June 19, 2024 • 47 mins
This week's episode of Finding Faith in Losing Sleep has us (Wes, Michelle, and Pierre) reuniting, after a longer than expected hiatus, to discuss parenthood and its impact on our lives. Our conversation naturally flows from the trials of daily life to a heartfelt discussion on Father's Day. Michelle brings poignant memories of her father's transformation, offering a touching perspective on how earthly relationships shape our understanding of God as our heavenly Father.
Parenting through the lens of faith takes center stage as we balance the chaos of raising an energetic eight-year-old with the nuanced guidance required for a teenager. Drawing parallels to biblical teachings, we reflect on the story of Naaman from 2 Kings and the simplicity and power of faith. Naaman's journey resonates deeply as we examine our own conditional expectations of God and grapple with the challenges of believing in simple acts of faith. Our stories and reflections offer a practical take on how biblical principles can guide us in modern parenting.
Celebrating the milestones of our podcast journey, we express deep gratitude for the unconditional love of family and God. Personal anecdotes, biblical references, and a discussion on the significance of baptism reinforce the continuous journey of faith and repentance. We're thrilled to reach 10,000 listens and downloads and invite you to engage with us, share your prayer requests, and join us in finding faith amid life's everyday struggles and joys. Don't miss the behind-the-scenes moments and our unwavering commitment to offering this podcast as a free gift to our listeners.
Email: findingfaith.losingsleep@gmail.com
Twitter: @FindingFaithPod
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's time to wake up and be a hero on the Finding
Faith in Losing Sleep podcast.
The thing is, I'm Wesley, oneof your hosts at Loafinit on
Twitter, and I have with me twopeople that have been missing in
action.
They could probably blame meand say I was missing in action
as well, and that's fine, that'sfair.
That's fair.
We were all missing in action.
Maybe Seasons have changed,those schedules have changed,
(00:25):
but here we are back again onthis Finding Faith and Losing
Sleep podcast.
Michelle and Pierre are with meas well.
Hello Michelle, hello Pierre.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hi Wes.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
What's going on?
How are we doing?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm doing fine.
How's old Indiana this time ofyear?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's hot, it's really hot, which I'm not.
Not gonna complain because Idon't like the winter we know
michelle does but it's like 90plus degrees.
It's humid, so it's.
It's a good time to have airconditioning that works, that's
true, one of our cars airconditioners went out.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, that that's, uh, that's a little
taste of torment, is what thatis?
You know, that'll, that'll,that'll help you make it.
You make yourself get rightwith Jesus real quick, because
you're like, hey, if it'sanything like this, we don't
want anything to do with hell.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
What's the temperature down there?
Is it warmer or cooler?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
No, no, it was a very mild spring to be a long spring
and then just this past week itstarted getting up there in
that 100 area, but today it'slike 88, something like that.
So it's nice church leaguesoftball weather, which I have a
little bit later on.
Today We've got a doubleheader,so I am very thankful for the
80s tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I bet you are, and good luck whenever that game
starts.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you.
But hey, we're here at theFinding Faith, losing Sleep
podcast and that's enough chitchat about us.
Nobody even cares about us,pierre, nobody even cares about
us, michelle.
They don't want to know aboutour personal lives.
They want to know about whatwe're going to talk about, and
that's I wish we did too.
We don't do a lot of show notes.
I do a little bit of things,michelle and Pierre do their own
research too, but we try tojust be people that come on here
(02:05):
and talk about life and talkabout different life
circumstances that keep us uplate at night thinking about
things, and a lot of times thatends up not only just being
life-oriented orsociety-oriented, but it also
has to do with religion, areligious context, because we
all have our mind's eyes on whatwe could do to please God,
because we realize that there isgoing to be a death that comes
(02:26):
sooner.
Well, maybe not sooner ratherthan later, but eventually there
will be a death that comes andwe will all have to, pierre,
stand before God and giveaccount for our actions here on
this earth.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
That's true.
I mean it kind of is sooner, Imean, each day you get older,
the closer you get to your time,which is crazy to think about.
I know I just had a birthdayand you know I'm just getting
closer.
You're not getting closer tolife, you're getting closer to
that call home, hopefully, andso it's a reality.
(03:00):
But yeah, it's unique, it'sdifferent as you age, a little
bit at least.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Michelle, you talk more about your father, I think,
on this podcast than Pierre orI do Both of us, we've told our
stories before a little bitabout our fathers and stuff, but
you reference your father andthe wisdom that he gives you and
different things like that.
And this past Sunday wasFather's Day, and it just got my
mind thinking about how Godplays that role of a heavenly
Father towards us and I don'tknow.
(03:29):
It also made me, though, thistime flip the switch and it made
me think about myself as achild, Because I have two
children.
I got a 17-year-old and an8-year-old.
I always talk about how it'slike a Tom and Jerry cartoon at
my house nowadays, and it's mademe a better man.
I want to say I'm a decentfather, but I also.
(03:51):
This past Father's Day, Istarted looking at my actions
like a child in God's eyes, youknow, because I'm not perfect
and, michelle, that's why I'vethrown this question over to you
, and I, michelle, that's whyI've thrown this question over
to you.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
As a father.
How patient was your fatherwith you growing up as a kid?
It depends on what we weredoing and, honestly, it depends
if you're talking about in earlychildhood or about the time my
grandfather passed away.
My dad kind of became adifferent person, so he was
(04:35):
still always a good dad.
It's just that after his dadpassed away, he wanted to make
sure that none of us everquestioned how he felt about us.
So he was more convicted aboutshowing it and telling us and,
and you know, being moreaffectionate and I.
It took me years to realize whenit happened Um, it just kind of
(04:57):
was, I guess, gradual, but itwas a decision he made.
And one thing I'll say abouthim is, um, kind of like you
know, like we look at how God is, he follows through.
So if he tells you he's goingto do something, he's going to
do it, and if he decides thathe's going to do something,
he'll do it, and so he'strustworthy that way, and I just
(05:18):
I it depends on when you say it.
So I think he's, he's, he's,he's great, he can have some
patience, but if he's reallybusy, look out.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Well, and I was thinking about that throughout
your childhood and intoadulthood how a relationship
like that can change.
And my eight-year-old she needs.
Well, I got to watch her everyminute.
You know what I mean.
Like she's just running aroundthe house a million miles an
hour.
She can get into everything.
We call her the little rascalaround here.
She's just 100 miles an hour.
(05:50):
Now my teenager.
I got to watch her too, don'tget me wrong, but I've come to
try and I don't know give hermore wisdom instead of
necessarily putting up moreguardrails.
You know, I see the guardrailscoming down and I try to
(06:11):
encourage her to prove herselfto be able to take more
guardrails down as she continuesto get older.
The advice my role is justchanging and I didn't really
sense that until maybe aboutthree months ago or something.
It's just, it's just changing.
So I'm glad you said that aboutthe role of your father.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And don't get me wrong, I was definitely.
My mama was my my best friendand still is.
For the most part, I have my mybest best friend, but my mom's
right up there, so I don't wantto sell her short either.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yes, yes, Pierre, as as a dad yourself, right, as a
dad yourself, how?
How do you handle differentsituations with your daughter of
, just like when she does wrong?
Are you a stern punisher or areyou kind of like, you know, let
her get away with everything?
I could see you being the onethat lets her get away with
stuff and Michelle having tocome in lay down the hammer.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
No, it's the complete opposite.
I'm pretty stern.
I've tried to lighten up alittle bit as she's gotten older
.
I don't know.
So I was raised, obviouslywe've talked about by a single
mom.
My dad was around a little bitbut he passed away senior year
in college.
(07:25):
It was one of those establisheddominance type of ordeals for me
, if I'm being honest, like Iwanted to have her respect
really early on and that's kindof just continued on as I know
what teenage boys are likebecause I was a teenage boy.
(07:46):
I want to be prepared for that.
She's a pretty little girl.
I need to have that healthyfear I want to say in her to
just be able to listen to me,know when I'm serious, and
things along those lines.
I've definitely been a bit onthe stern side.
I have patience, I can practice.
I've definitely been a bit onthe stern side.
I have patience, I can practice.
I pray for patience all thetime.
(08:07):
I'm actually afraid of, youknow, what might come of that if
I don't get my act together atsome point.
But I feel like I've gottenbetter at being patient as she's
gotten older, as she's able tokind of understand things a bit
more.
You know you can definitelyhave deeper and better
conversations than kind of havethe kid, where it's just you
know a learning type of stagefor them.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, I hear what you're saying, because I
struggled with that too and I'mglad to hear you say that you
struggled with that dominancething.
You wanted to show dominancebecause I didn't have that
father growing up either and soI didn't necessarily get to see
the patience part with things.
I just felt like I needed toshow dominance and I think I've
gotten better at not having tobe I don't want to say
(08:52):
physically, but maybe vocallydominant and stuff like that as
time's gone on and I see God'srole changing too, depending on
the person that he's dealingwith in the Bible.
The person that he's dealingwith in the Bible, you know just
how he handles people, maybehow stern he is with them.
Maybe it's a relationship thingwhere that person themselves
(09:12):
has earned maybe a little bitmore respect from God.
I don't know how that'snecessarily working, but I just
think about how he treatedAbraham and how he treated Noah
and how he treated Moses.
And those people were looked atas those pillars in the Old
Testament and we see how God wasreally friendly with them.
It seems like, you know, he wasrescuing them out of certain
(09:36):
situations and he never reallyhad to bring the hammer down on
them too hard.
Moses and I know there was alldifferent instances throughout
there, but it's just interestingto see how he related with each
one of them.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
For sure.
I think there was definitely apatience there, but there's also
non-patience, I feel, with Godat times in the Bible.
Or maybe it's just aconsequence, like sometimes we
could see it as being impatient,but maybe at a point there
comes a consequence and I feellike that can sometimes be
(10:11):
healthy.
And even with the fear piece Ifeel like there's a healthy fear
when it comes to God,especially some of the things we
know we're not supposed to bedoing, when it comes from right,
from wrong, things like that.
So I feel like there's ahealthy feel there.
But I get it Like some of thoseOld Testament you know,
individuals there was somepatience with, but there was
(10:33):
also, you know, someconsequences if you're mocking
God or, you know, laughing atthe fact that you know he's
going to do what he says he'sgoing to do.
You know he had his image thatwe get from him at times as well
wasn't always very, you know,light and bright.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Okay.
So this is what I do now withthe teenager.
I give her information and Ihave to repeat myself several
times.
Sometimes it's a dailyinformation.
Maybe I should just write thisstuff down and pin it to her
door so she could see it everytime she comes out.
That way I wouldn't have torepeat myself, right?
But I give her informationabout life and it's almost to
(11:15):
the point to where it's like OK,I've given you the information,
now you're you have to do withthat information, what you need
to do with it.
I've told you what you need todo Now you got to do with that
information, what you need to dowith it.
I've told you what you need todo Now you got to do it.
And if she doesn't do it, ormaybe she does it wrong, she's
going to have to suffer thoseconsequences, and those
consequences might not come fromme.
You know, those guardrails areup.
(11:35):
Those guardrails were myconsequences, but pretty soon
it's going to be life'sconsequences that come her
direction if she doesn't listento those directions.
You know what I mean.
Michelle, is that making sense?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I look back even at mylife and go my parents equipped
me very well, but I had to learnsome of those lessons all on my
own and so many times I'vethought, man, if I would have
just listened to them, I neverwould have had to go through
(12:09):
that.
So yeah, it's absolutely true,and I'm sure God feels the same
way about us.
Like I tried to tell you andthat's what he did too.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
In the Old Testament, god gave them the information.
He said don't do this, or thisis going to happen.
And they do it and or theydon't do it.
And that's what happens.
And sometimes he has to be theone to put up those guardrails
to not let them destroythemselves.
And sometimes he let themsuffer the consequences, like
when Egypt came and took theIsraelites and made them the
(12:38):
slaves, and then they had to cryout to God to be released from
that kind of punishment.
I think too to the story ofNaaman.
You guys remember that storyfrom the Old Testament.
You remember he was a captainof the army.
This is in 2 Kings, chapter 5.
He was a captain of the army ofthe king of Aram and he was a
(12:58):
great man.
Naaman was a great man and hewas highly respected because the
Lord had given him victoryseveral times.
The man was a valiant warrior.
But here's the thing withNaaman he was a leper, so he
suffered from leprosy.
Now there's a little girl thatwas taken captive at some point
(13:20):
and she waited on Naaman's wife,so she was kind of a servant to
Naaman's wife, and you know,and she waited on Naaman's wife,
so she was kind of a servant toNaaman's wife.
And you know, I could see thatwhere, like, the wife has this
little servant girl and youalmost adopt them as your own,
you know, and stuff like that.
And the little servant girl shesaid to her mistress, I wish
that my master Naaman were withthe prophet who was in Samaria,
(13:41):
then he would cure him of hisleprosy.
So the little Israelite said,hey, I know somebody who could
make you better, I know somebodywho could cure you.
And so Naaman went to the kingand he told her what the little
girl had said.
And the king said, well, hop toit.
Then, man, just go, go, go.
And Naaman brought with him—nowlisten, this is pretty cool.
(14:03):
He brought a letter from theking and the king had sent a
letter to Israel already.
And then it says that—where'dit go?
Where'd it go?
Oh, here it is.
He departed and took with himten talents of silver, six
thousand shekels of gold and tenchanges of clothes.
(14:23):
Don't ask me why I don't knowhow much that meant, but it
meant a lot.
It meant a lot, yeah, maybe.
So I didn't think about that.
Made it simple for me, michelle.
So he does that.
And then he goes and he'strying to find Elisha right, and
that was a prophet of God.
And so he goes there and hefinds him.
This is what Elisha told him todo.
(14:45):
Naaman came with horses andchariots, stood at the doorway
of the house of Elisha andElisha sent a messenger to him
saying Go and wash in the Jordanseven times and your flesh
shall be restored to you and youshall be cleaned.
That's it.
That seems easy, Right, that?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
seems easy right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Naaman was furious and he went away and said Behold
, I thought he would surely comeout to me and stand and call on
the name of the Lord, his God,wave his hands all over the
place and cure the leper.
That's not what he did.
I don't know if Naaman wantedto show, I don't know what
Naaman wanted, but Naaman didn'tget what he wanted.
And God says this is how youcan be cleaned, this is what you
(15:29):
could do through his prophetElijah.
I look at that as like aguardrail for us and for life.
a little bit too, and ourexpectations and what do we want
from God?
Right, we kind of make itconditional, don't we, pierre
(15:51):
Like if we're going to serve himor follow him sometimes we, we
kind of make it conditional Ifyou do this, I'll do that for
you.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It can definitely get that way in prayer and requests
, but I think, even more so now,like we're a see it to believe
it type of generation and Ithink even when you look at
Naaman, like it could have beena simple, it can't be, you know,
that easy, like an unbelief, adisbelief that just basically,
(16:21):
you know, cleaning himself seventimes is going to kill him.
And I mean we think that as well, like we get told you know the
faith of a mustard seed and youknow we can move a mountain, but
in our mind do we reallybelieve that?
Do we truly believe that wecould physically, you know, move
a mountain or whatever thatanalogy might be?
We'd have to see it with ourown eyes to believe it.
(16:43):
And I feel like that's kind ofthe moment for Naaman, like he's
expecting, you know, to have tokind of pay his way through it
and then something miraculousand spectacular is going to
happen before his eyes.
And when he's told to basicallygo take a bath seven times,
there's a frustration there thatprobably a disbelief is kind of
how I read it and take it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Like I came all this way, went through all this just
for you to tell me to.
So you know, take a bath seventimes seriously.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Rumor is the Jordan River was nasty.
I'm just going to be honestwith you.
That's what the rumor is thatthe Jordan River was nasty.
In verse 12 of that samechapter, chapter five Naaman
says are not Abania and Parfar?
I'm totally making those wordsup, probably.
I mean, I'm not making them up,they're here in the Bible, but
my pronunciation skills are abit lacking at times, right?
(17:33):
So I just go through it.
I make them up, I say how Ilook at it, how I read it, and
that's how I look at it.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
And there's some difficult names to pronounce
when I first started reading theBible.
I just skipped that when Ifirst started reading the Bible.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I just skipped the name stuff because it was too
much.
I think I did too, and then Istarted having fun just trying
to read the names.
I'm phonetically challenged.
I'll be happy to admit it.
I learned to read from bathroomwalls, Pierre, so it doesn't
faze me.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
A lot of phone numbers.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And men from Nantuckets Are not Abanya and
Parfar, the rivers of Damascusbetter than all the rivers of
Israel where the Jordan Riverwas.
Could I not wash in them and beclean?
So he turned and went awayangry.
And then his servants came nearand spoke to him and said my
father had the prophet told youto do some great thing.
(18:23):
Would you not have done it?
No-transcript.
So Naaman went down, dippedhimself seven times in the
Jordan, according to the word ofthe man of the God, and his
flesh was restored like theflesh of a little child, and he
was clean.
How about that?
He returned to the man of Godwith all his company and came
(18:46):
and stood before him and he saidBehold, now I know that there
is no God in all the earth, butthe one in Israel.
So please take a present fromyour servant now.
But he said as the Lord lives,before whom I stand, I will take
nothing.
So Naaman wanted to pay forthis, but it was a free gift
(19:08):
from God, right?
And we sometimes are like thattoo.
When we ask God for things, wedon't realize that he is our
father.
And so I'm trying to wrap thisall back around to Father's Day.
Y'all, my kids.
(19:29):
I don't know what they give me.
You know, like, at Father's Day, I got a bag of Starbursts.
By the way, that was a coupleof days ago.
Starbursts are almost gone.
They got me a little bag ofcandy corn.
That was gone day one.
Right, I'm going to be workingon some fruit chews, Tootsie
Pops, after that, tootsie RollsAll three of my favorites.
They know me, they know what toget me, right?
Yeah, but I mean, those threelittle bags of don't make up for
(20:03):
what I give them each and everyday.
That wasn't even a meal that Ipaid for them.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
You know, you think about all the stuff you give
them and what they give me onthat time physically is nothing.
But that's not what our kidsgive us, is it?
Yeah, and I see how you can tiethat in Like I've gotten better
at kind of realizing like thatnothing here's like mine.
Um, we always kind of go intolike materialism and our own
possessions, but nothing's ours,even the, the money that we
(20:25):
think we earn it's.
It's not ours, like it'stechnically paper that someone
kind of came up with which Iwish I could find the person
that started like monetizingthings back in history to make
this life a little moredifficult, but it's not ours.
And you know, we're given somuch each and every day, from
from life, to, obviously, grace,to mercy, to the air we breathe
(20:49):
, like we're given all this andthere's there's no way that we
can repay God, you know, back,just like there's really no way
our kids can pay us back a lotof the things that we do.
Sometimes.
You know, they get pretty closewhen you know we're given the
privilege to live to an old ageand then they're taking care of
us like we took care of them.
But yeah, I mean it's kind of asimilar concept.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
But yeah, I mean it's kind of a similar concept, like
we can't give God back anythingthat you know he's given us on
that platform, including his ownhumanly life, when you know he
came in the form of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Michelle, what does your daughter, what does she
give you?
A lot, I mean, and very seldomis it, just like you know,
certainly not monetary thingsher love, and so I think that's
a really good representation ofwhat God is looking for from us,
(21:50):
and you know like she makes myheart smile, so I'll tell you
what and this is this is hardfor me to say, just because I I
didn't, I didn't want the thing,but one of the the best things
about a dog is theirunconditional love.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Like one that's like obviously not been like trained
to fight or something, but justa genuine, you know dog that you
like raise as a puppy.
I don't think there's a betterexample of unconditional love
than a dog like.
No matter what you do, you canget frustrated at it, you can
forget to feed it, forget to letit out, you can yell for it, go
(22:32):
lay down and all these things,but as soon as you call it over,
tails wagging, nubs waggingthey're happy to see you,
they're licking you like.
That's just.
For me it's a good example ofunconditional love.
And our dog at times drives mecrazy the way he follows me
around and stares at me, but atthe end of the day, like I, I
(22:53):
had no doubt you know how thatdog feels about me and you know
that's an unconditional lovethat I think was probably put on
this earth to help.
They say man's best friend um, Ican disagree with that all I
want, but you know I I feel likewe're, we're his best friends.
You have a dog.
You're probably, you know, yourdog's best friend if you're a
listener and I just feel likethat's a an unconditional love.
(23:14):
And you know your dog's bestfriend if you're a listener and
I just feel like that's anunconditional love and how you
know really animals and pets,specifically dogs, become such a
big part of families and justbecause they can show basically
their whole household, you knowhow to love unconditionally,
regardless of you know whatthey're put through as an animal
and we should do the sameregardless of what we're put
through as a human being.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I wish I could love God like that.
I'm afraid, I'm afraid I'm alittle bit more like my children
.
You know where I'm, I am, uh,I'm, I'm probably not grateful
enough.
Well, I know I'm not.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I.
I know I ask for more than Igive.
Uh, I know I'm not.
I know I ask for more than Igive.
I'm sure my love is conditionalsometimes.
You know, on what did you dofor me lately?
I'm sure that I don't look atall the blessings and see all my
mistakes.
I probably don't look at mymistakes nearly as God does, as
(24:17):
he sees my mistakes.
I fail God and you know mychildren at times make mistakes
and they don't thank me for foodat dinnertime.
You know, all the time theydon't do things to show their
appreciation to the same levelthat I give it of myself to them
(24:41):
, and I think that that's howGod maybe and I like how you
said it, michelle what yourdaughter does is she gives you
love and it makes your heartsmile, and I would like to think
that we can make God's heartsmile too at different times,
and that's what he wants is usto obey Him, and the same
(25:05):
feelings that we have with ourkids whenever they obey us, or
we see their life going well, orwe see them make a good
decision and we're proud of them, or we see their effort and
there's so many different wayswe could look at all this but,
bottom line, god is our Fatherand he's instructed us on how to
for life and godliness here inthis world.
(25:26):
He's instructed us and he'sgiven us the recipes to try and
overcome this world, and it's upto us to be able to take all
those words of advice and listento them and make him proud.
Now, pierre, I told you it feltlike five months ago what I
wanted this episode to be about.
Right, I don't know how longago it was, I don't know and it
(25:52):
was still true what I wantedthis episode to be about,
because I was praying for ourlisteners.
Just like I say at the end ofthe show pray for us and we'll
pray for you.
I was praying for our listeners.
I don't know the listeners.
I sometimes we get thesecomments over here on on the
listening platform that peoplelisten to it on.
Sometimes they leave uscomments.
It's great to hear from y'all.
By the way, just love it.
(26:12):
I can put a name with almost aface okay.
That's what I can almost do, butI pray for the listeners
because I don't know what peopleare going through.
But boy, it struck me to do alesson about this, to do a
lesson about God's forgiveness,god's love, and I know we talk
about that sometimes.
(26:32):
But, man, it struck me that dayand he's given us this recipe
to have our sins washed away andbasically that's repentance,
just like Naaman did.
I mean, naaman was dirty, right, he's a dirty man with leprosy.
I was a dirty man with sin.
You might be a dirty man.
Listeners might be a dirtypeople with sin.
(26:54):
No-transcript right.
And then you hear of somebodywho can get rid of the leprosy,
who can get rid of the sickness,who can get rid of the sin in
your life, and you're like, okay, what do I need to do?
So you go there, you talk tohim for a minute, you're like,
(27:15):
what do I need to do?
And maybe he tells you to godip seven times in the Jordan
River.
What's your Jordan River?
Maybe he tells you you got toquit drinking, you got to quit
smoking, you got to quit cursing, you got to quit womanizing,
you got to quit.
But what is it?
What's the sin you got to laydown.
But you're like, isn't theresomething else I could do?
(27:43):
Just like Naaman, right, ormaybe I'm not worthy to be
forgiven of sins?
Maybe Naaman thought that too.
Maybe Naaman thought that, withthe leprosy, that's it, that's
all I got to do.
No, I need to do more than that.
This leprosy has taken over mylife.
This leprosy has made me sleepin a different house than my
family.
This leprosy has just ruled mefor so long that it can't be
that simple.
Maybe you think that way aboutsin.
(28:07):
I've done so much bad, I'vedone so many things wrong.
It has ruined my life.
I have ruined my life.
It can't be as simple as sayingto God I'm sorry, I'm going to
dedicate my life to you fromhere on out, but that's
essentially what it is.
And then trying getting on thehorse, like Naaman did, and
(28:29):
going to the Jordan River,wherever that is, and doing what
he says to do.
And that's the beauty of it,y'all.
It's the beauty of repentance.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
You do it, you accept it and you go on.
I think the obstacle ismultiple times.
And so we talk about the JordanRiver.
You know there's seven times hewas clean, but what happens if
he becomes unclean down the road?
And I think that's where a lotof people struggle.
(29:12):
So you know it says to pick upyour cross daily and I think
that's the toughest part is soyou, you might, and most people,
once they've repented, oncethey even get baptized, like
there's a renewal, like early onin that process, when you feel
rejuvenated, but but lifecontinues to happen.
You know you maybe get back,surround yourself with bad
(29:34):
people, or with people thatdon't have your best interests
in mind, or with just othersthat maybe are nonbelievers or
maybe are believers but just notgood for you.
Or another thing happens from,you know, maybe a medical
standpoint, or a healthstandpoint, a financial
standpoint.
Something else takes place,financial standpoint.
(29:54):
Something else takes place thatkind of just ejects you and the
obstacle is again picking it upthat cross daily and believing,
you know, that God can do itagain, that he'll forgive you
again, that you'll, you know, becleansed or healed or whatever
you're facing again.
It's hard to do it over andover again.
(30:15):
It's hard to repeat thatprocess and you don't oftentimes
see that in the Bible.
There's some examples, you know, where folks kind of go back
into their their bad habitsagain, but it's not a one stop.
You know everything's fixed.
The life doesn't work that way.
Like other things pop up and Ithink that's where the obstacle
(30:37):
is is being able to see God ineach and every instance in which
something gets thrown at you.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Well, I think too that in this day and age,
there's so much instantgratification that, you know,
you see, relationships fizzlereally quickly and people just
move on to the next thing.
And I think the relationshipwith God is probably no
different because, as you, youknow, when a relationship,
whether it's with another humanor with God, is new and exciting
(31:08):
, it's fun, it's, you know, itbrings you that energy, but then
, as you know, the days go on,brings you that energy, but then
, as you know, the days go on,the weeks go on, the years go on
.
It's hard to find those thingsand to get that rejuvenation and
to not just sink into, you know, a lull of what's comfortable
and easy.
And I think our relationshipwith God is very much the same
(31:31):
way that when you're a newbeliever and you've just been
baptized and you're all excited,and then the everyday takes
over, right, like it's hard togo.
Ok, I'm just going to carve outthis time and I'm going to
remind myself to be morethankful today and remember all
these things that he's done.
Sometimes, I'll just be honest,like for me, sometimes that's
overwhelming and and I don'tknow why it shouldn't be.
(31:52):
I mean, gosh, he has blessed mebeyond what I could ever ask
for.
So I mean, I know, if that'sthe case for me sometimes, I
can't imagine that it wouldn'tbe that way for other people as
well.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It's a relationship with God, right.
Just the same as your child'srelationship is with you.
A child and a father, right.
My daughter is my daughter.
She is blood of my blood andflesh of my blood, kind of a
boat of my boat, almost to somedegree.
You know what I mean.
Like she is my daughter,there's nothing she can do that
(32:28):
will take that love away from us, that bond that we have
together.
There's just nothing.
She's going to make mistakes,she's going to make a ton of
mistakes, and it doesn't meanthat I'm not going to continue
to love her, the same as aChristian with a heavenly father
or a person with a heavenlyfather.
It doesn't mean that God's notgoing to love you.
He's your father, you're achild.
(32:51):
He understands.
And if he doesn't understand,that's why Jesus is our mediator
between us and him, becauseJesus could say hey, man, I've
been there, I've been there,done that.
I've lost my temper on earthtoo, god, it's not as easy as
you think.
Okay, to keep your tongue.
God said so.
I mean, he's the mediator.
(33:12):
That's why.
That's why he was there.
I can't help but think aboutRomans, chapter six, whenever we
talk about Naaman and we talkabout a child, god and all those
things Paul writes in hereabout being baptized, we can see
what the baptism part does forus as well.
You know, maybe maybe somebodydid repent here, michelle, maybe
somebody has repented, but theyjust feel like, hey, I'm
(33:33):
missing something, maybe it'sbaptism.
You know, maybe somebody hasrepented, but they just feel
like, hey, I'm missing something, maybe it's baptism.
You know, maybe you haven'tgone all the way, maybe you
haven't made that publicproclamation of faith and told
the world, hey, I'm done, I'mdone, I'm dipping in the Jordan
River seven times is what I'mgoing to do.
Verse one.
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin?
(33:54):
That grace may increase afterwe've repented?
May it never be.
How shall we who died to sinstill be, still live in it?
Or do you not know that all ofus who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptizedinto his death?
Therefore, we have been buriedwith him through baptism into
death, in order that, as Christwas raised from the dead through
the glory of his father, we toomight walk a newness of life.
(34:16):
Boy, that sounds like beingborn again, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Sure does it, does it ?
Does I mean again, it feelsthat way, like when he got
baptized four or five Easter'sago, and it's just.
It feels like a new life, likeyou just feel like a different
person.
Your mentality's changed andyou know a lot of the things
that I turned away from, Ihaven't turned back to, which is
(34:41):
great, but there's, there'sbeen a couple of things that you
do turn back to and you're like, well, crap, now how do you get
, how do you get through it?
And it can be difficult, and Iknow we mentioned, like our, our
own children, but like ourchildren can, can get that
instant gratification from usbeing here, um, here on earth,
(35:03):
like as long as we're around,like we can go up and we can
talk to them and say, hey, it'sokay, we can give them a hug.
And I think there's there'soften a longing for that at
times when it comes to ourHeavenly Father, and there could
be times where he's trying tospeak to us and we're just too
busy, too chaotic, too emotionalto hear him.
(35:23):
But I mean you look at some ofthe Old Testament stuff, like he
was showing up in clouds anddoing all these things, and I
think there's times where we wewant that, even though it
probably terrifies, and we'd bejoining him rather quickly, but
those are just it's just adifferent type of gratification,
as Michelle kind of said, thatwe're we're wanting that instant
(35:44):
gratification and we're justnot willing to to to wait for
answers like they really did inthe Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
The long haul, naaman , it said.
Whenever he came up out of thatwater, his skin, his flesh was
like that of a little child,remember that.
So it's like he was kind of hisflesh, was kind of born again
to some degree, and I can onlyimagine not only his flesh and
his appearance of his flesh butjust think of his countenance,
(36:14):
his joy that he must have hadthat the leprosy was gone, you
know.
The shock too.
I can still remember it feelslike 900 years ago at this point
, when I was baptized man, I washappy.
You know.
It just does something to you.
I can't explain, and it wasn'tjust because the water was
freezing cold.
It does something to you.
It's a symbolic thing and we doa lot of symbolic things to try
(36:38):
and unite us to differentthings.
Pierre, I'm sure you've.
You know you wear your Coltsjersey on game day, hoping that
you know Anthony Richardsonwon't get injured that Sunday or
whatever it is you got to do tohelp prevent that.
But you know we do things as asymbolic nature to to get us
closer to the environment thatwe're rooting for or to the team
(37:00):
that we're rooting for orwhatever it is.
And this is the same thing withbaptism right.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Michelle's definitely more the the superstitious when
it comes to football, likeshe'll stand in the same spot
three hours straight, not usethe restroom or anything if
they're going well so I can't.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
I can't even go 30 minutes without using the
restroom, verse five.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
I mean I'm, I'll get up and she'll get mad.
I'm like I'm a coast fan, I canget up.
I want to get up.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I'm like you're going to ruin it.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
If we have become united with him in the likeness
of his death, certainly we willalso be in the likeness of his
resurrection, knowing this, thatour old self was crucified with
him, that our body of sin wasdone away with, that we should
no longer be slaves to sin, forhe who has died is freed from
sin.
Now, look, we all know that wedidn't get resurrected from this
(38:00):
physical world, so we're notfree from sin, but we are free
from sin.
Our old stuff is washed away,we get a new life.
But here's the thing it's acontinual forgiveness kind of a
thing.
Once you're in Christ, once youare a child of God, once you've
made that commitment, don't getdown on yourself.
Just like a father alwaysforgives their children and they
(38:26):
never lose my last name, youknow what I mean.
They will always have thoseties to me.
They will never be able toescape that.
My children are my children,period, and there was nothing
that they could do about it tostart with, and there's nothing
they can do about it at the end.
(38:46):
They are my kids and I'm goingto love them until I die.
So you know this is God'sforgiveness here For the death
that he died.
Jesus died.
He died once for all the lifethat he lives.
He lives to God.
Even so, consider yourselves tobe dead to sin, but alive to God
(39:09):
in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, do not let sin reignin your mortal body, that you
should obey its lust, and do notgo on for presenting the
members of your body as aninstrument of sin to the
unrighteousness, but presentyourselves to God as those alive
from the dead and your membersas instruments of the
righteousness to God.
I think that is a key verse tobe able to know how to I don't
(39:31):
know repay God for these things,because he says your body is
his.
Go to work now, find theopportunities that he has put
you in to speak up for him, todo some kind of good deed, to do
the things that he's asked youto do.
All the different rules.
I say rules.
(39:51):
They're not rules, they'reguidelines.
They're guidelines in life forus and for other people and who
we affect, and so he's justtrying to make us an instrument
here, and once you are forgiven,I think your instrumentational
uses can be a lot more, becauseyou're not trying to— that's a
(40:12):
big word for me.
I like it.
I think I put it all as oneword too.
Whatever I was saying, it wasactually spelling out in my mind
and it just never stopped.
I was like, okay, let's justkeep going with that one word.
I don't even know what I said,but anyway, once you have that
forgiveness, it's that clean,fresh air that you have to be
able to make you go and dothings for him and try to repay
(40:35):
him for the stuff.
But, man, I could never repayhim for all that he's given me,
just like a child could neverrepay me for all.
They could get me all theStarburst jelly beans they want.
They could never repay me forit.
Right, and I give it to himfreely, and I give them things
gladly.
That's what I do, and I thinkthat's what God does for us too.
(40:55):
Y'all.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, and we I mean we talked about options, our
very first episode, and that'swhat life is like, that's what
the whole free will, I think,takes place is.
He gives us, you know, thefreedom to make choices.
It says we give our kidsfreedom to, you know, ultimately
grow into who they want to beLike.
We, we try to help them alongthe way, but we let them make
(41:18):
their own decisions, their ownchoices, and he does the same
for us.
And you know, you got to hope,at the end of the day, that you
make, you know, the decisionsand choices that that point you
to him and keep you closest tohim.
And if not, unfortunately weknow what that, that alternative
, alternative is to to not havehis presence around.
So, options, options.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeah, yeah, first episode, I think michelle was
options.
You know that was.
You know how many episodes agothat was michelle?
Do I what?
You know how many episodes agothat was?
I don't me either, because I'veconfused myself.
I don't know if this is episode29 or if this is episode 28.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I believe this is 29, which is pretty cool.
Next one's a milestone at 30.
We reached a recent milestonewhich was kind of shocking,
given that we haven't recordedin a while.
Do you know what that milestonewas?
Wes, since you're askingquestions and pop quizzes, One
million downloads, pierre, notone million, no but 10,000,
(42:20):
which is really, really cool.
So yeah, I never even imaginedthat it would get to that point.
Ever, honestly, I thought wemight get a couple people.
Never even imagined that itwould get to that point like um,
ever like, honestly, like Ithought we might get a couple
people, a couple family andfriends listening here there.
So to reach 10 000 downloadsbefore our 30th episode was just
truly impressive.
(42:41):
Um, all glory to god on that isthank you all for for listening
and tuning in.
If you're listening and tuningin now, sorry again for the
hiatus, but I think this goes toshow that we are in fact human
and true to what we say, thatwe're just normal people.
We we run into normal issuesand health issues that prevent
us from meeting.
But, uh, a sincere thank youfor the the 10 000 you know,
(43:04):
listens and downloads that wehave to.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
This point means a lot yeah, and we're still trying
this time to not let us recordLike I'm under the weather.
Wes had some computer issueslike, but we we pushed through
and we made it so.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
We did, and I got a little rascal running around the
house trying to disturb everysecond.
To this I guarantee, hey, thatbeing said, we do appreciate you
guys listening and downloading,shared it with your friends and
all those things.
We don't charge anything forthis, which rightfully so.
We shouldn't charge for this.
It's a free gift.
This is our gift to you.
(43:39):
We are instruments of God.
I think this is a gift to youfrom God.
If I can say that, I don't wantto speak for him or anything
like that, but I know we're allthree led by the Spirit to be
able to do something like this.
So I'm just going to say it'sfrom him to you and I hope that
it is a blessing to you.
We would love to hear from you,not for any monetary things or
(44:00):
anything like that.
We'd just love to hear from you.
I love to pray for thingsspecifically.
So if you have somethingspecific that you'd like us to
pray for, Pierre, how would theyget in touch with us privately?
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Pierre, how would they get in touch with us
privately?
Findingfaith LosingSleep atgmailcom.
We're also available over on X,formerly known as Twitter, at
FindingFaithPod, and we havesome still of our recordings up
on YouTube as well, so you cango like us over on YouTube.
(44:28):
You can leave us a commentthere and we'll check those out
also.
So a new feature for us now.
Youtube Huh, youtube, it'sstill an image of our cover art,
but all of our episodes areuploaded there.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Oh yeah, I mean I have had the idea of getting
cartoon figures.
We could do the video thing too.
I mean we could.
But I'm just telling you I havehad the idea of getting cartoon
figures.
We could do the video thing too, I mean we could.
But I'm just telling you I amin and out of the picture.
I don't want.
I mean I'm leaning far over tomy left right now just because
that feels comfortable to meright now and I will grab this
microphone and I will lean tothe right.
I have grabbed the microphoneand I have walked around the
(45:04):
house with the computer in myhand while I'm talking before on
the show the computer in myhand while I'm talking.
Before on this episode on theshow I've sat outside you know
just different things like thatleaning left, leaning right.
Thought you like the fiveheartbeats or something just
over there and look, here's thething if share it, you got many
platforms to share withdifferent people, so now people
can listen to it at work.
They can have it on thebackground, I guess, while
they're working.
(45:24):
I've never, ever.
Don't tell anybody, pierre,because I know in the fantasy
football world that you and Ilive in as well, so many people
do things on YouTube and I'venever watched anybody's show on
YouTube.
I just don't sit down and watchYouTube.
Okay, I don't do it.
I research how to fix brokenthings on YouTube.
That's all I do on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Our daughter does.
She can give you a tutorial.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
All right, you can keep going there can give you a
tutorial.
All right, youtube can't put itthere, but I'm hopping on
iSupport just because I hope thefolks support me, support us,
so I get on there.
Yeah, I just wanted to giveanother platform.
Again, it's nothing fancy, butgo ahead.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or they can learn a lot of dirton me from past episodes as
well.
You can do that.
But if you have anything youwould like for us to share any
questions, comments, concerns orany of that stuff feel free
just to leave a comment inwhatever listening platform you
do listen to the show on, andwe'll be happy to either read it
or you can say don't share, andwe won't share that either.
So I just would love to hearfrom you, as somebody who likes
(46:28):
to put imaginary faces withnames and I do that all the time
whenever I'm reading the Bibleanyway- I used the chosen.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
now those are the faces I have with the Bible.
We talked about that.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Hey, yeah, hey.
You two went out stalking theJesus character from the chosen,
or something like that, didn'tyou?
Speaker 3 (46:48):
We didn't stalk.
We were at the Kayla Fan Awardsand got some photos.
I had the little one out there.
If you follow on X, you'll seesome of her celeb encounters
that she had on there Gave ussome representation on the
Finding Faith pod during ourhiatus.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Did anybody say hi to me?
Speaker 3 (47:08):
They did not.
No, I did get an email recentlyfor someone wanting to come on
the show, but they messaged itto Michelle.
So again, they must not listento know that I'm the one that
mans that account.
So if you're going to try toget a guest on here, at least
know who runs the account.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
It'll be a lot more believable that you actually
listen.
Yes, it will, and listen, we doappreciate it.
10,000 downloads.
Never thought that would happen, but we so very much are
thankful for you guys and, as Ialways say, if you pray for us,
we will definitely pray for you.
It's time to wake up and be a hero on the Finding
Faith in Losing Sleep podcast.
The thing is, I'm Wesley, oneof your hosts at Loafinit on
Twitter, and I have with me twopeople that have been missing in
action.
They could probably blame meand say I was missing in action
as well, and that's fine, that'sfair.
That's fair.
We were all missing in action.
Maybe Seasons have changed,those schedules have changed,
(00:25):
but here we are back again onthis Finding Faith and Losing
Sleep podcast.
Michelle and Pierre are with meas well.
Hello Michelle, hello Pierre.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hi Wes.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
What's going on?
How are we doing?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm doing fine.
How's old Indiana this time ofyear?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's hot, it's really hot, which I'm not.
Not gonna complain because Idon't like the winter we know
michelle does but it's like 90plus degrees.
It's humid, so it's.
It's a good time to have airconditioning that works, that's
true, one of our cars airconditioners went out.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, that that's, uh, that's a little
taste of torment, is what thatis?
You know, that'll, that'll,that'll help you make it.
You make yourself get rightwith Jesus real quick, because
you're like, hey, if it'sanything like this, we don't
want anything to do with hell.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
What's the temperature down there?
Is it warmer or cooler?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
No, no, it was a very mild spring to be a long spring
and then just this past week itstarted getting up there in
that 100 area, but today it'slike 88, something like that.
So it's nice church leaguesoftball weather, which I have a
little bit later on.
Today We've got a doubleheader,so I am very thankful for the
80s tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I bet you are, and good luck whenever that game
starts.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, yeah, well, thank you.
But hey, we're here at theFinding Faith, losing Sleep
podcast and that's enough chitchat about us.
Nobody even cares about us,pierre, nobody even cares about
us, michelle.
They don't want to know aboutour personal lives.
They want to know about whatwe're going to talk about, and
that's I wish we did too.
We don't do a lot of show notes.
I do a little bit of things,michelle and Pierre do their own
research too, but we try tojust be people that come on here
(02:05):
and talk about life and talkabout different life
circumstances that keep us uplate at night thinking about
things, and a lot of times thatends up not only just being
life-oriented orsociety-oriented, but it also
has to do with religion, areligious context, because we
all have our mind's eyes on whatwe could do to please God,
because we realize that there isgoing to be a death that comes
(02:26):
sooner.
Well, maybe not sooner ratherthan later, but eventually there
will be a death that comes andwe will all have to, pierre,
stand before God and giveaccount for our actions here on
this earth.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
That's true.
I mean it kind of is sooner, Imean, each day you get older,
the closer you get to your time,which is crazy to think about.
I know I just had a birthdayand you know I'm just getting
closer.
You're not getting closer tolife, you're getting closer to
that call home, hopefully, andso it's a reality.
(03:00):
But yeah, it's unique, it'sdifferent as you age, a little
bit at least.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Michelle, you talk more about your father, I think,
on this podcast than Pierre orI do Both of us, we've told our
stories before a little bitabout our fathers and stuff, but
you reference your father andthe wisdom that he gives you and
different things like that.
And this past Sunday wasFather's Day, and it just got my
mind thinking about how Godplays that role of a heavenly
Father towards us and I don'tknow.
(03:29):
It also made me, though, thistime flip the switch and it made
me think about myself as achild, Because I have two
children.
I got a 17-year-old and an8-year-old.
I always talk about how it'slike a Tom and Jerry cartoon at
my house nowadays, and it's mademe a better man.
I want to say I'm a decentfather, but I also.
(03:51):
This past Father's Day, Istarted looking at my actions
like a child in God's eyes, youknow, because I'm not perfect
and, michelle, that's why I'vethrown this question over to you
, and I, michelle, that's whyI've thrown this question over
to you.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
As a father.
How patient was your fatherwith you growing up as a kid?
It depends on what we weredoing and, honestly, it depends
if you're talking about in earlychildhood or about the time my
grandfather passed away.
My dad kind of became adifferent person, so he was
(04:35):
still always a good dad.
It's just that after his dadpassed away, he wanted to make
sure that none of us everquestioned how he felt about us.
So he was more convicted aboutshowing it and telling us and,
and you know, being moreaffectionate and I.
It took me years to realize whenit happened Um, it just kind of
(04:57):
was, I guess, gradual, but itwas a decision he made.
And one thing I'll say abouthim is, um, kind of like you
know, like we look at how God is, he follows through.
So if he tells you he's goingto do something, he's going to
do it, and if he decides thathe's going to do something,
he'll do it, and so he'strustworthy that way, and I just
(05:18):
I it depends on when you say it.
So I think he's, he's, he's,he's great, he can have some
patience, but if he's reallybusy, look out.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Well, and I was thinking about that throughout
your childhood and intoadulthood how a relationship
like that can change.
And my eight-year-old she needs.
Well, I got to watch her everyminute.
You know what I mean.
Like she's just running aroundthe house a million miles an
hour.
She can get into everything.
We call her the little rascalaround here.
She's just 100 miles an hour.
(05:50):
Now my teenager.
I got to watch her too, don'tget me wrong, but I've come to
try and I don't know give hermore wisdom instead of
necessarily putting up moreguardrails.
You know, I see the guardrailscoming down and I try to
(06:11):
encourage her to prove herselfto be able to take more
guardrails down as she continuesto get older.
The advice my role is justchanging and I didn't really
sense that until maybe aboutthree months ago or something.
It's just, it's just changing.
So I'm glad you said that aboutthe role of your father.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And don't get me wrong, I was definitely.
My mama was my my best friendand still is.
For the most part, I have my mybest best friend, but my mom's
right up there, so I don't wantto sell her short either.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yes, yes, Pierre, as as a dad yourself, right, as a
dad yourself, how?
How do you handle differentsituations with your daughter of
, just like when she does wrong?
Are you a stern punisher or areyou kind of like, you know, let
her get away with everything?
I could see you being the onethat lets her get away with
stuff and Michelle having tocome in lay down the hammer.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
No, it's the complete opposite.
I'm pretty stern.
I've tried to lighten up alittle bit as she's gotten older
.
I don't know.
So I was raised, obviouslywe've talked about by a single
mom.
My dad was around a little bitbut he passed away senior year
in college.
(07:25):
It was one of those establisheddominance type of ordeals for me
, if I'm being honest, like Iwanted to have her respect
really early on and that's kindof just continued on as I know
what teenage boys are likebecause I was a teenage boy.
(07:46):
I want to be prepared for that.
She's a pretty little girl.
I need to have that healthyfear I want to say in her to
just be able to listen to me,know when I'm serious, and
things along those lines.
I've definitely been a bit onthe stern side.
I have patience, I can practice.
I've definitely been a bit onthe stern side.
I have patience, I can practice.
I pray for patience all thetime.
(08:07):
I'm actually afraid of, youknow, what might come of that if
I don't get my act together atsome point.
But I feel like I've gottenbetter at being patient as she's
gotten older, as she's able tokind of understand things a bit
more.
You know you can definitelyhave deeper and better
conversations than kind of havethe kid, where it's just you
know a learning type of stagefor them.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, I hear what you're saying, because I
struggled with that too and I'mglad to hear you say that you
struggled with that dominancething.
You wanted to show dominancebecause I didn't have that
father growing up either and soI didn't necessarily get to see
the patience part with things.
I just felt like I needed toshow dominance and I think I've
gotten better at not having tobe I don't want to say
(08:52):
physically, but maybe vocallydominant and stuff like that as
time's gone on and I see God'srole changing too, depending on
the person that he's dealingwith in the Bible.
The person that he's dealingwith in the Bible, you know just
how he handles people, maybehow stern he is with them.
Maybe it's a relationship thingwhere that person themselves
(09:12):
has earned maybe a little bitmore respect from God.
I don't know how that'snecessarily working, but I just
think about how he treatedAbraham and how he treated Noah
and how he treated Moses.
And those people were looked atas those pillars in the Old
Testament and we see how God wasreally friendly with them.
It seems like, you know, he wasrescuing them out of certain
(09:36):
situations and he never reallyhad to bring the hammer down on
them too hard.
Moses and I know there was alldifferent instances throughout
there, but it's just interestingto see how he related with each
one of them.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
For sure.
I think there was definitely apatience there, but there's also
non-patience, I feel, with Godat times in the Bible.
Or maybe it's just aconsequence, like sometimes we
could see it as being impatient,but maybe at a point there
comes a consequence and I feellike that can sometimes be
(10:11):
healthy.
And even with the fear piece Ifeel like there's a healthy fear
when it comes to God,especially some of the things we
know we're not supposed to bedoing, when it comes from right,
from wrong, things like that.
So I feel like there's ahealthy feel there.
But I get it Like some of thoseOld Testament you know,
individuals there was somepatience with, but there was
(10:33):
also, you know, someconsequences if you're mocking
God or, you know, laughing atthe fact that you know he's
going to do what he says he'sgoing to do.
You know he had his image thatwe get from him at times as well
wasn't always very, you know,light and bright.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Okay.
So this is what I do now withthe teenager.
I give her information and Ihave to repeat myself several
times.
Sometimes it's a dailyinformation.
Maybe I should just write thisstuff down and pin it to her
door so she could see it everytime she comes out.
That way I wouldn't have torepeat myself, right?
But I give her informationabout life and it's almost to
(11:15):
the point to where it's like OK,I've given you the information,
now you're you have to do withthat information, what you need
to do with it.
I've told you what you need todo Now you got to do with that
information, what you need to dowith it.
I've told you what you need todo Now you got to do it.
And if she doesn't do it, ormaybe she does it wrong, she's
going to have to suffer thoseconsequences, and those
consequences might not come fromme.
You know, those guardrails areup.
(11:35):
Those guardrails were myconsequences, but pretty soon
it's going to be life'sconsequences that come her
direction if she doesn't listento those directions.
You know what I mean.
Michelle, is that making sense?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I look back even at mylife and go my parents equipped
me very well, but I had to learnsome of those lessons all on my
own and so many times I'vethought, man, if I would have
just listened to them, I neverwould have had to go through
(12:09):
that.
So yeah, it's absolutely true,and I'm sure God feels the same
way about us.
Like I tried to tell you andthat's what he did too.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
In the Old Testament, god gave them the information.
He said don't do this, or thisis going to happen.
And they do it and or theydon't do it.
And that's what happens.
And sometimes he has to be theone to put up those guardrails
to not let them destroythemselves.
And sometimes he let themsuffer the consequences, like
when Egypt came and took theIsraelites and made them the
(12:38):
slaves, and then they had to cryout to God to be released from
that kind of punishment.
I think too to the story ofNaaman.
You guys remember that storyfrom the Old Testament.
You remember he was a captainof the army.
This is in 2 Kings, chapter 5.
He was a captain of the army ofthe king of Aram and he was a
(12:58):
great man.
Naaman was a great man and hewas highly respected because the
Lord had given him victoryseveral times.
The man was a valiant warrior.
But here's the thing withNaaman he was a leper, so he
suffered from leprosy.
Now there's a little girl thatwas taken captive at some point
(13:20):
and she waited on Naaman's wife,so she was kind of a servant to
Naaman's wife, and you know,and she waited on Naaman's wife,
so she was kind of a servant toNaaman's wife.
And you know, I could see thatwhere, like, the wife has this
little servant girl and youalmost adopt them as your own,
you know, and stuff like that.
And the little servant girl shesaid to her mistress, I wish
that my master Naaman were withthe prophet who was in Samaria,
(13:41):
then he would cure him of hisleprosy.
So the little Israelite said,hey, I know somebody who could
make you better, I know somebodywho could cure you.
And so Naaman went to the kingand he told her what the little
girl had said.
And the king said, well, hop toit.
Then, man, just go, go, go.
And Naaman brought with him—nowlisten, this is pretty cool.
(14:03):
He brought a letter from theking and the king had sent a
letter to Israel already.
And then it says that—where'dit go?
Where'd it go?
Oh, here it is.
He departed and took with himten talents of silver, six
thousand shekels of gold and tenchanges of clothes.
(14:23):
Don't ask me why I don't knowhow much that meant, but it
meant a lot.
It meant a lot, yeah, maybe.
So I didn't think about that.
Made it simple for me, michelle.
So he does that.
And then he goes and he'strying to find Elisha right, and
that was a prophet of God.
And so he goes there and hefinds him.
This is what Elisha told him todo.
(14:45):
Naaman came with horses andchariots, stood at the doorway
of the house of Elisha andElisha sent a messenger to him
saying Go and wash in the Jordanseven times and your flesh
shall be restored to you and youshall be cleaned.
That's it.
That seems easy, Right, that?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
seems easy right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Naaman was furious and he went away and said Behold
, I thought he would surely comeout to me and stand and call on
the name of the Lord, his God,wave his hands all over the
place and cure the leper.
That's not what he did.
I don't know if Naaman wantedto show, I don't know what
Naaman wanted, but Naaman didn'tget what he wanted.
And God says this is how youcan be cleaned, this is what you
(15:29):
could do through his prophetElijah.
I look at that as like aguardrail for us and for life.
a little bit too, and ourexpectations and what do we want
from God?
Right, we kind of make itconditional, don't we, pierre
(15:51):
Like if we're going to serve himor follow him sometimes we, we
kind of make it conditional Ifyou do this, I'll do that for
you.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
It can definitely get that way in prayer and requests
, but I think, even more so now,like we're a see it to believe
it type of generation and Ithink even when you look at
Naaman, like it could have beena simple, it can't be, you know,
that easy, like an unbelief, adisbelief that just basically,
(16:21):
you know, cleaning himself seventimes is going to kill him.
And I mean we think that as well, like we get told you know the
faith of a mustard seed and youknow we can move a mountain, but
in our mind do we reallybelieve that?
Do we truly believe that wecould physically, you know, move
a mountain or whatever thatanalogy might be?
We'd have to see it with ourown eyes to believe it.
(16:43):
And I feel like that's kind ofthe moment for Naaman, like he's
expecting, you know, to have tokind of pay his way through it
and then something miraculousand spectacular is going to
happen before his eyes.
And when he's told to basicallygo take a bath seven times,
there's a frustration there thatprobably a disbelief is kind of
how I read it and take it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Like I came all this way, went through all this just
for you to tell me to.
So you know, take a bath seventimes seriously.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Rumor is the Jordan River was nasty.
I'm just going to be honestwith you.
That's what the rumor is thatthe Jordan River was nasty.
In verse 12 of that samechapter, chapter five Naaman
says are not Abania and Parfar?
I'm totally making those wordsup, probably.
I mean, I'm not making them up,they're here in the Bible, but
my pronunciation skills are abit lacking at times, right?
(17:33):
So I just go through it.
I make them up, I say how Ilook at it, how I read it, and
that's how I look at it.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
And there's some difficult names to pronounce
when I first started reading theBible.
I just skipped that when Ifirst started reading the Bible.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I just skipped the name stuff because it was too
much.
I think I did too, and then Istarted having fun just trying
to read the names.
I'm phonetically challenged.
I'll be happy to admit it.
I learned to read from bathroomwalls, Pierre, so it doesn't
faze me.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
A lot of phone numbers.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And men from Nantuckets Are not Abanya and
Parfar, the rivers of Damascusbetter than all the rivers of
Israel where the Jordan Riverwas.
Could I not wash in them and beclean?
So he turned and went awayangry.
And then his servants came nearand spoke to him and said my
father had the prophet told youto do some great thing.
(18:23):
Would you not have done it?
No-transcript.
So Naaman went down, dippedhimself seven times in the
Jordan, according to the word ofthe man of the God, and his
flesh was restored like theflesh of a little child, and he
was clean.
How about that?
He returned to the man of Godwith all his company and came
(18:46):
and stood before him and he saidBehold, now I know that there
is no God in all the earth, butthe one in Israel.
So please take a present fromyour servant now.
But he said as the Lord lives,before whom I stand, I will take
nothing.
So Naaman wanted to pay forthis, but it was a free gift
(19:08):
from God, right?
And we sometimes are like thattoo.
When we ask God for things, wedon't realize that he is our
father.
And so I'm trying to wrap thisall back around to Father's Day.
Y'all, my kids.
(19:29):
I don't know what they give me.
You know, like, at Father's Day, I got a bag of Starbursts.
By the way, that was a coupleof days ago.
Starbursts are almost gone.
They got me a little bag ofcandy corn.
That was gone day one.
Right, I'm going to be workingon some fruit chews, Tootsie
Pops, after that, tootsie RollsAll three of my favorites.
They know me, they know what toget me, right?
Yeah, but I mean, those threelittle bags of don't make up for
(20:03):
what I give them each and everyday.
That wasn't even a meal that Ipaid for them.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
You know, you think about all the stuff you give
them and what they give me onthat time physically is nothing.
But that's not what our kidsgive us, is it?
Yeah, and I see how you can tiethat in Like I've gotten better
at kind of realizing like thatnothing here's like mine.
Um, we always kind of go intolike materialism and our own
possessions, but nothing's ours,even the, the money that we
(20:25):
think we earn it's.
It's not ours, like it'stechnically paper that someone
kind of came up with which Iwish I could find the person
that started like monetizingthings back in history to make
this life a little moredifficult, but it's not ours.
And you know, we're given somuch each and every day, from
from life, to, obviously, grace,to mercy, to the air we breathe
(20:49):
, like we're given all this andthere's there's no way that we
can repay God, you know, back,just like there's really no way
our kids can pay us back a lotof the things that we do.
Sometimes.
You know, they get pretty closewhen you know we're given the
privilege to live to an old ageand then they're taking care of
us like we took care of them.
But yeah, I mean it's kind of asimilar concept.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
But yeah, I mean it's kind of a similar concept, like
we can't give God back anythingthat you know he's given us on
that platform, including his ownhumanly life, when you know he
came in the form of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Michelle, what does your daughter, what does she
give you?
A lot, I mean, and very seldomis it, just like you know,
certainly not monetary thingsher love, and so I think that's
a really good representation ofwhat God is looking for from us,
(21:50):
and you know like she makes myheart smile, so I'll tell you
what and this is this is hardfor me to say, just because I I
didn't, I didn't want the thing,but one of the the best things
about a dog is theirunconditional love.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Like one that's like obviously not been like trained
to fight or something, but justa genuine, you know dog that you
like raise as a puppy.
I don't think there's a betterexample of unconditional love
than a dog like.
No matter what you do, you canget frustrated at it, you can
forget to feed it, forget to letit out, you can yell for it, go
(22:32):
lay down and all these things,but as soon as you call it over,
tails wagging, nubs waggingthey're happy to see you,
they're licking you like.
That's just.
For me it's a good example ofunconditional love.
And our dog at times drives mecrazy the way he follows me
around and stares at me, but atthe end of the day, like I, I
(22:53):
had no doubt you know how thatdog feels about me and you know
that's an unconditional lovethat I think was probably put on
this earth to help.
They say man's best friend um, Ican disagree with that all I
want, but you know I I feel likewe're, we're his best friends.
You have a dog.
You're probably, you know, yourdog's best friend if you're a
listener and I just feel likethat's a an unconditional love.
(23:14):
And you know your dog's bestfriend if you're a listener and
I just feel like that's anunconditional love and how you
know really animals and pets,specifically dogs, become such a
big part of families and justbecause they can show basically
their whole household, you knowhow to love unconditionally,
regardless of you know whatthey're put through as an animal
and we should do the sameregardless of what we're put
through as a human being.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I wish I could love God like that.
I'm afraid, I'm afraid I'm alittle bit more like my children
.
You know where I'm, I am, uh,I'm, I'm probably not grateful
enough.
Well, I know I'm not.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
I.
I know I ask for more than Igive.
Uh, I know I'm not.
I know I ask for more than Igive.
I'm sure my love is conditionalsometimes.
You know, on what did you dofor me lately?
I'm sure that I don't look atall the blessings and see all my
mistakes.
I probably don't look at mymistakes nearly as God does, as
(24:17):
he sees my mistakes.
I fail God and you know mychildren at times make mistakes
and they don't thank me for foodat dinnertime.
You know, all the time theydon't do things to show their
appreciation to the same levelthat I give it of myself to them
(24:41):
, and I think that that's howGod maybe and I like how you
said it, michelle what yourdaughter does is she gives you
love and it makes your heartsmile, and I would like to think
that we can make God's heartsmile too at different times,
and that's what he wants is usto obey Him, and the same
(25:05):
feelings that we have with ourkids whenever they obey us, or
we see their life going well, orwe see them make a good
decision and we're proud of them, or we see their effort and
there's so many different wayswe could look at all this but,
bottom line, god is our Fatherand he's instructed us on how to
for life and godliness here inthis world.
(25:26):
He's instructed us and he'sgiven us the recipes to try and
overcome this world, and it's upto us to be able to take all
those words of advice and listento them and make him proud.
Now, pierre, I told you it feltlike five months ago what I
wanted this episode to be about.
Right, I don't know how longago it was, I don't know and it
(25:52):
was still true what I wantedthis episode to be about,
because I was praying for ourlisteners.
Just like I say at the end ofthe show pray for us and we'll
pray for you.
I was praying for our listeners.
I don't know the listeners.
I sometimes we get thesecomments over here on on the
listening platform that peoplelisten to it on.
Sometimes they leave uscomments.
It's great to hear from y'all.
By the way, just love it.
(26:12):
I can put a name with almost aface okay.
That's what I can almost do, butI pray for the listeners
because I don't know what peopleare going through.
But boy, it struck me to do alesson about this, to do a
lesson about God's forgiveness,god's love, and I know we talk
about that sometimes.
(26:32):
But, man, it struck me that dayand he's given us this recipe
to have our sins washed away andbasically that's repentance,
just like Naaman did.
I mean, naaman was dirty, right, he's a dirty man with leprosy.
I was a dirty man with sin.
You might be a dirty man.
Listeners might be a dirtypeople with sin.
(26:54):
No-transcript right.
And then you hear of somebodywho can get rid of the leprosy,
who can get rid of the sickness,who can get rid of the sin in
your life, and you're like, okay, what do I need to do?
So you go there, you talk tohim for a minute, you're like,
(27:15):
what do I need to do?
And maybe he tells you to godip seven times in the Jordan
River.
What's your Jordan River?
Maybe he tells you you got toquit drinking, you got to quit
smoking, you got to quit cursing, you got to quit womanizing,
you got to quit.
But what is it?
What's the sin you got to laydown.
But you're like, isn't theresomething else I could do?
(27:43):
Just like Naaman, right, ormaybe I'm not worthy to be
forgiven of sins?
Maybe Naaman thought that too.
Maybe Naaman thought that, withthe leprosy, that's it, that's
all I got to do.
No, I need to do more than that.
This leprosy has taken over mylife.
This leprosy has made me sleepin a different house than my
family.
This leprosy has just ruled mefor so long that it can't be
that simple.
Maybe you think that way aboutsin.
(28:07):
I've done so much bad, I'vedone so many things wrong.
It has ruined my life.
I have ruined my life.
It can't be as simple as sayingto God I'm sorry, I'm going to
dedicate my life to you fromhere on out, but that's
essentially what it is.
And then trying getting on thehorse, like Naaman did, and
(28:29):
going to the Jordan River,wherever that is, and doing what
he says to do.
And that's the beauty of it,y'all.
It's the beauty of repentance.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
You do it, you accept it and you go on.
I think the obstacle ismultiple times.
And so we talk about the JordanRiver.
You know there's seven times hewas clean, but what happens if
he becomes unclean down the road?
And I think that's where a lotof people struggle.
(29:12):
So you know it says to pick upyour cross daily and I think
that's the toughest part is soyou, you might, and most people,
once they've repented, oncethey even get baptized, like
there's a renewal, like early onin that process, when you feel
rejuvenated, but but lifecontinues to happen.
You know you maybe get back,surround yourself with bad
(29:34):
people, or with people thatdon't have your best interests
in mind, or with just othersthat maybe are nonbelievers or
maybe are believers but just notgood for you.
Or another thing happens from,you know, maybe a medical
standpoint, or a healthstandpoint, a financial
standpoint.
Something else takes place,financial standpoint.
(29:54):
Something else takes place thatkind of just ejects you and the
obstacle is again picking it upthat cross daily and believing,
you know, that God can do itagain, that he'll forgive you
again, that you'll, you know, becleansed or healed or whatever
you're facing again.
It's hard to do it over andover again.
(30:15):
It's hard to repeat thatprocess and you don't oftentimes
see that in the Bible.
There's some examples, you know, where folks kind of go back
into their their bad habitsagain, but it's not a one stop.
You know everything's fixed.
The life doesn't work that way.
Like other things pop up and Ithink that's where the obstacle
(30:37):
is is being able to see God ineach and every instance in which
something gets thrown at you.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Well, I think too that in this day and age,
there's so much instantgratification that, you know,
you see, relationships fizzlereally quickly and people just
move on to the next thing.
And I think the relationshipwith God is probably no
different because, as you, youknow, when a relationship,
whether it's with another humanor with God, is new and exciting
(31:08):
, it's fun, it's, you know, itbrings you that energy, but then
, as you know, the days go on,brings you that energy, but then
, as you know, the days go on,the weeks go on, the years go on
.
It's hard to find those thingsand to get that rejuvenation and
to not just sink into, you know, a lull of what's comfortable
and easy.
And I think our relationshipwith God is very much the same
(31:31):
way that when you're a newbeliever and you've just been
baptized and you're all excited,and then the everyday takes
over, right, like it's hard togo.
Ok, I'm just going to carve outthis time and I'm going to
remind myself to be morethankful today and remember all
these things that he's done.
Sometimes, I'll just be honest,like for me, sometimes that's
overwhelming and and I don'tknow why it shouldn't be.
(31:52):
I mean, gosh, he has blessed mebeyond what I could ever ask
for.
So I mean, I know, if that'sthe case for me sometimes, I
can't imagine that it wouldn'tbe that way for other people as
well.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It's a relationship with God, right.
Just the same as your child'srelationship is with you.
A child and a father, right.
My daughter is my daughter.
She is blood of my blood andflesh of my blood, kind of a
boat of my boat, almost to somedegree.
You know what I mean.
Like she is my daughter,there's nothing she can do that
(32:28):
will take that love away from us, that bond that we have
together.
There's just nothing.
She's going to make mistakes,she's going to make a ton of
mistakes, and it doesn't meanthat I'm not going to continue
to love her, the same as aChristian with a heavenly father
or a person with a heavenlyfather.
It doesn't mean that God's notgoing to love you.
He's your father, you're achild.
(32:51):
He understands.
And if he doesn't understand,that's why Jesus is our mediator
between us and him, becauseJesus could say hey, man, I've
been there, I've been there,done that.
I've lost my temper on earthtoo, god, it's not as easy as
you think.
Okay, to keep your tongue.
God said so.
I mean, he's the mediator.
(33:12):
That's why.
That's why he was there.
I can't help but think aboutRomans, chapter six, whenever we
talk about Naaman and we talkabout a child, god and all those
things Paul writes in hereabout being baptized, we can see
what the baptism part does forus as well.
You know, maybe maybe somebodydid repent here, michelle, maybe
somebody has repented, but theyjust feel like, hey, I'm
(33:33):
missing something, maybe it'sbaptism.
You know, maybe somebody hasrepented, but they just feel
like, hey, I'm missing something, maybe it's baptism.
You know, maybe you haven'tgone all the way, maybe you
haven't made that publicproclamation of faith and told
the world, hey, I'm done, I'mdone, I'm dipping in the Jordan
River seven times is what I'mgoing to do.
Verse one.
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin?
(33:54):
That grace may increase afterwe've repented?
May it never be.
How shall we who died to sinstill be, still live in it?
Or do you not know that all ofus who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptizedinto his death?
Therefore, we have been buriedwith him through baptism into
death, in order that, as Christwas raised from the dead through
the glory of his father, we toomight walk a newness of life.
(34:16):
Boy, that sounds like beingborn again, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Sure does it, does it ?
Does I mean again, it feelsthat way, like when he got
baptized four or five Easter'sago, and it's just.
It feels like a new life, likeyou just feel like a different
person.
Your mentality's changed andyou know a lot of the things
that I turned away from, Ihaven't turned back to, which is
(34:41):
great, but there's, there'sbeen a couple of things that you
do turn back to and you're like, well, crap, now how do you get
, how do you get through it?
And it can be difficult, and Iknow we mentioned, like our, our
own children, but like ourchildren can, can get that
instant gratification from usbeing here, um, here on earth,
(35:03):
like as long as we're around,like we can go up and we can
talk to them and say, hey, it'sokay, we can give them a hug.
And I think there's there'soften a longing for that at
times when it comes to ourHeavenly Father, and there could
be times where he's trying tospeak to us and we're just too
busy, too chaotic, too emotionalto hear him.
(35:23):
But I mean you look at some ofthe Old Testament stuff, like he
was showing up in clouds anddoing all these things, and I
think there's times where we wewant that, even though it
probably terrifies, and we'd bejoining him rather quickly, but
those are just it's just adifferent type of gratification,
as Michelle kind of said, thatwe're we're wanting that instant
(35:44):
gratification and we're justnot willing to to to wait for
answers like they really did inthe Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
The long haul, naaman , it said.
Whenever he came up out of thatwater, his skin, his flesh was
like that of a little child,remember that.
So it's like he was kind of hisflesh, was kind of born again
to some degree, and I can onlyimagine not only his flesh and
his appearance of his flesh butjust think of his countenance,
(36:14):
his joy that he must have hadthat the leprosy was gone, you
know.
The shock too.
I can still remember it feelslike 900 years ago at this point
, when I was baptized man, I washappy.
You know.
It just does something to you.
I can't explain, and it wasn'tjust because the water was
freezing cold.
It does something to you.
It's a symbolic thing and we doa lot of symbolic things to try
(36:38):
and unite us to differentthings.
Pierre, I'm sure you've.
You know you wear your Coltsjersey on game day, hoping that
you know Anthony Richardsonwon't get injured that Sunday or
whatever it is you got to do tohelp prevent that.
But you know we do things as asymbolic nature to to get us
closer to the environment thatwe're rooting for or to the team
(37:00):
that we're rooting for orwhatever it is.
And this is the same thing withbaptism right.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Michelle's definitely more the the superstitious when
it comes to football, likeshe'll stand in the same spot
three hours straight, not usethe restroom or anything if
they're going well so I can't.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
I can't even go 30 minutes without using the
restroom, verse five.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
I mean I'm, I'll get up and she'll get mad.
I'm like I'm a coast fan, I canget up.
I want to get up.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I'm like you're going to ruin it.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
If we have become united with him in the likeness
of his death, certainly we willalso be in the likeness of his
resurrection, knowing this, thatour old self was crucified with
him, that our body of sin wasdone away with, that we should
no longer be slaves to sin, forhe who has died is freed from
sin.
Now, look, we all know that wedidn't get resurrected from this
(38:00):
physical world, so we're notfree from sin, but we are free
from sin.
Our old stuff is washed away,we get a new life.
But here's the thing it's acontinual forgiveness kind of a
thing.
Once you're in Christ, once youare a child of God, once you've
made that commitment, don't getdown on yourself.
Just like a father alwaysforgives their children and they
(38:26):
never lose my last name, youknow what I mean.
They will always have thoseties to me.
They will never be able toescape that.
My children are my children,period, and there was nothing
that they could do about it tostart with, and there's nothing
they can do about it at the end.
(38:46):
They are my kids and I'm goingto love them until I die.
So you know this is God'sforgiveness here For the death
that he died.
Jesus died.
He died once for all the lifethat he lives.
He lives to God.
Even so, consider yourselves tobe dead to sin, but alive to God
(39:09):
in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, do not let sin reignin your mortal body, that you
should obey its lust, and do notgo on for presenting the
members of your body as aninstrument of sin to the
unrighteousness, but presentyourselves to God as those alive
from the dead and your membersas instruments of the
righteousness to God.
I think that is a key verse tobe able to know how to I don't
(39:31):
know repay God for these things,because he says your body is
his.
Go to work now, find theopportunities that he has put
you in to speak up for him, todo some kind of good deed, to do
the things that he's asked youto do.
All the different rules.
I say rules.
(39:51):
They're not rules, they'reguidelines.
They're guidelines in life forus and for other people and who
we affect, and so he's justtrying to make us an instrument
here, and once you are forgiven,I think your instrumentational
uses can be a lot more, becauseyou're not trying to— that's a
(40:12):
big word for me.
I like it.
I think I put it all as oneword too.
Whatever I was saying, it wasactually spelling out in my mind
and it just never stopped.
I was like, okay, let's justkeep going with that one word.
I don't even know what I said,but anyway, once you have that
forgiveness, it's that clean,fresh air that you have to be
able to make you go and dothings for him and try to repay
(40:35):
him for the stuff.
But, man, I could never repayhim for all that he's given me,
just like a child could neverrepay me for all.
They could get me all theStarburst jelly beans they want.
They could never repay me forit.
Right, and I give it to himfreely, and I give them things
gladly.
That's what I do, and I thinkthat's what God does for us too.
(40:55):
Y'all.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, and we I mean we talked about options, our
very first episode, and that'swhat life is like, that's what
the whole free will, I think,takes place is.
He gives us, you know, thefreedom to make choices.
It says we give our kidsfreedom to, you know, ultimately
grow into who they want to beLike.
We, we try to help them alongthe way, but we let them make
(41:18):
their own decisions, their ownchoices, and he does the same
for us.
And you know, you got to hope,at the end of the day, that you
make, you know, the decisionsand choices that that point you
to him and keep you closest tohim.
And if not, unfortunately weknow what that, that alternative
, alternative is to to not havehis presence around.
So, options, options.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeah, yeah, first episode, I think michelle was
options.
You know that was.
You know how many episodes agothat was michelle?
Do I what?
You know how many episodes agothat was?
I don't me either, because I'veconfused myself.
I don't know if this is episode29 or if this is episode 28.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I believe this is 29, which is pretty cool.
Next one's a milestone at 30.
We reached a recent milestonewhich was kind of shocking,
given that we haven't recordedin a while.
Do you know what that milestonewas?
Wes, since you're askingquestions and pop quizzes, One
million downloads, pierre, notone million, no but 10,000,
(42:20):
which is really, really cool.
So yeah, I never even imaginedthat it would get to that point.
Ever, honestly, I thought wemight get a couple people.
Never even imagined that itwould get to that point like um,
ever like, honestly, like Ithought we might get a couple
people, a couple family andfriends listening here there.
So to reach 10 000 downloadsbefore our 30th episode was just
truly impressive.
(42:41):
Um, all glory to god on that isthank you all for for listening
and tuning in.
If you're listening and tuningin now, sorry again for the
hiatus, but I think this goes toshow that we are in fact human
and true to what we say, thatwe're just normal people.
We we run into normal issuesand health issues that prevent
us from meeting.
But, uh, a sincere thank youfor the the 10 000 you know,
(43:04):
listens and downloads that wehave to.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
This point means a lot yeah, and we're still trying
this time to not let us recordLike I'm under the weather.
Wes had some computer issueslike, but we we pushed through
and we made it so.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
We did, and I got a little rascal running around the
house trying to disturb everysecond.
To this I guarantee, hey, thatbeing said, we do appreciate you
guys listening and downloading,shared it with your friends and
all those things.
We don't charge anything forthis, which rightfully so.
We shouldn't charge for this.
It's a free gift.
This is our gift to you.
(43:39):
We are instruments of God.
I think this is a gift to youfrom God.
If I can say that, I don't wantto speak for him or anything
like that, but I know we're allthree led by the Spirit to be
able to do something like this.
So I'm just going to say it'sfrom him to you and I hope that
it is a blessing to you.
We would love to hear from you,not for any monetary things or
(44:00):
anything like that.
We'd just love to hear from you.
I love to pray for thingsspecifically.
So if you have somethingspecific that you'd like us to
pray for, Pierre, how would theyget in touch with us privately?
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Pierre, how would they get in touch with us
privately?
Findingfaith LosingSleep atgmailcom.
We're also available over on X,formerly known as Twitter, at
FindingFaithPod, and we havesome still of our recordings up
on YouTube as well, so you cango like us over on YouTube.
(44:28):
You can leave us a commentthere and we'll check those out
also.
So a new feature for us now.
Youtube Huh, youtube, it'sstill an image of our cover art,
but all of our episodes areuploaded there.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Oh yeah, I mean I have had the idea of getting
cartoon figures.
We could do the video thing too.
I mean we could.
But I'm just telling you I havehad the idea of getting cartoon
figures.
We could do the video thing too, I mean we could.
But I'm just telling you I amin and out of the picture.
I don't want.
I mean I'm leaning far over tomy left right now just because
that feels comfortable to meright now and I will grab this
microphone and I will lean tothe right.
I have grabbed the microphoneand I have walked around the
(45:04):
house with the computer in myhand while I'm talking before on
the show the computer in myhand while I'm talking.
Before on this episode on theshow I've sat outside you know
just different things like thatleaning left, leaning right.
Thought you like the fiveheartbeats or something just
over there and look, here's thething if share it, you got many
platforms to share withdifferent people, so now people
can listen to it at work.
They can have it on thebackground, I guess, while
they're working.
(45:24):
I've never, ever.
Don't tell anybody, pierre,because I know in the fantasy
football world that you and Ilive in as well, so many people
do things on YouTube and I'venever watched anybody's show on
YouTube.
I just don't sit down and watchYouTube.
Okay, I don't do it.
I research how to fix brokenthings on YouTube.
That's all I do on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Our daughter does.
She can give you a tutorial.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
All right, you can keep going there can give you a
tutorial.
All right, youtube can't put itthere, but I'm hopping on
iSupport just because I hope thefolks support me, support us,
so I get on there.
Yeah, I just wanted to giveanother platform.
Again, it's nothing fancy, butgo ahead.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or they can learn a lot of dirton me from past episodes as
well.
You can do that.
But if you have anything youwould like for us to share any
questions, comments, concerns orany of that stuff feel free
just to leave a comment inwhatever listening platform you
do listen to the show on, andwe'll be happy to either read it
or you can say don't share, andwe won't share that either.
So I just would love to hearfrom you, as somebody who likes
(46:28):
to put imaginary faces withnames and I do that all the time
whenever I'm reading the Bibleanyway- I used the chosen.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
now those are the faces I have with the Bible.
We talked about that.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Hey, yeah, hey.
You two went out stalking theJesus character from the chosen,
or something like that, didn'tyou?
Speaker 3 (46:48):
We didn't stalk.
We were at the Kayla Fan Awardsand got some photos.
I had the little one out there.
If you follow on X, you'll seesome of her celeb encounters
that she had on there Gave ussome representation on the
Finding Faith pod during ourhiatus.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Did anybody say hi to me?
Speaker 3 (47:08):
They did not.
No, I did get an email recentlyfor someone wanting to come on
the show, but they messaged itto Michelle.
So again, they must not listento know that I'm the one that
mans that account.
So if you're going to try toget a guest on here, at least
know who runs the account.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
It'll be a lot more believable that you actually
listen.
Yes, it will, and listen, we doappreciate it.
10,000 downloads.
Never thought that would happen, but we so very much are
thankful for you guys and, as Ialways say, if you pray for us,
we will definitely pray for you.
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