00:26:09.940So on the one hand, the Bible reading challenge is super encouraging to those people because we're trying to break through all these random barriers.
00:26:16.840But in the world that I suspect you're more part of, way, way, way more people are troubled with pride over what they know about their Bibles.
00:26:27.980And I've had way more conversations in that particular world at conferences in that world, great conference in that world where people are actually disgusted with the idea that anyone is struggling with their Bible reading.
00:26:42.680They're just like, what? Who? Not me. I would never, you know, like I would never be the sort of person who didn't finish reading my whole Bible.
00:26:52.100you know like i would do that and that's a little world where they have a problem because they're not
00:26:56.980a lot of the time not applying it you know like they're living strangely kind of barren joyless
00:27:03.620lives but they're full of the full of the arguments for their like like they want to argue their heads
00:27:09.940off about different things but they're not actually it's not touching the ground ever right uh and then
00:27:16.020there are just kind of more sloppy evangelical world where people are like never considered
00:27:20.740reading their bible really it seems hard you know like um and there's these funny and so i think it
00:27:26.180really depends on what which group you got in that's true but i would say that i bet you anything
00:27:32.820that the treatment of the word uh is really reflected that treatment of their word and bible
00:27:40.260reading is really reflected uh also in what we are talking about with women's ministry right you know
00:27:46.180that you have wildly emotional kind of introspective uh groups where the reason you have to have
00:27:53.620women's gatherings is because we have to grieve with each other we have to emote with each other
00:27:58.980we have to search our hearts together um then you have the little groups that want to get together
00:28:04.580to line up all of our arguments you know to fight the feminists right uh and then you have the
00:28:10.980people that really don't know what they're doing they're like i'm just here because i don't you
00:28:15.220You know, I just think that it probably follows their real cultural differences in those things.
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00:33:47.700and support christians serving christians so bible reading challenge um and then you you guys um
00:33:56.320well let's just talk about this i know this isn't necessarily a christ church thing this is more of
00:34:00.460a your thing um but could you just share with our audience what you do with your workshops my wife
00:34:06.240has participated multiple women in our church they love it yeah webinar okay i didn't know what to
00:34:11.020call it but yeah i have not done any because i just had a baby eight months ago i've not done
00:34:16.180any since i had him so uh and i don't have one right now that i'm about to do that i know of
00:34:23.440yet uh so i don't have one to push there but there are pretty much what it would be would be a live
00:34:28.780discussion of something with a q a at the end and i think most of them or maybe all of them are now
00:34:34.380on canon plus which is cool i think what you're talking about so while there's no live q a that
00:34:41.100can happen you can still go watch those so they're typically topical something that i feel like i see
00:34:47.980like as a thing that we need to talk about but i um so there's some i think there's detox for
00:34:54.180the modern mom was one of them there's like culture building uh there was a friendship one
00:34:59.400you know like there's just emotional control things that i see being issues uh and my hope
00:35:04.280in those is always to kind of my hope is that they'll always be practical but they often really
00:35:09.360have to start with like let's talk about what we believe what does the bible say and how should
00:35:14.240this inform our behavior in this area um which i would say they're very i mean i am doing the
00:35:20.160webinars for women so i am choosing issues that i think are issues for women you know like what do
00:35:27.080i think um are things people need to talk about so basically that's what cool yeah that one example
00:35:34.280I always use in terms of like that older woman training younger women that's getting in, it's
00:35:40.120just getting into theology and the abstract and you have to, and then, and then applying what one
00:35:45.640common example would be submission to husbands. Like, so I always think of first Peter three,
00:35:49.780my wife has probably had this conversation more than any other conversation with, you know, other
00:35:53.920women in the church and, you know, she's the pastor's wife and she's giving some counsel about,
00:35:58.960okay, things are hot right now in the marriage and not hot in a good way, but like hot in an
00:36:03.540argumentative way. And the woman is seeking counsel, you know, from a godly woman in the
00:36:09.140church. And my wife, you know, occasionally appears in the picture. And one of the things
00:36:13.760that often comes up is, you know, in 1 Peter 3, it, you know, it ends by, you know, and you are
00:36:19.120her daughter, speaking of Sarah, that, you know, the women of old, these holy women of old, she
00:36:22.960called her husband, you know, lowercase l, Lord. And you are like her, you will be like her, do
00:36:27.880likewise and be her daughter if you also likewise submit to your husband and do not fear anything
00:36:33.920that is frightening. And so right there, that last part, fear anything that is frightening,
00:36:38.060usually the conversation goes something like this. My wife will sit with someone for, you know,
00:36:43.18030 minutes, 45 minutes and talk to them about submission to a husband. And about 70% of it
00:36:49.760on the front half will be about the sovereignty of God. And it'll be a full orbs, right? It's not
00:36:56.280just a, just particular to a woman, but it's a full orbed doctrine of the sovereignty of God that
00:37:01.440he can, he controls every, there's no maverick, you know, molecule in the universe that Sproul
00:37:05.700would have said, uh, God is sovereign over everything, including, and now we're going to
00:37:09.360apply it, including your husband, including your husband. That's why Peter could talk to, um, to
00:37:14.760someone who's married to even an unbelieving husband. And, and, and he could say submission
00:37:20.340is something that God commands. And, um, the thing that's frightening in that context, at least in
00:37:26.120my assessment, that the first thing that he might be referencing, do not fear anything that is
00:37:30.360frightening, is the frightening reality of submitting to a sinner. And so my wife, in order
00:37:36.560to apply that, she first has to give a full orbed understanding of not sourdough or ironing, but
00:37:46.260the sovereignty of God, but then applies it to, and I think that's beautiful. I think that is
00:37:51.760absolutely Titus 2 approved. That's what it is. So it's not that women can't teach doctrine of
00:37:58.640God or can't teach God's sovereignty or can't teach substitutionary atonement. Of course they
00:38:03.040can. They must. They must. But then it's applied. And now, and that's really, that's the same thing
00:38:08.820with older men training younger men. If you go just a little bit further in Titus 2, I think
00:38:13.040that that's not a reference of elders teaching on the Lord's day to the gathered saints, but that's
00:38:18.320older men on a Tuesday afternoon training younger men in particular things that pertain to manhood.
00:38:24.240And that's always what we're doing is we're taking theology and applying it. And I think part of the
00:38:28.680problem, part of the reason why women's ministries and men's ministries for that matter, these kinds
00:38:33.780of things have gotten off the rails is because we don't do theology applied. We don't have, as you
00:38:40.040guys would say, theology that comes out of our fingertips. It's just, let's talk about theology
00:38:44.780in the abstract and, and, and not what does it look like on the ground? And it's when you get
00:38:50.580to the ground, the practical side that it's helpful, but that's also where it usually ends
00:38:56.260up getting controversial. That's where you'll get a lot of the negative feedback. You know,
00:38:59.820she said what, or he, he did what, you know, because if you just talk about God being sovereign
00:39:04.900or you just talk, the husband's the head of the home, but you don't ever give any practical
00:39:09.500example of what headship might look like on a Wednesday morning, then, then you're probably
00:39:14.020safe, not safe from the rainbow flag, you know, Ukraine flag, you know, you know, pronouns in the
00:39:19.040bio, but you're probably safe from people in the larger camp. But when you get practical,
00:39:24.100that's when you get in trouble. And so I think it may be a fear of getting backlash or also just
00:39:29.860the fact that none of us were heroes of the word, but we're just not doers in our generation.
00:39:33.840There's a real problem with it, but one or the other, there's just such a massive lack of
00:39:39.080application. And so I think any women's ministry that 45 minutes of doctrine of God, great. But
00:39:45.960then that Q&A and discussion and the practical application that's unique to women, your actual
00:39:51.400years, that's what makes it Titus 2. And it's glorious. But a lot of people don't, we don't do
00:39:57.460that. On the men's side, the women's side, the whole nine yards, we don't apply theology. Do you
00:40:01.740have any thoughts about that? I think it's, I think you're right. But I think a big part of
00:40:07.420that is that applying theology to anyone uh it always it's always reflective on yourself it's
00:40:15.160always it's like it's much easier to talk about the abstracts than it is to say so in this exact
00:40:23.320situation you need to say you're sorry for having been bossy about whatever because it does call in
00:40:30.680your own behavior it does make you reflect on how like have i been you know i might not be having
00:40:36.960this particular problem right now but it's amazing how having to speak really practically
00:40:42.800does does draw your attention to your own shortcomings right it just always does uh and
00:40:49.680that's in the best possible circumstance like when when the person that you're counseling is
00:40:55.520receiving it graciously and wants to do what you said you still are gonna probably notice the places
00:41:03.200that you're like and that's a huge benefit of of actually trying to disciple and counsel people
00:41:10.000uh if you're willing you know if you're willing for that a huge benefit of it is it often just
00:41:15.280brings things to your attention that you were not focused on right now that you need to be
00:41:20.320focused on right now you know like i you have a moment where you're like listen you need to think
00:41:26.160of ways that you can bless your husband and you need to like let me walk you through how you can
00:41:31.600think and then you're like oh wow rachel turns out you should think about this too right now it was
00:41:36.240not on my mind you know like it's a it is the kind of thing um that and that just happens all the time
00:41:41.920so that's uncomfortable right it's an uncomfortable thing to actually start applying things it's like
00:41:47.840looks shockingly like spiritual work right now we're gonna get down to the thing that's like
00:41:54.240Like that's when it crosses your own flesh.
00:41:57.140That's when it is like the reason you need to apply it because you're not doing it naturally or instinctively or it's, you know, it's always there's always some level of rebuke in that.
00:42:15.480It's protecting yourself and protecting the person that you need to talk to, because the reality is it takes a lot of courage right now and these days to biblically counsel someone like when they say what's wrong.
00:42:31.380And any pastor's wife probably can tell you when you need to counsel someone who you feel like might explode and everything you say might be on the Internet, out of context.
00:42:42.520And the flesh does not always want to say, here's how it is, you know, like, let me tell you, because you just know you might, I mean, there's a self-protective instinct there that you really have to overcome, that you have to be willing to be like, well, Lord, use it.
00:43:04.080i'm i'm gonna say what i know to be true uh and i'm willing to like if this means someone's gonna
00:43:10.920go around and tell all their friends and make a big scene somewhere uh so be it you know here it
00:43:17.340goes yep no you're absolutely right that's very insightful i didn't even think about that but also
00:43:22.200just um one of the hindrances um is the self-preservation and that's i mean my kids would
00:43:29.540you know be the first ones to tell you if you ask like what you know what's one of the most
00:43:33.160common prayers that dad prays in the home. Um, every morning we pray through a number of things,
00:43:38.560but one of them is God, please protect us from, uh, from those who would seek to do us harm.
00:43:42.940Because every day, like that, that's a reality is that, um, there are people who want to destroy
00:43:48.160our lives. They, you know, they, I mean, they really, they really want to destroy our lives.
00:43:53.560And so, you know, praying like for God's protection, uh, so that you can, so that you
00:43:58.300actually can have the courage to minister and disciple and, and give something knowing that,
00:44:06.220that in today's climate, um, there is a very real possibility that, um, as much as you give all that
00:44:13.240can be weaponized and turned back against you to, uh, to ruin your life. And so it is a very,
00:44:18.560it is a very, uh, dangerous thing, uh, to minister to others. It's like, if you,
00:44:25.140if you want to just survive and and you know preserve yourself then don't don't be a christian
00:44:33.420and don't do discipleship and don't don't minister because if you do you're putting a target on your
00:44:38.700chest so yeah no that that's really insightful um last thing is um i would love to hear just
00:44:44.620a little bit are you and uh your sister becca are you still doing your podcast allegedly we are
00:44:50.400we've had a really wild summer where we're never in the same place for a few minutes but yes we are
00:44:57.580we are still doing it although we've had a lot of down time this summer that's fine um so tell us
00:45:04.660tell our listeners about you know because that that's for women um and i've heard like two
00:45:09.700episodes because i'm not a woman but occasionally my wife is like you have to she does the same
00:45:13.260thing with bright hearth you know brian sove is is a friend and his wife lexi and um i like brian
00:45:20.040but I don't like Bright Hearth, you know, so, but my wife, she listens, you know, every single time
00:45:26.760they come out with something and occasionally, you know, she'll, she'll, you gotta listen to this
00:45:30.400one. And so anyway, so I've listened to a couple of you and Becca and the ones that she had me
00:45:34.800listen to were fantastic, but what, it's not like your typical pockets. It's not what you would
00:45:39.960think of, of like a women's ministry, but it's, I think it's so good. It's so healthy. So tell
00:45:45.360our listeners, what is a podcast like with you and your sister? What are you guys trying to achieve?
00:45:50.040well i'll tell you how it happened which was back when someone was saying you guys should
00:45:54.520really do a podcast i really think you should do a podcast and we were like well what is the kind
00:46:00.920of podcast that we would possibly do and we were like if we don't have to go anywhere like we don't
00:46:07.560have to be in a studio we record our podcast on a phone in the car together we do not prepare in
00:46:16.440advance for what we're going to talk about um so i would say i know for sure it's far more like
00:46:23.960friends talking about what's going on and we do always try to have i can't swear that it's
00:46:30.280always happened but we do try to have some more spiritual not just blabbing about our
00:46:37.000details of our life or things that we're thinking about but we do try to talk more about spiritual
00:46:41.880issues i think that the part of the reason it is helpful for people is that it is so
00:46:47.560on i would i don't know if i'd say unplanned unscholarly and it is actually more like
00:46:55.160inviting people to join us in applying our faith to our lives and talking about what's going on and
00:47:00.680what's it mean and how to you know and maybe what we're working through uh so that's the goal of it
00:47:07.000it really is we don't try to confine ourselves to specific themes or you know we'll just talk about
00:47:13.160whatever so you have to have a high tolerance for people just talking you know interrupting each
00:47:20.580other to enjoy yeah but if you have that then then you might enjoy it cool um one of the ones
00:47:29.080that my wife shared with me was i think it was recently after your um your youngest boy was born
00:47:35.240and uh and you were you were sharing something with your sister and uh and you like started to
00:47:42.080get a little emotional which you don't normally do and uh and becca was like like rachel it's it's
00:47:49.180okay this time's okay like you can cry you know she said something like that i think it was probably
00:47:54.380the one that we called a very a leaky a leaky episode or something you can't talk about something
00:47:59.420without feeling a little bit wow um but that has been the case i mean ezra is our eighth
00:48:05.740baby he was born with down syndrome uh which was a surprise at birth so this is what i'm assuming
00:48:12.220that's that's right yeah tell us oh just i it was you would have been that episode yeah and it is
00:48:19.740funny we're not really emotional emotionally it's wrong because i would not say we're not emotional
00:48:25.580I would say we're not usually we're not just going to talk all about our feelings or we would not usually get teary on the podcast.
00:48:36.820I was like, man, it's funny how much you realize it was you cry not because you're sad, but because you're talking about very deeply held beliefs, like because you need to talk about things that you really, truly believe to your core.
00:48:50.120like that god is good that this is a gift that he's not surprised that this is that this is
00:48:57.080everything that we're supposed to be doing and there's no um it wasn't like you know i i don't
00:49:02.560remember what all we were talking about in that episode except for the fact that i was saying
00:49:06.280it's funny you just have all of these these realizations you know that there never was
00:49:11.840an ezra who didn't have down syndrome like god has always known that this is what he was doing
00:49:17.740And as much as it surprised us to have a baby at all in my 40s, we say he's the dot on the exclamation point.
00:49:26.560But you know that God always knew and that God was always doing this.
00:49:32.740And that it's a beautiful thing to immediately receive it as, yes, Lord, I am willing to do whatever.
00:49:41.000And I love how much Ezra has been, his whole life has been like kind of not, I wouldn't say funny, but a comedy of some sorts of answered prayers.
00:49:53.060You know, when I first found out I was pregnant with him and we were very shocked in spite of the fact that we had seven other children.
00:50:00.240We acted like people who had never taken a pregnancy test that time.
00:50:06.280This cannot like, where did this come from?
00:50:09.240But I think as we were so at peace that we thought we were clear on what God wanted from us, you know, like it was like it wasn't that we were actively saying, no, we can never have another child.
00:50:23.040It was just that we were very comfortable with the fact that we felt like God had given us a ton to do and we were trying to faithfully do it.
00:50:29.940And then it was a really funny surprise to be pregnant.
00:50:33.400And it was hilarious how much we were having the whole like saying.
00:50:36.960saying i i think that this test is saying i'm pregnant
00:50:40.460i don't think so i think that that's just no that's just the control line like we were like
00:50:47.060first timers all the way again hilarious anyways as much what is the what's the gap between uh the
00:50:54.800seventh and eighth child seven seven years seven years okay so that was really a surprise
00:51:00.980yeah seven years and our oldest was just going into college so we just moved into it was our
00:51:07.460first year of all of the kids well she was in college but everybody else in school all day and
00:51:12.900like it was the first sort of like okay this is a different era it was a hilarious like whoa the
00:51:19.580lord has a very different plan and uh i get super morning sick so a huge amount of the nerves about
00:51:28.040finding out that I was pregnant was like, that's going to be a significant chunk of time that I
00:51:35.600become useless to the family. You know, that I am more than useless. Actually, I'm laying down
00:51:41.340on the bathroom floor puking or whatever I'm doing. I'm not making dinner and I'm not doing
00:51:45.680the laundry and people are having to feed me. People are having to try to keep me alive.
00:51:51.480And in the middle of a real what felt like a breathless pace of life, you feel like, oh,
00:51:57.220my word i'm about to like i was very sick at my daughter's high school graduation you know like
00:52:03.460it was it was a funny time it was funny time and uh so my nerves on finding out i was pregnant
00:52:10.200have far more to do with the morning sickness you know far more to do with the like oh man
00:52:15.200buckle up because here comes the time that we all hate and uh but one of the i think of ezra
00:52:23.500as being such an answer to prayer, because I prayed so much then at the very beginning,
00:52:28.380like, Lord, root out for me any spirit of self-preservation, any desire to like,
00:52:33.740no, I don't want to give this, or I'm not willing, like, I don't want to be sick right now,
00:52:37.840or I don't want to do this right now. And also just be glorified in this life,
00:52:43.380be glorified by this child, be glorified by this. And I cannot think of a better answer
00:52:49.540to those prayers than this precious little boy that we were given we never saw that coming you
00:52:55.900know it was no none of it was our plan but it is so sweet knowing how clearly i mean i i always it's
00:53:03.380awkward to say this it's so sweet that we believe that god is in control of everything but that's
00:53:08.840not what's sweet what's sweet is that god is in control of everything uh and it is just a mercy
00:53:15.660that we trust that he is, you know, like his, the design of nothing really could be more precious
00:53:21.860than what he has done for us in this child. It's been a wonderful, sweet time. Uh, but it was so
00:53:29.260not of our doing, you know, so not our idea of what we were going to do. Um, it's just been a
00:53:34.500really super precious. And I would say nobody goes around saying, Hey guys, it's actually super fun
00:53:41.840to have five teenagers and a newborn it's it's actually really cool to have nobody aims for that
00:53:49.800kids spread i don't know why well i figure you get you probably get a decent amount of help
00:53:54.980to have older children several older children you know yes they are they are a sweet help
00:54:01.720although we have i would say i always we have strong feelings about that that this is our child
00:54:08.100not their child like i'm that so it is what is sweet is having so many people have almost
00:54:14.600adult relationships to the baby that is a really that's very different than when i felt like it
00:54:21.640was all babies in the house like his morning is just slammed with everybody coming in separately
00:54:27.960to say good morning to him like to be like here i am good morning you know like they're all like
00:54:33.120it's like his appointments in the morning are very busy that's funny but no that that's
00:54:38.080a good way of putting it adult relationships, uh, to the child and not, um, mom relationships.
00:54:43.060Cause I'm with you 100%. That's one of the things that with, um, I remember watching, you know,
00:54:47.780the documentary, the happy, shiny people, you know, cause everybody was talking to me. And
00:54:51.520at the end of the day, like it was a hit job on Christians, of course. Um, but there were some
00:54:55.960things that, that you, you and I and your camp, my camp, like we would strongly differ. We'd say
00:55:00.120patriarchy is good. Uh, children are good blessing from the Lord. Um, all these things are really
00:55:05.620good. But I remember, you know, multiple things, but one thing in particular that me and my wife,
00:55:09.300we looked at each other on the couch and we're like, uh, but they talked about, you know, uh,
00:55:13.620it was the, the Duggard mother saying, you know, that, uh, once the child, um, you know, when the,
00:55:18.920when they're an infant, uh, then they're my buddy, the buddy system. But once they're two years old,
00:55:24.500they become your buddy and buddy. And then, and then they show what, what buddy means. And it's
00:55:29.900like the, the two-year-old sleeping in one of the older daughter's beds with her at night. And so
00:55:35.060a buddy. And I was like, Oh, I know what you mean by buddy, but you, you, you mean baby. Like when
00:55:39.440they're an infant, they're my baby. And once they're two, they're your baby. And it's like,
00:55:43.880but she's still a baby. She doesn't need a baby. She's 11, you know, she's 12. And so, and,
00:55:49.340and that is something that, you know, like we, we want to be fruitful. We're both, you know,
00:55:54.360you know, our camps, like we're very much, you know, to think that that's in line with scripture
00:55:58.460and it's a blessing. Um, but fruitfulness is, um, we, we want to be effective. I like the way
00:56:04.780your dad puts it, you know, Samuel would not have been benefited in any way to have five sons that
00:56:09.460took bribes instead of two. So like, you know, we want, uh, yeah, let's have as many arrows as we
00:56:14.760can, but let's, they need to be sharp and straight because some of these arrows are so bent. They're
00:56:19.240like boomerangs. You shoot them out and they go all the way back, you know, and then slap the
00:56:23.220Christian parent in the face. And like, we don't need to produce, um, uh, enlistments for, for the
00:56:28.880enemy. We, we want children that are, um, that are solid. And part of that means that, um, that we're
00:56:33.960going to be their parents and not their older sibling. So, so anyway, so I, I know, I know
00:56:38.280your views on that and that's, um, I, I completely agree. Any final thoughts or final words that you
00:56:43.220want to leave our audience with anything that maybe might be up and coming? I know your life
00:56:46.920is busy right now. And so you're probably, you know, focusing on the home, which is great,
00:56:50.720but anything you want to let our listeners know about? Um, man, I can't think of, well,
00:56:56.500I don't know when this episode is airing. Do you know? Um, usually we, we record, I think we've got
00:57:03.600one or two in the hopper so i'd say like two weeks okay well then we'll be i was gonna say
00:57:10.080today was actually the last day of uh the same page summer bible reading challenge and the the
00:57:17.720to the word through the bible kicks off september 4th so it's gonna be probably be hearing this
00:57:23.660right after probably uh right after it kicks off either way uh jump in and join us and even if you
00:57:31.480are an experienced Bible reader. Like I, I always think the reason we started the Bible reading
00:57:38.500challenge was it was, uh, we had a conference that was a celebration of 500 years since the
00:57:43.500reformation in 2017. And it was in the conversation around that and things that we were talking about
00:57:50.180afterwards. Um, there were in that conversation, we, it was a realization that there was another
00:57:58.400time when the world was so chaotic and so messed up and so uh so tragic how the church was behaving
00:58:07.520and yet the thing that turned really all of civilization on its head was christians reading
00:58:13.700the word like it was the word going to christians and uh the realization that that reading the word
00:58:21.360that the word does not return void but what is it that it does is it is it equips you for every good
00:58:26.600work, that it trains you in righteousness, that it does all this. I think how many Christians in
00:58:31.040the world feel fully equipped for the work God has put them in and are feeling like, uh, it's,
00:58:38.020it's a funny thing, but if you think about it, this is a specifically to women, this is the
00:58:43.300thing that I would say, women are very intuitive at encouraging each other about little things
00:58:48.520that don't matter much, right? Like this is my new purse that someone posts on Facebook and everyone
00:58:54.060be like it's so cute oh my goodness where did you get it you know like lots of chit chat like women
00:58:59.100are very good at that kind of chit chat and in this conference where we talked about a bunch of
00:59:03.980women from the reformation and the q a it had come up uh and i said something that immediately was
00:59:09.640like oh my word i just said a thing that i do not like thinking about um which we'd been talking
00:59:15.720about all these impressive women of the reformation and someone asked maybe how did they do
00:59:20.540it or how were they whatever and my and my comment was i would hope that if katie luther could see
00:59:27.000what we did with our lives that she would think i wonder how they ever got all that done like how
00:59:32.840did they ever like instead of us acting like peak christian women happened a long time ago and never
00:59:40.760again will women be really effective or really strong or really faithful like like oh we're all
00:59:47.700just going to kind of be, and I was thinking, you know, specifically social media is something
00:59:51.980that I think those women, there was, there's a lot going on, but those women had already given
00:59:58.360their whole lives to, you know, many of them were nuns in, in those really crazy orders of nuns,
01:00:05.480where you're like waking yourself up all through the night to pray and stuff. They were already
01:00:11.500all in for the gospel so when they when they turned from the catholic church to this idea
01:00:18.220of investing yourselves in your homes and children and like in doing actually actually living your
01:00:25.740faith out in a way that will impact people around you they had a tremendous impact but it was not
01:00:31.180because they were superhuman it was because they were because they were all in for the gospel and
01:00:36.940then they were living as faithful women in that time and and it made me think of like how are we
01:00:42.700stewarding social media and how would those women think we ought to be stewarding it and right so
01:00:49.820that idea of women are very natural at encouraging each other why not encourage each other to be
01:00:54.700reading their bibles like why not make it so instead of wow that's cute like i'm so glad
01:01:00.940you're reading with us, you know, like welcome, join us, like read the Bible with us. And we've
01:01:07.420already seen just huge amounts of fruit from that. And I think like Christians really underestimate
01:01:13.240the power of the word, the power of getting people into the word, the way it equips people to mature
01:01:18.820so quickly and, and be equipped to pull people along with them. So that's my biggest plug really
01:01:25.940is to don't overlook it but consider joining the bible reading challenge awesome get all your
01:01:32.080friends that sounds great no i love what you said about like katie luther and um you know i've heard
01:01:37.700it said and i think it's i think it's well put but we are not the lesser sons of former sires
01:01:42.020and uh whether it's going back to the reformation 500 years ago or 2 000 years ago i mean how many
01:01:47.460times do christians say man we're going to get back to the early church like i don't want to
01:01:50.880get back to Corinth I don't want to get back to Corinth you know what I mean and I and like I
01:01:55.360these you see progressively we got trouble enough as it is don't we right exactly and it's and it's
01:02:01.880just you know things are getting worse and worse you know and no like there there is incredible
01:02:06.940things in God's providence that he's gradually and progressively bringing about through the church
01:02:11.200we're a mess that's true but I'd like to think that we're not quite the mess that that Corinth
01:02:16.780was, you know, and, and that, that there actually has been progression.
01:02:20.500And I think there has, our, our theology is sharpened.
01:02:22.860We, I mean, it took 500 years for people just to understand doctrine of God, you know,
01:02:27.320and, and, and maybe it's a thousand years for doctrine of God.
01:02:30.380And then the next thousand years was soteriology.
01:02:32.480And I don't know, maybe this third millennium, you know, since Christ coming, maybe, maybe
01:02:37.200we figure out Christian ethics, you know, maybe we could get like some decent Christian
01:02:41.520But the point is we're not the lesser sons of former sires and getting in the word.
01:02:45.700you're right that we shouldn't look at some of these heroes they are heroes worthy of our honor
01:02:50.340they're spiritual fathers and mothers that deserve to be honored but we are not their um we're not
01:02:56.860their bastard children like we like we by god's grace we can do it don't need to be and we don't
01:03:02.940need to be acting like that and i think it's really common for everyone to want to hunker down
01:03:08.720instead of saying like yeah things are really dark out right now but this is actually the time
01:03:15.000that God chose to put us. And what are we doing? I often, I've told people this, I feel like when
01:03:23.220you're born, it's like a rock was thrown into a pond and your life is so short. It's just that
01:03:29.000time in the air before you hit the water and you're through to the other side, you know, before
01:03:33.840like there's only so much time up here. And often I'm thinking about Lord, make it, make it bigger
01:03:40.720and splashier like while we're flying through the air how can we have more and more of an impact
01:03:47.000like how can uh how can you use us more and more as much as we can that just goes back to the
01:03:54.300self-preservation thing again because it is just deciding that you want it well deciding by god's
01:04:00.320grace right we're all in for the gospel we're all in where he planted us right now we're all in with
01:04:07.080You know, when you read some piece of scripture that confronts your own sin, we're all in with repenting and getting it right and trying to do what honors God.
01:04:17.360And that there's a it's like there's a ton of fun and joy in that whole in that process.