Episode 49: Jesus: The Living Word

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Wow, dad. We’ve been having a great, again, front porch morning conversations.

John McLarty: Absolutely. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Always do.

Kimberly Faith: Exciting. And, today, you know, we were talking about this idea that God’s word says Jesus is the word and why that matters. And I think it’s appropriate just to start off with what God’s word says about this because it’s very clear. And this is right out of John 1:1-3. And I’m going to read verse 14 as well.

It says, in the beginning the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. And it goes on to say, in him was life and the life was the light of men. That’s actually verse four. And then verse 14 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth. 

I’ve memorized these words. I’ve known these words for years, but this study that I’ve delved into and you’ve delved into actually produces a staggering truth that when we grasp this or begin to grasp it, because I don’t think we can fully grasp it, it causes us to pivot about how we approach God’s word.

John McLarty: That’s so true. And even as you read that, I just we may not go there now, but because the real focus is that he is the word. But that verse said, all things were made by him, and without him, nothing was made that was made.

And I just pulled up earlier this verse out of Colossians, and I’ll just read it now because it does tie in. And it says that it’s talking about Jesus. This is Colossians 1:16. And it says, for by him, and it’s talking about Jesus, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, or principalities, powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. So Jesus is the expression of God in himself. He is the word. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: But then an aspect of that is this creation.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And when I’m teaching the basic concepts about who God is, I always use John One in conjunction with Genesis One because if you look at Genesis, God didn’t, you know, He didn’t use His hands and do some magic. He spoke and the spirit hovered. So there was God, the Father speaking the Word, which is Jesus and the Spirit was there. They were all three there in creation, but it was the Word that was spoken that created.

And that is just kind of mind blowing. And what we want to talk about today is why does this matter? Not from the aspect of we acknowledge this in our head as divine intelligence. That is mind blowing. But why does it matter in our life today?

In other words, how does it change the way we live, the way we think, the way we speak? And because if Jesus is the embodiment of God’s message for humanity, when He came and He was made flesh and an expression of God’s mind, heart and will, then this has very important implications for those who decide to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Profound implications. And I think we waste it because we don’t understand it. And that’s been kind of my revelation.

The reason I wanted to do this podcast on this particular subject because, you know, Revelations 19:13 , John confirms that his name is called the word of God. And we know that from the beginning to the end, the old testament, the new testament were all about Jesus and his redemptive work. And so when he came to earth, then people like Peter and Paul and the disciples, they got to see the living word.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: But we get to experience living word too. And that’s what we’re going to talk about after we kind of lay this foundation.

John McLarty: We do. I just think of the verse, I’ll just throw this in. I’m not even sure where it is, but it’s let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So when we’re and I’m sure we’re going there in podcast is when we’re born again, that mind is in us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. 

John McLarty: That new creature is the mind of Christ.

Kimberly Faith: It’s so funny you say that because I remember several years ago when I was on my journey with God in the last twelve years, remember writing devotional, it was titled something along the lines of the mind of Christ is a terrible thing to waste. You know, you heard in school, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, but I kind of tagged that analogy. The mind of Christ, which is what we have, is a terrible thing to waste. That’s kind of what this podcast is about. I want to kind of lay a foundation real quick by, an analogy that God gave me.

I was praying and asking Him to help me understand, you know, this idea that Jesus is the Word. And He kind of gave me a good way to understand it, at least for me to understand. I hope maybe it’ll help somebody else well. That the written word in the Bible is what we have, you know, the Old Testament, New Testament and Jesus is the living word and he gave me this kind of a way to understand it. It’s basically imagine that you’ve received a long heartfelt letter from someone you love deeply.

And in that letter, all the things you need for life, your comfort and grief, your wisdom for helping you navigate hard things, direction for decisions like every type of decision and what to do. But above all, just a deep, deep expression of love.

John McLarty: Maybe a father, a soldier overseas.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: : He thinks he may die, so he’s sending his whole life message to child or wife.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And then imagine that one day, instead of just sending letters, this person shows up on your doorstep.

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: And moves in with you and comes home, so to speak. And, now everything written in those pages speaks, embraces, laughs, weeps with you, leads you by the hand. Sure, the letter was real, but the person is the fullness of it. Alive, present, undeniable.

And this is the way God helped me understand what the Bible is talking about when it says Jesus is the Word. Now, I’m going to give a big caveat here. I’m sure that this passage has profoundly more meanings and even more depth than I can comprehend. But this is when the word became flesh. I think the reason that is so important is that God was saying, look, I’ve written, I’ve written you a love letter that tells you how to be reconciled to me and it’s all about Jesus.

And then I sent my son to come live on earth and be witnessed and to basically do the hard work to provide for that reconciliation, you know, the gospel of grace. But now, not only did I tell you about grace and I showed you what it looked like, now I’m going to give it to you and the Word can live in you. And that’s, I think, where we’re going with this.

John McLarty: Yeah. And I kind of see two aspects of that. The word lives in us, so Jesus lives in us. But when he was actually there, and we have a recording of that, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So when and we saw what Jesus was like. So we saw what God is like.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

John McLarty: And when I hear people kind of diss or dismiss Christianity because of Christians being hypocrites, one of my comebacks is, well, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and just read about Jesus

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And how he was, how he acted, how he treated people and found fault with that. You can’t.

Kimberly Faith: You know, even his influence was so impactful, even his thirty three years on this earth. I was nerding out on my trip down here, on Josephus and the Books of Antiquity were written in ninety AD and Josephus was not a Christian. He was a Hellenistic Jew, you know, and he wrote about what he knew about Jesus. He knew that 

John McLarty: Interesting.

Kimberly Faith: He actually 

John McLarty:  I’ve heard of him.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. He a Jewish historian who had, you know, studied the letter in the libraries of Alexandria before it burned down. So he had access to all these ancient manuscripts. And it’s a fascinating read, actually, if you want to nerd out.

It’s like from Genesis to present I mean, not present history, but to his present history. But he acknowledged that this, you know, this man who claimed to be the Messiah came, lived, died, and then his followers saw him resurrected. So the impact of Jesus’ life was so profound that even the first century world was I mean, I guess the guy was a legit historian. Nobody really questions whether he lived or whether he, that his writings were based on contemporaneous events. So because, you know, think about it.

The first century Christians would still have been alive during his time and he was very impressed by their, but they were called Christians because of Christ. Now that’s a little bit of a rabbit, but going

John McLarty: But he was like no other man.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: You can’t, I mean, his compassion is just behaving with love.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, we’ve talked about love in the past. 

John McLarty: Selflessness. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. We talked about God’s love manifests itself to us through Jesus in complete selflessness. And that’s when we have that, that’s how Jesus said, you know, know you are Christians by your love. Right? Because that’s what he did. And, you know, he made this extraordinary claim in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the father but by me. And so, so how, why does this matter? Why does this matter that Jesus is the Word? Why is it so important today? And we kind of touched on that.

You know, when we allow Jesus into our heart and we surrender ourselves completely to him by grace through faith and accept his gift of salvation, then the living word lives in us.

John McLarty: Lives in us.

Kimberly Faith: And that is

John McLarty:Born again nature.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And in Second Corinthians, 5:17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So this is when we receive Christ, He’s on our doorstep, right?

Knocking. And maybe we’ve read His Word, maybe we’ve kind of studied the Bible. Maybe we’ve been caught up in a non biblical religion that teaches you have to work for salvation. One of our podcasts is an interview with a guy who grew up in the Amish community and he was eighth generation Amish. And how, and I don’t, you know, I’m not saying there are Amish people who are saved.

I’m just saying this was his experience. And he spent his entire life scared to death that he was going to hell because he could never do enough good works. Because what he was taught was it’s by grace and works and he never, there’s never, there was never a way you could know if your works were enough.

John McLarty: It’s amazing you say that because I was just having the thought that Jesus dwelling in us, he brings loving kindness. I’m not talking about prosperity gospel.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: I’m just talking he cares, and he showed that in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in his life on earth. But yes, we have this we tend to have this image of God as being this big bully that’s making us live a certain way. And if we don’t, he’s ready to just, you know, us with a big club. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And that is not Jesus. That is not God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s so true. And that kind of you know, when the Second Corinthians says we’re in Christ, that means we have the opportunity to live in the freedom of him being our master as opposed to clubbing ourselves over the head living as a slave to sin.

John McLarty: That’s what the belief systems that have mixed works into salvation by grace through faith, it is so detrimental. And people might not question we’re not saying they’re not saved, but they live and they’ve fallen back under the law. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Or sometimes it could prevent them if they think salvation is only by works.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: I mean, you know, sometimes a great you can have a doctrine that kind of teaches, you know, grace is life, but you better but you could lose it. So you’re backed under the law.

Kimberly Faith: If you don’t pay tithes or pay penance or whatever, you’re going to end up in hell. Which I think that is Satan’s great way of using our human tendency for greed and power and control and, just all the things that our flesh enslaves us to to control a religious organization and keep people from the truth. And this is where

John McLarty: From salvation at all or

Kimberly Faith: Living

John McLarty: Salvation with the abundant life.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And we’ve done podcasts and devotionals about the abundant life and true prosperity and all these things that we’ve talked about. But here’s the, here’s the thing that kind of blows me away about Jesus as the living word. Is that all these things we’ve been talking about come back to this idea that if Jesus is, is in our house, okay. If he lives in our house because we have been born again, we have received him as our Lord and savior, we surrendered our life to him.

Okay. So now he’s in the house, right? Supposed to belong to him. So we have the living Word in our house. And then we’re reading the written Word. Well, the Bible says, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.

Imagine having a house, Jesus is in there.

John McLarty:  Psalms 119:105.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And Jesus is in there, but we’ve got all these doors and rooms and, know, attics and maybe basements closed off to Him. And then by reading the written word, with opening all the doors, all those secret places we don’t want to let God into because He already owns the house. But we’ve shut off compartments in the house. We go, well, this compartment here in the attic where I watch my shows that I shouldn’t watch, we’re going to keep that one closed.

Or this compartment where I’m in public and I don’t want to talk about Jesus, I’m closing that one. The difference is when we open, we say, Lord, I’m going read your word with a complete surrender. Whatever you want to change, you do it. Then He takes the word of the light of His Word, the written Word and renews our mind. He’s allowed to renew our mind and transform our heart.

And that’s the living Word meeting the written Word. And it’s like, we have this plug and we had the power source, which is Him. We plug it in, the whole house illuminates and then people know, they know that house on a hill. Jesus said, if you’re a city set on a hill, you can’t be hidden.

John McLarty: It’s lit up.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And when we’re lit up, because we plugged in the living word to the written word in our house. Oh my goodness.

John McLarty: I think of the idea of it’s also in Psalms, it’s thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And so you combine those. You have the lot, but you have these maybe these compartments you’ve sealed off. But by just spending time in the word, those darker rooms are lit up

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Through the word. Thy word have I hid in my heart.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So it’s like Jesus is in us, but we kind of block him off. But then the word of God illuminates

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Those dark corners. And the spirit of God. The word of God really is alive. It’s quick and powerful.

Kimberly Faith: Well, we were talking about this earlier on the front porch and because we’re going to do a podcast. You’re a what you call a beekeeper? That what you call a beekeeper?

John McLarty: I think it’s an aparian?

Kimberly Faith: Oh, Lord. There’s a real actual

John McLarty: Maybe there’s another

Kimberly Faith: We’ll figure that out before the podcast. But we’re going to do it. We’re going to do We were talking about these great analogies between being a I mean, just go call a beekeeper and what you 

John McLarty: I think it  is an aparian.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. Well, you can use the fancy I’ll malign that word To beekeeper. By using the analogy to our walk with God. And we’re not going to you know, we’re just going to give you a little, hey, this is going to be a great podcast. But we were talking about that in the context of, you know, when we are able to let the Lord take over and, then we start to see everything differently.

We see life as he does. And this is another just, spoiler alert. We’re going to also do, God willing, a podcast or series on God’s perspective because I’ve been studying that, and it’s another mind blowing thing. I’ll tell you, if you read our daily devotionals on Go Faith Strong, the first week of September is going to be all these things that we’re talking about now and some some the the whole thing on God’s perspective because the Lord has just been I feel like He’s been downloading into my soul, a bunch of stuff. But you mentioned the heart and you said if our heart is surrendered and we’ve talked about this, you know, in human design, the Bible concept of human design, we’ve talked about the heart of the soul when we’re born again is course God’s heart, but the heart of our flesh and the mind of our flesh is constantly at work against us.

And so when we do physical things like read God’s Word, that’s our physical eyes or physical mind, right? We might speak God’s word. We pray with our mouth. When we start to subject our body, like Paul talked about, to the discipline of the written word,  then the living word, which is in our soul, connects with that.

John McLarty: They connect. Yeah. They meet up.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s like fireworks.

John McLarty: And it’s like there’s walls in between those, the walls of our flesh, the heart of our flesh. And those two forces, I’m just having this kind of visual here, Jesus within us and then the word of God, the written word of God, and they’re trying to sync up.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. 

John McLarty: They’re trying to marry up, and it’s spending time in his word. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And the word is a lamp

Kimberly Faith: To your feet.

John McLarty: A lamp into my feet and a light into my path.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. But it requires us to understand the great, I think we need to understand the great benefits of this intimacy that’s created when we finally let our our soul and spirit, which are alive in Christ control our life as opposed to letting our unregenerated flesh and our greatest enemy, Satan and this world culture control our life because that path is dark. That part you know, listen, nobody’s going to disagree that we have a hard path irrespective of whether you’re born again or you’re not born again. Life is dark, confusing, broken, and we’re not going to be sustained by short quips, inspirational sayings. We have to be passionate just like with our body.

If all we ate all day for the rest of our life was a little, you know, bite of a candy bar here, a piece of, you know, a teaspoon of meat here and got that little quick energy. We would not be able to run the marathon. We would not be in the race. We’d be laying on the ditch. And I think that’s the difference. We’ve got to be passionate about connecting God’s written word to the living word so that we are sustained. We are victorious. Our house is so full of light that everybody wants to come. You know?

John McLarty: Well, I’ll just throw this in. It’s very interesting. Our associate pastor, Pat Briney, moved here from California and just wanted he was led of the Lord to end up at the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. He just wanted to know the truth. And when he discovered the basic truth and the fundamental concepts, he did not trust his own thoughts, just like that he had a thought and that it was correct.  In fact, he kind of thought, that’s probably from my flesh. 

Kimberly Faith: Interesting. 

John McLarty: So he just saturated his mind with the word of God. It was really funny.

He just talked about reading it. He had it on tape. Everywhere he went, he listened to it. 

Kimberly Faith: Wow.

John McLarty:  And he said after about five years, he began to feel like his thoughts were, for the most part, could be trusted.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  And I just thought, that’s a pretty extreme position, but it’s pretty true that he the trusts flesh is deceitful and wicked. Who can know it?

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: So I thought, you know, most people think that whatever, you know, whatever a man thinketh in his mind that it’s right. And so Pat took the opposite. He says, whatever I think in my mind, my first thoughts are probably wrong. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Unless they’re in conformity to the word of God. So I just thought that was interesting.

Kimberly Faith: That is interesting.

John McLarty: You’re talking about this discipline 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: To just like, no. Let’s double check that with the word. I have a thought. It just brings this up. It’s just amazing to me. In Second Peter, Peter’s talking about how valid the word of God is. 

Kimberly Faith: Peter was with Jesus.

John McLarty:  He was with Jesus.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And he said that we were eyewitnesses. This is Second Peter 1: 17/16, the end of 16. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from God the father honor and glory, and there came a voice to him. So this is when they heard the voice. They said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Kimberly Faith: That was Jesus’ baptism.

John McLarty: And this voice which came from heaven, we heard, and we were with him in the holy mount. It was on the mount.

Kimberly Faith: Oh. 

John McLarty: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: The mount of transformation.

John McLarty: The mount of transformation.

Kimberly Faith: Sorry.

John McLarty: And then but he says, but we have a more sure word of prophecy. He’s talking about the Bible, the written word, wherein do ye do well to take heed as into a light that shines in a dark place .

Kimberly Faith: Wow. 

John McLarty: Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. So that is just so interesting to me.

Kimberly Faith:  That is.

John McLarty: So I think about people like I’ll just, you know, I’ll just name the was it Joseph Smith that claimed he heard this voice from

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

John McLarty: Heaven that started this whole

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: This whole religion, but it doesn’t conform to I’m picking the word of God up. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  And so we test everything. We could even hear a voice from heaven.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I’ve heard voices. 

John McLarty:  That we test it with the word of God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s so

John McLarty: Which is Jesus, the written word 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John Mclarty: Will conform to the word of God, the living word as you  say, Jesus in our heart.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, it’s so true because, you know, these voices in our I mean, we were talking about a guy who was stoned out of his mind, claiming he was going to be the one who defeats the devil. 

John McLarty:  Right. A voice told him that.

Kimberly Faith:  A voice told him that. I mean, we don’t have a standard to compare God’s Word, like God’s word, you know, a standard to compare against whatever voices we’re hearing and God’s word is that standard and it doesn’t marry up, then we have to trust God’s word. And what you just read out of Peter reminds me, you know, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. You know, he said, I am the way, the truth.

They say life or light, I always forget. But he said, I’m the light of the world. Right? And so I think, I think when we talk about, you know, again, parallels with what we’re talking about, the living word and the written word. Isn’t it glorious that God gave us something we can read and say, you know what? If this person’s claiming they heard a voice that tells them I can be a God. And God says, I’m the only God. Love no other God. You know, in the Bible nowhere does it say you are a God. It does say you can be like Christ.

You’re in Christ, but that’s different. You didn’t create anything and you still can’t. You know, if you look at the, it’s so funny because in our basic Bible concepts,  we teach who God is. He’s infinite. None of us are infinite.

So it’s pretty easy to compare what a religion says you can be a God and know that whatever you’re talking about, isn’t the God. It isn’t just a God, a God, an idol it might be, but not the God that created everything. The God that’s infinite, that’s omniscient, that’s omnipotent, that has love, that’s governed by the nature of love, righteousness and justice, we can never be that. And the Bible doesn’t say anywhere that we So that’s the light, right? That’s the light that says

John McLarty: Or a religion that says you get to heaven by works. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And the word of God clearly says, have grace through faith, not by works.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Our best works are as filthy rags. So it’s so exciting to me, not just from a doctrinal standpoint, because that’s obviously, that is an obvious benefit, But just from the connectivity that I know the difference between when I read God’s word with a surrendered heart and when I read God’s word, maybe just for some intellectual knowledge. There’s a huge difference because the intellectual knowledge keeps me in, keeps me in a static space. The surrendered heart busts all the doors open and gives me opportunities that are so far beyond what Paul prayed for that I could ask for or imagine, right?  And we talk about why does it matter that we understand that Jesus is the Word? That’s why we have the abundant life.

John McLarty: And we have them within us. I just had this another visual and it’s like something that’s in tune, like say you have something that’s in tune like a guitar, to maybe some a glass or lampshade and you hit a guitar and it the vibration is the same and it makes up some have you ever had that happen with a glass ring or a lamp shade? Well, we have Jesus inside of us, and he’s the word. He’s the pure thing, the born again nature. And then we have the written word.

Kimberly Faith:Yeah. 

John McLarty: And they’re tuned to each other. So when we’re reading the word, it stimulates Christ within us. And there’s this: we have experienced this when it’s just like, you open the word or maybe you’re praying and a bible verse comes to you.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And there’s just this, I guess you’d call it a synergy.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. 

John McLarty: When you combine them. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: It’s like, oh, this is the real thing.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I know. And you mentioned praying. You know, one of the things that happens when I’m reading God’s word wide open, surrendered to whatever furniture needs to be rearranged to my house. Maybe some of the furniture needs to be thrown out. Maybe some doors need to be opened. There’s some darkness in some corner, some cobwebs, whatever, a snake, you know, it never ceases to amaze me how when I’m praying, the Holy Spirit, you know, the Bible says the Holy Spirit, you know, intercedes in our prayers. He will bring to mind a verse to pray. Now, look, I’m not going to pretend I understand that synergy, but it’s, it’s gotta be magnificent. And I, because we know that the power of prayer is a real thing.

But when you’re praying, when you’re articulating God’s Word, like maybe you’re praying, Lord, make your Word a lamp to my feet. Light my path today. I’m going to be going into this place of darkness today and I want to represent you. Make your Word my intellect.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Make it my wisdom. And I think it was Isaiah that talked about, the Word was a fire in his tongue or something like that? I’d probably not saying that right, but, you know what I’m talking about, right? And I’m not speaking, I’m not talking about speaking in an unknown tongue.

I’m talking about how that analogy was. It was like fire. You have to let it, you have to get it out. Have to talk about. And so when we start praying God’s Word, our prayers go from, you know, a five year old to a 25 year old in maturity because we’re, we’re not praying our own wisdom.

We’re praying the wisdom of the word. And that’s so far above our wisdom, but we get to be part of it. It’s like we get to be on the best team.

John McLarty: And what a privilege to us that God, the word, the God through the word, through Jesus wants to and does literally dwell, he has come to dwell in our house

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: Through the born again experience. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Not by something good we did. But upon salvation, he comes to live with us. You know, when you It’s like your favorite person comes to move in, you know, to your house.

Kimberly Faith: Right. He does become your favorite person because he’s always right. He’s always loving. He’s always compassionate. He’s always given you strength. He’s always given you wisdom. Everything you need. It’s like that letter we talked about. It was funny when I first started studying this, this idea and asking the Lord to lead me. It’s so funny how he always kind of treats me to a progressive meal. You know, you get, your appetizer in this house and  you go to the next house for the main course and then dessert at another house. And, probably because my little pea brain can’t take it all at one time. 

But at first, I was thinking about the living word, you know, just kind of we have the written word, the old testament, and then the living word came, Jesus came to earth, right? And all these people saw the manifestation of all the nature of God and and the attributes of God.

And then, you know, that was kind of where I landed. But then I was sharing this idea with, we have a The girls in my office asked me to teach them a Bible study once a week. So I said, we can’t touch our Bible study today. We’re going to talk about this because it was so important. As I was sitting there talking about it, like the Holy Spirit said, but let’s take this a step further.

Let’s talk about the living word in you, you know, and this whole idea that not only did he come to earth, but now, and even in the old testament, you know, we need to talk about the living word in our house, in our house, not just walking around where everybody else can see him because that was part of his salvation redemption plan. And that was where it became staggering for me.

John McLarty: That is great. 

Kimberly Faith: You know?

John McLarty:  And he wants to lead us into loving kindness.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: Not horrible bitterness, terrible I have a terrible life.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: He just wants his loving kindness. He wants to he’s there to bless us.

Kimberly Faith: It’s so true. It’s so true. We talk about this a lot. We talk about, you know, how we have a poor image of God. An image of God that has been ,he has been defined by our enemies, by our experiences.

And, you know, if it’s that’s we’re not being fair to him to do that and we’re not being fair to ourselves because it’s kind of like if if you were an aspiring, football player and, you know, the greatest, let’s say you wanted to be a quarterback and one of the greatest, I’ll just say Roger Staubach, I’m not an expert, Trey Aikman, you know, not to mention cowboys, but, know Right. I know you’re a cowboys fan.

John McLarty: Troy Aikman 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: Staubach.

Kimberly Faith: Let’s say that

John McLarty: First great famous quarterback of the cowboys.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Let’s say that this quarterback came to this teenager and the teenager did not know who he was, but offered to train him. And the teenager was like some one of his friends said, oh, that old man can’t teach you anything. And the teenager was like

John McLarty: That’s a good analogy.

Kimberly Faith: You know, stiff armed him. 

John McLarty: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And he lost the greatest opportunity of his lifetime because he was ignorant. Man, this is what we want to do. We want to say no. 

John McLarty:  That is so sad.

Kimberly Faith: Don’t be ignorant of the great plan God has for your life.

John McLarty: And His loving kindness.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And here’s Roger Staubach showing up with his teenage kids saying, dude, I can coach you. And he says, oh man, you know what? I don’t need you. That’s what we do to God.

John McLarty: That’s so true.

Kimberly Faith: Well, Good was, that’s just the Holy Spirit thing because that came up on the fly. I know it wasn’t me. But I just, you know, if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re wondering why does it matter that Jesus is the Word? This is why it matters. God is not some old man upstairs who wants to make your life miserable. Life is hard.

John McLarty: True that.

Kimberly Faith: Life is hard. And you out of the, what, 8.5, 9,000,000,000 people on the earth, God only made one of you. And if you’re supposed to be a quarterback on his team, he’s your best coach. He’s the one who’s going to give you the plan. He’s going to give you the way.

He’s going to mold you into the person you’re supposed to be. And he’s going to tap into every bit of the intelligence and talent He gave you. He’s going to fill you with His spirit because Jesus said, I’m I’m going to  send my spirit and He’s going to connect you with His written word and His living word and that’s going to explode in your life and your whole house is going to light up and you’re going to be a city on a hill that can’t be hidden.

John McLarty: You know, that’s great. That’s a good analogy because we’re not talking about the life of ease and prosperity like a football game. 

Kimberly Faith: You’re going to get hit. 

John McLarty: You’re going to get hit. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: You’re going to throw an interception.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

John McLarty: And feel like you’ve you know, you’re a failure. And, you know, the coaches just say, get up, shake that one off.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: There’s still game left. Get out there.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. You’re not done. You’re not dead You till you’re not dead.

John McLarty: You made a mistake, but we’re going to go moving forward.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And, you know, I think our I like to say our trouble, the trouble that we have is our gold because it is our greatest opportunity to shine for God’s glory and show how powerful He is, not us.

John McLarty: God’s there for us.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. 

John McLarty: Very good.

Kimberly Faith: I hope this podcast has been helpful to, you know, if you’re struggling to understand your purpose in life or, you know, look, God says that we’re all created for greatness. He says that because he’s given us a knowledge of who he is and he is great. And he has said we were created for his glory. That means you’re created for greatness because God is great. Does that make sense?

John McLarty: Well, it’s excited me to be more in his word and then let more of him come out. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Christ in me.

Kimberly Faith: Going back to Roger Staubach.

John McLarty: Because of salvation.

Kimberly Faith:  For people who, you know, know who He is and know His glory days, you would, you know, if you were a football player, you would love to have him as a best friend. You would love to say name drop. You know what, Roger Staubach coached me. Well, you know, Roger Staubach can’t hold a candle to God. And man, we should be name dropping God through our whole life. This is what God did. Look, did you see what God just did? Did you see what he just did? 

And, you know, my son called me and he has a job with the army. It involves a lot of training, including Pathfinder training. And he was telling me how God helped him, you know, pass one of the tests. And he said, mom, I just knew it was the voice of God saying, look under that trailer, that little piece of metal. And he said, I had five seconds left for this test and I knew it was the voice of God.

John McLarty: And he perceived it as God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And he gave glory to God for that. And that’s the way we, whether it’s a tiny piece of metal to pass part of a Pathfinder test or whether it’s the person that walks in our office and the spirit of God in us says, speak, speak about me. Tell them about me, ask them if they know me. Man, it’s just, it’s so good to be able to live for God’s glory. We are created for that greatness. And that’s why Jesus being the word is such a staggering truth. Such a staggering truth.

John McLarty: I’ve been reading a lot in Psalms and we are to speak of his greatness.  It’s part of praising him, but extolling his works. And we’re letting people know, I mean, sing it out loud, sing it with the trumpet, sing it on stringed instruments.

Kimberly Faith: Well, otherwise we’re glorifying ourselves. 

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: And what good we can’t help any know, so funny, I had a lady in my office the other day, she said, you really act like you care about me. And I stopped her. I said, no, no, no.

Kim doesn’t care about you. Kim is incapable of caring about you. I don’t even know you. I said, but Jesus inside me, He cares about you.

John McLarty: That’s good.

Kimberly Faith: And she just was like floored. She’s like, I’ve never heard anybody say that. I said, well, that was Holy Spirit moment there because it’s true. It’s true. I’m not capable of caring. I don’t even know her. You care about people you know and you have a history with. But the Lord revealed to her that I did care because it was Jesus in me.

John McLarty: By this shall all men know you’re my disciples that you love one another. But as you say, that’s Jesus in us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.  I hope this has been helpful for someone out there and and and who’s maybe wanting to understand better just the incredible gift that we have, not just in the written word, but when you’re born again in that living word and the power of his spirit that he sent to dwell in us, you know. So have a good week everyone.

John McLarty: I’ve enjoyed it.

Kimberly Faith: Are you looking for a place to recharge your faith, refocus your mind, and reignite your passion for Christ? Head over to gofaithstrong.com, your one stop hub for powerful devotionals, life giving podcasts, uplifting worship music, and real stories from real people walking their faith out just like you. We know life gets busy and it’s easy to feel spiritually drained. That’s why everything we create at Go Faith Strong is designed to be clear, Christ centered, and easy to plug into. Whether you’ve got just five minutes or you have a whole hour.

From Bible based blog posts to worship music, it’s all there to help you stay connected to truth throughout your week. So take a moment today, visit us at gofaithstrong.com and dive into the resources that were made just for you. Because faith isn’t meant to be passive, it’s meant to be lived. And we’re here to help you live it strong. Again, that is gofaithstrong.com. And don’t forget, hit that like, follow, and share button for the podcast.