This is Annette, Jimmy and Chevy coming to you from the
home, our studio. We are on episode 33. We are living up in
a down world. We want to welcome you to our podcast today.
Yes. We had to switch it up today because I wanted, I think
I needed to do the intro just for a change. And I'm glad you
did because it sounded so refreshing hearing your voice
first. Thank you since you love my voice so much. I do love
your voice. Well I'm so glad. I like it when we're on the
phone together and you're just talking. I love it. Really?
Yeah, I love it. I'm learning to love. Unless I'm in trouble.
Oh well that's true. That's a whole other story. And then
you're in the doghouse. That's another, hey that's an insult
Chevy. He didn't appreciate that comment. Well it's been a
crazy week. Wow has it? Well it's our last week in
sabbatical. I know so it's kind of weird isn't it? So in my mind
Faith said are you excited about coming back? And I said well
yes and no. She goes I get that. I get that. I said yeah I'm
excited to go back. I'm really excited to go to church and see
people. But it's been so refreshing. I don't know I don't
want to lose this. Our buckets are full. Our buckets are very
full. And overflowing. Yes absolutely. What are they
overflowing with? What would you say just out of the top of
your head? Gratitude, peace, joy, love, contentment. Oh my
goodness powerful. Naomi wrote me and asked me what I've
learned. I said it's not what I've learned it's what I've
received. There it is. And those are the words that I sent to
her because I felt like that's where I'm at. And I don't want
to lose that and I don't think we have to. No I agree. I think
it's just we're resetting ourself. And when you reset
yourself you have a new standard. Exactly. And I believe that's
where we're at now. We're going to have this new standard. In
fact you even said today when I go to church on Sunday I'm just
going to preach. I'm not going to do welcome announcements.
I'm not going to do offering. I'm not going to do communion.
It's just going to they're going to continue doing what they've
been doing and you're going to come in and preach. That's
resetting. That's hard for a pastor. That's resetting for the
team too because they got to step up. Sometimes leadership
whether it's a company or an organization or a church needs
to step aside for a season so that others can step up and
shoulder the weight, carry the government so to speak on their
shoulders the weight of it. And then they learn, they grow, they
expand. Exactly. And then when leadership comes back in they
can continue to carry that and run with it because they're now
conditioned to it. And that's really what I see happening here.
So what it has done for you and I takes more of the load off of
us, spreads it across the team and they also get to explore
their skills and competencies and get to expand their capacity.
And so I'm excited about going back to almost a different
church. And it's so strange. I mean we go back on Sunday but
you have to get ready for Sunday. So your sabbatical is just
almost really over before Sunday because you do have to spend
time studying. True. And even though you have a lot of
overflow because of what's happened, you still have to write
it down. You still have to get the notes to the team. There's
a lot to do. Yeah, here we go again. We're back in. And you
know while part of me will miss the freedom that we've had and
just being able to offload weight and responsibility, another
part of me is ready. It's like I'm ready to step back in. When
I played sports growing up, which I played everything growing
up, I never wanted to be second string ever. I signed up to
play. I want to play. So I'm the same way in my adult life. I've
never wanted to be second string in anything. I want to play the
game. I want to be in the game. And so it's going to be nice
stepping back in. That really bodes well with my personality.
But so much of what we've learned out of this overflow we're
talking about, our buckets are filled, our tanks are full.
Really what we've done, I would say this because I heard
Pastor Bill Johnson say this recently. He talked about Sabbath
in the New Testament is every day. It's like every day we
labor out of the posture of rest and the position of rest. We
enter into that rest now as New Testament Christians. And so
I've really adopted and adapted that into my heart to where now
when we step back into the fray of life, I don't see it as a
gerbil wheel now. I see it as laboring out of the place of
rest, Sabbath-ing every day. Sabbath is a lifestyle, not just
a practice. And it is a practice and should be.
We'll continue doing that on Mondays.
But in terms of mentality and how you approach things, we
approach from a Sabbath mentality.
Exactly.
It's a huge shift for both of us.
It really, really has.
Yeah. What else?
What a gift.
Oh, I know. I was sharing with a friend today. I have a friend
in Arizona, Pastor Dennis Lee, and Pastor Dennis is about to
start his sabbatical. He's never had one before. He starts
on September 17th. So I just shared some things with him and
said, you know, before we started, we visited with a
pastor, Pastor Matthew or Pastor Matt, who said to us with
great regret and remorse, I squandered. I squandered the
gift. I squandered the sabbatical. And that really
imprinted us so that our whole mentality, how many times have
I said, we are not going to squander this?
Exactly. Well, we didn't.
Over and over. No, we've stayed focused and we have entered
daily practices of our renewal and getting our buckets
refilled with the presence of God and hosting the presence of
God and walking with Him. So I appreciate Pastor Matthew, even
though it was out of his pain, he shared a key for us to say,
we will not squander it. So I shared that with Pastor Dennis.
I said, man, whatever you do, I said, we even changed our phone
numbers that we'd had for what, 11, 12 years?
A long time.
Yeah, a long time, over a decade.
12.
Yeah, so over 11 years. And what it did, it created silence.
It created automatic silence because nobody could call us.
Right.
We had a handful of people we connected with throughout this
time, which was wonderful. But the fact that we had that piece
and our phones were just blowing up constantly, we, way too many
people had our phone number and that's not going to happen this
go around. So we have new numbers and that was, I told him, I
said, you should change your phone number.
Or get a burner phone.
Or get a phone that, yeah, and put your phone away.
Because he might not want to change his number.
He may not.
I mean, I think I was ready because we've had our phone
number from Nashville for so many years. And I felt like this
kind of, you know, a lot of people think that when a pastor
takes a sabbatical, that they're not going to come back.
That's true.
And I thought this actually says we are.
So I'm getting excited.
We're at so much so that we changed our number to a local area code number.
That's right. We're here.
And so I felt like that was kind of part of that.
Kind of symbolic, isn't it?
Yeah.
Or a gesture.
Definitely.
Yeah. It works both ways.
I like that.
And it's been good actually.
I actually can remember it, which is huge.
Should we share it on the podcast?
No.
Oh, okay. You're right.
That's the whole point.
Kind of defeat the purpose. I'm kidding.
Exactly.
No, I can't quote it, which I'm excited about. It's a miracle.
So what a great week we've had.
Now we're moving into sort of a transition.
I did something yesterday for the first time.
I know.
For the first time through the whole sabbatical.
I've not even peeked at our church services online.
And you watched Pastor Eddie Freeman's message because we heard something.
We got feedback.
People were like, oh my gosh, this was amazing.
And I was like, okay, I have to at least hear it.
And I was cool with that.
But I didn't watch any of the rest of it.
All I watched was him.
And I actually didn't even look at him.
I was at the gym and I had it in my ear.
To me that was the same as listening to Gateway or whoever.
And so, yeah, it was phenomenal.
He did a phenomenal job.
Ended up preaching the message that impacted him the most in his life,
which impacted us.
And impacted us from Pastor R.T. Kendall.
R.T. Kendall that preached at their church a few weeks ago.
And he preached it from his perspective.
He didn't take all of his notes, but he used some of his insight.
But it was amazing.
It really was.
That's the only thing I've listened to.
I can't wait to listen to it.
I know it was because you were telling me about it.
But I'm looking forward to listening to it myself.
We're going to go back and listen to all of them.
Well, what I did yesterday, I watched the opening, the credits, so to speak,
on the podcast, on the video, the broadcast.
And I just was so proud.
And then I watched just clips.
I didn't actually watch the whole thing, but I just skipped around.
And it made me so proud of our team.
I was watching them step up because they've had two months to do it.
So they've really gotten good at it.
And it made me happy because I already felt it took more weight off my shoulders.
Stepping back in, it was like next Sunday, and I'm not playing guitar next Sunday.
So we will literally show up, love on as many people as we can,
because I can't wait to be like a family reunion,
and just teach and preach the Word, which I'm so excited about.
I have to tell you something that Faith told me this morning.
Because I told her, you know, I said we were about to get ready to go to the gym.
And so I said, I need to get off the phone because I've got to go get ready to go to the gym.
And I said, yeah, it's going to be quite interesting because we're in a routine.
And you know what she said to me, this was so interesting.
I didn't even tell you this.
She said, well, I just want you to know that we've built in so many things in the week
that you'll be able to work out every day.
I'm just like, what?
What have they built in to where we can go work out?
What has our team done since you've been gone?
I know.
What does that mean?
I didn't even expound on it because we're not supposed to talk about church.
I can't wait to find out.
She just wanted to share with me that that was not going to be something
that we were going to have to worry about.
I'm like, okay.
I have to say it out loud.
We are so blessed by the people we work with.
Wonderful.
For those of you who may be joining us for the first time,
Annette and I are lead pastors for it's called Bridge Church,
Fredericksburg, Texas.
And we've been there about seven and a half coming up on eight years.
No, not eight years, it's about seven and a half years.
We've been there and we are so blessed to serve with this church and serve this body.
We actually relaunched the church from Oak Hills, so no need to go into all that detail.
But we've been there seven and a half years and we could not be happier
and be more in love with a group of people than this church.
They really are our spiritual family.
So we've missed that.
I had to mourn and grieve a little bit of that loss.
That was the adjustment during the beginning of the sabbatical.
Anyway, having said all that, we're excited to come back.
We're a little nervous.
It's kind of going to be weird walking back in there for the first time.
I know.
It really is because you just don't know what to expect.
A little bit strange, but I'm excited anyway.
My excitement way overweighs the weirdness.
So you've had quite...I mean, God has been speaking to you in so many ways
throughout the sabbatical.
Me too, but I love hearing you expound and share on what He's been speaking.
I know this morning, He led you into Ephesians chapter one and blew your mind.
I have two different devotions I do in the morning.
One of the devotions I did, He was talking about wisdom.
I thought, oh, surely He's going to use that verse as part of the devotion.
This was Bill Johnson's The Way of Life devotion, which is phenomenal on Bible...
Uversion.
He didn't use that scripture, but I really felt like the Lord said,
go find that scripture.
So I went...I knew it was in Ephesians that was talking about wisdom
and understanding, your eyes being enlightened.
And I just...I started reading and I couldn't quit reading Ephesians.
I read the whole chapter of Ephesians this morning.
I just...and I have another...right now I'm kind of reading the Psalms.
I felt like the Lord has led me to read the Psalms.
But for some reason today, I was like, okay, I'm going to read just a couple
of the Psalms, but I really, really...something He wants to glean out of that.
And so one of the things that I love about Paul talking to the church at Ephesus
is he's praying over them that they will receive wisdom and revelation.
And do you want me to read some of this?
Sure, yeah.
This is so good.
Share what God's showing.
So he says...and I'm going to read Ephesians 1, but he's thanking God for them
like he always does.
He's just...he was an amazing apostle.
But he says this, even before he, God, made the world, God loved us and chose us
in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
Okay, so that jumped out because I was listening to another teaching recently
talking about our image and how we have a hard time receiving love because of how
we feel about our own selves.
Very true.
And so I was thinking about, you know, we've talked about me having issues with
body dysmorphia.
Really, I like the way you changed it to image dysmorphia, although I know I'm
made in the image of God.
That...there's still...there's a lot of...
Can I say something?
Yeah.
So the power of reframing something.
Yes.
So if you say...so words matter and definitions of words matter.
So if you're talking about body dysmorphia, it kind of limits the scope of that.
But what God is doing, he's working on the whole person, right?
All three parts, which are?
Physical, emotional, spiritual.
I mean, all three.
And so...but anyway, when I was listening to this or reading this about how much
he loves us, I was thinking back of how...you know how John, the disciple,
always referred to himself as whom God loved, whom God loved.
Now, you can take it any way you want.
And when you're reading the Scriptures where John is talking about,
I'm the disciple whom God loved, you can take it as, wow, he's pretty boastful.
What, does he not believe God loves any of the other disciples when he's talking
with them about it?
But no.
What the revelation that came to me through a teaching I listened to a while
back was that he had finally gotten a revelation of God's love.
It wasn't he was telling them, but he needed to hear it over and over and over
to continue that revelation.
Beautiful.
So again, in reading this, that just really stood out to me.
So can I repeat what you just said?
Yes.
Sometimes it's good to hear something over.
Yes.
Even before God made the world, God loved us, chose us in Christ to be holy
and without fault.
Yes, which is without blame.
In his eyes, without blame.
Yes.
Oh, my goodness.
Blameless.
That is massive.
Yeah, that's thunder in my soul.
It is.
Let me go to this other Scripture.
I love this.
God has now revealed to us, this is verse 9, his mysterious will regarding
Christ, which is to fulfill his own good plan.
And this is the plan.
At the right time, he will bring everything together under the authority of
Christ, everything in heaven and on earth.
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance
from God, for he chose us in advance and he makes everything work according to
his plan.
He chose us in advance.
There again is showing how much he loves us that he actually chose us in advance.
Okay, I see what you're doing.
And now the Gentiles have also heard the truth, the good news that God saves you.
When you have believed in Christ, he identified you as his own.
I love that.
Ah, he's identified us as his own by giving us the Holy Spirit whom he promised
long ago.
I keep changing this so it's moving my words.
Sorry.
It's because our notes are connected.
Okay, I'm going to go to...
I know our notes are connected, but you can't do that anymore.
I'll stop.
Because I don't know where I'm at now.
Verse 13 is what you just did.
Okay, let's see.
The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised.
He has purchased us to be his own people.
He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
Okay, stop right there.
Praise and glorify.
Okay, he made us in his image.
He purchased us as his own.
But there's a caveat there.
There's something weird to do and it's to glorify and praise him.
Okay, this is where I have a hard time.
Sorry, I was touching this.
This is where I have a hard time with people who say I don't like worship.
Okay, this is what we're created for.
Created to worship God.
Yes.
To praise him and to give him glory.
Yes.
And that, boy, that scripture, it stuck out to me this morning.
So let's sit on that for just a moment.
So I came to Christ a little bit later in life as a 19-year-old and instantly,
everything in me wanted to know the Bible.
I wanted to read the Bible, so I started reading it totally unguided.
I just started, picked it up and started reading.
No clue, but there was something in me.
There was a voracious hunger for the Word of God.
Because God put that in you.
Because it's in me.
As a follower of Christ, I get to know him by knowing his Word.
And if it's not in you, it makes you wonder.
Right, yes.
Bingo.
So I just devoured the Word of God.
The other piece was I wanted to worship.
I wanted, it was innate.
It's inside us.
Right.
We're created in the Imago Dei, the image of God,
and something in us wants to worship him, autopilot.
I mean, and then when you become a follower of Christ, it's like, there it is.
There's this desire and this release.
I have a massive concern as a pastor of 38 years, leading churches all over America.
I have a massive concern about people who have zero desire to worship God.
Right, but they'll go to a football game.
Oh, and lose their minds.
And lose their minds.
Or a concert.
Now, I can understand in church, some people are more reverent.
You know, they're not expressive.
Not everybody's the same.
But if you don't even have a desire for worship and you don't even want to come during the worship time,
you want to wait and come to church during the sermon or whatever, it just, I question.
Me too.
Do you really have a deep love for God?
Do you, no, let me put it this way.
Do you understand God's love for you?
Because when you understand God's love for you, it changes everything.
Another way to say it is, do you know him?
Do you know him?
He knows you, but do you know him?
Because if you knew him and what he thinks about you and how he sees you,
you wouldn't be able to hold back worship.
Yes, right.
You'd become one of those people.
Okay, let me go on.
I'm going to go on to number six, verse 16.
I have not, this is Paul again, talking to the church at Ephesus.
I have not stopped thanking God for you, which I love that.
I pray for you constantly asking God, now this is what he's asking God,
the glorious father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight
so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.
Okay, that's our life scripture.
You and I have talked about this.
Used to be that I may know him, Philippians 3, 10, and the power of his resurrection,
blah, blah, blah.
This one, I think, is more powerful because when we gain wisdom and understanding,
we have it all.
Think about that.
We have it all because he says we have the mind of Christ,
but we have to tap into it, and that wisdom and understanding comes with that.
That's what every believer should be praying is for wisdom and understanding.
Now, I don't just pray that spiritually.
I pray for us doing this keto, this diet that we're doing.
It's not even a diet.
It's just our new life's...
Carnivore.
Yeah, or excuse me, carnivore, yes, keto-vore.
We literally have been praying and asking God to give us wisdom and understanding
because we don't want to do something that's just a fad.
A lot of people do that.
They go from diet to diet.
We want to do something that's going to be best for our health.
So we're using this in every area of our life.
But also, you and I talked about, obviously, having the issues that I've had
with body dysmorphia.
I want wisdom and understanding, so much of how much God loves and cares for me
that he wants me to not care about those things.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
Yes, and that's where reframing comes in.
Yes.
What reframing does, it's like taking a frame off of a picture,
because it looks one way, and you put a different frame on it,
then the picture looks different.
Right.
It freshens it up or it changes it.
And I love that because I love interior designs.
And so when you reframe, so in terms of body or image dysmorphia,
which is so common, I think everybody has it to a degree.
Well, think about it.
Because we live a life of comparison.
Well, think about it.
We live a life of comparison.
And let's just say we have a group picture made, and you show me a picture.
Who's the first person I'm going to look at?
Myself.
I'm going to see.
And then if I don't like how I look, I'm going to say,
not a great picture.
It's a terrible picture.
But it's all about me.
What is wrong with us?
We're very me-centric.
Ego-centric.
Very me-centric.
And that's something I think God wants to work on.
And we need to change that from me to God-centric.
That's where we need to be.
And I feel like that's one of the things that He's really been showing me
through this sabbatical.
Let me go on to this.
He says in verse 18,
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light
so that you can understand the confident hope
He has given to those He called.
Okay.
His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.
Again, we are called.
We are chosen.
Gosh, if we could all get a hold of that,
it would change how we do anything.
You know what I'm saying?
Yes.
We live so under the fray instead of over the fray,
like you say, quite a bit.
Above it.
This is where living up in a down world comes in.
This is why we have to fill our things with things that God says about us.
We're chosen.
We're called.
We're holy.
We're loved.
We're blameless.
All of those.
And they're all true.
And yet the world will tell us the opposite.
The world will say, you don't measure up
because you don't look like this billboard
or you don't look like this magazine cover.
Or you don't look like all the Instagram pictures that you see
or whatever social media is dishing up that week.
Right.
And you know, back, we talked about this earlier today.
Back in the days when they didn't have TV, internet, the whole bit,
they didn't have to compare themselves.
Now, and they did.
Yet they did.
It's an old condition.
Yes.
But look at our world.
We're constantly comparing ourselves.
Our heart is assaulted daily.
But you know what?
Who we should be comparing ourselves with is God
because He's our standard, not people.
But how many times do we compare ourselves with other people?
Am I good enough?
Am I pretty enough?
Am I broad enough?
Is my voice good enough?
Okay, I'm learning, Adam Curry, I'm learning
because I need to start to love who God made me
and not try to change it.
Oh, I'm going to cry.
Because I feel like I'm getting a revelation of that.
Beautiful.
And again, these are those nuggets of understanding
and wisdom and revelation that God is bringing to us.
And you know what the thing about this?
He gives this to us every day.
We just don't tap into it.
It's a gift.
It is.
It is a gift.
Can I share something?
Because what you said really sparked something
and it's out of Psalm 139.
Yes.
So listen to this.
This is how God sees you in me.
It says this, Psalm 139 verse 13,
for you formed my inward parts,
you covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are your works.
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret
and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed.
And in your book, they all were written the days fashioned for me.
When as yet there were none of them.
The last verse.
How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God.
How great is the sum of them.
That's how God sees you and sees me.
Exactly.
And it's almost like if we have such an issue
with how we see ourselves,
then we need to constantly,
it's like we need to have that scripture in front of us at all time
so that we can get a revelation.
Because revelation is only going to come
through constant reminder of what God says.
It's not going to come just through osmosis.
It's going to come because we're looking at the Word.
Yes.
That's why we have to stay in the Word.
If there is ever a time in history that people,
the people of God, people who are exploring God and seeking, so to speak,
if there was ever a time in history for people to get back to the Bible,
it's now.
Get in the Word.
I cannot say it strongly enough.
You need to get in the Word.
You need to get in the Bible as much as you're on screen time
which is you're scrolling Instagram and doom-scrolling other things
like X and Facebook and all that.
You need to be in the Word.
And if you're doing those things in a disproportionate amount
to the time you're spending in God's Word,
yet you say you're a follower of Christ, then there's a problem.
Your tank is getting filled, but with the wrong things.
Right.
And what will happen is you'll begin to believe the lies
that the enemy will tell us.
Because he's an opportunist.
Exactly.
And a liar, the Bible says.
And we're not telling people to be legalistic.
No, not at all.
But, you know, because I can get in the Word through song, too.
I can listen to it.
Worship.
I love music that has the Word in it.
Our contemporary Christian music is amazing.
Yes.
K-Love Radio is fantastic.
But what are we dwelling on?
Exactly.
What are we dwelling on?
Yeah.
So let me go through here.
Verse 19, I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness
of God's power for us who believe in him.
This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead
and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.
Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else,
not only in this world, but also in this world to come.
God has put all things under the authority of Christ
and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.
And the church is his body.
It is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself.
I think the Scripture that really stood out to me is I also pray that you will understand,
this is verse 19, the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe in him.
Beautiful.
God's power.
For us.
For us to change us, to enlighten us, to give us wisdom, to heal people,
to bring miracles about, to bring people to salvation that we've been praying for.
That's the power of Christ, not in us, but in him.
To heal hearts.
Yes.
To mend hearts.
Yes.
Strongholds that are attached.
Because so much of what we do in this life comes through the lens of the grid of trauma
and the grid of pain.
I've experienced all that.
Almost everywhere.
Right.
But I would dare say to a degree.
I literally trauma so much that, yes.
But what it does, it taints.
It does.
Now you see everything through that filter and it actually changes the actual,
instead of seeing what's true, you see a distortion.
Right.
And so until...
So you have to change that filter.
So this has to get healed over time.
And we were talking in the car coming back from the gym,
we got about a 20-minute drive and I made this comment.
I said, it's interesting because it's like peeling a layer.
Like an onion.
The other day I cut up an onion for our dinner and I was...
I accidentally kept grabbing layer by layer going,
I keep pulling the layers apart.
But it reminded me of how we learn and process information that as we grow in maturity in Christ,
as we grow as followers of Jesus, it's like peeling layer back, layer back, healing happens.
And then sometimes we fall as we think, we had a moment at the altar with God or prayer and I'm healed.
And then a trigger comes up and, oh, I'm not healed.
All it is is another layer.
You are getting healed, but it's layer by layer by layer by layer.
And sometimes it's year by year by year.
Exactly.
Sometimes there's a miracle and then sometimes it's slower.
And yet the miracle can be the process too.
It's both, it's a miracle whether it's in a nanosecond or it's years.
But we celebrate the wins as we go.
Exactly.
Beautiful, Annette.
Love what you're sharing here.
Well, and so to me, the issue that I have had ongoing with body or image dysmorphia, as you put it,
if I could just get a continual revelation of God's love for me, those things won't matter.
And that's what I'm striving for.
If you're going to strive for anything, don't strive to look more beautiful, to be thinner, to be, you know,
a better person, strive to be, to have that revelation of God's love so that everything will flow out of that.
So let me flip the coin here.
Let me just flip the script, so to speak.
That doesn't mean you don't take care of yourself.
Exactly.
You work on yourself and you improve yourself in your education.
Again, mind, body, spirit connection.
Right, right, totally.
You know, that we're tripartite.
We're three parts, mind, body, spirit.
So during the sabbatical, I've been focusing on mind, body, spirit.
Exactly.
You and I have been having conversation of conversation.
It's not one without the other.
Exactly.
Everything gets impacted and affected.
So what we're not saying is just give up and say, well, forget it.
I'm just, I'm, this is, I've got high blood pressure.
But what is your motive?
And I've got all this stuff.
I've got all this physical issues.
There you go.
To be fit for the kingdom so that we can continue to do what we're doing, not so we'll be prettier
or thinner or whatever.
And I like to say it like this.
It's living by the way God designed us to live.
He designed our bodies to function a certain way, our minds to work a certain way, and
our spirits to operate.
So as we grow and mature, we want to continue to explore through His Word and through living
this life with Jesus in relationship what that looks like and how that applies on an
ongoing basis.
Yes.
So for us, we've made some serious lifestyle decisions to say, I'm not going to partake
of that anymore.
I'm not going to have that anymore, but I am going to have this because it's healthy
for my body.
And we're doing the research.
We're doing that with our minds and our wellness in every area.
A friend of mine used to call it total life victory.
Oh, yeah.
Remember that?
Pastor Linden.
Linden.
He used to talk about total life victory.
Oh, that's what we should change our podcast to.
Total life.
I love that.
Well, that's what living up and down world, it's the same.
I know.
It is.
It's just different words.
But he used to talk about total life victory and the mind-body-spirit connection.
Now so was it on track with him for that.
And we want to encourage you.
We're not saying don't give up on your body image and all that, but we got to get the
horse in front of the cart and sit in the cart in front of the horse.
Yes.
Because look at all the energy we have now.
I know.
We're buzzing.
And that's because of what we've done with our food.
And you've got to do what God tells you to do, not what we're doing.
That's right.
We would never tell you what to do.
No.
But the thing is, now we have so much energy, we're going to have the energy to do what
God's calling us to do in times of revival.
Absolutely.
And mental focus.
Yes.
I want to think better.
We don't have the fog.
I want to stay sharp, brain fog gone.
COVID did a number on us with all the brain fog.
Cultural trauma.
Yes.
And now we're resetting our self, our mind, spirit, body.
Yeah.
Not just through diet, but through mind and through the Holy Spirit.
So this is a tripartite approach, mind, body, spirit.
And I love, we should just pull that total life victory.
I love it.
I know.
We really do.
Okay.
Last thing I would like for you to share, and we wrote this down on our note, is what
you've gleaned this revelation from the Lord's Prayer.
Yes.
So I've been going through the Lord's Prayer and using it as a template because Jesus said,
when the disciples said, teach us to pray, he said, do this.
So that's how you pray.
He said, here's a template.
Here's a pattern.
So I go through that every day.
I've been waking up at five or six and for about an hour laying in bed.
I don't get out of bed.
Most times I did today, but mostly I don't, I'll do it before I even get up.
I have this prayer time with the Lord and I start with, you know, I break down each
part of it.
So I'm just going to fast forward though to the part you and I talked about today.
And it was this, give us this day our daily bread.
And the revelation that went off in me, and the word revelation, this means greater understanding,
it's to peel the layer back.
So what was revealed to me as I thought about that, meditated on, is first of all, it's
a daily prayer.
Give us this day our daily bread.
I never thought about it that way.
It's a daily prayer.
It's a daily thing, but also it's a current thing.
So daily, and it harkens back to the Israelites when they were during the Exodus, when they
left Egypt and they were in the desert, they were crying out for food and God said, I'm
going to feed you supernaturally.
He dropped manna, which is a flaky crusty kind of...
Talk about bread since we're not doing bread.
Oh yeah, we're not doing bread.
But anyway, it's a bread type substance and God supernaturally dropped it out of heaven.
But he told them, only gather enough for you and your family today.
Don't store up.
Because he wasn't going to give them day old bread the next day.
And what would happen is if they tried to like sneak some extra helpings, because what
if God didn't show up tomorrow, it would have worms in it.
It would just go sour.
That's how I have to think about bread right now.
Moldy bread, right.
And so they were only able to depend on God for what was in the now, in the present, what
was current.
Well, I was thinking about that as I was praying one morning at 5.15 and it occurred to me
and I said it out loud under my breath because I'm going to wake you and chavvy up from bed.
But I said, Lord, I don't want yesterday's manna.
I want what's current today.
I need a word from you today.
I need to hear from you.
I need to walk with you.
I need to know you better.
I want to have an ongoing conversation today.
I want to practice your presence today because I don't want day old bread.
And what do they do with day old bread at the store?
They discount it and put it on this little rack at the back of the store, you know, 70%
off day old bread.
I remember…
And it's never as good as the fresh bread.
It's never as good as fresh bread.
Remember when we lived in Abilene?
There was this place.
We drove by it every day.
It was torture.
Mrs. Baird's Bread Bakery.
Huge facility.
And anybody within 15 miles of that place could smell fresh bread.
It was brutal.
You drive through this cloud.
It's funny how it smells so good.
It's an aroma cloud.
But then when you got it from the grocery store because it wasn't fresh that day, it
didn't taste as good.
But it smelled good.
It was brutal.
It was torture.
But I thought about that today and it was like, you know, that's current.
That's out of the oven.
It's hot out of the oven.
But that's how I want words from God and wisdom.
You're talking about wisdom.
I want wisdom that's fresh for today.
And we talked about when we do the newsletter, we talked about, let's put what our topic
is, we can't because when you do the newsletter, typically Saturday or Sunday, things change
with us daily.
We get a new and fresh manna from God every day.
And so we have to…we just can't do that.
I mean, if God directed us to do that, we would.
But we really feel like it needs to be fresh off the…out of the oven.
Out of the oven.
Yeah.
Oh, I don't want to talk about that.
Because we're living off today's manna.
That's what that is.
And so we kind of…we live our life that way.
You do that with church sermons.
I do.
A lot of times you'll get up that morning and God changes everything.
You're like, sorry.
Pretty common.
Yeah.
I'm not…I can't do this series that I had planned.
I still study.
I still prepare.
I do all the work up front and then I'm always open to fresh manna.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Still like the day old stuff.
No.
I hope you're encouraged.
Anything else on that?
No.
That was so rich.
Thank you for sharing.
No, that was so good.
I'm just glad that I'm…
Powerful.
…can hear from God.
I think there's one tidbit you missed that was so good.
When you shared it with me, it went off like a bomb.
Okay.
What did I share?
It was that John…
No, I said that.
…it took years for him to come…
Oh, yeah.
Well, you need to camp on that a moment.
Yes.
Okay.
…and then 60 years before he wrote the book of John.
And so 60 years from the time he was…
With Jesus.
…with Jesus saying, you know, he sees everything Jesus does.
He's there with all the miracles.
But did he have a revelation of God or was it when he wrote it 60 years later, was trying
to remember everything that happened and then put whom Jesus…
We heard one person, one pastor say, it took him 60 years to finally have the confidence
and the revelation that I am the one who God loves.
He wasn't saying he didn't love others.
He was saying it for himself.
…self because he gained the revelation.
I'm the disciple who Jesus loved.
Oh, I don't want it to take 60 years.
I don't want it to take 60 years.
And we are definitely growing, but it's a reminder to grow into it.
There you go.
It may have taken 60 years for us to really feel that and know his love.
Such a good word.
You know, you walked in the room this morning holding a Bible in your hand and I thought,
oh my gosh, Katie bar the door.
Get a room.
I mean, when you are so filled with God's heart and word, I love you always, period.
But there is something that happens that makes you even more beautiful than you already are
because you already are to me, you're God's daughter.
But when you walk in the room with a Bible and I can see…
I know you almost dropped what was in your hand.
I was like, wait.
I was like, oh, here it comes.
She's got a heavy heavy.
Well, and it's just that I have my phone, but I had my Bible.
And that was another thing we talked about is really, you really have this conviction.
I do.
And want to talk to the church about bringing your Bible.
Bringing your Bible to church.
But it's hard.
I appreciate phones.
If we have it up there, we can't get it quick enough.
We're going to have to have both.
But my thought on that is there's something that's tactile about holding a Bible.
Now I've got an iPad mini, which is book size, which I really like.
And I do a lot of my reading and study off of that because it's handy and I can get
different translations.
I can jump into Greek words.
But during the sabbatical, I've just gotten back into the habit of picking up my Bible,
the one that's got my notes in it, my highlights in it.
I jot things in the margin.
It to me, I don't see it as a holy book to not be used.
It's a workbook.
Right, exactly.
It's a book of life.
It's a manual.
Some people feel like it's so holy they won't even...
I mean, write in their Bible.
No, you need to write in that bad boy so you can remember what God spoke to you on that
moment.
Well, I've taken one of your older Bibles that you have written in.
I kind of wanted it back different times.
No.
I had good notes in it.
Because I like seeing what you're gleaning out of and what your understanding and revelation
is.
So no, it's mine.
It's mine.
Hey, so let's take a moment and thank some folks.
First of all, I want to say thanks to everybody, don't we?
Yes.
We want them to subscribe.
You can go to our website, livingupinadownworld.com, and you can subscribe and join our mailing
list.
And all we'll do is send a weekly email newsletter.
It's very short to the point.
Throw a few pictures.
It's more of a reminder that, hey, we've got our podcast coming.
So be sure and join us.
But we'd love for you to become part of our community just simply by doing that.
And that list is growing.
We've had several more this week.
And then we also, we have people who bless us through what is called Value for Value.
And all Value for Value is, it's recognizing value in something.
Like if someone's doing something for me and I see value in it, like a server at a restaurant,
you know, they're doing something and I can tell they're going an extra mile and they're
really, they're providing a beautiful service.
And I want to compensate them accordingly because they've earned it.
It's like, yeah, value for value.
And so if what we are doing is encouraging you and helping you in your journey of faith
and in this life and living up in a down world, then we would simply ask, return the value.
And there's different ways to do that.
On our newsletter, we have a PayPal account.
You can send in value to help us with that.
That helps us keep this thing going.
And also you can go listen to us on the website to support Podcasting 2.0, which is Value
for Value.
Fountain is one that we use all the time and we like that.
And we like to boost our friends, Adam and Tina Curry.
We love, love, love their amazing podcast called Curry and the Keeper.
We recommend that you go and listen to that.
They've been out of our lives for a few weeks.
They've been on vacation.
A huge trip.
Well, we're having dinner twice with them this week.
So we've got to make up for lost time.
Got to catch up and we've missed them.
And so we're excited they're back in town.
We stay in touch with them the whole time, but it's different via text than going to
have dinner together.
So super glad.
But anyway, check out their podcast, Living Up in a Down World.
No, he's our executive producer.
But Curry and the Keeper and then also his podcast with John DeVorek.
No agenda.
So check those out and support them as well.
So again, thank you.
And just a couple of shouts.
Just want to say thank you.
I'm going to pull this up.
Got a beautiful couple of letters.
Man, I just love it when people sign stuff.
KTLD.
Remember what that meant?
Keep the lid down.
You've got to get that soundtrack from Adam.
Got a nice note from Andy Crow.
I'm not going to share what he is.
A little more private in nature, but Andy, I'm praying for you, brother.
I did send you an email back just to encourage you and thank you for letting us know and
how much you appreciate the podcast.
It means a ton to us.
So thank you, Andy.
I just want to give you a shout out.
Also Shelly.
Shelly wrote back.
Shelly's been a listener and she wrote a beautiful...
Listen to this encouragement.
Hi, Pastor Jimmy and Dame Annette.
You both came to mind the other morning as I was reading and in the spirit of not withholding
encouragement, I wanted to send you a little.
I was reading in John 4 where Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, asked for water
and offered her living water.
She was surprised and taken aback by what he knew about her.
And later in the chapter it says she went and told everyone what he had said to her.
He told me everything I've ever done.
As the chapter continues, my favorite verse is verse 42.
They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have
heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world.
And she writes this, this is beautiful.
When I read this story, I saw it in a new light and you and the Currys came to mind.
Podcasting isn't really the place that most would expect to hear about God or the gospel,
but by sharing like you are on a weekly basis, your words might be meeting that Samaritan
person at the well.
By sharing from your experiences, your pain and what God has done in your life, I believe
and pray that many more people will be able to say what those in the town did.
It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard it ourselves.
What you say and how you encourage matters.
And I praise God that you guys continue to share weekly.
God is doing an incredible work in the world right now despite all the bad things that
are happening.
I pray he continues to use you all.
Thank you for being available and surrendered.
It makes a difference, Shelly.
What can we say to Shelly to just say thank you?
Words aren't even enough.
I know.
That's beautiful.
That level of encouragement.
We've had lots of boosts.
Can we have someone from Japan write us?
When was that?
That was a while back.
No, it was first of the week right after we did our podcast last time because we mentioned
that we would be going to Japan, possibly doing a live with the Currys.
You're right, I thank you for reminding me.
She lives in Japan.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
How cool is that?
I do have a beer.
Hopefully there's other listeners from Japan and we can be able to visit with them in person.
Do a meetup in Japan.
Yes.
Yeah, I'm pulling it up right now.
Sorry, thank you for reminding me of that.
That was, you know, I've got Japan on my mind because Tina said when she got back we were
going to start planning it and we need to start planning it now so we can put money
aside to go.
So, let me, oh here it is.
Yep.
Oh yeah, here it is.
So, let me get where I can actually, I've got my other iPad up here.
So here's a couple of boosts.
First of all, I want to say a big shout out to Adam Curry for giving us a Striper Boost.
I'm not even going to hit the button, but Adam, thank you.
He wrote this, listening while in Europe was like being transported back home.
Welcome back y'all.
And whatever PJ had done with the sound, don't change a thing.
Five stars.
Again, coming from our executive producer.
That's huge.
Who is a broadcaster extraordinaire.
That's huge compliments.
So I'm hoping we're good to go.
Thanks my friend.
And then yeah, her name is Mysterious Ways.
She says this, news that you may be joining Curry and the Keeper on a Japan adventure
made me realize that I can't sit on the couch any longer without supporting.
It's not much, but I'm honored to donate my first 1000 sats to this blessing of a
podcast.
Where I may lack in donation amount, I'd be happy to make up for it.
On a no agenda Curry and the Keeper living up in a down world mashup meetup while you
were here.
God has made Japan my home for the past 18 years and he constantly amazes me with the
plans he has.
Now I said she, it could be a guy, so I don't know.
Just Mysterious Ways.
So Mysterious Ways, thank you for the boost, but even more for the encouragement and we
will take you up on that meetup mashup.
That would be so much fun.
Tell us where in Japan.
Yeah.
We can start planning.
Again, thanks for the boost.
We love all of you.
Thanks for the encouragement.
We've got some great letters and what not and we are so thankful.
So from Pastor Jimmy and Daymanette and Mr. Chevy, we are out of here.
We love you.
Have a great week.
Any last words?
No, just thank you for listening.
We so appreciate all of your support.
Amen.