Podcast appearances and mentions of bill gaultiere

How can we use the Enneagram to understand and navigate our emotions? Each of us has a unique emotional wiring that has shaped our personality. But oftentimes, we undervalue the importance of our feelings. “Feelings are just as much a gift from God as thoughts,” explains Dr. Bill Gualtiere, “[...] our thoughts influence our feelings. But our feelings influence our thoughts also, and our feelings and emotions are very biological."  Drs. Bill and Kristi Gaultiere join me for an Enneagram-filled conversation about the significance of empathy for emotional and spiritual development.  They share the emotional alarms and soul care practices for each type, and offer a unique map that uncovers the core feelings associated with each Enneagram type.   To learn more about Drs. Kristi and Bill Gaultiere, visit their website here, connect with them on social media @soulshepherding, listen to their Soul Talks podcast, or grab a copy of their new book, Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith: Growing Emotionally and Spiritually through the Enneagram.  

Many of us have an incredibly strong work ethic, but we don't have an equally robust rest ethic. The biblical vision of rest as sabbath is the very fabric of creation. Resting is a gift from God just as surely work is a gift from God, so how can we learn to welcome every gift that God has given us?Join us for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill interviews Alan Fadling, author of A Year of Slowing Down: Following Jesus' Rhythms of Work and Rest. You'll be inspired by this conversation about pace of life, unique spiritual disciplines to slow down as an act of prayer, perfectionism, and learning to live unhurried in God's presence.Resources for this Episode:A Year of Slowing Down: Following Jesus' Rhythms of Work and RestUnhurriedliving.orgSoul Shepherding Network   

Today's episode continues the seasons of the soul series and explores the theme of joy amid what Psalm 23 depicts as disorientation. Joined by friend Dr. Lauren Gilbert, we discuss the complexity of holding space for divine joy in the reality of our soul's darkest moments. Dr. Lauren shares from her research and her heart on the challenges that our faith faces in the reality of pain, loss, and longing. Looking at both psychology and theology, we discuss how disorientation is vital to our spiritual journey and that true joy, awareness of God's grace, can be cultivated regardless of outcomes. Additionally, we engage in the practice of listening prayer to hold space for both grieve and grace to be acknowledged this holiday season. Follow Dr. Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drlaurengilbert/Resources Mentioned in This Episode:- Listening Prayer Guide: https://www.theignatianjourney.com/scripture-and-lectio-divinaFor Seasons of Disorientation:- Journey of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Growth: by Bill Gaultiere and Kristi Gaultiere - https://amzn.to/3FSXBSW- To Be Told by Dan Allender: https://bit.ly/3HETpYf- It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered by Lysa Terkeurst - https://amzn.to/3HD12P6Other Resources:- Psalm 23: https://www.biblestudytools.com/psalms/23.html- Walter Brueggemann: Praying the Psalms: https://amzn.to/3VC2PIpFOLLOW T+T on Instagram!https://www.instagram.com/therapyandtheologypodcast/FOLLOW CARLEY:Website: https://www.carleymarcouillier.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us would like to become more thankful, but how do we cultivate grateful emotions? Research has shown the tremendous value of gratitude for our mental health and physical well-being, but in spite of simply trying to think the right thoughts, we may have emotions that could block our ability to feel thankful.Tune in for this episode of Soul Talks as Bill and Kristi discuss the benefits and pathways to cultivating a grateful life. You will learn keys to grow in gratitude and overcome emotional roadblocks to thankfulness.Resources for this Episode:Surprising Joy: A Journey with Jesus for AdventSoul Shepherding InstituteSr. Spiritual DirectorsSr. Coaches

(00:00-8:04): Brian and Aubrey talked about the following articles:  “Poll: America growing more secular by the year” “The weird spiral of declining Christianity in America” “About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated” (8:04-24:21): Dr. Bill Gaultiere and Dr. Kristi Gaultiere, Co-founders of Soul Shepherding and Co-hosts of the podcast “Soul Talks with Bill and Kristi Gaultiere,” joined Brian and Aubrey to talk about their book, “Journey of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Growth.”  Learn more about Bill & Kristi and their book at journeyofthesoul.org, learn more about Soul Shepherding at soulshepherding.org and connect with them on Twitter at @SoulShepherding (24:21-32:31): Brian and Aubrey reflected on how far we've come with medical advancements during the pandemic. They also discussed the USA Today video, “COVID-19 vaccine: A reflection on the first shot in the U.S.” (32:31-41:47): How do Christians embrace the goodness of diversity without caving to the winds of cultural change? Brian and Aubrey talked about this and shared their thoughts on Arthur Satterwhite's Churchleaders.com article, “Why Christians Should Care About Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.”  (41:47-49:34): Brian and Aubrey discussed Emily Brown's Relevant Magazine article, “13 Unforgettably Stupid Gift Ideas for Your White Elephant Party.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever felt lost or frustrated following Jesus? Getting lost in emotional and spiritual growth? Today, Kevin talks about the Stages of Faith with Dr. Bill Gaultiere, psychologist, pastor/pastor’s mentor, and author of a new book "Journey of the Soul”, where people can find the words to describe the feelings that go with their faith. Gaultiere explains how the relationship with God changes according to the stage. He also talks about the discipline needed to make the transition from the first part of the journey to the second, related to the responsibilities in Ministry, in serve a God making a difference to others into the inner journey to get a different intimacy with God. Check out this episode to think about your relationship with God in your day today as a ministry, parent, pastor

I love when we get to share "soul care" episodes on the podcast. This is one of those episodes.Bill Gaultiere is a Psychologist and pastor/mentor to pastors. He writes and speaks to thousands of people every week through Soul Shepherding. He was personally mentored for many years by Dallas Willard and Ray Ortlund Sr., and is the author of the new book Journey of the Soul.I truly believe this episode will be such an encouragement to you. Bill shares fresh language to help us understand the full journey of discipleship, how we can calm our soul, reminders on making Sabbath an actual part of our rhythm, and he closes the episode by leading us through a breath work exercise.Check out my takeaways and related links for this episode in the show notes: https://www.95network.org/blog/bill-gaultiere-67Support the show

When it comes to talking about and understanding our life with God, I’ve long loved the image of a journey as a way of talking about it. Our life of faith isn’t merely a static set of beliefs to defend or argue about. It isn’t just being part of the right association. It is a way of life in which each of us grows, learns and develops. It is a life in which we deepen in trust, broaden in love, strengthen in hope. I recently enjoyed a conversation with a good friend of ours, Bill Gaultiere, about a new book he and his wife, Kristi, have written called Journey of the Soul. We’ve been grateful for their presence in our lives for some time now. In their new book, they share insights into the shape that our journey of growth in Christ might take. Before we go there, let me tell you a bit more about Bill. He is a psychologist and a spiritual director. By the age of 30 he had published three books with mainline Christian publishers and sold over 40,000 copies. But then God led him into a 20 year hiatus from publishing in order to better love Christ, his wife and three children, and everyone in his circle of influence. It was a longer journey than he’d expected. Bill and Kristi have their doctorates in psychology and are the founders of Soul Shepherding, Inc., a nonprofit ministry that cultivates intimacy with Jesus for pastors and other servant leaders. Learn more and connect with Bill on social:Facebook @soulshepherdingInstagram @soulshepherdingTwitter @SoulShepherdingYoutube @billgaultierePodcasts @soultalks

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Episode 27.   Robber Gods, Aristocrat Gods and Marshmallow Gods – August 3, 2020 Intro: Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem, where you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview.   We are going beyond mere resilience, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before.  I'm clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski your host and guide, with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  This is episode 27, released on August 3, 2020 and the title is Robber Gods, Aristocrat Gods and Marshmallow Gods. For those of you who are new to the podcast, first of all, a very hearty welcome to you, I'm glad you're joining us.  I want you to know that each episode can stand alone, and I will provide you with the background you need to understand each episode.  However, if you want more of a conceptual background for God images, check out episodes 22, 23, and 24.     Brief review:  let's just circle back around and review, what are God images again?  My God image is my experiential sense of God it's how my heart sees God, what my feelings tell me about God.  My God image is very subjective, it doesn't necessarily follow what I know about God in my head.  My God image is formed out of the relational experiences I've had.  Different God images can be activated at different times, depending on my emotional states and what psychological mode I am in at any given time.  So what's important to remember is that your God images are not necessarily what you profess to believe with your intellect.  Rather, they are the unfiltered, spontaneous, uncensored, gut-felt sense of God in the moment. Similarly, my self-images are much more driven by emotion, much more intuitive, subjective, and they vary a lot more from moment to moment.  My self-image is who I feel myself to be in a given moment, it is who my passions are telling me that I am in the moment.  Self-images go together with God images – they impact each other.   In the last two episodes, episode 25 and 26, we looked at a total of six different negative God images originally identified by Christian psychotherapists Bill and Kristi Gaultiere in their 1989 book Mistaken Identities.  Those were the Drill Sergeant God, the Statue God, the preoccupied managing director God, Unjust Dictator God, the Vain Pharisee God, and the Critical Scrooge God.   I do want you to know that I'm going beyond their initial conceptualizations and adding much more in these podcast episodes, most of it derived from my clinical experience and also my own experience in my journey with God.  So I just want you to know that I am adding a lot of new material, but I do think their initial pioneering work really deserves to be credited. All right, so let's go to listener questions.  Ryan from Texas has this question: “After identifying problematic God images in my own life, I want to know how deterministic God images are.  Are they imprinted from childhood or do they change with time?  And what we do to make our God images align with the loving and caring God we profess to know in our God concept?” Great question, Ryan.  Let's get into that just briefly right now, and I will say much more about it in future podcast episodes.  I also very much want to do a much more in-depth course at Souls & Hearts on God images, particularly how to respond to them, and also how to bring them into greater harmony with who God really is.   That's one measure of mental health, is when our God images reflect the reality of our loving and caring God.  So if you are interested in a course like that, let me know.  Once I have 25 people that would be committed to a much more in-depth course, and would be willing to pay for it, I could begin to set aside the time to create it.  If you're interested in that, call me or text me at 317-567-9594 or email me at crisis@soulsandhearts.com and let me know, and I put you on the list.   So back to Ryan's question Initially, God images are formed in us from our first days.  Even as infants, we are learning about the world and nonverbal assumptions are being formed in us.  Imagine an infants, I will call him baby Joe, who has an attuned, psychologically healthy mother who can really enter into the baby's experience.  The mother is able to intuit what the baby needs, and meet those needs in a loving, competent way.  The baby has a sense of being seen and known, and also has safety and security, which are the first to conditions of secure attachment.  This sets the baby up to have a greater sense of safety and security, a greater sense of being seen and known by God. Contrast that baby's experience with another, who I will call baby Tom, whose father recently divorced his mother.  Baby Tom's mother is stressed out, having to reenter the workforce, feeling a deep sense of shame and abandonment, and is struggling with depression and anxiety.  Unconsciously, baby Tom's mother blames baby Tom for driving away her husband.  This is going to have a huge impact on baby Tom's sense of being seen and known, of being safe and secure. So it's clear that baby Joe and baby Tom are going to have different starting points with regard to their God images.  The impact of parents' ways of relating with children is difficult to underestimate when it comes to the generation of children's God images.  Nevertheless, and this is very important, there is another factor that has an even greater impact on what the ultimate God images are.  And that, my dear listeners is what is our experience of the actual living God.  These God images that are formed in us beyond our control will change over time, if we bring ourselves into contact with God really is.  The reason that so many God images seem to be so sticky, they seem to hang around so much, is because they have not yet been corrected by God.  Sometimes God delays correcting these God images, to draw us into deeper relationship with him.  Other times though, we refuse to allow God into our lives in a way that would help us see and know who he really is.  We default to our negative God images and we don't invite him into our lives.  And there are reasons for that, and will get into those in future episodes.  For now, Ryan, I want you and the rest of the listeners to know that the way we engage with the living God, as he is, the way we allow him into our lives into relationship with us – that is going to have much more of an impact on our God images over time than our original upbringing. So our God images can and should change over time.  As we deepen in the spiritual life, as we deepen our relationship with God, our God images will conform more to our God concept, which will conform more to who God really is. Ok, with that, let's dive into the three God images we are reviewing today, these are the Robber God, the Elite Aristocrat God, and the Marshmallow God.   Robber God:  This God robs me of good things, and prevents me from having good fortune. He seems jealous when I succeed, he is like a “wet blanket,” a God who spoils things I enjoy. God is a thief who pries cherished possessions and relationships out of my hands, deprives me even of the things I need.  All of this is under the pretext of making a better Christian and loving him more. This God feels unjust, stingy, and jealous. Bible verse:  Psalm 88: 4-8   I am reckoned among those who go down to the Pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom thou dost remember no more, for they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep. Thy wrath lies heavy upon me, and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy waves.  Thou hast caused my companions to shun me; thou hast made me a thing of horror to them. You can see all the losses the psalmist is experiencing.  The loss of strength, the loss of relationship with God, feelings of imprisonment, like in a dark deep pit, the loss of companionship, friendship. The loss of my respectable, curated image to others. It's all in there. Self-image:  Because my robber God really doesn't want to have good things, things that I enjoy, I must hang onto all that I can lay my hands on. I have to sneak pleasures and enjoyment, because God doesn't believe they are good for me. I'm conflicted about whether I am worth having good things. I feel insecure, that my grasp is tenuous on the things that I treasure. I have to be very careful with this robber God, to not overstep so that he won't take any more good things from me.  This leads to a lot of spiritual frustration and hiding from God. I'm expecting losses.  I consciously or unconsciously blame God for my losses. I wonder, consciously or unconsciously if this robber God enjoys taking things away from me.  I have difficulty giving cheerfully because so much feels taken from me, without my consent.   Lent is often miserable for individuals with prominent robber God images.  Very little concept of redemptive suffering. Suffering seems meaningless, unless it is somehow satisfying to God. One client of mine many years ago described having a target on his back, a target that attracted God's attention, leaving God to take away any good things that he was able to achieve. Anger tends to be prominent, and others may experience individuals with a prominent robber God image as having a chip on their shoulder. Attachment history:  Frequently the attachment history may be characterized by grief due to losses that have never been adequately resolved. The attachment history may also feature parents who were jealous of their child's talents, possessions, relationships, or other goods, and who put themselves in competition with their child. These parents were too enmeshed with their children to be able to celebrate their children's accomplishments. Rather, their children's achievements make the parent feel inadequate or insecure.  Thus, the parents may work subtly and unconsciously to undermine their children's successes. This God image can also be present when a child loses a parent in some way, to death or divorce or to chronic health problems or mental health issues. It can be very confusing to a child why God would allow such losses to occur.  The child whose mother died could say: Since he is all-powerful and all-knowing, he must have wanted me to be robbed of my mother, he must have wanted my father to drown in his grief and his vodka.   This God image can also emerge when a child is victimized by cliques at school, or by bullies who cut them down to size, stole their money or food, or were jealous and undermining of the friendships that they formed. Coronavirus crisis: I think many of us can see how the coronavirus crisis might exacerbate a robber God image. Many good things have been taken away from us in this crisis. Losses can range from life to health to income to employment, to relationships – we could lose relationships due to death, but also relationships can be compromised by social distancing, lockdowns, and disagreements about how to respond to the coronavirus. Why did God send us this virus, anyway?  Is he just trying to strip me down again, make me survive with just the bare minimum?  Like slave owner who gives his slave just enough to survive, but not to thrive? Vignette:  David was born in 1948, into a relatively healthy, close-knit Catholic, working-class family. He grew up in the 1950s and 1960s surrounded by relatives and good relationships.  At age 19 he was about to be drafted so he decided to enlist in the Marines. He went through boot camp and in late 1967 was ordered to Vietnam. There he saw combat and was drawn into some horrible atrocities against civilians in the 1969 Tet Offensive as new infantryman.  His world was turned upside down, and he know he was changed.  During the Tet offensive, he was wounded by mortar fire, which caused extensive damage to his right leg and some disfigurement to his face.  He also lost two of his closest buddies.   David's leg never fully recovered, and he walked with a limp. The woman he loved, rejected him upon his return, having found another boyfriend. He struggled with flashbacks and night terrors. He saw God is robbing him of all the good things that he had had in his life. He found it hard to relate with his family anymore, actually, he felt like he had no home anymore, as he did not fit in with his parents and siblings. He felt that only other Vietnam vets understood his experience, so we never talked about it unless he was drinking with old comrades in arms. His reactive mission to civilian society was slow, operating in fits and starts, with many gains and losses, and he never seem to get ahead. He blamed this on God. David saw God is stealing from him his happiness, his peace, his joy, the woman he loved, his buddies on the battlefield, and his integrity.  David had a Robber God image.  This is an example of a God image that developed later in life, after his childhood.   He eventually married, but remained self-absorbed, silently struggling with internal conflicts over guilt, shame, rage, fear. Others experienced him as cool, detached, and generally very self -controlled and very proper in his demeanor.  His war buddies kidded David and told him that  when he wasn't drinking, David seemed like a 19th century English butler.   David concluded that God didn't want him to have good things that God wanted him to suffer for the sins and crimes he committed. David clung to cigarettes, bourbon, sports, and movies as a way to distract himself and cope. Emotionally, he was very closed off from his wife and his children and spent most of his time alone.   It wasn't until his children are grown and gone that he actually sought help. David benefited from some specific trauma treatments, including EMDR that broke him out of the downward spiral he had been in.  He is just now, late in life praying again, and beginning to make sense of his experiences, bring them for the first time in decades back to God.    Elitist Aristocrat God:  This God considers himself to lofty, too good, too perfect to connect with the likes of someone like me. He has a superior attitude, and he doesn't seem to need me or care about me. He operates in an entirely different plane, up in the sky, apart from mere mortals like me.  God just isn't there for me.  He has his favorites, the ones who are more like him, of higher stature, of greater importance. But I'm not one of his favorites. I get the cold shoulder from God. Bible verse: Psalm 88:9, 13-14 Every day I call upon thee, O Lord; I spread out my hands to thee. …But I, O Lord, I cry to thee; in the morning my prayer comes before thee.  O Lord, why dost thou cast me off? You can see all the psalmist is crying out to God, and feeling cast off, ignored, the prayers, seemingly disregarded. Maybe there's a part of you that can resonate with these feelings, feelings of being disregarded, or set aside by God. Self-image:  I feel like I was born under an ill-fated star, I was born on the wrong side of the tracks. God doesn't associate with low-class people like me. God just doesn't even notice me, I'm too far beneath him.  He ignores me. On the rare occasions he does notice me, he puts me down.  When I pray, my words just get lost in the void. He is not there to hear my prayers. I'm excluded from the circles of the people he favors. I get the crumbs under the table, like the dogs.  I'm not good enough to be in God's good graces. God doesn't need me for anything, he doesn't really want me in his sight. If he knows me, he knows me from afar, and he doesn't really like what he sees. Attachment history:  The Elitist Aristocrat God image can emerge when a child feels very distant from his or her parents. The child's parents may have been self-absorbed, caught up in their own social or professional images, the ways they were seen by the world.  A child may accurately or inaccurately assume that he or she is not mom or dad's favorite one.  Children like this are sometimes grown by their parents rather than raised by their parents.  An Elite Aristocrat God image can form when her daughter experiences her father or mother is all caught up in professional work, with the family always playing second fiddle to the importance the parent places on his or her occupation. Perhaps the child's parents are caught up in “keeping up with the Joneses.”  The experience is not so much of rejection by God as never being accepted by God in the first place. Coronavirus crisis: the coronavirus has caused significant distress for many Christians with this particular Elite Aristocrat God image. It is easy for many people to imagine that God is not interested in their sufferings and in their trials and miseries, that God has left them to their own devices out of a sense of superiority. He does not deign to stoop down and help me, a lowly one, in my time of need. He helps others to have access to greater resources. They can adapt and adjust with minimal inconvenience. The impact of the coronavirus on me is severe, and more evidence of God's disregard for me. Vignette: so let's discuss Michael, David's oldest son. Michael was born five years after his father returned from Vietnam, and David never really bonded with his son. Michael grew up realizing that his relationship with his father did not look like how the boys in the neighborhood played with their fathers. Their fathers came to the baseball games and the basketball games. Many of their fathers were warm and engaging. It was his friend Tim's father that taught him to throw and catch, to hit and field. David's mother was preoccupied with caring for her husband, desperately wanting his attention too.  Tim's father saw Michael, in a way that Michael's own father didn't. In the logic that youngsters use to sort these things out, Michael assumed that his father's distance, reserve, and aloofness were his fault. He desperately tried to get his father's attention, to no avail.  Dad seem like an elite aristocrat – very proper, very distant, very uninterested in him.  Michael unconsciously imported that image and transferred it to God. Michael saw himself as unworthy of his father's attention, not good enough to be noticed by his father. This wounded self-image led him to conclude that God also saw him that way. Michael struggled with a deep sense of inadequacy and shame about not being good enough. Michael vowed never to treat others that way. So even though he himself felt fairly distant from God, he tried to be warm and caring in his relationships, to be the exact opposite of his father, especially to his own children. Marshmallow God: God is nice, but he is also either weak or incompetent. God is very soft, and quite passive. When others harm me or persecute me, he doesn't safeguard me, he doesn't advocate for me, he doesn't defend me, he just wants me to take it, and “turn the other cheek.” God doesn't want conflict, he wants to be liked, and he is likely to follow those who dominate him.   Bible verse:  Psalm 13: 1-2  How long, O Lord? Wilt thou forget me for ever?  How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?  How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Alternative Bible verse:  Psalm 25:1-2 To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  O my God, in thee I trust, let me not be put to shame;  let not my enemies exult over me. Self-image:  When others take advantage of me, God believes it would be wrong for me to stand up for myself. I should be passive like God is. If I set boundaries and limits on others' behaviors, that would not be good. It would be wrong for me to move away from my dependency. Since I'm helpless, I need to stay away from danger, and avoid and hide from trouble as best I can. Attachment history:  when this God image forms in children, those children often have parents who are friendly, warm, but who have not adequately protected their children. They may have resisted recognizing or intervening when their children were being harmed out of a sense of fear of offending others. For example, they may not have advocated for a child who is being unfairly singled out and harassed by a teacher or coach.  The child may have seen his parents be pushed around or dominated by more powerful others, to the detriment of the whole family. Alternatively, sometimes this God image develops when parents are overprotective, and communicate to the child that he or she is weak, hopeless, and dependent and that is how it should be. The child can then form the idea that this is how God must be as well.  We must be nice, we must be like God, so God must be nice. Coronavirus crisis: in the coronavirus era, God may seem passive, just letting things unfold without any divine intervention.  We may have parts of us that feel that God is not up to the challenge of helping us through the coronavirus.  We may have a sense that our bishops and priests have not helped us through the crisis, and may have made our lives even more difficult by unnecessarily blocking churches and restricting access to sacraments, even going beyond the restrictions that were required by government decrees  We may have gotten the message from civic and church leaders that we are naïve children that would have unnecessarily risked our own lives and the lives of others if we had been able to attend Mass, that we could not make appropriate judgments, so the these leaders needed to protect us from ourselves. We may have parts of us that feel that God is not up to the task of administering justice to those criminals who really need it.  God seems to be very nice and soft towards those who undermine the Church from within, wayward bishops and cardinals, priests, and others. The much-maligned fire and brimstone from previous centuries may seem wholly absent to us, now.  It may appear, in this coronavirus era, God does not seem to set limits on anyone-- lying, cheating, fraud, and all kinds of misbehavior go unchecked in the government and in our culture. This all can exacerbate a Marshmallow God image. Vignette:  so Michael married and had two children of his own. He worked hard to be caring and gratifying to everybody. Unconsciously, he equated firmness with coldness.   Indeed, Michael had difficulty setting boundaries and limits with others, as he was so conditioned to want others to like him.  Thus, when his oldest son Daniel went off to school, and experienced bullying on the bus, he tried to help his son understand bullies' point of view and why the bus driver did not intervene. Michael didn't advocate for little Daniel in a way that would have been helpful. When Daniel had a Little League coach that rode him mercilessly, calling him names and mocking him in front of the other boys, his father did not stand up for him. His father was more invested in maintaining a good relationship with the coach, and trying to win him over to treating Daniel better that way.  Daniel's experience of his father was that he was very nice, warm, gregarious, but powerless in the face of conflict. As a seven-year-old, Daniel generally saw his father as a good man, he assumed that God must be like his father.  This also fit his experience, because no one advocated for him when he was persecuted by authority figures. OK. So those are the three God images for today.  The Robber God, the Elite Aristocrat God, and the Marshmallow God.  This episode is already getting fairly long, so I don't have time to go into how these three God images are commonly generated in children who are sexually abused.  I see this a lot.  Abuse and neglect have really harmful effects on God images, as you may imagine.  So just for the members of the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem Community, I am going to do a little bonus episode, a premium episode on sexual abuse and these three particular God images.  That particular episode may be a little more intense for people, so it's also better to be done in our community.  Bonus episodes are one of the benefits of becoming a member.  Go to soulsandhearts.com, click on the all courses and shows tab and register for the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem Community, free for the first 30 days and then $25 per month after that.  Those memberships are what makes this podcast possible, the RCCD members offset the costs of producing this podcast and the overhead for Souls and Hearts.   Other benefits for RCCD members include the pdfs I reprinted for the God Image Questionnaire by Bill Gaultiere, who has given us permission to reformat and reprint it.  Check that out, it can help you determine your God image, it's a 28 item questionnaire that reviews these 14 God images. One more thing is that we are having an RCCD community meeting on Friday, August 7 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM Eastern time.  and we will be discussing any questions you have about God images and self-images.   And finally, RCCD members now have access to our Mighty Networks app, which allows us to connect much more easily.  Community members can email me at crisis@soulsandhearts.com and we'll get you set up with that, it's by invitation.  Patron and Patronness.         

Episode 26.  Dictator, Pharisee, and Scrooge God Images – July 27, 2020 Intro: Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis:  Carpe Diem, where you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview.   We are going beyond mere resilience, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before.  I'm clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski your host and guide, with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  This is episode 26,  released on July 27, 2020 and it's called Dictator Gods, Pharisee Gods, and Scrooge Gods. In the last episode, episode 25, we looked at three different negative God images proposed by Christian psychotherapists Bill and Kristi Gaultiere in their book Mistaken Identities, published in 1989.  Last week, I decided to reach out to the Gaultieres and let them know that we were discussing their book on this podcast so I emailed them.  Sometimes I do that.  I just reach out to people.  Who knows what will happen?  And Sue, the representative from their ministry, their ministry is called Soul Shepherding – Sue got back to me – Sue got back to me and said “What a blessing to hear from you and to learn of the good work that you are doing for the Kingdom!  It was such an encouragement to hear that you are able to use our resources in your ministry.”  Isn't that cool?  I think that's cool.   But wait, there's more.  I made a request of the Gaultieres and their ministry for something I wanted to give to the member of the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem Community  – I wanted their permission to be able to pass on something special to those of you those of you who have joined the RCCD community and they said yes. At the end of this episode, I will tell you what that something special is, so stay with me until the end, OK?.  Oooh, very exciting.   In the last episode, I put the question out to you, my audience members – are you interested in this stuff?  Do you want me to cover more of these god images?  And if so, which ones?  I really want this podcast to be interactive, I want to hear from you. Jane in Indiana emailed in, “I want you to do all the God images. They are fascinating!”  Now that is enthusiasm, thank you Jane. I just love it. I really want this podcast to not just be transformative, not just to make a big difference in your life, but to be interesting, no, not just interesting, but fascinating.  Along with Jane in Indiana, I think this God image stuff is fascinating.  It's also vitally important, not only for our spiritual well-being, but also our psychological well-being.  You can't have abiding peace, a deep joy, or a solid sense of well-being if you are dominated by negative God images.  It's just not possible to give in to wretched God images and be happy.  This is so vitally important, people, this God image issue, because how we respond to God images is really going to determine our peace and joy and well-being, both in the natural realm and in the supernatural realm.  Will we approach God?  Will we flee from Him?  Will we fight him?  Will we refuse to follow Him or even believe in him?   So we have two ways we can overcome this issue.  One is to recognize our negative God images and respond to them in a positive way.  And in future episodes we will get into how to respond to negative God images.  I promise.  So the first way to handle negative God images is to recognize them and respond well.  The second way is to resolve them.  I mean it.  To actually resolve them, to heal them.  And we will discuss how to do that in future episode as well, and especially in the Resilient Catholics Carpe Diem community that has grown up around this podcast.   In this episode, we're going to review three more problematic God images described by Bill and Kristi Gaultiere's book Mistaken Identities Brief review:  let's just circle back around and review, what are God images again?  My God image is my emotional and subjective experience of God, who I feel God to be in the moment. This is my experiential sense how my feelings and how my heart interpret God.  My God images are heavily influenced by psychological factors, and 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 how we construe and make sense of those images when we are very young.  My God images can be and usually are radically different than my God concept.  God concept is what I profess about God, what I choose to believe about God, what I endorse about God.  Intellectual understanding.   Self-images are much more driven, much more intuitive, subjective, and they vary a lot more from moment to moment.    Who I feel myself to be in a given moment, it is who my passions are telling me who I am.  Self-images go together with God images – they impact each other.   If you haven't already listened to episodes 22, 23, and 24 of this podcast, make sure you check them out, because they have lot more conceptual information and definitions of God images.   So I had a question from a listener Martha in Indiana who wondered if it's usual to say 'yes' to many God images?  Martha is essentially asking if we can have more than one God image, can we have different God images at different times? Now much of the God image literature seems to assume that there is one primary God image. And that makes sense, because often we are in our standard mode of operating. However, there is a greater awareness that, because we have multiple modes of operating, we also may have multiple God images. Sometimes we depart from our standard mode of operating.  Clinically, I have no doubt that each of us has several or even many God images.  So, my dear Martha, I absolutely believe that we have more than one God images.   Over the past several years, I have identified in myself 11 different modes of operating.   I have 11 distinct and identifiable ways of being. I think of models of operating as like parts of me.  Kind of like in the Pixar movie Inside Out, where the main character Riley has different parts of her, each part having its primary emotion, like the red character was angry, the blue round character was sad and so on.. Each part of me has a mode of operating each part of me has characteristic feelings, desires, impulses, attitudes, and assumptions about the world. And each of my modes of operating has its own God image and its own self-image.  So I have 11 God images and 11 self-images.   So do you see what you opened up with your question, Martha?  I wasn't going to go into all of this yet, I wasn't going to get into all this self-disclosure in this episode, but your question brought it up.   So that's important to know in and but I'm bringing that up now, because I really do want you to pay attention to God images that may not immediately resonate with you.  In this moment, you might not resonate with particular God image, but when you are in one particular dark place, perhaps a kind of dark place that you don't go very often, but you do go to once in a while, you may find a negative God image that exists in you, but just isn't activated very often.  All right, so I tallied up all the responses that you listeners texted me or emailed me about which of the remaining 11 negative God images that Bill and Kristi Gaultiere describe in their book you wanted me to cover, and three particular one stood out. These were the unjust dictator God. The Vain Pharisee God and the Critical Scrooge God. So we're going to dive into those today. Just a quick comment before we do, and that is that these particular God images, like the unjust dictator God image. These are just templates. Everybody's got images can be a little different. So were discussing three boilerplate templates of common God images, but there's nothing that says you have to have this particular God image or not have this particular God image. For example, my 11 God images do not map exactly on to the 14 that Bill and Kristi propose.  And when I worked clinically, I am trying to understand what the person's God image is, not really diagnose them with one of these 14 God images. So I just want to make sure that we are all clear about that. Unjust Dictator God. In this God image, God is a very powerful, but he is unjust, he is unfair. He seems arbitrary in the way that he blesses and punishes.  Good people suffer misfortunes, the innocent are burdened with many problems, trials, traumas and others who seem to make no effort to love God, or follow his will profit. Sometimes, he even seems to shower good things on those who acted badly. He doesn't seem to punish those who hurt me, those who persecute me.  Bible verse:   Psalm 119:81-86  My soul longs for your salvation; I put my hope in your word.  My eyes long to see your promise. When will you comfort me?  I am like a wineskin shriveled by smoke, but I have not forgotten your statutes. How long can your servant survive?  When will your judgment doom my foes?  The arrogant have dug pits for me; defying your law... Help me! I am pursued without cause.Self-image: it feels like I always get a raw deal from God, no matter how hard I try to love and obey him. It must be that I deserve to be punished by God. Maybe I don't deserve God's care and protection. I must've done something wrong or bad that I don't know about to justify the maltreatment I've had at the hands of others.  He loves others, why does he not love me? What is so bad about me?Attachment History:  This unjust dictator God image can emerge when a person has experienced others in authority as capricious, arbitrary, or random in the way he or she was rewarded or punished.  This often is expressed in feeling like I was not the favorite child, no matter what I did, my parents preferred my sister or my brother. Some of us are old enough to remember the Smothers Brothers routines, in which Tom Smothers always felt that their Mother always loved his brother Dick Smothers best.  They did this as a comedy routine, this “Mom always loved you best” but I always found it a little sad, because I suspect there was a kernel of truth in it somewhere in the Smothers' family life.  Coronavirus Crisis:  the way the virus strikes can seem arbitrary, capricious, and random. Why do some people get to keep their jobs, their incomes, their health, and I suffer consequences. Why are some people careful with masks, social distancing, and other precautions, and they catch the virus, and others seem to be totally immune, no matter what stupid things they do? Where is the justice in that?Vignette:  Brenda is the 32 year old middle child of three sisters. She always saw herself as the “not-pretty one” and the “not smart one” of the family. She always had a sense of not fitting in. Her older sister Victoria's personality was more like her mom's and her younger sister Claudia's personality was more like her dad's, and she felt like the odd one out, misunderstood. She tried to be as pretty as her older sister and as smart as her younger sister, but neither of her parents seem to understand her.  Her achievements always seem to second-best, garnering little praise from her parents.  If she couldn't be pretty and she couldn't be smart, at least she could be good. She worked hard on growing in virtue, but that didn't seem to work either.  But she has continued to try and hope.  Her theme song sometimes feels like Boney Fingers by Hoyt Axton, especially the line – work your fingers to the bone, what do you get? Boney Fingers.  Boney Fingers.  Brenda sees how her older sister Victoria has a handsome husband and two of the cutest kids on the planet, the whole family looks like models.  She married that handsome, stable guy after 10 years of promiscuity with no apparent consequences, and Victoria still looks like a model.  Brenda feels that Victoria has always looked down on her for being ugly.  Brenda's younger sister Claudia has a great academic position and has already published two books and many professional articles, and even Claudia has a bookish boyfriend who dotes on her.  Brenda sees her sisters is getting all the good things from the family. Victoria was able to travel to beauty pageants and have most of mom's attention. Claudia was valedictorian and even though she was younger than Brenda, Brenda knew that by the time she was 12 and Claudia was 10, Claudia was smarter than she was and there was no looking back.  By age 30, was highly respected in her field. And Brenda herself, well Brenda is single with no romantic prospects, in a dead-end retail job in a department store that is probably going bankrupt because the virus is forcing closures and she sees herself as an old hag, even aging out of the youth group at her parish.  She still goes to church, but with bitterness in her heart.  She feels she can't give up being good, because then what would she have left?  Why, why O Lord did you leave so little for me? If I had what my sisters had, I would be happy.  She feels her prayers are ignored.  My virtues are ignored.  I am still a virgin, and what has that gotten me?  Nothing.  No husband, not even a boyfriend.  God is powerful, but he is not just, let along merciful or kind.  Vain Pharisee God:  God is absorbed in his own might and power, his own goodness and beauty, his own knowledge and strength. He expects me to grovel in front of him, giving him constant praise. He takes the credit for everything. Only goodness comes from him. Only badness comes from me.   Bible verse: Job 10:14-17. If I should sin, you would keep a watch on me, and from my guilt, you would not absolve me. If I should be wicked, alas for me! Even if righteous, I dare not hold up my head, sated with shame, drenched in affliction!  Should it lift up, you hunt me like a lion: repeatedly you show your wondrous power against me, you renew your attack upon me, and multiply your harassment of me; in waves your troops come against me.Self-image: I am expected to humiliate myself before God, in order that his glory be magnified.  I'm not worth any esteem from God, he would not praise me. I don't have any merit or any credit in the eyes of God, I am just dust and ashes, worthless. He's not that invested in me as a person.  I am important to him in how I can give him glory and honor. My function is to praise Him, that's what he expects from me.  But, in relating with God, I always get the short end of the stick. He is always right, I am always wrong.  He must always increase, I must always decrease until I perfectly serve him in his needs.Attachment History: This god image readily forms when the parent uses the child to bolster the parent's own fragile self esteem, without consideration of the child's experience.  Some parents really look to their children for affirmation, admiration, support, and validation.  When the parent has a strong narcissistic streak, it increases the likelihood of a Vain Pharisee God image. The child is constantly trying to meet the unreasonable demands of the parent in the vain hope that child can please the parent.  The child doesn't frequently feel loved or accepted just as he or she is.Coronavirus Crisis:  in this crisis, it's easy to feel powerless and helpless in the face of the virus and its effects.  I might have prayed and prayed and those prayers may seem to be falling on deaf ears and I am deeply troubled by the problems I face because of the virus.    I may be trying and trying to admire, praise, and honor God, but He seems to just be letting me twist in the wind as my situation deteriorates with my income reduced, my anxieties unsoothed, my social connections compromised, and now I have to wear a mask everywhere, like I'm not even seen as a person, but just as a potential disease vector.   This can activate the Vain Pharisee God image.  Vignette:  the story is the 34-year-old oldest sister, and everyone said when she was growing up that she looked like her mom and she acted like her mom. That she was just a chip off of moms block.  Her mother was highly respected lady with an aristocratic air, highly self-absorbed. From a young age, Victoria was entered in child beauty pageants, winning some of them, for which her mother took the credit.  Her mother saw her as a narcissistic extension of herself, and took it personally if Victoria faltered during the pageants, berating her for minor flaws and imperfections.  Victoria, in an attempt to connect with her mother, berated herself in the same way.  When others attributed Victoria's beauty and success to her mother, her mother seemed to glow. But Victoria felt a great emptiness in the attention her mother showed her, the beautiful clothes that she bought for her, and the trips that they made together, just the two of them, for competitions – the flights, hotels, and perks all seemed empty.  Victoria has little interest in God at this time, seeing him as mighty, powerful, and heavily self-absorbed. She had made a number of men into idols in her 20s – and sacrificed herself to them in the hope of being loved by them in return.  She married the least worst of them and is now in a loveless marriage.  She feels trapped at home with her cold, arrogant Ken-Doll husband who can't go in to the office because of the lockdown.  She hates always feeling like she is in the wrong, and feels that God wants her to grovel and humiliate herself, which makes it hard for her to repent from real sins and come back to him.  She doesn't pray, sensing that there is no point in it, that God would gloat over her admission of wrongdoing, and she feels that honoring or worshipping God would violate her sense of dignity and integrity.  Her children are not baptized.   Critical Scrooge God:  this God doesn't extend himself to help me.  Instead, this  God is highly critical, and he cuts me down with disparaging remarks, and a condescending tone. He tells me that I won't make it, I won't succeed, I just won't be able to rise to the challenge or even be minimally acceptable to him. God is constantly dissatisfied with me.  God never praises me or looks for the good in me. He is cold, and stingy with his graces and his help Bible verse:  Job 19 2-11 How long will you afflict my spirit, grind me down with words? These ten times you have humiliated me, have assailed me without shame! Even if it were true that I am at fault, my fault would remain with me; If truly you exalt yourselves at my expense, and use my shame as an argument against me, Know then that it is God who has dealt unfairly with me, and compassed me round with his net. If I cry out “Violence!” I am not answered. I shout for help, but there is no justice. He has barred my way and I cannot pass; veiled my path in darkness; He has stripped me of my glory, taken the diadem from my brow.  He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; he has uprooted my hope like a tree: He has kindled his wrath against me; he counts me one of his enemies.Self-image: I am never good enough for God, I never satisfy him. I feel like I'm no good. I struggle with shame, feeling so inadequate. I feel like God sits on my shoulder, and sometimes whispers his criticisms in my ear. Sometimes he yells them.   God gives me the minimal amount of help so that if I did things just right, I might succeed, but I'm never able to, my efforts are never enough.  It feels like he tolerates me and he's invested in me doing better, but I'm just an unprofitable servant and he never lets me forget that.   Attachment History:    Critical parents can foster a Critical Scrooge God image.  So can having hands-off parents, leaving the child to come up with his or her own standards, which may be unreasonable, not tempered by maturity and wisdom.   Coronavirus Crisis:  The coronavirus crisis is forcing us to have to make difficult decisions with limited , and changing information. Much is in flux, and he can feel very easy to make incorrect decisions, even when we try hard. Stakes also are high, with potential lethal consequences. People can also be more irritable with each other and more critical with each other.  When supervisors or other authorities are critical of me, it may activate a Critical Scrooge god image, exacerbating feelings of not being good enough, not being able to satisfy others, including God.Vignette: Claudia is 30, and extremely self-critical.  Academics was the one area in which she felt she might excel, at least where she could get close to excelling.  In grade school, she berated herself for anything less than a perfect score on tests.  She harbors a deep assumptions that she has to prove God wrong, that she can succeed in spite of his distance and lack of help. Her unconscious anger about this has undermined her relationships with teachers in the past, who experienced her as perfectionistic but also critical of them, and even condescending.  Because of her impressive academic successes, and her publishing record, she is one of the youngest assistant professors at her liberal arts college, but she derives little satisfaction from that and the college is now in a precarious financial condition because of the virus.  Because she never feels good enough for God, she never feels good enough for herself, and she also feels that others are not good enough for her.  When she conveys that others are not good enough for her, this imposes a huge burden for her co-dependent boyfriend Fred, who is trying to do everything he can to please her and she is minimally gratifying in return, just enough to keep him engaged.  He's the one that has the greatest tolerance for the chip on her shoulder, so she keeps him around, but is unlikely to marry him because of the subtle contempt she feels for him.Claudia is tired of God.  She doesn't pray much either.   So there are the three god images.   Check out the RCCD Community.  Contact information.  Crisis@soulsandhearts.com 317.567.9594 One of our RCCD members, Jonathan, seized the day and grabbed the initiative to begin a chart that lays out all of the different God images, their corresponding self-images, the Bible verses, the attachment histories, and the impact that the coronavirus crisis could be having with that particular God image, he took all of this and laid it out in a chart and emailed it to me. I think this is great. And Jonathan and I agreed to work on this chart together, to continue to develop that, adding the different God images as we roll them out over the course of these episodes, collaborating together. Jonathan is taking the information from the podcasts, filling in each of the sections on the chart, and I am checking them over and making minor alterations.  That chart is available for our RCCD members, it is now up in the RCCD Exclusive Content Section, and six of the 14 problematic God images are all filled in.  As we continue through the rest of the God images, we will continue to fill in the chart.   I really appreciate Jonathan's work on this, it's a gift to me and to the RCCD members and it's a great example of how we work together in the RCCD community. The Zoom meetings from July 22 and July 27 are either up by now, or soon will be and these were the open forums, we can discuss anything related to psychology and Catholicism.  Bring your questions.  Email me questions if you can't make it.  Time to hang out together and be in community.   Big news:  I mentioned at the top of the podcast about big news from Bill and Kristi Gaultiere and their Shepherding Souls ministry.  Bill Gaultiere created an instrument, called the God Image Questionnaire that is 28 items long, and helps you determine which of their 14 negative God images may burden you.  I have used this in the past and found it helpful.  Shepherding Souls has the God Image Questionnaire on their website, but they have agreed to allow me to make it available to members of our RCCD community at Souls and Hearts.   We've formatted it into an easily printable pdf.  The scoring instructions are also up on our website.  So look for that in the RCCD Exclusive Content.  Take the God Image Questionnaire and let me know what you think!  And after we finish all 14 God images in the next three episodes, we will have discussions about them in the RCCD community.   One more things for the community:  Non-recorded meeting.  Free in the moment. I'm still working on scheduling that.  As a way to his result actually result, you'll discuss the future of his well and we're going to get into that, especially as Patron and Patronness.     

Can be productive and efficient without sacrificing creativity? Instead of shifting back and forth between hyper-productivity to the exclusion of all else (health, relationships) and struggling to find the motivation to accomplish anything, is there some insight and habit that can help us bring them together?  Dr. Bill Gaultiere, Psychologist and founder of Soul Shepherding Ministries says there is. www.shemasd.org www.soulshepherding.org Original Score by Julius Obregon Jr.

In this episode James Bryan Smith has a Things Above Conversation with Bill Gaultiere. James and Bill discuss the importance of soul care, especially at a time when we are struggling with a global pandemic. Bill is a Psychologist (PhD; PSY12036 in CA) and pastor/mentor to pastors. He writes and speaks to thousands of people […] The post Conversation with Bill Gaultiere appeared first on Apprentice Institute.

#003 - Breath Prayer PracticeIn this episode John leads you through the breath prayer practice using Psalm 23:1The Lord is my Shepherd (IN breath)I have everything I need (OUT breath)***Note: If you have listened to the entire episode and want to jump to the beginning of the practice you can head to 4:15.

This is part two in a series where we discuss the calming, anxiety-free and empowered life available by walking in the easy yoke rhythms of Jesus’ grace. Guests are Psychologist and author Bill Gaultiere along with pastor and author Ken Baugh. Hosted by Doug Jones and Rob Jacobs. For complete show notes, click HERE

In this first of a two part episode we discuss the calming, anxiety-free and empowered life available by walking in the easy yoke rhythms of Jesus’ grace. Guests are Psychologist and author Bill Gaultiere along with pastor and author Ken Baugh. Hosted by Doug Jones and Rob Jacobs. For complete show notes, click HERE

To learn more about praying “Be still” read Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke: Rhythms of Grace to De-Stress and Live Empowered by Bill Gaultiere.

To learn more about Selah and how to practice this way of prayerfulness read Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke: Rhythms of Grace to De-Stress and Live Empowered by Bill Gaultiere.

If you have a year end donation for Soul Shepherding it’d be great blessing! Soul Shepherding, Inc is a nonprofit ministry and donations are tax deductible. Your gifts subsidize this “Soul Talks” podcast, along with the counseling and mentoring we provide for pastors, missionaries and other men and women in ministry. Thank you! Our book Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke helps you deal with stress in the way of Jesus and features teaching on setting boundaries. With real life stories, surveys, Bible studies, meditations, prayers, and soul talk questions for small groups, we help you develop healthy boundaries in your life, relationships, and ministry. This episode draws on Jesus’ Greatest Teaching: Living the Sermon on the Mount by Bill Gaultiere. This 42-page PDF booklet is a paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount, based largely on insights from Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy. It includes a guide for small groups. You’ll find these and other books and seminars on our website in the store.

Let’s go deeper into Jesus’ “Be-Gratefuls”! This episode draws on Jesus’ Greatest Teaching: Living the Sermon on the Mount by Bill Gaultiere. This 42-page PDF booklet is a paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount, based largely on insights from Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy. It includes a guide for small groups. You’ll find these and other books and seminars on our website in the store. You’re invited to participate in Soul Shepherding’s TLC Retreats! This is a certificate training program in “Spiritual Formation and Soul Care Ministry.” We start a new cohort January 15 - 19, 2018. For our podcast listeners we’re offering a $100 discount. Use the promo code “SoulTalksTLC”. To learn more visit our website and find our page TLC Retreats or Contact Kristi. Advent starts soon. Check out Soul Shepherding’s “Advent Devotionals and Prayer Cards.” During Advent on “Soul Talks” we’ll be talking about “Four Ways Jesus Comes to Us With an ‘Easy Yoke’”

In this podcast we (Bill and Kristi Gaultiere) teach on Jesus’ beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-10, especially his blessing for peacemakers (verse 7). We clarify Jesus’ teaching from common misunderstandings and illustrate it’s application through a relationship conflict that we had and how Christ and his kingdom helped us. This conversation draws on the booklet Jesus’ Greatest Teaching: Living the Sermon on the Mount by Bill Gaultiere. The inspiring insights and applications in this 42-page booklet are great for personal devotions and small groups. You’ll find these and other books and seminars on our website in the store. At the end of this episode we have an invitation for you to join us at our Soul Shepherding TLC Retreat January 15 - 19, 2018. For our podcast listeners we’re offering a $100 discount. Use the promo code “SoulTalksTLC”. To learn more visit our website and find our page TLC Retreats or Contact Kristi.