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Discover Your Amazing God with Tamara Woldridge · The Elsa Kurt Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Every conversation tells a story, and the best ones begin with honesty, courage, and a little curiosity.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's where Elsa Kurt comes in.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: She's an author, podcaster, and independent media personality, and this is where she brings real life to the table.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Authors, thinkers, creators, leaders, everyday folks with extraordinary journeys.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: We sit down, we dig in, and we talk about what matters, what's messy, what's beautiful, and what just might inspire you to look at the world a little differently.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: So pour a cup of something good.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Settle back and join me.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is Elsa Kurt Interviews, which is everyone's welcome.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, hello again, friends.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: We are talking today to a returning guest.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: I am so blessed to have her back again.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Her name is Tamara Woldridge, and we are going to be discussing her latest book, Discover Your Amazing God.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: And it's going to be such a great conversation.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: So join in with us.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, welcome back.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's so good to see you again.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, it's so good to be here.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we are going to be talking about Discover Your Amazing God.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I love the, I love the title already.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I will I will have to ask you about the title itself.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: But when someone hears that title, it sounds beautiful, of course, and it sounds hopeful.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but but also big, right?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's such a big concept, of course.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: God is, of course, the biggest concept we could ever try to wrap our brains around.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what prompted you to write this book?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Well, my mother, uh, she's been studying the names of God for many years.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: And um, it was a real passion of hers that people would know who their creator God is, and um that he wants a relationship with every single person he's created.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: And the, you know, our our first book is about knowing who we are and how he sees us, and then the second book is about who is this God?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Who is he and what what is he about?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Why would we we want to have a relationship with him?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's talk for a moment about your lovely mom.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we lost her recently, and uh, I want to, of course, give my condolences.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're so sorry for your loss.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she was, I I was uh, for those of you who have not seen our previous uh conversation, uh, it was with you and your mom.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: And she was just such a light, just such a a God-loving, uh, kind, wonderful woman who, my goodness, she accomplished so much in her life.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: And it was all for the glory of God.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: And uh just what an inspiration she was.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we're we're so glad we had a chance to to spend a little time together.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for that.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: She's had a huge impact on many, many people.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and that impact, you know, and that's the beautiful thing of of what you both have done together, and of course, her throughout her life and uh the work you two have done together with these books and um these uh Bible studies.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, uh it's gotta feel so amazing to know that that legacy is is is a legacy that's gonna keep carrying on uh long after.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: So what a what a beautiful tribute, really, to to her, because it's of course a tribute to God.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's I I suspect it's exactly what she would have wanted.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: How about for you though?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Was there a like a personal season in your life that made you personally realize that people don't actually know who God is in the way that they think that they know?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, probably, you know, my uh yeah, I grew up, my parents were both uh believers and very involved in church.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: My dad was a social worker and uh worked with juvenile delinquent boys, and my mom was right there with us, although she was more involved in raising us.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: But um they went through a rough time um back in the 90s and ended up separating and divorcing.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: And at that point in my life, I my anger had always been them and their belief in God and all of the you know we've learned through the years in church, and and um and I was kind of afloat at that point, and I felt like God gave me a choice.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: I could either go my own way or pursue him, and I I chose him.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm really glad I did.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you know, and sadly, so many people take the long way around and maybe sometimes never even come back around.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: But so many people take the long way around to come back to God and come back to that faith and trust, and um, you know, they try and do it on their own and they learn the hard way that you just can't not successfully.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: You can keep trying if you want, but if you want actual success in that, um, you know, you come back to the father every time and and you won't be disappointed that you did.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: So um what a blessing for you that that you you made that choice without having to go down some dark roads to get there.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: So wow, if we can do that for everyone, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that's kind of right.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, and correct me if I'm wrong, this this is kind of what this book does in some ways for somebody, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody read it.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: It is it it, you know, it it gives you hope because no matter how far down you go, God is still there going, come back, come back.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's okay, I'll accept you.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: I've been for all the sin.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, all you have to do is turn around and come back to me.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know, he's he is a good, he's a good God.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: He sure is.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you know, it it's funny, and I don't mean funny ha ha guys.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean funny, our human nature is that I think, and I hear it so many times over and over again that people say, Well, let me let me get my stuff in order, let me get myself straightened out first, and then I'll come.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, no, come as you are, just come as you are, let him do the work in you, and you will see like he's a big God, he can handle it, like he can handle all of your stuff.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's just uh, I don't know, I feel like that's just like the greatest comfort you could ever know in your life, right?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah, it's okay to be messy, yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's okay, you know, we just have to own our myth and say, hey, I'm messy and I need some help getting cleaned up.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, and so true.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: And part of that is, you know, you you talk about uh dismantling false beliefs, right?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: That are shaped by fear, uh, religion, or you know, uh emotional wounds.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's such an honest phrase to even say that.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: Before we get into the actual teaching, what were some of the misconceptions, misconceptions about God that you personally had to learn, if any?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um I had a a dream one time that I was I've always hated peas.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so I had this dream about God that that he was standing over me with a stick waiting, and I had a bowl of peas, and I had to eat my peas, or he was gonna get me.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and that was that is not who he is.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: That was how I saw it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's not who he is.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: He's not waiting for us to mess up so that he can get us.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: He just wants us to come and and have a personal, intimate relationship with him, yeah, so that we are loved no matter what.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: He loves us, and that's why Jesus came and died.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's such a cute, sweet illustration of that, too, that imagery.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think it's actually like super relatable for people because I I think we get in our heads so many of us, myself included.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: I still catch myself doing it where I'll say, you know, something will go wrong, and I'll I'll say something like, Oh, God got me for that one, you know, oh you know, he showed me.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, no, that's not his nature.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, let's not put him in that spiteful, uh, vindictive role.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, his correction certainly can be sharp and strong, but it's just right.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: And he's, you know, he's he's not just waiting for us to to mess up.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there are consequences for choices that we make.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and sometimes the consequences are not fun, but um, you know, he's always willing to guide us back to where we need to be.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that's so reassuring.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, let's talk about uh covenant, not religion.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: And this is again one of my favorite subtopics of this because I grew up, and and I've said this so many times before, and I apologize to anyone who's heard me say it before, but I grew up without any religion, any faith upbringing, no church, no none of that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um it just was a non-conversation um in my life, but I always had this longing for it.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, I had this resistance to it because I had a preconceived notion of what church was, religion, um, what religion was and who God was.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it turned out, I don't know why or how, it turned out that I actually had a better, closer understanding of who and what God was than what religion was trying to tell me.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so let's talk about that a little bit.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: You you frame the entire study around covenant, and it's a word that most of us here in church, outside of church, I'm not sure how many people really understand that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but in simple terms, what is a covenant and why does that matter for how we relate to God?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, a covenant is in my to me, it's an agreement.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's something where where two parties have entered into an agreement with each other, and they it's not something that can be broken.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or you know, I mean it can be broken, and that's where problems come in.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: But in uh and in the book, it talks about how in ancient times people that would come into covenant would have bags of salt and they would mix their salt together.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: And the only way that covenant could be broken is if they separated the salt back out from one person, you know, so that people took their own salt back, which of course is impossible to picture that little teeny dying grains.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: Good luck with that, yeah.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: And which one are mine and which ones are yours?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's that mingling um that you agree to a certain thing and you don't break it.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so now bringing that around to religion, how does um covenant differ from religion or performance-based um faith?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, with with God being a covenant, keeping God, you know, and and all through the Old Testament, he set up covenants with various people, with with Abraham, with Noah, with David.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's a variety of of covenants.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: And he has an everlasting covenant that we are part of.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: And that covenant is that uh he will do what he says he's gonna do.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not dependent on what we can do to keep it, it's only what he does that does to keep it, like with Abraham.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh God made the covenant and Abraham was there, but Abraham, you know, it's it's still going on today, the covenant with Abraham.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: The the language that I have learned to speak um from church, from reading the Bible.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we talk about all these phrases that I'm so in love with, like covenant, of course, for one, um, talking about the season of life that you're in, you know, it it there is this own special language that I feel like we speak.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it's such a beautiful thing when we talk about how God has touched our heart, God is speaking to our heart, all of these things.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for someone who didn't grow up with a healthy earthly father, um, how do we tr how do we begin to trust that language and lean to it, referring to God as the father?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think about that often for someone who has had a difficult or even a non-existent relationship with their earthly father, and maybe there's anger and resentment and hurt and all of those things.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the word father probably tastes like poison in their mouth.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: So how do we how do we begin to trust that language if that's the position you're in?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's a tough one.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: It is a tough one.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay if you can't even come up with an answer for it, because that is a tough one.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't be able to answer it.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: I guess what I would what I would say is, you know, when Jesus came, he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: So if you get to know Jesus and who he was and what he taught and you know and how he was with people, um you can hopefully just ask God, you know, show me you as yourself.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: And and of course in the book, you know, we talk about the different names, and the different names um they represent aspects of his character.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: And um and when you start looking at those names, you can, you know, it's like, well, maybe this is someone I'd like to get to know.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, he's a healer, he's uh, you know, he's he wants peace.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: He's kind and gentle and um, you know.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that was literally like the most perfect answer, by the way.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: That was so perfect as you're talking, I'm like, oh yes, of course, of course, of course.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, here's a funny side note uh of just the the wonder of God uh that just never ceases to amaze.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um a couple of days ago, or actually over the past couple of days leading up to this, and this was before I had taken the time yet to look at what the book was about.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yes, I do everything last minute, but it stays in my brain better when I do that, guys.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Don't don't come at me for it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um but before that, I had come across three different things.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think, and it was about the different names of God and their meaning.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember the second time I saw a reference to that, I said, Oh, I wonder if this is something that I need to be learning about.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is the next thing that I want to be learning about right now.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: And now here we are talking about how this is in the book, and it tells all that.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like I this was a message straight for me, and I don't care what anybody else says.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably a message for somebody else.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's a message for somebody else, but it's just funny to me that you know, as you're tagging, I'm like, it's right in the book.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: I guess I know what I'm reading now.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, how about that?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about what do you think is the biggest false narrative that believers carry about God today?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: Things that that he doesn't care, that he's not that he doesn't really care about being involved in their lives, and he's just very distant, and um, and you know, like with the peas just waiting to punish them for not doing it right.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: And um you know, that he's just this vengeful, um ready to swat you.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, kind of stuff.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it changes your perspective so much that you you fall like we said before, we fall into that mindset.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then I think when you start doing that, when you start looking at him that way, you start pulling away, you know, and you start re-resisting that that that pull and that call on your life to just just talk to him, just sit in silence with him and listen, you know, open up your Bible, whatever that means for you at different times.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but anything that is, and we're so distracted, you know, that's another sideways uh route there that we get so distracted by earthly life and everything that's going on, like we forget to take that time just to sit with him and and talk and maybe even more importantly, listen, you know, listen to what he's really showing us and telling us, right?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think too, uh, you know, people they see evil in the world and they they're like, well, if God is good, why does he allow this evil to happen?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I think what people don't always realize is that he gave us free will.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so people can make selfish choices, and selfish choices hurt, you know, they hurt people away.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: So true.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so I think you know, I think so much of the evil comes from uh the choices that people make to not love, not love each other.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: We use God as the scapegoat, right?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, well, God allowed this, so it's his fault, you know.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's it's our free will, you know.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: I made a bad choice in that situation or somebody else, you know.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: I I was um asking God, what does it mean to have love endure?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: What what is it that love has to endure that that uh that would be in there?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I felt like he said love endures, it it continues to love even when we're enduring the consequences of someone else's portrait.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: Love endures.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: We we continue to choose that love even when we're paying a price for it.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you, does understanding once we understand covenant, the the meaning of it, does it change the way that we read the old and and new testament together?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like does it does it change the way that you you view that?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think you know, people have like a very hard line, some people, I'm not saying everyone, has a very hard line between Old Testament and New Testament.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I think maybe some people miss that connection, like they will use the New Testament as if it dismisses or erases the Old Testament.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: But does understanding covenant tie them together better for people, you think?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: I think so, because the you know the word testament is actually covenant.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: And so the old covenant and the new covenant, um you know, it it's it's all back from what Jesus did on the cross.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's um this the God is the same from the Old Testament to the New Testament, He's righteous, He's holy.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um but because Jesus came and and shed his blood, we he sees us now through that.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so he, you know, it it's a little it's a little bit different.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: His his covenant, his we can believe his promises, we can believe in his goodness.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard I've heard people say, and I've even thought it myself that like the God of the Old Testament, that's the way they phrase it, the God of the Old Testament was the angry God, and the God of the New Testament is the the more gentle, forgiving, loving God.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Is it like is there truth and falseness into that?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's hard to it's hard to say because there's a lot of things that happened in the old testament.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's like wow, he had they they destroyed, you know, they had to destroy everyone, right?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: And yet we don't know what all was going on in the background of that, and what you know, I've I've heard a lot of different things about um the enemy trying to corrupt human DNA, and um that God uh having them get rid of the corrupted DNA that was um causing a problem in the world in the earth.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it does seem you know this is kind of harsh, but at the same time, you know, he has to he has to be who he is, and he's a righteous judge.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: He's a righteous judge.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's probably the confusion confusion that, you know, confusing uh a righteous and just God with a wrathful, mean, angry God.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: And that's probably, I I think you just said it right there, that you know, it's it's righteousness and justness and what needed to be done, what had to be done um for our own sakes, you know, for the sake of humanity.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's a that's such a great way of putting that into perspective, really.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: I want to, if you don't mind, I like to go back to the exploring the names of God.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um I that's got to be such a huge, big study, I would think.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um why are the names of God so important in understanding his character?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it um it is big.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: The the book is about a hundred pages longer than the first book was.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it, you know, it and it it's only it's not even all of his names.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh I think it's a 20 or 21 of his names.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: And there's actually like 70 or some names that they call God.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but it it represents different aspects of his um of his character, um, like Adonai.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: And uh in the book we go into some of the Hebrew um background for the the names.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: And Adonai um it has a ballet and an a nun and a yod.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and I'm not I've only been studying Hebrew for a few years, so I'm not an expert by any means.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: And there's probably people that'll find mistakes in the book, and hopefully they'll be able to get past that and see the deeper, the deeper picture.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: But um Adonai is about being a door to life and uh with the delet and the And the yod is the power to go through the door to abundant life.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so Elohim.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: Elohim is a plural.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: It is basically where we get the three and one from the name Elohim because it's actually a plural word for God.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: And El Shaddai is it means a mini-breasted one.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: So it's actually a feminine aspect of God.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: And they, you know, so God has both the feminine and the masculine aspects to his character.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Which only makes sense.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: It truly makes sense that he would.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Was there is there one name in particular that gets you right in the heart?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: Is there is there one in particular that just I think it's Elohim?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: Because it it's it's the Father and the Son and the Spirit.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: And the three of them, um you know, it's such a beautiful picture of of how three separate beings can be so in unity that they're one.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: And um yeah, I think and and just that that's who created us.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's that was that was the name that was used in the beginning.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it was, you know, it's after man sinned that um that Yahweh, the name Yahweh started to appear in, and Yahweh has more to do, at least from what mom told me, is more of the of the just and the um the the moral, it's more of the moral aspect of God.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: Beautiful.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for someone who feels distant from God right now, how can or can, I guess how and if maybe, um, how can knowing his names shift that sense of distance from him?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think that it can?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think it can, especially when you go to names like Shepherd.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I am the Lord your shepherd, and um the the Elroy, which is the god who sees.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: He he's the one who saw Hagar in the desert and uh with her son after they were kicked out, and you know, he he saw her and he sees us, yeah, and he knows you know so much about us, and and shalom, the the peace, the god of peace, um, the one who protects, uh, who puts his hands around us to keep us and watches our every step as you know as we walk.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I I'll tell you what, I can't, I I can't and won't speak for anybody else, but I know for me, just hearing the names, just hearing you say the names, each one, I can I just feel them in my heart.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like they just they have an impact, just hearing the names.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: So just you know, I'm imagining, imagining myself uh projecting this now because it's what's gonna happen next for me, uh, learning the depth and the breadth and the meaning of those, each of those names and how much more that's going to affect me.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited for this.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, so excited.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um envying journey.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Discovery.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's my favorite part.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I started off being really kind of frustrated with myself as a new Christian, as a new believer, um, frustrated that I didn't know more, that I don't know it fast enough, that I can't memorize every single thing.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, felt this little bit of envy towards people like you who've grown up with this, that it's been part of your language and your life for as long as you can remember.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: And so it comes pretty naturally to you.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then as I speak to seasoned Christians, believers like yourself, who are so kind and so generous with your with your understanding and your knowledge and um just kind of that pat on the head of like, calm down.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: We're all learning Christians, like we're all still, there's there's we're never going to know it all.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're none of us are so just keep going, like just keep doing it.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so reassuring to um to hear those things for any, you know, really, really devoted new believer who just wants to know so much.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's it's okay to slow down and just absorb what you can absorb, right?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's such a beautiful picture of being in community with each other.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, where where I'm weak, others are strong, and where I can be strong, others, you know, it can meet someone else's weakness.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and especially, you know, for you in particular, you know, you have clearly, of course, experienced very recent seasons of grief and and navigating through that and to have the comfort and confidence of knowing, uh, knowing God, knowing Jesus, um, and and knowing what awaited your mom.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there is comfort in that.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think people underestimate that.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's not that you don't grieve, it's not that you don't cry, it's not that you're not sad, um, but you have this comfort and and hope, really, right?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: In Luke 20, it says that God is God of the living, not of the dead.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, so I think that we have a very different understanding of death than than God does.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I I know that mom is alive, yeah.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: She's just not here, which is you know heartbreaking for me because she's been such a huge part of my life for so long.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and working on these books.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: And we we finished the second book just a couple weeks before she passed away.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so it it was, you know, it is kind of this bittersweet thing that you know, I know that she is no longer in pain and she's dancing with me.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, but here we still have you know some rescuing to do.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh people that that hopefully will be able to hear the truth and and and hear that God is good and loves them and wants to have a relationship with them.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you talk about identity as sons and daughters, and that language, of course, is so powerful, especially in a culture that is constantly redefining identity.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what does it mean to find identity rooted in covenant instead of culture?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's it there's the firmer foundation to it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um your identity, you know, if you know who God says you are and how He created you, um, and you know, that we're fearfully and wonderfully made, and you know, the the body is such an amazing thing.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then to have you know the soul and the spirit all involved in that, you know, it's a it's an amazing thing.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: And um the covenant is just kind of the foundation of why we're here.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know, he made you know, God created us to be family with him.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: And that's um, you know, that the word Sabbath has two baits in the middle of it, and baits are all about family and home.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, he wants to be family with us, he wants us to be his family.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's why that's that is that is why we're here.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's the point of everything, right?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now, this is structured as a guided course, right?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like the book is structured as a course, yes.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um who would you say this book is for?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like if I'm browsing through or somebody's browsing through, who is this book calling?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: I think, you know, um, I think mom's intention in it was to reach people who've been in church and not necessarily been told who they are and why they're here.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_03: And um that, you know, in a lot of ways, religion sometimes gets in the way of the relationship that God wants to have with us.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, it's real easy to just have these rules that you you try and uphold, but most of us don't, you know, like we can't be perfect at keeping all the rules.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: And um it's you know, it's just about coming to know who we are and who he is, and um that there is a purpose in in being here.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I love that.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think um I think your book hits on really, I mean, what we're all trying to figure out here, um, to be besides trying to figure out ourselves, you know, but this is literally how you figure out who you are.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: If you know him, if you understand him, if you uh discover your amazing God, then you have a much better opportunity to discover who you are and to root yourself in that identity instead of.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I talk about um, you know, culture uh daily, every day.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: This is one of the topics that I talk about and how it's such a deceiver and it's such a liar to all of us, to everyone who gets sucked into it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, your identity is already all set, it's already determined and it's really, really good.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's so good.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: And when you rest in that, um, gosh, not not a whole heck of a lot else can really phase you too much.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: So if you could leave our listeners or viewers with one truth about God's character that you want them to carry after this conversation, um, what would that be?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um I would probably say that you know, we are created in his image.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so we know what love, God is love.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: We know what love should be, and we know when it's not love.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_03: Just it's just an innate thing in us.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: And um there's treasure that every single person has inside of them that God has put there.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: And this, you know, these books are about uncovering and discovering what the treasure is, the treasure in us and and the treasure in him.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's oh my gosh, that's absolutely perfect.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, tell everybody the names of both books again and tell them where they can find them.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: And guys, that it will be in the show notes.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry, you'll be able to click right on those links, but go ahead and tell them where they can find everything.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh well, the the invitation is the book on identity and it's Discover the Treasure of You.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then um the second book is Discover Your Amazing God.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: And both of the books are available on Amazon as well as our website, which is goldstandardministries.com.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_03: The books on Amazon are pay are paperback or hardback.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the one on the make on the website is Spiral BAMP.
• 33:33
  unknown: Perfect.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_03: And both of them and and uh the ones on Amazon are eight and a half by eleven, the ones on the website are six by nine.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: So it's kind of you know up to people what they would prefer.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's nice to have those options.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big um spiral bound fan, so I'll be going over to the website for Amazon, but that's you know, that's where I'm going.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 33:53
  unknown: Yeah.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: Tamara, thank you so, so much for joining me again.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: It was such a um wonderful, enlightening conversation.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: You have your mom's gift and spirit of um just sharing the word of God in such a beautiful, gentle way that like you just I get I just get lulled into this wonderful sense of calm.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: So um, it's a true gift that you have.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, thank you, Elsa.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for doing the interview for us.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was my pleasure.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: All right, guys, we're um so grateful that you joined us today and uh took time to listen in on this.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: You heard where to find the books.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: The links will be in the show notes, and we look forward to seeing you guys in the next episode.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Take care.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a story worth sharing.
• 34:36
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