Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 618 | Rebroadcast - How We Got Our Name

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618 | Rebroadcast - How We Got Our Name · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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are on our website at watwm.org.
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We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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We just published our 200th podcast here at Woman at the Well Ministries,
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and it is time to reintroduce you to our ministry.
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In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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join Kim Miller and Erica Close as we discuss how Woman at the Well Ministries got its name.
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Well, thank you all so much for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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I am Erica Close, and I am here along with Kim Miller.
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Hello, and thank you so much for listening to us and having the desire to grow closer to the Lord.
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It is such a privilege and a blessing to be used of Him, and you will never
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know what it means to us that you choose to spend time with us on a regular basis.
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So we're really excited. As I said in the introduction, we have just published
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our 200th podcast, and that is no small thing, and it is definitely something
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that we need to celebrate.
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So our way of celebrating is to just take an opportunity to share a little bit
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about our hearts and to share a little bit about how Woman at the Well Ministries
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got its name, but the amazing work of the Lord that went into that.
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Because in the same way the Woman at the Well Ministries got its name,
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it's just evidence of how the Lord works in our lives.
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And so let's start with the point of why we're here.
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So I'd like to just read out of Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20.
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We read, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
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the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
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things whatsoever I have commanded you.
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And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
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Amen. I love that. I feel like we could just have a podcast about that verse
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right there. But we really are going to talk about how we got our name.
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But I love this verse for so many reasons, because it lets us know that people
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have to be taught about Jesus.
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The message has to go out from person to person, and people have to be taught about him.
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They can see him in his creation. They can hear him in the whispers of the Holy Spirit.
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But people need to be taught as well.
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And thankfully, as that happens, Jesus is with us through all that teaching.
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All right. So, Kim, if I could just ask you one question to kick this off.
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Who is Woman at the Well Ministries for?
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Woman at the Well Ministries is for everyone.
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It's for the young, the old, and everyone in between.
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It's for women, and it's for men.
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And that often is something that gets overlooked because of the title being
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Woman at the Well Ministries.
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The title of Woman at the Well Ministries is a reflection of the fact that everybody
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must come to Jesus as the woman at the well came to Jesus.
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They have to come empty and
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be filled with Jesus Christ because they're willing to change from their ways
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to turn away from their sins and to follow after the one true living God who
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will fill you to overflowing and you will never thirst again.
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Amen. There's a message right there. So one of the things that I think is so
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exciting is how long Woman at the Well Ministries has been around.
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Well, we've been around officially for 20 years this past August.
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So August of 2003, we were established.
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In fact, a fun fact is we established the day of my oldest sister's birthday.
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So August the 26th of 2003.
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It's helpful to remember that, right? We always know that because it's a birthday.
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It's very helpful for me. Yeah, it's helpful.
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And for those of you that may not know, we started on the radio and we have
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been on the radio all over the world, which is, you know, evidence.
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I always laugh sometimes when I look at our Facebook page and our followers
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and where people are from on our Facebook page, because they're from all over the world.
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And as we have now moved into this podcast format, again, we get to see where
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people download our podcasts, and people are downloading them from all over the world.
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And it just gives me incredible joy, especially if we go back to the Great Commission
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that we read about in Matthew, right? The whole world.
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I feel very strongly that that should give all of our listeners great hope,
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because I am a normal individual who lives in Milton, West Virginia, whose voice for God.
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Is heard all over the world.
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And that certainly isn't anything that I have done.
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It is completely what he has and continues to do.
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He takes this goofy little personality and he fills it with him.
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And he allows me to be the mouthpiece for the words he has for others.
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And I simply am a conduit that opens up and says, Lord, here am I, send me.
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Amen. All right. Well, the real reason we're here today is to talk about how
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Woman at the Well Ministries got its name and why we are called Woman at the Well Ministries.
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Well, I'm excited to tell you the story of the name for Women at the Well Ministries,
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but I first want you to hear, because this is integral to the story of how we get our name,
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is that when you were speaking earlier in the podcast about how people learn
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of Jesus because they are taught,
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I am a prime example of one who was poured into and taught, not just infrequently
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or not just every now and then,
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but daily and moment by moment by my family and especially my parents.
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My mom and dad purposed in their heart to teach me about Jesus,
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not just to know of him, but to actually know him, to understand his character
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and to understand how he responds and to know his promises and to have a personal,
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intimate relationship with him.
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So again, this should give you hope.
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Parents who were pouring into your children, grandparents who are pouring into your grandchildren,
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even if they may look like they're not hearing or understanding,
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which I'm certain on many occasions that was me, they are hearing it and the
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Lord is planting the seeds and you are watering it and he will bring it forth.
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So Woman at the Well Ministries got its name because of a continual story that
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my daddy was always telling me.
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It is found in John 4, and it is the woman at the well. And.
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Had the story for me from a young age. And many times a week,
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he would tell me about the woman at the well, and he would explain to me how
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she would go and come to Jesus,
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but that she came.
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Seeking to be filled.
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And the reason she was filled is because Jesus chose to be there waiting on her.
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And I believe, or actually I am certain,
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that the reason he chose this particular story or account out of the Bible for
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me was that I was so completely concerned with my reputation and not letting
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sin get in my life or sin get on me,
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which is a noble and good goal.
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But it also was so important
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to me that I was
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rendering myself useless because I wasn't going to go and speak and hang around
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and talk to individuals who didn't know the Lord or who were living contrary
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to what the Bible said they would and so I often it wasn't that I felt better than them,
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and maybe somewhere deep in my heart I did.
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But it was really because I just didn't want anyone to think that I was doing
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these sinful, wicked things, or that I was part of that crowd,
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or that I believed it was okay.
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But my dad would constantly talk to me about how Jesus went out of his way,
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and how he put himself in harm's way to be able to be sitting at the well when the woman King.
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And if you know anything about the story, you know that the woman was a woman
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of ill repute and that she had five husbands and the person she was currently
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living with wasn't the husband she had.
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She was coming at noon day because she was extremely ashamed of her life and
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people around her would have ridiculed her and judged her very much like I was
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doing in my heart and in my mind.
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And so from a very early age, my dad was always talking about the woman at the
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well, always talking about Jesus's compassion,
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always talking about his purpose was to give love and to give the gospel,
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and that he went where people needed him,
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and that he didn't care about the surrounding environment, or he didn't care
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what other people looking on thought, because he would always remind me that
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Jews and Samaritans weren't friends.
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And so for Jesus to come and sit with a Samaritan would mean that he was hanging
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out with so-called the wrong crowd.
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And there were many, many lessons that would come over and over and over through
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the course of my life that.
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I would learn from the woman at the well as my dad would be going and I would
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be going to the grocery store or out to practice tennis or we were just hanging out.
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He would find these incredible opportunities to open the door to talk to me
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about the woman at the well.
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And so one time in high school, and I was so blessed,
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perhaps you might call it spoiled, but my dad drove me to school nearly every
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day of my schooling from first grade to graduating high school.
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And one particular day, and I remember it like it was yesterday,
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Erica, he was driving me to school, and it was probably less than a 10-minute
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commute. It wasn't very far.
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But we would talk about the Bible. Maybe we would talk about the latest sports
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scores, or we would just talk about how much we loved each other,
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or maybe we'd talk about how much we loved my mom,
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and something wonderful she had done for us for breakfast or in Bible study
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time in the morning before we went to school.
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And yes, we had Bible study every morning before I left for school.
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But we were in the car this time, and he chose to talk about the woman at the well.
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And he was telling me about how Jesus wasn't ashamed to be seen with people of all races,
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of all character, and of all reputation.
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Because when Jesus meets with you, he meets with you because he loves you for
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who you are, not for what you've done, what you can do, or what you will do.
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He loves you because he loves you.
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And so as we got to the front of the school where I was going to hop out as
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I had done so many times before.
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And I opened the door to get out, and I stepped out, and I turned to say,
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I love you, Daddy. Thanks a bunch for bringing me to school.
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I'll see you this evening.
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Can't wait to tell you what's happened today, which was a common event.
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When I turned to tell him I loved him, he turned towards me,
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and he said, Kim, me, there's a common Kimmy.
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Kimmy, if God had sent you to the woman at the well, Where would she be today?
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And there was silence.
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As I shut the door and turned to walk away, all I could hear in my heart and
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my mind was, if God had sent you to the woman at the well, where would she be today?
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So I walked through the hallways, went to the locker, did all I needed to do.
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And I continued through the morning to think about this on and off.
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But I knew what my dad was asking me.
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I knew my dad was asking me to search my soul,
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and to see if my reputation and the things that were important to me and my
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conveniences and my pride in my heart to be known as this godly good girl that
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was quickly becoming useless,
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for anybody other than somebody who was churched.
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I knew what he was asking me was Is that how God would have you to be?
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Is that who you're supposed to be reaching? What about the one that really needs Jesus?
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The one who needs to know why it is that you live like you live.
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What about the woman at the well? Well, I didn't make it through school that whole day.
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I left at lunch. I called. He came and got me.
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My heart was stirred. My mind was flying,
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and I knew that I needed to have another conversation, this time with my mom
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and dad, about what he really was asking.
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And I believe in some ways that the Lord was using my dad to really bring home this message.
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I'm not sure that my dad in any way knew that it was going to affect me the
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way it did mentally or emotionally for that moment, but it really wasn't my dad.
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It was the Holy Spirit convicted me and God had used the very person who had
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taught me so much about Jesus.
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To be able to reach me so that God could change me.
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And at that moment in time, as we were sitting around the kitchen table and
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we began to speak of the woman at the well again.
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I realized that God would have sent others perhaps, but I would have missed
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the blessing of being the one to be used of God, to go where someone else was
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and bring them to where I was.
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That's what Jesus was always doing.
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He was going to the lost, the unloved, the unclean, the forgotten, and the forsaken.
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And he was bringing them to where he was, and he was changing them and transforming them.
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And I learned at that moment that my job in life was to go get the ones that
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everybody else had forsaken, that the devil had beaten, and along with those
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who were seemingly okay,
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but that everybody had to come to Jesus like the woman at the well did because
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they were undone and they were unclean regardless of their social status,
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regardless of their habits, regardless of their morals, regardless of their integrity.
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None of that really mattered. It was, do they believe in
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Jesus Christ and have they given their life
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to jesus and have they accepted his
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free gift of salvation and allowed him to come
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in and cleanse us cleanse us i had realized at
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that moment that i came to jesus exactly like
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the woman at the well even though if you look at me on the
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outside at that time i looked like i hadn't done any of those things and i hadn't
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sinned as she did but i had sinned because i had not lived the life that christ
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had lived and i had not done what he asked me to do and so what i realized was
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that outward appearances.
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And moral walks isn't what Jesus is talking about.
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He's talking about a personal relationship with him. And when you have that
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personal relationship, then you will clearly follow and obey. And he will clean you up.
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Because the woman at the well leaves him filled to never thirst again.
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And she walks out saying, come see a man who showed me all things ever I did.
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Is not this the Christ?
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And so many years passed and I
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still heard that from time to time old habits die hard and my parents were really
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molding me and making me into what I believe God has called me to today but
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I found myself one crisp cold fall sitting at the bedside of my dad,
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and he was in his last few hours of
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life and by the grace and miraculous mercy
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of god he could talk to us and everyone left the room and it was just me and
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daddy and he looked up at me and once again he told me about the woman at the
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well only this time was tears in his eyes,
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and, as always, amazing love in his voice.
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He said, Kimmy, it's okay.
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You get it. You've got it right. It wasn't long after that that he passed away.
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A conversation I've never forgotten, and I pray to God I never do.
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I've continued to dig and to stay rooted and grounded in John chapter 4,
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trying to never forget who the woman at the well was.
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And so, what seemed like forever after that was just a few years.
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I had an opportunity to fill in for someone on the radio.
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And God was there, and God had opened the door, and it was incredibly successful
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because of his touch upon that.
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And when I walked out of the studio, the people in the studio were like,
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you really need to have a ministry.
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You really need to have a program. And I was so overwhelmed,
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and I really didn't know what I had just seen happen. And I was trying to process everything.
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And as I was walking out of the studio door, the man says to me, you have to have a name.
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You can't be on the radio without a name. There are a few other things you have to have, too.
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But he said, without a name. And he said, so be thinking about what the name will be.
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And I turned around within seconds.
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I said, it's Woman at the Well Ministries. because that name had been chosen decades before.
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So when you see Women at the Well Ministries, look past the gender and see the
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purpose because our purpose is to bring Jesus to all people because we all must
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come to Jesus as the woman at the well came to Jesus.
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And that's why we are Women at the Well Ministries. Thank you so much.
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I know the story but sitting across from you and listening to the story and
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watching you tell the story gave me as much joy as I believe it gave all those that are listening.
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So you said that you continued to spend a lot of time in John chapter 4.
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If there was one takeaway, one verse, one part of John chapter 4 that just sticks
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with you, that you always go back to, what would it be?
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John 4, 29, Come see a man which told me all things ever I did is not this, the Christ.
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When I see that verse, I'm inspired and motivated to tell all people what Jesus did for me.
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And I am confident he'll do that very thing for them because he looks beyond our fault.
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Sees our need. And my purpose in life has always been, come see a man.
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I want my life to show others Jesus. I want to reveal His love,
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His grace, and His mercy through my words, my actions, and my heart's desire.
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Amen. Amen. When I look at John chapter 4, I think one of the verses that always
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just jumps out at me is 4-4, where it says, and he must needs go through Samaria, right?
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Because that was unsafe, right? It was unsafe.
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The disciples were trying to get him to not go that way, but he must needs go.
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That phrase, must needs go, just thrills me to my soul, because as much as he
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must needs go to get to that woman at that well,
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he had to go to get to where I was today.
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I understood and I had my divine appointment with Jesus.
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Amen, hallelujah. He had to go to be where you were for your divine appointment.
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And he had to be there for the divine appointment that everyone that is listening,
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if they have come to know him as Savior, has had.
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And if you haven't known Jesus as your Savior yet.
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He's there, and He must need to go to be in a place so that you can hear it
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from Him in your heart and get it on that particular day,
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on that particular divine appointment. He's there waiting.
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And if I learned anything from the countless hours, if you add up all the moments
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we spoke with my mom and dad about Woman at the Will,
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if we added up all those moments, what I have learned is that sometimes you
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have to go where you are uncomfortable, unwanted.
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Unsure. But when we put our faith and trust in Him, we'll be fully confident,
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completely sure, and He will make a way.
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Well, thank you for joining us in this podcast of Women at the Well Ministries.
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Remember that you are loved, and Jesus loves you.
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Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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references from this episode in the show notes.
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We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's word.
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You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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and on Facebook and Instagram.
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While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's Daily Devotional,
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delivered Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit Podcast.