Faith v. Religion
Jeff and Tracy cover a variety of Biblical topics from a believer's perspective. They are not pastors, theologians, or clergy instead they share their personal experiences with The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit through His revelation to them. Jeff and Tracy believe one does not need an intercessor to have access to our Heavenly Father, simply belief in Jesus Christ of Nazareth who came in the flesh, the Messiah.
Faith v. Religion
Gossip, Grace, and Growth: Navigating Christian Transformation
What happens when Christianity moves beyond Sunday services and becomes the lens through which you view your entire life? In this deeply personal episode, Jeff and Tracy reunite after a hiatus to explore the profound transformation that occurs when faith genuinely takes root.
The conversation takes an honest turn as they reflect on their former selves—quick-witted with sharp tongues, engaging in gossip without remorse—and contrast that with their current spiritual awareness. Now, even the slightest step over the line brings immediate recognition and accountability. This dramatic shift didn't come through willpower but through complete surrender.
At the heart of their discussion lies a powerful truth: gossip destroys like murder. It ruins reputations, damages self-esteem, and creates lasting wounds that some carry for decades. Yet when we encounter someone we haven't seen in years, do we give them the opportunity to show who they've become, or do we hold them hostage to outdated stories and secondhand information?
Jeff and Tracy unpack the challenges of extending grace, especially to those who've hurt us or whose reputation precedes them. They examine how the Bible becomes truly "living and breathing" when approached with prayer and discernment, offering fresh insights for each new circumstance we face.
Perhaps most thought-provoking is their reflection on self-forgiveness. When we say "I just can't forgive myself," aren't we implying that Jesus's sacrifice wasn't sufficient? Through vulnerable sharing and scriptural wisdom, this episode offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to move beyond surface-level faith into a transformative relationship with Christ.
Ready to examine your own spiritual journey? Listen now and discover what it truly means to "contend for the faith" in everyday life.
You, lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the one who lifts my head high.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to Faith vs Religion with Jeff and Tracy man. It's been a long time since we've done anything. A lot of things have come up, a lot of work through, a lot of issues that Tracy and I both had in our personal lives. So we've kind of gotten that kind of situated and put in different compartments where we can move forward. And it was kind of funny that we and there's nothing funny about it, but we tried to talk about some of those things and we were going to switch to audio where people could see us, and we were going to really come up and have this new kind of a new version of the program. And I think the Lord just zapped it and we recorded it and spent like a few hours recording it and we thought it was really great and then there was no audio to it, recorded it and spent like a few hours recording it and we thought it was really great and then there was no audio to it.
Speaker 1:So it was, it was.
Speaker 2:It was our first like where you would see us, but it was our rawest yeah like it was the realest, rawest version of us, and it got squashed and it was squashed, so there was like so many, yeah, there's just so many issues with this. So we just kind of start from there. So anyways, kind of give you a little background of where we've been. But so we'll start out with prayer and, heavenly Father, we just humbly come to you and just ask you to open up our hearts and give us what you want us to talk about. Heavenly Father, only you know what's best for us and everybody that listens. And we know that everything that comes from you is always new. Even though it may seem like we've heard it before, it's always new and there's always a new situation. We can apply it to.
Speaker 2:Heavenly Father. We pray that you forgive us of our sins, we forgive those who trespass against us. Heavenly Father, we know these are the times that we walk by faith and not by sight. We know that you are Jehovah Rapha, jehovah Nissi, jehovah Jireh. You are the God with many names. You provide, you heal, you win our battles, you are our protector, heavenly Father. And we just know that it is written and it is true. Your word is living, breathing, and no one comes to you but through the Son, jesus Christ, of Nazareth, who came in the flesh, and we just praise you, almighty God, and thank you and just ask for your blessing and your guidance on this journey, in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1:Father, we also ask that you provide a conduit over this communication, father, god, that you seal the airwaves so that your frequency is the only frequency that's received through this transmission. Lord, we just ask that you continue to shed your mercy and grace upon us. Lord, we ask for your wisdom. We thank you that you have brought us here today and we just thank you for the time that you spent, that you spend with us fellowshipping, and we just ask that you continue to grow in us so that we are lesser and you are greater. In the name of the lord jesus christ, we ask you with the game in the flesh amen.
Speaker 2:So, um, I was thinking. I've been thinking about a lot of things, but most of all I've been reflecting on just really being digging in really deep two years ago and really just really digging deep into the spirit it and knowing that Christianity and the walk with Jesus is so much deeper than just church on Sunday and opening the Bible on Sunday and occasionally going to a Bible study class. It really becomes a part of everyday life and you live that way and it's, as cliche as that may sound, it never really kind of clicked with me until over those last couple of years that I've gotten so deep and spiritual and it's almost seemed like when I started two years ago I had to throw everything that I knew out the window because it was just the Lord just took me so deep whenever, whenever I first just truly surrendered to him and and and wanted, like, wanted the change and wanted the healing and wanted to move forward in righteousness and live the best that I could and and do the things that he's created me to do. And it dawned on me that it doesn't matter what we do in life, that God created us to appreciate him, to worship him, to praise him, to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's our job to build the kingdom and to grow his kingdom and bring broken people to healing, because, at the end of the day, nothing else matters, because you leave this world with nothing but eternal life is the most sacred promise, I think, in all of humanity, and we've heard it before, but it never really clicked until over these last couple of years, and then I started thinking well, I know the Lord really is calling me to evangelize. And then the enemy gets in my head and tells me no, no, no, no, no. Imagine what all the people they're going to remember every bad thing that you ever did. And that's your identity. And that's where it kind of clicked with me the other day when I said I I started.
Speaker 2:I was talking to another friend and I was talking about somebody I hadn't had any dealings with in over 15 years and I said something negative. And then I thought, you know, I shouldn't have said that. I haven't had any dealings with them in 15 years. You don't know them anymore. You don't know them anymore. They could be a brand new person Like you, just like me. And I thought, wow, how amazing that is. And how many times do we go and not extend that grace to everybody that we should, because God extends it to us and he forgives us Well you'll extend it to a stranger before you'll extend it to someone you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is it that our self prejudices? I I mean, what's your take on it?
Speaker 1:you tell me um, no, it's true, I mean you. You definitely, you definitely will give a stranger grace before you give someone who's wronged you or hurt you or you have a preconceived notion about or an experience, because you can't. The experience is real. You can't throw out the experience, so to speak. However, you do have to remember that they were removed for a reason, and it may not be your reason, it may be theirs. So you have to. That's where you have to gird up every day and you have to pray, you have to ask the Lord to and not even like somebody that's wronged you more especially, look at how or you could have been the good timing person, and that's all they remember.
Speaker 1:Is all yeah. They're like how can this drunk ever talk about jesus?
Speaker 2:or you know, yeah, I think that. And then how do you handle? Like, here's another one. That really got me. We pray for forgiveness, but then we don't want to forgive other people or we hold everything them their feet to the fire for everything that they've ever done.
Speaker 2:But then what if we, just what if? What if we just heard something we don't even know the person we just heard from from a friend of a friend of a friend's cousin yeah, the telephone game that they did something bad. And so every time that we see them and it's gospel yeah, it's gospel. Can you believe? They used to do that 15, 20 years ago. They did whatever and we Hold on to it. Hold on to it like it's truth, and it just amazes me.
Speaker 2:It just, I mean, it just amazes me and I thought you know I'm guilty of that and I have to like stop doing it.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean the fact that you're acknowledging it is a big, because before we just roll with it, we didn't even think to acknowledge or change it. But I think that's where he's changed our hearts. But you know what I think too. There comes a point where if you haven't had an association with a person in a long period of time, you truly don't know them because you don't. We all change, we all go through something. We don't know what traumas or what growth they've had during the time period that we've been absent. So I think we have to give them the ability to at least show us who they are, because they're not necessarily going to tell you what they've been through. They just have to show you, and it's in their fruit that we know yeah, and I think there's a.
Speaker 2:I I need to look for it, but I know there's a, there's a, there's a pro. I think it's a proverb. I think it's a proverb um uh about gossiping. And if nobody would gossip quarrels would die down.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know, and I can't recall the exact scripture right offhand. It's a short one and I should, but I guess I didn't have enough ginkgo biloba today. But there's a proverb out there that talks about this and I just thought it was so funny there that talks about this and I just thought it was so funny and then, like I, that's kind of like the path that I I'd been thinking about for about a week and then it was. It was kind of interesting, um, that our pastor at church, he got really into a deep dive into Matthew and how, whenever you're born again, you're a new, like God forgot all of that. God is the true sovereign. Really, your relationship with God is the only thing that matters, don't you agree? Like I mean so many people, many people yeah, it's the ultimate.
Speaker 2:So many people what you know, like when you were born and you know, are being raised and everything else. Everybody says that you know your name is the most important thing, that you have to keep your name clean, it's the most important thing.
Speaker 1:But he changes your name talking. Getting this deep kind of what I was getting trying to work up toward was how many lukewarm Christians.
Speaker 2:well, let's just call it what it is. Lukewarm Christians go out and profess well, it's in the Bible that that's wrong. It's in the Bible, it's not wrong. And I always love to say where, where in the Bible I don't know. It's just in the Bible, it's not wrong. And I always love to say where, where in the Bible I don't know. It's just in the Bible. How do you know the Bible? Have you ever read the Bible? No, I've never read the Bible. My grandma told me, or my great grandma told me that it was, or my grandma told my grandma, or her grandma told her, and all that. So it's in there. And while that may be certain to an extent, you haven't read the Bible, but you're professing it as it's, as you know, the gospel.
Speaker 1:And then there's that, but how many times has one word been often changed?
Speaker 2:Oh, even through translations Correct. You know, and that's another thing, you do have to go through and look at different translations to compare.
Speaker 2:You know kind of how it got lost in translation or if it did, whenever something doesn't ring true Because again even when, even when we're studying in the Bible, we have to be in prayer as well, and that's where your discernment is just becomes so sharpened. Your discernment is just becomes so sharpened, but, um, but, and then then you encounter the other person that tells you everything that and then you're kind of like questioning because that's not what you read. But then they tell you well, I've listened to the audio bible I. I listened to it and it took me two years to listen to it. But you forget those things in two years and it's like if the bible's living and breathing, you have to read it on a like a true christian.
Speaker 1:That's in the walk I don't think ever finishes the bible but you're not in the same circumstance as you were in two years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because every time you read it, it's a. You get a different lesson out of it. Even if you read, well you the same exact passage over and over.
Speaker 1:But also, too, if you're listening to it, are you just listening to it or are you doing something else, because the distractions are real. Yeah, you have to read it while I'm listening to it, to retain what is being said and receive it the way I'm supposed to be receiving it. I'm not saying that the way I receive it is right, it's just. I pray that the Holy Spirit allows me to receive it the way that I'm supposed to receive it in that moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because, like you said, based on my situation and my circumstance, it's going to change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you have to believe that it's going to change and but number one you have to believe it's living and breathing.
Speaker 2:You have to believe that, that Jesus is the son of God, that we have. We serve a triune God we he's three in one the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. You have to believe he is the creator, he is the true sovereign, he is the, he is Alpha and he is Omega, just as the Bible tells us that he is. But you have to believe it. And if you don't believe it, you just say a lukewarm prayer then and you don't get anything back from it. Or you say show me your real God. He's already shown us. He sent his son to die for all of our sins. He walked this earth and if you can't believe that and you can't believe that it's supernatural that you have to be able to prove it with a calculator and all that it's beyond our understanding. God is beyond our understanding, like there's so many things that as a human we don't know, but there's nothing God doesn't know. So that's.
Speaker 1:The fact that he has the ability to oversee all realms and all time, space and dimension at once.
Speaker 2:Well, he's omnipotent.
Speaker 1:There's no way that we can actually comprehend, understand or follow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think the biggest thing of being born again and being baptized is you truly have to believe it and once you believe it, you feel it, you feel it and once you feel it, you start living it to its to the fullest that you possibly can. I mean, of course, it's going to be bumps and bruises along the way, because, I mean, god's word tells us that.
Speaker 1:It's not going to be easy and it's for both you and I. Where you and I from 20 years ago, 25 years ago, whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a while.
Speaker 1:Versus now. You and I, 20, 25 years ago, we could cut up, laugh with no remorse, regardless of the situation, whether it be at someone's expense or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gossiping or just what they look like and we're like. That doesn't make sense, right?
Speaker 1:just yeah but there was no like, no remorse, like cut up, laugh, never think twice of it. You and I both now, when we cross over the line, just even a toe, a a smidge, we both acknowledge it and call each other out. Like not even. It's not you call me out, it's like I acknowledge to you, like I screwed up this is where and vice versa.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like we own the fact that we know that we took on the flesh for that moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah Versus being where we should have been. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Where for us both that is a huge encounter, like if we were to do side-by-side reels. They don't look like the same people, no not at all, not even close.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I, I mean you're exactly right. I mean if you had a side by side picture, I mean I could, I mean I could totally see it of. Yeah, and it wouldn't be a good one, it would be a funny one to an extent. But we do have to recognize and it is funny that I mean I've done the same thing, I mean I've, I've got a wicked tongue and I've, you know, but I think that part of it, that is part of what brought us together, is we both had that warped sense of humor you're right, wicked tongue, yeah um quick-witted both but, either of us were thin-skinned like we could dish it and take it.
Speaker 1:There was never.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of similarities well, I don't think we were definitely kindred spirits at the time we really were born in a different era than today, that's that's for certain.
Speaker 2:But, um, but, you know, I mean it, it. It is funny that that you could recognize it. And I think, man, I used to not think twice about giving somebody a tongue lashing, and that's just the way it was. And I'm a real person, yeah, and just like you know, and that's just the way it was, and I'm a real person, yeah, and just like you know. It's just they deserved it. And now I think, did that really need to be said, like, and I don't know how many times I've I've said and hopefully they're getting less now but I said, oh, mercy. I said, you know, like, uh, I mean the enemy just jumped right through me and just, you know, I just let a wicked demon out and will laugh about it. And I think, gosh, I, you know, I shouldn't have reacted that way. And you really have to think about things, you know, really think.
Speaker 1:I do agree to an extent, but there's sometimes where, whether you're a Christian or whether you just live in the flesh, whatever you- yeah, worldly views, whatever there comes a point where you get tired of tolerating people's bad behavior selfishness, bad behavior excuses just, and.
Speaker 1:And. Selfishness, bad behavior, excuses just, and. You do lose the ability just to say I need to walk away. Turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek. Sometimes something has to be said, because I don't even think people know the energy, the negativity that they put off and how they come across.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, and that is true, and especially somebody with the worldly view doesn't really know how damaging gossip is. But gossip is a sin because it does the same thing as murder.
Speaker 2:It destroys a person. It slanders and libels, it embarrasses. You know what? It ruins a person. It ruins their self-esteem, it ruins their outlook. It does a lot of vicious things that sometimes it's just irreparable, like there's never. How many times do you hear the story of? Well, in high school I was this. Or in elementary it was this. Or when I was a small kid it was this. And the person's, like 70 years old, they're still harboring that resentment toward it.
Speaker 2:God can change you, but also having just having the ability and being the faith to surrender it all to him and know that your ways don't work, you can't do it by yourself. You have to have the help of God and you also have to have fellowship with the Christian, a like minded Christian, so that you can you, you can build and deepen your relationship with the Lord. Element of control has to be off of it because you only, we only understand earthly ways. We don't understand God's way, ends and all of eternity, or until our the relationship, how it would go, or whatever the case may be that you should be, that you're praying about. You have to surrender to him and know and sometimes, if that message comes with oh wow, it's on my heart I should apologize to this person that I cannot stand. Then you have to do it to be whole and to really feel it and you have to obey. And you know. One time I heard a pastor say 95% obedience is 100% disobedience.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:You know, and that is so true. You have to. You have to follow what the lord puts on your heart. And if you say god doesn't talk to me, well, do you say I have a gut feeling that, or I feel like this, that or that's god talking to you?
Speaker 2:yeah I mean, I mean absolutely it is. It's the Holy Spirit coming over you and trying to give you guidance. And I think another thing is, you know you have to want it as well, because you can't. I mean, we all know and we've all seen, we've all had experience with people that we, you know, if we had a loved one that was on drugs or just going the wrong way or whatever the case may be, and we pray for them and we drag them to church. We, you know, practically tie them up, handcuff them and put them in the car and drive them and make them sit in the pew and listen. Well, if they don't want to be there, they're not listening.
Speaker 1:Or they want to be there, but they want you to do the work for them, yeah, and you can't, you can't want that for them.
Speaker 2:Salvation is, you know that's a choice. It's a choice and it's personal and you know, just like christianity is. That's what makes christianity so unique and so special is that you don't have to have an intercessor and it's a. You go straight to god and it's it's one-on-one relationship. There's no medium. There's no medium. The only way to the Father is through his Son.
Speaker 2:You just have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and walked this earth, died, resurrected in three days, and that's where eternal life comes from. He has conquered the grave. He has done all these things for us, and then we have the audacity to say prove it to me. You know, and that's not any different than after Jesus was baptized and he went into 40 days into the wilderness and where, you know, satan had tempted him at every step of the way and promised him, you know, you could have all of the kingdoms of the world and all you have to do. You know, and all of these things that it.
Speaker 2:It's just amazing to me if we would really understand that not only does God love us so much, he has a plan for us, but also that evil exists and Satan has a plan for us, life would be so much better, because there's just so many things we can't control. We can't control anything. Really. Only thing we can control is us surrendering to the lord and following his guidance. That's it. That's the only thing that we can control, and I just think of wow, if we can extend grace to people that we either have had bad relationships with or we've just heard things about, how much better would this world be?
Speaker 2:well, well, I mean we we know that we're always going to have strife in it because you know the devil's the principality of the earth and that's of lies he wants, he wants to prince of lies.
Speaker 2:He wants to keep the gossip and the oh yeah, all of that is the works of the enemy, and so many people say, well, they're, I'm not an evil person, but then they're the biggest gossiper in town. Yeah, you are evil. You're doing, instead of doing the lord's work, you're doing the enemy's work, and, man, and I think that that's another thing. That about you know, becoming just a, really, just a really true Christian, is that we're still going to make mistakes. Yes, we're still going to have to pray for forgiveness.
Speaker 1:We're still sinners.
Speaker 2:I mean we are, well we're. I mean that's why Jesus was born through immaculate conception. He couldn't have been born the way and conceived the way you and I were. He would be predisposed to sin. Yeah, you know, it had to be special and that's what makes and I think that's what makes the Bible difficult for so many people.
Speaker 1:Because there's an element of supernaturalness to it. Some of it's just maturity, too, though, because Some of it's just maturity too, though, because I know for me as an adult, I have been told things about people that wasn't favorable, but I have made the decision to not listen to those things, to make make my own judgment, make my own opinion, and nine times out of ten, I'm pleasantly surprised that they are not the person that I was told they were, or my experience is they're not whom.
Speaker 1:however, that's usually someone's previous experience, like you said yeah from years past, which circumstances, growth, traumas, all things have happened since then that have molded them into a different person. I do believe that not all people want to be in that victim mentality. There are some people that don't want to live that victim mentality, like my mentality was never a victim mentality, even though I have had things happen to me that I could have taken on. That that's not who I am. So when I learned what an overcomer was, I was was like okay, that's where I want to be, that's my mindset I want to be, not to say that I'm not going to go through something but it's not going to get the best of me, it's not going to win. I'm going to overcome whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think there are more people out there like that than we know, and they too have that mindset. So, even though they've gone through something, that doesn't mean that they're going to stay in that situation. They're not going to better themselves from the situation. They're going to try and grow from it. So I do think that we do need to give people grace, the benefit of the doubt, whatever, to let them prove themselves who they are in the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I, and I think you know Jesus has a parable about being made new and you have to. You can't pour new wine into old wineskins. You take on a new identity. That and it's all new and it's special, and we have to recognize that, especially as believers, that people are capable of change. God is capable of changing people and not so much are people, you know, capable of change I think people are capable of making decisions to allow surrender, because god makes the change.
Speaker 2:I don't know that we make the change because you know, we hear psychologists, I think dr, think Dr Phil's probably famous line is something like you know, past behavior is indicative of future results, or future behavior, something along those lines. But you know, maybe if we don't, that's why we have to surrender to him, if we don't have that ability to truly change. But he can change us and he can make us anew and I'm telling you, if he can do that with me and my crazy lifestyle that I lived, he can do it with anybody, right?
Speaker 1:But that's the thing, I want to point this out. He did it because you were willing to surrender. But it wasn't just the surrender, it was your true desire to want to be healthy and not just physical, mental, like healthy. Get right, all the above.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And again, someone can't want it for you more than you wanted it for something. You truly desired it from your insides that you wanted to be who you were created to be. It wasn't, uh, you didn't want the fluff, you didn't want the bullshit. You didn't want the fluff. You didn't want the bullshit. You didn't want you wanted, you craved, and there was no one going to stop, nor were you going to be ashamed of who or what you'd been through. If he was going to bring you through it, yeah, and I think that right, there is where the enemy gets people the shame and guilt. Yeah, they would rather people not know their, their dirty deeds, so their shame and guilt didn't have to be brought up. Then to put that shame and guilt where it belongs in the trash, because jesus didn't bring the shame and guilt.
Speaker 1:That's the enemy yeah, no, you're right, I, I, I believe that that's that's right, and and so when you walk into someone that you haven't seen in years and they give you a look, you realize it's on them. It has nothing to do with you. Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It doesn't have anything to do with me. And also I would say I don't need any bs instead of the other word. But that's me, I'm teasing you. The um, but the but. But you're right, and you take on that new identity and you have to be accepting of that new identity and you have to, you have to believe again that jesus changed you and here's another thing Forgiveness you.
Speaker 1:What we have to learn is you know, we ask for forgiveness. Right we ask the Lord to forgive us. Part of that forgiveness is we have to make the decision to forgive ourselves, because we do have fault in some of the stuff oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, but we have to make that decision to forgive ourselves.
Speaker 1:Where we and this is a general statement we tend to mess up, we try and pick up like I just can't forgive myself. So what you're saying, what jesus did on the cross, wasn't good enough yeah and I think that's insulting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely and I think that's where jude comes in and when you really understand jude.
Speaker 2:Now, it's a short, you know short, one chapter in the bible, um, but you have to understand it and it really digs in deep about.
Speaker 2:You have to contend for the faith constantly, not only for yourself, but you have to contend for the faith in all situations, the faith in all situations and for that reason, even even amongst other believers, because whether they're shallow, lukewarm or whatever, that's not for us to make that decision, but you have to really contend for the faith so that people will have that reflection where that's the Holy Spirit working through us to help others and vice versa. And you know it really. It's really true that if your heart is in the right place and you're truly seeking something, you're truly seeking redemption and salvation, seeking something. You're truly seeking redemption and salvation. And even if you bump up against a false teacher, your discernment will eventually get you there and show you that that's not the right way. But even though they are a false teacher, there's elements of truth there that you could still learn from exactly you know well, and I think he does shift through the nuggets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, that's where forgiveness and the desire to surrender and look at everything as a learning experience and then really contend for the faith, so deep and your life changes so much. It's almost like you're an outsider looking into the world because you're walking in the Spirit and it's just amazing. The works of Jesus are just beyond our comprehension. I know it's a cliche, we hear it over and over, but it is so true and it's so powerful and we just have to rebuke the enemy and contend for the faith every day, ask for forgiveness, give forgiveness, just as it says forgive me of my, forgive me of my debt. My trespasses are debts as I forgive my debtors. Forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.
Speaker 2:Man, I am having a crazy day today. I couldn't even remember Bible Gateway. I couldn't remember the name of it for a second. Uh, that's the, maybe that's the enemy putting the fog over me, but uh, but anyways, I just thought that was an interesting conversation, that, um, that interesting thoughts to really elaborate on and get your take on whenever, um, kind of what I've been going through and really understanding how deep that it's just amazing, how deep that the Lord has just taken me. Well, here's something too.
Speaker 1:I have had to and this is something for me recently like I have had to take steps back in certain situations and Not address things, because my head space isn't good, my heart's not 100% right, so I know that Addressing it wouldn't come From the right place, so I've had to, like Withdraw myself. But also, too, I have to ask myself before you address it, you have to, you have to find out where they're at. Are they going through something? And it was done, maybe in air, not so much. Was it done purposely, or was it done out of her? Or because you don't necessarily know where they're at?
Speaker 1:oh right, you think you do, but do you really know? We never know and we can't you know so for me, which is showing a sign of maturity for me, because before I would have just it's unglazed this shit out of them and then said, uh well, I'll deal with it when the lord puts it on me to repent.
Speaker 1:But now I'm like, okay, I don't want to have to relive it, I don't want to have to do and I don't want to have to relearn a lesson, so I'd rather remove myself. Make sure I'm don't want to have to relearn a lesson, so I'd rather remove myself. Make sure I'm mentally and physically in the right place, find out where they were, then address it and do it one time. Yeah, and if it's meant and here's the thing if it, if the, if the relationship's meant to be severed, he's going to sever it regardless.
Speaker 1:But at least I know I did it with the right intent true so, then, regardless of what is said or done, I can walk away with a clean slate and my conscience is clear yeah, oh, absolutely, it's just amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean, how he works and and um, and all of his ways are mysterious and and that's what makes it exciting, you know. Truthfully, I mean it's an amazing thing. But so that's a little bit of what we've been up to, and anyways.
Speaker 2:I will probably might expand on that later. I'm sure we'll talk about it again or it'll come up again, but in the meantime we always want to contend for the faith and walk by faith and not by sight, and know that God goes by many names and he's like I said he's Jehovah Rapha, jehovah Nissi, jehovah Jireh. He's Elohim, the God who sees. He's El Shama, the God who hears. The Bible is not only a living, breathing, but it's truly an owner's manual to life, and with that we'll leave you and be safe.
Speaker 1:Show someone some grace.
Speaker 2:Show someone some grace and forgiveness and surrender to the Lord and know that he is Alpha, he is Omega, the beginning and the end and he is the true sovereign In Jesus' name, Amen.