Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / Rediscovering The God Who Saves With Shadia Hrichi
Transcript
- 0:00Hey there. Welcome back to She Speaks Live.
- 0:02I'm so excited you are here listening to this episode.
- 0:07I have to tell you you guys the feedback of how much you are
- 0:10enjoying my published journal, Serenity.
- 0:14Calm your soul and strengthen your spirit is such a huge
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- 0:21wondering what is she even talking about, The Serenity
- 0:25Journal is a personalized scripture journal where you
- 0:29write your name within the scripture verse and it just
- 0:33brings this close personal directive to take heed of the
- 0:37truth in your life. It also includes 5 topics to
- 0:41choose from with two weeks of scripture.
- 0:44For whatever season you're going through, if you need more
- 0:48contentment, more confidence, how to get out of loneliness,
- 0:53how to have more hope and peace in your life, and in addition to
- 0:57this is the journal prompts and an activation prayer to release
- 1:01your faith for what you're hoping God will do in and
- 1:04through your life. It makes an incredible gift for
- 1:07any occasion, but also Christmas is around the corner and I'm
- 1:11doing a 15% off plus free shipping.
- 1:14So grab one for yourself, your friend, family members, go to
- 1:18jamieelizabeth.com and make sure you use VIP15 for your code.
- 1:24And I just know this is going to bless your quiet time with him,
- 1:28so let me know how much you love it.
- 1:30OK? Today I have with me author and
- 1:33teacher Shadia Parici. We're going to talk all about
- 1:36Rahab out of the book of Joshua in the Bible and we know her as
- 1:40a prostitute that was faithful in hiding the spies.
- 1:44But there's so much more to Her story to unveil that Shadia
- 1:47shares with us today. It's so good.
- 1:50And she is doing an exclusive giveaway just for you listening
- 1:54to those podcasts. The link is in the show notes,
- 1:57and you will receive a free signed copy of her study.
- 2:01How cool is that? Okay.
- 2:03Now let's dive into my conversation with Shadia
- 2:06Harishi. Hi, Shadia, Welcome to She
- 2:09Speaks Live. I absolutely love what we'll be
- 2:12talking about today on the story of Rahab.
- 2:17Welcome to the show. Well, thank you for having me.
- 2:20I'm excited to be on the show and this is of such a fun topic
- 2:23and I just appreciate the invitation.
- 2:25You wrote a Bible study on Rahab.
- 2:28It's called Rahab rediscovering the God Who Saves me.
- 2:33And I consider myself a Bible study junkie and I have never
- 2:38seen Bible study on Rahab. And when this came in through my
- 2:44emails, I was super excited to have this interview with you and
- 2:50really just to grab on to the fresh insights that God gave you
- 2:56on the story of Rahab. So.
- 2:58I can't wait for you to share this and before we dive into
- 3:02that, I would love for you to share your favorite scripture
- 3:06verse and why. Oh, wow.
- 3:08Well. So my favorite scripture is
- 3:12actually the very first scripture I ever memorized.
- 3:15I got saved at the age of 30, so I didn't have a Bible
- 3:18background. So like John 16316 didn't mean
- 3:21anything to me at that point. But the first verse that I
- 3:24memorized was Psalm 126 Six and it says that he who goes out
- 3:29weeping carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy
- 3:34carrying sheaves with him. And it's still my favorite verse
- 3:37because. Sometimes sharing the gospel
- 3:41means going out weeping, but God plants those seeds, and so it's
- 3:45just a a passion of mine. And I love His word.
- 3:48Yeah, I know the obedience is hard, but the payoff is way
- 3:53worth it. And I know you can testify to
- 3:57that, so let's dive in to Rahab. What inspired you to write about
- 4:05the story? Wow.
- 4:08Well, so Rahab, so she's the second woman in the the lineage
- 4:13of Christ. And the the study that I had
- 4:15finished most recently that came out last year was on Tamar,
- 4:19Judah's daughter-in-law. She's the first woman in the
- 4:21lineage of Christ. And I was like, Oh, well, we
- 4:23just, we, you know, Rahab's next, like, why not just dive
- 4:26right into her story? And I happen to just kind of
- 4:30love the fact that, you know. You know, both of these women,
- 4:33they're they're kind of, they're well, Rahab's clearly tainted by
- 4:37by the, you know, the the idea, you know, prostitution, 'cause
- 4:41she was a prostitute. But the Tamar story also has
- 4:44that kind of that taint as well. And I'm just attracted to the
- 4:47messy stories in the Bible. I just love the messy stories in
- 4:51the Bible. I think I can.
- 4:53You know, with a lot of my own mistakes and my own past, I can
- 4:56relate to their stories. We don't talk about them that
- 4:59much. And I'm like, well, why not?
- 5:00Let's talk. I mean, yeah, it's pretty, it's
- 5:02messy, but let's talk about it, you know?
- 5:05Yeah, I love it, 'cause, I mean, we do talk about the fluffy
- 5:09characters in the Bible, the ones that we speak about, that
- 5:14we highly praise. We don't share their sin
- 5:20afterwards or, you know, before. There's always the.
- 5:24And I think that's great because it shows that, you know, these
- 5:29characters in the Bible, they were devoted and committed to
- 5:33the Lord, and they still had some temptation of sinning, and
- 5:40they still chose the wrong path even after obeying God and doing
- 5:47what they were supposed to do. So I love that you're writing
- 5:52and studying about these characters who have those messy
- 5:57lives first, and to see what they do afterwards.
- 6:03OK, so you label Rahab as an unsung hero in the Bible.
- 6:09Explain that to us. So, Rahab.
- 6:14So, OK, so the the the series of Bible studies that that I'm
- 6:20writing that Rahab belongs to is called behind the scene
- 6:23exploring the Bible's unsung hero.
- 6:26Unsung heroes. And so you know, Rahab, you
- 6:30know, kind of like what you were just saying.
- 6:32A lot of us are familiar, you know, with the stories of, you
- 6:35know, Abraham or Moses or Esther, kind of these high
- 6:37profile, high leadership people. But when you start studying
- 6:43these other characters, you know, like Rahab or like in the
- 6:47past, I've, you know, written on Hagar, Tamar, Judas run a lot,
- 6:50all these kind of messy stories and you see how God steps into
- 6:54their stories and you realize, wait a minute.
- 6:56There's something going on here too.
- 6:58There's there's something, you know, redemptive in each one of
- 7:02their stories and how they interacted and responded to God.
- 7:07And so it kind of just elevates them on in the same way, the
- 7:10same plane because. And I and I, I even hate to use
- 7:13the word elevate because quite honestly, we all need God's the
- 7:16only one worth elevating, you know.
- 7:19But we tend to put these other characters on a pedestal and
- 7:22these other stories of like people like rehab.
- 7:25Remind us that wait a minute, you know, God can still use us
- 7:29even if we've made terrible mistakes.
- 7:30God can still use us despite, you know, the past, you know,
- 7:36our besides our past. If you look at the story of
- 7:39Rahab, what there's this contrast that's really
- 7:42fascinating that takes place when the Israelites.
- 7:46So here. So here's a quick context,
- 7:48context of her story. Rahab's living in the wicked
- 7:50city of Jericho that's marked for destruction by God.
- 7:53And Jericho is basically the first city that the Israelites
- 7:57will capture in their effort to take the promised land that God
- 8:01had promised them. And in between Jericho and the
- 8:05Israelites is is the Jordan River.
- 8:07So they're camped on the other side of the Jordan River.
- 8:10And while they're camped there, the people actually begin
- 8:15literally. The word in scripture is to
- 8:17whore with the people of Moab. And begin sacrificing to Moab's
- 8:23false gods. So here they are on the edge of
- 8:26the Promised Land, and they're like turning away from God.
- 8:30Meanwhile, in the city, this wicked city of all these, you
- 8:33know, pagans, Canaanites, and doing all the wrong things,
- 8:35there's this woman who's a prostitute who's actually
- 8:38turning to God. And it's an incredible contrast.
- 8:42And the fact that it takes place right when the Israelites are
- 8:44camped at the edge of the Promised Land reveals.
- 8:48Just at at the very beginning of the story, we haven't even
- 8:51talked about any details yet how significant her story is that
- 8:55God would put all of that on hold to tell us about Rahab.
- 9:00Very significant. Yeah.
- 9:01It it's beautiful. And it's beautiful to see how
- 9:04God will use anyone right for his plan and what he wants to
- 9:09do. Absolutely.
- 9:10That he would use a prostitute to teach prostitute to teach us
- 9:14lessons about faith. It's just that's just one one of
- 9:18the some of the things I love about how God works, you know?
- 9:20Oh, totally. OK.
- 9:22So I know, like if I'm studying a certain topic or a character
- 9:27in the Bible for a message, I usually find something that I
- 9:31haven't seen before. What were the some of those
- 9:34surprises that you found in the story of Rahab?
- 9:38Oh, wow. Well, so one of them I just
- 9:40touched on how, you know, you know, the fact that the
- 9:42Israelites on the edge of the Promised Land.
- 9:45I mean, if you think about this, the Israelites at this point,
- 9:48you know the the Exodus has taken place, the 400 years that
- 9:51you know they had to, you know, in slavery, all of these events
- 9:55have taken place. So for generations, God's people
- 9:58have been dreaming about entering the promised land.
- 10:02And as soon as we get to the edge again, where this this
- 10:05story of Rahab comes up almost like, it almost seems to like
- 10:10appear like an interruption, because quite honestly, it could
- 10:13have just said. The spies went in, found out,
- 10:17you know there was a a prostitute who you know, told
- 10:21him that the town, the the whole city was in fear of God, you
- 10:24know, and that would be the end of it.
- 10:26But but God makes sure that that she say, God makes sure that the
- 10:30the two spies find her house. God is in this from every step
- 10:34of the way. And So what looks to be like an
- 10:37interruption. Of the conquest for the Promised
- 10:40Land is actually a story of God's intervention.
- 10:46He is, He is. He is taking active steps to
- 10:49ensure that this woman and her family, all those who would who
- 10:52would embrace her faith, would be saved.
- 10:57And so that's really incredible. The other thing that God showed
- 11:00me as I was studying her story were these striking parallels
- 11:06between the events surrounding Rahab's story in the book of
- 11:09Joshua and then the events depicted in the Book of
- 11:12Revelation. Which you know that most might
- 11:15remember. That in the Book of Revelation
- 11:17we have this, the most vile prostitute of all, the kind of
- 11:20the depiction of the evil at its.
- 11:22At its extreme. And so you have this, this
- 11:25contrast going on and very, very clear parallels between these
- 11:29two books that are that are that just make studying God's words
- 11:33so fascinating. That's so cool.
- 11:36I love that. And take us to the ending of
- 11:40Rahab. How does it end?
- 11:42Like she's she saves, she saves the hides, the spies and and
- 11:47then then what? So the two spies are sent from
- 11:51Joshua into Jericho, and they find themselves in Rahab's house
- 11:54with his, which is absolutely God's doing.
- 11:56She protects the spies. And what's so curious is the the
- 12:00king of Jericho obviously was watching her or watching the
- 12:05house or some. You know, he knew that these
- 12:07spies had come. And so he sends messengers to
- 12:10come and basically demand that Rahab tell them where these
- 12:15spies are. And meanwhile they're literally
- 12:18hiding up on her roof. And so she is basically she has
- 12:23to choose you know who which side am I on?
- 12:26I mean I the the whole the way that she's so she doesn't waver
- 12:32in how she responds which I'll explain and you know give a
- 12:35response response in a moment tells us that her decision her
- 12:38her commitment to follow God had already been.
- 12:41Been working in her heart. It didn't just happen at this
- 12:44moment. And so she basically lies to the
- 12:48King's messengers, which is in effect lying to the king, which
- 12:52is Retrison. You know, I mean, this is she's,
- 12:54she's going against her own people and she's basically
- 12:57putting her life on the line because if they decided to barge
- 13:02in and look for these guys and find them, I mean, she'd be
- 13:04dead. And so this is, this is
- 13:07incredible. And so she protects the spies.
- 13:10And then what's really cool is when she sends the spies away.
- 13:17You know, out through her window, she tells the messengers
- 13:23to, you know, to go ahead and go and chase after them because
- 13:28they they just left. And if you don't hurry up, you
- 13:31know you're going to find them. And so she lies to them and
- 13:34says, you know. But but she's very clever about
- 13:37it. She doesn't give them an
- 13:39opportunity to kind of second guess her words or start to
- 13:42doubt and you know because she's like hey you know if you hurry
- 13:45up you can catch them and she kind of strokes their ego a
- 13:48little bit. I mean this woman was smart she
- 13:50kind of had St. smarts right. She knew how to deal with men
- 13:55and and it really shows in in her her conversation and so the
- 14:00guys the the spy excuse me the the King's messengers take off
- 14:04to look for these spies that. Are actually still up on her
- 14:07roof. I wanted to just go back to that
- 14:10faith part, how she already was prepared with what she was
- 14:17believing. Already she's believing in in
- 14:20God rather than not believing. It is.
- 14:24It is. Yes, you are.
- 14:26And that's such a key point of this story.
- 14:28So after the King's messengers leave, you know, she sends him
- 14:33on a wild goose chase. She goes up to the roof where
- 14:36the spies are hidden and basically makes this profound,
- 14:41you know, confession of faith that actually mirrors the words
- 14:46of Moses himself. That actually occurs only a few
- 14:49times in the Bible. And so the fact that the words
- 14:52come out of the mouth of a Canaanite prostitute is another
- 14:55hint at the theological significance of her whole story.
- 14:59But she basically comes to the men and says to them, you know.
- 15:03I know that your God has given you the land.
- 15:06He is the God in the heavens and and of the earth.
- 15:10The whole city is melting in fear.
- 15:13So she makes these profound statements about God giving them
- 15:16the land. Now remember the context here is
- 15:20the Israelites you know for the the the majority of them like
- 15:23you know it's not everyone obviously wouldn't have been
- 15:25Joshua. These two spies were faithful,
- 15:27but there was a big group of the camp that returning to Moab's
- 15:32gods. And here is this prostitute
- 15:34saying, I know God has given you the lamp, you know, and he is
- 15:39the God in heaven and he is the God of heaven and earth.
- 15:42And so it's very significant that she would use these
- 15:46specifically, the specific statements that are mirrors of
- 15:49what Moses had told the people just just prior to him, you
- 15:55know, passing And then the leadership passes on to Joshua.
- 15:58Wow, that's beautiful. That's a fresh revelation.
- 16:01I'm never paralleled that with what Moses said and I just love
- 16:06that that she had just the knowing that she knew that these
- 16:10people were from the Lord. And I know people say that your
- 16:15studies are very scholarly. I love scholarly so.
- 16:21Yay. You're my kind of people.
- 16:23I like feeling like I'm taking a Bible study from a Bible
- 16:27college. I just, I I like that professor
- 16:30type of feel. And so do you have the same type
- 16:36of style in the study of rehab? I.
- 16:39Do so all of my studies are are structured in in a similar
- 16:43fashion. What I do is I enjoy.
- 16:47So you know, when I was in seminary, I loved learning about
- 16:52how God's word is all interconnected.
- 16:55I loved realizing you know, how how the structure of the text
- 17:00can reveal even more insights about what the text is is
- 17:04saying. You know, doing some looking at
- 17:07the original languages and gaining even deeper insight that
- 17:10you just can't. You know, you can't always see
- 17:12in the translations, you know, And so just all of those things
- 17:15make God's word so fascinating. And so I want to write my
- 17:18studies in a way where the reader can can gain the I don't
- 17:22just tell them the things, I want the reader to enjoy the
- 17:26journey that I have. So I serve as a guide and I
- 17:29guide the reader like look at this, you know, do some of these
- 17:32structure exercises and it's not hard work, but if.
- 17:38You know, it's engaging. It's engaging.
- 17:40Thank you. And that's what I I want my
- 17:42readers to enjoy the discovery journey themselves rather than
- 17:47just being spoon fed. And then I also share a lot of
- 17:51my personal stories in there. So, you know, I'm so listeners,
- 17:55you know, don't get the idea that it's like an academic study
- 17:59for only teachers and scholars. Absolutely not.
- 18:01If you know, you can read other people's reviews and and and so
- 18:04forth to see that that's not the case.
- 18:06But for those readers who do long for a deeper understanding
- 18:12of God's word, a deeper reminders of who God is, then
- 18:17you will you would enjoy these these studies.
- 18:20And at the same time, I also want to be sensitive to the fact
- 18:24that let's say you're doing the study in a group, and there
- 18:27might be some people in the group who they simply don't have
- 18:30as much time, you know, to do the homework as someone else.
- 18:33So every single one of my studies.
- 18:36Actually has four levels to choose from.
- 18:39So you all buy the same book and you can choose your own journey,
- 18:44you know and and there's video teaching videos available.
- 18:47So sometimes I recommend like if it's a six week study, I
- 18:50recommend take 12 weeks, you know and then give everyone the
- 18:53opportunity and we. Here's what I hear again and
- 18:55again and again from readers. I've had many come say to me,
- 18:58you know what I started out with with Journey Level One and I
- 19:01couldn't help myself. I wanted it all.
- 19:04Yeah, so this is that God's word, Yes.
- 19:08Yes, we are hungry. Yeah.
- 19:11Oh, and I love diving into Hebrew and Greek words.
- 19:15And it just paints a huge picture and it just makes it
- 19:20more, you know, vivid and things that you wouldn't know otherwise
- 19:26if you didn't look into the meaning of those words.
- 19:30And then it sends you off to another area.
- 19:34I mean, you can go down so many, you know, rabbit holes.
- 19:38And I just love how the Bible is alive and active.
- 19:42Like you just cannot get bored with it.
- 19:45I mean there is just layers and layers and layers with it.
- 19:49Yeah, it's it's so powerful. It is, yeah.
- 19:52God's word is amazing and amazing and and to do these
- 19:55studies all you need is, is the book in your Bible.
- 19:57You don't. And the Holy Spirit is
- 19:59ultimately the one that's going to be guiding you through it.
- 20:02That's right. I've done the hard work for you.
- 20:04But I do write it in a way for you to really enjoy the journey
- 20:08of discovery. I love it, OK?
- 20:11I think whenever somebody's either writing a non fiction
- 20:14book or a Bible study like yourself, they have some kind of
- 20:20impact in their personal faith walk while they're doing the
- 20:24research and the writing. What impact or did you have an
- 20:29impact in your faith walk as you were doing Rahab?
- 20:34You know, it's interesting. One of the primary themes in the
- 20:38Bible study is faith. And so as I was writing the
- 20:42Bible study, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised
- 20:45that God was going to gently challenge my personal faith as I
- 20:52Yeah, exactly. You know, I mean, I've never
- 20:55every one of my studies. God is teaching me something
- 20:58personally. You know, I write from personal
- 21:00experience. It's not just academic.
- 21:02I, you know, God works through some wounds and scars of my
- 21:06past. And and and weaves those into
- 21:10the studies. And so for this particular
- 21:13study, God did He actually. Apparently one wasn't enough.
- 21:18He gave me two big tests of faith.
- 21:22One of them happened when I was about about 2/3 of the way
- 21:27finished with writing the study. Each study takes me about a year
- 21:30and a half to write, so I was about 2/3 of the way done.
- 21:34And I suddenly, the owners of the rental home that I had been
- 21:39living in for 11 years, like overnight, wanted to sell.
- 21:43And you know, I had very little notice and I had and I was, I
- 21:47had been there 11 years. And you know, they never raised
- 21:50the rent. And in order to do ministry, you
- 21:52have those balances of finances and so forth.
- 21:54And you know, and it's just like, Oh my gosh.
- 21:57You know, what am I going to do? Where am I going to go?
- 21:58How am I going to afford it? You know?
- 22:00And so I'm just kind of working through all this.
- 22:03And God really pushed it, You know, he waited until I had 12
- 22:09days left and I still didn't know where I was moving to.
- 22:13Now, it's not like I would have been homeless.
- 22:15I had 100 people in the church. You know, it's not that.
- 22:17It's not that. But, you know, you're running.
- 22:19You're running a small business, you know, out of your out of
- 22:22your home. And so you you can't just go and
- 22:24do that in somebody's bedroom, you know?
- 22:26Yeah, yeah. Anyway, but God waited till
- 22:29there was just 12 days. And at that point I was really
- 22:32hanging on to the last thread of my faith.
- 22:33I mean, seriously, I was crying out to God.
- 22:35I was on my knees, you know, week after week.
- 22:38And and then I'm like, OK, like, Lord, we're, we don't even have
- 22:42two weeks left. And at this point you have to
- 22:44start packing. You don't know where you're
- 22:45going and you're, you know, giving away your stuff and
- 22:48trying to sell your stuff because you don't know where
- 22:50you're going to go and right. And then God just opened up the
- 22:53door to the most lovely, lovely little cottage that I'm renting
- 22:59right now, and the owner is a believer.
- 23:04Not answered, very specific prayers that my friends had
- 23:09said. You're just asking too much.
- 23:10You're just ask 'cause I live in a very high, high, high housing.
- 23:16Cost area in Northern California, it's like I think
- 23:19it's like #1 or #2 in the country.
- 23:21It's how I think it's #2 after like New York City.
- 23:23It's just insane. And so for renters it's a it's a
- 23:27huge huge challenge but and so my friends were like you're
- 23:32asking too much. Just just wanting a second
- 23:34bedroom for an office is too much around here.
- 23:36You know it And they were right. But God made it happen.
- 23:40You know, and and for some who might be listening like, wow,
- 23:42that's like that doesn't sound like.
- 23:44You should be so stressed about it, you know.
- 23:47But you know when your your home is a is a big deal.
- 23:51You know and you know and and and needing a place where I can
- 23:56live that's quiet is huge as a writer huge.
- 24:00And you know I'm in the middle of a big huge city.
- 24:02So that's that's hard too. But God provided all of that.
- 24:05And then the second one was even more difficult.
- 24:09This other test of faith happened just a few.
- 24:11Just what was it, five months later?
- 24:15Now at this point, I'm literally just weeks away from my book
- 24:18deadline, which is, which is a big deal.
- 24:20You're under a lot of pressure. You're under contract.
- 24:23You know, it's not that my publisher, who are obviously
- 24:26also Christians, wouldn't have some grace, but there are some
- 24:30things in the schedule that can't get, can't be moved, you
- 24:32know what I mean? There's there's always a little
- 24:34wiggle room, but not a whole lot.
- 24:36So here I am weeks away, and I get a phone call from my brother
- 24:40in New York. I live in California and my mom
- 24:42was in the hospital. And by the next day, like less
- 24:46than 24 hours later, she's on life support.
- 24:49And so I'm like, what, You know. And so within hours, I'm jumping
- 24:53on an airplane. I'm, I'm praying I have ever on
- 24:55my prayer group in my, you know, church and everybody praying
- 24:59that I would get there in time to say goodbye and also to share
- 25:04the gospel one last time because I think I shared earlier.
- 25:07I got saved when I was. 30 Not with with no church back.
- 25:11No one in my family knows the Lord.
- 25:14And so of course I've been witnessing to them all these
- 25:16years but never really knew where my mom stood.
- 25:20And in those last hours I came and I just, you know, she was
- 25:23sedated, but I just shared with her, you know, she had already
- 25:26heard the gospel. I was just praying run to Jesus
- 25:29and telling her run to Jesus. And she passed away the next
- 25:32morning like 12 hours later. And then I found a journal two
- 25:37days later where she had wrote. A prayer thanking God that I had
- 25:41told her about Jesus and followed that with a prayer of
- 25:45salvation. Oh my gosh.
- 25:48And it was trying not to cry. Yeah, it was.
- 25:50It was, it was. Oh my goodness.
- 25:54Praise. God, such a gift for God to give
- 25:57me this, you know she she had thanked God that I told her
- 26:02about Jesus, which is already just like, oh God, thank you
- 26:05because. You know it's it's like that
- 26:07prayer again. He who goes out weeping carried
- 26:09seed to sow and and I will and I would just add in my own from my
- 26:13own heart, like, you know, not knowing if anyone's going to
- 26:15listen, not knowing if anyone cares, you know.
- 26:18And I had for 25 years been telling my family about the Lord
- 26:22and God and his mercy and grace allowed me to find that journal
- 26:25which was kind of buried, you know, in a, you know, a
- 26:29bookshelf in another room and it reminded me of Rahab's story.
- 26:35Rahab. Convinced her family to take
- 26:38refuge. And God and God in his mercy
- 26:41allowed me to see that my witness and my prayers for my
- 26:44family were making a difference. Yeah.
- 26:48So yeah, thank you. It was What a beautiful.
- 26:52Journey I know I got to dry out right now.
- 26:57Oh, oh. It just shows like what we do
- 27:01matters even when we cannot see it.
- 27:04Like God is working and those seeds are are being sown and
- 27:10what a gift for you to be able to find that out through her.
- 27:14Her writing that she's in the arms of Jesus.
- 27:18So, so great. Amazing.
- 27:21Yeah, that's so wow. OK.
- 27:23So I would love for you to share a take away.
- 27:28That's that's something listeners can ponder on or take
- 27:31action in some encouragement that they can hold on to after
- 27:37they're done here. Oh wow.
- 27:39Well, you know, one of the things that I just kind of see
- 27:42more and more among, you know, in the churches and among
- 27:45believers is that especially in our culture, it's very
- 27:48fast-paced, instant results oriented.
- 27:51You know, many of us are living kind of frenzied lifestyle,
- 27:54doing a lot of things. And we've, you know, many
- 27:57Christians have come to lean on like a Bible verse or even just,
- 28:01you know, you know, a word you know as spiritual nourishment.
- 28:05But the Bible, you know, Except maybe Proverbs.
- 28:08The Bible was not written to be understood in verses and This is
- 28:13why I think so many Christians are feeling empty longing for a
- 28:16deeper intimacy with God, engagement with his word.
- 28:19But they don't know where to begin.
- 28:21And so you know, I think, like you know, Rahab's story is a
- 28:23great place to step back into God's story and just rediscover
- 28:27how all of the Bibles interconnected.
- 28:30Her story foreshadows event she never could have imagined.
- 28:35You know and and it's just, you know.
- 28:37Rahab's story and and the parallels between kind of the
- 28:42first battle for the promised land, the final battle at
- 28:44Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, all these contrasts
- 28:47and so forth teach us so much about what God is doing.
- 28:51You know, the entire Bible is a picture of God's passionate
- 28:55pursuit of his bride, his adulterous bride.
- 28:59That's how his people are described throughout the Old
- 29:01Testament. That's who we are, apart from
- 29:04Christ and all of the Bible. Is a reminder and a bigger big
- 29:08picture of God's passionate pursuit from Genesis all the way
- 29:12to Revelation. God is orchestrating his plan of
- 29:15salvation to bring his beloved bride home.
- 29:19And you know, Rahab's story reminds us that no matter who we
- 29:22are, what we've done, God is willing and ready to embrace us
- 29:26if we would just turn to Him and be saved.
- 29:28Her Story is truly our story. I love it.
- 29:33Well, thank you Shadia for coming on here.
- 29:36And I would love for you to share where people can connect
- 29:40with you. And we have a special giveaway
- 29:44link that will be posted on the bottom of the show notes for
- 29:49just podcast listeners. So will you share that with us?
- 29:54I will. So the the giveaway link, I'm
- 29:57going to let you put that in the podcast because it's a specific
- 30:00link. But just generally for anyone
- 30:02listening at any time of the podcast you can go to
- 30:04rahabbiblestudy.com all one word and find out more about the
- 30:09study and you know get some a whole bunch of freebies and so
- 30:12forth. And so I would love to connect
- 30:15with you there. And then the giveaway is
- 30:19available for those listening to this podcast.
- 30:21Within the next, you know there's a you know while this
- 30:25podcast is being published, and for about 30 days or so
- 30:28thereafter you can sign up to get when a free copy of the
- 30:32study will be given away. 7 copies, one a week for seven
- 30:35weeks. So I hope you get on there and
- 30:37sign up, but if not, get on to Rahab biblestudy.com and we'll
- 30:40send you all kinds of cool stuff anyway.
- 30:43So awesome. Well, I'm looking forward to
- 30:46doing the study. I know from time to time I'll
- 30:49start one up. I'll host one in my home or at
- 30:52my church. So I love it.
- 30:55There's nothing else out there like it.
- 30:57So this is so unique and interesting, and so thank you
- 31:02for coming on here and sharing your wisdom and encouragement
- 31:06with us. Oh, it was my joy.
- 31:07Thank you for having me on here. It was a great conversation.
- 31:11Thank you so much for listening today, and I trust that God has
- 31:15encouraged you through this story.
- 31:17Did you know this podcast is on YouTube?
- 31:20Hop on there and subscribe and you can see a live recording of
- 31:24each episode. And For more information on this
- 31:28ministry and to access free downloads, please visit my
- 31:32website at jamieelizabeth.com. That's JAYME elizabeth.com.
- 31:39And let's connect beyond this podcast by going to my Instagram
- 31:42handle Jamie, Elizabeth, She Speaks Life or Facebook.
- 31:46Until next time, my friend. I hope God reveals himself
- 31:49through your own life story.