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Fr. Bliss Spillar, our Senior Pastor, preaches on the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany. This is the fourth sermon in a series based on Rowan Williams's small book, Being Christian. Scripture PassagesWe join Christians worldwide by reading weekly texts from the Revised Common Lectionary and, over time, hearing the whole gospel story read within our community. This Sunday's readings were:Jeremiah 17:5-101 Corinthians 15:12-20Luke 6:17-26Psalm 1Intro for Sermon Podcasts Outro for Sermon AudioWe are a community hoping to live the Jesus-way in our city as a people of God's hospitality, God‘s restoration, and God's shalom. Learn more about All Souls Charlottesville: www.allsoulscville.com
Fr. Bliss Spillar, our Senior Pastor, preaches on the second Sunday after the Epiphany. This is the third sermon in a series based on Rowan Williams's small book, Being Christian. Scripture PassagesWe join Christians worldwide by reading weekly texts from the Revised Common Lectionary and, over time, hearing the whole gospel story read within our community. This Sunday's readings were:Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-101 Corinthians 12:12-31aLuke 4:14-21Psalm 19Intro for Sermon Podcasts Outro for Sermon AudioWe are a community hoping to live the Jesus-way in our city as a people of God's hospitality, God‘s restoration, and God's shalom. Learn more about All Souls Charlottesville: www.allsoulscville.com
A new episode for you this Monday! Joining us for this conversation on Christian politics is former MLA (MPP equivalent) James Teitsma. He has had quite an interesting journey in entrepreneurship and politics and much wisdom to share from his experience. We chat about getting more Christians into politics and how Christian politicians navigate controversy. 0:00 - Introduction 2:30 - Career Path 6:00 - Road to Politics 18:00 - Life as an MLA 29:00 - Being Christian in Politics 36:00 - Navigating Controversy 52:00 - How to best engage 1:10:00 - Involvement with Reformed Perspective/ARPA 1:15:00 - Future Plans 1:21:00 - Canada's Future A BIG THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR, NEERALTA, BUILDERS OF GRAIN STORAGE AND HANDLING EQUIPMENT. BE SURE TO CHECK THEM OUT AT WWW. NEERLATA.COM! To keep up with the podcast, check out our website: https://www.realtalkpodcast.ca/ Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates, clips, and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReformedRealTalk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reformedrealtalk/ We'd love to hear from you. Please send us your questions, comments, or other feedback at realtalk@reformedperspective.ca. Thanks for listening! If you liked what you heard, please share this podcast with your family and friends!
Fr. Bliss Spillar, our Senior Pastor, preaches on the second Sunday after the Epiphany. This is the second sermon in a series based on Rowan Williams's small book, Being Christian. Scripture PassagesWe join Christians worldwide by reading weekly texts from the Revised Common Lectionary and, over time, hearing the whole gospel story read within our community. This Sunday's readings were:Isaiah 62:1-51 Corinthians 12:1-11John 2:1-11Psalm 36:5-10Intro for Sermon Podcasts Outro for Sermon AudioWe are a community hoping to live the Jesus-way in our city as a people of God's hospitality, God‘s restoration, and God's shalom. Learn more about All Souls Charlottesville: www.allsoulscville.com
Fr. Bliss Spillar, our Senior Pastor, preaches on the first Sunday after the Epiphany. This is the first sermon in a series based on Rowan Williams's small book, Being Christian. Scripture PassagesWe join Christians worldwide by reading weekly texts from the Revised Common Lectionary and, over time, hearing the whole gospel story read within our community. This Sunday's readings were:Isaiah 43:1-7Acts 8:14-17Luke 3:15-17, 21-22Psalm 29Intro for Sermon Podcasts Outro for Sermon AudioWe are a community hoping to live the Jesus-way in our city as a people of God's hospitality, God‘s restoration, and God's shalom. Learn more about All Souls Charlottesville: www.allsoulscville.com
Practicing the Way with John Mark ComerThe start of a new year prompts the reflection that if we are not intentionally modeling our life after Jesus, we are likely being formed by something or someone else. Adrift in the cultural current, we're likely to be carried to places we never consciously chose and wonder how we got there.In Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer explores what it means in our times to be a disciple of Jesus -- to be with him, to become like him, and to do as he did:“ It seems to me that the telos of the spiritual journey in the Christian way is becoming a person of love through deepening union with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…It's the two greatest commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, that Jesus put at the center of apprenticeship to him.” - John Mark ComerWe hope this conversation encourages you to move slowly as you abide with Jesus this year, and by his grace are transformed into a person of deeper love, joy, and peace.This podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in 2024. Learn more about John Mark Comer.Episode outline00:00 Introduction to Practicing the Way01:00 Formation is Inevitable02:26 John Mark Comer's Background and Influences05:21 Evangelical Discipleship and the Influence of Dallas Willard08:05 From Burnout to the Inner Journey11:26 Being Christian and Being an Apprentice of Jesus21:04 The Destructive Power of Hurry, and the Pace of Love26:13 The Practice of Contemplation and Abiding33:17 Final Thoughts and PrayerAuthors and books mentioned in the conversation:The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Live No Lies, God Has a Name, Garden City, Practicing the Way, all by John Mark ComerDivine Conspiracy, by Dallas WillardJacques PhilippeSt. ThereseN.T. WrightGary HaugenRobert BellahMother TeresaDorothy DayFrancis ChanJohn StottThree Mile an Hour God, Kosuki KoyamaMary Oliver Marjorie ThompsonKurt ThompsonBrennan ManningRelated Trinity Forum Readings:Augustine's Confessions, with an introduction by James K. A. SmithBright Evening Star, by Madeleine L'EngleA Practical View of Real Christianity, by William WilberforceWrestling with God, by Simone WeilPilgrim's Progress, by John BunyanPilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie DillardWhy God Became Man, by St. AnselmRelated Conversations:Making as a Spiritual Practice with Mako FujimuraWriting as a Spiritual Practice with Jonathan Rogers, Tish Harrison Warren, and Doug McKelveyWalking as a Spiritual Practice with Mark BuchananTo listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum SocietySpecial thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.
2024-10-13 Being Christian in Unjust Circumstancesby Pastor Chris BergScripture Reference: Titus 2:9-109 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
The Lesson: Philippians 2:1-11Sermon: “Being Christian in a Divided World: United We Stand"Preaching: Rev. Bill Britt, Senior Minister The post 09.29.24 | Being Christian in a Divided World: United We Stand appeared first on Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.
The Lesson: Galatians 6:7-10Sermon: “Being Christian in a Divided World: Living with Integrity"Preaching: Rev. Bill Britt, Senior Minister The post 09.22.24 | Being Christian in a Divided World: Living with Integrity appeared first on Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.
The Lesson: Psalm 40:4-8Sermon: “Being Christian in a Divided World: Listening with Respect"Preaching: Rev. Bill Britt, Senior Minister The post 09.15.24 | Being Christian in a Divided World: Listening with Respect appeared first on Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.
April Ajoy (she/her) is a content creator and podcast host who uses humor to shine light on harmful, toxic, and sometimes just weird traits of American Evangelicalism. After growing up an evangelist's kid entrenched in Christian Nationalism and working in conservative Christian media, she saw the harm caused firsthand. Still a Christian, she uses her platform to expose the dangers of Christian Nationalism while promoting a more inclusive faith. She's been married to Beecher for 10 years and they have two daughters together. In this episode we talk about: April's book Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith (which you can pre-order here!) America Say Jesus Tour Her father's death and her brother coming out as gay sparked her shifting beliefs and deconstruction Being Christian and voting Democrat (and how voting Republican doesn't actually save babies…) If you're coming out of Christian Nationalism, look back at the words of Jesus Connect with April: Instagram TikTok Listen to her America Say Jesus clip here Pre-order April's book: Star-Spangled Jesus Learn more about Content Warning Event and register here! And check out the list of amazing collaborators here. Connect with Maggie: Instagram Email: hello.decons@gmail.com Join the conversation on discord Visit dauntless.fm for more content Learn more about Amy's music: Website Foray Music Instagram This is a Dauntless Media Collective Podcast. Visit dauntless.fm for more content.
The Gospel Lesson: Luke 9:51-56Sermon: “Being Christian in a Divided World: Seeking Uncommon Ground"Preaching: Rev. Bill Britt, Senior Minister The post 09.08.24 | Being Christian in a Divided World: Seeking Uncommon Ground appeared first on Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.
A new MP3 sermon from Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Being Christian after an election Subtitle: The Words of the Wise Speaker: Richard Hilliard Broadcaster: Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay Event: Sunday - AM Date: 8/4/2024 Bible: Proverbs 24:21-22 Length: 40 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Being Christian after an election Subtitle: The Words of the Wise Speaker: Richard Hilliard Broadcaster: Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay Event: Sunday - AM Date: 8/4/2024 Bible: Proverbs 24:21-22 Length: 40 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Being Christian after an election Subtitle: The Words of the Wise Speaker: Richard Hilliard Broadcaster: Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay Event: Sunday - AM Date: 8/4/2024 Bible: Proverbs 24:21-22 Length: 40 min.
A new MP3 sermon from Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Being Christian after an election Subtitle: The Words of the Wise Speaker: Richard Hilliard Broadcaster: Bethel Baptist Chapel Billinghay Event: Sunday - AM Date: 8/4/2024 Bible: Proverbs 24:21-22 Length: 40 min.
James talks to us about the significance of communion as we reach the end of our short series looking through Rowan William's book Being Christian
A new MP3 sermon from Household of Faith in Christ is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Being Christian in the Public Eye Subtitle: The Faith Debate Speaker: Troy Skinner Broadcaster: Household of Faith in Christ Event: Radio Broadcast Date: 3/11/2007 Length: 26 min.
Being Christian means more than a set of ideas you believe; it's a calling into a particular way of life. In this sermon, Pastor Stephen walks through Peter's instructions and shows us how Christians are supposed to live.
Matt helps us explore Jesus' teachings on prayer through the lens of Rowan Williams' book "Being Christian."
We continue our exploration of the Eucharist with Marisa through the lens of Rowan Williams' book, "Being Christian."
Through the lens of Rowan Williams' book, "Being Christian," Zack delves into Eucharistic Prayer B, which we are using at our 9:10 a.m. service during Eastertide.
Continuing our reflection on Rowan Williams' book, "Being Christian," Marisa takes a look at the Eucharist through the lens of 1 Corinthians.
Continuing our reflection on Rowan Williams' book, "Being Christian," Zack looks at the role of the New Testament on our journey of faith.
We continue our reflection on the book "Being Christian" by Rowan Williams. This week, Jay looks at the role of the Hebrew scriptures on our journey of faith.
Prayer and reading the Bible is the best method we can possibly have. Being Christian doesn't mean everything will be peaches and cream, and at times, we may even doubt God. But when it comes down to it, reading your Bible and praying will always be the best resources we possibly can and will ever have
Presented by Lauren Stibgen The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit (Proverbs 15:4). How should we have grace with our words? I find there are two ways we use our words negatively, especially when it comes to work. The first is self-talk, and the second is gossip. Neither extends grace, and both are rooted in sin apart from Christ. There are leading movements that promise to help us with positive self-talk. The words we use for ourselves can often be as harmful as the words we speak to and about others. I have found the words working women often use for themselves are borne of discouragement or on the opposite end of the spectrum, pride. Discouragement says “I am not enough, I will never get the promotion, or I won't find a job.” Pride says, “I am better than, or she can't.” Gossip and slander are pervasive in the workplace. More often than not, we find it is easier to remark about what isn't going right or what someone isn't doing than it is to celebrate someone's success. Research shows 75-95% of gossip contains a morsel of truth. 96% of employees admit to engaging in gossip at work. A study about gossip shows more than 40 minutes per week are spent solely in gossip, and, yes, women are worse than men with close to 80% of women admitting to engaging in gossip. Noted consequences of gossip at work are lack of trust, jealousy, alienation, hurt feelings, and low morale. Being Christian doesn't exclude us from this 96%. Remember, grace covers a multitude of sins, and maybe like me, you want to be better with your words both to yourself and about others. Ephesians 4:29 tells us to have no corrupting talk come from our mouths, but only such is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Grace. What if we spent those 40 minutes building others up? If you work a typical week, that is eight minutes a day. Focused energy on speaking those morsels of truth to a person rather than about a person. Maybe you don't gossip but spend time in negative self-talk. Spend those eight minutes with life giving affirmations about what Christ says of you. The tongue has the power of life and death. Repeatedly, the bible highlights how powerful our tongue is. In fact, in James 3:6, the tongue is described as a fire, and a world of evil among the parts of the body setting the whole course of one's life on fire. No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil. Words can give grace. Heavenly father, set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips (Psalm 141:3).
Marisa interrupts this year's theme of "Being Christian" for a fascinating discussion about her recent trip to Antarctica, complete with pictures!
We continue our reflection on the book "Being Christian" by Rowan Williams. This week, Zack walks us through and discusses the liturgy for Holy Baptism.
We continue our reflection on the book "Being Christian" by Rowan Williams. This week, Jay focuses on baptism as an essential principle of Christian life.
Beginning our theme of "Being Christian" based on Rowan Williams' book of the same name, Zack leads us through an overview of the book and a discussion surrounding what the former Archbishop of Canterbury believes are the principles of Christianity.
The massive drop in church attendance is a crisis facing churches across the Western World and there are external pressures and internal weaknesses that need to be addressed at every level of the church.We highlighted a few months ago the attendance drop in Sydney Anglican Evangelical Churches in the last ten years. Raj Gupta first called it a plateau problem. But the data released at last September's Synod shows it's now much worse. From a high in 2015, attendance in 2019 was down 7.5 percent. And in 2022, attendance was down a further ten percent.Even allowing for a covid factor even assuming some sort of bounce back these are figures that we should talk about.Andrew Heard, the senior pastor of EV Church on the Central Coast, has challenged Evangelical Anglican leaders in Sydney to look at their hearts, head and hands, saying there's a heart problem and a skill deficit.David Rietveld is senior pastor of Dapto Anglican Church to the South of Sydney, and the author of ‘Being Christian after Christendom' partially agrees with Andrew but gives more weight to the problems in the soil. Support the show--To make a one off contribution to support The Pastor's Heart's ministry go to this link, or to become a regular Patreon supporter click here.
The woke left is freaking out over what they're calling the newest Christian nationalist state! That's right! According to the latest from the New York Times, this state has taken a hard turn towards the Christian right; we're going to find out where, and most especially, why, when it comes to the rise of Christian nationalism, this state is actually just the beginning! Highlights: “The state of Montana has been designated by the woke warriors over at the New York Times to be perhaps the single most stellar example of the rise of Christian nationalism inside the US!” “Montana has, of course, passed legislation banning transgender reassignment surgeries for minors as well as trans athletes from female sports teams, Montana has increased tax credits for private Christian schools, and implemented numerous anti-abortion laws.” “If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore. Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.” Timestamps: [01:37] The rise of Christian nationalism [03:44] Basic biblical principles of government [06:00] Christian nationalist sentiments [07:30] Vivek Ramaswamy embracing Christian nationalism Resources: Nature's Morphine? Dr. Turley and scientist Clint Winters discuss the incredible pain relief effects of 100% Drug Free Conolidine. This changes pain relief… https://www.bh3ktrk.com/2DDD1J/2CTPL/?source_id=PC&sub1=91423 Learn how to protect your life savings from inflation and an irresponsible government, with Gold and Silver. Go to https://www.gcjdjhs3e.com/WDT8K/3TJ7N7/?source_id=TurleyTalks_digital_dollar&sub1=adscript&sub2=Podcast Want free inside stock tips straight from the SEC? Click here to get started now: https://turleytalksinsidertrading.com/talk-registration/ HE'LL BE BACK! Get your limited edition TRUMPINATOR 2024 Bobblehead HERE: https://offers.proudpatriots.com/order-form-TurleyTalks_Podcast Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and/or leave a review. Sick and tired of Big Tech, censorship, and endless propaganda? Join my Insiders Club with a FREE TRIAL today at: https://insidersclub.turleytalks.com Make sure to FOLLOW me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrTurleyTalks BOLDLY stand up for TRUTH in Turley Merch! Browse our new designs right now at: https://store.turleytalks.com/ Do you want to be a part of the podcast and be our sponsor? Click here to partner with us and defy liberal culture! If you would like to get lots of articles on conservative trends make sure to sign-up for the 'New Conservative Age Rising' Email Alerts.
It's actually gotten rather hard to read America's pollsters and pundits without coming across rather panicked articles over the rise of Christian nationalism in America. The alarm bells really seemed to be set off by a recent study from the Public Religion Research Institute that asked 5 thousand respondents representing all 50 states, if they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements, such as: The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation; U.S. laws should be based on Christian values; If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore; Being Christian is an important part of being truly American; and finally, God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society. The results were particularly terrifying for secular liberals! Highlights: “If 30% of the American public already ascribes so assent or allegiance to the basic tenets of Christian nationalism, then all bets are off! We may already be in the midst of a major paradigm shift that needed a percentage like that to tip the scales, as it were.” “If you can believe it, nearly 20% of Democrats would like to see American declared a Christian nation!... Don't dismiss the significance of 20% of Democrats being attracted to Christian nationalism. That is an extraordinarily significant figure.” “Restoration politics, the new political era we're entering into, is all about implementing re-traditionalized policies in every sphere of life. And this is where we're seeing the rising and dominance of Christian nationalist sentiments.” Timestamps: [00:49] Americans tipping the scale and agreeing to the basic tenets of Christian nationalism [02:06] How the majority of Republicans support the formal declaration of the United States as a Christian nation [05:50] Why are we seeing this surge of interest and attraction for Christian nationalism Resources: Try Liver Health Formula by going to GetLiverHelp.com/Turley and claim your 5 FREE bonus gifts. That's https://GetLiverHelp.com/Turley Get two packs of organic bacon FREE every month if you sign up HERE: https://www.frebahlem.com/BG484F42/ Get over 60% OFF with my Code TURLEY and get the best sleep of your life at: https://www.mypillow.com/turley Start the 24/7 Protection of Your Home and Equity Today! Go to https://www.hometitlelock.com/turleytalks The Courageous Patriot Community is inviting YOU! Join the movement now and build the parallel economy at https://join.turleytalks.com/insiders-club-evergreen/?utm_medium=podcast Show your support for President Trump with his new cards HERE: https://www.physicaltrumpcards.com/trump-cards-collection-podcast Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and/or leave a review. Sick and tired of Big Tech, censorship, and endless propaganda? Join my Insiders Club with a FREE TRIAL today at: https://insidersclub.turleytalks.com Make sure to FOLLOW me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrTurleyTalks BOLDLY stand up for TRUTH in Turley Merch! Browse our new designs right now at: https://store.turleytalks.com/ Do you want to be a part of the podcast and be our sponsor? Click here to partner with us and defy liberal culture! If you would like to get lots of articles on conservative trends make sure to sign-up for the 'New Conservative Age Rising' Email Alerts.
Full episode transcript HERE.This week's Feminist Buzzkills pod is comin' atcha from the winner's circle, because all we do is win! Things may still be garbage, but on this week's podisode, the Buzzkills stop and celebrate the Ohio voters who were asked to vote on abortion (in a really screwy way) and WON! Just like every ballot measure since the Supreme Court destroyed Roe. Newsflash: PEOPLE WANT ABORTION! We're also freaking the fuck out about the nonsense going down in Idaho, Illinois, and Texas - Oh my!PLUS, another triple-threat guest lineup! Pennsylvania just cut off sweet, sweet government funding to FAKE CLINICS. So we've got Tara Murtha, Director of Strategic Communications at the Women's Law Project, here to make sure we understand how magnificently monumental this is. The amazing Arizona OBGYN and Reproductive Justice activist Dr. DeShawn Taylor, AKA founder and owner of Desert Star Family Planning in Phoenix, talks her new book, “Undue Burden: A Black, Woman Physician on Being Christian and Pro-abortion in the Reproductive Justice Movement.” And to bring the noise and the funny, it's TikTok superstar and host of the “What Fresh Hell is This?” podcast, Stanzi Potenza! Times are heavy, but knowledge is power, y'all. We gotchu. OPERATION SAVE ABORTION: You can still join the 10,000+ womb warriors fighting the patriarchy by listening to our five-part OpSave pod series and Mifepristone Panel by clicking HERE for episodes, your toolkit, marching orders, and more. HOSTS:Lizz Winstead @LizzWinsteadMoji Alawode-El @MojiLocks INTERVIEW CO-HOST:Marie Khan @MjKhan @Midwest_Access_Coalition NEWS DUMPER:Molly Gaebe @MollyGaebe SPECIAL GUESTS: Tara Murtha IG/TW: @TaraMurtha // IG: @WomensLawProject TW/FB: @WomensLawProjDr. DeShawn Taylor IG: @DesertStarFamilyPlanning / TW: @DesertStarFPStanzi Potenza IG/TW/TikTok/FB: @StanziPotenza NEWS DUMP: Groups Look To Next Steps After Judge Blocks Illinois' Pregnancy Center LawTexas Fights for the Right to Deny Women Life-Saving Abortion Care Voters in Ohio Reject Gop-Backed Proposal That Would Have Made It Tougher to Protect Abortion RightsSouthwest Airlines Appeals Order Requiring Its Lawyers to Take ‘Religious Liberty Training'George W. Bush's Aids-Fighting Program's New Critics: RepublicansJudge Reminds Anti-abortion Attorneys That No Women Helped Draft Utah's Constitution in 1895Jury Selection Begins in Clinic Blockade Trial of Activist Who Had Fetal Remains in Capitol Hill HomeIdaho Is Sued, Again, Over an Abortion Law. Educators Say It Violates Free SpeechShapiro Terminates State Funding for Real Alternatives Anti-abortion Centers in PA GUEST LINKS:Women's Law Project WebsiteSIGN UP: Women's Law Project Action AlertsWomen's Law Project ReportWomen's Law Project CPC Accountability StatementBUY: Dr. DeShawn Taylor's Book “Undue Burden”Desert Star Family Planning WebsiteStanzi Potenza's WebsiteStanzi's “Heaven and Hell” TikTok SeriesTICKETS: Stanzi's Hot Girl Activism TourPODCAST: What Fresh Hell is This? With Stanzi Potenza EPISODE LINKS:6 DEGREES: Wayne Brady Came Out as Pansexual. Here's What That Means 8/14 VIRTUAL ACTION: Building Campus Coalitions for Abortion Access8/14 VIRTUAL ACTION: Expose Fake Clinics SIGN OUR PETITION TO KEEP MIFEPRISTONE ON THE MARKETEmail your abobo questions to The Feminist BuzzkillsAAF's Abortion-Themed Rage Playlist FOLLOW US:Listen to us ~ FBK PodcastInstagram ~ @AbortionFrontTwitter ~ @AbortionFrontTikTok ~ @AbortionFrontFacebook ~ @AbortionFrontYouTube ~ @AbortionAccessFront PATREON HERE! Support our work, get exclusive merch and more! DONATE TO AAF HERE!ACTIVIST CALENDAR HERE!VOLUNTEER WITH US HERE!ADOPT-A-CLINIC HERE!EXPOSE FAKE CLINICS HERE!FIND AN ABORTION PROVIDER NEAR YOU HERE!GET ABOBO PILLS FROM PLAN C PILLS HERE!When BS is poppin', we pop off!
Part 5 in our series for and by a new Christian. In this part of the journey, Elsa talks about the common questions, comments, and even insults from non-believers and how she responds.Support the show#ifounditonamazon https://a.co/ekT4dNOTRY AUDIBLE PLUS: https://amzn.to/3vb6Rw3Elsa's Books: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01E1VFRFQDesign Like A Pro: https://canva.7eqqol.net/xg6Nv Bible Journaling Finds: https://www.amazon....
Can secrets be a generational curse? What happens when they come out? These questions and more as Elsa talks with author, advocate and speaker Elizabeth Good about the damaging secrets we keep. You'll be stunned by some of things she has to say.Elizabeth Good's book, Groomed: https://amzn.to/43X4uMOThe Foundation United: https://www.thefoundationunited.com/About Elizabeth: Elizabeth Fisher Good is the founder/CEO of The Foundation United, and the creator of REAL TALK, a catalytic new ministry training module to empower the Church and its leaders to walk in complete freedom and transparency regarding the current global pandemic of childhood sexual abuse. She is a passionate pioneer and inspirational thought leader with a desire to expose the root issue behind sex trafficking -- childhood sexual abuse. In her book "Groomed" (HarperCollins, 2020), Good uses her own story of abuse and healing from trauma to help readers find true freedom and purpose.Support the show#ifounditonamazon https://a.co/ekT4dNOTRY AUDIBLE PLUS: https://amzn.to/3vb6Rw3Elsa's Books: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01E1VFRFQDesign Like A Pro: https://canva.7eqqol.net/xg6Nv Bible Journaling Finds: https://www.amazon....
Elsa shares what she thought becoming a Christian would be like, vs what really happened.Support the show#ifounditonamazon https://a.co/ekT4dNOTRY AUDIBLE PLUS: https://amzn.to/3vb6Rw3Elsa's Books: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01E1VFRFQDesign Like A Pro: https://canva.7eqqol.net/xg6Nv Bible Journaling Finds: https://www.amazon....
Neil Mammen asks the question to B L M: Why Aren't We Fighting For Every Black Life? We discuss why and how EBLM is different from that group, among other topics at NRB 2023Neil's Books: Jesus Is Involved In Politics: https://amzn.to/3NmcGyZWho Is Agent X? https://amzn.to/3r2F1CX40 Days To A More Godly Nation: https://amzn.to/3JwrpX3Support the show#ifounditonamazon https://a.co/ekT4dNOTRY AUDIBLE PLUS: https://amzn.to/3vb6Rw3Elsa's Books: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01E1VFRFQDesign Like A Pro: https://canva.7eqqol.net/xg6Nv Bible Journaling Finds: https://www.amazon....
There's a first for everything! If you're coming out Christian, you're probably experiencing a LOT of those firsts. In this episode, we're talking about those firsts!2:20 Cross Necklace: https://amzn.to/3NdwpC14:00 Turquois Cross: https://amzn.to/3OZwo5S6:20NIV Bible : https://amzn.to/3OZwo5SKJV Bible: https://amzn.to/3OWlOgd8:20 Bible Tabs: https://amzn.to/43QVOahBible Highlighters: https://amzn.to/3oVevL1*Affiliate linksSupport the show#ifounditonamazon https://a.co/ekT4dNOTRY AUDIBLE PLUS: https://amzn.to/3vb6Rw3Elsa's Books: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01E1VFRFQDesign Like A Pro: https://canva.7eqqol.net/xg6Nv Bible Journaling Finds: https://www.amazon....
Okay, well, the actress who portrays Mary, to be more exact. The Chosen series cast member, who plays Mary, mother of Jesus is actress Vanessa Benavente & she sits down with Elsa for a one on one interview about her role as Mary at NRB 2023. Bonus: Behind the scenes content before and after the interview!Support the show#ifounditonamazon https://a.co/ekT4dNOTRY AUDIBLE PLUS: https://amzn.to/3vb6Rw3Elsa's Books: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01E1VFRFQDesign Like A Pro: https://canva.7eqqol.net/xg6Nv Bible Journaling Finds: https://www.amazon....
The post Being Christian, Part 2: Confident Faith appeared first on First Baptist Church.
The post Being Christian, Part 3: The Art of Rejoicing appeared first on First Baptist Church.
Robert Nowak on Being Christian in Palestine. We talk about what he saw and heard on his recent trip to occupied Palestine.Vermonters for Justice in PalestineAmnesty International: Israel's Apartheid Against PalestiniansB'Tselem: This is ApartheidHuman Rights Watch: A Threshold CrossedForeign Affairs: Israel's One-State RealityRecorded on April 6, 2023Hosted by Anthony Apodaca
The post Being Christian, Part 1: Like Living Stones appeared first on First Baptist Church.
Being Christian does not make us immune to the toil of life. We may learn to have joy in the midst or sorrow, but what does it look like to deal with discouragement as a Christian?
Aaron Renn has persuasively argued that we now live in the “negative world” with respect to Christianity. Being Christian is sociologically speaking, no longer seen by society as a positive good or even a neutral thing, but rather a negative evil — something to be gotten rid of (“Three Worlds” in First Things). Our guest has seen this born out in his own workplace as he records what happened when he professed a return to biblical male and female, family dynamics at a conference (“Anatomy of a Cancellation” in First Things). He admits he should have seen it coming, but even he was surprised by what happened. His suggestion was to begin cultivating a spirit of martyrdom. ----more---- Host: Fr. Jason Braaten Special Guest: Dr. Scott Yenor ----more---- Become a Patron! You can subscribe to the Journal here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/subscribe/ You can read the Gottesblog here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/ You can support Gottesdienst here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/make-a-donation/ As always, we, at The Gottesdienst Crowd, would be honored if you would Subscribe, Rate, and Review. Thanks for listening and thanks for your support.
This episode is brought to you in part by our marriage after god podcast and prayer patron team. These are people who have been blessed by this content as well as our daily prayer emails and have decided to help support the show and our daily emails financially. So if you have been blessed by this show and would like to join the marriage after god podcast patron team, please visit marriageaftergod.com/patron Via Wikipedia: The self-discrepancy theory states that individuals compare their "actual" self to internalized standards or the "ideal or ought self". Self-discrepancy is the gap between two of these self-representations that leads to negative emotions.Essentially it is how we deal with the difference between who we think we should be and who we want to be vs who we actually are.Percent Discrepancy or Error:The discrepancy in a measured quantity for an instrument is the difference between its measured value and true value (accepted value). This difference between these values is known as the absolute error.Absolute error. When I read that I was like….well it is an absolute error when God's word says to be a respectful wife and then im disrespectful. If God's word is the measure by which we live, what is the difference between that and how i choose to respond and act. Google How do you identify discrepancies?Identifying discrepancies in data is simple. You compare two data sets for the same period of time and look for numbers that don't match up. The real challenge is understanding what caused the discrepancies and how to reconcile them.For me when I think of discrepancy, what I feel God wants me to pay attention to … are the differences I see when I compare who I am to who I want to be according to his word. And when i see it i get so frustrated! Understanding and Confronting why there are different things happening and why i am choosing to be the way i really am, frustrates me. This is what got me thinking….How do I reconcile those differences to become one and the same??? The person i really want to be is like Christ, so there is a fight going on inside you….who you CANNOT BE ON YOUR OWN. The who you are now fights who you want to be. TRANSCRIPT: Speaker 1 (00:05):Hey, Were Aaron and Jennifer Smith, your host of the Marriage After God podcast. If we're all being honest, we would recognize that there's a discrepancy between who we are and who we desire to be. And right now we are going to dive into this idea and find some encouragement along the way. Would Speaker 2 (00:19):You please take some time today and share this episode on your social media? Share it with your friend, share it with your family. Invite them to listen along with you. It'd be an awesome conversation starter. Some people have even taken our podcast and turn 'em into little Bible studies and they meet with a few couples to go through them. And I think you'd be an awesome way to help grow the show, reach of it. And then lastly, before we move on we wanted to bring up a new way that we are inviting people to help support this podcast. We don't do ads. If you noticed the only ads, we talk about our books and our free prayer emails that we send out every day. But one way you can support is you can join the Marriage After God podcast patron team. And what this is, this is a group of husbands and wives all over the country who support this podcast and support our daily prayer emails financially. And if you would like to do that, if this shows blessed you, if you are blessed by our daily prayer emails, we'd love, love to invite you to join the Marriage God podcast patron team by going to marriage after god.com/patron. That's P A T R O N, marriage after god.com/patron. Speaker 1 (01:33):While we are in a new year, 2023, can you believe it? Speaker 2 (01:36):Did we say 2023? Is it 20? 23? 20? Speaker 1 (01:39):Just 23. Speaker 2 (01:40):Just 23. Speaker 1 (01:42):Just 23. Happy New Year everybody. You might be surprised to see us. We're really excited to be here with you guys starting out the new year. Speaker 2 (01:52):Why would they be surprised though? Speaker 1 (01:53):Oh, fresh. I think because when we finished the last season, which was just in December we told everyone to look forward to another season launching in the spring. Speaker 2 (02:05):And it's not the spring, Speaker 1 (02:06):But hey, it's never too early to dive into a good marriage podcast. Speaker 2 (02:10):And we're back and we're excited. Speaker 1 (02:12):Yeah. So instead of doing a seasonal podcast, we thought we'd go all the way back to like we did when we first launched the podcast back in 2018, Speaker 2 (02:21):Which is crazy. Speaker 1 (02:22):We had to go back and look Speaker 2 (02:23):It up. We both didn't realize we started this far back. We thought it was 2019. Speaker 1 (02:27):So back when we started in 2018, we were doing a weekly episode and that was really exciting and really great. And then after, I don't know how, I Speaker 2 (02:35):Don't know, I think it was like 75 plus episode stream. Speaker 1 (02:38):I don't remember. We switched it to doing a seasonal thing, which gave us, in our family a bit of space in between the seasons, which was really great. Speaker 2 (02:45):Lots of new babies between then. Speaker 1 (02:47):Yeah, for sure. So here we are and we're going to try a new thing, a new old Speaker 2 (02:52):Thing, a new oldie goodie thing. Speaker 1 (02:54):Well, speaking of oldie goodies, if you are new with us, you can go back to those 2018, 2019 and up episodes if you haven't listened to 'em. And yeah, Speaker 2 (03:04):There's a check 'em out there a lot for you there. I was just letting Jennifer know some of that analytics cause I like to look at all that data. And one of our episodes, it's called Jesus is our Passover, has had 58,000 downloads. Crazy. So you should definitely go check that one out. And then the last little bit of numbers I wanna throw out there, we've just, I think just last episode of the last season, we broke 3 million downloads of our podcast. That's Speaker 1 (03:29):Awesome. Yeah. That's so cool. Thank you guys for listening. Speaker 2 (03:32):Yeah. This that only happens cuz you all who listened to this podcast. So thank you. Speaker 1 (03:38):Okay, so what can everyone enjoy from us this next year? I should rephrase that. What are people going to want to tell their friends when they talk about our podcast? Speaker 2 (03:48):Hopefully good things hard things sometimes but I think I'd love for people to say that we're real. That we like to be honest, that we're not in any way experts but definitely experts at sharing our story. Speaker 1 (04:04):I was going to say funny. I want them to say, Hey, this podcast is really funny. Speaker 2 (04:08):We do like to laugh a lot. Speaker 1 (04:09):I think I'm funny. Speaker 2 (04:11):Yeah. Words like relatable, truthful those are things that we desire to be as podcast hosts sharing this content with you all. Speaker 1 (04:19):And on a more serious note I would want them to tell their friends what they say doesn't matter. It's what God says through them when his word comes out of them. It's just really good. Speaker 2 (04:32):It's a prayer. I often pray before I teach is Lord let it be your words, not mine. Speaker 1 (04:37):Exactly. If anything, it'll be a good dose when you guys follow along this year of Oh yeah. Or good idea or ouch. I need to work on that for the purpose of encouraging all of us to pick up our Bibles and pursue our spouse. Right. Speaker 2 (04:55):And to be honest, we actually say these things about our own content because when we're preparing these and thinking these are things that we're going through so we actually feel the same way sometimes. So Speaker 1 (05:04):Yeah. Okay, so let's do that now let's get into this very interesting topic we have here today Speaker 2 (05:11):Here and we're in December. And a lot of happened since you Speaker 1 (05:15):Didn't say we're in December. Speaker 2 (05:16):No, we're not in December we're just out. We were out of December. But a lot of stuff's been going on. So since we ended the season, yeah, Speaker 1 (05:25):I will say in December it was challenging for us. We kicked it off with being sick as a family and really sick. Sick, really sick. And that was terrible. What was most terrible about it is it's the beginning weeks of December is like you're just starting to have Christmas festivities. At least I am with the kids festivities. And I was super bummed to miss out on those things. Speaker 2 (05:47):But we got to make some of it up cuz there was some really fun things that we got to do. We got to make sugar cookies always. And we love cookies in this family. They Speaker 1 (05:56):Don't last very long. Speaker 2 (05:57):No eat 'em all cookies the same day. Usually I eat most of the dough before it makes into the oven. Speaker 1 (06:01):I had to wait till we got much better before I jumped into that one. We also, did you already say this? Make gingerbread houses? Speaker 2 (06:09):I didn't say it. Okay. No, but I was thinking of gingerbread men, which we'll talk about a second. We will. Well how would we dress up for the Oh yeah, yeah. Christmas Speaker 1 (06:18):Party. We went sledding Christmas shopping. Speaker 2 (06:22):Yeah, we did all the things even though it was a pretty heavy with sickness, once we got all better we're like, okay, let's jam it all in. We have to get all things in before the end of the year. Speaker 1 (06:32):One and a half weeks go. Speaker 2 (06:33):Yeah. So we went to a Christmas party. Speaker 1 (06:36):It's an annual party that we like to do with our friends Speaker 2 (06:38):And this one did. We don't always dress up. We was this a special one this Speaker 1 (06:42):Year? We just decided, we called it nacho average Christmas party. And it was just so fun. Speaker 2 (06:48):Yeah. It was what I dressed up as a, you dressed me up as a Well Speaker 1 (06:53):We wanted to go as a couple. And so I was like gingerbread. That's awesome. Speaker 2 (06:57):But what? You were a Speaker 1 (06:58):Pinata. I was a pinata gingerbread. And Speaker 2 (07:00):You, your costume, it took you days to make. Cuz she literally glued all this burn. What is that stuff called? It's like streamers. Streamers all over her dress. And then I was a ninja bread man Speaker 1 (07:12):And we were the greatest couple of all time. So Speaker 2 (07:14):It was amazing. Anyways, that was a lot of fun. Speaker 1 (07:18):We played Family Feud, we played some Minute to win at games. The candy cane drop. There's some good Speaker 2 (07:26):Ones. There was, there was a really fun, oh anyways, there were fun games. Oh, the box grab. Yeah, the box grab one was fun. There was a one Speaker 1 (07:33):Except you were supposed to let me win and then didn't Speaker 2 (07:34):One of the wives there was so fast. She was so fast. She beat everyone. Speaker 1 (07:38):Okay, we need to move on here. Okay. Okay. Amid the hustle of the season and experiencing joy, which we hope you guys all enjoyed over holiday break, we also encountered some back to back hard marriage moments some ways of responding to each other. That's Merry Speaker 2 (07:54):Christmas does. Speaker 1 (07:55):No, it was hard. And more so I just wanna personally admit that the Lord revealed to me how I was being disrespectful to you Erin and how I was communicating and I hurt you. And in the midst of those things happening, I also was reminded by looking my journal that I hadn't been abiding in reading the word consistently throughout December. And I know that that plays a huge role in how I feed my flesh instead of walking the spirit. And so there was just a lot of ups and downs emotionally and some 10 moments of tension within our relationship that kind of just influenced our experience. Speaker 2 (08:45):And it didn't help that I was also not abiding in Christ really well this last month in the month of December. And that made my responses not so great to how you were responding to me. Speaker 1 (09:00):We were both irritable and just sloppy in our relationship. Speaker 2 (09:05):It wasn't good, Speaker 1 (09:07):But the Lord's good. And he showed us and reminded us that we need to have grace with one another. That reconciliation is so important. And we came back together and got Speaker 2 (09:23):Through these things. We are reconciled and and God using that situation he has in the past with other situations to show us that there's change that he desires in us, that he's not okay with where we're at because he desires better for us and we're not okay where we're at because we desire better for us. Speaker 1 (09:40):It was during those was it like a week and a half, two weeks of mm-hmm. Being up and down together that the Lord simultaneously put a desire in our hearts to switch the podcast from being put off till spring to, to launching it in the new year and doing this weekly thing. And I think that's, I was going to say funny, it's not funny, but dealing with shouldn't communicate, shouldn't crisis well dealing with communication issues and then going, Hey, let's be professional communicators just about Speaker 2 (10:09):Our marriage that we're having a hard time Speaker 1 (10:10):With you. And I always see in hindsight a lot better. But I was telling you this Erin, that once we made that decision to launch the podcast, being reminded that we have an enemy that doesn't like what we're doing, he's like, Uhuh, I'm going to sabotage that one. Speaker 2 (10:28):Well all the more why we're called to put on the former of God and to not be mm-hmm lax in our vigilance, in our faith to Speaker 1 (10:35):Guard ourselves better Speaker 2 (10:36):And our marriage and we and I wasn't you and the fruit of that was evident. Speaker 1 (10:42):So being professional communicators here, we are not exempt, exempt from the ways of the flesh just because we run a podcast. There's times that Aaron and I are mean to each other. There's times that we can be selfish. There's times that we, I am disrespectful or struggle with submission and struggle with the things that I want versus what you want. And we Speaker 2 (11:04):Clash, both of us just struggling with Speaker 1 (11:06):Irritability, Speaker 2 (11:07):Being Christian, just walking in God's spirit and being more fleshly than spiritual which comes out of us when we're not abiding in Christ and when we're feeding the wrong thing in us, as everyone listening would understand cuz we all do it. So yeah, we're not exempt at Speaker 1 (11:27):All in recognizing that we struggle with communication At times I get down cuz I think there's no way we can do a podcast. Yeah. We're not worthy. We share with others that unworthiness thing to which you and others in my life say because God doesn't use perfect people. That's true. And you reminded me of what Paul said in one Corinthians 12, nine. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Speaker 2 (12:00):Which is funny cuz often we don't boast in the weakness. We boast about being strong and then when we feel weak we're like, oh we can't do Speaker 1 (12:07):This. So here we are confessing that we're weak and we desire the power of Christ to rest upon us. That's the only reason I know I can sit here and be doing this right now. Speaker 2 (12:19):Well and it's good because we need people to know that we too them need Jesus. Speaker 1 (12:25):Yeah. Always. All Speaker 2 (12:26):The time. Speaker 1 (12:26):Yeah. I also wanna admit that this is hard for me, the tension of perception and how I want others to view me as if I am perfect. If I am going to do this podcast and I'm going to be sharing with people, then I want them to see me as someone who does walk rightly or does know what she's talking about Speaker 2 (12:43):And doesn't make mistakes. Speaker 1 (12:44):It doesn't make mistakes. But the truth is, the reality is I am still learning and I am still growing. We are. And we're still have great days and we still have harder days. We still walk in righteousness and we still are confronted by our sin. Speaker 2 (12:59):Well and God also used these moments, this time of struggle between us to remind us that one of the things that we prided ourselves in the beginning of this ministry, starting the unveil wife years ago and later on husband revolution, is that we would share the reality of our life and not try and make it sound perfect, but actually show what God's teaching us through our imperfectness. That was something that we prided ourselves in and we get reminded of it in the middle of our brokenness and we're like, oh, that's what we need to be open with that stuff. Speaker 1 (13:37):So I guess that's the first little bit of discrepancy right there. But we're, we're going to talk about that in a minute. Speaker 2 (13:43):Before we move on any further though into talking about the main topic, I just wanted to remind everyone again one more time if you enjoy this episode, if you l any episode actually instead of just leaving a review on the podcast for the podcast as a whole, which I'd love for you to do if you wanted to we thought it'd be awesome if you guys would leave us reviews for individual episodes. Let us know which one you love, why you love it, what maybe if there's something in it that stood out to you. And I just think that would add a lot of value to people reading the reviews and looking for why they should listen to these podcasts. So if you could do that, if you could take five minutes today and do that, we would really appreciate it. Speaker 1 (14:23):I wanted to share something that we experienced kicking off the first week of January with our church family. Was it the first of the year? It was the first of the year. Speaker 2 (14:32):Yeah, it was. It was the first Sunday of Speaker 1 (14:34):The first Sunday, first day, first of the year. We thought it would be cool to, well all the men decided to come prepared to share desires that they had, hopes that they had for our church. And we do home church. So we've talked about that in the past. And so we have an intimate group of a handful of families with a lot of children. We Speaker 2 (14:56):Have about 10 Speaker 1 (14:57):Families. And so we just popcorned around and different people shared different just heart's desires to see growth in our church. Some said to see more dedicated prayers of first response to circumstance resting in the Lord regardless of circumstance. So being able to have that peace and that rest. There was a ton of affirmations of giftings and roles that people have that we see in each other. There was a desire for more growth and maturity and there was this a remembering that we have influence and a role to fulfill within the body. And I think that it was so cool as a church to be able to walk through all of that and hear what everybody thought about fellowshiping together and what they hope it looks like in the future. And Speaker 2 (15:49):Yeah, it was, do you love it? It was really encouraging to hear from the hearts of everyone there, all of our friends, but our whole church of what they want to see from themselves, from our church, but really what is God doing with us? What does he desire from us as a church? And so that was really encouraging. We got to pray about it as we went. So someone would bring something up, I'd love to see this, I'd love to see our fellowship operate this way, or the men do this or the women do this, or whatever it is. And then we would just stop and pray about it and say, okay, Lord, show us. Reveal these things to us. Give us wisdom and lead us essentially Speaker 1 (16:26):What I loved about the experience is usually at the end of the year we'll talk about our dreams and our hopes for our marriage or our business this time, but our church did it this time. And it just felt really refreshing I Speaker 2 (16:39):Think. Well, and it's encouraging too to know, it was cool to hear everyone's hearts like, oh wow. Yeah, everyone's in some levels aligned and then on others' like wow, we, there's some things that we can grow together. And Speaker 1 (16:53):It was super cool. Well, I kept personally hearing this word. I just felt like God was encouraging me with this one word. Speaker 2 (17:02):This is this idea. A lot of people have of a word for the year, that Speaker 1 (17:06):Sort of thing, which I've done in the past, but I don't do it every year. But I kept hearing this word and I, I'm like, okay God, why don't you just walk me through this one this year? But the word became the theme for today's episode and the words discrepancy and just, I don't know why I've been so sensitive toward this word, but it's been really cool to dig in and say, okay God, what does it mean? What does it look like in my life? And why is it important? Speaker 2 (17:34):Yeah. And this word came out of a, I don't know what you were looking for, but you were doing some sort of research probably for this episode or for yourself. But Speaker 1 (17:44):I think it started because I was trying to look up bible verses that have to do with discrepancy, but it didn't quite turn out that way. And then I went on a rabbit trail. Speaker 2 (17:52):But it was cool, you came across this article about this concept of self discrepancy theory. And you read me some of the stuff from the article and you told me, I was like, wow, that's a really cool thought. The way they describe it Speaker 1 (18:08):On Wikipedia, it states that according to self discrepancy theory, that individuals compare their actual self to internalized standards or the ideal or odd self. So self discrepancy is the gap between two of these self representations that leads to negative emotions. Speaker 2 (18:26):So that's the definition of self discrepancy theory, which we're not necessarily going to dig into this specifically, but it got us on this journey of, okay, what discrepancies are there between the two selves of us who we desire to be in Christ and who we are today? Who Speaker 1 (18:46):We actually are, Speaker 2 (18:46):Who we actually are because how Speaker 1 (18:48):We Speaker 2 (18:48):Operate. That's where this word discrepancy comes in is for you might see yourself as supposed to be or want to be this one way, but then a different person comes out in the day to day. And the same for me. I see myself or want to be this way or should be biblically this way and yet I'm this person over Speaker 1 (19:11):Here. And that gap or that tension, the definition was saying and leads to negative emotions. Those negative emotions can be depression, anxiety or struggling in that space of thinking I'll never change. And that's frustrating, Speaker 2 (19:25):Which we feel because I mean that's what you feel. I felt, why do I keep doing this? Why does this keep happening? And we've all asked these questions, I've tried so hard and I never change. Why can't I be this person? Speaker 1 (19:39):Or maybe you do experience incremental changes but not in this one particular area Or maybe or you have experienced a lot of change in a lot of different areas, but then it comes back and you're struggling again and it's just hard Speaker 2 (19:55):Life. Well, and this is normal for the human condition and we're going to get into this more a little bit, but God knows this about us because we have ideals or versions of ourselves that we believe should exist in the real world. But yet we are who we are now and it's not that person. Speaker 1 (20:18):And I was going to add to that by saying perceived perceptions projected when we're in front of one group of people or someone else but at home where someone else, Speaker 2 (20:32):Well, and this is probably going to be, we're going to talk about later episode or we might talk about this, but that when we pretend to be that projected person, that person over there, that's hypocrisy because we aren't that person. We act like we are, but we're not. Yeah. Speaker 1 (20:50):Okay. So another definition from Miriam Webster says an instance of disagreeing or being at variance. Speaker 2 (20:57):Being at variance. Speaker 1 (20:58):I know these are kind of more technical terms, but I kind of taking things like this and applying it to spiritual well Speaker 2 (21:05):Being at variance there, I just literally thought of this it made me think of how we're supposed to be one. But when we are at odds with each other, we're at variance with each other. We're not unified and there's a discrepancy, there's a like, oh we're not, we're split versus fused. Being balanced or balanced in harmony. Speaker 1 (21:28):Disagree. This was something else I looked up in my little search. Percent percent discrepancy or error. The discrepancy in a measured quantity for an instrument is the difference between its measured value and true value. The difference between these values is known as the absolute error, which I love that absolute error. That's true. When I read that, I was like, well it's an absolute error when God's word says to be a respectful wife and then I'm disrespectful. Speaker 2 (21:56):So something should weigh X. But when it's measured, it's measured at Y. Speaker 1 (22:01):So yeah. So if God's word is the measure by which we live, what is the difference between that and how I choose to respond and Speaker 2 (22:09):Act? Well, absolute error. Speaker 1 (22:10):It's an absolute error. Yeah. Speaker 2 (22:12):Well I love that. This is why where the gospel comes in when we recognize we are actually in absolute error because we are not living up to the standard, the actual true measure, the true value which is Christ. Which is Christ we we're in absolute air. That's really good. Speaker 1 (22:32):All interesting things here guys. Okay, so Google, when I Googled sometimes they have these questions pop up, it said, how do you identify discrepancy? And then this was the response, identifying discrepancies in data is simple. You compared two data sets for the same period of time and look for numbers that don't match up. So again, kind of technical, but let's dig a little deeper here. The real challenge is understanding what caused the discrepancies and how to reconcile them. Speaker 2 (22:57):No, we just wanna see that there Speaker 1 (22:59):Is so Speaker 2 (23:00):Because that's too much Speaker 1 (23:01):With Speaker 2 (23:01):The Lord. How do we get to that number Speaker 1 (23:03):With the Lord? Putting this word discrepancy on my heart, this is where I'm at for the year. The challenge for me is to understand what causes the discrepancies. Well I guess identifying them, but what caused the discrepancies? And then how do I reconcile them? Speaker 2 (23:16):Which this is a good question for all of our listeners and a good recognition. We all can see easily the discrepancy in our walks. I know when I'm not in the word like oh there's a discrepancy, I believe the word, but I'm not in it. Like you said, you know, should respect and submit to me based off of what the Bible says. But there's a difference in how we respond. I know I'm supposed to love you sacrificially and I don't. So that's easy to see. But like you said, the why does that exist and how did we get to that point and Speaker 1 (23:54):How do we move Speaker 2 (23:54):Past and how do we reconcile the numbers on the sheet? Yeah, Speaker 1 (24:00):That's Speaker 2 (24:00):The harder thing for sure. Speaker 1 (24:01):Something I think God wants me to be paying attention to are the differences I see when I compare who I am to how I wanna be according to his word. And when I see it, when I see it, I get frustrated. I don't know about you, you said it's easy to see. I'm like, I get it so frustrated cuz I'm like that's who I wanna be. Speaker 2 (24:20):This goes back to that discrepancy theory. How you respond to the discrepancy is based off of whether you have an ideal or an odd. And I think you see that person as an odd, I should be this person but I'm not. Why not? And so you're frustrated and an anxious about it. Speaker 1 (24:37):So I wanna answer the question, how do I reconcile those differences to become one in the same? Speaker 2 (24:44):I think when you were asking me this question earlier, I was thinking, well if we have the wrong definition of the person we're trying to be, then we'll never be able to. No, that's true. Reconcile. So if I'm like, well I need to be this person, Jennifer b Jennifer, version B is who I need to be. But reality is Jennifer B doesn't exist without Christ. So there is no Jennifer B in the picture unless there's Christ in the picture. And so like you said, when we're not inviting in Christ, when we're not seeking that image, when we're not seeking his righteousness and his kingdom and those things, then there can be no reconciliation. So I think it's first Speaker 1 (25:28):Recognizing if the person that we want to become has nothing to do with God's word, if it's not defined by God's word, Speaker 2 (25:37):Then we're, it's always going to be redefined every moment. But if we define it the correct way, then we can at least know what we're shooting for. We we're shooting for the Christ and his perfection, which we understand we can't attain on our own. We need him. Speaker 1 (25:59):And when we were talking about this earlier, you said to me well there's a fight going on inside of you and who you want to be. You cannot be on your own. You can't Speaker 2 (26:11):Do it. Yeah. Cuz you're constantly the who we are today is constantly fighting who we want to be to be tomorrow. So I think the general solution to how do we get from A to B, how do we fill that gap? I think it starts with a surrender. Our current self has to surrender to Christ the future self and say, okay, if this is the true value what you say, then I need to surrender to that. And that's, that's how we shrink that gap. Cuz there is no perfection to be attained. And I hope that's an encouragement everyone listening is we're not talking about, hey, we can't actually get there. No, I think one day, well when we were with our father in heaven, there's going to be with him and Speaker 1 (27:00):Life is and him and life is the journey and the process every day inching closer to Speaker 2 (27:07):That. Well and I think even just a revelation I just had is instead of trying to constantly be the better me tomorrow that the journey is are we're constantly moving toward Christ Speaker 1 (27:23):Or recognizing his power in us. Speaker 2 (27:27):So instead of always feeling a failure because we didn't live up to whatever we're trained to imagine, we're just constantly moving toward him. Paul says it really good in Romans seven, verse 24 when explaining this dichotomy between our flesh and the spirit. And he says, wretched man that I am, which is how we all feel. So Speaker 1 (27:49):You're saying now, oh I suck. Speaker 2 (27:51):Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. So he's showing this di dichotomy of I want to serve the law, but I also have my flesh. And he says, who's going to deliver me from this problem? And he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. Speaker 1 (28:19):I really think you should keep reading cuz moving on into eight. It really, Speaker 2 (28:23):So in verse in chapter eight, he says, therefore, or there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Speaker 1 (28:32):Which pause. There's been so many times that I've felt just the guilt of the shame and the full weight of my sin. And you've repeated this verse to me so many times. So husbands, wives, anyone listening, tuck this verse away for when someone needs it. Go ahead. Speaker 2 (28:50):Well, in verse two, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God is done with the law. Weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son and the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. The law of the spirit when we walk in the spirit is freedom. We're set free in Christ Jesus from this bondage that you feel that I feel of, oh, I'm not performing right, I'm not fulfilling the law. I'm not being the person I'm supposed to be. Right? No, we're set free from that bondage of that. But when we walk in the spirit, we actually produce the things that the spirit produces, which is good. Speaker 1 (29:46):Yeah. There was a few other verses that came to our mind when considering discrepancy and what does the Bible talk about and how to identify that in us. So one of the first ones was Matthew seven 15 through 20. Do Speaker 2 (30:02):You wanna read that? Yeah. And it starts off talking about false prophets, but I want to get to the point here. So it says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles even so every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. The point here is it's showing that on the outside, like I said earlier about this hypocrisy, these people show one thing, but on the inside or something else, God's telling us when we walk in the spirit, he changes the inside even before the outside represents what's on the inside. And so to bear good fruit, we must walk in the spirit which God uses to change us from the inside. So instead of trying to find this, seek this outward thing, we should be seeking that inward transformation, which then does actually change us. Speaker 1 (31:16):Another one is also James three, nine through 12. It says with it we bless our Lord and talking about our tongue with it, we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God from the same mouth come blessing and cursing my brothers, these things ought not to be. So does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and saltwater. Can AIG tree my brothers bear olives or grapevine produced figs? Neither can assault pond yield fresh water. Speaker 2 (31:46):Yeah. This is talking about our tongue and our words, but it's showing the discrepancy between things we say on one side of our mouth and things we say on the other side of our mouth that we bless God and we curse our brother. We have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts, yet we boast about our altruism and our love for our brother. This is discrepancy. This is something that we deal with. So the fact that sometimes we like, oh, I want to be this kind of person, but over here we're not okay with using, having a discrepancy in the way we speak and the things we say. And that's where, this is another thing where looking at the true value, the true value is what God says. And as the word says right here in James, these things ought not to be so , a discrepancy that needs to be a gap that needs to be closed there. Speaker 1 (32:38):Just going a little personal, is there anything that you've recognized that is, is there discrepancy in you or in something that you've recognized lately? Speaker 2 (32:50):One of the things that you haven't have had an issue in the past and something that you're recognizing is how you communicate To me, I've had the same issue with, you may not be in every circumstances, but when you're having a hard Speaker 1 (33:03):Time, your issue is how I communicate with you. I'm Speaker 2 (33:05):Kidding. No. How I communicate with you, how I respond to you When you communicate to me a certain way instead of me being self controlled and doing the right thing, I just do the wrong thing also this Speaker 1 (33:16):Cycle. Speaker 2 (33:17):But I also, I've realized that, and it's something I have grown in, but I have a problem with the way I've talked to my communicate children way I can communicate to my friends. But Speaker 1 (33:28):You've gotten better at Yeah, I have. But just to affirm you, you have grown in that Speaker 2 (33:32):And I appreciate that. But that that's something that God has showing me through this thing that's been going on with us and just saying, okay, God wants to deal with this discrepancy. Speaker 1 (33:42):He wants to chisel it out of us. Speaker 2 (33:44):He wants to cut it out. Yeah. There's just kind of highlighting more of this. I've been, I been listening to a new podcast called Hidden Brain and I'm really liking it. It just talks about these concept of how our brains work. And he was talking with a guest, the main host, and she said something that reminded me of this. She said, there's two versions of ourselves existing at the same time who we desire to be and who we are and that's why we've been talking about this. But she called it the present self and the future self. And often, Speaker 1 (34:17):Do you ever catch yourself talking to yourself in that way? Speaker 2 (34:21):I don't. No. Speaker 1 (34:21):Do you do that? No. I mean, I'm not going to admit it now. Sure. Not. Speaker 2 (34:25):No. I don't think I talked to my future self, but she said something that was pretty profound that we often make our future self pay the consequences of our presence. Self choices. Speaker 1 (34:37):Well, that's true. The donuts I eat today are going to affect me. Speaker 2 (34:42):So your future self has to pay the consequences of that current and this now this podcast at all. But she's saying things, I'm like, oh, that's exactly what the Bible says. Talking about how when you want to be healthy, you want to lose weight, you want to whatever your future self desires, but you're like, you want this momentary, fleeting thing. You're like, well, I'm going to sacrifice my future self's problems so today can have the pleasure instead of sacrificing the pleasure today so that you can enjoy the pleasure later. So I just, it's good. It was reminding me of everything that you were talking about with this, and then I heard this episode and I was like, that's exactly what we're going through is we often, we sacrifice our future selves. We make them pay the consequence of our current actions. Speaker 1 (35:32):And just so I don't sound crazy, I immediately got that thought in my mind of how people write those letters to their 17 year old self. Or going back Speaker 2 (35:40):Into, oh, talking to your past self maybe, or Speaker 1 (35:42):Going back and forth. Speaker 2 (35:43):What I You look crazy. I'm sure there's a lot, everyone listening, there's probably a bunch of people like, Speaker 1 (35:46):Yes, I don't talk to myself. Speaker 2 (35:48):No. But having conversations with your future self, I don't know. Speaker 1 (35:51):It's interesting. Speaker 2 (35:53):I don't usually think that far ahead, but that's also a problem. I need to think a little bit further ahead. Think ahead. Yeah. Speaker 1 (35:59):All right. Where are we at? Speaker 2 (36:00):Well, so we're getting closer to the end of this, but I think the idea, what I love about God and his word is the Bible is very clear and honest about who we are as humans. That's Speaker 1 (36:13):What I was going to say is honest. It's Speaker 2 (36:14):Honest, it's it. It's a mirror. It says it's sharper than any two edge sword cutting through the bone of marrow. No one's hidden from it. And you read the word, when you truly read it and you look at it, you see your truest self. You're like, oh my goodness. I like when we just came out, oh, I'm absolute error. That's the truth. Speaker 1 (36:35):But you also see the truth of who you are in Christ. Speaker 2 (36:39):Well, and that's what I'm saying is God created us and totally understands that we go through this stuff. (36:47):And what I love is it tells us that Jesus himself, he was tempted in every way, common demand. So all these things that were tempted with, tempted with feeling guilty about this or that tempted with knowing that we who wanting to do something this way, he's felt those temptations. No he didn't sin. He understands us. Romans seven 18, here's a good example for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Again, this is Paul talking about this. The Bible knows that there's nothing good in us in our flesh alone, but we do have the desire. God's like he sees this split, he sees this chasm. But what's awesome is with Christ Speaker 1 (37:38):We Speaker 2 (37:39):Can, yeah, Christ even says, he says, it's good that I go away because if I go away, then God will send you the helper, his Holy Spirit. He sent him specifically to be our helper because he knows we need help so much with everything in life. Speaker 1 (37:56):And when we yield to his authority and we yield to his headship in our lives, we do see transformation. Aaron has to remind me of this because sometimes I get cloudy and my woe is me. I'm so sad that I haven't changed yet. And you remind me of the good that's come. You remind me of the transformation that we've already made. Speaker 2 (38:16):Well now remind you that you have changed. Yeah. That who you are today, that's Speaker 1 (38:19):Not who Speaker 2 (38:19):It was, is a stark contrast to who you were 10 years ago. And you, you'd be proud of the woman you are. Yeah. But it's so hard for us to see. Clearly. We think we do, but we don't see. That's Speaker 1 (38:32):True. Marriage tip number one, we don't see clearly. Okay. So with this being a word that I'm going to be committing to dwelling on this year, a few questions came to my mind. And I don't necessarily have the answers to serve alongside these for you just yet, but more so I'm just posing the questions and asking God to help me dig a little deeper in order to be refined or chi. And Speaker 2 (38:53):These are questions we want them to Speaker 1 (38:55):Consider. Yeah. Why don't you guys take the opportunity to just let it soak in and ask yourselves the same thing. So the first one, is there a discrepancy in my spiritual walk between the things that I say I believe and what I actually believe? And this is where doubt really gets at me. This is where I know that I, it comes out in my actions because I'm going to do what I believe. Speaker 2 (39:23):And so it's different. Believe, yes. But I do this other thing. Really. I don't believe Speaker 1 (39:27):That. Exactly. And that's a problem. That's identifying, Speaker 2 (39:31):That's a discrepancy. Speaker 1 (39:32):Interesting. Yeah. Okay. , another question is, in my marriage, do I have a double standard? I love you or serve me, but I can't serve you. Do I have that mentality? Do I make commitments and say them to you, but don't carry them out? Discrepancy in marriage. Do I perceive myself to be a submissive wife? But do I have that integrity in me to be able to answer that truthfully? And then the last one is, when it comes to parenting, am I, Speaker 2 (40:10):That's a good one. This is convicting for me. Speaker 1 (40:13):Am I telling my kids to be kind, but I'm not being kind? Or even in small things? No, you can't have that or you can't watch that TV right now. And then not following through, through and immediately letting them. So that's just silly examples. But it happens. So oh, the other part of parenting is, am I sharing with other moms examples or, Hey, you should try this or do that. But I myself am not doing that. And it just makes me think absolute error. Speaker 2 (40:45):Well, and these questions are good for the husbands to be asking also. I mean, they just need to change some of the details. But we should be asking these questions of ourselves. Speaker 1 (40:55):I have one more. I skipped over it. In friendships, am I paying attention to what I'm saying and what I'm doing? Do I view myself as a good friend, but really in my actions I'm showing something else. Speaker 2 (41:08):So it's a good thing for us to ask the Lord, say, Lord, show us. See if there's any wicked way in us as David prayed. Find those things in us and help us change God, help change them in us so we can be more like your son Jesus. Speaker 1 (41:25):And then, so that was kind of the group of questions for relationships that I'm dealing with. And then bottom line is, how do these discrepancies hurt myself and others? And I think that's a really important question to ask because obviously we don't wanna go around hurting our spouse or hurting our children or hurting our friends. Speaker 2 (41:46):Well, Proverbs 11 says, the integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. Speaker 1 (41:54):I love that contrast of having integrity versus not, and how obvious it is what we Speaker 2 (41:58):Should choose. One's straighten upright and one's crooked and treacherous. So when we don't walk in integrity, when we have deep discrepancy, cuz we, again, we're, we all have discrepancy, we all have a distance between who God wants us to be and who we are today. But there are things that we can recognize, those questions you asked that can actually bring immediate integrity and uprightness into our relationships versus not having and just staying more atten and it causing brokenness and anger. How does it make you feel when we end up in these areas where the discrepancy's actually hurting us? Speaker 1 (42:40):I usually feel discouraged and disappointed and disparaging just, well, what's wrong with me? And I get in my own head and I get down on myself because Speaker 2 (42:49):Remember are telling me in the middle of that the discussion when we're trying to work through it. Like I feel like I never change. And I'm like, well, and that's what I was encouraging. I was like, well, you have changed right now. You don't feel like it, but you have. Yeah. Speaker 1 (43:03):I think one of the biggest problems is that I'm just looking at myself in those moments. I'm looking at myself and how much I failed. And when we end up staying up late to talk about these things, and you remind me of Romans eight, one and the comfort and peace that I get from having anxious thoughts to relying on God's word and letting it seep in night and day Speaker 2 (43:28):Difference. Well, and I just to close out what we're talking about a discrepancy in my life, I'm just thinking about what those questions you asked being convicted lately. I've always encouraging others in the podcast and my relationships with my kids, with my friends to be abiding in God's word. And then I myself don't aide in it that well. I go long periods of time with not getting deep into the word. Speaker 1 (44:00):It's like you do, but you don't. Speaker 2 (44:01):Yeah. I said this at church on Sunday. We know when we're abiding and when we're not like, ah, maybe I was this week. No, we know. But that's that right there. Abiding with Christ means that we're next to him. So as he walks, we walk. When he sits, we sit. When he stands, we stand. And so if we want to shrink that discrepancy, then let's walk with Christ. Let's abide with him. This is the lifelong solution. It's what God desires. Speaker 1 (44:38):What's really cool about what you just said is I got this picture of earlier you were talking about version A and version B of Jen. If I'm only looking to myself and what I'm capable of as my version B, Jen kind of silly to think about that way I'm never going to reach that. And I'm going to feel that discouragement come on because I'm never meeting that Speaker 2 (44:59):Because you never get to Speaker 1 (45:00):Be here because I never get to that. But what I hear you saying is I'm not looking towards version bk. I'm supposed to be looking towards Christ. And he is my picture. Yep. He is the one. Speaker 2 (45:13):Well, and like you said, in one way, Speaker 1 (45:15):It's not a version of me, it's a version of Speaker 2 (45:16):Him. And in one way you're looking yourself only the other way you're looking at him. Yeah. Good stuff. So why don't we give them their new Speaker 1 (45:26):We're done already. Speaker 2 (45:27):Yep. Oh Speaker 1 (45:28):Man. I wanna keep going. Speaker 2 (45:30):All right. Well, they can keep Speaker 1 (45:32):Going. Okay. Let this growth start. So we thought it would be fun, since we kicked this off this new year with coming at you every week we thought every month we would add a new growth spurt section to the end of our podcast. And so what we mean is for four weeks, it will basically stay the same. And so we called it a growth spurt because we wanna encourage you guys this year to take those extra steps toward growth in your relationship with God, growth in your relationship with your spouse. And so for the month of January, we're going to focus on building trust and building integrity Speaker 2 (46:11):By doing what you say you Speaker 1 (46:13):Will, by doing what you say you will. And it kind of goes into that whole new year commitment thing. I know people do resolutions and things like that, so we wanna kind of tag along for this month, but we want to encourage you guys to do what you say you will Speaker 2 (46:27):Do. Let your yes be yes and no. And Speaker 1 (46:30):This is the first step towards getting rid of that discrepancy in your life. If you're someone that struggles in a specific area with discrepancy, let this be one action that you can take to try and close that gap. So it's really easy. You just get a note card or post it, put it somewhere where you're going to see it every day and write an area or a sentence on it or whatever a word, whatever you think is going to help you remember something that you struggle to commit to and just make a commitment to do it. Do you wanna give a couple of examples just that will be easy Speaker 2 (47:07):For husband's, wives? I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people that are committing to diets and exercise. If you say you're going to get up up you give an example of if you say you're going to do something with your kids, do it. I told Wyatt tonight, he always wants us to snuggle him. And I said, I can't tonight. And then usually I say, and he's like, well, can you do it tomorrow night? And I'll say, maybe. But tonight I was like, Wyatt, I will. Speaker 1 (47:33):So now you gotta stick to that Speaker 2 (47:34):And I'm going to stick to Speaker 1 (47:35):Aaron. We know what Aaron's going to write on his little post-it note. Okay. Another one might be like, if you say you're going to be home at this time, be home at this time. If you say you're going to, Speaker 2 (47:43):That's a big one in marriages, I think it Speaker 1 (47:46):Could be. Yeah. Yeah, it might be. Anyways, you guys get the idea. This is to encourage you with doing what you say and closing that gap on discrepancy. Awesome. The last thing that we wanna do, which we always have done, which we love doing with you guys, is closing out with a prayer. So please join me, us. Dear Lord, thank you for our lives. Thank you for this new year, and thank you for all of the opportunities you will give us this year to grow, to love, and to honor you. We pray we would be paying attention to the ways in which your Holy Spirit is leading us throughout each day. Please help us tune our ears and our hearts to hear your voice. We pray we would take seriously the commitments we make and strive to live with integrity. We pray we would understand who we are in you, and may our choices reflect our belief that you are transforming us. When we realize a discrepancy in our lives, please show us the way to reconcile how we feel and what we choose to do. Lord, please help us to walk uprightly, to honor our marriage and to fulfill your purpose for us. In Jesus' name, amen.
Summary -- It is so common for Catholics (and others) to reject the love of God, to not let that love in. Join Dr. Peter for this episode where we explore in depth the eight natural, human formation reasons why we refuse God's love. We also look at what Hell really is and why it really exists. Through examples, quotes, and an exploration of Dr. Peter's own parts, listen to how this critical, central topic comes alive. And then Dr. Peter presents the an action plan for accepting and embracing God's love. Lead-in “It's very hard for most of us to tolerate being loved.” ―Psychiatrist and Harvard Professor George Vaillant (need description) The Hardest Thing about love for many of us Catholics -- is to be loved. To tolerate being loved first. We can't love unless we take love in first. We can't generate love out of nothing on our own, we don't have that power. Many Catholics make sacrifices great and small in an attempt to love others. Many Catholics go to great lengths to try to please God and to love their neighbor -- very busy people, most parishes have a few of these -- always volunteering, working, making things happen, St. Vincent de Paul, soup kitchens, corporal works of mercy -- working so hard to live out the Gospel as they understand it, but it's all external -- they are very out of touch with their internal lives. Their prayer lives are shallow and sketchy and they are uncomfortable in their own skin and they will not tolerate silence. The vast majority of us Catholics will not tolerate being loved deeply or fully. We shy away from receiving love. We get so uncomfortable, we skirt around the edges of being loved Or we allow love into us only so far. Only so far. We won't let real love permeate all of our being. We let the quote acceptable unquote parts of us be loved, those parts we allow in our shop window. Those parts we believe others will accept. But to allow someone to love all of you -- your nasty parts, your shameful parts, your disgusting parts, your hidden leper parts, your sinful parts -- those tax collector parts, your inner prostitutes and blasphemers, your Pharisee parts, the parts of you that are so lost and so isolated and so angry and hateful? Those parts? Most of us will say -- No way -- no way does anyone get to see those parts if I can help it, let alone love those parts. How about your terrified parts, your desperate parts, your wounded, traumatized parts, the ones no one wants, the parts of you that have been rejected by everybody, including yourself. This podcast is for us Catholics who understand at least intellectually that we have those parts. And that those parts need to be loved. Those parts also need to be redeemed. For anyone out there who is saying "Well, I don't think I have any parts like that, Dr. Peter. I don't have any problems being loved." My response to that is one of two possibilities -- either you are: 1 -- A very special person, who has been freed from our fallen human condition and you've achieved an extraordinary degree of perfection in the natural and spiritual realms -- and if so, congratulations to you. You don't need this podcast and you don't need this episode, you are so far above the rest of us. I'm in awe of you. You don't need what I have to offer. Or 2 -- you don't know yourself very well. You are out of touch with yourself and your parts, disconnected inside. It's especially hard for us to tolerate being loved by God. That's the primary reason we don't love God back and we don't love our neighbor and we don't love ourselves. We won't be loved first. God loved us first. It all starts with God's love -- not our love. God loved us first. Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Tebow in his Book Shaken “We were created by Love, in love, and for love.” Paul tells us in Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God loved us first. 1 John 3:1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. The world does not know God. Christianity is the way to discover who God actually is. To discover what Love actually is. John tells us in 1 John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. This is what I want you to remember. From St. John, 1 John 4:19: St. John tells us: We love because he first loved us And it's up to us to take that love in, to let it reach to every corner of our being. That doesn't sound easy. And it's not as easy as it sounds. Intro I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, a.k.a. Dr. Peter, clinical psychologist, trauma therapist, podcaster, blogger, cofounder and president of Souls and Hearts -- but most of all I am a beloved little son of God, a passionate Catholic who wants to help you to experience the height and depth and breadth and warmth and the light of the love of God, especially God the Father and our primary Mother Mary. What I want for you more than anything else is that you enter into a deep, intimate, personal, loving relationship with the three Persons of the Trinity and with our Lady. That is what this Interior Integration for Catholics podcast is all about, that is what Souls and Hearts is all about – all about shoring up the natural foundation for the spiritual life of intimacy with God, all about overcoming the natural human formation deficits and obstacles to contemplative union with God our Father and our Lady, our Mother We are on an adventure of love together. Episode 94 of this podcast focused on the primacy of love in the Catholic life. Episode 95 focused on trauma's devastating impact on our capacity to love. Episode 96 discussed how trauma hardens us against being loved. Episode 97 discussed how trauma predisposes us to self-hatred and indifference, a refusal to love ourselves. And episode 98, the last episode was all about ordered self-love, how we need to love ourselves in an ordered way in order to love God and neighbor, to carry out the two great Commandments. Today were to take a step back were to look at the most critical prerequisite for loving God and others. We are going to discuss being loved the first, accepting the love of God first. This is absolutely essential. The most critical mistake that most Catholics make is to refuse the love of God. Let me say that again. The most critical mistake, the most devastating, catastrophic mistake that most Catholics make is to refuse to allow God's love to transform us entirely, to make us into new men and women. Let us start out with The order of Loves God leads with love -- he goes first. God makes the first move. He moves toward us, we who He created, and who have fallen from grace because of original sin. We don't make the first move. God does. He loved us first, and he continues to love us first Sean Mitchell -- We Love Because He First Loved Us -- Those Catholic Men. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). These words from the first letter of John beautifully and succinctly sum up the origin and end of the Christian life—which, in a word, is love. “Being Christian,” said Benedict XVI, “is…the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 1). That “encounter” is our experience of God “first loving us.” The “new horizon” that it opens up, the “decisive direction” that it gives to our lives, is love—our love of God and our neighbor because of His prior love of us. To participate in that endless exchange of love is what it means to be a Christian. It is the center from which all other aspects of the Christian life emanate. I fear that a significant number of Catholic men miss this point and regard something other than love as the central point of being a follower of Christ. What I did not include from Benedict's quote above is what he says being Christian is not. It is not, he says, “the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est). To state that more generally, being Christian isn't primarily about my will or my intellect and what I do with them (i.e., make “ethical choices” and assent to “lofty ideas”). Rather, it is first and foremost about my heart, my whole person in all its mystery, and what has been done to it by God. Is it not the case, though, that so many of us fail to understand this? If we're honest with ourselves, I think we would have to admit that it is, that we ourselves are among those men who place something other than love at (or at least close to) the center of our “Christian” life…even if we don't realize it. Comment on this Edward Vacek: Love, Human and Divine: The Heart of Christian Ethics. The sequence in loving and being loved. (1) God affirms us; (2) God receives us; (3) we accept God's love; (4) we affirm God; (5) God forms community with us; (6) we cooperate with God in loving God in the world; and finally (7) we grow in a limited co-responsibility with God. p. 177 Genesis 3. The trauma of original sin. God comes looking for them -- God seeks them out -- hiding, fleeing from him in their shame and confusion and bitterness, in the trauma of original sin. God calls out to them -- example of His gentleness. No cursing of Adam and Eve. The serpent is cursed, the ground is cursed. Not Adam and Eve Provides clothing for them to help them with their shame. Protects them from the Tree of Life. Banishing them from the garden was an act of love -- if they had eaten from the tree of life, the Genesis 3:22- 24 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. God making sure that they won't be separated from Him forever. St. Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis, 122 explains, “God did this lest this life-giving gift that they would receive through the tree of life become misery, and thus bring worse evil upon them than what they had already obtained from the tree of knowledge. From the latter tree they obtained temporal pains, whereas the former tree would have made those pains eternal. From the latter they obtained death which would have cast off from them the bonds of their pains. The former tree, however, would have caused them to live as if buried alive, leaving them to be tortured eternally by their pains.” The basic problem with the sequence -- not tolerating enough contact with God to be affirmed, for Him to receive us. to understand Him in a radically different way. And what kind of love is God's love for us? God Himself tells us: I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3. God is faithful to us. He loves with an everlasting love. Isaiah 54.10 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed,but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. How steadfast is God's love: Deuteronomy 7:9 tells us. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations Psalm 86:5 For thou, O Lord, art good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on thee. God requires a response from us. -- abounding in steadfast love to all who call on thee. We have to call on him, we have to respond to the love. That is what this episode is all about. This is episode 99 of the Interior Integration for Catholic podcast, released on November 7, 2022 titled IIC 99 Why We Catholics Reject God's Love for Us and How to Embrace that Love CCC 221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love": [1 John 4:8, 16] God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange. We have to take him up on that. How do we know we are loved by God? -- 2 ways. Faith and lived experience Faith Infused virtue CCC 150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature. CCC 153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven".24 Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"25 Lived experience of the relationship with God. 2 Timothy 1:12 But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Can feel it in consolations. We don't want to engineer emotional experiences of closeness, manipulating emotions -- Concern about Catholic youth events, hyper emotional, noisy and using psychological techniques of influence to generated contrived emotional experiences. Hyping people up, getting them out of their window of tolerance. We don't want to rely on our subjective experience of lived relationship Because the subjective experience of connection with God can vary way too much. Von Hildebrand writes, “Our confidence in God must be independent of whether we experience His nearness, whether we sense the enlivening touch of grace, whether we feel ourselves being born on the wings of His love.” (p 210). Mother Teresa 1957 confided to spiritual director: In the darkness . . . Lord, my God, who am I that you should forsake me? The child of your love — and now become as the most hated one. The one — you have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer . . . Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love — the word — it brings nothing. I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. David Scott in chapter 17 of his book The Love That Made Mother Teresa wrote: For more than fifty years following her initial visions and locutions, Mother Teresa was wrapped in a dark, pitiless silence. She only once more heard the voice of God, and she believed the doors of heaven had been closed and bolted against her. The more she longed for some sign of his presence, the more empty and desolate she became. Needs Weekly Reflection: from September 6, 2022: The Top 10 Needs That Fuel Modern-Day Idol Worship go to soulsandhearts.com/blog Integrity Needs My need to exist and survive My need to matter My need to have agency My need to be good My need for mission and purpose in life Attachment needs --Brown and Elliott (2016) Felt sense of safety and protection -- have to go through the valley of shame, fear, anger, grief Feeling seen, heard, known and understood -- have to tolerating being in relationship, being present. Feeling comforted, soothed and reassured Feeling cherished, treasured, delighted in Feeling the other has your best interests at heart Resistance to being loved Weaving in Integrity needs and attachment needs. Main themes Limited vision and lack of imagination, leading to a refusal to be transformed by God We don't understand God's love The Costs of Being Loved by God Poor God images Poor Self images -- Shame Refusal to be vulnerable, to be exposed, to be revealed to God. Lack of courage. Anger at God -- rebellion Limited vision and lack of imagination, leading to a refusal to be transformed by God -- unhealthy satisfaction in far more limited spiritual goals -- a willingness to settle. Von Hildebrand According to von Hildebrand, the vision of most Catholics is way too narrow – our sights are set way too low. We are satisfied with too little in the spiritual life – we are like chickens pecking at the ground when we are called to soar as eagles. We may be content with merely avoiding sin, overcoming vices and developing virtues. Some of us may pursue the spiritual life as a self-improvement project, satisfied with incremental gains Weekly reflection October 26, 2022 -- Why we resist change – and especially radical transformation. Ransom Riggs Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children character Jacob Portman “One day my mother sat me down and explained that I couldn't become an explorer because everything in the world had already been discovered." Love, in some sense, is nothing other than an invitation to great joy and suffering, so they shy away from it. Paul Catalanotto Refusal to love is also refusal to live The Catholic Weekly John 6: 41-42 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven'?” John 6: vs. 60 and 66 Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. We don't understand God's love Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Sharon Jaynes When Love Hurts April 17, 2018. Proverbs31.org “Mommy, Mommy,” Steven cried. “Don't let them hurt me!”My son, Steven, was about 3 years old when he contracted a severe case of the flu. His slumped body snuggled listlessly like an old, worn rag doll.When I carried him into the medical clinic, the doctor quickly diagnosed dehydration and immediately sent us to the hospital.My heart ripped apart as the nurses strapped my little boy onto a table and began placing IVs in his tiny arms.“Mommy, Mommy,” Steven cried. “Make them stop! They're hurting me.”“No, honey,” I tried to assure him. “They're going to make you all better.”“Mommy, help me!”Steven cried. I cried. The nurses cried.I could only imagine what was going through Steven's little mind. Why are these people hurting me? Why doesn't Mommy make them stop? She must not love me. She's not protecting me. If she loved me she wouldn't let them do this. She must not care about me.Standing in the corner watching my little boy cry, I wondered if that's how God feels when I'm going through a painful situation that's for my ultimate good. I cried out, “God, why are You letting this happen? Don't You love me? Don't You care about what's happening to me? Why don't You make it stop?” Can see the need to exist here being threatened. I might be very injured, I might die. Integrity need No felt sense of being protected -- attachment need. In fact, just the opposite. The little child was being protected, but didn't understand, didn't feel it. No felt sense of being comforted or soothed, child not open to it. Third primary condition of secure attachment No felt sense of support for his highest good. Fifth condition of secure attachment. Parts of us very young, like this 3-year-old. Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Poor view of discipline Bad experiences of being disciplined -- not having been disciplined out of love But rather out of anger or inconvenience or frustration. Freud -- gratification and frustration to grow. The Costs of Being Loved by God Real love, agape or charity, is always given freely -- we understand that much But real love, agape, charity -- real love is never received freely in this fallen world. There is a cost to allowing real love into our lives. Very little discussion about the costs of being loved by God. I find that so strange. So many Catholics don't think this way. It is as though Catholics have parts that believe that being loved by God is one of two things Being loved by God should easy, delightful, peaceful -- like being the lead character a Hallmark movie Romance novels. Easy love that just come naturally. Emotional Junk food that nourishes illusions. and when it's not, they conclude that God isn't loving them, or that they are excluded from His love Being loved by God is terrible Echoes of Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Burning away Real love -- Agape -- burns away things that are sinful within us -- it doesn't coexist with the vice within us. Real love also purifies us from anything that is not morally wrote, but that is disordered or dysfunctional or imperfect Real love is the greatest good. And because it's the greatest good, it requires us to give up lesser goods. Perceived good and actual goods. Coping strategies, crutches that helped us in the past Analogy of the safe -- limited room, silver and gold. 1 Peter 1:7 So that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. Zechariah 13:9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people'; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.'” Proverbs 17:3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. Integrity needs I exist I matter I am good Attachment needs Felt safety and protection Felt comfort and reassurance Felt sense of being cherished and delighted in. No experience of that while being corrected, perfected. xThe cost is up front -- the benefit in the future. Poor God images We don't understand God. We don't know who he is. -- reflected in the Sharon Jaynes' story of her son at the doctor's office. Lack of confidence in God. Lack of Faith God Images = My emotional and subjective experiences of God, who I feel God to be in the moment. May or may not correspond to who God really is. What I feel about God in my bones. This is my experiential sense how my feelings and how my heart interpret God. Each part, not in right relationship with the innermost self, has a distorted God image. God images are often unconscious. Initially God images are shaped by the relationship that I have with my parents. My God images are heavily influenced by psychological factors Different God images can be activated at different times, depending on my emotional states and what psychological mode I am in at a given time. God images are always formed experientially; God images flow from our relational experiences and Also how we construe and make sense of those images when we are very young. My God images can be radically different than my God concept. We all have heretical God images. Differ from God Concept = What I profess about God. It is my more intellectual understanding of God, based on what one has been taught, but also based on what I have explored through reading. I decide to believe in my God concept. Reflected in the Creed, expanded in the Catechism, formal teaching. Can take a while to get to these God images -- not on the surface We don't know God very well. We refuse Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons And Everyday Spirituality : Allow people to love you as they must love you, not as you want them to love you. Even God does not love us as we wish Him to. Learning to love is learning to accept love as it comes. I will lose the relationship with God that I have if I push the envelope And you will. That is true. Episodes 37-49 on God images. Really hits on attachment needs. Poor Self images -- Shame Self-images are much more emotionally driven, much more intuitive, subjective, and they vary a lot more from moment to moment. Each part, not in right relationship with the innermost self, has a distorted self image. Pastor Jonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hand of an angry God, 1740s “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire ... you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and venomous serpent is in ours.” Hiding from God. Genesis 3. I don't want to find out I am unlovable. I can't bear that. Episode 24 of this podcast, God images and self images. Really hits on integrity needs. Especially the need to be good. Refusal to be vulnerable, to be exposed, to be revealed to God. Because for love to be real, for love to be agape means me allowing you to love all of me. All my parts. My entire being Not just the acceptable parts of me in the shop window, those that I allow others to see. Fears of being hurt one more time -- Fears of betrayal Fears of abandonment We think we can hide. Self protection -- need to survive. Need to be good. Lack of courage. Philophobia -- fear of love All of us have parts that fear love. Comfort in the familiarity of the dysfunction we know. Predictability Change is scary Maureen Brady, Beyond Survival: A Writing Journey for Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse “For change to occur in us, we must be willing to enter the wilderness of the unknown and to wander in unfamiliar territory, directionless and often in the darkness....We do not need to keep every little thing under control. In fact, we find ourselves only by allowing some falling apart to happen.” Erica Jong: I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back. Nelson Mandela: I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Anger at God, Rebellion against Him. secondary to poor God images. Anger is the ordered emotion in response to injustice. What is a part? Separate, independently operating personalities within us, each with own unique prominent needs, roles in our lives, emotions, body sensations, guiding beliefs and assumptions, typical thoughts, intentions, desires, attitudes, impulses, interpersonal style, and world view. Each part also has an image of God. When parts are not integrated, under the leadership and guidance of my innermost self Self: The core of the person, the center of the person. This is who we sense ourselves to be in our best moments, and when our self is free, and unblended with any of our parts, it governs our whole being as an active, compassionate leader. Parts in greater detail -- discussed my parts in Episode 71 A New and Better Way of Understanding Myself and Others. Good Boy Evaluator (formerly "the Critic") Melancholio Adventurer (formerly my "part who holds fear") Feisty One (formerly my "angry part") Challenger (formerly "the Rebel") Lover Part Collaborator Parts (formerly my Competent Part) Guardian (formerly "the Intimidator") Creative Part Consequences -- Hell Nothing can separate us from God's love. Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, not even demons -- angel and principalities. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. With one exception. You. Only you can separate you from the love of God. Only you have the power to do that, by refusing to let that love come it. That's what sin is. It's separating ourselves from God. Sin is damaging our relationship with God. Separation happens Jesus weeping over Jerusalem Luke 19:41-44 And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation. It's not that God won't protect Jerusalem. It's that he could not protect the Israelites, not without violating their freedom, not without forcing Himself on them. Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Pope John Paul II in a 1999 audience, God did not create Hell. Hell “… is not a punishment imposed externally by God but a development of premises already set by people in this life.” Catechism of the Catholic Church edited by Archbishop Rino Fisichella 2019 by Our Sunday Visitor Louis Ladaria: To be precise, God did not make Hell. His free creatures make it, inasmuch as they separate themselves from Him. Nor does God send anyone to Hell: it is the damned one who separates himself and does not want to enter into the Father's house. God, St. Irenaeus said, does not really look to punish the damned, but as they are deprived of all good things, it is the penalty that pursues them (Adversus Haereses, V. 27, 2; a similar idea in St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 5, 10: God abandons the sinner to his evil, he does not, properly speaking, give evil to anyone). Because of this, and despite what is said sometimes, we need to insist on the fact that Hell does not say anything against the infinite goodness of God. (p. 863). Dean Koontz: The Book of Counted Sorrows: “We make Hell real; we stoke its fires. // And in its flames our hope expires. CCC 30 Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. CCC 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Not trying to catch us, not with a hand on the trap door to hell. Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC “Ask a Priest: If God loves us so much, why does hell exist?” An analogy might help. Imagine you are on a ship that is searching for survivors from a sunken ocean liner. You see a passenger struggling in the waves behind you. You throw a lifeline to him, but he refuses to grab it. You beg him to take hold of the lifeline, but he ignores your plea. Eventually, he sinks below the waves and drowns. Does his drowning indicate that you were indifferent? When you begged him to grab the lifeline, were you displaying hate? Was his drowning your fault? The answer to all these questions is: no. The person in the water, for whatever reason, refused your help. His drowning was the consequence. It doesn't matter why we flee from God and why we flee from His love. Hell as isolation -- cut off from everyone. Images of hell Hell as isolation Tekla Babyak in 2018 article Dante, Liszt and the alienated agon of hell writes: Dante Alighieri's Inferno portrays Hell as an alienated realm in which the doomed spirits must spend eternity in isolation and regret. Deepest level of hell, the ninth circle: "The treacheries of these souls were denials of love (which is God) and of all human warmth. Only the remorseless dead center of the ice will serve to express their natures. As they denied God's love, so are they furthest removed from the light and warmth of His Sun. As they denied all human ties, so are they bound only by the unyielding ice." John Ciardi, Inferno, notes on Canto XXXII, p. 248 Satan encased waist deep in ice. Not fire. Celeste Ng Little Fires Everywhere character of Mia Warren “In all her years of itinerant living, Mia had developed one rule: Don't get attached to any place, to any apartment, to anything. To anyone.” In Hell on earth Fragmentation of Dante's inferno -- lived now. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he comes involved in it, the more disastrous his isolation.” Sharon M. Draper Out of My Mind character Melody Brooks “It's like I live in a cage with no door and no key. And I have no way to tell someone how to get me out.” Sue Johnson Hold Me Tight “Isolation and the potential loss of loving connection is coded by the human brain into a primal panic response.” C.S. Lewis: The Great Divorce: “That is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, “we have never lived anywhere except in heaven,' and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.” Action Plan Pray Set aside the time. First thing Personal Prayer: A Guide for Receiving the Fathers' Love Fr. Thomas Acklin and Fr. Boniface Hicks. Benedictines, very wise, good grasp of psychology. Prayer Primer or Fire Within Fr. Thomas Dubay Read the first letter of John. Lectio Divina Dan Burke Spiritual Direction.com Lectio Divina, A Guide: What it is & How It helps Prayer Life Appendix on Lectio Divina in Fr. Jacques Philippe's book Called to Life Section on Lectio Divina titled "mediating on Scripture in Fr. Jacques Philippe's book Thirsting for Prayer Nike Model -- just do it. Set aside perfectionism, desire to do it well. You're not going to do it well. You're going to do it badly. The most important things in life we either do badly or we don't do at all. St. Therese of Avila. says: “He who neglects mental prayer needs not a devil to carry him to hell, but he brings himself there with his own hands.” St. John of the Cross says: “Without the aid of mental prayer, the soul cannot triumph over the forces of the demon.” St. Teresa of Avila “Prayer is an exercise of love.” (Life 7:12) Do your human formation work Relational spirituality -- about relationship Any difficulties you have in relationships in the natural realm, here on earth -- you are going to bring into your spiritual relationships. Interior integration Why is interior integration crucial for union with God? Weekly reflection October 12, 2022 soulsandhearts.com/blog. Get to know your parts Reason for not praying Jay Earley -- Self Therapy Vol. 1. Now in the Third Edition. Bonnie Weiss Self-Therapy Workbook. Means Therapy or counseling -- especially Internal Family Systems therapy with a therapist who is Catholic or who at least respects your Catholic Faith and will not undermine it. Experiential Exercise -- November 21. Splitting those out. Resilient Catholic Community -- you do not have to be alone. Reopening December 1 -- new cohort Get to know your parts I've brought together the best Wait list -- email on November 10. Sign up soulsandhearts.com/rcc If interested, contact me. Crisis@soulsandhearts.com 317.567.9594 conversation hours 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time Every Tuesday and Thursday. (not November 17 -- online conference). Pray for me Sent the word out. Let people know about our offerings at Souls and Hearts, this podcast, the weekly reflections. Sign up for those - email. Can see the archive at soulsandhearts.com/blog Patroness and Patron
Jake and Bob sit down for an honest conversation with Hilde, a woman who would have once called herself a ‘gay Catholic.' Hilde's lifelong attraction to the truth made her feel intensely divided between the Catholic faith she was raised with and a lifestyle of same-sex relationships. Then, a spontaneous trip to Medjugorje changed everything. Now, Hilde defines herself more through her identity as a daughter of God than her sexual desires. Hilde's unflinching retelling of her story is a beautiful example of how God always pursues us. Key Quote: Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. - Deus Caritas Est (Benedict XVI) Key Points: While wrestling with some deep questions, Hilde found a copy of ‘Be Healed' on campus and ended up connecting with Bob for the first time Through her friendship and conversation with Bob, Hilde slowly grew trust and encountered inner healing Hilde shares her upbringing as the youngest in a large, orthodox Catholic family During a time of difficulty in her relationship with her mom, Hilde was innocently drawn into a relationship with an older woman which became sexual Hilde wrestled with questions of her identity and conscience while entertaining same-sex relationships, and some poor spiritual advice furthered her exploration In a moment of turmoil and prayer, Hilde felt drawn to go to Medjugorje and it was a transformative experience Hilde exhorts priests and spiritual leaders to share the truth in love about the Church's teaching, beginning with finding our identity as sons and daughters rather than focussing on our attractions Hilde continues her story, sharing what happened after Medjugorje and how she feels a strong new desire to become a saint, but doesn't feel called to marriage Each layer of healing comes with facing different shame but also experiencing deeper relationship with Jesus and new freedom Practical Application: Listen to this episode with a pen and paper in hand. What stands out to you? Make notes about key ideas that stand out to you. Reflect on why you highlighted those particular themes. Resources: Be Healed, Dr Bob Schuchts (book) Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers (book) Connect with Restore the Glory: Instagram: @restoretheglorypodcast Twitter: @RestoreGloryPod Facebook: Restore the Glory Podcast Never miss out on an episode by hitting the subscribe button right now! Help other people find the show and grow in holiness by sharing this podcast with them individually or on your social media. Thanks! Audio editing by Forte Catholic
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