Podcasts about eventually god

Suppressing the TruthThose who deny the Creator and His design are destined for a life of vanity and foolishness. Eventually God will give them over to their ungodly desires, but the gospel is the power of God unto Salvation for those who believe.

Latter-Day Chad was never wanting to be a part of the Mormon/LDS church from a young age even though he was born in the church. He never related to the common and well-known "Mormon" culture and that was his reason for being so distant in his young years. Later in his life he began to question life a little bit more seriously than before. Eventually God sent little things in his life more and more until he had no choice but to believe because of all the miracles he saw! Give this episode a watch and you won't regret it! if you want to go and check out Latter-Day Chad's Instagram - @latterdaychad Keep the conversation going! What was your favorite part about this podcast? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/conversion2christ/support

Introduction: Are You a Sheep or a Goat? (Matthew 25:31-46): Jesus Knows who is who. (Matthew 25:31-33) Hebrews 9:27 - And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment... Sheep are known by their Compassion . (Matthew 25:34-40) Ephesians 2:8-10 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Revelation 22:12 - Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. Am I Compassionate? 3 Marks You Have True Compassion: You take Action . You aren't doing it for people to Notice . Matthew 3:8 - Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. You aren't looking for something in Return . Philippians 1:6 - And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Goats are known by their Lack of Compassion . (Matthew 25:41-45) 2 Thessalonians 1:9 - They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might... Matthew 7:21-23 - Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' Your destination is Eternal . (Matthew 25:46) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead Matthew 25:31-46What was your big take-away from this passage / message?We are judged based on our works (See Revelation 21:12.) Since we can't be saved by our good works, why are works the basis for judgment? How does this tie into Jesus' teaching in Matthew 25:31-46?What kinds of works will Jesus evaluate on this day of judgment (Matt 25:35-36,42-43)? Since Jesus is speaking to believers at the end of the Tribulation, how does this principle apply now?How would you respond to this statement:? “If hell is real, it's only temporary. Eventually God either brings everyone to heaven or just wipes out of existence those who have rejected Him.”BreakoutPray for one another. Want more eschatology teaching? Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians

It is time for part two of our four part series, Advice from a Woman. Today Heather sits down with Kristen LaValley. Kristen explains the problem with formulaic Christianity. Eventually God allows something to enter our lives that we never saw coming, and can't put into a box. We have a choice in those experiences to either let our understanding of God crumble, or let go of all our preconceived formulas. Also, if you are an aspiring author, and wanting to know how important social media is to your book proposal, Heather has some advice for you on today's social toolkit. Guest Bio Kristen LaValley is a writer and storyteller whose words offer a refreshing perspective on faith and spirituality. She offers insights that intersect doubt and belief, hope and suffering, beauty and heartache. With a deep love for the Christian faith and willingness to explore its complexities, Kristen's writing offers nuanced conversations that challenge readers to think deeply and wrestle with important questions. Kristen lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Zach, and their five children. Her latest book is called Even If He Doesn't. Host Bio Heather Thompson Day is an associate professor of communication at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. She is the author of eight books, including I'll See You Tomorrow and It's Not Your Turn. Reach out to Heather on X, the app formerly known as Twitter, at @HeatherTDay and on Instagram @heatherthompsonday. Get Heather's weekly inspirational email delivered to your inbox every Friday night at 7 p.m. EST. Sign up now at: www.heatherthompsonday.com/links. Viral Jesus is a production of Christianity Today Host and creator: Heather Thompson Day Executive Producer: Ed Gilbreath Producer: Loren Joseph Mix Engineer: Alex Carter Director of CT Podcasts: Mike Cosper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I am so excited to share this encouraging interview.   If you have ever been depressed or know someone who is suffering, this program is for you!Also I picked some songs about Purim, based on the book of Esther.  Here is a little background about Kim in her own words:"I grew up in a Jewish family celebrating all the holidays.  I had the ‘normal life' of partying with friends and going out to bars…searching for the right one to fall in love and live happily ever after…with no success.  One night I had an encounter with Jesus (Yeshua) in a dream and He told me to become “Born Again.” I fell in love with the written Word of God. Eventually God gave me the BEST husband, Mark & a beautiful son named Micah.  In January 2011-July 2016, I began to experience fear, anxiety, and depression to the point of suicide and had adopted many addictions.  There were emotions and past experiences that had caused pain that were lying dormant and not dealt with properly. Eventually, I could no longer function like a normal human being. I knew the written word backwards and forwards, but I DID NOT KNOW & FULLY EXPERIENCE THE LIVING WORD.  In August of 2016, the Holy Spirit began to do surgery on my heart and the Spirit became my PERSONAL Counselor! I began to hear His voice and He (the Spirit) brought up situations that had occurred in the past (as well as presently) on how to handle them.   My Heavenly Father, Jesus (Yeshua) & with the help of (my personal counselor) the Spirit, had set me free from EVERY addiction and I no longer live for his presence, but in it.  Like God told Abraham (Gen. 15:1) “I AM SHIELD AND GREAT REWARD” and now He has become mine!!!! And I am SO IN LOVE WITH MY LORD!  I am in the process of a rewriting a Bible Study to help others get free and experience this EXTRAVAGANT LOVE."

“The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (MSG)…“fear God and do what He says. That's it!”..“Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.” - Proverbs 21:21 (NIV)A. What keeps you from living hungry for God1.) We fill up on the wrong things. “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” - Hebrews 11:25 (NIV)“The Lord says, “All you who are thirsty, come and drink.Those of you who do not have money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend your money on something that is not real food? Why work for something that doesn't really satisfy you? Listen closely to me, and you will eat what is good; your soul will enjoy the rich food that satisfies.” - Isaiah 55:1-2 (NCV)2.) We've never experienced the goodness of God.“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” - Psalm 34:8 (NIV) We say everyone do something, not someone do everything. “You may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:18 - 19 (NIV)B. How to Pursue Righteousness.How can I experience this? Pursue. Righteousness = right standing with God“The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself—that it begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, “But those who are right with God will live by faith.” - Romans 1:17 (NCV)"For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,” - Romans 3:25 (NLT)A.) Pursue - Go after with passion!“And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” - Romans 5:9-11 (NLT)Being right is through a relationship with God. 2. Right living on earth"King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done." -1 Kings 11:1-6 (NIV)“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” - Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)“But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There's no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you're no good for anything else. The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (MSG)FEAR GOD. Do what He says. That's it!"In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death." -Proverbs 12:28 (NKJV)“I am he,” said Jesus. “You don't have to wait any longer or look any further.” - John 4:26 (MSG)

“The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (MSG) …“fear God and do what He says. That's it!”.. “Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.” - Proverbs 21:21 (NIV) A. What keeps you from living hungry for God 1.) We fill up on the wrong things. “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” - Hebrews 11:25 (NIV) “The Lord says, “All you who are thirsty, come and drink.Those of you who do not have money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend your money on something that is not real food? Why work for something that doesn't really satisfy you? Listen closely to me, and you will eat what is good; your soul will enjoy the rich food that satisfies.” - Isaiah 55:1-2 (NCV) 2.) We've never experienced the goodness of God. “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” - Psalm 34:8 (NIV) We say everyone do something, not someone do everything. “You may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:18 - 19 (NIV) B. How to Pursue Righteousness. How can I experience this? Pursue. Righteousness = right standing with God “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself—that it begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, “But those who are right with God will live by faith.” - Romans 1:17 (NCV) "For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,” - Romans 3:25 (NLT) A.) Pursue - Go after with passion! “And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” - Romans 5:9-11 (NLT) Being right is through a relationship with God. 2. Right living on earth "King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done." -1 Kings 11:1-6 (NIV) “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” - Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) “But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There's no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you're no good for anything else. The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (MSG) FEAR GOD. Do what He says. That's it! "In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death." -Proverbs 12:28 (NKJV) “I am he,” said Jesus. “You don't have to wait any longer or look any further.” - John 4:26 (MSG)

This Episode Sheds Light on how Social Media Affects Our Day to Day Lives, by Infusing Ideas that make us Either leaves God's Path or Makes Undermine the Process that leads to our Success and Eventually God's Kingdom.

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Perseverance Podcast. This is where you will hear the story of Kat and Josh and their radically different childhoods. From there you will learn about how they forged their relationship based on godly principles and struggled against burnout while serving in the church as a young couple. Eventually God called them to fostering numerous young children and finally adoption. Learn how Kat and Josh overcame these challenges to bring hope to others who are going through similar situations. I hope you too can feel encouraged to persevere as you go through your own difficult times.If you would like to be a guest on this podcast, email me at info@perseverancepodcast.comFor more information, go to www.deafblindpotter.com 

JUDGES: A Faithful God in a Broken World "The Demise of Jephthah: A Fool Creates Chaos in His Family and in the Nation"(Judges 11:29-12:15)For bulletin in PDF form click here.Message SlidesHeroes in Hebrews 11 - WayLessons from Jephthah - WayShould Jephthah Have Kept His Vow? - WebbThen and Now: Where have we come from and where are we going?Jephthah and His Daughter: A Rash Vow from a Pagan Mindset (11:29-40)When God's people abandon Him as the priority in their lives (Idolatry)they do not know what it means to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.Jephthah and The Ephraimites: A Conflict Becomes Civil War (12:1-7)When God's people abandon Him as the priority in their lives (Idolatry)they do not know what it means to love othersas they love themselves.Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon: And the Beat Goes On (12:8-15)Eventually God will allowour rebellion to become complete until our only hope is found in Him.(Twelve Judges Representing Twelve Tribes) Idolatry—abandoning a full commitment to God as the priority of our lives—eventually results in a lack of loving God and loving others.Next Steps Truth: When you do not really know God, tragic results will undoubtedly follow. Warning: Knowing God is more than believing He exsists and reading some stories. Challenge: Know God's story well so you can know God's character well and live to please Him. This Week's Growth GuideGod's Word is both central and critical to your spiritual growth. We invite you to utilize the Growth Guide during the week to further your application of the Truth from the message.•. Monday - Romans 1:18-32•. Tuesday - Romans 2:1-29•. Wednesday - Romans 3:1-20•. Thursday - Judges 13:1-25•. Friday - Judges 14:1-20Home ChurchOur Home Churches meet weekly to facilitate quicker relational depth, study the same passage taught Sunday to help apply Scripture in the context of community, and pray with one another. Home Church helps our body seek God's best for one another. Home Church Questions• Read Judges 11:29-12:15.• What stands out in this passage or from the message?• If you had the choice (you do not!), would you choose to be filled with the Spirit for character or filled with the Spirit for service? Why?• In what ways do we “sacrifice our children” to the gods of the age today?• What would the Lord have done if Jephthah acknowledged his error and done something else (see esp. Leviticus 27—esp. the principle in 27:15, 28, 31).• The Ephraimites are a pesky bunch in Judges. Read Judges 8:1; 12:1. Who is an Ephraimite in your life? How should you handle them?• Review the Major Judges and trace their downward spiral. • Othniel (3:7-11) • Ehud (3:12-30) • Shamgar - a minor judge but I like him- (3:31) • Barak (4:1-24; 5:1-31) • Gideon (6:1-8:35) • Jephthah (11:1-12:7) • How is Ibzan similar to Jephthah?• How does Abdon continue the downward spiral of the judges? How are we tempted to be like Abdon?FinancesWeekly Budget 28,846Giving For 03/13 22,282Giving For 03/20 20,845YTD Budget 1,096,154YTD Giving 1,288,308 OVER/UNDER 192,153 Generations CampaignTotal Pledge 1,535,065Received-to-date. 1,633,552 Men's muster | April 22-24 We are looking forward to heading back to The Shepherd of the Ozarks for the Men's Muster. $165 for men 18 and older, $85 for 14-17 years. Register at fellowshipconway.org/register.New to Fellowship?We are so glad that you joined the Fellowship Family to worship this morning. If you are joining us for the first time or have been checking us out for a few weeks, we are excited you are here and would love to meet you. Please fill out the “Connect” section of your bulletin, tear it off, and bring it to the Connection Center in the Atrium, we would love to say “hi” and give you a gift. Fellowship 101 | April 10 | 9:00 a.M. We invite you to join us Sunday morning, April 10, to learn more about Fellowship. This is a great opportunity to learn about our mission, values, and ministries. Join us in the conference room (first floor) to hear what God is doing and where He is taking us. During this time you will get to meet some of our ministry leaders and ask questions. We're excited to meet you! Register at fellowshipconway.org/register. Father/Daughter Dance | April 2 This is an event fathers and daughters (grades 5-12) look forward to. Plan a special place for dinner and then come out to Renewal Ranch from 7-9:30 p.m. It will be a great night of dancing and making memories. No cost but we would love to know you will be attending. Register at fellowshipconway.org/register. Fellowship Women's Brunch - Taste and SeeFellowship women, we are excited for you to join us Saturday, April 23, 10:00 a.m. for brunch. Enjoy great food while we share some exciting changes in the Fellowship Women's Ministry. For child care text Shanna at 501-336-0332.Fellowship Women's Bible Study | April 4-May 16 | 9:30-11:30 a.m.Calling all Ladies 18 years and older! Has your life ever been interrupted: Loss of job, sickness, unexpected expense, or plans turned upside down? Join us as we engage in a 7-week study on “Jonah” by Priscilla Shirer, starting Monday, April 4th - May 17th. The study consists of reading the book, (please purchase book before April 4) watching videos with Priscilla Shirer together, and a time of discussion. Sign up at fellowshipconway.org/register or at the Connection Center. Child care by RSVP to Shanna at 501-336-0332.Blended & Blessed Simulcast | April 2 | 9:00 - 3:00 p.m. If you're a blended family, you bring unique ingredients to the table. Blended & Blessed is a one-day live event and live stream just for you. We're talking step family couples, single parents, dating couples with kids, and those who care about blended families. $10 per person with lunch provided. Register at fellowshipconway.org/register.Crucifixion Dinner | April 15 | 6:30 p.m.Mark your calendars to join us as we remember together what Christ did on the cross on Good Friday through the Crucifixion Dinner.

We're walking in the new in 2022! New Years resolutions are great, but they don't go very far if we don't take inventory of our lives and see what doesn't belong. You cannot walk into the new if you aren't willing to let of the old. In the bible, God created a group of people, called the Israelites, and set them apart to live only for Him, cutting out anything in their lives that is not a direct command from Him. Eventually God's people Israel found themselves in slavery under the nation of Egypt because they began to worship gods belonging to the Egyptians. As God set them free from slavery, they had to leave behind their old idols and walk into the promised land God promised them. Similarly, we have to trust God by walking into the destiny He has for us and leave behind the old ways of life that do not reflect God's destiny for us. Transitioning into God's plan and leaving behind our old plans can be a lot of work, and we don't always see the eternal value in giving up our current life for something better, but if we ever want to embrace the New Start God has for us, we have no choice but to abandon the old and step into the new. Check out this amazing word from Pastor Bethany on stepping into the new in 2022!

November 28, 2021                                                                    Blessed Attitudesweek 4 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:1-12 (NIV)BLESSED ARE THE _____________________, FOR __________________________________.You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Revelation 3:17 (NIV)WHEN I REALIZE THAT I AM __________________, HE CAN BE _________________________.BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO _____________, FOR THEY WILL BE _____________________.The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.       Psalm 34:18Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. Isaiah 57:1 (NLT)BLESSED ARE THE ________________, FOR THEY WILL INHERIT THE ________________.“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:5-7BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ____________ _____________________________, FOR THEY WILL BE _________________.I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NIV)The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.                        Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (MSG)I'M NEVER __________________ THAN WHEN I'M ___________________________ TO GOD.“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” ~St. Augustine

Episode 071--God Calling Have you ever prayed and asked God one thing and He seemed to answer with something that was totally off topic? For most of my adult life I felt this way when I prayed about my life’s calling or direction.  My prayer would always start out something like this. “God, this is me again. Can you tell me, what is my calling? What do you want me to be doing for You? I know you’ve called me to write, but it feels like there is something specific I should be writing. Would you show me, please God? Call and I will do whatever you want me to do.” Eventually God would answer, but it seemed His answers to my plea for direction were totally incongruous with what I thought I was asking. His answers always seemed to come back to telling me how to lose weight and get healthy. This was the one thing I didn’t think I could do. Plus I didn’t think it was in the category of a life calling like say being a missionary, preacher, teacher or anything that seemed Godly like that.  What I didn’t see all of those years, though, was how very persistent He was this answer. Recently I was cleaning out my office and found all my old prayer journals. It was a rainy afternoon, perfect for revisiting my life. Reading through them helped me see my life in a new and different way. I saw how what I had been praying about and how He had answered me directly related to my calling. I was just too stubborn to understand it. Thankfully, He finally got through to me. He’s very patient and as long as we keep asking, He will keep answering until we finally get it. God is more concerned about us fulfilling our callings than we are. He knows how we will mess up His plans, but He still helps us get back on the right path and headed towards our calling with purpose and determination to follow Him every step of the way.  On this podcast, I share how I finally got on board with what He had been trying to tell me all of my life.  Overcomers Academy link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers/ Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/sweet-surrender/

Welcome to Saga Kraft. Myths, fairy tales, legends: Stories comfort us, inspire us, and heal us. Please join us as we share stories, both old and new.  More than anything, we are open to the story and its unfolding, At times, it may be one story told by one person. At times, it’s the same story told through three different voices. In the end, we go were the story takes us . . . and we invite you to follow. Here's this week's story: God gets an upgrade God is going about his godly business as one among many Gods. His humans, however, are bickering with the neighbors about property lines. They are starting to talk trash about how great God is and how he’s supreme. At first, he’s flattered. He performs a couple easy miracles, like getting old women pregnant (not exactly a hardship for a male God). But then they push him hard to prove that he’s the end-all-be-all of deities. Concerned, God looks around. He notices that Dionysus has taken off for the islands and left a power vacuum in Sodom and Gomorrah—a place God’s own people have been bitching about. So he figures he can make an easy stand there. At first, God thinks he’ll just go impress them with his Godliness. But when he gets there they just laugh. The fact is they are far more sexually experienced than he is, and unimpressed with pregnant women. So he goes away to contemplate a long-term conversion strategy. His followers, however, have no patience and pressure him for a large scale display of power. Eventually God caves; he announces that he will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. At first, people argue, which is a great relief to God who doesn’t want to do it anyway. God is pleased when they ask if he’ll spare the city if they find 50 good men; he figures he’s off the hook. As far as he can tell, there are thousands of good people there. But he has to put up some kind of a front, so he pushes back. Eventually, he gets them to lower the number, then sends them in to point out some good folks. They come back empty handed. And God wonders how he drew the short straw in followers. God then sends in his angels. Surely they can find someone. As soon as they arrive, Lot, the kid from the sheep incident, runs out to greet them. God wonders why it never before occurred to him to miss Lot. He should have guessed he was in party-town. God hopes the angels will stay away from that one. But no, they go home with him. God hopes Lot has changed. That evening, God sees a bunch of people heading to Lot's house for a party. And he gets excited. Maybe Lot has changed; now he has friends! But when they reach the door at the appointed time, Lot sneaks out and whispers that they should leave because he has guests. His friends think he’s joking; of course he has guests—it’s a party. They shove at the door. God thinks this is his golden opportunity to convert people. They are joyfully gathered. Surely Lot will tell them how great he is. So he shows up in his brilliant, godly glory. Everyone freaks out—people begin to scream. Lot slams the door shut. Startled, God ducks behind a tree. The party folks calm down and start to pressure Lot, asking him to at least send his new friends out to meet them—maybe have a beer. But he shoves his tween-aged but as-yet-unnamed kids out the door instead yelling “take my daughters. They have never known a man.” This, God thinks, is the Lot I remember. Lot’s friends, including his daughters’ fiancés, leave in deep disgust. The angels, however, are now convinced that Sodom and Gomorrah truly are corrupt. They lean hard on God to destroy the area in a big show. They want Lot to witness and escape so he can report the display of power to others. God sighs deeply. ‘Well,’ he thinks, ‘I really could use more followers; this might help my image. And Lot is one of my people, so I can save him.’ God tells Lot to head for the hills. Lot refuses. ‘WTF,’ God thinks, ‘I just agreed to save you.' But Lot insists he wants to go live in Zoar. "Whatever," God...

In this podcast episode Brett Johnson talks about how God's spoken Word, eventually breaks through. Visit brettjohnson.biz for resources, books, blogs, courses and much more. You can also follow Brett Johnson on social media at the handles below: Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Let my business go! #rēStart #50Lessons #BrettJohnsonbiz

The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom Job 28 by William Klock  Does the world make sense?  That’s kind of the big question that every thinking person grapples with.  From a naturalistic or scientific standpoint we know that the world makes sense.  We’ve seen enough of how things like physics and chemistry and biology work to know that Creation is ordered—that it makes sense, that we can observe it, that we can understand its workings.  There are theoretical physicists and the like who trust in this ordered nature of Creation enough to seek out grand theories of everything and expect to find an answer once they’ve accounted for all the factors and put them all together.  But there’s more to life than gravity or evolution or particle theory to contend with.  Medicine can dig into the depths of a coronavirus and parse out its DNA, even develop treatments and vaccines.  It can tell us where it came from and how it evolved.  But it can’t answer the big question of why. And that’s where Job’s at.  Bandits stole his livestock.  A wind blew down the house and killed his children.  Disease afflicted his body.  But why?  Even as we, the readers of the story, know that it was the Adversary behind each of these tragedies, that question of why is still there.  Why did God allow the challenge from the Adversary in the first place?  Why?  Sometimes we’re careless or we do dumb things and bad things happen.  We know the why, even if we don’t like to admit that it was our own fault.  But there are other times when we can only look to heaven and cry out to God, “Why?” Job’s friends are convinced they’ve got the answer.  The “why” is Job’s sin.  He, however, insists on his innocence.  No one’s actually seen Job do anything wrong.  But that’s got to be the answer, they think.  And they’re convinced of this because they’re convinced that justice governs the cosmos.  God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous.  God must be punishing Job for something.  We’ve called this idea the Retribution Principle.  It governed the way most ancient peoples conceived of divine justice. And yet Job refuses to concede.  He holds fast to his integrity.  And as the readers we know he’s right.  The very first verse of the book told us that Job was upright and blameless.  And he’s proved himself—not just that he’s upright and blameless in his living, but that his uprightness, his blamelessness is disinterested.  He’s not in it for what he can get, he’s not in it because he knows that what goes around comes and around and he wants good to come around to him.  He’s righteous because he knows that it’s right to be righteous, regardless of the outcome.  So at this point we’ve completed the first part of the book, these three cycles of speeches between Job and his friends.  They’ve urged him and urged him and urged him to give up on his integrity and to confess so that he’ll get his blessings back and Job has stood his ground.  He’s proved the Adversary wrong and he’s proved God’s policies to be right.  But Job doesn’t know anything about that.  He knows nothing about the Adversary’s challenge.  All he knows is that, whether his righteousness is disinterested or not, God is supposed to bless the righteous—and Job’s only known cursing.  So why? That’s the rest of the book and it starts with an interlude—a hymn or a poem spoken by the narrator of the story.  We’ll look at Chapter 28 this morning.  We can break it down into three sections.  Let’s look at the first, which runs from verse 1 through verse 11.  Picture miners digging deep into the earth for treasure as we read. “Surely there is a mine for silver,          and a place for gold that they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth,          and copper is smelted from the ore. Man puts an end to darkness          and searches out to the farthest limit          the ore in gloom and deep darkness. He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives;          they are forgotten by travelers;          they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro. As for the earth, out of it comes bread,          but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires,          and it has dust of gold. “That path no bird of prey knows,          and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it;          the lion has not passed over it. “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock          and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks,          and his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle,          and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.   The earth is full of treasures: silver and iron, gold and sapphires.  But it’s rarely just lying around on the surface for the taking.  To get to that treasure we’ve got to dig.  The poet describes miners digging deep into the earth, hanging deep in mineshafts, carrying light into the otherwise impenetrable darkness.  He overturns the roots of the mountains themselves, deep down and far beyond the otherwise all-seeing eyes of falcons and other birds of prey.  He toils, he innovates, he gets dirty, he gets injured.  Sometimes he even dies.  Man spares no expense to bring forth from these hidden treasures of the earth so that he can display them in the light.  The earth’s treasures are hard to find and hard to get to, but we know their value and we spare no effort or expense to get our hands on them. In contrast stands wisdom.  Look at verses 12-19: “But where shall wisdom be found?          And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth,          and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’          and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ It cannot be bought for gold,          and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,          in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold and glass cannot equal it,          nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;          the price of wisdom is above pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,          nor can it be valued in pure gold.   We prospect for iron, for copper, and for precious metals.  Again, we find it and we go to great lengths to dig it out of the ground.  But wisdom?  “Man does not know its worth.”  We know it’s valuable.  We desire it.  But it’s true value exceeds anything we can imagine.  And yet it’s nowhere to be found in the land of the living—nowhere under the sun.  We can plumb the depths of the sea and we will never find it.  No matter how much money you’ve got, you can’t buy it in the marketplace.  Even if you were to find it for sale, it is beyond the price of gold and jewels and pearls.  None of us could ever afford it.  The poem goes on in verses 20-22: “From where, then, does wisdom come?          And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living          and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and Death say,          ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ Again, you won’t find wisdom in the land of the living. Search to the ends of the earth and it won’t be there.  Ask a bird with its keen eyesight to spy it out for you and that bird will turn up nothing.  Open the gates of the grave and call down to death and even Abaddon will have heard only a rumour of it.  If wisdom is nowhere to be found, how are we to ever answer that great question why?  How will Job—or you or I—find an answer to our suffering? Well, look now at the third section of the chapter, beginning at verse 23: “God understands the way to it,          and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth          and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight          and apportioned the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain          and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it;          he established it, and searched it out. And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,          and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”   You want wisdom and understanding?  Look to God.  But in the end, wisdom may turn out to be something different than we expected.  It’s interesting here that the reason wisdom is so inaccessible to human beings is not because of its position in space, but because of its position in time.  It’s not hidden deep in the earth or at the bottom of the sea.  Notice the origin of wisdom here.  God oversees the cosmos, not just the ends of the earth, but everything under heaven.  And the poem speaks of God’s creative acts: when he created the wind and when he tamed the waters and divided them.  It’s a picture of God bringing order to the chaos of the pre-created world.  When he decreed the rains and the storms that come with them—when God ordered the cosmos, when he made it fit for life, that was when, that was the time at which he saw wisdom and declared wisdom; he established wisdom, and searched wisdom out. Here’s what the narrator is getting at: He stresses the order that God has established through his creative acts.  He looks back to the day when God tamed the primordial chaos, reigned it in, and made it suitable for life—made it serve his purposes.  None of us was there and none of us can fathom what that looked like or what was involved.  Just think of the words of Genesis.  God spoke and tamed the chaos.  God spoke and brought forth life.  While it speaks volumes about the creative and life-giving power of God’s word, it’s unfathomable.  How does that work?  It’s utterly beyond us.  But through it God gave order to creation.  Eventually God will communicate this when he speaks later in the book.  As Job demands an answer, God will ask a series of questions about creation, “Were you there when I?  Were you there when I?  Were you there when I? Now, what’s important here—and this is where the book of Job changes gears—what’s important here is what that order entails.  Remember, Job and his friends have assumed that the foundation of Creation’s order is justice.  The Retribution Principle is foundational in their thinking.  The wicked are punished and the righteous rewarded.  Job’s already beginning to question this idea while his friends hold fast to it.  When God speaks later in the book, it will be to tell them all that their understanding of the order of the cosmos is horribly wrong.  You see, from our limited perspective, all we can see are the effects of God’s work in creation.  He causes things to happen and we see the result.  The problem is that we then try to root out those unseen and unknown causes.  That’s what gets us into trouble.  It’s our feeble attempt to play god.  And what God reveals is that there is no foundational principle running creation.  As ordered as Creation may be, as much as God has built into it consistent order that we can observe and around which we can develop theories and laws, it is he who ultimately sustains and maintains, gives life and controls it.  As we saw back in our study of Genesis, back when we looked at that passage from Genesis 1 telling us that on the seventh day God rested, for God to “rest” wasn’t what we usually think of.  We think of rest as disengagement.  But for God to rest was for God to take up residence in the temple he’d just created, to be seated on his throne, and to begin the work of ruling, governing, sustaining his new creation.  For God to be seated on his throne in his temple meant for him to be engaged in the ongoing activity of the cosmos.  The Hebrews never conceived of God as a clockmaker, building a watch, winding it, and then hanging it in space to watch.  He was engaged in everything.  His hands held together, sustained, provided, chastened, brought blessings, and brought cursing.  And so Job and his friends were as wrong to think that justice was the operational foundation of the cosmos as modern people are wrong to think that we can reduce the operation of the cosmos to scientific laws and theories.  Is there justice?  Of course.  Can we derive laws and theories about the regular and ordered nature of God’s creation?  Of course.  But God’s point in Job is that his governance of his creation is ongoing and omnipresent and, most importantly for Job, it’s dynamic as God acts not like a machine following a set of laws or as a divine vending machine, but as he acts according to each and every circumstance. So what does this mean for wisdom?  We can’t find it and God knows it and so we read, again, in verse 28: And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,          and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”   Do you want wisdom?  Trust the Lord, because it resides with him.  I think John Walton sums this up really well when he says: “Fearing the Lord means to take him seriously as opposed to: thinking him detached (therefore to be ignored) thinking him incompetent (therefore to be treated with disdain) thinking him limited or impotent (therefore to be scorned) thinking him corrupt (therefore to be admonished) thinking him shortsighted (therefore to be advised) thinking him petty (therefore to be resented)”[1] This may be a struggle for some of us who want to find wisdom for ourselves or to define it on our own terms.  It’s never going to happen.  Our wisdom is dependent on God and on our trust in him. Notice, too, that wisdom isn’t some abstract standard by which God acts.  I talked about this before in terms of justice.  All too often we think of justice as an objective standard by which God acts.  Brothers and Sisters, when we do that, we fall into the trap in which Job and his friends found themselves.  They set up a certain standard, called it justice, and then tried to compel God to act according to it.  It didn’t work.  It meant accusing righteous Job of sin on the part of his friends, and for Job it meant questioning God himself, since he wasn’t holding to their standard.  As I said before, justice is not external to God; it flows from him.  He is the source.  In that sense, he establishes the objective standard.  But, again, because our knowledge and understanding are limited, so is our understanding of justice.  And now we see the same goes for wisdom.  Wisdom is not some standard that was out there in the universe and that God adheres to.  No.  Wisdom is defined by God himself as it flows from him—as it did when he tamed the primordial chaos and brought order to creation and as he sits on his throne and holds the cosmos in his hands. I think that realizing this can help to focus us on the right thing.  When we understand that wisdom isn’t just some abstract principle that we can find or that God can give, but that wisdom flows from God as its source, then we can understand that as much as we often ask for wisdom (and we’re right to do so), to fear the Lord in itself is an act of wisdom that, as it causes us to trust in and to draw near to the Lord, opens up to us the path to wisdom and its source.  And, of course, the opposite is also true: If we believe that God is wise and the source of wisdom, the more nature it will be to fear the Lord. Now, think about Job and his righteousness and of the Adversary’s challenge to God.  Think of what I talked about last week in terms of our motives for pursuing both God and righteousness.  The Adversary’s argument was that if God rewards righteousness, people won’t really pursue God or righteousness—or wisdom; people will, instead, try to patronise God, try to butter him up, and try to give him what they think he wants or needs so that he’ll be obligate to bless them in return.  Think how often we treat God as a divine vending machine.  We put our money in, we push the right buttons, and we think that he’s obligated to give us what we want.  We negotiate with him.  “I’ll give you this, God, if you’ll give me this in return.”  Or we get into trouble, and we start bargaining.  Ack!  I think I’m about to lose my job and we start getting introspective and we bargain with God, “Okay, I’ll finally give up such-and-such sin if you’ll let me keep my job.”  Or we do what Job’s friends urged Job to do: we start confessing.  I remember sitting at the bedside of a friend dying of cancer.  Radiation didn’t work.  Chemo didn’t work.  He was in terrible pain.  And he said, “I’ve confessed every sin I can think of and God isn’t taking this away.”  Brothers and Sisters, none of that is the path of wisdom.  To fear the Lord is to trust him, not to approach him as needy or petty or as someone we can manipulate.  So as much as Job is struggling with some of these things, as much as he’s questioning the Lord’s justice, his integrity and his disinterested righteousness show us that he really does fear the Lord. Getting closer to our own hearts and that issue of the big “Why?” question, where does this leave us.  We want answers.  We cry to the depth of sea, “Where is wisdom?”  And we get no answer.  We call down into the depths of the grave, “Have you seen wisdom?” and death calls back, “I know nothing more than you.”  On the one hand here we’re told that this search for wisdom is fruitless.  We’ll never find the answer.  Instead, we’re told to fear the Lord in the belief that he has created and continues to sustain his creation in wisdom.  We’ll never be able to understand what that looks like.  God cannot give us an answer to our question of “Why?” that will make sense to our limited understanding.  I know that won’t be a very satisfying answer to some of us.  When you’ve done everything right and you’re still suffering, when you hold a miscarried child in your hands, when your business has failed despite your best efforts, when your children have walked away from the Lord after years of catechism and faith-building, after a diagnosis of cancer or some other awful sickness we want an explanation and just to say, “Trust the Lord” can seem like a cop-out, but it’s not.  It’s God’s word right here in Job 28.  It’s not to say, “There’s a reason even if we don’t know what it is”.  No, it’s to move beyond our question about causes and reasons.  You see, if we believe that the Lord has created and established and sustains his creation wisely, then to trust him is move beyond the need for an explanation and to trust that whatever tragedy we experience is reconcilable with his wisdom, with our trust in this God who is engaged, who is able, who is powerful, who is righteous, and who has infinite and eternal perspective. “God understands the way to [wisdom]” says verse 23.  It is ultimately beyond our reach and beyond our knowing, but we become wise ourselves as we fear him, submitting to his wisdom.  Brother and Sisters, that means that when we’re in the midst of trouble and tempted to demand an explanation, we should instead trust in him.  Is it easy?  Of course not, although I do think it gets easier the longer we persist in trusting him.  Some of you who are older than I am can confirm that.  In the meantime this is why God has given us means of grace.  Brothers and Sisters, if you struggle to trust God, if you find yourself in the midst of trials and are tempted to think that you could do better than God, if you find yourself resenting God, avail yourself of his means of grace.  Immerse yourself in the Scriptures where we see his goodness and wisdom and love—and most of all his faithfulness—revealed in the history of his people.  Immerse yourself in the Gospels and be reminded that we fear the God who humbled himself to become one of us and who gave his life on the cross in order to reconcile us to himself and to set to rights the world that we have broken.  Recall that he is the one who has given us his very Spirit as a downpayment on the life of the age to come.  Pray.  Pray those Scriptures back to him.  Pray the psalms—the inspired words of men, often written in the midst of trials and suffering—and let them shape your faith and bolster your trust in God.  And come to his Table, eat the bread and drink the wine, recall and participate in the saving acts of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and know first-hand the wisdom of God that has not changed since he spoke those words into the darkness, “Let there be light.” Let us pray: Wise Father, Job reminds that we are small and that you are infinite.  We’re so often tempted to think that we’re bigger or greater than we are and it has got us into a great deal of trouble.  It has broken your creation.  And yet you love us still.  The wisdom that flowed from you when you made us flows still through Jesus and the Spirit to forgive us, to restore us, to make us new.  I pray that we would remember your wisdom when we struggle, when we’re tempted to doubt or to question, when we cry out “Why?”, and that knowing your graciousness, we would do the wisest thing we can and cling to you in faith.  Through Jesus we pray.  Amen. [1] The NIV Application Commentary: Job (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), epub version.

0038 - In this episode I got a chance to interview Chip Thompson, the Executive Director of Tri-Grace Ministries in Ephraim, Utah. In the interview Chip talks about why he moved his family here to Utah 30 years ago and he picked Ephraim, a small Mormon community in central Utah. He talks about starting a church and getting involved in the community in Ephraim. Eventually God led them to be engaged with the college in town and that ultimately led them to buy a piece of property adjacent to the college and start a coffee shop. He talks about how God has used the coffee shop to witness to those in the community and at the college. He also shared with us about the Biblical archeology museum in the coffee shop and about the tours to Israel that he leads every year. We talk about all these things and more in this podcast. Check out his ministry here - www.trigrace.org

When Luke Andrews was first introduced to the idea of Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) he did his homework, started praying, and learning more about its purpose.  Eventually God led Luke to solely represent only BRI.  Sometimes, when God teaches us a new truth it can disrupt our work.  Luke is an example of a good … Continue reading "An Example Of A Good Disruption"

When Luke Andrews was first introduced to the idea of Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) he did his homework, started praying, and learning more about its purpose.  Eventually God led Luke to solely represent only BRI.  Sometimes, when God teaches us a new truth it can disrupt our work.  Luke is an example of a good … Continue reading An Example Of A Good Disruption The post An Example Of A Good Disruption appeared first on iWork4Him Podcast.

In last week’s episode, we heard the gripping story of Kim Phuc’s life before being saved by Christ. We heard about her idyllic childhood being traumatically altered by the napalm attack which was captured in the world-famous “Napalm Girl” photo. We heard how her only dream was to be a doctor so she could save the lives of others just like the doctors of the Barski Unit that had saved her life. We heard how that dream was stolen from her by the communist government who used her as political propaganda. And ultimately, we heard how Christ miraculously saved this despairing young woman just two days before her planned suicide. When we left Kim, she was still living under the oppression of the Communist government, who had shutdown her church and imprisoned its pastors.  So what became of Kim and her new faith? Did her faith survive spiritual isolation? Did Kim survive Communism at all? Better yet, could she escape these terrible circumstances as a young girl with no connections and no means to do so? In this episode, we pick Kim’s story back up and we will get answers to all these questions and more. Once again, you’re up for an unbelievable journey as the conclusion to this story is just as wild as the start. This episode is about how God miraculously saved Kim Phuc from Communism. One of the first significant steps the Lord took to save Kim from Communism was to miraculously create a friendship between the Vietnamese Prime Minister and herself. This friendship allowed Kim to leave Vietnam under the auspices of studying abroad in Cuba. Cuba was still a Communist country but at least moving there kept her away from the abusive hands of the Vietnamese Government as they continually objectified her as mere political propaganda. Kim was still without Christian fellowship for many years but it was in Cuba that Kim met her husband. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be seem beautiful again to a man after her accident, but this man 100 committed to her. The two married and planned their honeymoon in another Communist country, which was the extent of where they were allowed to travel by the Communist regime. It was on this trip that God worked a series of major miracles in the couple’s life. The miracle that set off the whole chain of divine blessings happened while they were at a quick layover in the Toronto airport. Kim had been looking for a chance to defect from her country and the Lord revealed an opportunity to do just that as she waited in that airport. Kim told her husband, who wasn’t a believer, that she felt the Holy Spirit told her this was the time to defect and that she was going to obey what God had shared. Her husband thought she was seriously challenged, not knowing what to do, but ultimately his love for his wife was enough to take the chance. The couple did not get back on their plane. They instead hid and took a leap of faith asking someone what they should do. They didn’t know anyone in Canada and they didn’t have any resources to support themselves. All of this would be moot though if Canada wouldn’t let them enter the country. Kim’s husband was very scared as the consequences for their actions could be very severe. But the Holy Spirit assured Kim and she spoke to her husband confidently that everything was going to miraculously work out because God was taking care of them. Sure enough, divine appointment after divine appointment started revealing themselves. Perhaps the chief among the miracles was that this exact time happened to be during a very small, unprecedented window where Canada was allowing people in the couple’s situation to enter the country. Eventually God secured the couple housing, jobs and even a church. This last blessing was not only sweet for Kim who had been spiritually surviving only with her personal Bible and solitary prayer, but Kim’s husband had become a Christian as well. Once he had witnessed the miraculous way God had saved the couple from Communism, his eyes were opened and he gave his life to Christ. Listen to the episode above for the incredible full story of Kim Phúc’s life. Don’t miss part 1, as well, if you haven’t hear d it yet. HIGHLIGHTS Kim's parents, who were dedicated to the Cao Dai religion of her youth, have converted to Christianity and, by the grace of God, been able to move to Canada to be with their daughter's family. Kim lived in Cuba for six years. Today Kim has undergone advanced treatments that have relieved her of the lifelong pain caused by the napalm. The napalm attack actually perpetrated by the U.S. military. The attack was not supposed to be carried out but was an accident. Kim met the pilot later in life and he profusely apologized while Kim completely forgave him.

Let's be faithful with the small things so that we will be faithful in the big things. Consider supporting this podcast by visiting our online store today. https://shop.marraigeaftergod.com READ: [Aaron] Hey we're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God. [Jennifer] Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. [Aaron] And today we're gonna talk about how being faithful in the little things will prepare us for the big things. [Aaron] Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after. [Jennifer] I'm Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife. [Aaron] And I'm Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution. [Jennifer] We have been married for over a decade. [Aaron] And so far we have four young children. [Jennifer] We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media. [Aaron] With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage, encouraging them to walk in faith every day. [Jennifer] We believe that Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one, full of life. [Aaron] Love. [Jennifer] And power. [Aaron] That can only be found by chasing after God. [Jennifer] Together. [Aaron] Thank you for joining us in this journey as we chase boldly after God's will for our life together. [Jennifer] This is Marriage After God. [Jennifer] Thank you guys so much for joining us on today's episode. We just wanna take a minute to just encourage you to leave a star rating review, this just helps other listeners find our podcast. And we're just eager to get this message out. So please take a minute just to leave that star rating, and also if you have time and some extra love, you can leave a written review. That also just really encourages our hearts, lets people know what this podcast is about, and again just spreads that love out into the internet. [Aaron] Also if you've been really loving the podcast and the content, one way you can support this podcast is by purchasing one of our books. You know my wife and I, we've written 11 books now, going on 12. Our twelfth one comes out next year in June. And you can just head over to shop.marriageaftergod.com, and pick up our prayer books, our 30 day marriage devotionals. You can look at all the products we have. And we even have prayer books for children, too. You pray for your son, pray for your daughter. They've been a really popular book. So if you wanna support our podcast please consider going over to shop.marriageaftergod.com when you're done with this podcast. [Jennifer] Okay, so we are going to start off with an icebreaker, we did this last week, it was fun. So Aaron, I'm gonna ask you the first question, and then I guess we'll just tag team it, and then I can answer after you. So it is, what is one habit that you would like to create in your life right now? [Aaron] I would like to get better at reading the Bible more consistently. I'm just gonna be honest. [Jennifer] Okay. [Aaron] I used to be, have it at a specific time every day and I've just kind of gotten out of sync with that. So I'd like to get into a better habit of digging into the word of God. [Jennifer] Okay. And I would answer that by just saying working out. I feel like after I had Truett, you know you wait that kind of post-partum period, six weeks or so out. And then I started feeling really good and I added in one day a week. And now I'm looking for more. So just finding a consistent schedule for that would be really awesome. [Aaron] That's a good habit, yeah. [Jennifer] Well you encourage me. [Aaron] Thank you. [Jennifer] We're gonna share a little more about that later, but you've been in a good habit of that. [Aaron] Okay, so before I move onto the main topic I just wanna read a quote from a book I'm reading right now called the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Habits are powerful but delicate, they can emerge outside our consciousness or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize. They are so strong in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense. [Jennifer] That's good. [Aaron] Yeah, really powerful quote. The whole book just being about habits and how we form them and how we can change them. It's a really good book. [Jennifer] Yeah I wonder if anyone else listening as you read that quote can already just think about a handful of habits in their own lives that do this very thing. [Aaron] Yeah, it's amazing. Most of our habits we form without even thinking about them. It's not like we try to form the habit we just, they form out of our everyday rituals and routines, Choices. [Aaron] And choices, yeah. So it's kind of, it leads into what we're gonna be talking about today a little bit. We're not gonna be talking about just habits. [Jennifer] A little bit bigger of a concept. [Aaron] Yeah. [Jennifer] Of being faithful in the little things, and why. [Aaron] So, why don't we start off with the conversation that we had in the car the other day which lead us to wanting to talk about this [Jennifer] So, yeah we were driving in the car and you brought up that morning's workout, and you just wanted to share about it with me and how excited you were about something specific that you accomplished. [Aaron] Yeah, I was really proud of myself actually because I learned that I had a skill I didn't know I had. The workout involved rope climbing which we don't do very often. We do them maybe once every other month. And this workout had two rope climbs every so many movements, and before the workout started we were just getting ready, warming up and I thought, "Hey, I'm just gonna try a rope climb real quick, "see how it feels, "'cause I haven't done it in awhile." And I did a rope climb without my legs. So they call it a legless rope climb [Jennifer] Sounds torturous. [Aaron] Yeah, but I was really surprised at myself 'cause I've never been able to do a legless rope climb. And so I was sharing, I was like, "Babe, I did all these legless rope climbs today, "I didn't use my legs at all, "I just used my arms to go up and down." [Jennifer] And I just mentioned how I feel like that, like there's so much of it that's mental. [Aaron] Yeah, 'cause I didn't even know I could do it. And I was telling her, I was like, "Yeah, it's amazing how much "all of the stuff we do is mental "because I may be able to do it physically, "but I may not be able to do it mentally." There's many times I have to force myself to keep going. With this workout specifically, I told myself, I was able to do a legless rope climb, I'm just gonna do the whole workout doing only legless rope climbs. Which meant I had to slow down. I couldn't do as many rounds as everyone else did. But I was able to accomplish my little goal. And I was super proud of myself. It was a really good feeling. [Jennifer] You should be, that's awesome. [Aaron] I didn't realize I could do it. And we started talking about how not only is it a balance of mental and physical, but it's something that all these things that people learn, when you see people you're like, oh I can't believe they can do that. They didn't just start doing it. At the crossfit gym that we do, that I go to, there's a progression to things. Like I didn't just start doing legless rope climbs. I could not even do it, I wasn't strong enough, nor did I know how to. So we, there's this term called scaling. So we scale down the workout to what we can do. So even though, you know, I can't do what the main workout is I can still do the workout at a different level. [Jennifer] It seems like that's the key is scaling. [Aaron] Well it is the only way to do it, 'cause you can't just come in and expect someone to do this part of the workout if they've never done it before. You know, some people might be strong like that but usually you just can't. And so we were just discussing how you know, it starts off really small. You know, like, for the rope climb specifically. One of the ways that you can scale that down is instead of climbing the rope you just lay on the floor. And you pull yourself up. [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] The rope to where you're standing. [Jennifer] Which when I do crossfit, I had to do that and it was not easy. Even for me. [Aaron] That's even still really hard, yeah. So you're just laying on the floor. [Jennifer] You have to start somewhere. [Aaron] And you walk your arms up the rope and you just pull yourself until you're standing up. And that's one of the first steps of learning how to climb a rope. There's other ways to do it where they bring the rope real low so it's not a very tall one, and you just try and do like a few feet, you know, instead of trying to do 15 feet up in the air, or 25 feet up in the air, you're just, you know, you're going up a couple inches or a couple feet. But that's what spurned this conversation with us about wanting to talk about not just habits, but-- [Jennifer] Spiritual growth, maturity. Just all kinds of hard things in life that you have to be able to start somewhere and experience that progression and balance of growing. And yeah, so when we were talking about scaling we were looking at life and saying that's still required. [Aaron] Well, and what happens is if we do this all in our own hearts, we look at something, or we look where someone's at, and we say, "Oh, well I could never do that, "therefore I'm not gonna try." Like I could never do a legless rope climb so I'm not gonna try. I could never run a marathon so I'm not gonna try. And that's, like no one just goes and runs a marathon. [Jennifer] But we don't see the work that they put into practicing and trying and even failing at times and feeling defeated. [Aaron] And where they started. [Jennifer] Where they started, yeah. [Aaron] Actually, today our coach at the gym was just mentioning how when he first started it took him like two years to do double unders, which is jump rope, you know where you spin it really fast. I can barely do 'em. But when I look at him I'm like, "Wow, it took you that long?" That's how my progression is going, it's been, I can't do 'em yet. I've been going for about two years and I've almost got 'em. But when you hear that you're like, "Oh, well, okay that's normal. "I guess I didn't realize that everyone "starts in the same place." [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] Like everyone starts somewhere. We all start as babies. And then we get stronger and we grow. And so that's kind of what we wanted to discuss today. We're discussing it in our own lives. What are things that we can start today that we're gonna get stronger in and stronger in and better in later? You know, is it health? Spiritually, being in the Word. [Jennifer] Leading our children. [Aaron] Prayer. Leading our children. And how the incremental growth comes from the beginning of starting somewhere and moving forward and getting better at it. [Jennifer] Taking those steps. When we were kind of walking through the notes for today's episode, you mentioned, you know, everybody wants to be at the 1,000 mile mark without ever having to start with the first step. [Aaron] Yeah, what's that quote? A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. [Jennifer] But yeah, everybody wants the reward, and everybody wants to experience the high of maturity or spiritual growth. [Aaron] And the blessings that come with it. [Jennifer] The blessings of leading your children and all these things, whatever the things may be. But there's a lot of work that's required of it. And sometimes we look at that work load and we say, "I can't do that." We don't believe that we're capable. But we wanna remind people that it's a matter of growing incrementally. It's making those daily choices, those individual steps toward those things. [Aaron] Yeah, being faithful. [Jennifer] Being faithful with them. [Aaron] In the very little things on a regular basis. You said something a second ago about not realizing, or not thinking we can handle stuff, or what we're capable of. I think the number one thing I've learned from my fitness journey, and we're not gonna keep talking about fitness by the way, this has been our template for why we were talking about this 'cause of what we've been seeing in me. Is that I'm surprised at what I am capable of. And every single time I go to the gym I'm like, "I can't believe I was able to do that." And I'm not tooting my own horn, it's just the nature of not telling myself I can't. And not giving up on myself and not giving into when it's difficult, and realizing what I'm capable of. There's, I was just thinking about this, what was the movie where the guy's escaped from the prison and they go across the Sahara Desert or whatever? And like it's just thousands and thousands of miles and they just survive. No one would think they could have gotten across the desert but they did. But that's how it is in life. We don't think we can accomplish things or make things happen in our lives, or learn something in the Bible that we see other people know or understand. And we're like, "Oh, we're not capable of that." I can't do that, you know, I can't go speak on stage, I can't go witness to someone, I can't, you know, spiritually lead my family. These are legitimate things that people see other people do, but then inside are like, "Oh, I don't have "it in me to do that." [Jennifer] Yeah, and I don't feel like people are walking around saying I can't do that, I can't do that, I think that it's kind of just something that we accept without even giving it a second thought sometimes. [Aaron] Well I know in my life that's happened a lot. There's things I've just said I couldn't do. But why? Who told me I couldn't do it? You know, doesn't mean I do everything. We wanna talk about the spiritual things in our lives that we can be implementing, walking in, that we can be building on. Becoming faithful in the little things because when we are faithful in these little things over time they compile into bigger things. You know I think spiritually when I think about being faithful in little being faithful in the big, and I think of that scripture where Jesus says, "If you deny me before man, "I will deny you before my Father in Heaven." And I think, you know, we don't as Christians just say, "Oh, one day if I'm persecuted "and put in this situation where "people are gonna threaten my life, "I'm just gonna stand for God." And then, in a very simple situation where someone asks me about my faith and I ignore the question or I avoid the answer. Like can I say that if I can't be faithful in that very little, safe, non life threatening situation. [Jennifer] How would you ever do it? [Aaron] Yeah, how could I possibly imagine that when my life's on the line, or someone else's life on the line, I'm gonna stand for my faith? And I think that's what we're getting at today is practicing walking in these little things. [Jennifer] Yeah, and I think that what I see beneficial about being faithful in the little stuff is in your relationship with God, and our relationship with God, we're actually building trust with Him. He's able to trust us. [Aaron] With more. Yeah so, I wanna read a couple scriptures here. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus is giving a parable. It's about a dishonest manager, and how he was taking advantage of his master's finances and bills and things that he was in charge of. And at the end of it Jesus says, he says this, it's in Luke 16:10. "One who is faithful in very little "is also faithful in much. "And one who is dishonest in very little "is also dishonest in much. "If then you have not been faithful "in the unrighteous wealth, "who will entrust to you the true riches? "And if you have not been faithful in that "which is another's, "who will give you that which is your own? "No servant can serve two masters "for either he will hate the one "and love the other, "or he will be devoted to the one "and despise the other. "You cannot serve God and money." So the direct context of this of course is finances, is money, is the things that we have, and it says unrighteous wealth. And what it's talking about is earthly gain, earthly money, earthly finances, earthly wealth. 'Cause He says if you can't be faithful on Earth with the money that you have that's not Heavenly, not eternal, how can you be entrusted with true riches? Which are Heavenly things. Which are eternal things. And so, the question out of this parable, even though this is specifically talking about money, is what earthly things do we have that we're being faithful with now? You know, I remember thinking when we first started our ministries, you know we launched our social media pages, and we were thinking like, "Man, that'd be so awesome. "What if we can get to a million followers?" [Jennifer] Oh yeah, I remember that. [Aaron] It was like our first year. And we had just started this thing. [Jennifer] We didn't know what we were doing. I mean we were just trying to, we knew our hearts were to encourage people and to utilize the tool of social media. But it was so new back then, too. It was all just, it was all new to us. [Aaron] Yeah, we hadn't even had it long enough to even be called faithful with it. [Jennifer] Yeah. [Aaron] You know. And we would've totally mismanaged a platform like that if it grew that fast without us being faithful with the little thing that we had. [Jennifer] So yeah, even though we wanted a large following and people that were part of our audience that we could speak into their lives and encourage, I wouldn't say that we were ready for that, especially when we first started. [Aaron] Of course not. That would be ridiculous. You know, in Timothy we learn about eldership and deaconship and that position it says they must not be a new convert. And the point is that they're not ready. They haven't been proven yet. And so there's lots of things in our life that we should be proven in, and we should walk in consistently to show that we're faithful in those areas. So I just wanna read one more scripture about the same subject. It's in Matthew 25:23. And it's in the same kind of parable. It's a parable of the Talents, you know, the master goes away, leaves three of his servants with a certain amount of Talents, and he expects return from them. And then he says this to one of them. His master said to him, "Well done good and faithful servant. "You have been faithful over little. "I will set you over much. "Enter into the joy of your master." That's what I want God to say to me. [Jennifer] Me too. [Aaron] That God's given me certain things. He's given me my marriage, my children, my job, our relationships, our home, our money, our car, all of these things. And there's much more, right. And I want Him to say that I was faithful with the things that He's given me. That I was faithful in investing them for the kingdom. You know, I wanna ask us, not just me and you Jennifer, but our listeners, what areas of our life, whatever areas of the things God's given us are we being faithful in? And what areas can we be more faithful in? Whether we thing they're big things or small things. We just have to recognize that the things that we currently have, the life that He's given us, He wants us to be faithful with. So, we're talking about, you know, being faithful to the things that God's given us. But I think on top of that, it's really good, we need to be good stewards, we need to be faithful with the things God's given us. But what about our spirit? What are some things that we can be faithful in in the little ways on the spiritual side of things in our life? [Jennifer] Well I definitely, like everyone would agree with me that reading His word and prayer are probably the top two things, right off the bat that we could look at our lives and evaluate whether we're doing that or not. Do we have a good, healthy habit? A daily routine of that? [Aaron] Yeah, being regular in the word and growing in that area. [Jennifer] I think some things that stop people from doing that is feeling like they don't know how to pray. Feeling like they don't understand God's word. And I think I would just encourage them that even if you don't understand it just keep reading it. Eventually God will help your heart to understand it, or maybe you'll have questions, and then you can go seek out answers to those questions. But it's a process. And I think that if we could just start with the simple, you know, just be active in reading, be active in sharing your heart with God, I think those are simple habits to start. [Aaron] Yeah, we're never gonna get better knowing the word of God without reading it. [Jennifer] It's true. [Aaron] And it is daunting, it's like whoa where do I start? And there's so much stuff, what's prophecy? How do I understand it? And there's just so much in the Bible, it's so rich, right? But, what we're getting at with all of this is we just start. You aren't going to get to the finish line without starting the race. And so this is kind of like our, you know, our call to action for the community, for those listening is if there's areas in your life that you know that you haven't been faithful in the little? Like you haven't been in the word of God regularly, haven't been praying, that today you start. [Jennifer] And it's not necessarily a chore either, like I just wanna encourage those listening that sometimes we can see the mountain ahead of us, and just like I said, be daunted by it, and think that's too hard. Or not enjoyable. Or see it as a chore to get to the top. But if you think of a mountain, and having a trail leading up to the top, you're gonna have, you're gonna go through probably tall trees or meadows or flowers or rocks and things to look at. And I think that it can be an enjoyable thing to pursue. It is an enjoyable thing to pursue. But we have to have the right perspective in order to see it that way. [Aaron] And it may not feel enjoyable at first because we're stretching muscles we've never used before. We're practicing something we haven't practiced before, so it is hard. It can be painful. Like, you know, going to bed later, so you can get in the word. Waking up earlier. Those aren't easy things in the beginning, but what happens is you build a craving for it and you start seeing the fruit from it. [Jennifer] And you enjoy that. [Aaron] And that's what you start enjoying. You're like, "Man, I enjoy the spiritual growth I'm seeing. "I enjoy the perspective I'm gaining. "I'm enjoying seeing my life change and transformed "by these new habits I'm forming. "By the word of God, by prayer, "by fellowship." You know, the things that the Bible's called us to. Walking in those things aren't always easy right in the beginning. But there's a quote that just says nothing worth doing's ever easy. You know. And these little things are worth doing. And we have a little note here, it just says incremental growth. The point is are we growing or are we stalled? Are we just staying in one place? Are we stagnant? The Bible uses that term lukewarm. We're neither hot nor cold, we're not going backwards or forwards. We're just remaining. And we don't wanna, a Marriage After God doesn't just remain. [Jennifer] Yeah, we wanna inspire you guys to take those steps forward. [Aaron] Yeah, we chase, we boldly chase after God's will for our lives. And there's only one way to know God's will. It's to dig into His word. And it's to dig into prayer. And it's to participate in the communion of the fellowship of being around believers and walking with one another, and accountability, and iron sharpening iron. But it starts somewhere. [Jennifer] And practically speaking how do you start building these habits or these routines, these things that we know we should be doing when we're not doing 'em. How do we start? [Aaron] Yeah, and it's not going straight to the end. Like okay, I'm gonna read three chapters a night, I'm gonna read through the whole Bible in a month and I'm gonna, it starts with I'm going to set a time every day that I'm gonna open the Bible. [Jennifer] You know when we first got married I remember your mom mentioned to me, she was just giving me tips and tricks on how to manage a home and all of that. And without saying that it was coupling she was actually teaching me the art of coupling. She would say things like, "You know, I read my Bible every morning "with a cup of coffee." So she goes and pours herself a cup of coffee, sits at the kitchen table, and she leaves her Bible on the kitchen table so she knows that those two things go together. And it's a way of building in that habit each and every day. Building a routine each and every day. And I never really put into practice the skill of coupling. Actually I forgot about it until a friend of ours brought it up to us a couple years ago, and kind of inspired you in the art of coupling. And do you wanna talk about that a little bit? [Aaron] Yeah, so, this is just a tip for anyone who wants to implement new habits and routines in their life, especially in these spiritual areas of like reading the word of God or praying, or going and being with other believers. We can couple, which is taking something you already do on a regular basis, taking a habit you already have, and adding the new habit or routine to it. So a good example would be like, if you took a shower every morning, having a note on the mirror in the bathroom to remind you to pray. Or putting your prayer notes on the mirror or somehow in the bath, in the shower when you're in there. So what you're doing is your coupling your daily routine of showering with a daily routine of prayer. [Jennifer] Yeah, so currently right now, by the way I just have to note. If they hear baby noises, coos and burps, it's, the baby's on my lap. But right now we're-- [Aaron] Real life. We're coupling podcasting with parenting. [Jennifer] Yeah. We are trying to find cues within our rhythm of just managing the kids, and so after Bible time I help Elliot with piano, and so for me a signal of ending Bible time means piano time helps me remember that we have to do piano every day. [Aaron] Which we've been talking about piano, we love that our son's learning piano, but it's been hard to have a routine of daily practice. And so we're like okay, what can we couple it with? What can be our cue during the day for you to just go straight to piano practice? And so we're making it right after Bible time he'll do piano practice. Bible time is a good example of something that we've been working on in our home. Forming new habits and better routines and something that's going to spiritually benefit our home and family and children. [Jennifer] Which we've seen. [Aaron] Yeah, and this actually was a hard thing. I remember thinking man I wanna be leading my family spiritually, I wanna be a spiritual leader, I wanna implement things that are gonna benefit my children and myself. And I remember thinking how hard that was. I was like I don't even know what to do, where do I start? What do I, what am I supposed to do? And I just told myself one day. I was like I'm just gonna start. So I was like okay kids, come sit down on the couch, we're doing Bible time. And they're like what? What is Bible time? And didn't it start off, I think we've talked about it before, it started off at like a verse. [Jennifer] Yeah it was short. [Aaron] Like we just did one verse. And I would talk about it for a minute. I didn't have like a set Bible study, I was just like, "Okay, what do you think "that verse meant? "What was your favorite word out of the verse? "What does it mean when he says this?" [Jennifer] Now the whole family looks forward to it. [Aaron] Yeah and it's not just a verse anymore. We read up to two chapters and it will probably get more and more eventually. And that's just an example of starting somewhere. And since we started it's been, we started in January I think. Or February. And it's pretty much been a whole year now. And we do it, I feel like we do it four to five times a week on average. There's some days that we miss. I have coffees on Wednesday mornings so I don't think I do it then. I think you've been doing it. So, that's a routine we have in our home. That our children are hearing the word of God, they're learning the word of God, I'm getting better at leading and having this routine. And what's awesome is when you take these small steps of faithfulness, so me just sitting down for a few minutes a day, reading the Bible with the kids turns into other things. It makes it easier to now have a routine for piano practice. To have a routine for breakfast and a routine for what comes next in the day. And a routine for prayer in the car. We've been practicing, just, we're driving and like hey, who could we be praying for right now, kids? It makes those muscles, those spiritual muscles easier to use. Stronger. [Jennifer] I just keep thinking how much stronger our kids are gonna be. [Aaron] Yeah, because we're practicing habits and spiritual skills now. They're gonna benefit from them. And that's the whole point is we want them to benefit from them. And we're benefiting from 'em. I find myself wanting to read more, which I've always told myself I'm not a reader. And then the other day I was like I'm just gonna read books. So I have like three open books right now in my nightstand. I haven't read through all of them yet, but I'm reading through all of them currently. And I have this audiobook I'm listening to so I'm just trying to walk in new things. I just don't wanna be the same person all the time. I wanna be moving forward. I wanna be growing in life. And I know you feel the same way. It's things that we've been seeing and know that God wants from us is just maturity and growth. So what areas in our life are you seeing that we may need a break? Like habits we may need to break or replace with other habits? [Jennifer] Well I know for myself, we were just talking about this the other day, but when I feel overwhelmed, or even if I feel like I just accomplished something really hard, I treat myself. And it's like that's my cue for a bad habit. Or like I said when I feel overwhelmed. [Aaron] Like you've earned it. Like oh I've earned to go splurge. [Jennifer] Yeah, or if I feel overwhelmed and I just wanna feel better, those are just some simple cues that give me a very bad habit of you know, filling that with sugar or whatever the treat is. [Aaron] Yeah, fill in the blank. [Jennifer] Fill in the blank. So I think that's one thing that I am looking forward to breaking. [Aaron] So replacing that supposed reward you wanna give yourself with something more healthy. [Jennifer] Another one would be going to bed late because I wanna build a habit of getting up early and getting in the word before I get going with the kids. But I know in order to do that I need to go to bed earlier. [Aaron] Yeah, and these are again, these are little things. So just trying to be on the same page, and say hey, what will it take to get to bed 30 minutes earlier tonight? It's setting for ourselves some goals maybe. Little goals like hey, if we're gonna be praying with each other at night let's make sure that we have the kids in bed on time, let's make sure that we're efficient, let's crawl into bed and let's spend time in prayer together. [Jennifer] And I do feel like we are getting stronger and better, more obedient, more faithful in these small things. And sometimes it can feel defeating when we think about we've already come so far, or we've already stretched that muscle so much. We've already changed. [Aaron] Yeah, do I need to do more? Gosh. [Jennifer] Yeah, we've already changed so much and then it hurts when God, or you, or someone reveals that there's more to go. Or even just like, there's another step to take. It can feel really defeating. But that's what faithfulness is all about is just being willing to take that next step forward. Yeah, and I wanna encourage those listening. We've mentioned quite a few things in our life that God might be wanting to change in us and grow in us, and give us more diligence and more faithfulness in, because He's just building and building on us. And again like we said in the beginning, they could be listening to all of this and be like well that's so much, where am I supposed to start with all of that? And my encouragement is just start. God's probably revealing right now to you one area that He would love to see you grow in and change in. Is it just spending some time while you're driving to work praying instead of listening to the radio? And not thinking like oh, I have these 50 things I need to do today, 'cause you will fail. We've experienced that in our lives. We have this grandeur idea like oh I wanna be this person, this is what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna implement these 12 things and I'm gonna be that person tomorrow. And then it's like that's too hard, I can't do it. But what we found is it's real easy to do something small. But then when you do 1,000 small things, right? It becomes a very big thing. I wouldn't have imagined that we would have written 12 books eight years ago. We didn't write 'em all in the same day. [Jennifer] That would have been really hard. I'm glad God didn't ask us to. [Aaron] Thank God, yeah. [Jennifer] He knows us better than we know ourselves. [Aaron] But now looking back it's like oh, we did one book. And then we did a second book. We had 1,000 followers, and then 10,000 followers, and again, not just to talk about us. I'm just, the point is, we started somewhere. And unless we start we're not gonna ever get anywhere. [Jennifer] And I think a marriage after God is willing to start, and they're willing to embrace hard things, and they're willing to persevere. And they're willing to look at the future with vision and understanding and hope that they will, they will mature, and they will grow, and they will exercise those muscles for the purposes of what God has for them to glorify His name. [Aaron] Yeah I was gonna ask why does all this matter? [Jennifer] Yeah, it's for Him. [Aaron] Like why are we even? It's for Him. He's got something for us to do. Just think of that scripture that tells us that God's prepared beforehand, before we were even formed in the womb, He had good works for us to accomplish in this world for Him. So all of these things, they're not so that we can feel more holy or look what we've done. The only goal, the only drive, the only passion that should be pushing any of these decisions forward, and giving us motivation to do these things, and grow in these areas, is to see what He's doing in our life, and to see what He's. [Jennifer] Truett agrees. [Aaron] Yeah, Truett agrees. So I hope this encourages those that are listening to ask God what areas they can build new habits in, and to be revealed, areas they can just start today. [Jennifer] I'm willing to bid they already know what that next step is. [Aaron] Yeah they're thinking right now like oh, I've been wanting to do this. [Jennifer] Okay, you just need to do it. [Aaron] You just need to do it. So I said last night Jennifer, you were mentioning how you wanted to start something, and I was like, "Start? "Start today?" I didn't say it harshly, but I was just like the reality is that it's not going to start for you, like start it. [Jennifer] And sometimes I feel like we always wanna say like we'll start Monday. And that never works because then Monday comes, then Tuesday comes, then Wednesday comes, and you forgot that you were supposed to start Monday. So then you have to start Monday again. [Aaron] That's one of the tactics our flesh uses to keep us from moving forward, to keep us from growing up. Is as long as it's tomorrow it's not today. So let's just make it today. Today's the day of salvation. Today is the day that we make those changes. Today is the day we say yes to God. Today is the day we believe what the scriptures say about the power that's in us, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. And that we walk in it. We walk in the spirit, not the flesh. I just hope everyone that's listening is encouraged, I mean it's something that Jennifer and I are walking through and growing in and learning how to be. So a new thing that we've been doing is ending in prayer. And so Jennifer's got a prayer for you all today. So would you please join us in prayer? [Jennifer] Dear Lord, we pray that we would be men and women who submit our lives to you. Examine our lives and show us the areas that need transformation and change. We pray we wouldn't complain or grumble when you revealed to us bad habits that we need to break, or what the next step of growth is that we need to take. Help us not to be prideful or resistant when you use our spouse to speak a word of truth about the habits in our lives. May we receive what they have to share with a humble heart, knowing that what they share is motivated by love. We pray we would walk in righteousness. Holy Spirit help us to break the stronghold of habits that need to go, rhythms and routines that have become natural to us but don't benefit us or our families. When you convict our hearts toward change may we boldly choose to walk out what you desire for us. May we be faithful in the little things each and every day, knowing that our faithfulness is building trust in a relationship with you. Please help us to prepare our hearts and our bodies for the work that you have for us. May we take time to encourage our spouse in building better habits, and keep each other accountable to the changes we aim to make. Lord help us to be faithful in the small things so that we are prepared for the bigger things. In Jesus' name, Amen. [Aaron] Amen. So thanks for joining us for today's episode. We pray that you would hear the heart of the Lord today. And that you would seek out what He has for you, and how He wants you to grow. And we look forward to having you next week. Did you enjoy today's show? Find many more encouraging stories and resources at marriageaftergod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality The best selling book “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” by Peter Scazzero has been recommended to us by Vineyard leaders such as John Wright from Vineyard UK, and many have found it to be a helpful resource. Peter learned the hard way: you can’ t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do: Avoid conflict in the name o  Christianity; ignore his anger, sadness, and fear; use God to run from God; live without boundaries. Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus, and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. We will discuss the highlights of the book, as well as practical applications for our personal lives. Who is this seminar for: Leaders in any capacity, potential leaders, those longing for deeper spirituality.

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve. Only one rule! God does this through history; he wants people in His place, under His rule. They broke the rule. Eventually God chose Abraham to start over again. Abraham's family, the Israelites end up in captivity; God calls Moses to lead them into Canaan (God's place) .. and this is where Joshua comes along. First reference to Joshua in Exodus 17:8 - the battle where Moses has to keep his arms outstretched for victory. When Moses goes up to Mount Sinai (Exodus 24) Joshua is his assistant. Joshua accompanied Moses to the 'tent of meeting' where God appeared in the pillar of cloud. He was originally called Hoseha, Moses renamed him Joshua (means 'God Saves') Numbers 13:1-14:9 - Moses sends the men into Canaan and they come back with the reports. Only Joshua and Caleb trust the Lord enough to say that they can take the land. Joshua's quote: "If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us." Israel continues to struggle to keep the covenant all the way until God eventually sends the ultimate leader and sacrifice, Jesus! Jesus now keeps God's rule for us, so now we won't be able to break the covenant with God:- 2 Cor 10:3 He gives us the weapons to use Eph 6:10-20 - the armour of God - Practical truthfulness and integrity - Everyday righteousness - A readiness to speak and go for the Gospel - Practical use of God's promises (in prayer) - Confidence in justification - Judicious, spirit empowered use of the Bible - Prayer Like Joshua, we hold out the gospel.... - An offer of peace - A threat of judgement - But (unlike Joshua) we don't have to carry out the judgement ourselves. Rom 12:19 Like Israel under Joshua - The battle is internal - with self and sin - The battle is amongst us - for unity - The battle is external - to rescue people from judgement. - Where the first two above are successful, the third will be too! See the world differently - We are not fighting against people - We are fighting for their salvation We have divinely powerful weapons: our lives, our love, the gospel and prayer. Fight on our front lines rather than despair about what happens in the wider world. The battle belongs to the Lord. We have been promised a place in God's mansion. In conclusion remember: Num 14:8 "If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us."

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve. Only one rule! God does this through history; he wants people in His place, under His rule. They broke the rule. Eventually God chose Abraham to start over again. Abraham's family, the Israelites end up in captivity; God calls Moses to lead them into Canaan (God's place) .. and this is where Joshua comes along. First reference to Joshua in Exodus 17:8 - the battle where Moses has to keep his arms outstretched for victory. When Moses goes up to Mount Sinai (Exodus 24) Joshua is his assistant. Joshua accompanied Moses to the 'tent of meeting' where God appeared in the pillar of cloud. He was originally called Hoseha, Moses renamed him Joshua (means 'God Saves') Numbers 13:1-14:9 - Moses sends the men into Canaan and they come back with the reports. Only Joshua and Caleb trust the Lord enough to say that they can take the land. Joshua's quote: "If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us." Israel continues to struggle to keep the covenant all the way until God eventually sends the ultimate leader and sacrifice, Jesus! Jesus now keeps God's rule for us, so now we won't be able to break the covenant with God:- 2 Cor 10:3 He gives us the weapons to use Eph 6:10-20 - the armour of God - Practical truthfulness and integrity - Everyday righteousness - A readiness to speak and go for the Gospel - Practical use of God's promises (in prayer) - Confidence in justification - Judicious, spirit empowered use of the Bible - Prayer Like Joshua, we hold out the gospel.... - An offer of peace - A threat of judgement - But (unlike Joshua) we don't have to carry out the judgement ourselves. Rom 12:19 Like Israel under Joshua - The battle is internal - with self and sin - The battle is amongst us - for unity - The battle is external - to rescue people from judgement. - Where the first two above are successful, the third will be too! See the world differently - We are not fighting against people - We are fighting for their salvation We have divinely powerful weapons: our lives, our love, the gospel and prayer. Fight on our front lines rather than despair about what happens in the wider world. The battle belongs to the Lord. We have been promised a place in God's mansion. In conclusion remember: Num 14:8 "If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us."