July 8, 2026 • 19 mins
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What happens when the relentless treadmill of busyness slowly crimps your connection to the True Vine?
Join Jaime on the Praying Christian Women Podcast for a candid devotional on Psalm 67, a brief but powerful psalm that celebrates God's heart for every tribe and nation, and reminds us of our calling to reflect His glory to the ends of the earth.
Jaime unpacks the subtle, spiritual dangers of our fast-paced, technology-driven world, exploring the uncomfortable reality that 'busyness' can become an idol that drains our energy and starves our souls. Likening our spiritual health to a wind-whipped grapevine, she discusses how easily we can become "crimped" and withered without even realizing we've been disconnected from our life source. Sharing her own transparent struggles with slowing down,
Jaime encourages us to intentionally step off the daily grind and carve out sacred, meditative white space for God's Word. Just as the ancient Israelites were blessed so that all the earth might revere Him, we are reminded that our blessings—and our connection to the local body of Christ—are never meant to be kept in a self-contained survival pod, but poured out to bless the world.
Come ready to evaluate your own spiritual branches—the places of hidden withering, the exhausting routines, and the moments when reading the Bible feels more like a chore than a lifeline. Let this episode remind you that God is always waiting with open arms to breathe fresh life into your fading embers. Because He is a gracious God whose face shines upon us, who guides the nations on the earth, and whose presence can revive even the driest, crunchiest parts of our faith.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Life Audio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey there, and welcome to another prayer through the Psalms
episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie, and
I'm very.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Very excited to be with you.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You may not know it, but it's been a while
since I've recorded a psalm. I did a few kind
of in a batch because I knew I was going
to be busy and away from the computer, and I'm
so happy to be back. I love this time with you.
It is sacred and special and set apart and makes
(00:35):
me slow down and I'm going to be fully transparent
with you. I'm not always happy about it. There are
times when I know I have psalms to record and
I think, oh my goodness, that's going to take a lot.
Because it does. It sounds counterintuitive, but as a fellow human,
you know, it takes energy to slow down.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It takes effort to.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Stop the grind, to take a step off the treadmill
of life and meditate on God's word. And I'm going
to also confess that I haven't been meditating outside of
these psalms in the last few weeks on God's word
like I should be.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And it takes a toll. It steals energy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
From us to give constantly to the demands of busyness,
to pour ourselves into tasks and to do lists, and
there's a time for them. A lot of it is
just stuff that has to be done. But I believe
that's why God created the Sabbath, and he knew that
there is absolutely a time when we need to slow down.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And not to mention.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
When we become disconnected from the vine, we start to wither.
I see that in my one hundred degree Utah weather
the last week. Is there was a section in our
grape vine and they've been getting watered vine, but there
was a section that I guess the wind had kind
of blown off, and I.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Couldn't tell it first.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
At first I went out there, and you know, everything
looked great. And then a few days later I look
and there's this whole like withered section, and I thought, oh,
my goodness, there must be like a pest or an
infestation of something, or a blight or I don't know.
I don't know what affects grapes. I'm new to grape vines.
And it was just that the wind had there'd been
(02:28):
a vine that had been like growing kind of out
from the others and just one section, but that part
of the vine had gotten blown by the wind, I.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Guess, and snapped.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It had kind of like it still was attached, but
it was crimped, and so basically it was effectively detached,
not physically, but for all intents and purposes from the
actual vine, which, if you know anything about grapes, the
vine itself is this big, gnarly like brown tree, trunky
(03:01):
kind of material, and then every year you cut it
back so it looks dead. I was terrified the first
time I did it two years ago, and it looks
like it's all dead. But then in the spring at
late spring, because I was scared for a while, but
late spring you start to see these leaves emerge, and
then you get these gigantic like tons of vines. It's
(03:22):
crazy how much it produces every year. And all that
to say that this one huge section of vine had
been like new growth, had basically been cut off from
the main vine because of being crimped over from the wind.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So this entire section was just.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Withered and gnarly and just crunchy crispy from totally dying.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And that's us.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It doesn't happen immediately, we might not even notice it.
And for us, it's not necessarily days. I think it
can be weeks and months and years of being sort
of subtle crimped off from God, from the true vine.
But it takes its toll, and I think from my experience,
(04:10):
the enemy gets a foothold, and it actually when you
get in a routine of business, it makes slowing down
seem undesirable, and it makes the act of being in
God's word feel boring in contrast. And I know that
sounds harsh and terrible and sinful, and it is, but
(04:31):
it's just what has happened to me at times. And
so it took some effort to get me in front
of this computer because I do have so much going
on right now, and I'm sure all of you do too.
But I really hope that you're able to just take
some time each week, whether it's this podcast, whether it's
another podcast, whether it's just sitting quietly with God with
(04:53):
your own devotion, whatever it is, I hope you will
take time. So I had the pressure of showing up
for you, but without that external pressure, I honestly could
see myself going weeks or months without truly slowing down
and taking time with God. And so let this just
be the reminder a. If this is how you feel,
(05:15):
I'm just being real about it, because if you resonate
with this truth, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Embrace it and take.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It to God and say God, I kind of feel
like reading your word is become a little bit boring.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Help me.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
And I guarantee when you get to the place where
you sit down and you actually read it, it will
come alive again.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
God will speak to you through it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It will stoke those fires, those embers that have kind
of gone cold, and God will breed life into your
Bible reading, into your time with Him. So I didn't
mean to go off on that tangent, but the Lord
must have had something for you just through what I've
been experiencing and going through. So today we are going
to be talking about and praying through Psalm sixty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Do I hear the parents of.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Young ish maybetween early teen children collectively sighing.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
With you know, six seven.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I know that we've passed that, but I can't hear
six and seven anymore without the six seven kind of
echoing in my mind. So if that's you, get it
out of your system, do the little hand motion, whatever
you got to do.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Psalm sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We're in it, and now we can focus.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
God, we just thank you for giving us your word.
Thank you for the relationship that you extend to each
one of us. I know that I take it for
granted all the time, and I'm sorry. Thank you for
taking us back with open arms when we take time
(07:02):
away from spending time with you and reading your word
and praying. I know there's a time for surface prayers,
for the shout out prayers when we need you desperately,
and the on the go prayers, but there's also definitely
time for deep, meditative, contemplative prayer with you. And there's
(07:27):
always time for reading your word and spending time slowing
our brains down, giving us enough white space to hear back.
Teach us how to do that better. Lord, I just
pray for the body of Christ in this incredible, amazing
(07:48):
and also terrible age of technology. Help us navigate it
with grace, protect us from lasting damage. I look at
our children and the next generations that come after us,
and I'm burdened and scared. Frankly, I see what it's
done to me, and I know what it must be
(08:09):
doing to them. And we just pray God that in
your mercy you would protect the body of Christ, protect
our sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren and
generations to come, until Christ returns from growing cold and
distant because of technology, from growing isolated and shut off
(08:33):
and self sufficient or seemingly self sufficient because of technology
and the fast pace of the world around us, and
the busyness that seems to have talents just gripping us
and won't let go. The busyness that can be an
idol that we can wear like a badge of honor,
(08:58):
and we could trade because of what it gives us.
For a relationship with you that takes a little bit
of work and that takes time and takes patience and
slowing down, that doesn't give us instant gratification, but is
so much greater and more gratifying and satisfying than anything
this world could offer. Take the blinders off, in Jesus' name,
(09:22):
Take them off of ourselves, Take them off of our children,
our grandchildren, generations to come. Help your people to see clearly,
to be wise in how we use technology and how
we allow ourselves to be sucked into the world. Let
us be in the world, but not of the world
and to know how to do that. It's hard, it's
(09:44):
not easy, it's not straightforward. In Jesus' name, Amen, all right, Well,
this is Psalm sixty seven the Nations exhorted to pray
God for the choir director with stringed instruments, a psalm
a song. And I have read that this is often
(10:07):
attributed to David, even though it doesn't explicitly say so.
Maybe it follows in some of his wording. I don't
know who came to that conclusion and why, but that's
what I read. This is a very short psalm, and
it kind of touches on what I said in my prayer.
It touches on God being a god not of a
select view, but of everyone on earth. And that went
(10:32):
in kind of flew in the face of the ancient
world at that time, the worldview in that time that
this was written, it was kind of thought that the
gods were regional, that the people's gods were gods of them,
and the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the
god of Israel. Those are the people he chose. And
(10:54):
a lot of these psalms of David, and I'm guessing
because he is prophetic and inspired by the Holy Spirit,
speak of a greater kingdom, and I love it. It's beautiful.
So the nations are exhorted to praise God. God be
gracious to us and bless us, and cause his face
to shine upon us. Selah, And I want to talk
(11:15):
about that real quick, because that is actually borrowed from
a previous passage in chapter six, verses twenty four to
twenty six says the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you, And it
intentionally adapts this blessing and takes it beyond Israel. God
be gracious to us collective, and bless us collectively, and
(11:39):
cause his face to shine upon us, that your way
may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, Oh God, Let all the
peoples praise you. Let the nations and that word nations
can be translated as tribes, nations, ethnic groups. So the
(12:01):
Hebrew word is amim, and it means tribes, nations, and
ethnic groups, not just Israel, very clearly, not just Israel.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for
you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the
nations on the earth. Selah, let the peoples praise you,
Oh God, Let all the peoples praise you. The earth
(12:23):
has yielded its produce. God, our God blesses us. God
blesses us that all the ends of the earth may
fear Him. And how beautiful is this. There's this whole
big picture of God blesses everyone. And then it goes
to in verse seven. God blesses us Israel, that all
(12:44):
the ends of the earth may fear Him, and not
fear like tremble in trepidation and turning away from but
fear revere like every nieshell bow, every tongue confess. So
our blessing is not just for us, but it will
be for all nations. And God promised that to Abraham too.
(13:06):
He said, you will be blessed, so that the world
may in turn be blessed. Some of that blessing is
through Jesus because he came through the line of Israel.
But I firmly believe that it is a universal not universalism,
but a universal blessing for all people. That Israel was
(13:26):
blessed because there were more people in the sphere of
Israel than just Israelites. There were people from all over
the place. That's why they had laws and rules about
how to treat foreigners, how to incorporate people in a
way that displayed the glory of God but did not
(13:47):
allow for people of Israel to be led astray to
other gods. But there were other people that were influenced
by Israel and that saw God's love for them, that
saw their hygiene that was, you know, basically better. And
it's not because they studied microbiology. It's because their laws
(14:07):
came from God's mouth and he's the creator of the
universe and this earth, and he knows how things work,
their circumcision on a certain day and the actual hematology
that means that that is the best day to do it.
There's all kinds of wisdom in the way that the
(14:28):
people of God, the people of Israel, were living that
was supernaturally given for their benefit and to display God's
trueness and realness and goodness to the people around them.
And that transfers to us as Christians. We are blessed,
(14:48):
not so we can stay in our self contained survival pod,
but so that we can bless others within the body
of Christ. And then so that we the body of
Christ can bless others outside of the Body of Christ.
And I'm going to tell you I have been doing
a bad job of this myself. It's been a struggle
(15:12):
to get plugged in to our church here in Utah.
We moved from Alaska a couple of years ago, and
it's been hard. It's been really tough circumstances, our schedules
have kind of been wagging the dog, and we've gotten
back into it to a certain point, but we haven't
gotten back to where I feel we are truly like
(15:33):
an integral part, like we're actually cogs in the body
of Christ in our local church. And you know, there
are seasons, and I don't know that this isn't just
a season, but there's part of me that feels like
it's time to really start to move back into that
because it's it's been too long that we've been kind
(15:54):
of outsiders looking in. And it doesn't mean we're not
part of the Body of Christ. I'm with you right now,
or the Body of Christ. We're praying. I have other
members of the Body that I'm friends with, that I
serve with, that I speak with, that we encourage each other.
But the local church is kind of the ground zero
(16:15):
of how the Body of Christ can bless the world.
And I love our church that we've become part of.
They do so much outreach and blessing of the community,
and not just our community, communities across the globe. They're
very missional, very servant minded. So I'm proud and excited
to be part of this Body of Christ. I'd like
(16:35):
to be a little more connected though. Anyway, this is
an episode of tangents, So I hope that.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
God spoke to you through this. I hope that you'll go.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Back to some of these and glean your own things
from it. I really hope that you're not just relying
on my interpretation, because I've told you before, always check
me theological and every other way, because I'm not a
theologian and I'm imperfect. Read the word of God. Test
it against truth that you know. I'm sorry, Test what
(17:10):
I say against truth that you know based on the
word of God. Don't test the word of God against
things that you think you know. That's kind of backwards,
and just take that time. I think the boiled down
lesson for today for me is it's important to spend
time with God. It's important to slow down. It's important
to embrace his word, to meditate on it. And that
(17:32):
doesn't mean just playing through this episode one time. I
think it means going back, reading through yourself and saying, God,
what do you have for me in this not some commentary,
not some podcast host.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
What do you have for me?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And do that not just with the stuff that we
do together, but with your own stuff. All right, thank
you for joining me, and I hope you have a
wonderful week. And let's close in some prayer. Father, thank
you again for this time. We just pray that you
would help us to come out of this time with
radiant faces after having come into your presence, that we
(18:08):
would have been transformed through this time, that people would
see us and would talk to us, and they would
know that we've been with you. We just asked that
you would continue to let these words ruminate in our
minds and in our hearts, that this wouldn't be it,
that it would just kind of stoke those embers that
have gotten cold. Help them to just heat up. Give
(18:28):
us a burning to meet with you, Give us a
burning for your word to understand it better, to gain
wisdom from it, to find hidden gems within the words.
Of the Bible that speak to us in a new
and true way. In Jesus' name, Amen, we'd like to
(18:49):
take just a quick second to thank the team at
Life Audio for their.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Partnership with us on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
If you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find
dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more.
That's life audio dot com.
Life Audio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey there, and welcome to another prayer through the Psalms
episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie, and
I'm very.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Very excited to be with you.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You may not know it, but it's been a while
since I've recorded a psalm. I did a few kind
of in a batch because I knew I was going
to be busy and away from the computer, and I'm
so happy to be back. I love this time with you.
It is sacred and special and set apart and makes
(00:35):
me slow down and I'm going to be fully transparent
with you. I'm not always happy about it. There are
times when I know I have psalms to record and
I think, oh my goodness, that's going to take a lot.
Because it does. It sounds counterintuitive, but as a fellow human,
you know, it takes energy to slow down.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
It takes effort to.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Stop the grind, to take a step off the treadmill
of life and meditate on God's word. And I'm going
to also confess that I haven't been meditating outside of
these psalms in the last few weeks on God's word
like I should be.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And it takes a toll. It steals energy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
From us to give constantly to the demands of busyness,
to pour ourselves into tasks and to do lists, and
there's a time for them. A lot of it is
just stuff that has to be done. But I believe
that's why God created the Sabbath, and he knew that
there is absolutely a time when we need to slow down.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And not to mention.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
When we become disconnected from the vine, we start to wither.
I see that in my one hundred degree Utah weather
the last week. Is there was a section in our
grape vine and they've been getting watered vine, but there
was a section that I guess the wind had kind
of blown off, and I.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Couldn't tell it first.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
At first I went out there, and you know, everything
looked great. And then a few days later I look
and there's this whole like withered section, and I thought, oh,
my goodness, there must be like a pest or an
infestation of something, or a blight or I don't know.
I don't know what affects grapes. I'm new to grape vines.
And it was just that the wind had there'd been
(02:28):
a vine that had been like growing kind of out
from the others and just one section, but that part
of the vine had gotten blown by the wind, I.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Guess, and snapped.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It had kind of like it still was attached, but
it was crimped, and so basically it was effectively detached,
not physically, but for all intents and purposes from the
actual vine, which, if you know anything about grapes, the
vine itself is this big, gnarly like brown tree, trunky
(03:01):
kind of material, and then every year you cut it
back so it looks dead. I was terrified the first
time I did it two years ago, and it looks
like it's all dead. But then in the spring at
late spring, because I was scared for a while, but
late spring you start to see these leaves emerge, and
then you get these gigantic like tons of vines. It's
(03:22):
crazy how much it produces every year. And all that
to say that this one huge section of vine had
been like new growth, had basically been cut off from
the main vine because of being crimped over from the wind.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So this entire section was just.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Withered and gnarly and just crunchy crispy from totally dying.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And that's us.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It doesn't happen immediately, we might not even notice it.
And for us, it's not necessarily days. I think it
can be weeks and months and years of being sort
of subtle crimped off from God, from the true vine.
But it takes its toll, and I think from my experience,
(04:10):
the enemy gets a foothold, and it actually when you
get in a routine of business, it makes slowing down
seem undesirable, and it makes the act of being in
God's word feel boring in contrast. And I know that
sounds harsh and terrible and sinful, and it is, but
(04:31):
it's just what has happened to me at times. And
so it took some effort to get me in front
of this computer because I do have so much going
on right now, and I'm sure all of you do too.
But I really hope that you're able to just take
some time each week, whether it's this podcast, whether it's
another podcast, whether it's just sitting quietly with God with
(04:53):
your own devotion, whatever it is, I hope you will
take time. So I had the pressure of showing up
for you, but without that external pressure, I honestly could
see myself going weeks or months without truly slowing down
and taking time with God. And so let this just
be the reminder a. If this is how you feel,
(05:15):
I'm just being real about it, because if you resonate
with this truth, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Embrace it and take.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It to God and say God, I kind of feel
like reading your word is become a little bit boring.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Help me.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
And I guarantee when you get to the place where
you sit down and you actually read it, it will
come alive again.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
God will speak to you through it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It will stoke those fires, those embers that have kind
of gone cold, and God will breed life into your
Bible reading, into your time with Him. So I didn't
mean to go off on that tangent, but the Lord
must have had something for you just through what I've
been experiencing and going through. So today we are going
to be talking about and praying through Psalm sixty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Do I hear the parents of.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Young ish maybetween early teen children collectively sighing.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
With you know, six seven.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I know that we've passed that, but I can't hear
six and seven anymore without the six seven kind of
echoing in my mind. So if that's you, get it
out of your system, do the little hand motion, whatever
you got to do.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Psalm sixty seven.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We're in it, and now we can focus.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
God, we just thank you for giving us your word.
Thank you for the relationship that you extend to each
one of us. I know that I take it for
granted all the time, and I'm sorry. Thank you for
taking us back with open arms when we take time
(07:02):
away from spending time with you and reading your word
and praying. I know there's a time for surface prayers,
for the shout out prayers when we need you desperately,
and the on the go prayers, but there's also definitely
time for deep, meditative, contemplative prayer with you. And there's
(07:27):
always time for reading your word and spending time slowing
our brains down, giving us enough white space to hear back.
Teach us how to do that better. Lord, I just
pray for the body of Christ in this incredible, amazing
(07:48):
and also terrible age of technology. Help us navigate it
with grace, protect us from lasting damage. I look at
our children and the next generations that come after us,
and I'm burdened and scared. Frankly, I see what it's
done to me, and I know what it must be
(08:09):
doing to them. And we just pray God that in
your mercy you would protect the body of Christ, protect
our sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren and
generations to come, until Christ returns from growing cold and
distant because of technology, from growing isolated and shut off
(08:33):
and self sufficient or seemingly self sufficient because of technology
and the fast pace of the world around us, and
the busyness that seems to have talents just gripping us
and won't let go. The busyness that can be an
idol that we can wear like a badge of honor,
(08:58):
and we could trade because of what it gives us.
For a relationship with you that takes a little bit
of work and that takes time and takes patience and
slowing down, that doesn't give us instant gratification, but is
so much greater and more gratifying and satisfying than anything
this world could offer. Take the blinders off, in Jesus' name,
(09:22):
Take them off of ourselves, Take them off of our children,
our grandchildren, generations to come. Help your people to see clearly,
to be wise in how we use technology and how
we allow ourselves to be sucked into the world. Let
us be in the world, but not of the world
and to know how to do that. It's hard, it's
(09:44):
not easy, it's not straightforward. In Jesus' name, Amen, all right, Well,
this is Psalm sixty seven the Nations exhorted to pray
God for the choir director with stringed instruments, a psalm
a song. And I have read that this is often
(10:07):
attributed to David, even though it doesn't explicitly say so.
Maybe it follows in some of his wording. I don't
know who came to that conclusion and why, but that's
what I read. This is a very short psalm, and
it kind of touches on what I said in my prayer.
It touches on God being a god not of a
select view, but of everyone on earth. And that went
(10:32):
in kind of flew in the face of the ancient
world at that time, the worldview in that time that
this was written, it was kind of thought that the
gods were regional, that the people's gods were gods of them,
and the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the
god of Israel. Those are the people he chose. And
(10:54):
a lot of these psalms of David, and I'm guessing
because he is prophetic and inspired by the Holy Spirit,
speak of a greater kingdom, and I love it. It's beautiful.
So the nations are exhorted to praise God. God be
gracious to us and bless us, and cause his face
to shine upon us. Selah, And I want to talk
(11:15):
about that real quick, because that is actually borrowed from
a previous passage in chapter six, verses twenty four to
twenty six says the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you, And it
intentionally adapts this blessing and takes it beyond Israel. God
be gracious to us collective, and bless us collectively, and
(11:39):
cause his face to shine upon us, that your way
may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, Oh God, Let all the
peoples praise you. Let the nations and that word nations
can be translated as tribes, nations, ethnic groups. So the
(12:01):
Hebrew word is amim, and it means tribes, nations, and
ethnic groups, not just Israel, very clearly, not just Israel.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for
you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the
nations on the earth. Selah, let the peoples praise you,
Oh God, Let all the peoples praise you. The earth
(12:23):
has yielded its produce. God, our God blesses us. God
blesses us that all the ends of the earth may
fear Him. And how beautiful is this. There's this whole
big picture of God blesses everyone. And then it goes
to in verse seven. God blesses us Israel, that all
(12:44):
the ends of the earth may fear Him, and not
fear like tremble in trepidation and turning away from but
fear revere like every nieshell bow, every tongue confess. So
our blessing is not just for us, but it will
be for all nations. And God promised that to Abraham too.
(13:06):
He said, you will be blessed, so that the world
may in turn be blessed. Some of that blessing is
through Jesus because he came through the line of Israel.
But I firmly believe that it is a universal not universalism,
but a universal blessing for all people. That Israel was
(13:26):
blessed because there were more people in the sphere of
Israel than just Israelites. There were people from all over
the place. That's why they had laws and rules about
how to treat foreigners, how to incorporate people in a
way that displayed the glory of God but did not
(13:47):
allow for people of Israel to be led astray to
other gods. But there were other people that were influenced
by Israel and that saw God's love for them, that
saw their hygiene that was, you know, basically better. And
it's not because they studied microbiology. It's because their laws
(14:07):
came from God's mouth and he's the creator of the
universe and this earth, and he knows how things work,
their circumcision on a certain day and the actual hematology
that means that that is the best day to do it.
There's all kinds of wisdom in the way that the
(14:28):
people of God, the people of Israel, were living that
was supernaturally given for their benefit and to display God's
trueness and realness and goodness to the people around them.
And that transfers to us as Christians. We are blessed,
(14:48):
not so we can stay in our self contained survival pod,
but so that we can bless others within the body
of Christ. And then so that we the body of
Christ can bless others outside of the Body of Christ.
And I'm going to tell you I have been doing
a bad job of this myself. It's been a struggle
(15:12):
to get plugged in to our church here in Utah.
We moved from Alaska a couple of years ago, and
it's been hard. It's been really tough circumstances, our schedules
have kind of been wagging the dog, and we've gotten
back into it to a certain point, but we haven't
gotten back to where I feel we are truly like
(15:33):
an integral part, like we're actually cogs in the body
of Christ in our local church. And you know, there
are seasons, and I don't know that this isn't just
a season, but there's part of me that feels like
it's time to really start to move back into that
because it's it's been too long that we've been kind
(15:54):
of outsiders looking in. And it doesn't mean we're not
part of the Body of Christ. I'm with you right now,
or the Body of Christ. We're praying. I have other
members of the Body that I'm friends with, that I
serve with, that I speak with, that we encourage each other.
But the local church is kind of the ground zero
(16:15):
of how the Body of Christ can bless the world.
And I love our church that we've become part of.
They do so much outreach and blessing of the community,
and not just our community, communities across the globe. They're
very missional, very servant minded. So I'm proud and excited
to be part of this Body of Christ. I'd like
(16:35):
to be a little more connected though. Anyway, this is
an episode of tangents, So I hope that.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
God spoke to you through this. I hope that you'll go.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Back to some of these and glean your own things
from it. I really hope that you're not just relying
on my interpretation, because I've told you before, always check
me theological and every other way, because I'm not a
theologian and I'm imperfect. Read the word of God. Test
it against truth that you know. I'm sorry, Test what
(17:10):
I say against truth that you know based on the
word of God. Don't test the word of God against
things that you think you know. That's kind of backwards,
and just take that time. I think the boiled down
lesson for today for me is it's important to spend
time with God. It's important to slow down. It's important
to embrace his word, to meditate on it. And that
(17:32):
doesn't mean just playing through this episode one time. I
think it means going back, reading through yourself and saying, God,
what do you have for me in this not some commentary,
not some podcast host.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
What do you have for me?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And do that not just with the stuff that we
do together, but with your own stuff. All right, thank
you for joining me, and I hope you have a
wonderful week. And let's close in some prayer. Father, thank
you again for this time. We just pray that you
would help us to come out of this time with
radiant faces after having come into your presence, that we
(18:08):
would have been transformed through this time, that people would
see us and would talk to us, and they would
know that we've been with you. We just asked that
you would continue to let these words ruminate in our
minds and in our hearts, that this wouldn't be it,
that it would just kind of stoke those embers that
have gotten cold. Help them to just heat up. Give
(18:28):
us a burning to meet with you, Give us a
burning for your word to understand it better, to gain
wisdom from it, to find hidden gems within the words.
Of the Bible that speak to us in a new
and true way. In Jesus' name, Amen, we'd like to
(18:49):
take just a quick second to thank the team at
Life Audio for their.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Partnership with us on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
If you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find
dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more.
That's life audio dot com.
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