This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.
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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk live host. Just to tell us a little bit about her life and how God has connected her heart to the nations.
So again, if you want to call in, it's 866-348-7884. We'd love to hear your answer. How has God connected your heart to a place in the world or a group of people?
What does that look like? And Avi, why don't you get us started a little bit. Tell us a little bit about you and maybe the how this story started in your life. Yeah, well, um, a little bit of trivia to start you off. How do we know each other? You look familiar. So I'm actually Alicia's daughter. And it's my favorite title. People come up to me at church and be like, are you Alicia's daughter? I'm like, that's my favorite nickname.
You guessed it. So, um, yeah, I guess we all started with you. But, um, the way that my heart grew for grew for people internationally, specifically, um, was actually when our family took us to a place in the United States. And, um, we took a one week mission trip to Guatemala and I guess I would have been 11 probably.
Yeah. During our first trip. And I remember it was like kind of a basic trip, more like hold the babies and paint the walls and just hang out. But it really, the Lord used it to capture my heart in a really significant way. And, um, I remember I came home and I got out of dad's or I got out of the bus into dad's truck and you were like, welcome home.
And I was like, this isn't home. This is like so immature, but the Lord like by his grace still use that immaturity of, um, having growing a heart for the nations and really, um, just grew it over the years and went back to Guatemala six times. Um, and ended up spending most of my summers there. And yeah, Jesus just really started to grow my heart, um, internationally, um, spent time in Africa and Asia and just kind of all around. But that has not been the cool part. The cool part has really been, um, seeing the Lord move and just getting to know him more.
So absolutely. Well, my story is a little different. It started a little later. I went to NC state for school and the first week of school, I got involved with InterVarsity as the campus ministry, met some phenomenal people. And that really changed the course of my life. Definitely my college.
Yeah. Some people have lots of stories about their college years, but mine were incredible. I grew, I got in God's word. I was on a worship team, but one of those summers I went to Mexico city for the summer and we did ministry there. And for a girl from North Carolina who had really never been out of the country and really just had a view of my life in my place, in my space, God got so much bigger that summer. And I just saw his heart for different people and the different ways that people worship and express themselves and the way that plays out. And so from that point, it's just, I don't know, maybe somebody will call in and tell us their story, but I feel like God attached my heart to that part of the world. And I've been in other parts of the world and I love the people I meet, but my heart is still drawn to like Latin America. And so it's just unique the way God works in our hearts. There's some other things that God has attached to my heart. But when I think about internationally, that's kind of where that started. And then it was years that I didn't really pursue that until our family started doing that. And so just to parents out there, that's a great way to use your vocation.
Take your family somewhere. But how did that unfold after that? And how's God worked in your life in that way? With mission specifically? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So after after high school, well, throughout high school, like I mentioned, I spent my summers overseas, mostly in Swaziland, South Africa, and just different areas. But I had my heart very, very set on doing a gap year. And so I started applying to youth with a mission.
YWAM. It's international and interdenominational. So there's people from all sorts of different Bible believing Christian backgrounds who come to be discipled, mostly out of high school, but it ranges from like 18 to 27 or 30 year olds. And so I joined YWAM in the Middle East, which was a whole journey in itself, even finding out that existed, because not many people where we're from know about YWAM. I really learned about it on a whim. And the Lord just kind of continued to put pieces together from that. But yeah, so I joined YWAM in the fall of 2019 in the Middle East, I'm trying to hold my tongue, do not say where, but joined in the Middle East and continued with that program at various in various parts of the world for about four years after that. Had a quick three week stint at NC State University, go pack, think and do. But then they kicked us out because of because of COVID actually ended up the Lord just rerouted me. So stayed with YWAM and then have been back in North Carolina for about a year, pursuing the the two cities church residency and getting my master's in south seat southeastern. So there have been a lot of stories in between that time, but that's a little recap for how I got here today. Well, tell us a few stories. Tell some stories along the way.
Yeah. So many I've been trying to narrow them down in my head. But what's come to mind is a little bit of how a little bit of our story, honestly, and how we I did my first school with YWAM and loved it and the Lord used it a lot. I saw a blind man literally see for the first time and his whole community was there and he just started dancing and pointing out colors in the room. And it was the most special thing I've ever been a part of. But I went to NC State for those three weeks and COVID hit and I was like, Oh, no, and ended up doing a secondary school with YWAM. But during that time, I still had my heart really tied to NC State and I felt like freedom to do that.
But I also felt a little bit of pressure to do that. Just kind of with her parents. I did not name names, but now that you've said it, um, no, but felt felt some pressure and was with one of my mentors named Maria, and she was praying for me one day at the altar at church. And she was praying for me and she prays very powerfully and she kind of she kind of freaky hears from the Lord. Like you're like, Who told you that type stuff?
Very prophetic, but very, very caring and personal friend of mine. And she's like, Avi, you're holding back from the Lord. And I was like, What do you mean?
Like, I came here, and I could be at home right now. And what do you mean? I'm holding back from the Lord.
I'm doing this hard school. And she was like, Avi, you know that the Lord has called you to be all in. He's asking for your last 2% and you're holding back. And so it was at that point that I really began to give him my last 2% and was like, Okay, Lord, I'm not meant to go back to NC State, but you're going to show me the way. All right, Avi, we'll jump back to that to that story when we come back.
For now, if you want to call in, it's 866-348-7884. Welcome back. We were just talking to Avi about her journey with God around the world. But we've got Bucksman from Ohio.
Bucksman, welcome to the show. Tell us how you connected your heart to a people group or how God's done that in your life. Awesome. It's wonderful hearing you ladies and mom and daughter. Wow.
The food does not fall from the tree. I always love hearing from you. You're a great caller. Tell us your story. I got so many stories. I got to pick one, dear Alicia. But I want to know, and I talked to Nick about this, can I get a prize for knowing what YWAM stands for? Oh, did you know YWAM already?
Are you going to guess? Youth with a mission. Yes, I know YWAM. Youth with a mission. Sometimes we joke that it's youth without any money, so that's better than...
So you hear that truth, talk live, send YWAM some money. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. But yeah, I would say honestly, ladies, I would have to say that my heart ever since Jesus came and lived in me, I was walking kind of like Apollos for so many years without the Spirit of God in me. But then when he entered me, and I can tell you ladies exactly when it happened, what year and everything, when he came in me, I just all of a sudden got a love for everyone. I wanted to see people who have been walking with Christ walk as Christ. I wanted to see those who don't know Christ come to know Christ. So my heart, and I don't mean to sound cliché, ladies, but my heart is for everyone now. I mean, I don't care where they come from, what background they have, if they've got a criminal record even, I want them to either start a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ or get stronger and walk as the Lord Jesus Christ. And as much as this skinny man with the scraggly beard here in Ohio working at a lumberyard can, that's what I try to do, ladies. That is my sincere sentiment. It's pretty much all people now.
I love that, Bucksman. You know, Jesus said he came for the whole world. And so sometimes there's a certain group of people that maybe it's the homeless population, or maybe it's people who have struggled, single moms. There are different people that are in our lives for a reason.
Maybe it has to do something with our background, but sometimes it's just general. I've got a heart for evangelism. I have a heart for helping disciple people or whatever that looks like. So thank you for using your little corner of the world to love people well. That's what we're called to.
That's what I love about you, Alicia. You're a woman after my own heart too, my evangelistic heart too, and recycling. These, ladies and gentlemen listening to Truth Talk Live, are some awesome gifts that God will give you in that when you extend your faith outside of yourself, he will give you something awesome, ladies and gentlemen, listening to Truth Talk Live. When you extend your faith out, Galatians 5 says this, and I'm in the busmobile.
This is coming right off the top of my head. Galatians 5 says this. It doesn't matter who's Jew or Gentile.
What matters is our faith expressing itself in love. And I'll leave you with that, ladies. God bless you. I love you both. And thank you, Truth Talk Live.
God bless you, Bucksman. Have a great day. Okay, so we're going to circle back to Avi. We picked up, we're going to pick up where we left off. What do you want to tell us? Yeah. So yeah, I squeeze in the last little bit of just Maria lovingly rebuking me in Maui, you know.
If anyone is interested in YWAM, reach out to YWAM Maui, an incredible base. But yeah, the Lord really challenged me through her. I'm thankful for her obedience to speak that out because I was holding back a last 2% from Him. And it was my plan. Like my plan was to be in missions. I knew God had called me to that. And I was like, yeah, I'll do that, but I'll do it my way.
And for me, personally, that was NC State. That's not everyone's story. Some people's story is the exact opposite. But for me, the Holy Spirit was pressing into my heart that I was to go to Latin America. And I was like, that's so random. It really made no sense.
And so I applied to a YWAM base in Tijuana to help scrub toilets and clean and do whatever they needed me to do. And that was actually kind of a tumultuous time in our family. And just really didn't have a lot of answers for why that was on my heart, but I knew it was. And I would love to hear a little bit of your perspective. And in the midst of that, I felt so supported and driven by you and Dad as well. But it was also challenging. So I would love to hear your perspective from what was going on in your head.
Sure. Well, you know, when you're when somebody in your family is on a journey like that and God has called them to do certain things, it affects everybody. And we all have our thoughts.
We have our preconceived notions about how life goes. And so when you really felt called to, you know, to leave school and, you know, the verse it says, I know the plans I have for you says your parents. That is not the verse.
Yes, that's the parent translation. And to let go of kind of how you thought your child's path would go and to really give that over to the Lord. And that was hard for us.
I'll be honest. We we supported you. We loved what you were doing. We knew your heart. But we really kind of thought, well, this is the best path to for you to get there. And so God just reworked that path.
And he actually really worked in our hearts. And, you know, we had a lot of conversation about that and really came out on the other side, understanding each other a lot more and with a lot more respect and a lot more support, I feel like. So that's kind of our take. You know, I would say as a parent, if your young adult wants to pursue missions, you know, my JT and I got to the point and we were like, well, the worst thing we can imagine is that everybody else sees the value in this. And we're the we're the ones who say no or the ones that are resistant.
And God, God help us that we would never stand in the way of one of our kids pursuing God's call on their life. But that was that was not a one day conversation or a one day heart change. But I'm so thankful that he's changed our hearts because now we get to you know, we get to partner with you and we get to be all in and hear. You know what God's doing and it's challenged me personally, and helped me grow.
Yeah. And I mean, y'all are my biggest inspirations. Like, it's, it's crazy to even think about that time because now I'm just like trying to be like y'all in so many ways, but and working with y'all's blessing and y'all's inspiration.
So I, yeah, I'm thankful for that tumultuous but awesome, awesome time. We've got about 30 seconds. Why don't you intro a story? And we'll come back to it.
Yeah, give us a teaser. Yeah, I would love to tell you about my friend Jose in Mexico. And I did move to Tijuana, and the head of cartel. He was the head of cartel and a story about him and his son, and how our team almost almost got in trouble, but ended up with a blessing. Well, that's an amazing story. I, when you called and told us about that, I was like, Oh, my God, he can do so many things that we've never imagined, never conceived of. And he's working all around the world.
He's just a good God to, to seek and save the lost, and to somehow in his economy, pull us into it. I'm like, you can tell us and the cartel. So we'll come back to that story in just a few minutes. But if you'd like to call in, and tell us what people group has captured your heart.
The numbers 866-348-7884. See you soon. Okay, we're back. So we heard from Bucksman about how he's called to love the world. Come on. Come on, Bucksman, working in his lumber yard, just loving the people that come across this path. And so we're in a day, we're going to come back to Avi's story about Tijuana and Jose. But we're going to just back up a little bit and just ask the question, where, why are we doing this?
Why? What would send a 22 year old across the world or across the street, for that matter, to care about people in Jesus's name? Yeah. Where does that come from?
Yeah, I'm so glad he asked that. It makes me think of Habakkuk 2 verse 14. It says the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea. And ultimately, missions, evangelism, service, all of that is not eternal. It drives us to what is eternal. And that is worship. And that's unity with Christ. And that's knowing Him and making Him known in this life so that we can, other people can know Him in the next life, and in this life. But we're driven not because miracles are cool, or because our church is great, or because reading the Bible gives us peace, even though we love all of those things. But ultimately, our mission in life is tied to the Trinity's mission. It's that the glory of God might overflow in the earth and that His glory will boil over into every person's home and life and heart that does not know Him.
Amen. Well, we see from the very early stages of the book of Genesis, how God is raising up a people to worship Him. He's working through the nation of Abraham, the family of Abraham, which becomes the nation of Israel, to bring about salvation, to bring about a Messiah. And His goal is worship. His goal is worshippers, that we would be invited into His family, we would be redeemed and restored. And you see it all through the Old Testament, but then when you get to Revelation 5, it says, John saw into heaven and he saw Jesus. And Jesus stepped up and took the scroll, and the elders and the four creatures started to worship Him, and they said, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You've made them a kingdom and priest to our God and they shall reign on the earth. So ultimately, it's about this great end gathering of all people from every nation, language and tribe gathered around the throne.
And that's His heart. So that's why we do what we do. And it takes every nation to represent the fullness of the beauty and glory of God, like it's a mosaic. And if we miss one nation, we miss a piece of it. I was joking earlier with you, my biggest pet peeve is when people come back from a missions trip and they're like, It just makes me so thankful for all the things we have.
And that's their only takeaway. I'm like, Okay, that's, that's fine. But how about seeing the glory of God and the mosaic of the nations in a way that we don't have, like there's something in each nation that has to be expressed that God's glory is within. That's beautiful.
That's beautiful. Okay, well, circle back to your story about Jose. Yeah, well, there's so many details in the story.
So I'll try to try to keep it brief. But basically, we were in the van in Mexico, we were doing counseling ministry on the border. Probably you could see the border, you could see one of the red light districts, which was the biggest in North America, right beside our little compound where families would come over and seek refuge and seek some joy. And so, um, yeah, one of these days, we got a pretty distressing call. And our one of our base directors, he was a little worried. He's like, Should we be down here? Like, he was asking one of the locals, are we safe? Like, what's going on?
Because there's a shooting nearby. And the local was like, let me tell you a story. And the story goes like, 10 years ago, our founder of the inner city ministry that we were working with, he just started to go to downtown Tijuana and play soccer with the kids in the streets.
And he would just invite kids off the streets, right. And one of these little kids that he invited off the streets was named Jose Jr. And without his knowledge, Jose Jr. was the son of Jose, the head of cartel in Tijuana. And if you know anything about Tijuana is very rough. There's a lot of inner gang turf war.
It's a very dangerous place to be. The cartel members know that Jose Jr. is playing with one of our team members. And he goes up to the head of cartel and he's like, Should we just kill all of them? And he's like, Well, maybe.
Well, no, let's just watch them for a little while and see if see what these guys are up to what's their game. And after a few months of watching us, I wasn't there this time, but several years before the the cartel decides that and specifically Jose decides that he loves the people of YWAM and he's going to protect them at all costs. And so we go 10 years without knowing that. And we had never had a car broken into. We had never had anyone hurt. We had never had anything hot wired or anything stolen, which honestly just doesn't happen.
You just don't. I had two cops pull up to me one time and imperfectly they said, Ma'am, do you know where you are? I was like, yes, I'm just getting bread. And then I went home. But it was not a safe area. But we felt really called to be there and to be in the streets. And so with with the Lord's blessing and our lack of knowledge, the cartel protected YWAM in downtown for over 10 years. And when our director found out about this, he went directly up to Jose and he said he preached the gospel to him. And Jose on his deathbed gave his life to Christ. And the cartel started holding prayer meetings.
And they're just the craziest things. And now tell us about Jose. Jose Jr. is now in his mid 20s. He's gone through three YWAM schools and he is an evangelist on the streets of Tijuana. Everyone knows his name and they know his father very well. And so the fact that he's down there, Bible thumping is just the most incredible thing. And only God could do that. I cannot overemphasize how dark of a place that is apart from him.
But the Lord has just set him as a as a burning one for the gospel. What a story. What a story. Yeah, that's those are the stories that moms stay up at night. And do a lot of those details come later. A lot of pray.
You don't have to tell all those details when you're overseas. I don't think you did till later. No, I just say speak to the role of the Holy Spirit and the things that God's doing around the world because it's not our ability.
It's not our slick programs. It's the heart of God running after the lost. Yeah, I would just like to point out who the Lord picked. He's picked 12 fishermen who were in the middle of other things and some tax collectors, some tax collectors, some controversial people. And ultimately, that's who the Holy Spirit had an anointed. He had anointed leaders. He did not pick leaders.
He picked laborers. And the Holy Spirit had given them a task and given them a person. And so I just I don't understand how we could possibly ever approach missions without the person of the Holy Spirit. He's not it. He's he. He's not Pentecostal. He's God. You know, like he doesn't belong to a denomination or a good experience or a bad experience. He is God himself as revealed through scripture and known through Christ. And without his work, the Jesus says we could do nothing.
And so it is very tempting to to trust in our own wisdom and our own ability to get things done. But asking the Holy Spirit, Lord, where are you working and how can I join you? One of those moments I remember it in in the Middle East. I said it, but careful.
I know in the Middle East one day I was walking and the Holy Spirit just really, really highlighted this. This Muslim woman walking by to our team and I and he was like, you need to go ask her if she's seen the man in white. And it was my first time in this area. I was like, I might like this is not why I'm here.
It was while there. But I was so scared. It was so awkward. I just walk up to her and I'm like, hey, you don't know me, but have you likes. Do you speak English and have you seen the man in white?
And I almost started to walk away and just all of the blood rushed out of her face. And she said, I haven't. But all of my friends have been seeing him in their dreams. How do you know this man?
Who is this man? And I was like, oh, the Holy Spirit. I've been so slow to be in missions that he's been picking up the speed and the rocks are crying out. And he's beating us to his own game. And he is preaching the gospel to those who have not heard. And so I shared the gospel with her and had the opportunity to follow up with her later. But she hasn't chosen to accept Christ that I know of.
But there's there's still time in that story. So, yeah, just asking the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, where are you working and how can I join you? Instead of trying to be a pioneer of the work that is Jesus's to begin with and Jesus's to finish. Let me ask you, along those lines, what would you say to people who are like, Avi, I've never done anything like this.
Like, what's the next step? Yeah, I would say be deeply, meaningfully connected and involved with your local church. I always say there's no magic in the 747. You're not going to get on a plane and be an evangelist overnight. If anything, you're going to get over there and feel tired and not know who to talk to. And there's going to be a language barrier over the food.
Seriously. So I would say start practicing. And remember, there was a time when I was 15 where the Lord's like, you're not going to go again unless you're an evangelist here. And so I started sharing the gospel with my friends who were playing basketball and it was awkward and great. And I've failed in that so many ways. But being a part of a local church has really carried me along and kept me going when I failed and just said no. What great advice.
I would add to that. Just pray. Yes. Ask the Lord, what do you have for me? Is there something that's never even occurred to me that you might have for me?
And help me to have an open hands, open heart. Yeah. We like to say it's not my life.
So we'll see what happens. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. We're finishing up this segment and the question is, what people group has God connected your heart to?
What people group has captured your heart? And we're here with Avi Grime. She's sharing a little bit about her story and how God has connected her heart to the nations. So Avi, we're going to circle back and kind of pick up on where are you in your life right now? What a question. Yeah. So I mentioned it briefly in the beginning. But after four years with YWAM, the Lord made it really clear that I was called back to Winston-Salem.
Just super clear. I never thought I would come back home to live, even though I loved North Carolina. It's the best state I tell every single person I meet. But yeah, I really didn't think that I would live back here. And the Lord just made it super apparent that I had an opportunity to do a two year program called the Residency Program through my church, where you're at a seminary for two years, but you're also working full time in a ministry department. And for me, that has been college ministry. And so I'm moving into missions ministry for this next and final year of my residency, which is so sad to even think about because I love the residency program.
Shameless plug right here. Anyone who can do it should pray about doing it. Don't just do it, but pray about doing it. It's been an incredible experience and just super discipleship oriented and just with some of my best friends. What's been your favorite part of the residency?
I think really for four years, I moved about every two or three months, which was so good for me because I think the Lord just made it really hard to trust in anything but him. And he knew I would. He knew I would just latch onto a place or a people or a friend. And that's not a bad thing.
But for me, it would have been idolatry in that season. And so it's been really sweet to come in and have been like, OK, Lord, you're the only one who stays. And I I know that in my heart, but he's just given me really consistent friendships and community across a one year span, which sounds so short. But to me, I'm like, wow, a year. So I've it's a record.
I know it's a record. So it's been an absolute joy to get to know people more deeply. Well, what are your thoughts about the future?
Yeah, it's not my life, so we'll see what happens. But I really have my heart set on missions and that has not wavered. And so I'm applying right now to the International Mission Board for their two year journeyman program.
They have it all over the world. You can apply to different jobs. So I'm not sure what that will look like, but I'm in the application process and very interested to learn more about the organization through the Southern Baptist connection and convention. So I'm at a Southern Baptist church. And so we have a lot of really amazing ties there to long term missionaries who are doing incredible church planting. And my heart is really set on church planting and unreached, unengaged people groups like I just wake up sweating thinking about the fact that people have never heard the gospel.
I just it's the biggest human injustice that has ever been faced in the world. Well, thank you for sharing your heart on that. We look forward to seeing what God does with your life and your life in you through you. And I it's interesting because Avi is in the middle of a residency program that I just finished last summer. So I was in the first class of the two cities residency.
There were 10 of us and I was the only one over 27. So I was very much the mom of the residency, but it was just an amazing time of personal growth. Really connected my heart to what God's doing in the world and in our city. God is doing so much in our city. We're here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and we really sense a movement of his spirit. He's drawn people to him.
My role at the church is to help with baptisms. And so I hear people's stories and they're just so compelling, like God is just saving people from every walk of life, from, you know, from one end of the spectrum to the other. And I'm starting to see people who were coming to our church and, you know, before we were connecting dots. Now we're starting it.
I don't have any dots to connect. I don't even know about this Christ, but I want to know him. And so it's just an amazing journey. And I know that that's it's not just our story. God is working all over and over the world.
And I love to say, you know, if you look around, you could be discouraged in our world. But if you keep your eyes on Christ, he is moving his kingdom exactly where he wants it to go. And so just connect yourself to his work, to his kingdom, to his heart. Lean into him and he'll show you the way. And there's just nothing better than being part of what he's doing.
Yeah. I have a question for you, Mom. So I see a lot of people, particularly after kind of becoming an empty nester, sometimes they can just become a hunker and bunker type people.
But I don't see that in you and Dad at all. And I am convinced it's because y'all's dreams for the kingdom are bigger than your memories of what that has been in your life, even though it's been really great memories. So how would you, yeah, challenge people to keep their eyes on Christ moving forward? I think Dad and I, God's just worked in our hearts over time. You know, I could see us just kicking back and, you know, having a lot of vacations.
Well, not really in this economy, but maybe tax bracket one day, trips to Greensboro. But really, I just think connecting our hearts to the local church and seeing what God's doing and realizing, you know, when you get, I'm 57. No, I'm 56. I'm not 57 yet. 56. You know, dementia's kicking in.
I don't know how old I am. 56 and you're like, you start to really process. Like my life, over half of my life is behind me and I want to leverage my life for the kingdom. And so that's been a big thought, a big goal for your dad and I that we want to use our lives in a way that honors God.
We don't want to waste the time we have. I feel like as a challenge to people our age out there, like you haven't gotten this far in life, especially if you walk with the Lord without gaining some wisdom. You may have the good stories and the bad, but you've got something to share and you've got the hope of Christ. You've walked through some dark places and God's been faithful.
And so just to allow him to use you. And I think the generations kind of miss each other. The older generation thinks, oh, I don't think they need us.
And the younger generations, like, I don't think they want us. But I've seen something very different and it's just been life giving to me. You might tell the John Piper story. He told a story at a missions conference. It's been a good many years ago, but he talked about Bob and Sue. He retired early from their jobs and they bought a boat and they drove around the Caribbean collecting shells and playing softball.
And how, you know, he called that a tragedy. And he said, when they stand before God and he's going to say, what did you do with the life I gave you? And they're going to say, here's our shell collection. And that's such a counter vision for what I want my life to be. So that's that's kind of some of our perspective.
Yeah, it makes me think of Oswald Trampers. He said we in the church make much talk of the first coming of Jesus. I mean, of the second coming of Jesus. But half of the world, over half the world has not heard of the first. And isn't that the truth? We can sit in our ivory towers and talk about Calvinism and armenism and what kind of golf. Or whatever it may be, our comforts over half the world did not know that Jesus came and that he loved them, that he died for them. And they are trying to earn their way to God, just as we once were.
And Jesus is the only God who comes down and steps down to our level and says, here's an answer. Now you can go on a journey. Every single other religion abandons their followers to start with a journey that they don't have an answer to. And it's a it's a tragic place to be. I have many friends in the New Age movement, many friends in all sorts of different religions, and I adore them.
Sweet friendships of mine. But they're on this journey and they don't know if they'll ever find an answer. And our answer is not just a generic set of principles. It's a person. It's the person of Jesus Christ. And we stand on him. We stand with him.
And he stands in us when Hebrews says when we are faithless, he is faithful. And so I anyone on this podcast, I dare you dare you to fail, dare you to try. But I think the worst thing that you could do with your life is not fail forward is to be, as Teddy Roosevelt said, with those hopeless souls that know that don't know the experience of victory or defeat. Experience defeat, experience victory, but fail forward, at least try. Put yourself out there. Try to hear the voice of God.
Try to ask him where he's working. It's so scary. And both of us can tell you we fall on our face many times and we are not the the picture of what it is to follow God. So definitely aim higher than us.
Yes. Go for more. Read Hebrews 11 and then go there. But yeah, I just am super encouraged by your life, Mom, and just the lives I see around me of the willingness to to step forward in faith and see what the Lord will do with our yes. It reminds me of Genesis 12, verses one through three, when he's talking to Abram and he says, Abram, go from your country and your country to your father's house.
Where? To a land that I will show you. He doesn't tell him the next step. He doesn't give him a plan of his life. He doesn't give him this grand call for all of eternity.
He says, I'll show you the next step if you take your first. And it's true, the Holy Spirit will not give you a life plan. If he does, then you should probably wasn't from the Holy Spirit.
Maybe not the Holy Spirit, or maybe you should pray for me and see if he'll give me a plan because he never has. But ultimately, I would just challenge you to what is the last thing the Holy Spirit put on your heart? Was it to confess a sin? Was it to go somewhere? Was it to go on a short term missions trip? Was it to apologize to your wife? Whatever it was, you unlock that next step of obedience through obeying his last and you don't need a voice for things you have a verse for. The Lord told you to go and to share the gospel. And so as you give the Lord away, he will give you more of himself.
And just know that he's your advocate and your friend. So, yeah, those are just some thoughts that come to mind. Awesome. Well, any any final word? Anything that comes to mind? That was a great final word. You still got about 30 seconds.
Jim Elliott. Let's see. How does I can't remember quite how it goes, but he says only one life which soon will pass. Only which is that which is done for Christ will last. And isn't that the truth? Our our TV shows are accomplishments. It will fade away. But only that is which is done for Christ. It will last and he will bring it to completion. Another program powered by the Truth Network.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-07-18 23:05:28 / 2024-07-18 23:21:53 / 16