.png)
Unashamed Table Talk
Unashamed Table Talk is a Christ-centered, Gospel-focused podcast from Unashamed Women’s Ministry, hosted by Denise Bowens and BJ Garrett, where we tackle honest conversations about faith and life.
Unashamed Table Talk
Why Romans 1:16? What's The Big Deal?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In todays world, the news is everywhere! It is not the good news .....it is assumptions, opinions and gossip most of the time. It is hard to know what is real and what is not!
Do you struggle with fear of sharing the good news? Are you worried about how you will sound or if people will ask a questions that you don't know?
Join us today as we dive into practical conversation and truth!
Kick back, hit play and let's figure it out together.
If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, rate, and share it with someone who needs encouragement and desires to grow in Christ. New episodes release weekly, and we'd love for you to join us as we pursue freedom and walk by the Spirit together
We would also love to hear from you! Good or bad, let us know your thoughts and how we can improve! We love fan mail!
So I am in Pennsylvania right now as we're recording this with my daughter, and we are like out in the middle of nowhere. It is Amish people around us a lot. It's just farmland, cornfields as far as you can see, but it's gorgeous here. And so this morning I was sitting on the porch and I was having my quiet time. I had some worship time, and I have several events coming up, speaking events. And so I was praying, Lord, I just want to have an encounter with you. Show me what you want me to talk about. Show me something. I decided I'd go walking. And as I'm walking down the road, same thing. I'm just praying, Lord, show me something special. Speak to me. Show me something. And it wasn't long after I prayed, walking, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a rooster is on the side of the road. And it's just looking at me, and I'm looking at it, and I'm like, there's no house around, there's no other chickens, there's nothing as a rooster. And I looked and I just laughed and I was like, huh, okay, Lord, a rooster. You know, sometimes the things we're praying for don't always come out like we think they're going to.
SPEAKER_01No, that is true. That is very true. Uh so that's how I started my morning. And then, okay, so I know you. What kind of story did you get from it? Because you're like, hmm.
SPEAKER_02Well, I really thought like I was thinking sometimes we think we we pray for something specific. You know, I'm praying for God to show me something. I'm thinking, I'm gonna receive a word, he's gonna remind me of a scripture or something in a song because I'm praying for God to show me what he wants me to talk about at these events, you know, and and and then there's a rooster, and I just kind of laugh because I'm just thinking, again, what I got out of it is what we think we're going to get is not always what we get. And sometimes we just have to work with what we have, and really that's kind of what I got out of it is the thing you would never expect just pops out sometimes, and and it can be funny, and we could look at it and think it's nothing at all. Or I could go, okay, well, it's a rooster. What am I gonna do with that? You know, I thought maybe I'm supposed to look up roosters and find out more things about them. You know, I don't know, but things we're looking for don't always turn out the way we think they are.
SPEAKER_01Well, totally random. But I've been watching a new trash show, and it is called something like my strange arrest, you know, because I just love TV that is I don't have to actually watch. And there was a guy that got arrested because he had killed a rooster, but then it ended up that the charges got dropped because this rooster like full-on attacked him and his daddy, and like he had all these like battle scars, and he literally was like defending his own life, saved his soul from the room. He got off on self-defense. Well, they ended up just dropping the charges because he had all the pictures and everything, and anyways, yeah, but I was like, mm-hmm I thought that's where you were gonna go with the story. I thought she's gonna get attacked by the rooster because roosters can be mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So Dakota, she's been sleeping in and much needed rest for her. And she wakes up and comes downstairs at this where we're staying, and she doesn't see me anywhere. So she said she was just calling out for me, couldn't find me nowhere. And she thought she's done wandered off somewhere.
SPEAKER_01And there every time we pull the driveway, we go to the left, everything's to the left, and you have no phone service either, so she can't call you and be like, Where are you at?
SPEAKER_02Right, there's no phone service anywhere around here, hardly. And so she said, I just knew you done went down to the right because we don't know what's down there. So so she I'm walking back, I see the rooster, I'm laughing, walking on along, and then here comes Dakota driving down the road. And she was like, I was wondering where you were. And anyway, she's like, I knew you were wandering off somewhere. And so we get back to the house and I tell her about the rooster, and she said, Oh my gosh, I can't believe she goes, We've not seen any chickens like anything. We hadn't even heard a rooster. I said, I know, I said it's the weirdest thing. And she goes, Well, did you try to catch it? And I said, Heck no, that thing would attack me. And she said, Oh, I wished I could have been coming up over that hill and and found you getting attacked by a rooster. Oh my gosh, that'd have been so funny. Shut up.
SPEAKER_01It would have been so funny. I'm glad you didn't even get attacked.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, it would have made for a good story, though.
SPEAKER_01So I'm just nosy. Where are you at? You said you're having a quiet time this morning and just praying. Where are you at in the word?
SPEAKER_02Actually, I was reading in uh Romans chapter one, and I was reading verses 10. Well, really, I was reading this whole chapter, which is what we were talking about today, but I've also been reading in Galatians.
SPEAKER_01So look at you being prepared. I did not do that. I was not in Romans today. I just finished James in my quiet time, which I love the book of James. I read it all the time, but I had been camping out in some of the Psalms, and it really started from another podcast that we had recorded, and it was just really good. So I've been just camping out in Psalms 46 and 47, 48 around in there the last few days.
SPEAKER_02I actually read Psalm 19 this morning as well.
SPEAKER_01I've been thinking about checking out Job again. I've not read Job in a while, and missionary friend of mine, I just got their updated newsletter and he wrote a bunch about Job and it reminded me how awful it is, first off. But when you get to the last part, those last few chapters of Job, where where Job begins to question God and God, you know, basically just answers Job with, you know, who are you? Are you the one that can tell the sea to go this far and no further and all of the things? And it just really brings out the majesty of who he is and the power of who God is. And when I've had a really crappy week, which is lately, it feels that way. It's just been lots of things going on in my world with work and different stuff, and reading the last few chapters of Job is just a reminder of God is so good, He is powerful. And but I didn't want to just cheat and skip to the end of Job, but I don't think I've got the mentality to read all of Job right now because it's just so sad and depressing.
SPEAKER_02There's so much in Job. It is not in the book of Job. But today we're talking about Romans, we're talking about Paul and him going to. He's just he's in Rome. He's speaking and where he talks about like he's not ashamed of the gospel. And even in the conversation we're having right now, knowing that we have to have that quiet time with the Lord, we have to have that time of worship, we have to have that time of reading the word because it is the word is what gives us the strength to to keep moving on, to not be ashamed of the gospel wherever you go, knowing that this is what we cling to, this is what we need, is we need the truth of the word and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in this area that we're in, there are a lot of Amish, and there are also how do you say Mennonite are here as well.
SPEAKER_01Totally random, but I have a delicious Mennonite chocolate cake recipe I'll make for you sometime. Remind me. Perfect. I know you would love it.
SPEAKER_02I love anything chocolate, yeah. I know you do. So I told Dakota, I said, I would love to just sit down with an Amish person and like not to be not a debate type thing, nothing like that. I just to sit down and just learn from them and talk to them and find out why they believe what they believe and why they do what they do, and just just I just find it very interesting.
SPEAKER_01And I want I don't even know really what they believe, to be honest. I would love to sit down and have the same conversation and learn what do they believe, you know, and do we believe in the same God or is it like a, you know, is it different like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness or something like that? Like, I really don't know what they believe. You remember Tammy when she went on vacation one time, she ended up like full-on becoming friends with some Amish people.
SPEAKER_02So well, today, so I had Toadico that I think like yesterday or something, and we've just been driving around, it's just pretty farmland, and this lady told us that to turn down some street and that we would find like this some Amish people selling things out at their farm. And so we went down, didn't find we did find a little gift shop. We went in where they had electricity and stuff, but they didn't have a vehicle, they did have a buggy, and when we left out, I told Dakota, I said, I think they're Mennonite, and so we just decided, well, let's just ride a little bit further. We went down and we found all this that polywood type furniture setting out, and we pulled into the yard and we get out and this dog, what is that, a collie, like lassie, you know, the lassie. Yeah, it just comes running through this pretty green field. I mean, it's like something from a movie, and Dakota's like, oh my gosh. So we're talking to the dog and look at the furniture, and then here comes this young man riding up on a bicycle. So we've seen buggies and bicycles, they have their suspenders and their hats and all the things everywhere. He comes up on his bike, his name is Andrew. Andrew, this is his place. We talked to him for a little bit. He asks where we're from, telling we're from Texas. So we're getting in about to get in the car, and he says, What part of Texas, what part of Texas are you from? Um, so we just start talking. And the more we talked, I said, Andrew, I'd like to ask you a question, but I don't want, please, I'm not meaning this to be offensive, none whatsoever. And he said, Okay. And I said, What is the difference between Amish and Mennonite? We don't have very many, like I never see Amish people, or there are some Mennonites I know in Canton, which is not far from where we live, I buy their fried pies every time I go there. And so I'm telling him that, and he just kind of smiles and I said, Are you Mennonite? And he said, Yes, I am. And I asked him, what is the difference? He said, Well, we believe we do have electricity, but we do only drive our buggies and bicycles, but we use farm equipment. Amish do not use farm, true Amish do not use farm equipment. They rely on their horses. And so we just talked about different like that. Amish, when they get married, they have a bait, they grow a full boy a full beard, and they don't they keep a beard. Mennonite, you can have a beard if you want to, but you don't have to have a beard. Amish. Yeah, they have a beard when you get married. So it was just little things like that. And he and he said, basically, our beliefs though is the same. We believe the same thing. He said, People think I'm Amish all the time, it doesn't offend me at all. I said, Okay. And he said, We believe in Jesus, we believe that we were all born into sin, we're all sinners, and Jesus died on the cross and we were saved by him. And I said, So do you believe in grace and mercy? And he said, Absolutely. If it wasn't for grace and mercy, we would all be going to hell. And he said, Jesus saved us by dying on the cross. And and so that I said, Well, we believe the same thing. I said, Do you believe in the old and new testament? He said, uh, I believe that there's many good things in the old testament, but we do not, if you go to our church, you'll never hear a preacher preach from the old testament, it's only New Testament. Interesting. Old Testament was the law, and we don't live by the laws anymore. We live by the New Testament, so that's what we teach and preach out of. But there's good things in the Old Testament, and we believe it to be true. We just don't live by Old Testament. I said, Okay. And they don't teach from the Old Testament. Interesting. I would have almost found that backwards. Yeah. Because I don't know why. Yeah. And they have all these rules and things, yeah. Which is kind of like following the law. And we're getting so off subject, but it's still very interesting. But yeah, anyway, yes. And I told him when we left, I said, Andrew, this has been the best time I've had since we've been here. And he said, if you have any other questions, you know I won't be offended. Just come back. And I said, Well, if you see us driving back down the road, you know there's some Texas girls coming. And he just laughed. He said, Okay, he said, You're welcome to come and don't offend me.
SPEAKER_01Super nice. I love that. So they so after having this conversation with him, do you think that they actually believe what we believe? I do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, like I was telling Dakota, the Bible tells us that we're to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, that he died on the cross for our sins. A lot of the other things that we do in life are really religious. Man-made. Yeah. So I just told I told Dakota, I said, here, he believes Jesus is the Son of God. He believes Jesus died on the cross for his sins. He believed he was a sinner and he was saved by grace. I believe that I will see him in heaven and all this other stuff that we believe in. It won't even matter when we get there.
SPEAKER_01But did you ask him about baptism or anything like that? Or but maybe I need to drive back and go see. You need to drive back and ask. Avoid the rooster and ask about baptism. I'm always so curious what people believe about baptism because baptism was such a powerful thing in my life. And I mean, it is in everybody's life that's scripturally baptized, but I love baptism and I'm always curious what people believe about baptism. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, it's not very far from us, so yeah. May go back to the Andrew. Oh, it makes me just so curious though, like why don't they use the tools? I mean, they use farm equipment Mennonites, but not the Amish. And like where where does that where do their traditions and man-made rules come into effect as far as their spirituality, or does it have anything to do with their spirituality? I would just love to know all of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would too. And I just couldn't think of all the things right there in the moment. And I've always believed that they, and I could be totally wrong. And somebody that's listening to this may be like, Oh, y'all are so messed up on this whole subject. Uh but people think that about us all the time, anyways. But I was just thinking, you think about all the material things in life. Yeah, they have they are all a distraction. Everything really, it is a distraction. You you've been out of the country to Africa or to Cuba and different places on mission trips. I have too, and you know it's such a simple life, and they do not have their life is hard because they don't have the material things. It's much harder, they work much harder, but they also appreciate things a lot better and they appreciate their family. That family is a big deal because all these material things don't get in the in the way. And so to me, I just kind of think cars, material thing. I mean, now they have a nice home, it is a beautiful property, beautiful home, like very, very nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, very clean, too, probably.
SPEAKER_02Yes, everything around here is very nice, very clean. We have not found a yard yet that needs to be mowed, and it rains every evening here, and everything's so green and pretty, but every every home has their yard mowed, and it's just so beautiful, flowers everywhere. And I just have always thought they don't drive the machinery and do all of the things because they're working with their hands, and maybe they believe that doing that it takes their eyes off of working from the land. And you know, I I guess like that could that it's something that the enemy can use to distract them from the Lord, and it does happen every day, all the day, all the time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I mean, chasing the same rabbit trail, but all of the modern day conveniences really just give us an excuse to be more busy. Everything that we even dishwashers and all of the things that are supposed to make our lives less busy just give us room to fill it up with more time. And I had a professor when I was in seminary that mentioned this, but like talking about dishwashers and things like that, is that it really the enemy is use that because back in the day you would eat dinner as a family, and then a couple of you would wash dishes together, a couple of you would dry the dishes, put them away, and that was all family time. Now it's just like throw it in the dishwasher, push start, you know, and you miss, you know, even like so thankful I don't have to hang clothes up on a clothesline. Although sometimes I just think that's nice. But like used to you would have families, they would go out and they spend time hanging up the sheets on the clothesline kind of thing, you know. And now there is none of that.
SPEAKER_02Right. I was fixing to bring up the clothing, the washing of clothes, because in Haiti, uh, one time we so there's a well at the school there that we were a part of, and we opened it up for the community in certain hours during the day. And the ladies would come and wash their clothes, and you know, they'd bring their buckets down and get the water and they'd wash it. Well, we decided we were going to put up clothes lines out there, and once we once we'd put clothes lines out, all the ladies in the community started coming down at one time because there was they didn't have to take the clothes back home and hang them up. Now they're coming down here. And what happened was all these ladies were coming together and they were talking. And for them, because they work all day long to take care of their home and everything, they didn't get to just hang out and visit and have fun and that type of thing with friends. So while they were washing clothes and hanging them up, they got to have conversation and it became the thing that they looked forward to most during the day was doing laundry because they all got to communicate and just hang out and have conversation and build relationships.
SPEAKER_01I love that, which is totally a really weird segment back into Romans 116, which is our theme verse that we launched Unashamed Women's Ministry off of. And a huge heart of that we have is to for women to be able to come together and build community. And we do that through the conferences and retreats. Right. Look how God just circled that back around. Unashamed is coming up really quick. If you have not bought your tickets, please do so now. Uh, you can get group tickets with a discounted rate, 10 or more. And we would love to have you come and be a part of what God's doing through the unashamed women's ministry. All right. You want to read that scripture?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're at where you starting at. Let's, I mean, just start in that verse 16. Let's read 16 and 17 both.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Verse 16. For I am not it's Romans 1, 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek, or some translations say Gentile. I think I'm reading from the New King James today instead of the New Living Translation. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_02That's so good. This for I am not ashamed of this good news. Your translation says the gospel. Mine says the good news about Christ. I was thought about this verse the other day. Friend of mine and I, we went to get our toes done, and they're down here, you know, working on our feet, massaging them, doing all, you know, getting pampered a little bit. Um, this young girl, she was, I don't know how she old she was, but I'm telling you, she's she's probably like high school age or so. And she's she is just so funny and full of energy and just all bubbly. And it reminded me of going on a mission trip. When you go out of the country, kids don't think about it, they just come to you and they say, Hello, what's your name? How old are you? In Haiti, how old are you? In Africa, how old are you? And like in the States, people just don't really do that, you know, but they always do that in other countries. And this girl, she looks at Genie and she says, How old are you? And we just started laughing. And she's just she's just talking to us and she's having a fun time, and she's like, What do you do? and just all this conversation. Well, we laughed, we picked on her, she picked on us, and we left out of there. And then, as I have was reading this scripture this morning, and even yesterday, as I was reading in the Bible, I keep thinking about that young girl. And I thought I had a hope, a perfect opportunity to ask her if she knew Jesus as her savior. And I didn't do that. And it I keep thinking about it, and I don't know if it's conviction, like the Lord's saying, I gave You a perfect opportunity. Why didn't you ask? Because normally I'll take advantage of those opportunities. But yeah, you're usually good. I just didn't, you know, and I don't do it all the time. I mean, I could be so much better at it, but usually when somebody just opens it up, even like with Andrew, you know, the Mennonite. Yeah, I could, but I didn't, and I keep thinking about that over and over again. I am not ashamed of the gospel. We wear the t-shirts that say unashamed or Jesus. We always have t-shirts with scripture on, and that is a way to share the gospel. But Paul, he's saying, I mean, I'm giving he's saying, I'm giving my life. I'm going and I'm telling the Jews and the Gentiles, and we're telling everyone that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and and he's not ashamed of what he's saying, whether he gets beat, thrown in jail, whatever. And sometimes we won't say it just because we're afraid of what someone's gonna think about us or what their answer's gonna be, or we're afraid they're gonna say no and we go and we have an opportunity to talk to them about it and we don't have the right answers, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, it becomes we take it away from we're not ashamed of the gospel, we're ashamed of us. We're insecure in what they're gonna think of us, which is so stupid and selfish because it's not about us at all. It's all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01It should have nothing to do with us.
SPEAKER_02But isn't that just like human nature though? We're we're such a selfish people, we always turn it back to ourselves. Yeah. Even when we don't mean to, but we just do because it's the way we live our lives so much. I mean, we just we I don't care. We are just selfish people. I just believe we are. I don't think we always set out to be that way, but you know, we want we want what we want when we want it, and we want things a certain way. We want the bougie car, or we want the air conditioner to be working correctly, or we want, you know, when things don't go our way and whatever we think it needs to be fixed right now. We're always thinking about ourselves. And I think it comes down to the same thing sometimes when we're talking trying to talk to people about Christ. We either don't or we do, but we only do it in what we feel comfortable with, and then we're out of there. We don't follow through and disciple, and you're very good at disciples, and you have a big heart about discipleship and prayer. That's very important to you, is discipleship. And I love that. And that's important to both of us through unashamed discipleship, and that's where the retreats come in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's good. I do love discipleship. I am not, I mean, I have a young woman that I sort of am working with right now, but we've both got so busy we don't go to church together anymore. And honestly, is it's an excuse, but I don't I with my job and ministry and her schedule, we just don't have time to get together weekly like we used to do. But I love her and we I still pray for her every week, and she is precious to me. But discipleship is so important because like God was so gracious to me, Denise. And we've talked about this before, and I've shared it a gajillion times from a stage, but God was so gracious to put people in my life, and I didn't even know I was being discipled. I didn't know that's what that was. Like we didn't have a program or, you know, there was nothing fancy. It was God inserted godly women into my life that began to teach me what God's word said about being a wife and being a I started going to women's conferences, which is what we try to do now, and retreats and things like that. And it was through the teaching and those, you know, those events that I began to grow in my walk and it changed everything for me. Like I had zero idea of what true Christianity looked like until God was so gracious to put these women in my life. And I mean, it really changed everything for me. So it is a huge passion of mine. Like I've talked about my my Maryland friend. She's gone on to be with the Lord now, but she was that friend, like, oh my gracious, she prayed about everything. And I say this, but it like it sounds like a joke, but it was not a joke. It was like, oh, you stubbed your toe, let's pray. And she would just immediately grab your hands and just pray. Or if you were on the phone, it didn't matter what it was, I don't know what I'm gonna cook for dinner. Well, let's pray about it. And she prayed about everything, and it was so comical and almost ridiculous, but also what a testament it was that she taught me to just stop right now and pray. And I try and I don't always succeed, I fall short all the time. But if I see something on social media, if someone texts me, if someone asks me to pray, I try to write then, even if it's just a short three or four sentence prayer, I try to stop right then and pray because she taught me the importance, because her thought process was if I don't stop right now and pray, I'll forget. With the best of intentions, we will want to pray for all of the things, but we get busy and life happens, and pots boil over, tires go flat, and you just forget. And if you stop writing down and pray, you don't forget.
SPEAKER_02I love it. You saying talking about her goes into the verse 17 because it says, This good news tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. And that to me goes right along with her. Like every she was disciplish, discipling you through faith. She was showing you what faith looked like to pray for all the little things takes faith. I know I've shared this before too. I don't remember on the podcast or not, but I heard long, long, long, long time ago this lady was talking and she said, I talk to the Lord about everything. I mean, when I go to the grocery store and I'm trying to pick out, and I forget what she said, like a cantaloupe or whatever. She says, she picks it up and she's like, Lord, is this the one? Is this one ripe? Is this one the sweetest one? And she'd smell it and she'd talk to the Lord and she'd pick up the next one. And I remember hearing, I can't remember the lady, but I remember her speaking and saying that. And then my mind, I was be honest with you, in my mind, I thought, oh my gosh, that's just ridiculous.
unknownThat's what I thought.
SPEAKER_02Just get a cantaloupe and move on. But the more I've grown in the Lord, and the more I realize how much I need him, I guess. The I can't, I can't do anything without him. I can pick out a cantaloupe and not ask him about it. But why wouldn't I want to ask him? Because her point was, he is my best friend, and I want to talk to him about everything just like I would my best friend. Because she said, if my friend was standing here, we would talk about which cantaloupe is the best one. And that was her point. And at the time I thought it was silly, but now I look at it and I think, oh, I long for that. You know, I long to have that relationship with the Lord that I'm so close to him that I'll talk to him about anything and everything, even the fruit that I pick out at the grocery store, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's convicting because really what tends to happen, or at least in my world, the busier I get and the more stressed out I get, he's who gets put on the back burner. And which I really try not to do that now. Like I really try, especially when it's a hard time or we're facing trials. Like, we know we gotta prepare for those, right? But more often than not, when I'm tired and exhausted and stressed out or whatever, it's like I'll get out of my normal routine. If I don't get up early and get in the word and have worship time, I'm like, oh, I'll just check this email first. And next thing you know, it's been three hours later. I've already been at work. I didn't have time. Then I'm hungry and I'm like, crud. So then I go make me something to eat. And next thing I know, I'm dragging my tail to bed and I never open the word. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you know. So I have to be, I mean, I don't think it matters when you read the word necessarily. I'm not one of those. You got to do it first thing in the morning. But the reality is for me, if I don't open the word first thing in the morning, it's probably not gonna get opened. And then I cannot survive these days without getting the word. And it doesn't make sense how when you're especially, I think, in these busy seasons when you're so busy, that if you will just spend that first amount of time, whether it's 10 minutes or an hour, whatever you can give and just get quiet with the Lord, then somehow everything else ends up happening throughout your day just fine. But if you put him last, it's nearly impossible to try to fit him in later. And, you know, it's it's kind of like, you know, sometimes balancing a checkbook, I'm like, this is God's math because it don't add up. Math ain't mathing. The time, the hours in the day don't add up right always whenever you put God first, because he just multiplies it. He makes the impossible possible. And it's important to start your day with the Lord. If you do not start your day with the Lord, I just want to encourage you, even if it's just, you know, Denise Denise has this, you know, online devotional that she does. Get, you know, just open open your word. Choose a book. It could be a random book, it could be the Psalms, it could be just any, anywhere. Just pick a book and start reading. And if you don't understand what it says, read it again. Read the same chapter 17 times. Pray, read, pray, read, pray, figure out, get with the Lord. Lord, while I get this, show me what you want me to get from this. And I just promise you, if you are seeking the Lord with all your heart and you're in his word, he wants you to understand it, and he will begin to reveal to you the truths that are inside his word. I believe with all my heart.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I agree. I don't think the Lord really cares how much we read in a day, he just cares that we communicate with him and we read because I think he would he would rather me read one scripture and get it, yeah, and understand it and apply it, than to read a whole chapter and say I read a chapter and then walk away and don't even know what I've read. It's kind of like that scripture that talks about you look in your mirror and walk away and you forget what you saw, you know? Like just you don't even know what you read. You read it to check it off the list. I was finding when we came here to Pennsylvania, I already made up my mind before we ever left that I was going to take time while I was here and really spend time with the Lord. I've always had in my mind that I would like to go somewhere and just be alone with the Lord, to be intentional, like go somewhere by myself and be intentional about studying the word, praying and worshiping and just having time with the Lord, whether it be a day, a two, whatever, just to do that. I've always wanted to do that, but I've never done it. I'll I have my camper. I might go to the camp. I can't go someplace that I have because then I'm gonna clean the toilets, sweep the floor. There's always things to do. Get rid of the cobwebs. There's always something to do. So when we were coming here, I knew that my daughter needed a lot of rest. She has been doing a lot of work, and I also know that she's not gonna get up early, she's gonna sleep in in the morning. So I had it in my mind. I'm gonna come here, spend this time with the Lord, and I have learned that I feel like I have to be busy all the time. So we're here, she's sleeping till 10 o'clock or something, up early. I'm awake for three hours before she ever gets out of the bed, get my coffee, I go downstairs, and I want, you know, I listen to some worship and reading. Today has been the best day. But today is the third day we've been here. The first day I went out and I played on my phone and was on Instagram so long, just watching, laughing at reels and stuff, and just following the rabbit hole. And I watched some preachers, uh, Josh Howerton out of Dallas. I love, I love, love, love, love, love him. And I'm listening to some stuff, but I chased all these rabbits. It's like my mind had to be busy with all this stuff, you know, and then I had to put it away and I read. But then by the time I did that, before I know, I've done wasted so much time. Then the next day, I didn't waste as much time, but I still wasted time this morning. I went down, I picked up my phone, I started, I was like, oh my gosh, put this phone away. But I'm sitting there and I'm looking at things and praying, and then I finally I just stopped and I said, Lord, why is it so hard just to be alone with you? Yeah, why is it so difficult for me just to sit here and talk to my savior? I'm looking at all these things around here that are not my responsibility to do. The place is awesome, but I could find something to do. I'll go pick out the grass out of the flower bed. You know, like why is it that my mind's gotta be busy with technology or just my mind wandering?
SPEAKER_01Well, you are busy by nature anyways. You're not a just chillax kind of girl. I mean, you're gonna you're gonna be busy with a project, with something. You're gonna be you're gonna be doing something.
SPEAKER_02That's your nature. It is, but I just want to have that alone time with the Lord. And and sometimes maybe I I have alone time with the Lord. I do, but what I have in my mind that like this magical, you know, me and the Lord are gonna have this time together, and he's gonna send me something, you know, and we're just gonna have this big connection. He sends me a rooster, you know, like it's not things aren't always as you think it's supposed to be. And that doesn't mean that my time with the Lord has not been good because it has. It also doesn't mean that something different doesn't happen tomorrow. Like this is midweek, but sometimes in my mind I want things to be a certain way, yeah, or I think it should be, but that's not necessarily it. That's what I'm making up in my own human brain. But you're right, I can be busy and do stuff and have a real great connection with the Lord because he speaks to me through nature and through just random, like a rooster or just random things, and that's how he speaks to me.
SPEAKER_01And so maybe me trying to force myself to be still on a porch and maybe he's like, you know, that's not how I you're trying to make that movie scene come to life, and that is not you here, Lassie. Come on, boy. I think that I think that getting away to solitude like that sounds brutal to me. I would go stir crazy. And and I love time with the Lord, and I like downtime more than you probably, but that sounds brutal. But going with a girlfriend, like when we've been able to get away, or me, you and Tammy, or just any any friends, and you can get away and you can just dig into the word. And I remember when we were, I think it was Unashamed, I don't remember if it was Waco, I don't remember. It was me, you, and Leslie. And we were sitting around the kitchen table, and we had the best conversation, and we just talked about the Lord and shared stories and like that to me, that just fires me up. I love that. But that's different. That's encouraging, that's fun, but that's different than just being alone with the Lord. And there are times when we have to shut out everything else and just get alone with the Lord and allow him to work on our heart, to show us things, to teach us, to mold us, to fix us, because we are so unbelievably broken. I am unbelievably broken.
SPEAKER_02That and encouraging each other, that goes to Proverbs 27:17, which it says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. We are directed to do that, and that is where we get encouraged and we get strengthened. And oh, yeah, I absolutely love doing that more than being alone, just set, you know, you we feed off of each other. It's it's what we do right now in this podcast. Like as we talk, we feed off of each other, and the Lord guides us and directs us in that, and it always works out so well. So maybe you're listening today and you're thinking, Well, I've always wanted to go off to some cabin and have this alone. Well, hey, do it if that works for you. But maybe things just aren't always as they seem. Maybe God sends you a rooster, maybe God just sends you a friend that you set and you know, you encourage one another through the word. But regardless, as Paul's saying here, we're we're to not be ashamed of the gospel. We are to spur each other along, and we're to do that from the beginning to the end through faith. And he does that for us. The Lord does that, he spurs us alone when we're searching him out. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, welcome to season two of Unashamed Table Talk. Very exciting. We are now weekly, so we will meet you back here next Thursday.
SPEAKER_00You've been listening to Table Talk with BJ Garrett and Denise Bowens. To support this ministry through prayer or giving, visit our website at unashamedww.com. May you be encouraged, rooted in truth, and unashamed.
