The need for love and acceptance in our lives is stronger than we've imagined. We strive for perfection in the hope to be loved and accepted by the people around us, it may be at work, in our marriage, or even with our children. This week's co-hosts Renée and Theresa are totally candid and open into their real-life examples of what they've experienced. Stay tuned!
The need for love and acceptance in our lives is stronger than we've imagined. We strive for perfection in the hope to be loved and accepted by the people around us, it may be at work, in our marriage, or even with our children. This week's co-hosts Renée and Theresa are totally candid and open into their real-life examples of what they've experienced. Stay tuned!
Well, we are already into November a whole week, has gone by, I can hardly believe it. So we are zooming in to finish out 2021. I don't know. I'm kind of happy to wrap it up, but we're going to talk today a little freely about closing out the year and struggles that we had and things that we celebrate. So stay tuned just for a fun time with Teresa and Renee. Welcome to episode 72 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller.
Speaker 2:I'm Teresa Morgan. You see Renee and I are perfectly imperfect as we tell you week after week, but we love to share our faith. We love to share our faith and our life's journeys with the perfect one who brings all things to pass in such a marvelous way in our lives.
Speaker 1:You know, what's coming to me is I strived with this perfectionism thing much of my life. And now I love being imperfect. I love that. I know the perfect one and that I get to be imperfect and I'm free with that. And we want you to understand that as well. We do that, and I have that because of the relationship I've been able to develop with my creator. Before we start every episode, we know that we have to plug into our creator. We actually have to connect with him. So we take 20 seconds to be very still to close our eyes, to open our ears and open our hearts to what he'd have to say in this 20 seconds. I'd like you to actually invite him. You can talk out loud or you can just speak in your heart, invite God to be with you during this next episode, our 22nd start right now.
Speaker 3:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:That's it. That was 20 seconds. I hope you took some slow, deep breaths. I didn't remind you, but boy, I started to do that. And immediately I felt better. The more you do that, the better you'll feel calming our bodies down. The breath is so important. And boy, I could do a whole episode on that, Teresa, but today we just want to talk about where we are. What 2021 was all about. We're coming into the holidays. It's an amazingly beautiful time of year. I know that I always gave my permit myself permission during this time to rest and spend time with people that I love, truth, be told I need to do that all year long, right. But world gives itself permission. And so that kind of frees me as well, but Theresa, let's just talk for our listeners about things that we've experienced in ways that we get through even the holidays, even the holidays that are upon us.
Speaker 2:So true in a, you know, in my own personal life, I have a beautiful family. I'm very blessed with children and two grandchildren. Yeah. This time we're building a new house and we're selling the old. And so, oh my goodness. The kids were in last night and uh, you know, one, child's taking a couch. And so if there's a lot of activity surrounding all of that, we had a mishap in our current home when we reconstructed the basement, it wasn't done according to code. So I've really been trusting the Lord to work through those very concrete items in the basement of the electricity. Having to be changed over to meet code, talking with the code inspector, talking with the town. So in that one given situation, I find it interesting because here we have beautiful happening of a building, a new house selling an old, but yet in the midst of it, Renee, there was something that was pretty alarming with the basement and the electrical not being done. Right. So a boy Renee, when I got that letter from the town, my heart sank, right? Because it was a situation where I don't have the know-how with electricity and, uh, the town was knocking at my door. So that always brings a threatening feeling of, oh my gosh, are they going to arrest me? What what's going to happen there? And so my faith of course kicked in right after the feelings die down a little bit like, okay, breathe. You're okay. Got it. That is on the job father. I thank you. That Romans 8 28 is real. You're going to work this out together for my good, I thank you. That James wan is still in the Bible. When I asked for wisdom, you're going to give it to me, liberally that reproach. I thank you, father. You surround me with favor is with a shield. So Renee, what happened with that to make a very long story short? Is that a very good friend's father is an electrician. He came over, he's doing all of the electrical work. The electrical inspector happens to be a friend of his just happens to be a good friend and they know the town code enforcer. So I was just like, Lord only you can make an alarming situation, very copacetic and calm. Now did we have to work through the situation? Yes. Email last night, he was there. There's one item left and he's going to accomplish that. So this has been over a six week period where I've had a trust God and Renee for that very thing. And so those three scriptures that I impromptu just shared with you are the three, my Mike, some of my go-to scriptures that came up in my heart. When I had a trust God to work this situation out together for my good in the hat is what the holy spirit does. Renee. He is like a five assistant in an operating room scalpel, please. And you know, he gives the doctor the scalpel or whatever instrument is needed to make the finest cut so that the end result is perfect resolution of our situations. And we get to sit back, keep our faith engaged in, watch him work. And I I'm sitting now thinking about is, I'm talking about this whole situation and we're almost at the very end of it. And I'm looking back saying, God, you had it all the time. You had it all the time.
Speaker 1:Wow. Such great lessons. So what I love about what Teresa just said is she has these go-to scriptures. So when you're listening to us and thinking, oh my gosh, how am I ever going to be tree Suh? Guess what? Renee is not Theresa. I remember those scriptures. And there are some that I remember the reference like Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good, but others. I know the scripture, but I don't have the reference. Do you think when we get to heaven, God is good. Chastise me because I didn't have the book in chapter. No, I have hidden the word in my heart. So that's one thing. And I love that you say Theresa, those were three of your go-to scriptures. Maybe this episode, we can get Teresa in the show notes to give us her top 10, go to scriptures. And boy, when I encourage you to print the show notes this week, you really want to do that because those go-to scriptures are so strong and prevalent in all our lives. When some of the, the major themes of what God gives us over and over again. The other thing I'm thinking, uh, Theresa is your analogy of the great assistant in the operating room. I hope our friends, Pam and Dr. Dan are listening. Dr. Dan is a surgeon. And I always imagine him in the operating room because I know him so well. And I know how he works. And I, I see him in my kitchen, Teresa, come to visit and to his wife all the time, he runs my kitchen. Like he runs the R you know, it's his crazy he's in there, like running around opening drawers, grabbing what he needs very quickly and expeditiously and goes after that, that vegetable with the knife, you know? And I love that analogy of God and the scriptures being our greatest assistant in the, or so Theresa went to her drawer, took out those scriptures and started meditating on them. It's like the culmination of everything we've talked about throughout this year, ladies and gentlemen, and she pulls them out like a beautiful sharp knife. And what does the Bible say? It says that the word of God is sharper than any two edge sword. So the, it says in the word exactly what Theresa just intuitively said, which was, you know, I pulled these scriptures out and it was like a knife in the O R room. Well, she'll tell us in two seconds right now. I bet what scripture I just quoted. I can't tell you where it is. Theresa can. That's not the important thing. The important thing is that I know in my heart that these words are sharper than any two-edged sword. Go back to episodes where we talk about how science has caught up with the power of our words. Can you imagine using words like Theresa did in her example that are sharper than a two edge sword? Oh my gosh. Teresa.
Speaker 2:And that scripture is one of my favorite it's Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. It says for the word of God is alive and active. Wow. Let's just stop right there for a minute. The word of God is alive and active because we know the word became life in dwelt among us. We know that God himself is the word of God. It's sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow it judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. So the word of God really comes into our lives to give us assistant the word, judges us. We don't judge the word. You know, we're so used to in, in humanity, especially in the United States where, you know, everybody's an expert at something. And, you know, we, we like to judge and give our 2 cents on everything. But what we have to understand in very, very humbly is we have to understand it's the word of God that comes into our life to make corrections, to make good cuts, right? So if there's a cancer in the body, right, Dr. Dan, I, although I know he's not this type of a surgeon, but if he work, he's coming in to cut out the cancer. So that health is restored to the body. That's what the word of God does. It comes into our life to cut out the unhealthy things in is we're reading and meditating and believing it's full of life. It's it's God, it's God interacting. Co-mingled if you will, with a hard life, because he lives in us in one of my most favorite scriptures. And this is very near and dear to my heart, Renee, this one scripture it's Hebrews chapter 13, verses five and six. Um, I'm probably going just, uh, major on a part of it. It says he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? You know, back in the day, when I, when I was a young Christian, you know, when I was a very young woman, I went through a lot of anxiety. I went through panic attacks. I was filled with a lot of fear, which, because I was, I was not, um, I didn't understand God's word. I didn't understand his loving compassion, his care, his comfort, his mercy, as we talked about just last week and how it's not earned. So I was pretty much a nervous wreck when I came to the Lord, right? And it's through meditating on the scriptures, collaborating with God, interacting with the holy spirit, knowing the integrity of his word and knowing the integrity of God that I can relax, because I know he is my helper. There's nothing I need to fear. And in the Greek, I will never leave you nor forsake you. It's a, it's a double or triple never, never, never will I ever, ever leave you nor forsake you. And I can remember Renee one time again, sitting in church when I was a baby Christian in the holy spirit, just gently speaking this to my heart, because that's a fear that we all have, right? Um, will this person leave me? Will I be accepted as we talked about last week? And when we know that we know God will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter the worst mistake, the worst value we go through the highest mountain reclined. He's with us in both. And I've come to the place that my life I'm not anxious anymore. I don't experience panic. I attribute that of course, to God, of course, to my 27 years, where I look back in my soul knows the goodness of God. My soul has experienced his hand in every situation and Renee, you and I were talking, if I may be candid, you and I were talking right before we, uh, eared today. And Renee has a situation in her back that I've experienced that you have pain. And I feel for my dear friend and I hurt when she hurts, but I know that the healer is in the house for Renee. And I know that that back situation, Renee is going to be healed, as sure as I'm sitting here looking at you, that he has the plans so that you can go on, because in the situations we experienced to say, Hey, Renee, my back was in pain too. I had a bulging disc, and this is how God restored me. That brings comfort and hope to you, right, Renee. We were talking about that and you're like, oh, maybe I should go that route. And so isn't that what we're called to do in life to bring his message of hope and salvation and all of the benefits that come with that healing and deliverance and prosperity and love, that's truly what we're called to do. And there's an anointing and a flow of the holy spirit that when we operate in that capacity with him, my gosh wife just become so full. It's so joyful and so meaningful. And we know Renee someday, we're just gonna be with him and you and I are just going to, you know, just enjoy his presence, knowing that although we've suffered some things in life, he always brought us the victory and we grew and we learned, and, uh, we, you know, came into such a beautiful relationship, not only with each other, but with him.
Speaker 1:Yes. So true, Theresa the, the back thing is real and the pain is real. And the trusting is real. Just get to the place where we don't think twice about it. We trust, we trust. And we thank God in advance. So Theresa was here at my home about a week ago and she laid hands on my back and we prayed. And so now what I've been doing, and there's been a series of things that happened, but now I just continue to thank God. So I went a week with no pain, and then I had a little flare up again. So what do I make of all that I make that there's more lessons to be learned. There's more trusting to be had. There's more growth and maturity to occur in this situation. And again, when Theresa quoted Romans 8 28, we know because we trust God because we follow the Bible. And the words that Jesus spoke, that all things work together for good, that this situation with my back, just like Theresa was just saying, I know sitting here Nido, she's just smiling because she knows she's anticipating. And can't wait to hear the testimony. That's going to come from this. Now, listen, this Habitude. And this testimony that we give this didn't happen overnight. This has been a long journey, Theresa and I have been in this game, this game of developing our relationship with God, what we say in the beginning of every podcast, developing this relationship, just liken it to any relationship you've developed in your life. It doesn't happen in an instant. I don't have deep unconditional a God by love for my husband, Peter overnight. I mean, we were, we had a certain kind of love when we got married, we will celebrate 25 years in January. And it is so much deeper why, because of these experiences and these trials and the struggles that we had, that's what made our relationship, what it is today. And I know you listening are having that same thought. Yeah, that's right. The struggles that I went through with this person, with the spouse with this friend are exactly what made our friendship, what it is today. I love what it is today. God is no different. He gives us these examples in the flesh, so that, so that we can understand him so that we can know him. You know, the scripture Theresa read in Hebrews that the word judges, the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. We stay in this word because it convicts me in my heart about how to be all these things that I need to be, to have the relationships that I have to live. The life that we live. We're not here preaching some magic, easy, you know, formula love is, is work from a, from a perspective of developing the relationship. It is very free. If I don't get in the way, I don't force things and try to do it in my own strength and my own might and my own power, but I need to spend time. I need to be still with this. God, I can't stress that enough. Like we do before every episode with the 20 seconds stillness in the world, we're living in is so key to all of this, right? Jaysa
Speaker 2:Um, so many things came up in my heart. I love is as you express your thoughts and in your faith in him. And you know, one thing that came to mind and I wrote it down was, you know, keeping a steadfast posture of faith, right? We want to keep a good pasture of faith. So I'm sitting here in a chair without a back right down, and I'm like, straighten up. You know, your posture here is, is you're curving over in your back right in. We want to do that with our faith. We want to keep a good posture of faith. So what does that mean? We want to stay in the word. We want to stay in prayer. We want to encourage one another, right? Renee. It's one of my greatest privilege to be in this deep relationship with you, that you have enough trust in me to say, Hey, this is what's going on in my life. And the two of the two of us sometimes can cry together. We can laugh together, but we always do it with the Lord and with great anticipation, with a great posture of faith that I can't, I can't wait to see what he's going to do with this Rene. Right? I can't wait to see what's he doing? What do you think he's doing? And then things will materialize. Oh, that's what it is. Oh my gosh. Can you believe how he assembled that? Right. Renee, one of the greatest blessings of this year for me was being in the waters of baptism, assisting two pastors from elevation church at your home. When we had the water baptism event, such a beautiful current, that was one of the high points in my Christianity that I got to minister baptism right along with pastor Danielle and pastor Jordan, and feel the enthusiasm and the faith of those that went into the waters of baptism in here, the testimony, the great, great things of how God took people at variable points. The one individual who was thinking about taking his life, recommitted his life to the Lord and is now joyful. And on his way, VAT is what deepens my faith. That is what shows me his love for others in that abiding law. He, the Bible says that he's no respecter of persons, what he'll do for one he wants to do for another. And I love that about God. I love that. He's strong, that what he says in his word is coming to pass. He's not wishy-washy. His will will be accomplished. And, uh, the under girding framework of God is love, is love. And we're learning to walk in that love, not as perfectly as heat does, but we get to be a part. We had to be that conduit of his love in us. Renee, you know, as you were talking Renee about the back pain, I thought about my own pain years ago. And the story is so precious because I ended up going to the doctor, right. For natural healing. And if any of the listeners are saying, oh, did you get a healing just by like a miracle of God? No. Sometimes God is going to take you down a natural path. That is the path he took me down back in the day when I had back pain. And what came from that is I was checking out of that appointment at the back doctors. I turned over Renee and I saw our friend, Mary, an elderly woman, a friend of the family. I hadn't seen her for years. And I went over to greet her and I was in pain and I was telling her, she said, Theresa, what are you doing here? And I said, oh, you know, my back is in pain. She said, but your countenance, she said is so beautiful. I said, all you know, I, I think I said, oh, well, that's the Lord working in my life. And what happened from that meeting at the back doctor's office, I planned another time to meet with her and have lunch. I think we, I brought over some lunch. She did not know the Lord. She ended up inviting Christ into her heart and a very short while after she died and went home to be with the board. I said, Renee, at that point, I said, Lord, you can keep my body in pain. If a soul is going to be coming into the kingdom of God, it was just one of the greatest experiences. And we will see Marion having her that I went to meet her. She's wonderful. He, and of course now my back is healed. And so in the long run, the Lord taught me about patience and faith for healing, right? If we don't need healing, we never get to experience the hand of the healer. But what came from that was such a tremendous blessing because the soul came into the kingdom of God. And I'm forever grateful that the Lord allowed me to have that experience in reaping the harvest of souls that is out there in the world. Renee,
Speaker 1:You know, you can hear the joy in Teresa's voice about that. And I have to tell you, I didn't always understand it, how great it is to actually do what Theresa and I do, which is share this God with other people. It's almost that cliche and we're coming into that season, but it's better to give than receive. And even at the holiday season, when you, when you move from that child, like, you know, excitement of getting presents and you start giving, I remember at a young age, my parents teaching us how to give. And I remember how excited my sisters and I all were when we found that perfect gift for my mom, for our mom, you know, like we love to have the gift that made somebody else cry that, you know, it brought such joy. And we have that. Now, if you're listening and you get the joy that you have with the relationship in God, there's no greater joy than when you get to share that with someone else who then sees it, who then gets it. We just know how much better life is now that we've developed a relationship versus what it was like beforehand. You almost can't even go back and fathom what it was like without God in my life. Almost like, again, this child thing, like I remember, you know, even when Patrick was one and two years old and very quickly parents make that statement. Boy, I, I can't even imagine a remember the day when I did not have this child in my life, like it's just, or your marriage or your friendship, or even your pat, you know, like we get such joy from them as well that we can't even remember life without it's the same, but magnify it with your magnifying glass. When you have God in your life, when you have worked and honed and developed this relationship developed a quiet time developed the, the attitude that I can't wait to run to my special spot in my house where I go meet with him sometimes in the morning, if I'm running late, I'm actually talking to him saying, I'll be right there. I'm coming and coming to meet with you. I'm coming to talk to you and coming to be alone with you to be alone with you. It's, it's so beautiful. I can't encourage everyone enough, Theresa. And it has been so fun just to free freelance and free talk and continue to dream and impart that to everyone. The, the joy that we have to say, it's true, Renee. You know, I have a couple of scriptures here, um, that have
Speaker 2:Come to my heroine. Oh, of
Speaker 1:Course you do.
Speaker 2:You know, you're, you're talking about the gift of God. And of course the greatest gift, right? Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, our Lord, the greatest gift he gave us in Romans 8 31 and 32 is a sister verse to that. It says, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things. The greatest gift that you can give anyone is, is the gift of life in Christ because this life on earth, it will pass, but it's our eternal placement and having with him, and it's our eternal placement, even after having that will go on and on forever. And so those of you who are listening today, Renee, and I would encourage you if you've never made Jesus Christ, the Lord of your life, invite him into your heart. He's wonderful. Uh, we could just go on and on how wonderful he is. Um, and for those of you who know the Lord, keep trusting, stay in the past year of faith, grab a good friend, a good Christian friend, keep listening, keep believing because he surely groping all things to pass in your life.
Speaker 1:It's so great. And that's why we talk about our favorite scripture, because it's all about faith. The end of the day, we can't always see everything, right? Faith is the substance of what we hope for the evidence of what we can't see. We can't see it. So at the end of the day, grab some faith. This holiday season, grab an extra measure, as we say, and just keep encouraging yourself. I'm just going to have faith. I'm going to have faith this holiday season, no matter what comes and goes, I'm going to have faith and just see what happens. What is that? Scripture, Teresa. Yeah,
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Renee Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing
Speaker 1:And hearing by the word of God. So stay tuned. We
Speaker 2:Love you. We love you now by
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. And we want you to subscribe to this channel. That's how you can be your own little disciple because the more subscribers we have, the more this is naturally shared with the world. So go ahead and subscribe to this channel. Also join our community group so that we can talk more, interact more well-versed woman is on Facebook. Ask to join that group. And last but not least, Theresa is going to give us a special gift. This podcast in the show notes, top 10 go-to scriptures that she uses to be the assistant in the or room that we talked about, the word of God sharper than any two-edged sword. And you're going to want to get your hands on those. You just scroll down at the end of your podcast. Usually there's a platform that you're on a details button, click on details. Keep scrolling around. You'll find the show notes that you can download and take those into the holiday season and well into the new year until next week. We'll see you and talk to you soon. Bye now,