Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / What Joseph's Story Taught a Mother and Daughter About God's Unchanging Purpose

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What Joseph's Story Taught a Mother and Daughter About God's Unchanging Purpose · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life audio and in Rachel Ruth thanks for joining me.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Michael, We're so bud of the review. You're welcome.
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  Speaker 2: And Graham Watts and daughter Rachel Ruth Wright, co authors
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  Speaker 2: of the new book God Won't Leave You There, Joseph's Story.
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  Speaker 2: W Publishing Group and Thomas Nelson are the publishers this group.
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  Speaker 1: This book, I should say, was formed.
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  Speaker 2: Out of personal battles for both of you guys. I
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  Speaker 2: think many people that follow those battles. It's about lessons
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  Speaker 2: you guys learned during those trials. What first stirred your
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  Speaker 2: hearts to write this book together? And why did Joseph's
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  Speaker 2: story feel like the right story to kind of parallel
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  Speaker 2: your stories with?
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  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 4: Rich Truth think that, well, because I was teaching. I
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  Speaker 4: teach an online Bible study, and I was teaching the
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  Speaker 4: Book of Genesis and got halfway through and ended up
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  Speaker 4: out of the blue having two rare heart attacks called
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  Speaker 4: SCADS spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Anyhow, the inside of my
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  Speaker 4: ARTERI ishredded, and I should have died. God supernaturally like
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  Speaker 4: kept me alive. But anyhow it was and it was
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  Speaker 4: a lot of suffering after that for three years of
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  Speaker 4: just in and out of the er, and lots of
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  Speaker 4: pain because it could happen again. But in the middle
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  Speaker 4: of all that, I went and started teaching my Bible
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  Speaker 4: study again, you know. I was like, Lord, I'm just
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  Speaker 4: gonna get back in it and teach and got to
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  Speaker 4: the story of Joseph, you know, which I knew the story,
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  Speaker 4: but then studying it, it just came alive to me,
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  Speaker 4: and it meant so much because Mom and I had
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  Speaker 4: been through so many things. I mean, it's just one
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  Speaker 4: of the things, but we've been through a lot of suffering.
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  Speaker 4: And so when I told Mom, I was like, Mom,
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  Speaker 4: we have to do a book on Joseph, and I
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  Speaker 4: just feel like it's such a burning inside to do it.
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  Speaker 4: And she agreed, and she wanted to tell you how
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  Speaker 4: her dad had been, you know, wanting her to write
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  Speaker 4: a book on Joseph. But that's kind of where it started,
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  Speaker 4: and it comes out of I think that the timing
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  Speaker 4: of it. We had to go through a lot of
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  Speaker 4: suffering to be able to even write a book on Joseph,
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  Speaker 4: and not that we can compare herselves to him at all,
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  Speaker 4: but but we understand what suffering is and have been
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  Speaker 4: through a lot, and I think that's why it just
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  Speaker 4: kind of comes out of our I guess our praise
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  Speaker 4: of the Lord for pulling us through hard things.
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  Speaker 1: Amen to that Andy, everything that about.
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  Speaker 3: I've just referred to what she spoke about. So I've
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  Speaker 3: written I think twenty two books on my own, and
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  Speaker 3: then we've written three together or anyway somewhere in there.
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  Speaker 3: And every time I wrote a book, my father and
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  Speaker 3: my husband were the first ones to read it. And
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  Speaker 3: after my father read one of my books and commented
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  Speaker 3: on it invariably, he said, and the next one you
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  Speaker 3: need to write is on Joseph. And I never felt
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  Speaker 3: I taught Joseph, and I knew about it, but I
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  Speaker 3: never felt the freedom to do it. And I believe
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  Speaker 3: God withheld it from me because he wanted me to
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  Speaker 3: do it with Rachel Ruth, and she's done an amazing job.
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  Speaker 3: We let her put this in first person because it
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  Speaker 3: just worked. It was a collaborative effort, so I don't
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  Speaker 3: mean how I wasn't involved, but she put it in
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  Speaker 3: the first person, and she found things she read between
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  Speaker 3: the lines, and so she has very vivid imaggeration, but
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  Speaker 3: it's it's based on truth. As she went scripture verse
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  Speaker 3: by verse and and it's it's amazing how the story
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  Speaker 3: you feel it, you smell it, you send you know,
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  Speaker 3: see it. You It's like you enter into Joseph's story.
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  Speaker 3: So it's been a blessing to both of us to
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  Speaker 3: revisit his life and to apply it to ours, and
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  Speaker 3: God willing to help other people apply it to theirs too.
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  Speaker 5: For those who don't know your stories, I don't want
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  Speaker 5: to just heelp briefly tell people about that. Of course, Rachel,
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  Speaker 5: with you, you already mentioned that your your your hearts,
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  Speaker 5: your heart issues that that you had, uh, and of
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  Speaker 5: course you had.
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  Speaker 1: Cancer diagnosis and other issues as well.
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  Speaker 2: And and your family has has faced some other personal
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  Speaker 2: battles in the past few years that we've all read about.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me how have you guys personally experienced God's God's
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  Speaker 2: peace during these dark times? Because it's easy to want
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  Speaker 2: to just give up, Hollie, how have you guys persevered well.
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  Speaker 3: The things out I'll take that if it's okay. One
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  Speaker 3: of the things that Joseph went through when he was
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  Speaker 3: seventeen years of age and he was living in Jacob's
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  Speaker 3: house and or his tent, and God gave him two dreams.
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  Speaker 3: And in those days he didn't have the written scripture,
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  Speaker 3: they didn't have even the Penatuke. He was before all that,
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  Speaker 3: and so God spoke to them through dreams and visions,
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  Speaker 3: and he gave Joseph two dreams that were different, but
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  Speaker 3: they said the same thing, that he would be a
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  Speaker 3: leader and even a leader over his family. And so
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  Speaker 3: that was God's word to Joseph, and I believe he
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  Speaker 3: clung to that. When he was sold in as slavery,
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  Speaker 3: he went into part of his house. He became a
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  Speaker 3: leader as a slave, and part of his house. When
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  Speaker 3: he was thrown into prison, he became a leader in
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  Speaker 3: the prison. When he was elevated to second in command
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  Speaker 3: of Egypt, he became a leader in Egypt. He was
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  Speaker 3: second in command under Pharaoh. And so I believe he
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  Speaker 3: drove his faith down into God's word. And for me,
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  Speaker 3: the difficult things I've been through and ray truth can
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  Speaker 3: give him testimony. God has given us promises, He's given
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  Speaker 3: us his word on which to base our faith. So
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  Speaker 3: when you're going through something really awful, you want to
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  Speaker 3: get out of it. You want to be relieved, you
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  Speaker 3: want to be healed. You don't want to hurt anymore
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  Speaker 3: or grieve anymore, and that's very normal. But we don't
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  Speaker 3: live by our feelings, you know. We have to live
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  Speaker 3: by our faith. And we put our faith in God's word.
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  Speaker 3: And God has promised us saw in twenty three that
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  Speaker 3: when you walk through the valley of the Shawder, he'll
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  Speaker 3: be with you. And Asaiah forty says, when you walk
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  Speaker 3: through the water, so he'll be with you. And Gibrius
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  Speaker 3: tells us that he will never leave us or forsakah.
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  Speaker 3: So the first group of chapters in the book is
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  Speaker 3: the fact that God was with Joseph and then he
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  Speaker 3: was guiding Joseph, and he did bring Joseph through and
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  Speaker 3: rach Truth would have that same testimony. Yeah, I do.
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  Speaker 4: I think going through so many hard things, I clung
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  Speaker 4: to God's word and I couldn't have made it through
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  Speaker 4: it without it. And I think I was so overcolm
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  Speaker 4: with I actually had PTSD like a nine out of
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  Speaker 4: a ten BTSD from these because it could happen again.
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  Speaker 3: It was super painful.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, Morphie didn't even touch it.
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  Speaker 3: It was so bad.
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  Speaker 4: And and and so just after the couple weeks after
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  Speaker 4: having them, God gave me a promise, and the promise
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  Speaker 4: was you will not go that way again. And I
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  Speaker 4: knew God was telling me You're not gonna have another
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  Speaker 4: scared heart attack. But then I had to trust him.
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  Speaker 4: And so for the years that followed, just clinging to
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  Speaker 4: God's word and realizing, you know, just bit by bit
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  Speaker 4: He's trustforth that I can't. I mean, I knew he was,
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  Speaker 4: but he took me on a deep level and I
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  Speaker 4: was able to see him comfort me and encourage me.
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  Speaker 4: And it's always at night when it's worse, you know,
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  Speaker 4: when the pain's were said, You're just gonna be out
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  Speaker 4: of this. And I would really go to the songs
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  Speaker 4: so often, and God would speak to me over and
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  Speaker 4: over and over again, even to the point that one
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  Speaker 4: night I thought I needed to go to the hospital
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  Speaker 4: and and and the Lord I felt to me spoke
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  Speaker 4: clearly that I was gonna be okay, and so I
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  Speaker 4: was like, all right, I'm just gonna trust you. And
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  Speaker 4: the next morning I was fine. And and so not
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  Speaker 4: that you don't go to the hospital but when you
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  Speaker 4: need to. But but God just walked me through a
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  Speaker 4: really dark time and He is my everything. And God's
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  Speaker 4: word is what I clung to because it's him talking
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  Speaker 4: to me, and I could hear his voice and claim
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  Speaker 4: his promises. And that's what gave me peace, even though
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  Speaker 4: it was really really difficult, and but he did bring
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  Speaker 4: me through what I'm doing good now.
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  Speaker 1: So how do you stay at beat during those times?
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  Speaker 3: Though?
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  Speaker 2: There have to be moments for each of you where
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  Speaker 2: you just wake up and you don't want to you
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  Speaker 2: don't want to deal with that.
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  Speaker 1: You just kind of want to give up.
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  Speaker 2: And how do you respond to someone who's wondering, who's
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  Speaker 2: going through pain right now it might be facing a
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  Speaker 2: cancer diagnosis, how do they go on.
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  Speaker 3: The grief, the pain, the wanting to get out of it,
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  Speaker 3: that is just so normal, that's just you can't avoid that.
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  Speaker 3: And so one of the things I went through when
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  Speaker 3: I've been married for forty nine years and my husband
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  Speaker 3: and responsive on our pool and got him on life support,
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  Speaker 3: and then three days later we released him to go
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  Speaker 3: to glory. And you know, I would be less than
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  Speaker 3: honest if I didn't tell you that I grieved. I
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  Speaker 3: still grieve for my husband and I loved him and
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  Speaker 3: I miss him and think of all the things that
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  Speaker 3: today we could be doing together, you know, just but
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  Speaker 3: you can't stay there. And I think the difference is
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  Speaker 3: in their focus. So when I went through breast cancer
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  Speaker 3: and the chemo and the you know, radiation, all that
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  Speaker 3: follows you, you put my focus on Jesus, and I
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  Speaker 3: know that God is in the details. God my life
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  Speaker 3: belongs to Him. So everything in my life works together
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  Speaker 3: for my good, which is the old waction. Good for
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  Speaker 3: my life is to be like Jesus, to conform into
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  Speaker 3: the image of Christ, and for God to glory. And
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  Speaker 3: that's Roman'sday twenty eight and so so I just have
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  Speaker 3: to stay focused on You and except wherever comes in
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  Speaker 3: my life is coming from His hand, not from the
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  Speaker 3: enemy or not from somebody else's And asking God, what
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  Speaker 3: do you want me to learn from this? What do
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  Speaker 3: you want me to get out of this? You know what?
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  Speaker 3: Don't want to miss the blessings. And one of the
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  Speaker 3: things that helps me, or helped me stay upbeat and
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  Speaker 3: still does actually is to look for the blessings along
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  Speaker 3: the way. And I think we can get so focused
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  Speaker 3: on the pain and the grief and the disruption and
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  Speaker 3: all the doctor's appointments and the treatments and the needles
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  Speaker 3: and the things I can't stand. You know, but if
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  Speaker 3: you can just look at the blessings. And Rachel, Ruth
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  Speaker 3: and my other daugh Mar went with me to every
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  Speaker 3: chemo treatment and and I told one was ober almost
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  Speaker 3: was said, because those treatments became like mission trips, and
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  Speaker 3: we had opportunity to pray with people in the chemo
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  Speaker 3: lounge or nurses or doctors, And so you can share
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  Speaker 3: the Gospel where you go and to see the blessing
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  Speaker 3: of God in those difficult places. So I think one
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  Speaker 3: of the keys is just getting your eyes off yourself,
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  Speaker 3: off your pain, off your circumstances, lifting them up, looking
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  Speaker 3: to Jesus and asking how he wants you to handle this.
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  Speaker 3: And and I feel like Joseph did. We're not told
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  Speaker 3: that Joseph that God spoke to Joseph, but again and
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  Speaker 3: again it said God was with him, God gave him favor.
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  Speaker 3: And I think Joseph was aware of that that he
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  Speaker 3: was blessed everywhere he went, where there was Potiphar or
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  Speaker 3: the prisoner ward and then with Pharaoh and ultimately reconciliation
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  Speaker 3: with his family. So to stay focused on the blessings,
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  Speaker 3: count your blessings and doesn't mean that you don't breathe
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  Speaker 3: and weep and have to go to the doctors and
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  Speaker 3: dread those needles.
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  Speaker 1: But they're blessings there, Rachel Ruth, do you anything to
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  Speaker 1: add to that?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I do.
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  Speaker 4: I think the thing that was just awesome studying Joseph's
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  Speaker 4: life is that every single thing had a purpose in
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  Speaker 4: his life. It was there was all a reason for it.
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  Speaker 4: He had to get God had to get into Egypt,
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  Speaker 4: so unfortunately had to give you know, thrown a pit
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  Speaker 4: and sold in his slavery. But but God had a
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  Speaker 4: reason for that. And then in Potiphar's house, God was
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  Speaker 4: teaching as he could have been like I'm in, I'm
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  Speaker 4: the slave. I don't want this, I want to be home.
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  Speaker 4: You know, this is not I had for my life.
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  Speaker 4: But instead he went to work and God taught him
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  Speaker 4: through the Egyptian language, taught him how to run a home,
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  Speaker 4: taught him how to run fields and no finances and
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  Speaker 4: everything he was teaching him in the middle of suffering.
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  Speaker 4: He could have just been wallowing in his pain and
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  Speaker 4: suffering and just given up, but instead he learned what
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  Speaker 4: he could out of the suffering. And then he gets
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  Speaker 4: thrown into prison, and then that's where he learns Pharaoh's court,
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  Speaker 4: you know. And so God had a reason for every
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  Speaker 4: single thing, but it was his attitude in it, and
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  Speaker 4: he chose to trust God in and just you know,
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  Speaker 4: handle the situation in a godly way. And I think
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  Speaker 4: the thing that we have to remember in our suffering,
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  Speaker 4: God doesn't just toss him out like like just a whim.
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  Speaker 4: Let's give her this, Let's give him that, like every
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  Speaker 4: single thing that happens in our life is for a reason.
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  Speaker 4: And so those those three especially the three years after
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  Speaker 4: the heart attacks, when it was so hard and I
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  Speaker 4: cried so much and I was in so much pain,
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  Speaker 4: and doctors were like, I don't know what to tell,
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  Speaker 4: you know, and it was so difficult. But this struggle
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  Speaker 4: is part of God's plan because I had to struggle
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  Speaker 4: to learn that He's trustworthy. And if I was in
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  Speaker 4: a struggle, I'd be like, you can tell me it's trustworthy,
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  Speaker 4: but okay, you know, but now I've learned to my
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  Speaker 4: core that he is trustworthy. And so don't despise this struggle.
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  Speaker 4: I think, just embrace what guy's trying to teach you.
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  Speaker 2: In the middle of it, Amena, that this is a
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  Speaker 2: mother daughter collaboration.
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  Speaker 1: You guys referenced that earlier. What was it like writing
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  Speaker 1: this together?
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  Speaker 3: Maybe?
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  Speaker 1: What did you learn about one another while doing this?
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  Speaker 3: I learned that race Ruth is a great writer, a
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  Speaker 3: great imagination, and she knows how to weave a story
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  Speaker 3: so that you just feel like you're in it, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And so I helped to polish it, added some you know, illustrations,
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  Speaker 3: and deleted someone and you know, did is like almost
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  Speaker 3: like a m me duty content editor as well as
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  Speaker 3: the front piece is Then at the end of each
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  Speaker 3: chapter we added something. And because both of us could
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  Speaker 3: see Jesus in Joseph's life, and so we call it
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  Speaker 3: Jesus in the Shadows, And so at the end of
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  Speaker 3: each chapter there's just a paragraph about the characteristics in
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  Speaker 3: Jesus that we see in Joseph in that in that
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  Speaker 3: particular chapter. And so, you know, we collaborate on it
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  Speaker 3: all and I just feel like it was it was
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  Speaker 3: a blessing. And because both of us love God's word,
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  Speaker 3: we love the story of Joseph, we believe that this
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  Speaker 3: is a message that's very timely because everybody we know, Michael,
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  Speaker 3: almost without exception, is suffering in some way that if
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  Speaker 3: they are not suffering they're going to suffer or they
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  Speaker 3: have suffered. Is just life is hard, and I think
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  Speaker 3: things that they are accelerated just at an enormous pace
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  Speaker 3: because I believe we're coming up to the end of
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  Speaker 3: human history. But it's it's really a difficult time. And
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  Speaker 3: I think this message of Joseph's life that God won't
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  Speaker 3: leave you, that even if you're suffering last an entire lifetime,
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  Speaker 3: when you step into eternity, if you're a child of God,
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  Speaker 3: is going to be all over and He's going to
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  Speaker 3: bring you through to a place He's prepared for you.
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  Speaker 3: So the message I believe is for such a time as.
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  Speaker 2: This, Rachel, with our time is winding down, Do you
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  Speaker 2: have anything to add to what your mother said?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I just I mean I love working with
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  Speaker 4: her and we the way that God planned it.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like I'm the least likely in
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  Speaker 3: the family to a bit.
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  Speaker 4: In ministry, but God picks the weak things. And then
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  Speaker 4: I think Mom and I's personalities go. We're different but
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  Speaker 4: similar in our deep love for the Lord and our giftings.
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  Speaker 4: And so God's really used it and it's been such
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  Speaker 4: a blessing. So he uses the my adhd and he
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  Speaker 4: uses Mom's incredible focus and it just brings it together.
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  Speaker 6: You know.
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  Speaker 4: I think it's neat to have both of our insights
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  Speaker 4: in it and makes it very rich. And so it's
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  Speaker 4: been a blessing.
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  Speaker 2: five star review.
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• 14:53
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  Speaker 1: See you next time.