With Author Claire O'Sullivan

She heard her fiancé with another woman. Then God whispered, "Come seek me." In that devastating moment of betrayal, Claire O'Sullivan heard the voice of God for the first time—and her life was never the same. Today, Claire is an award-winning author of six novels, using her gift of storytelling to plant seeds of faith in readers around the world.

🔑 Key Takeaways:
• The "Shh" moment that led to an encounter with God's voice
• From backslidden to Bible-bound: her honest confession of years away from the Lord—and the slow journey back
• How Claire weaves the gospel into romantic suspense without "preaching"
• The best rejection letter she ever received—and why it led to a loving publishing relationship

📚 Books by Claire O'Sullivan:
• Whiskey River Mysteries series
• The Grit and Grace series (Match Made in Mayhem coming May 2026)
• Rules of Engagement (standalone sci-fi)

🌐 Connect with Claire:
Website: www.claireosullivan1.com | Facebook: Claire O'Sullivan

🙏 Support This Ministry:
Listener-supported. Donate at www.imdauntless.org or mail to: 1760 Airline Hwy. Box #103, Hollister, CA 95023

💬 Share your thoughts: ramona@blossomsofmylife.org

Subscribe & Review: If this episode blessed you, please leave a review!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

God bless you and thank you for tuning in to Blossoms of My Life Radio. I am excited to introduce a new guest today. She is from, let me see, Grants Pass on this side of the West Coast, Oregon, kind of by above California where I'm at. And she has quite a testimony, which I'm hoping we can get to. But I she is an author. She was a registered nurse. She earned her master's in medicine from Oregon Health and Science University to work as a nurse practitioner. And she spent the majority of her adult years in the medical field. She loves forensics. She also loves rom-coms, but dead bodies keep showing up. She says, What's a girl supposed to do? She's going to talk about that too. She's written for Faith and Family Magazine, authored four novels through Elk Lake Publishing. She has a standalone sci-fi and the Whiskey River Mysteries. Her brand new small town crime series is just outside of Portland, Oregon. The Grit and the Grace series, which is a match made in Mayhem coming in May. So by the time you guys hear this, it might be out. I think I saw the cover today. And a madness made in Mayhem coming in the fall of 2026. That's probably already here. And Missing in Mayhem. So all of those books are coming out. Like I said, she's from Grant's Pass, Southern Oregon. She has a few chickens, and she's always up for connecting with fellow writers and readers. And we're excited to just hear her story and hear about everything that she's doing. She loves the Lord, and you're going to hear that in her testimony. And so, Claire, how are you today?

SPEAKER_02 2:13

I am great. Thank you so much for asking, and I'm hoping you're doing great too.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

I am, Claire. So I was reading a little bit about your testimony about this date, February 11th, 1977. Why don't we start there? What happened?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Well, my birth my second birthday, my real birthday in the Lord, and what happened was I was on my own, and I'd found out that my fiance was sleeping with another girl, and I I was at the door and I'd knocked and I heard this, shh, don't say anything. And I was like devastated. And I ran back to my room or walked, I don't remember, and I closed the door and I just cried, you know, and cried. And I'd never really s I mean I'd been to church when I was a kid, and I was a philosophy major and a psychology major. So, you know, I was like, whatever. Okay, so then I was laying there, you know, face down and there there just bemoaning my situation and ticked off, and and I just heard the voice and the voice of God, just not in my head, but just like outside, very a small, still voice saying, No one will love you like I and then come so come seek me. And I was like I went from crying to instantaneous laughter. Wow, it was amazing, and I knew it was God, but I didn't know exactly everything, and so I had anyway, I walked outside and the green the grass was greener. I could almost see the blades of grass, the sky was bluer, everything was different. And my friend and I, my roommate, she and I decided to travel as much as we could to find the church we were supposed to go to. I mean, we even stopped at a Mormon church. So anyway, that was done, and we're like, ah, we don't know. So we went back to the Methodist church that we'd gone to, and it always sounded like a psychology lecture. But I went to the adult Bible study, and there's this this gentleman, and he was, you know, kind of shore, nervous, and he went through the steps that Billy Graham used to teach, and that was the day I knew exactly that I had found the Lord Jesus Christ because he had told me to come seek him.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Wow, that's a beautiful testimony.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Yeah, so the the day in February was the the exact day God I listened, I heard his voice.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

I just yeah, I didn't I didn't go, I didn't find him. He I just listened. That's beautiful. Yeah, and then then ran seeking.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Right, right, right. And she like, I mean, now you find this, you know, this new like wow, like, okay, this is what it's all about. I'm sure it just brought excitement into you, and then you couldn't wait to not be in church because you want to learn more, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yes, and I eventually ended up going to Bible school in Wow Issaquah, Washington. It was a Lutheran Bible institute, it was the name of the school, LBI, and it's uh it's gone now. It went woke, but anyway, it was a major thing in my life at the time. I'm not Lutheran. I'm I go to a Calvary chapel, uh, but it taught me some very, very important things like how to read the Bible, how to parse out the words, how to, you know, research Greek and Hebrew, and also in the context of the culture. And so I learned a lot. And that was just two years. It was absolutely wonderful. I just adored my time there. That's it. And it was in an old Catholic convent.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Wow. I bet you it was that beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

It was, it was absolutely gorgeous. You know, you would sit in in in the chapel and because we had chapel every day. And it was it was a lot of fun. Yeah, you leave there and you're just like, wow, oh now this is reality.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Right, right. I went to a Bible college too, Bethany Bible College. It was in Scotts Valley, California, and they've closed since too. But yeah, I really loved it there. I loved just I wished that I I had my two daughters, a single parent, and I had a night class that was on a Friday night and then Saturday morning. And so we didn't have a lot of money, and it's about an hour and a half drive from where I was living. And so the pastor who was teaching the class actually arranged it to where I could sleep it with my girls. We brought our sleeping bags and we'd sleep in the synagogue on Friday night, so I wouldn't have to drive back so late and then come back early morning. And so that was quite an adventure, and we enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Oh, interesting and fun.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, it was. I learned a lot there too, like what you said, just you know, and that was before computers. It was like we typed everything and um gosh, you know. But but it was it was it was good. I I enjoyed that part of my college career also. And so, you know, with what happened and everything, did it take you a while to process and to forgive and go through that? Because that that leaves a little, you know, dent in your soul, like that a little bit of trauma there, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Well, yes, it took a time, not not a whole lot of time, because I you know, I was just so filled with God's spirit and just so happy it didn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

You know, but I have you know, you know, gone through the years of you know forgiven people and also asked forgiveness from others. Yes. Because that was more important to me uh to ask for the forgiveness for you know some things I'd said and things I'd done. And you know, I don't even remember everything because I was such a horrible person.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah. I mean, being the permit I know that you wrote here about the promiscuous, I was the same way. And so when I started walking with the Lord too, he led me on that path too, to go to certain people and ask for forgiveness. And they had been people that had hurt me, but he wanted me to go to them because I had backslid, and so he's like, Okay, I need you to go and apologize to them so that you could seek forgiveness because you knew better. And so I did, and I found some people, and they were kind of a little taken back, and then they were like really amazed, and then they ended up like I ended up being able to share the gospel, and and a few of them actually, you know, accepted the Lord as their savior. So the Lord, the Lord's hand in all of it, right? But forgiveness, yeah, forgiveness is so important. Forgiveness is so very important.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

I can't disagree with that at all.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, and I know I have to I have to ask him every day to forgive me if I miss something, or you know, because we we're commissioned, right? I was reading scripture this morning about how we are his workmanship and how we're fearfully and wonderfully made. And even though we might feel like our bodies, you know, things happen to us in health wise, right? And we're getting older. I'm 66 now, so things happen in my body, but like because I know I'm in a temporary body, so of course things are gonna happen, right? But I still know that I was fearfully and wonderfully made, and so I still know that God can use me even in my broken physical body. I know he can still use me. I just have to have the desire and the passion to tell others about him.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Absolutely. I and I like to post verses that I feel that the Lord has led me to line. Uh usually Facebook and Twitter is where I post post stuff sometimes on Instagram, but it's important for me to share with non-Christians and Christians, people who are either confused or they don't know or they don't care, but you know, maybe they'll read this and and come to know Jesus. People often, a lot of Christians are not reading their Bible.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

And I mean, I was quite, you know, I I didn't do that for a long time. I mean, I had done a lot of backsliding. So it took me years and years to get back into it because I I, you know, I was getting I was getting bamboozled by people's questions.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

And I said I finally, you know, got to the point where it was I have to read the Bible page by page, verse by verse, so that I know it, so that I don't think that's wrong, or you know, so right now I I have a horrible memory for verse verses, you know, trying to, you know, memorize everything. But once I read it, I know the general area. It's probably in Genesis or probably in Isaiah, um, probably around two digits like 17 or something like that. And and I'm writing every single verse down every day. And I know I sound silly, but it helps me remember. And so I've got journals, and I'm up into Jeremiah, I just read it this morning, 20. Yeah, I'm in Jeremiah 20. And I think I'm up to verse 12 already.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

So yeah, I love doing that, spending time in prayer in the morning and asking God to help me, you know, you know, be become more and more wise in what I read and ask for help when I don't understand it. Yeah. And I have a couple of friends that are pastors, and I can ask them, and I can ask my husband, he's extremely wise about especially about the New Testament, and I've been reading, I'm just reading straight through, so I can write straight through. I figure someday they're gonna start burning Bibles.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

But they will not burn journals because they want to know what Christians think. And they'll have to have someone who can decipher my handwriting.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah. And you know, I used to tell my students, I'm a retired teacher, but I would tell my students, like, whatever you can memorize it, just put it in the treasure chest of your heart and let it be there and and know that it's there because one day you're gonna need it and you can pull it out. And and don't be embarrassed, like if God, like the Holy Spirit will prompt you, right? And you're like, oh yeah, I remember reading about that. You don't have to know it word by word. Like you said, if you could say, Well, Jeremiah, I remember reading this. You're still giving them the truth, and it still ignites something in them where they want to hear more. And and there's been times when I don't know the answer to something, you know, and and I say, Well, you know what? Let me research that and let me get back to you. It's okay to do that too. You know, there's some people that are well-versed, like you said, your husband, like that can just boom, they can just call it out where it's at. I'm not one of those people either. I don't I don't comprehend the like it takes me a long time. I have to read it, I have to write it. I I even have to visualize it, like I can watch a video of it, and then I become okay, now I get it, what he was saying. So I I learn in a different way, which is why I was a special ed teacher. And so yeah, I I totally understand what you're saying. I love that. And so, what led you to writing? Because you've written some books here.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Oh gosh, you know, I'm just gonna jump into eighth grade. I I wrote a short story, I had no idea what I was writing, but apparently the teacher liked it. She made me read it in front of the class, and because it was such a tragic ending, all the girls cried and I was like, awesome. But then I didn't write for a long time, and I started writing again in the 80s, uh, and we had word processors, not computers, and so I just did that on those old floppy discs. Do you remember those?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Oh gosh, yes, I have a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

So I wrote, I I I used to read a lot of a lot of spy stories. Tom Clancy, well, he wasn't till like the 90s, I think. But anyway, though those were the books I read. Robert Ludlum, Jean Lacarre. And so I wrote like a 600-page novel.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

I know that was that was fun. And then after that, and I and I looked at it and I went, you know what? This was during a a backslidden time. I don't want to send it out again because he's swearing in it. And so and so anyhow, I started writing again in 2012. My sister told me about Nano Rimo.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

And so I did that, and I did that for like five years. Oh wow. And and it took me, it took me uh up to 2019 to get published. Okay. And Steve Lobb, if you know him, agent. No, I don't. He's an amazing, an amazing man. And I can't I I can't can't even imagine not having learned so much the agency. There's several people that you know Lynette Eason.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

No.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

She's a romantic suspense writer, and she writes, she is part of that group now as well.

unknown 19:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

So she's she's she's a great writer. I love her work. But anyway, I learned a lot from him, and then I he rejected my my novel, but he said, I really wanted to love this. And then he gave me about a page worth of information. And he said, if you fix it here and there, and here and there, and here and there, I think you'll be, you know, on your way. So I followed that, and I also I wrote him, I said, This is the best rejection letter I've ever gotten. Yeah. He said, I think I'm going to, you know, put this up on my wall. And so Elk Lake Publishing took me on, which was wonderful. And I've written The Whiskey River Mysteries, which is three books, the Romance Under Wraps, and Silken Slippers and Shanghai Road. And those are romantic suspense novels. And then I wrote Rules of Engagement, which was based on a true story, but loosely based on a true story. And uh sci-fi genetic engineering. And I will never do that one again because was that hard? It was it took me forever to write that book.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

And what is it? Um I was what is it like to work with a publisher?

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Oh, it's wonderful. I have the publisher, she's it's a small hybrid, uh like indie slash traditional publisher. And uh the publisher's name is Deb Haggerty, and she's she's like mom, you know, for everybody. And she's also the senior editor as well as the publisher. And so we also the editors are great, the graphic artists are wonderful. I I just love I just love that family.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

That's good. I'm glad I had a bad experience with the publisher. They were a Christian publisher, tape publishing, and they actually got arrested for embezzlement right in the middle of everything. So so many of us lost thousands of dollars. And after that, I thought that was after my first book, and I never even thought I could write a book. And then I'm like, okay, Lord, where's this going now? You got me so excited about being an author and telling my story. I don't believe this is supposed to end. And so he led me to somebody that actually helped me to learn how to self-publish, and so that's kind of where I'm at right now. I haven't really gone to a publisher-publisher because of what had happened, and I'm fine with everything that I'm doing. Most of my books, I'm not writing for the money, most of my books are testimonials, and so I pretty much use them just to give people to to share the Lord, you know. But I'm glad that you found somebody that you can work with.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Yes, they're they're really great, you know, even with the covers. Now, most traditional, the big, the big names, that they they'll give you they'll they'll make the title. Yeah, and they'll make the the graphics, and they don't give you the option.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Here with El Clake, I get the title, and now they might change the title a little bit, like with a word, one word. Or you know, I had uh I had written a book called Glass Slipper. They changed it to Silken Slippers, and boy, you should see that beautiful, uh the beautiful book.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

It's just I saw it, I saw it on your website, it is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Isn't that gorgeous? Yeah, and the same with uh Romance Romance Under Wraps and Shanghai Road, they're all you know, they're all great and a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

And so you have a book that's coming out in May.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

What is that book? What is that book?

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Match Maiden Mayhem. And there's a couple of reason reasons why it's called Match, is because two opposites have to you know become a match and Partners.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

And then there's also, you know, matches as in fires. And so I had to talk with a guy who is his name is Ken Shoemaker, and he's he's with a fire and author group, and we share our works between us, which was great. And also he gave me a lot of information because he said, This is this and that is that. So in two books, in Shanghai Road and in Match Maiden Mayhem, he gave me some you know spectacular advice.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Like insight, insight of the fire and how that works.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Yes, yes, good. Yeah, exactly. And uh I showed him the cover. I had an image of the cover with a match on it, and he thought that was pretty cool, but he loves this one too. Good. And and that's what that's how Deb worked with me. It was so nice because I sent her my image of what the comp cover I wanted, and they worked with it, and it just came out beautifully.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Okay, and so I see here that this is about detectives, Luke, Barrett, and Dakota, and Dakota is a believer. So you do write these stories and you have Christ embedded within them.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yes, I do. I want to say uh the Whiskey River series is very, very gospel oriented, as everybody gets the gospel. That is that is it.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Nice period.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

And in a match or in the grit and grace series, it takes the same two people along the road, and he's not a believer, and then but he wants his partner to keep her faith when she's faltering. Okay. So he he helps her, which is which is uh it's always kind of ironic because and his whole family are Christians. Uh and you know, he spent years and years listening to Billy Graham with his in secret because they're all Catholics and Billy Graham was not. He's Baptist. So anyway, it was a lot of fun. I love my Whiskey River characters, and I love my matchmade mayhem characters. I can't I can't tell you how opposite the main male character in Whiskey River is from Luke Barrett in the Grit and Grace series. So yeah, so I think I'm gonna have four or five maybe Grit and Grace books. I'm working on the third one right now because the second one is finished.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

That's wonderful. Praise the Lord. And then when you go to write, you know, because we talked to a lot of authors, and there's a lot of people out there that would love to write a book and they just don't know how. And so I like to have authors on so that they can talk about it. But, you know, do you sit back and pray and wait for what's gonna come in, or is it kind of already there, and then you just kind of wait, and when you're writing, you let the Holy Spirit lead you how you're writing?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Well, there's a number of things. The first thing is usually something will just come to mind, which is weird, like just getting a cup of coffee and walking back to where I was sitting, you know, a few words came to mind, and I just started laughing and thinking that's that's an entire new mystery. And then I go into it and I and I I I'm not really praying about it, I'm just you know, writing whatever I can and put the bones together. And then I'm I'm like, I need to share the gospel with everyone, you know. So we've got I've got in one book, I've got uh a murder and two elderly sisters that are looking at a dead body in their house, and then they look at each other, let's go pray about this.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

So I'm that's far, far away from being done yet. I have to get through oh, I don't know how many books.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Yeah, yeah. Well, as long as the Lord keeps giving you the ability to write, I think that you have the creativity within you. I wrote you wrote here that there's a lot of assumptions get made about Christianity from a distance. Story gives us a way to invite people closer without pre pressure or preaching.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

Right. I I have read a number of novels that have a lot of preaching in it, and I would say that in Whiskey River it has a little, but it's there. It's you can't miss it. You can skip over it if you don't want to read it, but it's there. But in Match Maiden Mayhem and Madness Maiden Mayhem, it's it's more quiet. It's not it's not more it more. People can read it and understand what I'm saying without me, you know, opening up the Bible and saying the scripture says this this and that.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Yeah, because what you said here is I've planted the seed and that's what God calls us to do. And so you feel like right now in your books, that's what you're doing. You're getting you're you're writing about the hope and the and the examples and giving that in your word.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Yes, and and that's that's what I'm working on with Luke is to you know start seeing for her himself. She's a new Christian, so she's having difficulty trying to share the gospel. But he knows she's she believes. And he probably knows more than she does because of all the years he's listened to Billy Graham. That sounds like it. Yeah, that's a thing. And I'm trying to make I love comedy. I can't do without it. Like I had said in the bio that dead bodies always show up. Right. So there's there's no such thing as a rom-com for me. You know, I'm writing along and everything's funny, and all of a sudden there's a dead body. I'm like, what happened?

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Yeah. Yeah. How'd that happen? And then your love for forensics, that's obviously coming out in your book. So I love that too. Don't you just love how God in there, like he just, you know, like what we were talking about earlier, like he he had to have woven all this mystery into your, you know, like how when he fearfully, wonderfully made you. Like he he put this curiosity within you.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Yes, I and and I and I when I was a nurse practitioner, I wanted to get my uh PhD in forensic nurse practitioner. But I found out that the only thing they only do one thing, the the forensic nurse practitioners, but I wish that they would do so much more, but they don't. So that's yeah, that's where I was at. Yeah, I really wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Yeah. What sounds like you're getting your fulfillment just writing these books, and it sounds like you have so many more books in you. And I'm super excited about your writing journey, and I'm so grateful that Elk Lake Publishing, you know, did well for you, and that that they're working with you. And Deb Haggerty, like you said, that she works in. So I I would imagine you can put a recommendation there that if there's somebody out there that needs writing help, you can look up Elk Lake Publishing. And then if you, you know, those of you that are listening, and you know, I self-publish using KDP on Amazon. So there's ways that you can write, there's ways that you can learn how to write. It's just finding that story and then finding someone that'll read your work, like what Claire was saying earlier. You know, that editor said, you know, I didn't like it, rejection, but if you did this, this, and this, maybe, because their ears are and their eyes are keen to certain audiences, they know what the audience is with their practice. And so I know I've helped some authors write books and I've edited for them and worked with them to get their books published. And so I love doing that, you know, and and helping and coaching people because someone had to do that for me. You know, I just I'm not a fancy, fancy writer, but you know, I've written probably, I think I've written six books now. So, you know, it's exciting. I love it, you know, and I love to have my books in my car and and situations arise and here, you know, read this. I think you'll enjoy it. Or, you know, and my testimony or how I met the Holy Spirit and things like that. I I just I love to be able to do that, so it's exciting. I'm excited for you, Claire.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Oh, thank you. Awesome, and congratulations on your six books.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Thank you, thank you. And so, Claire, you know, we're getting close to the end, and and I do want to say that if you want to find Claire, she is on Facebook. I just found her, so it's under Claire O'Sullivan. She does have a website, it's www.claire osullivan1, the number one dot com. And I just went on her website before we got on the air. It's a beautiful website, and she's got her works there that you can see and find everything out about Claire, and I'm sure she'd answer any questions you might have because maybe that's a genre that you enjoy. You know, those of you that are listening, maybe you love that kind of thing too, and she could maybe help you. Maybe you've already written something, you don't know what to do with it, and you'd love to be able to have it published. She'd probably answer your questions. I'm sure you would, right, Claire?

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Oh, absolutely. Yes. And also I sell I can I sell the the books that I have online.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

That's good. If somebody wants a paperback book and they want it, let's say signed, I can do that.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Oh, that's wonderful. That's a good idea too.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

Yeah. It's it's it's it's easier and less expensive than paying what's his name? Jeff Bezos.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Yeah, through Amazon, yeah. Yeah, I usually, yeah, I usually have like a lot of author copies on hand too. I'll just order a bunch because you know, we can get them a little bit cheaper and then and then just be able to have them. If people want to make a donation, I take it. If not, I just bless them. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

So that's awesome, yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Yes. Well, Claire, do you have any last words you'd love to share with the audience?

SPEAKER_02 35:08

Well, let's see. I I just pray that uh all of us work to glorify God in in whatever we're doing, whatever we're writing, even in if people are are painting, you know, the the glory of God will shine through. Because then you have a lot of readers that will, you know, just they'll be doing something else other than other than writing, they'll be read, they'll be reading, but they'll be doing something else creative. And I pray for those folks that do read our books that it would touch their hearts.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Amen. And you know what? I love that you said that because there's a lot of people that wonder, like, what could I do for God? You know, you maybe it's just cooking a loving meal for your family or cooking for the neighbors. Some people are good bakers, some people, you know, like to run errands for people, whatever it is that you do, like Claire said, you know, that that's what's important. Just be an active participant in what God wants you to do out in the community. I love that. That was a good word of advice. And you know, if somebody's listening and maybe they don't know the Lord, or you heard Claire and I, we both had our moments of backsliding, you know, where we stepped away and didn't do what we were supposed to. Today could be your day to come back home. We guarantee you that it is much better to get closer to the Lord, to just know that your salvation is secure because these days are a little bit crazy right now, and we have to get to that place. I mean, there's only two places that the Bible describes that we can go, and either we choose to want to be with God, and He's not gonna force us to be in heaven with him. And if we say no to him, then that means you're not gonna be with Him. And and that's gonna be a separation for eternity. And so today's the day of salvation. Today's the day to repent, which means just say you're sorry, and accept that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, and and just accept his loving, gracious gift of salvation, and find a church, like Claire said in her bio, like she went to many churches until she found the one that she was most comfortable with. Make sure it's a Bible-believing church, and you know, there's gonna be some that that aren't, and that's just the way it is in this world today. But don't give up hope, just keep going, you know. Listen to the word of God, listen to other people talk, and pick up a Bible and start reading it, and you know, read the book of Romans and about the faith and and understanding and and just get your way back to the Lord. I think that's so important today in this time that we have. Claire, I would love it if you would pray for our audience as in our closing. And I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your day today just to share your story of you know how things happened badly at a beginning, but then it all led to you coming and hearing the word of God and coming back, you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Well, I and a lot of people are going through that, and I'd like to pray for the people that have backslid, like I did in mine weren't moments. Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Let's do that.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Mine were years.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Yeah, let's do that because that's important. I know I backslid, like I first met the Lord when I was 14. My parents didn't want me going to church, so I'm underage, they're not gonna take me, and I couldn't go. So I was one of those seeds that fell on rocky ground. And I still I like I was super excited about this new life that I could live, but I couldn't walk with it. And so, you know, I started doing other things, and things got really bad, just like the Bible says, if you taste it and then you go back to it, it's harder to come back. And it was, I went in and out of church, in and out of bad relationships for many, many years until I was in my 50s, before I was like, okay, enough's enough. I can't play games no more. And so I praise the Lord that I am where I'm at now, and I feel so good that I finally decided to stay where I'm supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

All right, well, let's go here. Yeah, let's go ahead and have you close this out in prayer. I would love it. And thank you again for being with us today.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Thank you for inviting me. Okay, so Lord Jesus, we just come to you in in prayer and in awe of what you've done for us. We know, Lord Jesus, we fall so many times. We're that ragtag band that just keeps wandering off. Yes, and we just thank you so much for holding on to us and holding on to our hands and bringing us back to the fold. And Lord, there there's no one that cannot be saved. And there is no one that's backslidden that cannot come back home. Yes, we we think of the prodigal son, and we think of the woman at the well who she had several husbands and then several who weren't. And Jesus offered her living water. Yes, and you know, the Gentile at the Gentile woman at the at the table was Jesus, and she said even the dogs, and she meant herself Gentile as a Gentile, received crumbs, and and he said, This woman has more faith than just about anybody. He has never seen any anything like this. So everyone is welcome, everyone is welcome to the table of the Lord. And and I just pray for people who've who don't believe, who want to believe, or want to understand. And I pray for those who backslidden, and I pray for those who are far away and don't have the word and have to memorize one verse at a time because they can't have Bibles.

unknown 41:27

Yes, Father.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Lord, we just lift these people up and we ask that you give them grace and strength and increase their faith and and bring them closer and closer to you every moment of every day. Yes, in Jesus' name we pray.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Amen. Thank you so much. That was a beautiful prayer.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Well, glory to God, He gives me the words.