Latest / Intimacy After Infidelity | Cut Contact, Rebuild Trust, Shed Shame, Avoid Divorce, Forgiveness for Adultery / 120 | The woman caught in adultery: a guided encounter with Jesus from John 8

Transcript

120 | The woman caught in adultery: a guided encounter with Jesus from John 8 · Intimacy After Infidelity | Cut Contact, Rebuild Trust, Shed Shame, Avoid Divorce, Forgiveness for Adultery

Hello, friend.
Welcome back to the show.
I'm so grateful you're here with me today.
What if the most shame-filled moment of your life was the exact moment that Jesus chose to show up? Not to lecture you, not to hand you a list of everything you did wrong, not to remind you what you actually deserve, but what if Jesus knelt down beside you and He cleared the room of any people that were trying to speak against you? And what if Jesus spoke first? If you are the woman who is sitting in the wreckage of something you never imagined would be part of your story, and if the shame is so heavy that you can barely breathe, I want you to stay with me today because we are going to step inside of a story that was written just for you friend, before we jump in today, can we pause a second and celebrate? I want to celebrate with you what God is doing, and that is that God is having His message go forth for women like me, women like you, who at one point thought we were alone, we thought that shame was gonna be the end of our story, and it's not.
God is building His kingdom of sisters who are linking arms and saying, "Yes, me too," and there's more.
Friend, I'm celebrating that this podcast has crossed 50,000 downloads of these episodes.
Friend, that is phenomenal.
That is huge, and I know if you're not in the podcasting world, that probably sounds like just a number.
But friend, to me, each number represents a woman who has listened to at least one or more of these episodes, a listener who has heard hope, a listener who has felt loved and seen, a listener who has heard a one nugget of wisdom and God's truth.
And so friend, if you've been here from day one, thank you so much, and maybe this is your first episode and you're just tuning in, thank you so much for joining us.
And because of all of this, because I want to celebrate, I want to do a giveaway for you.
I'm always talking about how I want to get to know your name.
I would love to just sit with you and hear your story.
And so I wanna give away two free calls for women who win this giveaway.
All you need to do to enter, this is the easiest thing you'll ever do, is to go to the podcast, specifically on Apple Podcasts.
Leave me an honest review.
What have you loved about the show? What would you love to see more of? Send me a screenshot of your review.
Send it to me on email, on Instagram, on Facebook, anywhere.
I'm, I'm available lots of places, and you will be entered to win a free coaching call with me.
No strings attached.
Just leave an honest review, and you might win a free coaching call.
I would love to meet you and hear your story, and it would mean the world to me to get your feedback because I am very excited for the next 50,000.
So stepping in today, I wanna sit with you because I know what it feels like to be where you are right now.
I know what it's like to have done something that y- honestly you didn't think that you were capable of, to look in the mirror- And not even recognize yourself.
To feel like shame has soaked all the way through.
Like, it's, it's not just something that you did, but now this whole story is something that you are.
I know what it's like to lie awake at night with that voice on repeat.
How could you? Look at the mess you've created.
You are done for.
I know what it's like to wonder if God can even look at you, 'cause after all, He can't look at sin, right? To wonder if God even still wants you, and to know that, yeah, forgiveness is real.
It's possible for other women, but I'm not so sure for me.
Friend, I have been there, sitting on my bed with my head in my hands, crying out to God with the only honest prayer that I had left, "God, I just want my dignity back."
And friend, that is exactly why I created Rooted in Joy, because I needed what it offers, and it didn't exist at that time.
I needed a space where women who are carrying exactly this kind of pain, they can heal together their body, their mind, their heart, their soul, and it's safe.
There's no shame, no pressure, and where no one has to pretend that they're further along than they really are.
So friend, if your heart is stirring just a little bit, would you DM me and let's talk about whether Rooted in Joy is your next right step.
Okay, now, onto meeting Jesus.
I wanna tell you something about the woman in John chapter 8 before we step into her story.
This woman did not go looking for Jesus that morning.
She was not on her way to the temple to pray.
She wasn't seeking healing or a miracle or Jesus's teaching.
She was dragged to go see Jesus that day.
She was exposed.
She was brought into the most public, humiliating moment of her life with no warning and no choice.
The men who brought this woman to Jesus, they weren't interested in her restoration.
They were using her as a trap.
The law said that she should be stoned for committing an act of adultery, and they wanted to see what Jesus would do with that.
Here's a historical detail that I want you to know.
Under Roman law, Jewish leaders had lost the authority to carry out capital punishment.
So this wasn't just about her sin.
It was also a political and religious power play.
She was essentially a prop in their argument, a body that they dragged into the dirt to make a point.
And Jesus saw through all of it, and he did not engage their argument at all.
Instead, he knelt down, he started writing in the dirt, and he honored her as a human with dignity.
We don't know what Jesus wrote in the dirt.
Scholars have debated this for centuries.
Some people think that maybe Jesus was writing down their sins.
Some say he was writing the law and the scripture back to them.
But what I know is this.
While they were loud and accusatory, and they were certain of the penalty she deserved, Jesus actually got quiet, and he got low, and he brought that energy of the crowd all the way down.
And one by one, when these religious leaders realized that they too had sin in their heart, they left until it was just her and Jesus.
And that is where I want to take you today.
Now, I want to invite you into something a little bit different today.
If you're driving, stay present and listen, or feel free to pause this and come back to it later when you're home.
But if you're somewhere where you can close your eyes and pause for just a minute, I want to invite you to do that, to take a slow breath, and I want to invite you to step inside this story.
This isn't just history.
It's an encounter, and it's for you.
I want you to picture yourself in Jerusalem.
Early morning, the air is cool, the light is golden and low, and you can hear the sounds of the city beginning to wake up.
Merchants and voices, maybe the distant sound of the temple bells.
And then, all of a sudden, hands, hands that are grabbing you, pulling you.
You don't have time to think.
You're being moved through these busy streets that you don't recognize, and the faces around you are such a blur.
Your heart begins pounding.
Your throat is tight.
And now you know what you did.
And now so does everyone else.
Suddenly you're pushed into this open space, the temple courts, and there's people everywhere, teachers and crowds, and the men who brought you are already speaking, shouting loudly about you, about what you deserve.
And you can't look up.
You're staring at the ground, the dust, your own bare feet.
The accusations are flying, and the words land like stones before the real stones do.
This woman caught in the act, the law says, "Jesus, what do you say?" And then silence.
Not the silence that follows a verdict, but the silence of something shifting.
You hear movement, and you sense someone is crouching down where your eyes are.
Close to you, not to grab you, but just to be near you and present.
You still can't manage to look up yet, but something in your body notices that the energy in this crowd has changed.
You hear the scratch of something being written in the dirt.
And just that, it's quiet and unhurried.
And then voices one by one trailing away, footsteps that are leaving.
And suddenly the space around you feels empty.
And he speaks, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" And you look up for the first time.
This is the moment I want you to pause in.
Study his face.
It's not what you expected.
No disgust, no impatience, no tally of everything you've done wrong held behind his eyes.
There's no performance of mercy that barely conceals contempt.
His face is kind, curious, and present, like you are the only person in the entire city of Jerusalem right now, like he's been waiting for exactly this moment, not to catch you or correct you, but to find you.
And you realize he already knows everything, every detail, every choice that led to this morning He knows every layer of your story, your desires, your wound, and your wandering.
And yet, He has stayed.
And you hear yourself say, "No one, Lord.
No one has condemned me."
And He says, "Neither do I condemn you."
Let that land.
Not just, "I forgive you, but here's what you owe me."
Not just, "Well, I'll let this one go, but don't push it."
And not, "You're on thin ice.
Be careful."
He said, "Neither do I condemn you."
Grace first, before anything else, before the direction to go and sin no more, before He gives you the next step, before the future, He pauses.
You are not condemned.
I want you to notice what happens in your body when you hear that.
Maybe you feel your shoulders drop slightly.
Friend, that's real.
That's your nervous system receiving something true.
Maybe something loosens in your chest, in your heart.
Stay there.
Don't rush past that.
Friend, if tears are tempted to come, please let them.
That's not weakness.
It's actually release.
This is what grace feels like in a body that has been bracing for punishment.
This is your body learning, maybe for the first time, that safety is possible, that you are not in danger here, that the one who knows everything about you is not raising his hand against you.
He is with you.
And from that place, from that exhale, those dropped shoulders, that moment of feeling, "I'm not condemned," then Jesus speaks the rest, "Go and sin no more."
You see, He gives direction after the grace.
He gives you forward mo- movement after safety.
He gives you a future after the worst morning of your life.
He doesn't send you back into the world with shame strapped to your back or that scarlet letter A on your chest.
But instead, He sends you forward with something entirely different living in your bones.
Friend, take one more breath, and when you're ready, come back to the room that you're standing in.
I want to speak for just a moment about what happened in your body, because this matters.
Most of us were waiting for the punishment before we even pressed play today.
So many of you come to me and, and ask that honest question, "Will you pressure me to tell my husband? Will you pressure me to cut off contact immediately?" We have been so conditioned by shame, by religion, by our own inner critic to believe that the first thing God does when He sees us is correct us, to hold up the list, to remind us what we owe and what we should be doing.
But that's not what Jesus did, and it's not what He does with you.
Grace comes first.
Because your body, your soul cannot receive direction when you are in a place of fear.
You cannot heal from a place of threat, and you most certainly cannot dream about your future when every cell in you is still bracing for impact.
But when your shoulders drop first, and then the exhale comes, and then safety comes, then when Jesus says, "Go and sin no more," then that becomes something you can actually walk out.
Not from obligation, not from fear of punishment, but from a woman who has just been met and seen and given her dignity restored.
I also talk about this in, uh, the last podcast episode, one nineteen, how grounding your body into safety has to come before any major decision.
This is the spiritual dimension of that same truth.
Grace regulates you.
Mercy is not just theological, it's physiological.
It's in your body, and Jesus knew that.
He designed you that way.
So here's what I want you to know about that declaration that that woman carried out of the temple courts that morning.
She was not just forgiven, she was also sent.
Jesus told her to go.
That word is active and forward-moving.
It assumes that she has somewhere to be and someone to become.
Jesus didn't say, "Sit here and process this for a while, and then when you're ready, I'll give you your next job."
No, in that moment, he said, "Go."
He believed in the version of her that existed on the other side of that moment.
And friend, Jesus believes that same thing about you, too.
So the question I wanna leave you with is, how do you actually walk that out when the shame comes back at 10:00 PM, when that inner voice starts in again, when the next hard moment arrives and you need to know what to do with your thoughts and your body and your heart and your future? That is the work, sister.
It's brutiful.
It's pretty brutal, but it is so beautiful and sacred.
It's not work that was designed to be done alone.
So I would love, love for you to reach out.
Let's get connected so that I can just send you a prayer and a word of encouragement.
Now, in Rooted in Joy, in the group, twice a month I send out Bible studies similar to this, where we look at a portion of Scripture, we help it sink deep inside of us, and we carry it with us into our day.
And so I want to give you a declaration from the devotional that I wrote on this specifically.
Repeat this for yourself today: Jesus, you don't condemn me, and I won't condemn myself.
I am washed completely clean.
I am fully forgiven, and I am free to walk in your love today.
Friend, say it as many times as you need to.
Write it down on a note card and carry it with you.
Put it somewhere that you'll see, even tonight.
So here's my invitation for you today.
If, again, this episode just has your heart stirring, maybe asking some questions, if that visualization landed kinda real and tender inside of you, and if you're sitting there thinking, "I don't even know what to do with this," friend, I want to hear from you.
I am not inviting you to a sales page.
I'm inviting you to a conversation.
Send me a DM, email me, let me know that you listened to this episode.
Tell me what stirred inside of you.
You don't even have to have any specific right words.
You don't have to have it all figured out with what you need next.
Just reach out and say, "I heard this and something inside of me shifted."
And then we'll talk about where you are and where God is leading you.
Because the woman that Jesus sent forward from the temple courts that morning, she didn't walk alone.
She had a community to return to.
And so you don't need to walk alone either.
Friend, let's pray.
God, you met that woman in John 8 right where she was.
You gave her your presence.
You gave her your strength and a peace that made no sense to anyone else.
And so God, I ask those same things for my dear sister listening to this.
Would you meet her in your fullness, in your grace? And God, would you bless every single step that she takes towards healing? Show her the woman that you created her to be.
And God, give her the courage to walk forward into that reality.
Thank you for your grace.
Thank you for your forgiveness.
We receive your love today.
Amen.