Well Versed Woman
Well Versed Woman
Grace Always Wins
Have you ever felt like there must be more to life? Looking around there's definitely something bigger that created such a place. This week's episode reveals the author of our lives. The confirmation that our creator who started it all promises to complete the work started in us all.
Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, I bet. You know what I'm talking about. The wizard of Oz and how Dorothy went through the woods and felt like something was lurking in every corner. And I'm thinking about what we've all been through in 2020 and feeling like maybe it just has an end debt. We just don't know what's going to happen next. We're in the middle of getting ready for summer, but it seems like they're still a few lions, tigers and bears all around us. What are we going to do about it? How do you deal with all the things that seem to come at us day in and day out? We're going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about who's in charge and how we can have peace emits the lions, tigers, and bears. So stay tuned for episode 56.
Speaker 2:Welcome to episode 56 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller,
Speaker 3:Theresa Morgan. You see Renee and I are two perfectly imperfect women who love to share our faith and our life's journeys and testimonies with you. I'd love
Speaker 2:To share is about the author and the creator of all these things, including the lions and tigers and bears. And we love to share how to plug into that creator and how to actually develop a relationship with him. This podcast we've said many times is about relationship, not about religion. You want to plug into the power source and we do that before we start every episode for 20 seconds, we close our eyes, take some slow deep breaths, and actually invite God to be sitting here right now with you today. So go ahead, take some slow deep breaths. Close. Your eyes are 20 seconds starts right now. That's it. That's 20 seconds. I feel a little better already, but I can tell you, I could use probably 200 seconds more Teresa. I
Speaker 1:Feel like we're getting ready for summer in the Northeast, all this beautiful weather that we never get. And yet there seems to be so much going on and we can't slow down. Absolutely Renee, you know, as I was meditating and thinking about what we'd like to share with our listeners this week, I feel like the Lord was pressing, you know, and saying to me, remind I am the creator. I am the majesty on high. I created all things. I will bring all things to the finish line, including finishing the faith of the believers that are running their race. And that reminds me of a scripture in the book of Hebrews chapter 12. Let's look at verses one through two, you know, the Bible, uh, scholars and teachers believe that Paul, the apostle wrote the book of Hebrews. Uh, they're not absolutely certain, but let's just say Paul wrote this book today. So here's what Paul, the apostle says in Hebrews chapter 12 verses one and two. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great, a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin, which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross despising, the shame seat. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. What I would like to call to our attention is the verses that says looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. I love that he created faith, the commodity, if you will, of faith, he's the author of it. And he's the finisher of it. So what does this really mean? Well, it means he's the creator of all things. If we also look at John chapter one, verse three, for instance, we see that all things were made through him, Jesus and without him, nothing was made that was made. So we can see that not only were things that we can see with our natural eyes in this beautiful word world made by him, but he also is the creator of our faith. So we're walking this road of faith. And when we talk about this road of faith, we say, we live by faith. And what I love about God and what I love about the word of God is we walk by faith. It is God's word that undergirds what we believe. It's our faith in this word of God that will come alongside us day by day. As we walk in, go in this direction in the direction that he has sat for each of our lives, this direction is the direction that brings peace and success in good long life. So when we look at the scriptures, when we walk with the Lord, as he is, he is expounding and applying the scriptures tour life, we're on the, a good, peaceful, joyful path that he himself created us to walk in. And when we find that sweet spot Renee, we will have that abundant life that he promised in John 10, 10, that we will have. If we follow him, you know, Teresa, it sounds so easy now where I sit today. But I remember when I didn't quite understand and I didn't have faith. And it's that whole idea of how, you know, how do we get started? I know for me, I had to come to that place where life had gotten so difficult that I threw my hands up and said, there's just gotta be more. There's gotta be something bigger than me. There's gotta be somebody more in charge than me. There's gotta be purpose to all of this. And I think coming to that decision point, if you will, was helpful.
Speaker 4:But again, you know, even today
Speaker 1:When we study the greats like Noah who built an Ark, when back in that day, he was building an arc in the desert, right? He was building an Ark when the earth and people on the earth didn't know what rain was. So I, I think about that amount of faith. And I say, how could I ever have faith that big? How could I ever have faith as big as some of these people that we study and read about? And yet I'd like to encourage everyone that when I listened to these sayings today and think about where I was tracing the beginning and where I am today, my faith is so much bigger. And so we just have to start, right. We just have to jump in the swimming pool, so to speak and start believing that there is something bigger that there's something that I can plug into every single day. That's so true, Renee, you know, I love when you're talking about Noah and I love that. He believed God, he just believed God. And it had never rained before he built a boat. So can you imagine how ostracized he was in how ridiculed and how people made fun of him? He was building a boat for something that never even occurred in their lives before that, you know, I think of Abraham are the father of faith who the Bible says, he believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So let's bring it back to our practical life today. You know, how do we believe God, how do we, you know, put our little toe in the pond of faith and say, I'm going to give this a try. Well, you know, I'm thinking of a young woman, oh my goodness. I worked with her. She was a beautiful young girl and her name is Rita. She was adorable. She was an assistant by day and actress by night. And you know, one day we were talking about the things of God. And she said to me, Renee, she said, you know, I just don't believe at Theresa. I see some of my friends, they call themselves a Christian. I don't really, uh, see that, you know, that their actions line up with the principles of Christianity. And I said, Rita, I understand that. I thought to myself and I feel the holy spirit was leading me to ask her, let's say a prayer. Let's put God to the test. And let's ask God to reveal truth to this young woman. So I did just that Renee. I said, okay, Rita, can I pray for you? And can highest the Lord to reveal truth to you? She said, sure. You can do that. So sure enough, I just prayed right then. And there a very simple prayer. And I said, Lord, will you please reveal truth to Rita? And do you know what? After a period of time, she came into my office. Oh my goodness. I remember she was just so, so adorable and so sincere. And she looked at me and said, I'm ready. I said to her, what are you ready for? And she said, Theresa, I'm ready to invite Jesus into my heart. And I said, really? She said, yes. She said, I've watched you. And I've watched Jeff, who was my staff, also a young Christian man. And she said, now I know it's true. So what I'd like to say about that is that through this simple prayer to the Lord, to reveal truth to her, God started to work in her heart to show her things and show her that I'll be it. Human beings are not perfect. He's at work in them. And when she came into my office that day and said she was ready and said, she had watched me and my staff, and now she knew it was true, who I was. I just delighted. And we set a simple prayer. She invited Jesus into her heart. Salvation came onto her and she saved today. So what I would like to expound upon in that simple example is that when we just say a simple prayer to the Lord, maybe we don't even know where to start. Maybe we don't even know if there's a God. If we just call out to him, boy, he is so eager. So lovingly ready to answer our call into show each individual on planet earth that he is real. His word is true. And his son came and paid the price for our sins. I love that story trees. It just has so many facets to it. Number one, you just, what we talk about at the beginning of every episode, we ask all of us to be still for a few minutes and invite God to be with you. He doesn't force ourself. We've said this. He doesn't force himself on any of us. We need to ask him, he's the greatest friend in the world and love is not forest. We need to invite him. We need to ask him to come be with us, even if we're not quite sure about whether or not he's real or what he's all about, we can invite him and ask him to reveal himself to us. So I love that. And I also love what your friend Rita learned. You know, she had come to you and said, geez, I look around. And, and these people that call themselves, Christians really are not perfect, or they're not, they have issues. And then yet she saw in you and your friend, Jeff, something different. And it, it just goes to, to show us that we are all imperfect and she saw maybe a little more perfection in you and Jeff than others. But I, I love what I saw Caroline leaf, Dr. Caroline leaf posts today, that when you finally learn that a person's behavior has more to do with their own internal struggle than it ever did with you, you learn grace. And so there's this piece of grace that if you go back through episodes that we've talked about, but just because one person doesn't exude everything that we think they ought to exude when they call themselves believers and followers of us, of a God like we do, we're not saying that we're perfect. We're saying that we're followers of a God. And when people are understand, like Caroline leaf said that a person's behavior has more to do with their own struggle. Like I'm sure many people saw in me, you know, over the years or time after time before I worked out some of my things, and I'm still working out some of my things, but we learned to give and hope to receive grace Theresa. And I love that you too, Renee, I'm so happy that you brought up the internal struggles of life that we all go through. And I just love to think of a fire hose, right? And I like to think of our internal struggles as fire grace comms is that fire hose to help put out the internal struggles that really seem to heat up in our lives. If you will. It's that, that comes in like a flood. You know, we really, really can count on God after all he is, God, he's got the universe. He is the creator of all things is today's lesson is showing us he's the author, he's the finisher. And I just love what the Bible says in Philippians chapter one, verse six, Paul, the apostle did right Philippians. And the scripture says being confident of this very thing that he, who has begun a good work in, you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So he who began at work, he who began to enlighten Rita's eyes, open up her eyes to the beauty of Christ, the same God that began her, her race of faith. He's the same God that is with her, through her race of faith. And he's the same God that will be there at the end of her race. And I love what Paul says. He says, I have finished my race and I have finished with faith. You know, Renee, that's one of my prayers to the Lord, but at the end of my course, at the end of my race, that I can say like Paul, I finished. And I finished with faith because faith, uh, you know, is really what pleases God faith is really what pleases God, that's so amazing. And I often Teresa try to simplify life that way when we, we struggle and we're trying to make decisions, and we're trying to find the best ways for one, one issue or the next I stop myself sometimes and say, what if all I really need to do is work on this relationship with God, work on my faith, work on my trust, work on my trust, worthiness
Speaker 4:A,
Speaker 1:When it comes down to it, like you're saying Theresa, when you get to the end, you want to hear, you know, well done, good and faithful servant. And it really is as simple as where are you seeking me? Did you have faith and trust in me? I it's so simple. I just wish I could remember it more every single minute of the day. And I encourage everyone for the same, right? Theresa, that's so true Renee. And we know that we have the helper. We, you know, we love to talk about the holy spirit, the helper that lives in us. And, um, so I, I so appreciate his help. I so appreciate that he's there every moment of every day. And he loves likes to help us again, in the book of Philippians chapter two, verses 12 to 13, the scripture say, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. And we know that if we're following him and he's working, the good works through us, that he's forming and shaping the destiny of our life. And we hear that small, still voice saying, this is the way to go walk E N it. And we're obedient to that. All of a sudden we see our destiny open up. We see that we are walking in, living in the unique plan that God has for our lives. And I always like to say a fish that was outside the pond of water when he is put back in and he swimming around. There's an innate knowing this is life. This is the life that I was born to live. So I know my life before Christ in my life after Christ is just like that fish, Rene. I feel I was put back in to the pool of my destiny. And as I'm swimming, the Lord is leading. And all of a sudden, as he says, in John 10, 10, the thief comes not accepting steal and to kill and to destroy. But I have come that you may have life in. You may have it more abundantly. I feel that in this part of my life, I have so much abundance of joy and peace and sustenance. And this is the life that he has called each one of us to the Christian life. Yes, we have struggles, but we know as the Bible says that we're more than conquerors in. We can relax knowing he's going to work it out together for our good and that there's purpose in the pain and the struggles that we become stronger, that he will bring us to a point of understanding and all of a sudden Renee, wow, we are just swimming. And we are in the destiny that he has created for us. It's so great. Teresa, I think just keep it simple. Start with that innocent faith and ask for truth and grace and it's that simple to get started. That's so very true. Sure. I think of my friend Rita and that's exactly what we did that day. You know, we asked for his grace to come in to start revealing truth to her Renee. And, you know, God is just so crazy in love with us. You know, he, um, his heart was to die for humanity. He died for our sins and he's all about then bringing us to a place of restoration to himself in that he loves to just take by day guide us and lead us, lead our steps into that place where joy and freedom reign. And so boy, Renee, you and I could keep everybody here for, for days on end giving testimony of how his word is true and how through the obedience I'll be at not perfect, but through the obedience to what the holy spirit was showing us to do, we're brought into that perfect plan. And about that word, Theresa, about the word, what do we know the scripture says about the word of God that is foundational to the well-versed woman? Absolutely. It's found in Romans chapter 10 verse 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
Speaker 2:By the word of God, thank you for listening. We're so appreciative of it. We'd love for you to subscribe to this channel rate and review, and we'll send you a well-versed woman journal. We also have a Facebook community just search well-versed woman on Facebook, and we'll approve you to join our community. And last but not least, Teresa sums up week after week. All the scriptures that we talk about on the air and they are in the show notes. So just search your favorite app that you listened to this podcast on, down into the details. You'll see the show notes. You can print out the scriptures, remember studying and meditating on that word is key, right? Jaysa sure is. Renee
Speaker 3:Sure is. And we're so delighted to bring you God's
Speaker 2:Word week after week until next week. We love you. Bye now.