Latest / One Voice Many Conversations / Crushing Strongholds Ep# 050 Special Guest Constance Hastings author of "The Trouble With Jesus"

Transcript

Crushing Strongholds Ep# 050 Special Guest Constance Hastings author of "The Trouble With Jesus" · One Voice Many Conversations

0:02
SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of Crushing the Strongholds.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: This is a podcast where we turn pain into power, trauma into triumph, and a place where we get to expose the lies of the enemy.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: And how do we do that?
0:14
SPEAKER_01: We do that through the word and the truth and the love of Jesus Christ.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: We also do that through testimonies.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: Testimonies of overcoming obstacles and strongholds that have um kept us in places where we didn't need to be, but God pulled us through.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: And I believe the enemy sometimes wants to keep us bound like that, but God wants to bring freedom.
0:31
SPEAKER_01: And through testimonies and sharing people's um experiences in life, that takes us out of that realm.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: I believe in that.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: And today I am so excited to have an amazing guest um to come on today.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: But before I do that, let's start with a word of prayer and let's just welcome um Jesus into our conversation.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: Father God, we just thank you, Lord, for this day.
0:51
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the blessings of this podcast.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we just pray for everyone listening that um our message can resonate and touch the hearts of um anyone that's needing to hear your word, Lord.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: We just ask that you just humble us and help us to deliver the words that you would have us to say today.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: God, we thank you for allowing us this time to be together and have a great conversation.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: We just thank you for blessing everything that we do in our life.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: We just ask that you just minister to this um podcast.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we just thank you so much for everything that you do.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: We just um welcome you today, Lord, and um honor you and praise you, God.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name I pray.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: So my guest today, um, Constance Hazing is her name.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: She's she's amazing.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: She's an author, she's uh a coach, she's wonderful, she's a brilliant, brilliant lady.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to have this conversation with her.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: And um, we're gonna talk about um Christianity and her her walk with the Lord and everything that she's gone through.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: So, Constance, I'm gonna let you come on and say hello and tell our listeners um some information about yourself.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Mickey.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm so pleased to be here, and it is indeed a blessing to speak of uh of the journey that God has given each of us.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And yes, we all have these strongholds, we all meet in challenges.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: That indeed is life, but God walks through it with us, and that is basically how I like to present what God has done in my life.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: I was not raised in a religious home.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: My parents didn't particularly go to church.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, my mother took me to church until I was old enough to be dropped off at the door, and that was more or less just Sunday school and not exactly church in that regard.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: However, I say sometimes for all the wrong reasons.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, my parents, um, as I was starting school, it was during the time of desegregation in our city.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And rather than have me get caught up in that, down the street was a small independent Christian school that wasn't very expensive.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: They felt I would be safe there, and so that's where they sent me.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: But that's also where God met me.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And the teachers there, they loved me, they taught me well, I excelled at Bible study, and um that is where I came to faith in Jesus Christ.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So I sometimes say I shouldn't be where I am today, but it was only because God has led me into this place that I am here and that I have um my life and my life work, and uh even my purpose is in Jesus Christ.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: What a great opening.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: I think it's amazing when um that you actually get to go to a Christian school, but you're not raised in a Christian family.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is outstanding.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it was.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: And now let me be clear.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I was raised in a loving home and well taken care of and so forth.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: But because of what I came to believe, uh having studied the Bible so much, there was um uh a little bit of conflict, not exactly conflict, but maybe let's just call it a mild tension between the way I saw my family living and where I knew Jesus would have us.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: So so I grew up with that.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think that was really impactful on on how I looked into my faith and Christianity and where God eventually led me.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever feel like um, let me see if I can word this correctly, with with that, with that statement that there's ever a point where it was kind of a disconnect because there's such a a difference?
4:43
SPEAKER_01: Because I I know with even my own family, my own life, um, I've always been really close to to Jesus since I was 10 when I got when I got saved, um, at a Billy Graham crusade, mind you.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: But um I I just wanted Jesus so much and I shared him all the time.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: But I feel like when I would talk to other people, I feel like there there was a disconnection between me and them because of what I believed and what maybe they believed.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever did you ever think that way or feel that way?
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and it certainly came out, as I said, in in some of the values in our home.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, um, let's let's just say there were, you know, things like um my my family really liked going to casinos.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Um at one time I had a relative who was showing uh when we visited uh my mother and me this gorgeous set of uh silver.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And uh I mean it was absolutely exquisite.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: And I said to her, um, I said, How much did you pay for this?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And she she said something like a thousand dollars.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: And I was said, wow, that was a steal.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, it was stolen.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it was like and on the way home, um, you know, I said to my mother, why did you have her show me that?
6:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you know how I feel.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know so forth.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, it was but these these were things, you know, you'd be going along fine, you think things were, you know, normal, and then you get slammed with that.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I think we have to remember that people who are living in situations where not everyone around them is a believer, you're going to find that there is, as you put it, certain a disconnect or or it's certainly a big difference in in the values and and how we learn to live.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: I find that sometimes um when I get in those situations and I just I just cannot relate.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, because we want to correlate.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: We want to, we wanna, especially when you're with your family, you you want that that genuine connection.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that we don't have the love or the compassion.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about that connection.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: I'm just talking about like, like you just said, like when I do activities with my family, there's certain things that I don't do because I don't agree with them.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and I'm like, oh man, so like I'm sitting over here, you know, I'll stay over here, whatever, or I'll wait in the car, you know, whatever.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: But um there are times that I find, you know, when I try to get them to engage in what I do, they sit in the car because they don't want to do it either, you know.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: And you just kind of want to bring it, you you know, my heart longs just to bring that unity together and be like, you know, can we just find a happy medium to it, you know?
7:30
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes sometimes I have gotten a little bit sarcastic and I've reminded them.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: I say, um, uh, you know, you you won't get into heaven on my say so.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: I just sort of put that out there.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but then again, when there are funerals, um, I'm the one to speak.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm the one that's you know, sort of like the designated eulogist that's going to help people see God in everyone's life.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: And oh boy, sometimes I do have to stretch, but if we all are made in the image of God, um there you can find that grace in someone's life, uh, even though they may not have lived to have realized it.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying that's easy to do.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: And it certainly sometimes is a struggle in being faithful to the gospel message.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: But I'm also have to say, I'm amazed at how God brings it.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it God never ceases to amaze me on most things because um I, you know, I call them the God moments because he he just I've had so many in my life.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: And people say, you know, the people ask me, you know, why do you believe in this God so much?
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Why do you believe in him?
8:53
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I go, I don't have to um have even the Bible to to for the proof because God has given me the proof already.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: I've seen so many miracles of my own, and um God has walked me through some crazy fires and he's brought me through them.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: And there's times when I was at my you know in my darkest moments and God was present, you know, he was there.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: And um I said, you know, all we have to do is call on him, and he comes, you know.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: He says, just you know, boldly, just call on me boldly, and I'll you know, be bold and call on me.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: And um, and I and I and I always did from the time I was like really young, because like Jesus was my best friend, you know, he was my he was my buddy, you know.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: Everywhere I went, Jesus went, you know, and people thought I was kind of crazy because they're like, This kid thinks she's got Jesus with her.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I do have Jesus with me, don't you?
9:40
SPEAKER_01: You know, I thought that's what this is all about when I was a kid.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: I used to say that and everybody would be like, What is wrong with you?
9:46
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Well, where's your Jesus?
9:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not like he's in your pocket, but he's with you, right?
9:51
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, it kind of frustrates people, but um, I said, Oh, don't worry about it, just just just give it to Jesus, you know, let talk to Jesus about stuff, you know.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: But um, I do have a a question.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: I was I was reading one of your blogs on your website, which you have an amazing website, by the way.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: I definitely high um highly recommend to our listeners that they go in and check out and read some of your blogs because you're great.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: Um one that you were uh that you wrote on March 2nd, which was The Well of Truth.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Um in that one, the what you wrote in the beginning, like it just caught me right off the bat.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of read it for a minute and then I opened it up and had a keep reading a bit.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: So the trouble with Jesus, his conversations don't stay on the surface, something pulling you deeper than you want to go, and and that he drags you in deeper.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: When I was reading this episode, or this blog, I should say, um I I love the woman at the well story.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love this story.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm actually getting ready to do a great big huge workshop on it, so this was very helpful.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh my gosh.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh gosh, thank you for, you know, because I've been really working hard on uh very studious on this on this episode and this workshop and and the and the retreat that we're getting already have and everything.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, man, um what you said about it being not on the surface and going deeper, and then you're talking about how deep the well is, and God goes deeper than you know, He means it's deeper than even the well that we're sitting at.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, like they're sitting at this deep well, and and Jesus is already beneath all of that.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: It's so much deeper, you know, within us, you know.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, man, it just resonated with me.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: Can you can you share a little bit about that with our listeners?
11:32
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to give it all away, I want you to share it.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: All right.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, those who know the story know that there was a Samaritan woman who came to the well where Jesus was um sitting.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: It was the middle of the day, and it was unusual for someone, a woman to come and draw water at that time of the day.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we we know from her story that she had uh a storied past, we could say.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: And she comes there and Jesus speaks to her and he says, give me, uh give me a drink, which was unusual for many levels.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: First of all, um, men and women in that particular culture were not to just suddenly start talking to each other to converse.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, um he was Jewish and she was a Samaritan, and there was deep uh prejudice between the two uh for various racial, ethnic, and religious reasons.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you I mean you you can't draw a finer line on those lines than between Jews and Samaritans.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And uh so she's she's sort of surprised and she says, you know, why are you talking to me?
12:41
SPEAKER_00: And um anyway, as the story goes, it he draws her in, and yet she keeps trying to deflect and and move out from the different things that he is saying to her.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: And so he he brings he rephrases it and he says, if you knew who I was, you would ask me for a drink, and she's her, you know, her head is spinning.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: She she wants to engage with him, but she doesn't want to get too close.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And yet, isn't that how we approach God?
13:15
SPEAKER_00: We want God there, but we don't want God too close.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, as you as you go through the story, here's here's a woman that um, you know, Jesus says to her at one point, go get your husband.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: She says, I don't have a husband.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're right, you you've had five, and the man you're living with isn't your husband now.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, he just sort of um reveals uh what he knows about her.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Now I won't say he exposes her because he doesn't want to bring her to a point of shame, but he just wants to say, Yeah, I I know how your life has gone.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: And um she's she's caught up in in that sort of thing.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: So she has to come to a point where she she uh handles him, and that's probably a lot like she's handled a lot of other men.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: You make them feel good about themselves, but you keep again keep them at a distance, don't reveal too much.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: And so she says, well, um, you know, I I see that you must be a prophet.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And then she switches back and, you know, she's like, okay, we'll we'll we'll talk um we'll talk religion, we'll talk theology, don't talk about me and you know, my past.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: And she says something to the point about the Jews want to worship in Jerusalem, the Samaritans worship in Mount Jerizim, I think it is.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: And she says, What do you think of it?
14:40
SPEAKER_00: And he says, those who worship, worship in spirit and in truth.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: And again, that takes her in a place where she doesn't exactly know where she's going with it.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: And so she makes this comment.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: It probably was sort of off the top of her head, but not, but it had actually taken her into a deeper place.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: And she says, Well, we know when the Messiah comes, we'll know all things.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: And he says, And I am the Messiah.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: He has taken her right where he he wants her.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: He has taken her to the point where he has revealed himself.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: And let's face it, this conversation probably took, you know, less than five minutes.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And yet, in one conversation, her whole life is flipped from this woman who's probably was um, you know, it's hard and it's uh uh I call it armored up, sort of, uh, against the world.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And she had to be that way because she had to, in order to survive.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Women in those days, basically three choices in life.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: You could be a wife, you could be a slave, or you could be a prostitute.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: And in reality, there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the three of them.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And so she, yes, she had been um, you know, passed from man to man and she'd been used up and so forth.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: But this man, he what he wasn't doing that to her.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to bring to her something that would be healing.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about this living water.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: In that living water, which she interprets as, I'll never have to come back to this will again.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: He's bringing to her his truth about how what he has to give to her is more than what she thinks she needs.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: It is indeed um what we would refer to as her salvation, as she's come to see him as Messiah.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: So uh they sometimes call her one of the first evangelists.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: She runs off, she tells everybody in the village, they come back, they hear him, they you know, they believe.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are uh turn up and they go, Hey, what's going on here?
16:53
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm not hungry because he's been fed by what she has brought to him in belief in the belief of the villagers.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing about this living water.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: This happens in John chapter four.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: And John uses this image of water throughout the gospel.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: But there is also two chapters previous to this, the first miracle.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: The first miracle was when Jesus at the wedding changed water into wine.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: But we also know that when his mother said to him, you know, they're out of wine, you got to do something about it.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And he says, What is that to me?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, My time has not yet come.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And there is a blank space there.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't, his mother doesn't respond to him.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: She just turns to the servants and says, Do whatever he asks.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And that's when he says, you know, take the water from these ceremonial jars, pour it out, and we find wine.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: But as that happened, we also have to remember that that which held the wine is also which holds his blood.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: And living water is water that is changed into wine, which is given to us, um, as we know in celebration of the Last Supper, as a cup of wine, which represents his blood that is poured out for us.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: So the living water that he gives is the blood that he has shed so that we, covered with that blood, can know him and know God through him.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: Right.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: I love that you you brought that into that because that's another one of my favorite stories.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: I love that, I love the wedding.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: And um, when I talk to people about his, you know, that being his first miracle.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: And um some people will use that as um, oh, well, you know, Jesus turned the water into wine, so you know, wine is okay, you know.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, I'm gonna whine, I'm gonna whine a little bit about that because I disagree.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean let's not take things out of content, okay?
19:06
SPEAKER_00: But but go back to what you said before that that you know, when we come to Jesus and we read his stories, there is, if you want, the surface level there, okay.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, Jesus apparently didn't have a problem with people drinking wine.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, people, you know, when Jesus came to met the woman at the well, yes, he brought the living water, and we like the idea of not having that thirst of having God fill our needs.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: But there's always a depth, if you're willing to go, go to that well and look deep into it, and you find an even deeper story.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And that to me is, you know, the where our own spiritual strength and growth begin.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: And as we go into these deep places, we're like the woman at the well, we don't even realize we're going there.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: He takes us, he leads us, and our faith then is strengthened by it.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one thing I like that you said when you were talking about that story is the length of time.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: So you're right, it's probably like literally maybe five minutes or less.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: And it's really, especially for our listeners today, it's really that's all the time you need in order to ask Jesus Christ in your heart and get saved.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: That salvation is readily there in a in a moment.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: It less way less than five minutes.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: You don't even need five minutes to to to get saved when you're asking Jesus into your heart and accepting salvation for yourself.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: And so I love that you mentioned how you know little time it was for that whole that huge story to to transpire.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: And if you you were to bring it right back down to time, it was so such a small moment, but it was so pivotal, you know, it was huge.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and it just it changed, it changed her whole entire life.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and you know, like you said, she became the first evangelist.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: I love that she did because she went running and praising Jesus, you know.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: I think we all should be evangelists once we get saved, you know.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: I think we all should be running around talking about Jesus, you know, when we get it.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: But um, so with this um podcast being about strongholds and um what have you, um, is there a specific strongholder testimony that you would like to share with us that you had a hard time overcoming or something that God completely brought you through that that you knew it was totally a God moment.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: God literally took you from point A to point B all the way.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a specific story?
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Share with this?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, let me choose one.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Um I I talk and I often go back to a period uh when uh I was uh working in a church and I had a faith-based counseling practice going on there.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I was I was I was serving my Lord, but it was In 2010, the night before Thanksgiving, my sister called and she said that our father had had a massive stroke and that he would never walk or talk again.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, quickly we gathered things and drove about 70 miles to the hospital where he was and um spent a week with the doctors seeing what, if anything, could be done.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And finally, the chief of neurology sat my sister and myself down and said, Um, you have to understand, um, your your father is not going to get better.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: And my sister said, Well, suppose we did therapy, and he was paralyzed on his right side.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Could we eventually like maybe give him a marker and a whiteboard and he could write to us?
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And the doctor said, You don't understand.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: He has no language.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's when it hit us that this was not going to go as we hoped.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, he had a living will, and he had asked that if he uh uh came to this, that all hydration and nutrition would be removed and that he would be allowed to pass.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: And so um, yeah, with our hearts breaking, we we knew in the long run that that would be best.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: He actually lived for about another 12 days.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: And um I was, yes, certainly going through the the just just the agony of knowing what was coming.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, though, um my church was involved in a lawsuit against our former financial secretary who had uh stolen from the church, at least as far as we knew, uh$150,000.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And within that 12 days, um she went before a judge uh with all the evidence before and pleaded guilty and was sent to prison.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And you know, if that wasn't bad enough, um all the toxicity that was in the church began to come to a head, and and people were starting to be mean, just playing mean.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: And so um I'm caught in the middle of all of this.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: And um finally um I was able to one night I left a I call it the meeting from hell, and I went to the hospital.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: I got there about 11 o'clock that night, and I stayed for many hours, and then I went um back to his house and came back the next day and again stayed late into the night.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: And it was um the time when I realized that my love and prayers were not going to change anything, and all I could do was just give him to God.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And I got up to leave, and as I did, one of the nurses came in, and we had talked before, and she was she was very kind, very compassionate, and a Christian, and she said, I want you to understand that this is the time when people have that last conversation with God.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And so we we talked about that, and then she told me that her children went to that same Christian school that I had attended, and I told her about how because of the school and the teachers there, I I one night, very young on my knees, accepted Jesus into my heart.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And then a few minutes later I left.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: And as I left and was walking down the halls of the hospital, I realized the last words my father heard from me was my salvation story.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And I was given such a confidence that that last conversation would be a conversation where God would invite my father into a belief and acknowledgement of Jesus Christ.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: It's the grace that follows us as long as we have souls.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: So the stronghold that I was in of doubt, uh, you know, of being in a place where, as we say, and you know, and as the um father whose son was very sick said to Jesus, I believe, but help my unbelief.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I wanted God to do.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: And it wouldn't have been a story that I could have written myself, but it was one in which I could move from.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: And as I went through this period, and you know, the funeral was the following week, and it was like three days before Christmas, and then I had to go back to church and bring joy to the world.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: And I kept saying, you know, God, what what are you going to do with me in all of this?
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, and within a month, God said, I don't want you to go through this anymore.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: And I'm taking you out of this church and I'm moving you back to where your family is, and you're gonna have a church there in which you can you can minister as I have given you to.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: And it was like, wow, you know, I could not, Mickey, I could not have written that story, but it was the story that I needed of knowing who God is and how God takes us through these times that are just so tough and so horrible and so uh times when when yes, there's fear, but we don't want to go to fear because fear takes us away from our faith.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: So we just hold on to the faith that we can and let God do what God does.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's crazy.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: I I I totally can understand with it's amazing when you're in a certain situation, you just don't know what's what's coming, you know, what what's coming next, you know?
28:35
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes you kind of do, like like you kind of knew like your your d your dad was gonna pass away.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: Just kind of like I am with my grandmother.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: Like we know that's coming, you know.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: And and you're right, there is a lot of agony there.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: Um it's it's you know, it's kind of like a hard pill to swallow, I I I should say.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: But um in that testimony though, God was opening doors for you and shifting the avenue and the path that he was gonna take you down, and this was the direction he had to take you in order to get you there.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes God walks us through that, and like he says, he doesn't say that we're not gonna have trials and tribulations, he says we are, and but he's gonna walk through us, you know, with those those um situations and circumstances that we face.
29:17
SPEAKER_01: And I love that when he um comforts us in those times.
29:22
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes sometimes I remember feeling like when my mom passed, I didn't feel comforted, comforted because I was mad at God.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: You know, I wouldn't let him comfort me, you know.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: But when I finally allowed Jesus to comfort me, because like I said when I was young, he was my best friend.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I've gotta go back to Jesus.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: I gotta go back to Jesus, and I did.
29:42
SPEAKER_01: And I literally went from being Martha to Mary and I sat at his feet and I said, Lord, I don't know what you're doing in my life.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: I don't really like it, but I'm gonna I'm gonna sit and I'm gonna listen to your word.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: I need it.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: I need you to just please speak into me.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: Um and um, you know, I ended up going back to school with in in the ministry and all of that.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: But long story short, when I went through that trial, it was I felt like it was the end of the world for myself.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Is that how you felt?
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was it was one of those times when everything you had always believed in was was just uh falling apart and you you didn't know what was going to happen next.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: But you you stay in your faith and you look to God and you wait and watch and see what God does.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, the promise is uh in in Hebrews, uh, you know, God says, I will never leave you or forsake you.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: And that is true.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's not dependent upon circumstances, it's not dependent upon our emotional position, it's dependent upon where we we are committed to stand firm in faith and believe and watch how God is faithful in that.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: So you have written a book, and I want you to tell our listeners about it.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: I love the title, and I'm I'm I know you've probably been asked a lot about the title.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's interesting because our conversation before we started recording, how how I told you just like, you know, how I like ran to Jesus and stuff.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: And then I read your title, like The Trouble with Jesus, and I was like, The trouble with Jesus?
31:16
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it the trouble with us?
31:17
SPEAKER_01: So I'm so curious to he to hear um w where you came up with your title and tell us about your book.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, when people say to me, The trouble with Jesus, you know, and do you have a problem with God?
31:32
SPEAKER_00: And I always have to say, I don't have a problem with God, at least know more than most people do.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: But uh the real story to that is is not as dramatic.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was I was working in this church, and down the street was another church, and I knew the people in there pretty well.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: And um the women's uh group there asked me to come and do a Saturday morning mini retreat kind of thing with them.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: And I agreed, and fortunately, they gave me several months to think about a topic and develop that.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: But Mickey, there are 66 books in the Bible, and I could not come up with a message.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: And I knew part of what the problem was, these women they were smart, they were leaders, they were professionals, and I wanted to bring them something with real impact, but nothing was coming.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And one day I was very frustrated about it, and I looked up and I said, The troubles with Jesus.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: And I sat down at the desk and I started, you know, uh writing and forming an outline, and pages started forming around it.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: I did the study, it went over very well.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: I went back to my home church and did it again, and again, it was well received.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's when I knew I had the outline of a book.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, the book in itself evolved over several years.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: I think it was about 10 years actually of writing.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Part of that was because I was in ministry and I was very busy and I didn't have the time to dedicate to it, but it was always in the back of my mind.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: And then after a number of years, my son and my husband asked that um I retire and that we move closer to where my son lived.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: And I agreed, I said, but you've got to give me time and space to do this book.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And so they said, fine.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: We moved three weeks into the move.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: I still had, you know, the boxes piled up around me.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: And I sat down and I started to write.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, the trouble with Jesus, the subtitle is Considerations Before You Walk Away.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: The book um ostensibly is written for someone who is the doubter or the skeptic, the person who has put obstacles up to belief in God and in particular in Jesus Christ.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read to you, if I may, the first paragraph of the book.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Now let's be clear about this.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: You can tell your story any way you see it, and I can jump in with my two-bit commentary when I want.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: But none of this, believe it, or you're gonna burn crap.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm only willing to listen because I agree Jesus' story might have some things I like about it, but it's my choice what I do with it.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: I've been given other belief systems about the universe, how we got here, and what it means to pass through this life.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: I guess though, that I just think there's more.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: And I'm willing to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: And doubt is what I bring to this table.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And that's a voice, I compare it to a Greek chorus, because in the first century, when the Gospels were being written, the people would understand Greek tragedy.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: And in Greek tragedy, Greek drama altogether, is often this chorus which stands off to the side and it comments, maybe sometimes interacts with the actual drama that is happening.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's how this voice functions in the book.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: And there is the narration about Jesus, but this voice interrupts that narration.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's challenging, it's sarcastic, it's angry.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of pushback to the story of Jesus.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, the story of Jesus, the trouble with Jesus, again, let me give you some examples from the chapter titles.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the trouble with Jesus was he chose losers.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: The trouble with Jesus was he talked too much about money.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: The trouble with Jesus was he valued women.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: The trouble with Jesus was his teachings threw curves.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: The trouble with Jesus was he refused to be the divine fixer.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: And so what the narration does is it challenges this uh viewpoint sometimes that we're given of Jesus being meek and mild, you know, and um, you know, so accommodating to how we want to live.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: And and the trouble of Jesus is he doesn't do that, you know, and just to take uh the beginning chapter one of the beginning chapters, the trouble of Jesus was he chose losers.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: In this day and age, in this culture and society, if you're gonna start a movement, you need to have people come around you, a team, if you will, that are going to be able to do your work.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: They're going to have influence, they're going to have their own power, they're going to have their own resources to promote you.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Jesus chose 12 men who really didn't quite have it all together.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: Some were fishermen, you had a tax collector, you had a zealot in there, and uh, you know, other kinds that just um for the most part weren't very well educated.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they may have known you know the old testament, but they didn't have um the credentials, let's say, behind them in order to help Jesus out.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: And yet these were the ones who eventually took the gospel message out into the world and and who wrote the gospels and who who brought Jesus Christ not only into their own world, but also in the world in time to come.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And that's not how we think things are going to happen like that.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's the way Jesus worked.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, um, Jesus, you know, for instance, he was born into trouble.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, his parents technically weren't fully married.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: His mother was a teenage girl who was pregnant.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: She was not with the father of her child.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, late into her pregnancy, they get orders from the government that they had to go back to his ancestral home to be counted in a census for the purpose of taxing.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: They get there, there's no place to stay.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: She gives birth to the baby, and we called her the stable, which probably was just a uh, you know, a cave, a barn.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then that very night, she's just given birth, and these men, these shepherds combarging in with this fantastical story about angels who had appeared to them.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: No wonder Mary pondered these things in her heart, you know, and if that wasn't enough, and this is a story that never gets preached.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Two years later, about some men foreigners show up and they are looking for the king of the Jews.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: And they go to Jerusalem, they talk to King Herod.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: He hears the story.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: He's supposed to be king of the Jews.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: He gives them some kind of phony thing about, oh, go find out where this baby is born and I'll come worship him myself.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, they get word from an angel, no less, don't do that, go back home another way.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: They do.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Herod realized he's been tricked, and so he sends in his soldiers to slaughter all the baby boys under the age of two.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: The point being, when Jesus comes, trouble comes.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's something that's gonna make us squirm and make us think and make us come to a place that, yeah, we have to realize what Jesus faced in coming here.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: So he came in trouble, he brought some trouble, he certainly had trouble come to him.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: It converged into what was his crucifixion, but he overcame our ultimate trouble, that trouble of death, and he rose from the dead so that we can have our own eternal life through him.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, the book, though, as it says in the first paragraph, gives the reader that choice.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: This is who Jesus is.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: He said, I am the resurrection and the life.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe this?
40:22
SPEAKER_00: And it presents that question to the reader to make that choice and to come to that because they haven't necessarily walked away.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: Um two things I want to touch base on with that, um, that you you mentioned.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: One was when we're talking about the salvation of you know what Jesus did.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: The or I mean the discipleship where he picked the discipleship that didn't have the credentials.
40:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, I love that because I tell people that, you know, a lot of people say, Oh, I don't, you know, I don't have what it takes.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: I don't have what it takes.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't have what it takes.
41:03
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, you know what?
41:04
SPEAKER_01: God equipped you with those essentials.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: He gave you the credentials, he equipped you, and he, you know, and and and somebody asked me one time, so you know, I have degrees, you know, I have my associates, my bachelor's, my master's degree, you know, I have these certificates, I have, I have education, and I could have them plastered all on the wall just you know for show and tell so people, you know, can assume that I have some intelligence or some school backing.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: But honestly, I tell people that my my credentials, honestly, I I actually do this.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: I go, this is my credential.
41:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, these are my credentials.
41:38
SPEAKER_01: And God equips me.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter how much schooling I get, it's it's good that I'm learning it and I'm I'm learning different stuff for myself and to walk through this crazy life that we're in.
41:48
SPEAKER_01: But that's where my actual credentials come from.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who equips me with what I need to get through this life.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: And without it, yeah, without it, we'd be in a lot of trouble.
41:58
SPEAKER_01: The other thing I wanted to touch base with was um we were talking about um Jesus bringing trouble, right?
42:06
SPEAKER_01: When you get saved, I I remember I wish I would I would have told this a long time ago, though, because I like I said, I was saved at 10, but I didn't get discipled.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: The the part about me getting saved, like the discipleship didn't follow me.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: So I was like all over the place.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: I went in and out of foster homes with different perspectives on religion and culture and you know, just different types of living because of the different homes I was in, which I learned a lot from that diversity.
42:32
SPEAKER_01: But the thing was is I didn't get any discipleship and I didn't know what I was supposed to do with Jesus.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: He was just my friend, you know.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I just got my I got my Jesus, you know.
42:41
SPEAKER_01: And so there were times that I found that I struggled, and those trials and tribulations that followed me, that the troubles that followed me that came, you know, when people get saved, they always assume, oh, everything is gonna be great now.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: Everything's gonna be so great, you know.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: And it is in eternity.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, but on this earth, the the enemy is roaming this earth, and as soon as he knows that you're saved, he's gonna come, he's gonna come and make it really hard for you.
43:09
SPEAKER_01: You know, he doesn't want you to be saved, and he's gonna bring even more trouble.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: So I love that you you speak on the troubles with Jesus because it gives you a different perspective to everything that Jesus walked through from like you said, from from even his birth all the way to the cross.
43:23
SPEAKER_01: And what an amazing story.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: I think it's absolutely amazing.
43:27
SPEAKER_01: And um, now I can't wait to read your book.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to read it.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: And so, but I think about that that when we get we we go to church and we get saved, and we're like, Yay, we're saved, you know.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm like, okay, but don't forget to tell them what's coming, you know, what's coming, what's coming, you know.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: Because those trials and tribulations are going to come.
43:48
SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna stay away, just you know.
43:50
SPEAKER_01: And I think the for the Christians, they come even more so because we get tested in that area, you know.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know um what your thought is on that, but I feel like.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Like the enemy likes to um literally try to rip us, pluck us out of the hands of God once we get saved, you know.
44:07
SPEAKER_01: So he's really at work on us.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Abs absolutely.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like people who aren't saved don't get that, but they're already, you know, right where, as you say, the enemy wants them.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: It's it's where the enemy is, the enemy attacks us to keep us from that.
44:23
SPEAKER_00: And um it's it's a perspective that we do have to hold on to.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I I sometimes lean on in the verse in Philippians, you know, nothing can separate us from the love of God.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, all the troubles of the world, all the challenges, uh, all the you know, gets gets thrown at us are meant to uh destroy that faith, but God is gonna hold on to us with that love.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: And it nothing, nothing can take that away from us um in that regard.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: And our lives, we are richly blessed because of it.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I'm at the point in my life where you know I should be totally retired and doing nothing.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: But if that's where I was, I wouldn't have any purpose.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have the real purpose that um is meant for me to have in my faith.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: And this book, this message has been part that has been given to me.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: And um, you mentioned the the blog.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, you can find that at my website, constan.com.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: But the blog is meant as a companion to the book.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: It's also titled The Trouble with Jesus.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you go on my website, there'll be a pop-up.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: And if you um um subscribe to the blog, you also will get a link with a promo code, and you can get the book for 20% off.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna offer that to your listeners as well.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: It's it and again, that there's there's the richness of my life.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes think, you know, God, are you ever gonna let me just sit back?
46:05
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, probably not.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: There'll always be something until indeed I am uh put in that place where I rest to prepare for my eternal rest and the glory of God.
46:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
46:23
SPEAKER_01: I I I love that mentality.
46:25
SPEAKER_01: My um, my grandma's brother, he was a preacher, and every time he went in the hospital, he would supposed to be in the bed.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: But he would the nurses would go to check on him and he would not be in the bed.
46:37
SPEAKER_01: He'd be down the hall ministering to everyone else that was sick, but he wasn't taking care of himself, you know, until he finally passed away.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: But I thought to myself, he ministered all the way up until his death.
46:47
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, gosh, what a crown and a robe he's gonna have, you know, because it was on his heart.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: Even when he was sick in the hospital, he was like, I gotta go witness to that person down the hall, you know.
46:58
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh Lord, give me a heart like that, you know.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: Cause sometimes I'm thinking I'm laying in this bed, I'm like, oh, I'm dying.
47:04
SPEAKER_01: Oh I'm dying.
47:05
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, No, I gotta go save a life.
47:08
SPEAKER_01: So it's just crazy.
47:09
SPEAKER_01: I I I love it.
47:10
SPEAKER_01: But so I have one more question before we wrap up.
47:13
SPEAKER_01: And oh, and by the way, thank you.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: You you already um gave our listeners the information I was gonna ask you to share at the end.
47:18
SPEAKER_01: So you shared your um your web page information I was gonna ask you to do that.
47:22
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for doing that.
47:23
SPEAKER_01: But I have one more question in closing, and that is um for someone who's actually you know dealing with a stronghold, like you and I have, you know, we've we've we have many strongholds.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: Um what what information could you share with them to help them to feel like they can overcome it?
47:41
SPEAKER_01: They don't have to stay in that stronghold.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: They can get over it, they can they can get past it, through it, around it, whatever.
47:48
SPEAKER_01: What kind of information do you want to share?
47:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mickey, you and I both know if we try and do it on our own, it's not gonna happen.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: We are not meant to do it on our own.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I tell people when you are in those times and places, um, I particularly recommend going into the Psalms because the Psalms are um are the part of the Bible which is in a lot of ways a lament.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: It's crying out to God, and you know, things are going oh so wrong, and my enemies are closing in among, you know, around me and so forth.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: But it's also there are so many passages in there that remind us that God is with us and that indeed He will follow us and shepherd us, if you will, um, all the days of our lives.
48:37
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you could you can be in that place and you can feel like all is is coming to an end, but it's also the affirmation, the promises of God that protects us and surrounds us.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, when that time passes, and and you know, again, these are things that are going to come to us, and it won't be just one thing that will probably come to us, but when that time does pass, we can then give to and praise God again in all his glory for what he has done.
49:10
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
49:11
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
49:12
SPEAKER_01: So um, as we go into closing, would um would you like to pray us out today?
49:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh, certainly, yes.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: Gracious, gracious God.
49:25
SPEAKER_00: The words that we have spoken are words that are based in a miracle, if you will, because they haven't been just between me and Mickey, but they have been spoken into times and places where we will never enter, but you can enter.
49:43
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, may our conversation take on your wings and bring to others that that peace that they require.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: Because, Lord, yes, we do walk through times of trouble, but we also know that you have walked in it as well, and you're walking with us as we live this out.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we thank you for that.
50:03
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for everyone who uh listens to this podcast that they will be able to take strength in what has been said here, and that they will be able to rise in your strength, knowing you, knowing your care, and knowing your love.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: We give them to you then in Jesus' holy and blessed name.
50:24
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
50:25
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
50:26
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
50:26
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
50:27
SPEAKER_01: So, once again to um our listeners that um you can go to ConstanceHasting.com to get to Constance's um website and look for her book.
50:39
SPEAKER_01: Her blogs are great.
50:40
SPEAKER_01: I've already been reading them.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: Um I've already signed up already.
50:42
SPEAKER_01: I already signed up with my email, so it's really easy to do, it's not difficult.
50:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, she makes everything very accessible.
50:49
SPEAKER_01: It's a great website to to go check out.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: I highly recommend it.
50:54
SPEAKER_01: And um, as far as Crushing Strongholds goes, if you are facing struggles or obstacles, excuse me, facing struggles or obstacles, and um you are needing to overcome some um difficult situations, you can always reach out to crushingstrongholds.com.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: I will be glad to pray with you.
51:11
SPEAKER_01: I have a um section on there where you can just sign up for prayer.
51:14
SPEAKER_01: Um if you want me to pray with you personally, I will pray with you personally.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: Or if you just want to um have me pray over something, you can put your prayer needs in the request.
51:23
SPEAKER_01: You can do that at any time.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: There's clarity options for uh clarity call.
51:28
SPEAKER_01: And um I just want to uh let my listeners know that um we just want to walk with Jesus and we want to just reach the lost and we just want to help people that feel like they're just stuck and they can't get over it.
51:40
SPEAKER_01: But with God we can get through anything, and um God's got a plan and a purpose on our life, as Jeremiah 2911 says, and he has a hope and a hope for our future.
51:50
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want everyone to be helpful today because that includes you.
51:55
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean there's no one just included.
51:57
SPEAKER_01: So um I thank everyone for listening and being with us.
52:00
SPEAKER_01: Constance, thank you so much for sharing your story.
52:02
SPEAKER_01: I love everything you shared today, it's amazing.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: And um thank you, Mickey.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
52:09
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, you're welcome.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
52:11
SPEAKER_01: And so um again, um, go to ConstanceHastings.com or CrushingStrongholds.com if you want to reach out.
52:18
SPEAKER_01: And please like and share the podcast so we can um get the word out to as many people that want to hear it.
52:25
SPEAKER_01: And um the goal is basically just to help people through testimonies, and that's what we do here.
52:30
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for another great episode of Crushing Strongholds, and to all of you, take care and God bless.