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Choosing Jesus: Saying "Yes, Lord." · Choosing Jesus

• 0:16
  Christina: Hi, friends, and welcome to the Choosing Jesus Podcast. My name is Christina Wampler, and I am delighted to be here with you today. In this episode of Choosing Jesus, we are going to dive into what does it mean to choose Jesus every day, first and foremost. But we also talk about the eternal longing that is on each human heart and what we are to do with that eternal longing and what it means to say, yes, Lord, every single day. So I'm so excited today.
• 0:45
  The question I'm gonna have us ponder or consider kind of as we head into the episode is what does choosing Jesus look like for you today? And so I hope the Lord meets you and what that answer is for you, either in this moment or in this episode to come or sometime after. So thanks for joining and let's enter in. I feel like when your parent would leave the house and you'd like sing when you were little on your MacBook or the MacBook, the household family MacBook. And they'd leave and you'd be like, I got my tickets for the long way around.
• 1:20
  I feel like I'm getting away with something essentially. Oh my goodness, grape juice. I'm so excited to be here right now and do what I have felt much anticipation to do for quite a while. So thank you for being here with me. And I'm gonna try not to smile the whole time, I'm very delighted to be here.
• 1:50
  So just ignore if I smile the entire time. I will say I kind of have some different vibes to me and one of them is like so excitable, so whatever. And one is more contemplative. Both feel so true to the core of who I am that grace is appreciated on however I show up on any given day, just as I will have grace for how you're showing up today. I'm just so happy you're here.
• 2:19
  I am trusting the Lord to just deliver what he wants to deliver. Today is four years since I was baptized, which is just a really sweet coincidence to the first day of filming an episode of this podcast. I don't know if this will be the first one to be released. I guess we'll find out. But it's my first day recording and I'm four years old in the Lord and it's so sweet.
• 2:42
  Like, literally, sorry, it's gonna make me teary. It's just really precious. I have considered doing a podcast for at least over two years. No, more than that. And it just never felt like the right timing.
• 2:56
  So I'm so grateful that the timing just feels more right. That I'm in this awesome space in this chair that, you know, if I'm honest, it wasn't the exact chair, but the same style of chair was my prayer chair the whole year that I worked at a church and just spent so much time with the Lord. I mean, I'm always spending time with the Lord, but this chair is sentimental. These books over here are some of my favorites that also match the color theme, if I'm real. This is my older Bible, my last...
• 3:28
  This was the first Bible I read cover to cover. So sweet, it was a gift from someone. This is my current day Bible that I love. So I'm just so delighted and it is not about the things around me, but they're making me very, very excited. And if you're just listening to this, you know nothing that I'm referencing.
• 3:43
  The last thing I will reference, I think in this moment is this mug, which some of my high school students got me for my birthday. So sweet. It says, His mercies are new every morning. And we'll talk about that I'm sure sometime. But yeah, that's a little bit about my, what's around me.
• 4:00
  A little bit about me, I don't know if there's much I feel like I need to share yet. I just feel so delighted. And I have said that many times and I will keep saying it because I am just delighted. The joy of the Lord is so real and so so outside of circumstances that if you've ever seen me, if you've ever seen a picture of me, if you've ever seen me in real life, if I've ever taught you, if I've ever had a conversation with you, if I've ever seen you at church, if you've ever seen me worship. And you're like, that girl has joy.
• 4:30
  That is the Lord. And I can assure you it is outside of the circumstances of my life. I have much to be grateful for, but life is just hard. We are not in the kingdom yet. We are on this side of the kingdom and there truly is grief and mourning and loss and pain and sorrow and just tears.
• 4:50
  And I'm so grateful to serve a God where eternity is coming. The kingdom is coming. It has... We will talk about the now and not yet, but the kingdom that is to come, the Lord will wipe every single tear away. Scripture says there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain.
• 5:07
  And I just... That is what I live for. That is what I long for. And scripture does say in Ecclesiastes three that the Lord has set eternity on the human heart. Honestly, I wanna go there.
• 5:18
  Hold on. I get so excited, but I only have one hand right now. So we'll see how this goes. Why why quote scripture when you can read it? I mean, you should do both maybe, but I'm so nerve sighted that I just...
• 5:32
  I'm gonna go there. Hold on. Ecclesiastes, where are you at? Here we are. So Ecclesiastes chapter three talks about for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
• 5:46
  I'm not gonna lie, I should be wearing my glasses right now because it's hard for me to read it, but that's okay. In verse 11, it says, He has made everything beautiful in its time also. He has put eternity into man's hearts yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to end. Or some translations say that we cannot understand it, but He set eternity in our hearts. And I feel like the...
• 6:15
  I'm a teacher of dance. I'm a teacher in Christian education spaces at times teaching dance. And just getting to work with kids and students, I learned so much and I will never stop talking about my munchkins. I love them so much. But I see whether people follow the Lord or they don't, just the eternal longing on our hearts.
• 6:32
  Like we all long for good in the world. We all long for like wholeness and health. At least in all the conversations I've ever had with people, whether they share the belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord yet or not. And it is just... I just see it.
• 6:48
  And so I just long for that fullness of life that is... It is possible now. And that's kind of the whole point of why I wanted to do this podcast in a lot of ways. And as of now, the title is Choosing Jesus. I think it will remain because that's what I chose a couple years ago when I wanted to start this podcast.
• 7:05
  And I have a painting in my room that just says, today, I'm choosing Jesus. And honestly, I wake up and that's all I do in an entire day is choose the Lord and choose Him as my Lord and savior and choose to just obey Him, what an eventful day it has been because it is such an adventure to choose the Lord. And for some reason before I really sought the Lord daily in these ways, I thought following the Lord would be boring. Like I thought Christians, no offense, were kind of boring. Like I didn't know.
• 7:33
  And that's not even... Wasn't even specific to any specific Christian I knew. I just had this notion. I was like, following God, that sounds boring. That sounds like there's rules and there's whatever.
• 7:44
  I have been not only wiped clean and washed clean of my sin, although obviously I still stumble. His grace is so sufficient. But I also have... There's just such a vibrant life to be lived in the Lord. The rules, the commandments, kindness of the word of the Lord is for our good.
• 8:05
  When I understood, I wasn't expecting to talk about this right now, but let's go. When I understood, oh my goodness, the Lord is not trying to steal fun from me. The Lord is not trying to steal the life experiences that the edgy experience I want to have away from me. He's trying to protect and guard my heart. And so if I go down this path, which I did choose for a while, I'm choosing destruction and I'm choosing temporary earthly joys or things that I think will fulfill me, not knowing that if I choose the Lord, that is what's lasting.
• 8:39
  So I had to... I did walk down the wrong path choosing things that brought heartbreak, despair, destruction, depression. I chose them actively because I just thought that like that would be the... I was like, I wanna be able to choose. I don't want anyone to tell me what to do.
• 8:53
  I'm the youngest child. Hello. I don't want anyone to tell me what to do. I wanna go my way. And that was detrimental.
• 9:00
  And God is so, so gracious and He met me in that. And He loved me before that. He loved me in that. He loved me after that. But when I started to follow the Lord four year...
• 9:11
  Like, I started walking it out pretty intensely four years ago, if I'm honest. I don't know. The Lord just had me and was like, in a way where I was like, I just wanna give every single thing I have to him. And the year before that, was starting to try to figure that out as well. But I was like, Lord, I want to still have fun.
• 9:27
  Like I still wanna be able to hang out with these friends and do these things that your word says not to, but I don't understand. Like I I basically didn't have conviction about things. I just didn't understand. There were certain things I had conviction about and I went against that, which I would not recommend. I have repented, the Lord is so kind.
• 9:44
  And he's so redemptive, but I chose heartbreak. I chose destruction. I hurt myself. I hurt other people. I hurt the Lord's heart, I'm sure.
• 9:53
  Like, it hits in... He he just wants he just wants us to walk in fullness of life. And so He's so kind in that. And so coming to realize when I started to follow Him, oh my gosh, Lord, when I choose your way, there is holy heartbreak at times, but I'm not just going around hurting people in the same way. My heart isn't hurting because I'm not choosing the wrong things.
• 10:13
  Like you were after my good this whole time. You wanted to protect me from these hurtful choices and you're not gonna live a bubble wrapped life just because you follow the Lord. Absolutely not. Girl, I am walking through it. I don't know, you might be a boy, but girl, I say girl a lot, my students would tell you.
• 10:28
  This is just a general, girl, like I will tell you it hurts. It hurts. You do not... It is not in the absence of suffering, pain, sorrow, grief that we follow the Lord. Choosing to follow Him does not ensure that.
• 10:40
  And I think sometimes in the Western culture, that's what we hear Or we think like, if you're a Christian, everything will just go well for you. No. I mean, have... You are so ultimately blessed because the Lord is... The Lord your maker is on your side and he loves you and he's given you the Holy Spirit who is guiding you in truth and life and fullness of joy and peace.
• 10:59
  All these things are possible for you, but circumstantially it just might not look like that. And we have to be okay with that. All that to say, choosing Jesus is a daily choice, a daily resurrender. And I have chosen it for four years now. Every day in the way of spiritual disciplines and really trying to walk it out again.
• 11:23
  I feel all the time. So this is not to say I do it perfectly, but I hope, hope, hope and pray that this is just encouraging as to what it looks like through whether it's different life circumstances I walk through or just different seasons of life that I walk through of what it looks like to choose Jesus. And that's kind of what I'm just here to talk about. So was... The start of this has been choosing Jesus when maybe your flesh doesn't want to.
• 11:45
  My flesh did not want to, but my heart like had such this eternal longing that's spoken about. That I was like, I don't want to because I still wanna have fun. Still wanna do what I want. I still wanna da da da. So I chose that for a long time.
• 11:58
  But in reality, I chose Jesus, when I finally was like, I'm scared, I'm nervous, but I I think I want to commit my life to this thing. Oh, the joy. Oh, the freedom. Scripture says that this... Where the spirit of the Lord is, that the Lord is the spirit, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
• 12:16
  I did not understand that was a personal call. That is actually something I feel the most strongly about, especially for anyone in high school, middle school. Don't know how old people are listening right now. You could be any age. But for me, particularly when I was in high school, I saw freedom of the Lord on other people.
• 12:31
  I did not understand I personally could have it. I just thought I was disqualified for some reason. At that time, I wouldn't even say it was because of things I'd done. Like it wasn't even actions. It's just like, I just didn't feel free.
• 12:45
  And I didn't know that I could. And so whether circumstances are involved, like earthly circumstances are involved or not, there is freedom for you in Christ Jesus in your current circumstance. Do not disqualify yourself right now. That would be the enemy winning because the Lord sees you right where you are, loves you right where you are. There is a worship song that talks about...
• 13:07
  It's called Sherben Good To Me and... Or Sherben Good. And it says, you always knew there was a better me, but you loved me like I was. Such a beautiful song, so true. So the Lord loves you exactly where you are.
• 13:24
  He loves us as we are, but He also sees what we're becoming and He knows what we can become in him. And he's rooting for us to do that. He's pulling us into that fullness of life and believing for that. And I think I've touched on so many things already that I'm like, I'm gonna talk in so much more depth in that eventually in a different episode. But I just want that encouragement out there.
• 13:43
  He loves you as you are. He loves you where you are. He is ready as soon as you... As we come every single day, I'm resurrendering and repenting. That is the last prayer of my night.
• 13:52
  I say, Lord, I repent and I resurrender. And then I left a specific people up to the Lord and just pray for them. But is all we can do is resurrender and recommit to the Lord. And there's been a theme in my life recently where it's just like begin again. I have that written in my journal probably so many times.
• 14:10
  I'm just like begin again. Oh my goodness, I just acted away. I did not mean to towards my family or towards a student or towards whatever, begin again. Lord, I'm so sorry. Do I actually need to address that with the person or is your forgiveness just needed to move on and hopefully do better?
• 14:26
  It's not about doing better, but of course we wanna honor the Lord and honor other people. And so as we repent, He's so kind to give us the grace to move forward, to have the freedom to say, okay, that's not gonna define me. I'm gonna move forward. Sometimes that needs a conversation and I will go to people or a student and be like, I'm so sorry for how I address this thing. Or or it's just between you and the Lord.
• 14:48
  That's happened to me recently too where I'm like, okay, Lord, you know, I do not love how I handled that. I'm so sorry. And please help me move forward in a better way with a better heart posture because that was ugly. And that's okay. Like, I don't feel condemnation with that because God is kind.
• 15:04
  He will not condemn. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We just get to receive his grace. But there might be conviction because he loves us and he wants us to choose the way that is the fullness of life. And fullness of life matters for us, yes.
• 15:18
  Because who doesn't wanna live in the freedom of all the peace, joy, love, all the fruit of the spirit that the Lord has for us? Yet, it also is for the sake of other people. Like I want people to see the goodness of the Lord. And if I am being a sassafras, which means like being sassy, which I can be, that's not honoring the Lord and it's honoring this other person. And they're gonna be pretty confused if I'm saying, and at times people are confused because they're like, you're saying you love the Lord, but then you're being sassy or you're being sarcastic or whatever it may be.
• 15:46
  And it's just important to follow the leading of conviction out of love, Christ convicts us. Or I have friends that call me out, call me up. And I will talk about friendships and mentorships very soon because I'm so passionate about it. But get friends who will call you up and be okay if your friends call you up. If they love the Lord and they know the Lord and they read the word and they know what we're supposed to live like And they say, hey, I love you but I feel like you're...
• 16:10
  I'm trying to think what friends have said to me before. It's very humbling, but let's just say an example. This is not a real example necessarily, but it's like, I noticed that you've been talking about this person in a way that's not life giving. Like, is that how you want to be? Is that how you...
• 16:23
  What do has you taken that to the Lord? What does he say about that? It's like, be ready to be called up and be humbled. I'm humbled constantly. I got humbled last night.
• 16:30
  We don't need to talk about it. But I do pray for the Lord to humble me, but then he humbles me and I'm like, that hurt. It was so mortifying. And also now I'm gonna just be forgiven and walk in the fruit of that and move on. But I'm trying to be less offendable because if I'm trying to walk in Christ likeness, which is all that God cares about, he wants Christ likeness for us because it is just a redemptive thing to walk the earth in Christ likeness and bring the kingdom now.
• 16:57
  It I believe is the Lord's whole mission for us. As we wait for the return of Jesus in all his glory, we will be corrected. We will be molded, and we'll be molded by culture or we'll be molded by the word and people who know the word and we can choose what we want to mold us. Right? We have to be very aware of that.
• 17:19
  But just the importance of being molded by the word and all that it stands for and the goodness of the Lord and Holy Spirit convicting inside of me. Like we are temples of the Holy Spirit. If you have accepted Christ into your heart, He lives in you. And so that is so exciting and beautiful and wonderful. But sometimes it's just like, oh, dang, that kinda hurts.
• 17:39
  I've got convicted over this thing and I need to figure out how to like make it right. And what that looks like. I don't know why I've gone so on such a tangent with this, but alas, that is something I would say. Another tidbit, and I feel very strongly about this, I love to read. Charles Spurgeon has a wonderful quote.
• 17:59
  He says, visit many good books but live in the Bible. And that is potentially... I love a lot of scriptures. I don't know that many quotes. Like I don't just quote people all the time.
• 18:13
  Say, oh, maybe I do. But that's one of my favorite quotes ever because I love to read. I love reading about prayer. I love reading about spiritual formation. I love reading about the Lord in any way.
• 18:26
  Of course, I love the word, but I love reading books about like theology books. I don't know what kind of fuzzy just flew off of me. I love reading theology books, but I've had people say like, you read so much. Okay. I don't know if it's so many people, but I've had some people say, you read so much.
• 18:40
  What would you say? Like, how do you read that much? Girl, I'm reading so you don't have to. Let's talk about what I'm reading. But I have had people say that that are like moms...
• 18:51
  Wives and moms. They're like, you read so much. I'm so inspired. How should I read more? You're a mom.
• 18:57
  You're a wife. Like not saying don't read, but I'm a single girl who works. Yes. But like that is something I prior... I'm an introverted single girl.
• 19:06
  I choose to read. I choose to do that with my time. And I've seen so much fruit from that. I think those books are part of the reason I just see the Lord the way I do. So many of them are so saturated in scripture.
• 19:18
  I think that's really important for me is to be able to tie scriptures to spiritual disciplines, to practices, which are obviously all scriptural things anyway. But just seeing it written well helps me like connect it and get so excited and just on fire ablaze, if you will, with just the spirit of the Lord. I'm like, let's go. So I love walking that out, but I will quote scripture. I will quote books I have read.
• 19:43
  I will quote songs that I have like song lyrics. I'm a dancer dance teacher, so lyrics mean a lot to me or just... And just because of worship, it means a lot to me. And so those words that are so many of them are seeped in scripture anyway, just... You will hear me referencing books, scripture, songs all the time because it just ties it together.
• 20:03
  In podcasts, I listen to a lot of podcasts. So you will hear me being like, blah blah blah said, Annie F Downs said, CJ Robertson said. And it's just like so exciting to me to be able to bring in maybe bite sized chunks. I literally don't even know how long this has been right now, but maybe bite sized chunks, maybe longer chunks, a wealth of different wisdom. So little of it will be my original wisdom and that's great.
• 20:24
  By the grace of the Lord, do not care. Like that's okay. But I hope that like, if you don't have time for all these other things that I might have time for in my single introverted times to bring a nugget of something that the Lord just meets you in and blesses you in and sees you in because he loves you so much right where you are. He sees where he's taking you and he is so excited to partner with you as we continue to choose him. So this has been a little over the place, which welcome to how I operate, but you are chosen, you are loved.
• 20:56
  He delights in you and he is so excited about where he's taking you. So get on board, if you feel so prompted. And I just... There is there is... I guess, it's not a song lyric.
• 21:10
  I made it up. It's... I'm not a songwriter literally at all. Literally at all. It's a prayer.
• 21:14
  It's a prayer. But I've just been like, Lord, what is my goal? And I'm like, to know you and to love you and to say, yes, Lord. And I just pray that over all of us that we can know him. We can know his word.
• 21:28
  We can know his character. We can love him because to know him is to love him. He is the God of love. He is love incarnate. He is peace incarnate.
• 21:36
  He's all the wonderful things incarnate in Jesus. And saying, yes, Lord. I want... Oh my gosh. I'm about to out myself.
• 21:48
  This is crazy. I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but okay, Lord. I, one time, was dating someone and they asked me where... I'm like gonna cry out of laughter. Where I saw myself in five years.
• 22:02
  This was years ago. And I was like, oh, I don't know. At that time, I was finishing up working at a church. I didn't even know what I was stepping into, yada yada. And I literally said to this person, I thought about it.
• 22:17
  I really sat with it for a second. We're like at dinner. I was like, I see myself on the other side of a lot of yeses to the Lord. And I'm not gonna say that he didn't like that answer, but I think the person did not... I'm not with that person anymore.
• 22:33
  That's not why. But I think I say that genuinely no shade, but that's all I could say. I'm like, I'm gonna say yes to the Lord as he calls. I currently live in a state I never thought I'd live in. I'm doing a podcast which I didn't really think I would do.
• 22:45
  I'm, you know, in relationship, like friendships, all these things with people I never necessarily thought I'd meet. Like you don't know. And so, not that it's a bad thing if you are like, well, I know in four years I'll be at this college and that's da da da. That's great. Awesome.
• 22:59
  If the Lord is so clear, but just to encourage the person who's a little unsure, saying yes, Lord is enough. I think I could go on a whole tangent with that. But saying yes, Lord is enough of a direction for your life today. Oh, I'm sorry. Woah.
• 23:13
  I'm gonna repeat that. Saying yes, Lord is enough direction on your life for today and potentially the next five years. Because that's all I know. Will I be married in five years? Maybe.
• 23:24
  Will I be a mom in five years? Maybe. Lord willing for hopefully for these things. Will I be whatever? I can't guarantee basically anything, but I can guarantee that I am going to do everything in my power and really by the Lord's power to say, yes, Lord, every single day.
• 23:41
  And it's cool to say that on the first day of this podcast because Lord knows where this will lead or not lead. Literally if one person listens and it's like, oh, I just felt near to the Lord because, you know, I heard you. I hope this feels like one giant voice memo from me. Anyone who knows me knows I'm such... Like knows me personally, I'm such a voice memo person.
• 23:58
  If this just feels like one giant loving voice memo that the Lord may have met you in, that is the biggest amen I could ever ask for. And I just encourage you to say, yes, Lord. It will take you places you never thought you'd go. It will take you in rooms you never thought you'd be in, and it will equip you just for exactly what he has for you. It is so exciting.
• 24:18
  And I am so delighted to just be here. I'm excited to see what Yes Lord looks like for everybody who listens to this right now. And Choosing Jesus Today looks like saying, Yes Lord. And that means death to flesh ly desires at times and death to what vision we thought we had for our lives at times, but it is the best yes you could ever say. And if you said yes, Lord before, and then today, or in the recent times you've made mistakes, you've done whatever, God is just so begging for you to just come back and He's ready to receive you.
• 24:52
  Just the prodigal son story. Go to Luke, I think it's 15, prodigal son. He has open arms waiting for you. And so if you're like, I did used to say yes, Lord in high school or when I was young or when I would ever, I but don't know if I could say yes, Lord today. Say yes, Lord.
• 25:06
  Like begin again today. He is ready. He's waiting. He has love in his eyes waiting for you to say yes, Lord. And so whether it is the a hundred millionth day in a row that you were saying yes, Lord, or the first time ever saying, yes Lord, or the first time in a long time saying, yes Lord, He is so eager to partner with you and just continue to make you into who He created you to be, which is the biggest gift to you.
• 25:31
  It's the biggest gift to those around you, and it is how he can use you best as a vessel. And so I'm just so excited to be relatively on this journey with you. And may the Lord just bless you and keep you as you go. I don't know what this episode just was, but we're gonna roll with it. And say yes, Lord, today.
• 25:50
  I don't even know how to end this because it's my first podcast episode ever. So I'm just kinda awkwardly rolling it out. Actually, don't feel awkward. I feel delighted. Bye.
• 25:59
  Bye.