April 30, 2025 • 32 mins
In this Beyond Sunday episode, we dive into the second message of the Where’s God? series, tackling the tough question: “Where is God in my pain?” Through honest conversation and personal stories, we explore how seasons of suffering can deepen our faith, and how God remains present—even when He feels far away.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we kind of dive alittle bit deeper into what
we're taking Beyond Sunday fromour message series.
My name is Dena Newsome and Ihave some amazing guests with me
here today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hi, I'm Julie Easley, Executive Director at King of
Kings.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Peter Bay Campus.
Director for King of KingsNorthwest.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Thank you guys so much for being here today.
It's great to be here.
Yeah, so we are looking at theweek two message of our Where's
God series, and I was distractedin this message because one of
the things Greg talked about wasgetting to eat his own choice
of breakfast cereals.
So, my question to start us outtoday is what's your favorite
(00:48):
breakfast cereal?
Like maybe from when you were akid.
What was your favorite?
What's your favorite now?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, so my favorite breakfast cereal has always been
, and will always be, peanutbutter, captain Crunch.
So good, how long has that beenaround?
I think a long time.
I mean as long as I canremember.
But look, my mom, didn't?
She let us eat sugar cereal fora little bit and then she
(01:18):
discovered like that's nothealthy, and then we went all to
healthy.
So I only had a couple gloriousyears in the sun with sugar
cereal.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What did you have to eat?
Was it like grape nuts?
It was like Raisin Bran.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I mean and I don't even know if that's that
great, honestly, now, witheverything that they're saying,
probably no cereal's good, butit probably was better than like
Boo Berry Do you remember those?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, so good, the only seasonal cereal, right?
Yeah, so for me we had sugarycereals, but we had off-brand.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yep, the knockoffs yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It would be like Coco Dots.
Rainbows and stars or whatever,and I mean we liked those, I
think, as a kid, though one ofmy favorites and this is really
gross now is we would justcrunch up graham crackers and
add milk.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Actually, that sounds pretty yummy, honestly, just
get after it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You just got to get going because it gets.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I would do some mush in like five seconds.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, it mushifies quick.
Now I would say number one,Cocoa Pebbles, Number two,
Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Numberthree, Crave I don't know, Crave
yeah it's like a crunchyoutside with like chocolatey
inside.
Oh my, it's fantastic.
(02:38):
But there's a lot of greatcereals out there.
I'd love to.
If anyone ever wants to talk tome about cereals, let's do this
.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, game on.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
How about you, Dina?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
There are always Cocoa Pebbles in my house
because it's my son's favorite.
He will go through a whole box,sometimes in an evening.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, my gosh, I will get groceries and I'll wake up
the next day.
Yeah, the joys of being what 18?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I would call a popcorn bowl, you know, like
just ginormous, where I serve awhole pasta salad, it's got to
be like 500 grams of sugar.
He's a grown boy, but myfavorite always has been Life
cereal which is like not fancynot fantastic what?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
does it look like?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's just little squares.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Oh, like the Czechs ones.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, it looks like that, but they're flatter.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
They are, and they're sweeter.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, there's cinnamon life, but I don't like
the cinnamon life.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Just the regular Only life original.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Got to be the classic that and honeycomb.
I do like honeycomb.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh, that's a blast from the past, yep.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
That also gets mushy real quick.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, it's either like going to destroy your mouth
or mushy real quick, rightRight.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Captain Crunch is a destroyer.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
When I was in college , I lived in a dorm room where
you just had the sink.
Like you know, it was communalbathrooms, and then you just had
a sink in your room to washyour hands and brush your teeth
with, and so I didn't neverwanted to do dishes, because
that was you know where we could.
So cereal when I was in college, I would do frosted flakes,
because that was one that bothmy roommate and I would like,
and then we'd buy just our ownindividual milk cartons and then
(04:17):
you'd take a handful of it,shove it in your mouth and take
a drink of milk, so you didn'thave to have a bowl.
That's clever.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Something you can take away right.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Tip for you today, right here on.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Beyond Sunday.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's good, that's good.
So you know that sufferingthrough dishes is not the same
kind of suffering that Greg wastalking about this week, but he
was talking about where is Godin our pain and is God working
in the midst of our pain?
What was you guys' biggesttakeaways this week?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think for me it's just right.
I think when life is painful,we have a tendency to shut God
out because we don't feel likehe can be trusted, or maybe that
he's not listening.
And Greg's just encouragementto stay faithful and to even
turn to God more during thosetimes just really was a great
(05:11):
reminder for me.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, I think that he talked about how we often think
if we get to this point, it'sgoing to be easier Once my kids
are no longer toddlers, oncethey're in middle school, once
they're in high school, oncethey're in college.
But it never gets easier.
Life, this side of heaven'salways hard.
And so now, what do we do aboutthat?
And that's a good reminder,cause for me, I've got an 11,
(05:39):
nine and seven year old and daysare still just so long and I'm
like, how long are they going tobe this difficult?
But to know like the next phasewill come with its own
challenges.
So find my reliance in God now,because it's not like
everything's going to be honkydory down the road, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So Pastor Greg started talking about the 1930s
dust bowl, talking aboutsettling the dust and stuff, but
this was completely new to me.
I knew zippo zilch about theDust Bowl.
What did you guys know aboutthe Dust Bowl, if anything,
before this coming in?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, I'm a book nerd .
I actually read a whole bookabout the Dust Bowl and it was
well.
First of all, I watched aspecial on PBS all about the
Dust Bowl.
You know who's that guy whodoes all those amazing PBS
different.
What's his name?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I couldn't tell you at all.
Yeah, anyway, morgan Freeman.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, he, ken Burns.
Ken Burns, yes, oh, good oldKenny B, yep, yep.
Anyway, I watched a specialabout it and then I was like I
want to learn more.
So I got a book and it's called, and I'm going to highly
recommend it.
It was an award-winning book.
It's called the Worst Hard Timeand Timothy Egan, e-g-a-n,
wrote it the Worst Hard Time.
So if you want to find out moreabout the Dust Bowl, fantastic
(06:55):
book man.
What a time of suffering thatwas for a huge portion of the
United States.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It.
It was stunning.
Yeah yeah, I knew nothing aboutit.
It sounds terrible.
I'm like why did this happen?
Timothy Egan will probably tellme.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It was bad farming practices.
Basically all of the land washeld down by certain native
plants and when they plowed thatup for farmland, everything
that was holding that dirt down,and then there was a drought
and then the dust was.
I mean, it was dust and dirteverywhere, but basically they
wrecked the ecosystem of thatparticular place.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So where did this all happen?
Where was the Dust Bowl?
It wasn't nationwide.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Oh, it was pretty much the you know kind of the
Midwest Oklahoma, nebraska, kindof that whole general area
Kansas yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So entire states were just engulfed in dust.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Maybe not entire states you know, I read this a
while ago so I'm not totallysure but I mean huge portions of
, yeah, kind of the Midwest-isharea.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
How long did this?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
last Years Years, I mean, people died from it and
that's what led to a lot ofpeople like the Grapes of Wrath.
Have you ever you know thatbook where they just traveled
from kind of this area whereeverything was so bad, out to
California?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So it led to a lot of people just moving away because
they were like I can't livehere anymore, so prior to that
it was.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
There were, there were more people, or there are
bigger cities here in theMidwest, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was still mostly farming communities.
I think, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean, as people were starting to move across the
West, they were like, oh, lookat all this big empty land I can
farm.
Let me just plow all this stuffup.
Oh, this isn't working out sogreat.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Fascinating.
Yeah, yeah, you can tell myknowledge on this.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's okay.
I was in the same boat.
Yeah, it sounded to me like aspeople were talking about it on
Sunday morning around.
I was like this is like one ofthe plagues, Like the dust
plague, it totally was.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
It does sound like one yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Just shredded everything.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, who knew?
Compared to the other plagueslike how bad would you make the
dust bowl?
The other ones lasted shorter.
I was going to say the otherones lasted shorter.
I was going to say none.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Of them lasted for years and years.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So would you say this was the worst of all the
plagues compared to the others?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, not killing your oldest child.
I mean that would be probablythe top topic for most people.
But yeah, dust Bowl would be upthere for me.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
All right, okay, so death of the firstborn, then
Dust Bowl.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I'll go with the Juliees of
that.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
You heard it here.
Guys, we're just putting outthese nuggets today, little
nuggets of knowledge, all right.
So when we talk about suffering, job is the biblical character
that comes up.
It's everybody's token, youknow.
Oh, job went through so muchsuffering and he did.
(09:48):
Don't get me wrong, but PastorGreg really referred to like in
life we're going to have our Jobmoments and it's not all the
time, but we're going to gothrough those times where we
really are down in a valley.
It may not last years, but howdo you both deal with your Job?
Moments in life Like what aresome go-to reliefs for you?
(10:10):
Where do you find yourself inscripture?
What's your process?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, I think my instinct and this may surprise
people because I'm a real peopleperson but my instinct when I'm
in a Job moment is to avoidpeople and just kind of, you
know, get away from everybodyand just kind of wallow in
self-pity.
And so I've had to learn whatare the right ways in Joe
(10:40):
moments to talk to the rightpeople.
For me, oftentimes it's a fewweeks too late, but then I'll go
and talk to a counselor, whichalmost always helps within the
first or second visit, and sothat's one big thing.
Another big thing in my Joemoments is what out of my life
has just gotten out of whack,and it because usually when I'm
(11:03):
in a calamity of some sort, myphysical activity or my what I
eat or those things get out ofwhack as well.
So it's diagnosing that andthen getting back to being
physically active and eating theright things and sleeping, um,
taking things off my schedule soI am not so out of it.
(11:23):
And then, finally, the mostimportant thing for me is like
who does god say I am,regardless of what I'm currently
going through?
So the promises of God and myidentity in him.
And, julie, you've talked aboutsonship a lot.
That's really important to methat it's my.
My worth is not dependent on mefiguring out this project or
(11:43):
the people around me liking me.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, yeah, and kind of related to sonship.
What I really try to do when I'mgoing through something
challenging is trying toremember, like what God's
posture is or his face is, ashe's looking at me.
So often when I'm struggling, Ipicture God is either he's got
his back towards me or he'sdistracted with something else,
or that he's just very neutral,like well, maybe I'll help you
(12:08):
with this or maybe I won't,which is all such a wrong
picture, but I have to remindmyself of that.
Like he's looking at me, like Ilook at my kids and there were
things right when they weregrowing up that I had to do or
choices that I had to make ontheir behalf for their good that
(12:28):
they weren't pleased about.
But it was never with a face oflike I don't really care how
it's going to work out for you.
Like God's super invested inyou.
He's carefully.
I love the message and I don'tknow what the verse is, but it
says that God watches over youvery carefully and so just that
(12:48):
sense of, even as I'm goingthrough this, god is watching me
very carefully and not withoutlove.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, I consistently find myself in the Psalms when
I'm just feeling those jokemoments in life and it can be
about any of them.
Really there's something tofind, there's joy, there's
suffering in there.
There's, you know, a lot ofDavid asking why God in the
Psalms.
But I just always find they'reshort enough for me to get
(13:18):
through in a time when I mightbe distracted by whatever it is.
But I just find some solacethere, a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Like in the lamenting too.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, Just because I think you feel less alone, I
feel less alone.
I feel less alone here.
Even this writer of this bookthat I treasure and cherish and
is the word of God you know whatI mean Like even the human
writers went through suffering.
And so it's just like I don'tknow, I feel less isolated and
less yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I mean if the man after God's own heart, david, is
crying out and saying why haveyou left me when?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
are you?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Lord, years ago we did a Lenten series on lament
called the.
What was it?
The something note, the bluenote or I don't know.
But we had a pastor at the time.
We talked about like whenyou're three-year-old's really
upset and they're banging onyour chest and you can take it
because they're a three-year-old, like that's how it is with God
(14:16):
, like we can bang on his chestand say why he can take it.
Yeah, and that was a goodreminder speaks to what you're
talking about.
But Julie, casting all youranxieties on him because he
cares for you, that idea thatlike he's watching over you, he
sees you and he cares as aparent does.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I actually think the message version is of that verse
.
I'm almost positive if you'lldouble check, I don't.
I'm yeah, but just thinkingabout like just bringing your
honest questions and unhappinessto God.
Like I was listening to apodcast once where they said
just invite Jesus into thepainful, like verbally.
(15:01):
Jesus, I invite you into my bigdisappointment about this.
I'm inviting you into myfrustration around this.
I don't feel like you'relistening to me right now, jesus
.
I'm inviting you into even mylack of trust right now.
Please meet me here.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I said this last week when Kate and I were talking
about the first message in theseries, talking about suffering,
and I feel like our God is asit-in-the-mud God.
And so he's not always going torescue us, because His timing is
not our timing and he has abigger picture of whatever the
(15:39):
suffering or the pain that we'regoing through is, but he's
going to be right there with uswhile we're sitting in the mud
and that, to me, is a strongimage that I use when I feel
like I'm stuck in the muck.
He's with me, yeah, yeah, andthat's okay, it's good.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, it's also a humbling image because, like
when you think of an animalstuck in the mud, what do you
think of?
Like a donkey or a donkey, andlike neither of those are very
glorious animals.
And there we are and God islike yeah, but I'm still with
you.
And like when we talk about God, like Jesus was there for the
(16:17):
tax collectors and the sinnersand we should care for them too.
It's like no.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You are that person.
I am that person.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I'm the tax collector , I'm the sinner, I'm the pig,
I'm the donkey, and yet Jesus,the healer of the whole world,
sits with me and like that's avery beautiful picture, love it.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The other thing that I really turn to in my job
moments is really trying tocheck my heart, where my heart
is, how I'm reflecting to otherpeople.
You talk about, peter, howmaybe you pull away, you know,
avoid people.
I think there's a tendency.
There's the phrase hurt people,hurt people.
When I'm hurting, I tend tomaybe have a shorter temper or
shorter patience, or I'm quickerwith my words of anger and
(17:03):
stuff, and so that for me is apoint where, okay, when I feel
like maybe I can't do anythingabout whatever my pain is, I can
do something about how I'minteracting with those around me
, and so that's a focus pointfor me.
I'm like, okay, what kind ofthing am I going to do for
somebody else?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
today.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And it makes me feel better.
It doesn't fix things, but itdoes make me feel better and it
makes me feel closer to God,because I know that that person
is a child of God too.
I don't know what sufferingthey're going through that
they're not talking about, buthey, we're in this together and
I'm going to do something nicefor you today.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I love that.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Okay, the mind-blowing fact that I found
from Greg'son was dinner time in1923.
So long Was 90 minutes.
Now I will say, growing up, ourdinner was probably our family
dinners were maybe 45.
We would sit at the table andeverybody talk about their day.
2023, 12 minutes what?
(18:06):
Do you guys?
Is that true for your ownfamilies?
Well, I mean, I've beenemptying nests right now.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, I mean we were pretty.
I would say that we probablywere sitting down for maybe a
half an hour or so, because itwas just, you know, obviously
not.
Obviously we would open withprayer and then serve the food
and talk, and then afterwards wewould usually have a devotional
time together.
So that did stretch it out alittle bit more.
But man, when you've got hungrykids at the table, they can
wolf that food down real fast.
I was amazed, like I wouldspend an hour making something
(18:42):
on a special night and it wouldbe gone and like right, it's how
Thanksgiving is too.
It's like what did I do allthis for?
But yeah, so I would sayprobably half hour.
It's different now, shorter.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah, I mean it all depends.
It all depends on the moods andwhatever, but I do think in
general we have a tendency tooverschedule our time more now
than we ever had in my lifetime.
I see it with my family, I seeit with the families around me.
There's dance lessons andgymnastics and basketball and
(19:14):
everything going on that youhave to run and get your kids to
.
There's a great study in thebook called Collapse of
Parenting where it shows thatfor every day of the week that
you're able to sit down,regardless of if it's 20 minutes
or 40 minutes, 90 seems crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
So long in the world I don't even want to do that
with other adults yeah, I, Ithink that needs to get fact
checked.
Yeah, that's ridiculouseverybody who's doing that is
dead now, so right when was whenwas this?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
was this before there was like natural light, 1923.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Okay, yeah, nobody can verify this.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, for real, got you, Greg.
But yeah, I think With theoverscheduling of ourselves,
it's tough.
What I was saying aboutcollapse of parenting is, for
every day of the week that afamily eats together, it's
actually correlational with thatkid, with how often they get in
trouble with, like, the futureof healthy eating for them, and
(20:16):
so, like, with every meal itgoes up by a certain percentile,
wow.
And so that time together withthe family equates.
It's not just like, yeah, youget to be around the family more
.
No, it's also you get to seemealtime as something that
builds community.
You see your parents who carefor you.
You see that when you're withpeople who love you eating
(20:40):
together, it's worth it and youdesire to have community, and so
it's bigger than I think.
The amount of time isinteresting, right, but the
value of still doing that isreally high.
I was just out of work orworking out of state last week
(21:02):
preparing for the youthgathering in New Orleans, and on
the way back I just happened tobe in a layover with the two of
my team members and we went toa Mexican restaurant in
Charlotte Airport and just hungout for like two hours.
That's so fun.
Yeah, it was crazy.
I was like after like 40minutes I was like feeling so
(21:23):
antsy oh cause I'm like I don'tnormally get to do that but then
as we sat in it, it was like wecould have been there forever.
Yes, so it was really wonderfuland I guess that would have
brought the average up.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yes, there you go.
You're making it up for all ofus here.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
There you go, so in the 1920s, there were some
people who just did it a longtime.
That's probably what it was.
They never got up from thetable like 12 hours a day that's
insane.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They were tired and worn out Pre-dust bowl they were
.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yep.
So one of the things that Iwrote down that Greg said that
spoke to me was that pain wasn'tthe end of the story.
Purpose begins to rise out ofit.
Do you have any thoughts onthat?
Pain wasn't the end of thestory.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Purpose begins to rise out of it.
Well, you think about any timethat you are experiencing pain
or failure, loss, and oftentimesout of that can come some of
your most purposeful ambitions.
I met a young gal this lastweek who had a miscarriage and
(22:39):
is with her first child, and itwas unbelievably painful.
But out of that she's begansomething where she I forget
what it was, but she createsthese pieces and then gives them
away to women who have gonethrough this and has made
countless connections with womenin their pain.
(23:00):
And so in that tremendous painand loss was born passion and an
opportunity to help thosearound her.
And I see that in myself aswell, although in the moment I
don't see it, but afterwardsit's not that God's causing that
(23:20):
moment, but he doesn't leave us.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, I think about like just what my ultimate
purpose is, and my ultimatepurpose is to live in
relationship with my father ashis daughter.
And sometimes the pain of lifedrives me back to that original
purpose, back to my relationshipwith God and just saying, lord,
these plans of mine or the waysthat I thought things were
(23:49):
going to work out aren't who amI to you.
And whenever I come to Him withthat question, I can see it in
His Word and I also, justbecause I know His heart.
His answer is you're a belovedchild of mine, aside from
anything that you do or howthings worked out for you, and
(24:11):
so it's just coming home to thattrue purpose that I have.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, that's good.
So, as the series Where's God,we're're asking where is God in
all of this?
One of the things that PastorGreg referenced was asking
where's God isn't a lack offaith, it's the beginning of
deeper faith.
Does that strike you, make youthink of anything?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
How does that resonate with?
Speaker 1 (24:36):
you.
I just that was a catch for me,like because I think as I have
become a more mature Christian,I do realize where God is all
the time with me, you know, andhow I can turn to him, access
him, how he helps me througheverything.
(24:57):
But it is a question when Istart doubting, like my initial
instinct is that does show alack of faith, you know.
But like Greg said, it's thebeginning of a deeper faith.
Is that just a questioning?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
yeah, those things so we have like a bunch of trees
that we plant in our backyardand, um, if those trees were
always in a greenhouse withperfect conditions and just the
right amount of sun and no windblowing on them whatsoever, they
may be okay, but they aren'tgoing to be strong trees.
(25:36):
If I look out now at those babytrees out there that are
getting buffeted by the wind,actually their root system is
developing more and more.
I mean, the trees have beenoutside for a long time, are
pretty strong, and I think about.
You know, god is trying todevelop me into a person of
stronger faith, someone whoknows him more, someone who can
(26:00):
endure through tough times andstill have faith.
And so I just think, yeah, Imean this is a deepening process
for all of us.
As you go through life, I mean,you see somebody who's still got
faith when they're 80.
They're a remarkably differentperson than they were at 20.
(26:20):
Because God has shaped them andformed them, through that
pressing and those challenges,got faith when they're 80,
they're a remarkably differentperson than they were at 20.
Because God has shaped them andformed them through that
pressing and those challengesand they're a more beautiful
person they are.
So that's just God's way withus and we have a choice.
Are we either going to say,yeah, I want to go through that
with you and become changed, oram I going to say no, I don't
(26:45):
want to do it, and we'll be theworst for it if we say no.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah, I think about Paul pre-conversion.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Paul is like the man at his job.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
He's on fast track to be high priest like the main
dude and just crushing it.
Like everywhere Paul goes,people is like they're like
that's the guy he's so good athis job and uh, and Paul's just
like bulldozing througheverybody and murdering
Christians and believing he'sdoing the right thing.
And then God's like knock itoff Paul and his life has
(27:19):
changed.
And then when he's writing, hesays like he has this huge
realization of the struggle thathe's in because prior to his
conversion, he's like I'm good,I know what I'm doing, I'm on
the straight and narrow.
And then, after he realizes, oh, the law that I thought I was
committing nearly perfectly isactually condemning me entirely
(27:44):
and the things I want to do Idon't do, and the things I don't
want to do I keep on doing.
And the struggle likeunderstanding that we actually
have a struggle is huge.
Like stop living in denial thateverything is good to go.
I mean, there's some, there'ssome value to that.
Thessalonians like simple lifefor sure, but not at the denial
(28:06):
of I've got nothing wrong withme or everything's good to go.
You know, acknowledging thestruggle of our own walk and
sinful nature is exactly what weneed so that we can realize,
the only thing that can save usis to be dead and, and
(28:27):
ultimately, I hope that deathfor each person around me
happens in the Galatians way ofI've been crucified with Christ
and therefore I no longer live,but Christ lives in me.
Before the temporal.
The death here on earth, yeah,that's good.
That's good.
I really like the tree image.
Death here on earth, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
That's good.
That's good.
I really like the tree image.
That's really good.
Dropping some truth bombs here,guys.
Any final takeaways as we wrapup today, week two of Where's
God.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I think I just want to share a verse from Romans
8.32.
It says he who did not spareHis own Son but gave Him up for
us all, how will he not also,along with Him, graciously give
us all things I mean?
God showed His commitment to usthrough Jesus Christ, who went
all the way to the cross for us.
(29:18):
So God is not going to abandonyou in your lowest, darkest
moments.
He proved his commitment to youthrough the sacrifice of his
own precious son, and so he'snot about to relinquish his
project with you.
He's going to stick with youall the way to the end.
He's shown that that's what hisnature is faithful and true all
(29:42):
the way through.
And so you can trust him inthese difficult parts of your
life, knowing that that's theadvocate and that's the friend
and that's the father that youhave looking at you in every
moment of your life.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, and I'd say, knowing exactly what Julie just
emphasized there, that God isn'tplaying you like a pawn on a
chessboard, saying time for thisguy to have trouble, time for
this gal to go through peril,time for this kid to have a
death in his family or hisparents get divorced.
(30:18):
Those things don't happenbecause God is playing with us
like puppets.
Those things happen becausewe're part of a fallen world.
But God says I am faithful, I'mthere with you, I've never left
you, I've never forsaken you,and I do think that gets
confused at times where peoplemisquote scripture.
They say God will never giveyou more than you can handle.
(30:41):
So God gave you this so thatyou can rise above it.
No Death gave us this.
Sin gave us this what Goddesires for us is perfect.
We destroyed it, and ultimately, that's what he desires for us
again is a perfect eternity, wonby victory through his son, not
(31:01):
so that he could toy with ushere, and so I think that's
important for us to know whatGod wants for us is good.
What we experience here is bad,but he never leaves us, so fix
our eyes on him the author andperfecter of our faith.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah, and when we do get more than we can handle my
book I read a long time ago andI wish I knew which one it was
now but it talks about that'swhat drives us to our knees and
turns us back to Him becauseit's never more than he can
handle.
Yeah, thank you guys so muchfor being here today, and next
(31:38):
week we will tackle our weekthree of Where's God, where
we're seeing if God is listening.
So, until then, let's keepliving our lives, living our
faith beyond Sunday.
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings
podcast, where we kind of dive alittle bit deeper into what
we're taking Beyond Sunday fromour message series.
My name is Dena Newsome and Ihave some amazing guests with me
here today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hi, I'm Julie Easley, Executive Director at King of
Kings.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Peter Bay Campus.
Director for King of KingsNorthwest.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Thank you guys so much for being here today.
It's great to be here.
Yeah, so we are looking at theweek two message of our Where's
God series, and I was distractedin this message because one of
the things Greg talked about wasgetting to eat his own choice
of breakfast cereals.
So, my question to start us outtoday is what's your favorite
(00:48):
breakfast cereal?
Like maybe from when you were akid.
What was your favorite?
What's your favorite now?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, so my favorite breakfast cereal has always been
, and will always be, peanutbutter, captain Crunch.
So good, how long has that beenaround?
I think a long time.
I mean as long as I canremember.
But look, my mom, didn't?
She let us eat sugar cereal fora little bit and then she
(01:18):
discovered like that's nothealthy, and then we went all to
healthy.
So I only had a couple gloriousyears in the sun with sugar
cereal.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What did you have to eat?
Was it like grape nuts?
It was like Raisin Bran.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
And I mean and I don't even know if that's that
great, honestly, now, witheverything that they're saying,
probably no cereal's good, butit probably was better than like
Boo Berry Do you remember those?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, so good, the only seasonal cereal, right?
Yeah, so for me we had sugarycereals, but we had off-brand.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yep, the knockoffs yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It would be like Coco Dots.
Rainbows and stars or whatever,and I mean we liked those, I
think, as a kid, though one ofmy favorites and this is really
gross now is we would justcrunch up graham crackers and
add milk.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Actually, that sounds pretty yummy, honestly, just
get after it.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You just got to get going because it gets.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I would do some mush in like five seconds.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, it mushifies quick.
Now I would say number one,Cocoa Pebbles, Number two,
Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Numberthree, Crave I don't know, Crave
yeah it's like a crunchyoutside with like chocolatey
inside.
Oh my, it's fantastic.
(02:38):
But there's a lot of greatcereals out there.
I'd love to.
If anyone ever wants to talk tome about cereals, let's do this
.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, game on.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
How about you, Dina?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
There are always Cocoa Pebbles in my house
because it's my son's favorite.
He will go through a whole box,sometimes in an evening.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, my gosh, I will get groceries and I'll wake up
the next day.
Yeah, the joys of being what 18?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I would call a popcorn bowl, you know, like
just ginormous, where I serve awhole pasta salad, it's got to
be like 500 grams of sugar.
He's a grown boy, but myfavorite always has been Life
cereal which is like not fancynot fantastic what?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
does it look like?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's just little squares.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Oh, like the Czechs ones.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, it looks like that, but they're flatter.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
They are, and they're sweeter.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, there's cinnamon life, but I don't like
the cinnamon life.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Just the regular Only life original.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Got to be the classic that and honeycomb.
I do like honeycomb.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh, that's a blast from the past, yep.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
That also gets mushy real quick.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, it's either like going to destroy your mouth
or mushy real quick, rightRight.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Captain Crunch is a destroyer.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
When I was in college , I lived in a dorm room where
you just had the sink.
Like you know, it was communalbathrooms, and then you just had
a sink in your room to washyour hands and brush your teeth
with, and so I didn't neverwanted to do dishes, because
that was you know where we could.
So cereal when I was in college, I would do frosted flakes,
because that was one that bothmy roommate and I would like,
and then we'd buy just our ownindividual milk cartons and then
(04:17):
you'd take a handful of it,shove it in your mouth and take
a drink of milk, so you didn'thave to have a bowl.
That's clever.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Something you can take away right.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Tip for you today, right here on.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Beyond Sunday.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
That's good, that's good.
So you know that sufferingthrough dishes is not the same
kind of suffering that Greg wastalking about this week, but he
was talking about where is Godin our pain and is God working
in the midst of our pain?
What was you guys' biggesttakeaways this week?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think for me it's just right.
I think when life is painful,we have a tendency to shut God
out because we don't feel likehe can be trusted, or maybe that
he's not listening.
And Greg's just encouragementto stay faithful and to even
turn to God more during thosetimes just really was a great
(05:11):
reminder for me.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, I think that he talked about how we often think
if we get to this point, it'sgoing to be easier Once my kids
are no longer toddlers, oncethey're in middle school, once
they're in high school, oncethey're in college.
But it never gets easier.
Life, this side of heaven'salways hard.
And so now, what do we do aboutthat?
And that's a good reminder,cause for me, I've got an 11,
(05:39):
nine and seven year old and daysare still just so long and I'm
like, how long are they going tobe this difficult?
But to know like the next phasewill come with its own
challenges.
So find my reliance in God now,because it's not like
everything's going to be honkydory down the road, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So Pastor Greg started talking about the 1930s
dust bowl, talking aboutsettling the dust and stuff, but
this was completely new to me.
I knew zippo zilch about theDust Bowl.
What did you guys know aboutthe Dust Bowl, if anything,
before this coming in?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, I'm a book nerd .
I actually read a whole bookabout the Dust Bowl and it was
well.
First of all, I watched aspecial on PBS all about the
Dust Bowl.
You know who's that guy whodoes all those amazing PBS
different.
What's his name?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I couldn't tell you at all.
Yeah, anyway, morgan Freeman.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, he, ken Burns.
Ken Burns, yes, oh, good oldKenny B, yep, yep.
Anyway, I watched a specialabout it and then I was like I
want to learn more.
So I got a book and it's called, and I'm going to highly
recommend it.
It was an award-winning book.
It's called the Worst Hard Timeand Timothy Egan, e-g-a-n,
wrote it the Worst Hard Time.
So if you want to find out moreabout the Dust Bowl, fantastic
(06:55):
book man.
What a time of suffering thatwas for a huge portion of the
United States.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It.
It was stunning.
Yeah yeah, I knew nothing aboutit.
It sounds terrible.
I'm like why did this happen?
Timothy Egan will probably tellme.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It was bad farming practices.
Basically all of the land washeld down by certain native
plants and when they plowed thatup for farmland, everything
that was holding that dirt down,and then there was a drought
and then the dust was.
I mean, it was dust and dirteverywhere, but basically they
wrecked the ecosystem of thatparticular place.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
So where did this all happen?
Where was the Dust Bowl?
It wasn't nationwide.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Oh, it was pretty much the you know kind of the
Midwest Oklahoma, nebraska, kindof that whole general area
Kansas yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
So entire states were just engulfed in dust.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Maybe not entire states you know, I read this a
while ago so I'm not totallysure but I mean huge portions of
, yeah, kind of the Midwest-isharea.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
How long did this?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
last Years Years, I mean, people died from it and
that's what led to a lot ofpeople like the Grapes of Wrath.
Have you ever you know thatbook where they just traveled
from kind of this area whereeverything was so bad, out to
California?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So it led to a lot of people just moving away because
they were like I can't livehere anymore, so prior to that
it was.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
There were, there were more people, or there are
bigger cities here in theMidwest, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
It was still mostly farming communities.
I think, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I mean, as people were starting to move across the
West, they were like, oh, lookat all this big empty land I can
farm.
Let me just plow all this stuffup.
Oh, this isn't working out sogreat.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Fascinating.
Yeah, yeah, you can tell myknowledge on this.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's okay.
I was in the same boat.
Yeah, it sounded to me like aspeople were talking about it on
Sunday morning around.
I was like this is like one ofthe plagues, Like the dust
plague, it totally was.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
It does sound like one yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Just shredded everything.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, who knew?
Compared to the other plagueslike how bad would you make the
dust bowl?
The other ones lasted shorter.
I was going to say the otherones lasted shorter.
I was going to say none.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Of them lasted for years and years.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So would you say this was the worst of all the
plagues compared to the others?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, not killing your oldest child.
I mean that would be probablythe top topic for most people.
But yeah, dust Bowl would be upthere for me.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
All right, okay, so death of the firstborn, then
Dust Bowl.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, yeah, that's what I'll go with the Juliees of
that.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
You heard it here.
Guys, we're just putting outthese nuggets today, little
nuggets of knowledge, all right.
So when we talk about suffering, job is the biblical character
that comes up.
It's everybody's token, youknow.
Oh, job went through so muchsuffering and he did.
(09:48):
Don't get me wrong, but PastorGreg really referred to like in
life we're going to have our Jobmoments and it's not all the
time, but we're going to gothrough those times where we
really are down in a valley.
It may not last years, but howdo you both deal with your Job?
Moments in life Like what aresome go-to reliefs for you?
(10:10):
Where do you find yourself inscripture?
What's your process?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yeah, I think my instinct and this may surprise
people because I'm a real peopleperson but my instinct when I'm
in a Job moment is to avoidpeople and just kind of, you
know, get away from everybodyand just kind of wallow in
self-pity.
And so I've had to learn whatare the right ways in Joe
(10:40):
moments to talk to the rightpeople.
For me, oftentimes it's a fewweeks too late, but then I'll go
and talk to a counselor, whichalmost always helps within the
first or second visit, and sothat's one big thing.
Another big thing in my Joemoments is what out of my life
has just gotten out of whack,and it because usually when I'm
(11:03):
in a calamity of some sort, myphysical activity or my what I
eat or those things get out ofwhack as well.
So it's diagnosing that andthen getting back to being
physically active and eating theright things and sleeping, um,
taking things off my schedule soI am not so out of it.
(11:23):
And then, finally, the mostimportant thing for me is like
who does god say I am,regardless of what I'm currently
going through?
So the promises of God and myidentity in him.
And, julie, you've talked aboutsonship a lot.
That's really important to methat it's my.
My worth is not dependent on mefiguring out this project or
(11:43):
the people around me liking me.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, yeah, and kind of related to sonship.
What I really try to do when I'mgoing through something
challenging is trying toremember, like what God's
posture is or his face is, ashe's looking at me.
So often when I'm struggling, Ipicture God is either he's got
his back towards me or he'sdistracted with something else,
or that he's just very neutral,like well, maybe I'll help you
(12:08):
with this or maybe I won't,which is all such a wrong
picture, but I have to remindmyself of that.
Like he's looking at me, like Ilook at my kids and there were
things right when they weregrowing up that I had to do or
choices that I had to make ontheir behalf for their good that
(12:28):
they weren't pleased about.
But it was never with a face oflike I don't really care how
it's going to work out for you.
Like God's super invested inyou.
He's carefully.
I love the message and I don'tknow what the verse is, but it
says that God watches over youvery carefully and so just that
(12:48):
sense of, even as I'm goingthrough this, god is watching me
very carefully and not withoutlove.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, I consistently find myself in the Psalms when
I'm just feeling those jokemoments in life and it can be
about any of them.
Really there's something tofind, there's joy, there's
suffering in there.
There's, you know, a lot ofDavid asking why God in the
Psalms.
But I just always find they'reshort enough for me to get
(13:18):
through in a time when I mightbe distracted by whatever it is.
But I just find some solacethere, a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Like in the lamenting too.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, Just because I think you feel less alone, I
feel less alone.
I feel less alone here.
Even this writer of this bookthat I treasure and cherish and
is the word of God you know whatI mean Like even the human
writers went through suffering.
And so it's just like I don'tknow, I feel less isolated and
less yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I mean if the man after God's own heart, david, is
crying out and saying why haveyou left me when?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
are you?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Lord, years ago we did a Lenten series on lament
called the.
What was it?
The something note, the bluenote or I don't know.
But we had a pastor at the time.
We talked about like whenyou're three-year-old's really
upset and they're banging onyour chest and you can take it
because they're a three-year-old, like that's how it is with God
(14:16):
, like we can bang on his chestand say why he can take it.
Yeah, and that was a goodreminder speaks to what you're
talking about.
But Julie, casting all youranxieties on him because he
cares for you, that idea thatlike he's watching over you, he
sees you and he cares as aparent does.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I actually think the message version is of that verse
.
I'm almost positive if you'lldouble check, I don't.
I'm yeah, but just thinkingabout like just bringing your
honest questions and unhappinessto God.
Like I was listening to apodcast once where they said
just invite Jesus into thepainful, like verbally.
(15:01):
Jesus, I invite you into my bigdisappointment about this.
I'm inviting you into myfrustration around this.
I don't feel like you'relistening to me right now, jesus
.
I'm inviting you into even mylack of trust right now.
Please meet me here.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I said this last week when Kate and I were talking
about the first message in theseries, talking about suffering,
and I feel like our God is asit-in-the-mud God.
And so he's not always going torescue us, because His timing is
not our timing and he has abigger picture of whatever the
(15:39):
suffering or the pain that we'regoing through is, but he's
going to be right there with uswhile we're sitting in the mud
and that, to me, is a strongimage that I use when I feel
like I'm stuck in the muck.
He's with me, yeah, yeah, andthat's okay, it's good.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, it's also a humbling image because, like
when you think of an animalstuck in the mud, what do you
think of?
Like a donkey or a donkey, andlike neither of those are very
glorious animals.
And there we are and God islike yeah, but I'm still with
you.
And like when we talk about God, like Jesus was there for the
(16:17):
tax collectors and the sinnersand we should care for them too.
It's like no.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
You are that person.
I am that person.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I'm the tax collector , I'm the sinner, I'm the pig,
I'm the donkey, and yet Jesus,the healer of the whole world,
sits with me and like that's avery beautiful picture, love it.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The other thing that I really turn to in my job
moments is really trying tocheck my heart, where my heart
is, how I'm reflecting to otherpeople.
You talk about, peter, howmaybe you pull away, you know,
avoid people.
I think there's a tendency.
There's the phrase hurt people,hurt people.
When I'm hurting, I tend tomaybe have a shorter temper or
shorter patience, or I'm quickerwith my words of anger and
(17:03):
stuff, and so that for me is apoint where, okay, when I feel
like maybe I can't do anythingabout whatever my pain is, I can
do something about how I'minteracting with those around me
, and so that's a focus pointfor me.
I'm like, okay, what kind ofthing am I going to do for
somebody else?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
today.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And it makes me feel better.
It doesn't fix things, but itdoes make me feel better and it
makes me feel closer to God,because I know that that person
is a child of God too.
I don't know what sufferingthey're going through that
they're not talking about, buthey, we're in this together and
I'm going to do something nicefor you today.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I love that.
It's good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Okay, the mind-blowing fact that I found
from Greg'son was dinner time in1923.
So long Was 90 minutes.
Now I will say, growing up, ourdinner was probably our family
dinners were maybe 45.
We would sit at the table andeverybody talk about their day.
2023, 12 minutes what?
(18:06):
Do you guys?
Is that true for your ownfamilies?
Well, I mean, I've beenemptying nests right now.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, I mean we were pretty.
I would say that we probablywere sitting down for maybe a
half an hour or so, because itwas just, you know, obviously
not.
Obviously we would open withprayer and then serve the food
and talk, and then afterwards wewould usually have a devotional
time together.
So that did stretch it out alittle bit more.
But man, when you've got hungrykids at the table, they can
wolf that food down real fast.
I was amazed, like I wouldspend an hour making something
(18:42):
on a special night and it wouldbe gone and like right, it's how
Thanksgiving is too.
It's like what did I do allthis for?
But yeah, so I would sayprobably half hour.
It's different now, shorter.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah, I mean it all depends.
It all depends on the moods andwhatever, but I do think in
general we have a tendency tooverschedule our time more now
than we ever had in my lifetime.
I see it with my family, I seeit with the families around me.
There's dance lessons andgymnastics and basketball and
(19:14):
everything going on that youhave to run and get your kids to
.
There's a great study in thebook called Collapse of
Parenting where it shows thatfor every day of the week that
you're able to sit down,regardless of if it's 20 minutes
or 40 minutes, 90 seems crazy.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
So long in the world I don't even want to do that
with other adults yeah, I, Ithink that needs to get fact
checked.
Yeah, that's ridiculouseverybody who's doing that is
dead now, so right when was whenwas this?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
was this before there was like natural light, 1923.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Okay, yeah, nobody can verify this.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, for real, got you, Greg.
But yeah, I think With theoverscheduling of ourselves,
it's tough.
What I was saying aboutcollapse of parenting is, for
every day of the week that afamily eats together, it's
actually correlational with thatkid, with how often they get in
trouble with, like, the futureof healthy eating for them, and
(20:16):
so, like, with every meal itgoes up by a certain percentile,
wow.
And so that time together withthe family equates.
It's not just like, yeah, youget to be around the family more
.
No, it's also you get to seemealtime as something that
builds community.
You see your parents who carefor you.
You see that when you're withpeople who love you eating
(20:40):
together, it's worth it and youdesire to have community, and so
it's bigger than I think.
The amount of time isinteresting, right, but the
value of still doing that isreally high.
I was just out of work orworking out of state last week
(21:02):
preparing for the youthgathering in New Orleans, and on
the way back I just happened tobe in a layover with the two of
my team members and we went toa Mexican restaurant in
Charlotte Airport and just hungout for like two hours.
That's so fun.
Yeah, it was crazy.
I was like after like 40minutes I was like feeling so
(21:23):
antsy oh cause I'm like I don'tnormally get to do that but then
as we sat in it, it was like wecould have been there forever.
Yes, so it was really wonderfuland I guess that would have
brought the average up.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yes, there you go.
You're making it up for all ofus here.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
There you go, so in the 1920s, there were some
people who just did it a longtime.
That's probably what it was.
They never got up from thetable like 12 hours a day that's
insane.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They were tired and worn out Pre-dust bowl they were
.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yep.
So one of the things that Iwrote down that Greg said that
spoke to me was that pain wasn'tthe end of the story.
Purpose begins to rise out ofit.
Do you have any thoughts onthat?
Pain wasn't the end of thestory.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Purpose begins to rise out of it.
Well, you think about any timethat you are experiencing pain
or failure, loss, and oftentimesout of that can come some of
your most purposeful ambitions.
I met a young gal this lastweek who had a miscarriage and
(22:39):
is with her first child, and itwas unbelievably painful.
But out of that she's begansomething where she I forget
what it was, but she createsthese pieces and then gives them
away to women who have gonethrough this and has made
countless connections with womenin their pain.
(23:00):
And so in that tremendous painand loss was born passion and an
opportunity to help thosearound her.
And I see that in myself aswell, although in the moment I
don't see it, but afterwardsit's not that God's causing that
(23:20):
moment, but he doesn't leave us.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah, I think about like just what my ultimate
purpose is, and my ultimatepurpose is to live in
relationship with my father ashis daughter.
And sometimes the pain of lifedrives me back to that original
purpose, back to my relationshipwith God and just saying, lord,
these plans of mine or the waysthat I thought things were
(23:49):
going to work out aren't who amI to you.
And whenever I come to Him withthat question, I can see it in
His Word and I also, justbecause I know His heart.
His answer is you're a belovedchild of mine, aside from
anything that you do or howthings worked out for you, and
(24:11):
so it's just coming home to thattrue purpose that I have.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, that's good.
So, as the series Where's God,we're're asking where is God in
all of this?
One of the things that PastorGreg referenced was asking
where's God isn't a lack offaith, it's the beginning of
deeper faith.
Does that strike you, make youthink of anything?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
How does that resonate with?
Speaker 1 (24:36):
you.
I just that was a catch for me,like because I think as I have
become a more mature Christian,I do realize where God is all
the time with me, you know, andhow I can turn to him, access
him, how he helps me througheverything.
(24:57):
But it is a question when Istart doubting, like my initial
instinct is that does show alack of faith, you know.
But like Greg said, it's thebeginning of a deeper faith.
Is that just a questioning?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
yeah, those things so we have like a bunch of trees
that we plant in our backyardand, um, if those trees were
always in a greenhouse withperfect conditions and just the
right amount of sun and no windblowing on them whatsoever, they
may be okay, but they aren'tgoing to be strong trees.
(25:36):
If I look out now at those babytrees out there that are
getting buffeted by the wind,actually their root system is
developing more and more.
I mean, the trees have beenoutside for a long time, are
pretty strong, and I think about.
You know, god is trying todevelop me into a person of
stronger faith, someone whoknows him more, someone who can
(26:00):
endure through tough times andstill have faith.
And so I just think, yeah, Imean this is a deepening process
for all of us.
As you go through life, I mean,you see somebody who's still got
faith when they're 80.
They're a remarkably differentperson than they were at 20.
(26:20):
Because God has shaped them andformed them, through that
pressing and those challenges,got faith when they're 80,
they're a remarkably differentperson than they were at 20.
Because God has shaped them andformed them through that
pressing and those challengesand they're a more beautiful
person they are.
So that's just God's way withus and we have a choice.
Are we either going to say,yeah, I want to go through that
with you and become changed, oram I going to say no, I don't
(26:45):
want to do it, and we'll be theworst for it if we say no.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah, I think about Paul pre-conversion.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Paul is like the man at his job.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
He's on fast track to be high priest like the main
dude and just crushing it.
Like everywhere Paul goes,people is like they're like
that's the guy he's so good athis job and uh, and Paul's just
like bulldozing througheverybody and murdering
Christians and believing he'sdoing the right thing.
And then God's like knock itoff Paul and his life has
(27:19):
changed.
And then when he's writing, hesays like he has this huge
realization of the struggle thathe's in because prior to his
conversion, he's like I'm good,I know what I'm doing, I'm on
the straight and narrow.
And then, after he realizes, oh, the law that I thought I was
committing nearly perfectly isactually condemning me entirely
(27:44):
and the things I want to do Idon't do, and the things I don't
want to do I keep on doing.
And the struggle likeunderstanding that we actually
have a struggle is huge.
Like stop living in denial thateverything is good to go.
I mean, there's some, there'ssome value to that.
Thessalonians like simple lifefor sure, but not at the denial
(28:06):
of I've got nothing wrong withme or everything's good to go.
You know, acknowledging thestruggle of our own walk and
sinful nature is exactly what weneed so that we can realize,
the only thing that can save usis to be dead and, and
(28:27):
ultimately, I hope that deathfor each person around me
happens in the Galatians way ofI've been crucified with Christ
and therefore I no longer live,but Christ lives in me.
Before the temporal.
The death here on earth, yeah,that's good.
That's good.
I really like the tree image.
Death here on earth, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
That's good.
That's good.
I really like the tree image.
That's really good.
Dropping some truth bombs here,guys.
Any final takeaways as we wrapup today, week two of Where's
God.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I think I just want to share a verse from Romans
8.32.
It says he who did not spareHis own Son but gave Him up for
us all, how will he not also,along with Him, graciously give
us all things I mean?
God showed His commitment to usthrough Jesus Christ, who went
all the way to the cross for us.
(29:18):
So God is not going to abandonyou in your lowest, darkest
moments.
He proved his commitment to youthrough the sacrifice of his
own precious son, and so he'snot about to relinquish his
project with you.
He's going to stick with youall the way to the end.
He's shown that that's what hisnature is faithful and true all
(29:42):
the way through.
And so you can trust him inthese difficult parts of your
life, knowing that that's theadvocate and that's the friend
and that's the father that youhave looking at you in every
moment of your life.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, and I'd say, knowing exactly what Julie just
emphasized there, that God isn'tplaying you like a pawn on a
chessboard, saying time for thisguy to have trouble, time for
this gal to go through peril,time for this kid to have a
death in his family or hisparents get divorced.
(30:18):
Those things don't happenbecause God is playing with us
like puppets.
Those things happen becausewe're part of a fallen world.
But God says I am faithful, I'mthere with you, I've never left
you, I've never forsaken you,and I do think that gets
confused at times where peoplemisquote scripture.
They say God will never giveyou more than you can handle.
(30:41):
So God gave you this so thatyou can rise above it.
No Death gave us this.
Sin gave us this what Goddesires for us is perfect.
We destroyed it, and ultimately, that's what he desires for us
again is a perfect eternity, wonby victory through his son, not
(31:01):
so that he could toy with ushere, and so I think that's
important for us to know whatGod wants for us is good.
What we experience here is bad,but he never leaves us, so fix
our eyes on him the author andperfecter of our faith.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah, and when we do get more than we can handle my
book I read a long time ago andI wish I knew which one it was
now but it talks about that'swhat drives us to our knees and
turns us back to Him becauseit's never more than he can
handle.
Yeah, thank you guys so muchfor being here today, and next
(31:38):
week we will tackle our weekthree of Where's God, where
we're seeing if God is listening.
So, until then, let's keepliving our lives, living our
faith beyond Sunday.
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