and they’re just, you get them captivated. Did you do that three days straight, man, you get the most of your investment into these conferences. Why? I should be more like Brad. He’s, he’s, he’s impacted a lot of lives right now where I’m going to get my life impacted. So it’s, I have a lot of respect for, for your personality, and you’re, you’re just all in, you’re just all in.
Speaker 1 20:31
Well as are you Barry and you’re, you’re an inspiration to me, and that’s why I love spending time with you. I love your ministry Ignite. I’m not just saying that it is so on the bull’s eye of exhortation, with the body of Christ needs, which is to be exhorted, to live our faith, to share our faith. You know, you know, I was once on a radio show, is a secular News Radio Show. And the guy, he, you know, he’s, I don’t think he was a believer. And he says, Brad, what case? What law do we need to turn this nation around to have, you know, major impact. And I thought, there’s only I got to tell the truth. And it was secular, right? It wasn’t Christian at all. I said, well, you know, since you asked, there’s only one thing in the long term, in the big picture, that’s going to turn this nation around. He goes, what is it, Brad, Tell us. Tell our audience. And I said, it’s for people throughout America to come to a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and to receive Him as their Lord and Savior. And then it was a dead silence on radio. And then he finally goes, what else? And I said, well, long term, that’s it. And then I thought I’d give him a little mercy. And I said, but you know, there’s some short-term measures we can, you know, do, to keep the dikes from breaking right now. He goes, what is it? Tell us. Talk about those. But the bottom line is, it’s, it’s people living their faith, coming to Christ. It’s through the changing of our hearts, of Americans. That’s what changes, everything from politics, etc, and that is what you’re doing with your ministry, Ignite. And I love it. And I just, it’s just a joy to see what how God’s using you through that.
Barry Meguiar 22:10
We both get asked, What’s wrong with America? What happened? We’re in chaos. Where is God and all this? The simple answer is, folks, you give this to him, and it changes them. It’s very simple, and they can’t argue with you. Ask them the question, let me, let me just ask you two questions. First one is, even if they’re not Christians, they’ll answer the same. It’s funny, everybody answers the same. I say. Do you think that if you’re closer to God, would you agree that if you’re closer to God, you have more love and kindness and friendship and happiness and all. They always say, Yes, oh yeah. The whole bunch of I did with a bunch of guys in a bar one night, and they had been into it a little bit. But even they said, Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Okay, so let me ask this is a follow up question. Would you, would you agree that then the further away you get from God, the more chaos and crime and hate and anger? Oh, yeah. Okay, well, you just answered your own question. America, over the last 60 years, has moved away from God, right? It’s not a political issue. You can’t win this battle in Washington or anywhere else. It’s a love issue. We’ve moved away from God, and for those of us who know God, it depends on us. We’re, we’re America’s only hope. I would dare say the most patriotic thing we can do is lead people to Jesus. Because we lead people to Jesus, they won’t see evil as evil. They’ll say evil is evil. I mean, they won’t see evil is good. They’ll sit down see evil is evil, good is good. And they’d be on the right side of the issues and then be proclaiming Jesus. And I cage the ultimate multi level marketing machine, you know? And they’ll get others. And that’s, that’s the business we’re in, isn’t it?
Speaker 1 23:57
Yeah, and we’re seeing that revivals last year more than any other time in my lifetime, since the Jesus revolution. It is. It’s exciting to see we have more Gen Z’s going to church per capita than baby boomers. So it’s, it’s, it’s not just, you know, sometimes we get depressed and we say, oh, everything’s going down the drain. No, no, that’s not the that’s not in Scripture, you know, go you there for hide in the hills, get your, your emergency kits and wait for Jesus. It’s go out there and live for Christ, whether you’re in a cycle of persecution or a cycle of, of open opportunity. Yeah, yeah.
Barry Meguiar 24:34
So they say where I asked me, where would you like to run? I’m not going to run anywhere, I’d be right here. I wouldn’t be right here for claiming as if I get into concentration camp, there’s gonna be a lot of people around me that need Jesus. So hey, this is great. Our half hour is up. But I asked you ahead of time, if you stay over for a second half hour, can you do that?
Speaker 1 24:53
Oh, I It’s a joy. I’m looking forward to it.
Barry Meguiar 24:56
Thank you. It just goes so fast talking to you. He is Brad Dacus, the head of Pacific Justice, amazing heart, soul winner. Thank you for being on and we’ll, we’ll pick you up on the other side. All right. Thank you everybody for watching us. See you next time.
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