Latest / How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack / Q & A with Faith

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Q & A with Faith · How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to the How to Faith a Life podcast, where we wrestle with questions on how to live a life of faith, from everything from books to Bible studies, even Bible study tips, this is your place to wrestle with the hard questions and dive deep into what scripture really says for the Christian walk.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast and your favorite podcast streaming services, review this podcast so other people can find it, and share with other believers who want to ask the hard questions.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, with all that said, let's begin.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, and welcome to the second episode of the How to Faith the Life podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Today I am answering more of your questions.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you missed it, Joe and I did a questions and answers on our last road trip back home, and we didn't even get to scratch the surface on those questions.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so today I figured I would sit down and give you like my unedited, like first off, I haven't even like read these questions, just like my raw and real answers to your questions if you were sitting here in my studio with me and you just like spurred them on me.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let me pull up the page.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, first question.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um what do you look for when quote unquote shopping for a new home church?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And what would Joe do?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Joe isn't here, but I'm going to answer on his behalf, as I all too often try and do.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I try and answer for him.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys know the dynamic um between Joe and I, he is a lot more quiet than I am, and he takes a moment to think, which is wisdom.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I, however, get very excited.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, let me just put in my two cents.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it annoys me how often I can try and speak for him.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, anyway, it's been a humbling experience to watch raw footage of Joe and I talking because I'm like, faith, give him a moment.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, once again, I'm going to speak for him and try and answer your question because he is not here today.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's actually at the church working.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have a babysitter watching the boys.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those days where we just need to catch up on work.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to have to do my best on answering this question for him.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Shopping for a new home church is really tricky because, like you put shopping in quotations, Marks, who asked this?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Steadfast faith, you asked this.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Great question.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Shopping is, you know, everybody cringes when we talk about shopping for a church because churches are the body of Christ.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: We are the church.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: If we have the Holy Spirit living within us, the church worldwide looks so different.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's shaped by culture, it's shaped by um location, it's shaped by so many different things.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: But in our Western day and age, in this modern, you know, day and age where you can just like literally church hop, especially if you're in the south, there's a church on every single corner.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it can feel like you're shopping.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I would encourage you to view this a lot less like shopping for the best option and a whole lot more like God, where are you calling me?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Which I'm assuming you probably already have that mindset.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, pay attention to are they producing fruit?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are they producing disciples?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not less so about like it's really easy to measure things, like how many baptisms they did in the last year, or how many new babies or new converts or weddings or, you know, deacons or elders?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's less look less words, look less at the numbers and um what man looks at and look a lot more at the heart.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is the pastor or the church leadership humble?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are they discipling others or are they on their own little holy hill?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what is their outreach programs?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do they care for the poor?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you look at the early church, like historical documents after historical documents just show how the early, early church, they were the modern day um homeless shelter.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: There was no need for secular homeless shelters because the church fed and housed the poor.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: They cared for the widow and the orphan, like scripture calls us to.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, if your church takes part in that kind of stuff, that is the church to go to.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I would also encourage you to pay attention to your household needs.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So pay a lot less attention to the type of music.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Although that's important, a lot of people I think make it about entertainment and lights and music.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys are on my channel, you'll know that's like that's not what we pay attention to.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: We want to pay attention to, you know, hey, I have kids in my household and they need like a strong kids program.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, you know, I want to start a kids program and I want to be in the leadership of that.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you could go to a church without a kids program, but I would encourage you just to pay attention to the needs of your family.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: If this church doesn't have a very strong online presence and um you go through seasons, like maybe you have um immune system that's weakened and you have to be at home sometimes, or going through chemo or something like that, where there's times where you're gonna be homebound or you're gonna be what they call a shut-in and not be able to go to church, you want to go to a church or be a member supporting a church that has a strong online presence.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you just really want to take into consideration all of your household needs.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my parents, um, this is like a quick, really inside scoop onto my family.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Before my parents were divorced, um, I grew up in a household with two sisters.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And my older sister, she was four years older than me.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: She's now passed on.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: She's not living anymore.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: She went through a season of life where she was really, really struggling in her faith and started rebelling.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And my parents kind of made a decision.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, we're either going to pull her from public school and put her in a private school and change churches and really get her involved in like um maybe a church with kind of what we would call a mega church with a bigger, more showy youth program.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or we're just gonna put her in a boarding school and just send her off for experts to counsel her and teach her and things like that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately that is what they decided to do.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if you asked them today, I know for sure my mother would say that she wishes they would have done that first option.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just taken her out of public school, put her in a private school, and put her in options and in places, I should say rather, that would have served her needs.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, she was looking for like a cool church.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we went to a small little Southern Baptist church, which was beautiful and amazing, but it wasn't what her friends went to.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she was wanting to see Jesus in a cool light, I think, you know?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, I mean, don't read too much into that.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's faults in that, but I think you really do have to pay attention to what your family needs.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I share that little piece of my sister's story and my parents' story to say um sometimes the Lord will nudge you and say, Hey, maybe you need to seek out a stronger youth group or a youth group that will fit your child's needs a little bit better.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the church will shame you.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes the church will make you feel like, how dare you leave us?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't need the lights and the music, and you don't.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I think parents also know what's best for their kids.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, whether they have a strong children's program or they don't, whether they just need you super involved and you can't be super involved because of your kids.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's so many different aspects.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I would be a whole lot less cut and dry of like, don't pay attention to the music.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do what you need to do for your family.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna tell you don't pay attention to the music, don't pay attention to the lights, only pay attention to their outreach ministries.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think you really need to pay attention to what your family needs, but some of the core um fruit of a church is um the outworkings of like discipleship, of their fruit, of their caring for the poor, things like basic things that God called us to do and be as a church.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really convoluted.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know that was like just throwing stuff at you, but those are my first um thoughts towards looking at churches and kind of quote unquote shopping for churches, um, for lack of a better term, because I don't know your individual situation and your personal needs for your family.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not even married, maybe you're a single person, go to a church with like singles ministries, because I know that's like a big pitfall in a lot of churches, is they just fail to have singles ministry.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's like on the back burner of the back burner of the back burnie.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Bernie of the back burner.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the most important things I think churches need to lean into.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, let's keep on moving.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jenny Mendoza said, I'm not sure if you guys finished filming.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: We did, but now I'm filming a podcast.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you're good, Jenny.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another question I have is Is it better to study the Bible from beginning to end or just randomly choosing a book from the Bible and studying it?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: She said she's currently doing that.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: She says, I think that has been easy on me, and I am studying the books that I've curious to learn and I focus better.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a beginner and I know nothing about Bible studying or journaling, just wondering.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jenny, that's a great question.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I would encourage you to attack specific books.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Attack.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: That sounded really like crazy and vicious and warlike, but seriously, go attack them.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like grab your little Bible journaling pen, like a spear, and attack that book of the Bible.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Eat it up.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jenny, uh, yeah, go to the books where you feel a nudging, where you feel an interest.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you don't have um books of the Bible that you're interested in, make sure you've covered like John, James, Ephesians, Galatians.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of those epistles are like some of the best places to start.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Gospels, of course, are a really great place to start.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Joe and I, in our questions and answers video, we actually gave kind of like a new Bible studyers um list of like I think I think we said start in John, then jump over to like the beginning of Genesis, then finish John, then finish Genesis, then go to some of the epistles, and you can find that there.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, definitely just start with a book of the Bible at a time.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you kind of get like, I don't know, 10 to 15 books underneath your belt, maybe even less than that, then go on to moving the Bible to reading the Bible all the way through.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you don't like sometimes people just feel like you need to read the Bible all the way through, or you're not a good Christian until you've read every single word of every single page in your Bible.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just not true.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: That, my friends, is legalism.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the gospel.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you're totally good, Jenny.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just eat up God's word and fuel the fire, the faith that God has planted within your heart.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Next up, Linda says, What has been your biggest joy in ministry?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: By far, our biggest joy in ministry for Joe and I has been the fruit and relationships and living alongside people.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there is nothing that can replace living life with other people.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of my biggest pushbacks when people are like, eh, I just don't like, I just don't want to be in the church right now.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I if you can, it is the biggest, greatest pleasure in the world as a believer on this side of heaven to get a picture of heaven and to commune with other believers.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you are gonna get hurt.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: That church will hurt you.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Other believers will hurt you, but you will never taste the sweetness and the greatness of fellowship with other believers until you put yourself out there and you're willing to face hurt or to face uncomfortability in order to get that heaven-bound communion and fellowship with other believers.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we're called to it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Ashelle Ash Delyn3 says, favorite and least favorite things about ministry.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, another ministry question.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you think your church or the big C church should engage in digital ministry?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, okay.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I talk a little bit about digital ministry in my video where I talked about women's ministries and the pitfalls in that.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I will summarize that.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: But first thing, favorite and least favorite things about ministry.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, once again, favorite thing in ministry would be living alongside people.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, like in my online ministry space, I don't really get to do that except for my patrons, particularly those in the top tier.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: We meet every single Tuesday night.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm filming this on a Tuesday, so I'm all excited to talk with them tonight.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we fellowship, we share prayer requests, we share little pieces of scripture that are on mind, but mainly we just live alongside each other and spiritually encouraging each other that way.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then once a month we have a big Bible study as all of my patrons.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: But um that is like our most greatest joys is living alongside other believers and mutually being encouraged, held accountable, all of that in the faith.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, least favorite things about ministry would just be the fact that it's draining.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I read somewhere recently, um, they pointed out that Jesus only ministered for three years.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And yet we look at ourselves in ministry and we're like, ooh, I need to keep on going.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I need to keep on pushing.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not doing enough.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't been here long enough.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't planted enough seeds or whatever.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, it's not about us.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself did, you know, only quote unquote three years of ministry.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think I was pushing Joe and I like to think more, or I was pushing Joe to give us room to think a little bit more about resting and um maybe taking a some sort of like sabbatical of sorts.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I think he needs that, and sometimes I've needed that and had to take that.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: The beginning of the summer, I really did that a lot of just pulled back from my channel and just filmed like the bare minimum and um seminary had just finished, and I just like tried to feed my soul.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the hard part about ministry, is it does, it can be really costly and you can't pour from an empty cup.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think your church?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, digital ministry.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so digital ministry is huge.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um look at any single person today and how they spend their time.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know about you guys, but if you haven't been doing um, if you have an Apple phone, I know for sure they do this.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: They they record how much of your screen time you take.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I forget, I think it's like on settings or something.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I just recently enabled it on my phone and I was like, wow, this is really informative.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea I spent so much time on my phone.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And granted, some of that is responding to comments or emails or whatever, but um the average person anywhere today spends many hours on their phone, like so many hours in the digital world, if not their entire day on their computer, their laptop is the same thing as computer.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: What else?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: iPad phone, y'all get it.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if churches are not engaged in digital ministry, they're not ministering.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're well, I mean, they're ministering in person, but they're not ministering today to people today.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're maybe ministering in an archaic way, and this is like really harsh language, but I truly believe the church has got to use the language of today to reach people today.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that doesn't mean like bad language, and that doesn't mean sinful language, but that means like if people are communicating primarily digitally, the church needs to have a presence digitally.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean you're a bad church if you're not digital, but um get there, be there because the Lord is using it, and there's no greater way to reach the masses quicker than digitally.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was recently or I am currently reading, um I can't even think of the title of the book, but um yeah, I can't even think of the title of the book.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll mention it in my podcast coming up where I talk about the books I read in July, which is a growing list.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I'm just flying through books now that I'm not in seminary.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, and he was talking about Yancey, Philip Yancey, something about who is Jesus.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it's a big book, like millions of copies have been sold.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he talked about how Jesus could have been born in any single age.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: He could have been born today and he would have reached so many more people, but but j but Jesus purposely chose to be born in the first century where there's not, you know, newspapers and the internet to just blast his name everywhere and to be digital proof of his miracles.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I thought that was a really beautiful way to say, like, yes, digital ministry and being online is beautiful, but of course, God is still gonna work despite that.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have the means and if you have the time, of course, say Lord use me here.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: This episode of the How to Faith Alive podcast is sponsored by Kairos.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: They offer tutoring services for those who are looking to study Greek and Hebrew, primarily serving lay people.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Their intention is to have small class sizes, online Zoom classes, and it is a service where you get to learn the languages without the pressure of tests and quizzes and all of the typical seminary school vibes.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Without grades, it's the freedom to study and to learn for the joy of it and for better understanding guidesword.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to join me in a class this upcoming July, check out their website and use the code FAIT for 10% off, which is a huge discount for the price of these classes.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in my class and thank you to Kairos for sponsoring this episode.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jessica Lawrence says, I've always wondered what the Bible says about single moms.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up never knowing what I wanted to do for a career because I just wanted to be a wife and a mom.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: The wife part just never happened.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm an overworked single mom with a special needs kids, and I feel like we don't fit in.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Laugh out loud, silly, I know.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Jessica, um, I would say that is not a like the church sometimes is really bad about communicating.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: A woman is incomplete until she's married, and um obviously our only completeness is in Christ.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, He is our everything.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not us being married.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think sometimes the church can without words communicate to you that um, yeah, you don't belong if you're not married.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I apologize on behalf of other pastors' wives or churches that have made you feel um like you don't belong.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think the church, because we're still broken sinners on the side of heaven, can really hurt each other when people don't fall into our framework of what we think a perfect biblical wife would be.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I should probably just make a whole video about that.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've been really struggling or struggling, I've been really reading um Biblical Womanhood.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I have been struggling with it, of like, wow, I really thought biblical womanhood was the 1950s stay-at-home wife, and it has just been blown out of the water of like that's super contextualized, that's super privileged Western way of thinking about biblical womanhood.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've been really grateful that the Lord's humbled me in that way because I had a really closed-minded mindset on that.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, yeah, single moms, you have a child with special needs, you have a great point.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, uh, I think actually someone said, Yeah, Valentina underneath said, I don't think that's silly at all.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: You have you've got a great point, and it's easy by laying down your future and life to God's plans, little by little, he will show you the way, whether he's preparing a man for you or your strength as a mother of special needs kids is being developed.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: IDK, only he does.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so I would agree with Valentina, like you have a really interesting role in the church, and while the church is probably in its own weakness, not being mindful of your unique needs as a mother to a special needs kid and a single mom, um, you have the giftedness of bringing to light, of being a light in the church and saying, Hey, any other single moms, I'm here for you and I can speak truth into you, and the Lord meets me, the Lord is my perfect husband, the Lord um is my strength and my redeemer.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the Bible with single moms really, really interesting.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right off the bat, single moms.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, I think of women who were like sister wives, um, which is not the same as a single mom.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um sorry, let me just think for a second.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, widows ultimately in the Bible age, sorry, thank you for giving me a second just to think.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately in the Bible, the Lord, like we miss everything if you miss Deuteronomy like over and over and over again at the heart of who God is and what he calls his people to be, it's to care for the orphan and the widow.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Christians who diminish that really just I'm like, have you read the Old Testament recently, dude?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go read the Old Testament.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's like core to our faith.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I would put not I don't it sounds like you're not a widow.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I wouldn't put you in that camp, but I would say the church fails when we don't have in mind those um the single moms, um, the kids with special needs.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is the heart God's heart is for the quote unquote underdogs, those who are overlooked by society and taken for granted and told to buck up and try harder.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I almost I don't know why I hesitate to say this, but the single mom of a child with special needs is closer to God than the mom who's got it all together with a perfect family and stay at home and makes fresh bread every single day and has everything together, you know, and like has that perfect Christian look of what we think a Christian needs to be.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because the single mom of the child with special needs knows so much more about how she needs a savior, and she can't forget her need for a savior because she can barely make it through a single day.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, Jessica, you are an encouragement to me just to imagine.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I woke up this morning and I was in a bad mood because we didn't do the dishes last night, and I was like, Joe, you should have done the dishes because I cooked the dinner and you said you would do them, and I was in a cranky mood, and it hit me actually when I was cleaning up this morning, those dishes.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, imagine if I was a single mom.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: This would be my every single day.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I would never be able to catch up.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I you are a warrior, Jessica.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And while the church um often forgets those who don't do not fall in the majority group, you are not forgetted by or forgetted, forgotten by our Lord and Savior, and he loves you, and you are um close to the Lord in your struggles and be that light to the church to remind them, oh no, no, guys, we don't have it figured out.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if that helps because I'm not speaking from wisdom or um I've not been there, but um, I just want you to know that your testimony of how the Lord has is working through you even today, being a mom of a special needs um child and a single mom at that um can is convicting and encouraging me all at once.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's see.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we've been going for a while.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trey Palacios.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Due to recent medical diagnosis, it revealed holes that I have in my knowledge of the Christian faith.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was born to a Christian family.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: My predominant question that is leading me on my recent journey, what does God actually say about healing?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so she keeps going, but she says she talked about like praying in tongues and Christians have this ability to see the solution of healing.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, okay.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I do not come from a charismatic background.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be completely honest with you.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um Joe and I recently visited a charismatic church, and that was like a Great cultural moment, super humbling that we didn't understand certain things that were going on.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sounds like maybe you are in a charismatic church or visited one.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um you're gonna get mixed points of views on this topic of speaking in tongues.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Some people will say that was just the apostolic age when the apostles walked the earth.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some people will say that's rampant and still working and like happening amongst the spirit today.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have zero closed mind towards it.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think um you I think the spirit is amazing and works in different ways everywhere.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if we were, if I was serving in a church in Africa, I would not be surprised to see the Holy Spirit work um speaking in tongues at all.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I and I wouldn't say that's not the Holy Spirit for sure.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I think oftentimes when we give the Spirit room um to be the Holy Spirit and not to have him or it pegged down to a certain way.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, you have to look this certain way.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we will be amazed by the boundaries that the Holy Spirit will break, um the human rules.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I kind of have like a whatever, however God wants to work kind of way.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if it becomes showy and takes the attention off of um the gospel and God's glory, that's when you you want to kind of scratch your head and say, hmm.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: But in regards to healing, I would encourage you to less pursue, if I had spiritual gifts, let me go get healing.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if I could just speak in tongues, maybe I'll get healing.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or if I can go talk to this pastor and him pray for me, then maybe I would get healing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to focus a lot less on that today and um a bit more about God doesn't promise healing on this side of the earth, but he promises that he will bring you spiritual healing, that he um has already provided, paid for, um, made that atonement on the cross, and that we have that that is the ultimate healing that your heart yearns for while you are in pain.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have a sister who um got traumatic brain injury, and she's in pain every single day of her life.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Every single day.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like um a belt is tightening on her head every single day.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: It just gets tighter and tighter.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I've watched as she has deteriorated and she's in a stronger season now, but I mean, she is a young girl that lives not like a young girl, and lives with problems and fears and pains that she should not have to deal with because of her chronic illness.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like if I was speaking to her, I would encourage her to lean into yes, the pain is horrible, and I don't want to ever diminish that.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Kelly Capack has written a lot of great books on sorrow, pain, lament.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Check out Kelly Capac, um, um, check out Lament for a Son, I forget who wrote that, who wrote that.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: But um lean into the pain and the laments and the lamentations, and also lean into even if all the pain had gone away tomorrow, I would still need the ultimate healing in my heart, God.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And only you can provide that.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um makes me think of thorn in the flesh stuff, and it's so easy for me to say it feels wrong for me to say this because I'm not living in chronic daily pain.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I hesitate to like speak more on this because I don't know everything in your situation, but I do know scripturally, um like a Job situation.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: God sometimes lets us, allows us, um, gives us trials, not because he's testing us really, not because he's wanting us to suffer, not because he's trying to punish us, not because we're doing something wrong, but because he wants to walk through that with us and be our everything.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he promises to do that.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I don't know what the Lord has this side of heaven for you, but I pray that he has um full healing and I will petition the throne room alongside you for that full healing, and um all all the while better and more and fuller and deeper heart-soul healing than even I, someone without chronic pain, can't experience because I just don't know the depths of depravity and and hopelessness and surrender like you do, because you have um the gift or the privilege or the trial of um pain and medical diagnosis.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, one more.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm all over the place, guys.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: These are just like my first gut reactions to these questions, but these are gonna be incomplete because of that.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would encourage the community of faith of believers who watch or listen to this podcast to add to me on the YouTube video that I will post um in the comments below.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Add stuff if I'm just like obviously leaving stuff out.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'm never the best at you using um actual physical scriptural references.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get better at that, but I apologize.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many scriptures I could have referenced, but anyway, share a time of season when you've struggled being in the word and how you've overcome that uh how you've overcome it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I would say honestly, steadfast faith.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have that's sorry, that's who asked this was steadfast faith.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have honestly gone through many seasons.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just a day, maybe three days in a in a month.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: When I go through a tiring, exhausting, boring, not boring, like um just crazy month, I will definitely have a couple days where I'm just struggling being in the word because I'm exhausted and I'm running on empty.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the only solution to that is when I lean into that exhaustion and that sends me into the word and that sends me to go deeper.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've said this multiple times before, but I can never say it enough.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you do not want to spend time in God's word, the very best thing you can do is to go spend time in God's word and not just spend time in it, but go deep.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Pull out the commentaries, pull out the Bible dictionaries, get all the references out, listen to a sermon while you study that passage and go as deep as possible, really take notes, and that fire will just ignite again.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's what I've learned is when I feel tempted to not spend time in the word, or when I feel like I don't have any energy to do that, that's when it's most important for me to do that.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I think part of it is it's some kind of spiritual warfare of the enemy's got you down.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing he wants you to do is get built back up by God's word.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing he wants you to do is get refueled in the promises of the Lord and the promises kept, fulfilled, and yet waiting to come.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right, guys, I hope this was a little fun for you guys to listen to.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I left things out because I am an imperfect center that doesn't have all the wisdom in the world, but I enjoy hearing y'all's questions because it informs my future videos that I'm gonna make and really prayerfully, I'm always prayerfully thinking, meditating on what does my audience need to hear and how can I serve them and learn more to go feed them.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you have any topics or podcast recommendations, video recommendations, all of that, leave down below or further questions.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have plenty of questions to go through where I can do another QA.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys for listening to this podcast.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure to subscribe on the podcast forums that I'm on.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know yet.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say that they can find me on Spotify, some people say that they found me on Apple.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't find me on Apple.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking a while, but we're just throwing these up on YouTube and trusting the process.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks guys for listening.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear the first podcast episode, I'll link it right below this if you're on a listening streaming service or if you're on YouTube.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you guys in the next episode.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Bye guys.