More than just a Baby

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I want to welcome you to Healing Begins. My name
is Pastor Gale, and I have with.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Me this is Stephanie Butler.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
All right, we're going to talk about Christmas. Welcome to
Healing Begins. I don't know if you where you're at
while you're getting this, if you're driving down the road
or listening later by podcast, but we welcome you, and
we want you to know that we are glad that
you join us to listen to this program. And also
I want to say at the very beginning, i'd like
to hear from you. My email is share a Healing

(00:46):
Begins Radio dot com. Share at Healing Begins Radio dot com.
We'd really love to hear from you. How you like
in the program and any topics you would like us
to address. That'd be great. So growing up, I used
to love Christmas. You love Christmas, Stephanie.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
I did.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yes, we had five kids, so we all loved Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, you had five kids and we had four. And
then we'd get together with all my brothers and sisters
and we'd have an army.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
We did the same thing, the big meals, the Christmas Line.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
In the basement. We'd have a big, old long table
of food.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
I know, I'm making everybody hungry right now. And the
talking was so loud you could hardly hear each other.
But really, for us, Christmas wasn't about the gifts under
the tree as much as it was about Christ. Did
you ever do one of those Christmas programs.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Stephanie, Not as a child?

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Nope, Oh you weren't. You were one of those little
those kids in a Christmas program in front of the
tree doing something funny or smiling or yea, oh yeah,
we all did all that. We did that growing up.
One of the things I used to like, you don't
do it no more. You might get something to shoot
at you if you do this now. But we used
to do Christmas caroling where we would I thought it

(02:05):
was a surprise, but people really knew we were coming,
and we would go and sing some of the Christmas
songs like Away in the Manger or you know, just
all the different, you know Christmas songs. Do you have
any favorite Christmas songs?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, Mary, did you know? Is probably my favorite, which
is actually about Baby Jesus.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I also like, oh Holy.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Night, Yeah, I love Holy Night God.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
That's another good one. And Joy to the World the
Lord come.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
So we would do all that.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
We would then we would do Christmas caroling. We'd get
into snowball fights. We're throwing snow at each other, and
it was just really fun we were. So you gotta understand,
I grew up in Diamond Springs, Michigan. So I'm out
in the middle of nowhere, right, I'm in Nowheeresville. I mean,
I'm in the middle of cornfields and houses and in
the area that I grew up in. Because my grandma
had thirteen kids, most of the people in that area

(03:01):
were all related to each other, so we all were
like aunts and uncles and cousins, so we all know
each other. And so the church I grew up in
with seventy five percent all cousins, it was we should
have called it the Cousins Church, not the Western Church,
but the cousins and so, but that's where I grew up,
and I used to love running in the snow looking

(03:23):
up at that time. The church that, the small church
when I was young, had a steeple that went up
in the air. The thing was high in the sky, beautiful,
and the cross at the top was lit up by
a light, and the cross was bright white, see it
all over the community. It looked like we had a
cross in the sky. And then during this winter, I

(03:45):
used to remember with the big snowflakes coming down. Man,
he must have been bigger than silver dollars, big old
snowflakes coming down, and he used to like run and
run through the snow, look up at the lights and
the Battle Creek. Two, we have the Festival of Lights,
so I liked doing that, walking through the lights and
doing stuff like that. So rememb are some of my
memories growing up, how about you, sephony.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
I think my favorite one is sitting in my mom's
dining room and looking out the front picture window and
when we would have you are no one who have
those big ice storms, and then the sun is rising
and it glistens through the ice and it's melting just
a little bit, but it looks like glass on the
ends of the branches. That's probably my favorite memory. And
then just the it's warm inside but it was cold outside.

(04:30):
I loved opening all the gifts. I loved singing all
the songs. So I wasn't raised in a Christian home.
We went to church once in a while, but I
didn't actually accept Jesus's mind, Lord and Savior until I
was five, so I can't remember too being really young
and some people from the church going over with all
these bags, and there are white bags, and we could
see the gifts through the bag, so all of us

(04:51):
kids would get super excited. We knew we were going
to have a good Christmas that year. So for me,
those are some of the really special memories.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, and then we would also have our special Christmas
movies we would watch that we would have at the house.
Not when I was young, because when I was really young,
when I was really young, my dad threw the TV
out the door, so we didn't have a TV when
I was really young. But when I got older and
got married, we had our own favorite Christmas movies. We

(05:18):
would watch everything like that.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Today I called I entitled this more than just a
baby because a lot of people believe in Jesus. Some
say that he was a good man, some say he
was a prophet, some say this, some say that, But
we know Jesus to be God who came in the flesh.
So John one fourteen says the Word became flesh and

(05:41):
made his dwelling among us. And then John one one
in the beginning was the Word, and the word was God,
and the word was with God. And we know the
word to be Jesus Christ. You want to read anyday
on ninety six.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, it says for to us a child is born,
for to us a son is given.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
And the government shall be upon his shoulders. He shall
be wonderful counselor mighty God, everlasting Father, and the Prince
of peace.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Because right now, many times during the Christmas season, there
might be a lot of people that don't have peace.
I have friends too, they hardly have no family. I
have one friend, he has no family. He has his
brother and that's it. And so a lot of people
don't have the proper support system during the Christmas season.

(06:30):
You want to be aware of that. If you have
friends that don't have a support system, you might bring
them something over for Christmas, or maybe even give them
a gift, do something out of the ordinary. Give him
a gift, or bring him a meal, do something, or
invite him over to your house. You know. And the
thing that I pray for you if the holidays are

(06:51):
the worst time for you, there's a lot of people
like that, or they say, man I am not looking
forward to Christmas. Well, I pray that the Christmas would
bring you the peace you need during your Christmas holiday,
a Christmas season, even though maybe maybe sometimes people have
had bad experiences, or there was a trauma that happened

(07:13):
at Christmas, or they lost the loved one. Those are
many dynamics that affect the Christmas season. And I pray
right now for you that you would have peace on Christmas,
that God would wrap his loving arms around you and
give you peace and strength during the Christmas season when

(07:35):
you can't don't think you can go another mile, or if
you're out there and you're feeling really depressed, I pray
that God would lift the depression off you. I don't
know why I'm going in that direction, but I just
feel lad to talk about that for a minute, because
that's the reality of the holidays. That's the reality of Christmas.
That's the reality because people find themselves alone, they find

(07:56):
themselves in situations they never thought they would be and
here comes Christmas right a time when everybody is with
their families. But it kind of reminds me of was
it the home Alone movie? The one of the first
home alone movie?

Speaker 2 (08:12):
The kid got that's my sister's favorite movie.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
The Guy with a Shovel. He was in a relation.
He wanted to know his granddaughter and his son, but
they had been they had not been close. And so
I remember in the mid no No, that.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
This is Christmas in home alone, the neighbor home alone.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
And so he was watching The Boy, the boy, but
he was watching and he knew his relationship with his
granddaughter wasn't good. And in the end it got patched up.
So maybe there's some of you out there, and Christmas
is rough because there's a family relationship that is strained.

(08:55):
I prayed that despite that, God would give you a
good Christmas, that He would come in the middle of
strained relationships and bring healing and help and strength to
you and your hour of deed.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Absolutely absolutely, and I just pray that you will wash
over you with his comfort, that you would grant you
the grace to see that there is hope in your
future and that He has good, good plans for you.
We can't change the past, but God can heal our
hearts from what happened, and He can give us a
good future with a good expected end because in His

(09:31):
presence is fullness of joy. So let him love you
this year, let him minister to you, let him wrap
his arms of comfort around you and make you amen.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Amen. It's so important to you to know you're not alone. Yeah,
I mean, you're not alone. And I think what's going
on in the world today. Many people there, they're not
being paid on the jobs, they're having a hard time.
And maybe you're in Christmas season and you don't have
money for gifts. Well, God is with you. God's to
help you, and I pray that God would provide for

(10:03):
your every need. So you want to read Philippians two
six through seven.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, I do. That says being in very nature God,
he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature
of a servant. That's an excerpt of it, not the
full context.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Well, what's great about Jesus He left heaven to come
to earth, which blows my mind. But he did it.
He did it so that we could know him, we
could be restored to the Father. So really, Christmas. We
know that Christ wasn't born in December, but we celebrate
Christmas because it's the season that we do. We don't

(10:44):
it's not about the tree, it's not about the gifts.
It's about the savior of the world that came so
we could have eternal life. It's about the greatest gift
ever given, you know, John three point sixteen. For God
so loved the world that he gave as one and
only son, that whatsoever believe it on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Now, you might not have a

(11:07):
lot of gifts, but you can have the greatest gift.
And that's Jesus in your heart during this season, and
he can fail you with his peace. And so if
you're out there listening, I pray that you would receive
the greatest gift. And maybe you've walked away from God,
maybe you've turned your back on him. Well, you know what,
this is a good day to invite him to come
back in. Say Jesus, I've been away. I've walked away

(11:29):
from you. I asked you to forgive me my sins.
Come into my heart, be my savior, you know.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
So he's walking with you.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
You know. The first thing I think about is how
God became flesh. And that's what Jesus did. He became flesh.
He became flesh born of a baby so that we
could know Jesus Christ. A Christmas, we celebrate that God
stepped into our world, bridging the gap between heaven and earth.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Man, I lovebsolutely, absolutely, and I just don't know why
I'm seeing someone's face while you're saying all of that,
and just feel like I need to say. Maybe you're thinking, well,
I haven't lived a good life, or well I haven't
done enough good things. You know, Jesus couldn't love me,
But the Scripture tells us that his blood is enough,
and his blood speaks a better word, and that if

(12:18):
you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth
that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved. There's
no sin too dark, and no thing too far gone,
no person too far gone that he cannot save you.
The right arm of the Lord is not too short
to save you as well.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Amen. Amen, not too short. And you know the interesting
thing you talk about being good enough. None of us
can get to Heaven by being good.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Because we will never meet the standard. We could never
meet God's standard, and that's why Jesus came exactly because
all the Bible says in Romans three twenty three, we
all fall short of the glory of God. But when
when Jesus came and died on that Austin Roseman dead.
He made the way for us to have eternal life,
and he offered it to us as a free gift

(13:06):
to all who received him, to all that called on
his name, to everybody. I don't know why I'm seeing this,
but I'm just going to share this. In my younger years,
I did jail ministry, and so we would walk on
the catwalk and talk to the guys in jail. And
there was this one particular man. He was in the
county jail because they were trying to keep him safe.

(13:27):
He had murdered several people. I don't know everything he did.
I remember walking in front of his cell and talking
to him, and he came up to the bars to
talk to me, but his eyes were like ice cold,
and he said to me, I don't want your God.
And wow, he was really serious about that. But what

(13:48):
he didn't realize that if he would turn and call
him the name of the Lord and he really meant it,
God would receive him, He could find salvation. He might
have to have the consequences for what he did and
be in prison and all this stuff, But if he
would only turn, because it's not about this life, It's
about eternity. We're going to live forever. So Christmas time.

(14:12):
You know, when Jesus stepped into this world, he made
sure that we could be with him in eternity.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Ma'am. You said that, and then I heard it like
a follow up to that. I could almost see someone
sitting there listening to the show and saying the same thing.
I don't want your God. I would just encourage you.
When did you start feeling that way? Go back to
the place that that started. What was going on then?
What was happening to you? Then? What did happen that

(14:42):
was completely unexpected? Because God wants to heal that place
in you too.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
You know so many times people throw the baby out
with the bathwater. Let me explain what I mean. You know,
I was talking to someone just the other day. They said, no, no,
you know I had bad experiences with cheer, and I
remember talking to the person saying, well, don't let a
bad experience stop you from knowing Jesus. Because church is

(15:08):
made up of people, and so you will have negative
experiences at times at church. But you're not at church
for people. You're at church to learn about the Lord
and it's all about having a relationship with Jesus. And
I really believe on Christmas and then the Christmas season,
Satan would love to do nothing more then turn people

(15:30):
away from Jesus. The very reason he came. The gift
that keeps on given is Jesus, you know. And so
you know, you may have had some bad experiences, but
turn back to the Lord because he loves you. And
by the way, if you're angry, he knows you're angry.
He ain't shaken by.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
You being angry.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
And turn back to him and he will receive you
with open arms. He wants to actually heal you from
the bad experiences.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Absolutely, And I think so many times we attribute things
to God that are not something he did right. Correct
in this world we will have trouble. It says, the
enemy comes to kill, to steal, to destroy. So those
horrible things, those things that can be so difficult to
wrap our minds around, the death, an untimely death, or

(16:18):
a murder, or the seemingly evil circumstance that occurred. That's
the enemy of your soul trying to keep you from God,
who is love, and he wants so desperately to get
his love to you that he sent his very essence,
his son himself, in the form of a baby, to
live a life just like you, to endure all the
things you had to endure. It says he was tempted

(16:40):
in every way, and yet was without sin. That means
that all the pains came against him that came against us. Right,
He was tempted not forgive. He was tempted to be angry,
he was tempted to do things just like we are,
but he didn't sin. So God wants to work things
together for good for those of us that love him.
And if you ask him right now and you say,

(17:00):
you know what, God, if you're real, show me I
want to know the truth, he will. He'll begin to
make himself very real to you.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
You might say, well, this is a funny Christmas message. Well,
when Stephanie and I do a message, we flow with
the Holy Spirit. We're gonna talk about whatever the Lord
brings into our minds as we're flowing. Yes, we have
an outline all in front of us, neatly prepared, but
we're not going by the outline. We're going by his
outline and with the Holy Ghost agenda. So the Holy

(17:29):
Ghost agenda is you say it's me. So in other words,
we know when we're talking, we're talking to one person.
You right now, either you're listening through your headsets, or
you're driving your car down the road, or you're sitting
in your house, or it's one am in the morning
and you're up listening. But God wants you to know,

(17:51):
number one, that you're important, that you matter, and that
He loves you.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
That's probably he sees.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
A message you need to hear. Ristmas. Here's a good
Christmas song for you. Ready, which one? Jesus loves me?
This I know, for the Bible tells me so little
ones to him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes,
Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.

(18:18):
The Bible tells.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Me, so I love That's one of my favorite songs.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Too, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible
tells me so little ones to him be long, they
are weak, but he is strong. I like that.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
No, I know.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
No, don't shut the radio off because we sang, you know,
come on the radio one. So I just we just
want to say, have a great Christmas. We got a
couple more minutes left. I'm gonna have Stephanie pray for
a minute, and and we just want you to have
a great Christmas. We want you to know that you're loved,
you matter, and you're important. Go ahead, loved up with prayer, Stephanie.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Father God, we just thank you for whoever is listening
out there today, for this one individual specifically that you're
speaking to. But we ask that you would reveal yourself
to them in a greater way, that you would open
their spiritual eyes and ears and heart and emotions in
their mind to receive you. To know that they are loved,
to know that you formed them in their mother's room

(19:22):
before the foundations of the world, and have very good
plans to prosper them and not to harm them. I
asked that this Christmas you would begin to heal the
places in them that are wounded, that maybe were wounded
in a way that they feel are unfixable. I ask
that you would reveal yourself as the fixer of all things,

(19:42):
the healer of all things, the God who is greater
than anything that's come against them, do a Christmas miracle
on their behalf this season, so that they would know
that they know that they know you see them, you
love them, and you care about them things that they need.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
In Jesus nap Lord, I thank you that as Stephanie
was praying, I was reminded of the song Away in
the Manger, Away in the manger, no place for a bed.
The Little Lord Jesus laid down his sweetheart. The stars
in the sky look down where he lay, the Little
Lord Jesus asleep in the hay. And I pray right

(20:24):
now for you today that there would be a peace
that surpasses all understanding, that would go with the sound
of my voice and touch everybody that is listening. I
pray that God would impart under you peace that surpasses
all understanding. I prayed, like the little sweet Jesus laid
down and slept, that you could sleep to I pray
that every burden that you're carrying, everything that you've been

(20:45):
working through, every heartache, everything that's pierced your heart, you
would find healing coming into you right now through the
power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that the ministering
angels would be released to go for it, the minister
to the heirs of salvation. I pray for those that
feel suicidal today that you would break that power and
just like the light shone in the darkness, just like

(21:07):
the light shone on that stable where baby Jesus was laying.
I pray that the light of Jesus would pierce the
darkness where you're at and shine upon you and rest
upon you right where you're at. And I pray that
as you would look up into the night sky, you
would just see the stars and know that God has

(21:27):
numbered the stars all by name, and He knows your
name too.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Lord.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
I thank you that you are with us. You are
a manual God with us, revealed to us. Lord, I
pray that you would reveal yourself to those that are
listening in Jesus' name. Any other thoughts with you?

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Stefan a couple more minutes, Amen and Amen. That's so, so,
so beautiful. I don't know why I keep hearing that song. Mary,
did you know? And I think there's in some ways
maybe holy spirits. Maybe listen to that one. Look it
up and listen to it. It's so beautiful. But it's
this idea that the mother of the Son of God
is pondering the realities of who he is. In so

(22:12):
many ways, we're like Mary's right like when we first
get saved. Do we really know who he is? Do
we know that he will walk on water? Do we
know that he can heal our diseases? Do we know
that he can heal all our pain of our past
or all of our trauma? Do we know that he
has really good plans for our future? Do we know?
And I guess I just want to encourage him and say,
there's so many wonderful things God wants to reveal about

(22:34):
himself to you. And do you know do you know
who he is? Do you know how much he loves you?
Because he does?

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Oh? Man, Emma. Now I want to give you some resources,
some places you can go to learn more about Spiritual Care.
And you're going to find these resources in the comment
sections of the podcast later. But you can look up
the Healing Begins Spiritual Care podcast channel on Google's Spot,
by Amazon anywhere you get your podcasts. We have like

(23:03):
one hundred and sixty some podcast just a couple there
you can listen to. You can go to www. Dot
ss and Sam Season Cat Season Cat Healing Begins dot com.
That's our media website that you can go to and
watch testimonies, listen to podcasts and do all these things.

(23:24):
And so we're closing out right now. We're so glad
you joined us. We want to hear from you, share it.
Healing Begins Radio dot Com. Absolutely, But may the Lord
bless you and keep people you cause us face to
shine upon.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
You and lift up your countenance and.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Give you piece. And may you have a very merry Christmasstmas,
and may the piece of Christ be in your Christmas
and meet you where you're at as you go about
this Christmas day. In the name of Jesus, Bye bye.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
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feeling stuck in life? At Spiritual Care Consultants, we believe
that healing is possible because we've seen it happen every day.
We offer one on one spiritual care for both adults
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(24:24):
or simply need someone to talk to, our trained consultants
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We combine biblical wisdom, compassionate listening, improven spiritual care tools
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visit www.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Dot SCC healingbegins dot com and if you have any
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Speaker 3 (24:56):
You're not alone. Healing Begins here