Episode 53: Truth, Love, and God’s Timing: Truth in Love 1 Year Anniversary

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: Well, dad, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year.

John McLarty: That is truly amazing. A year of podcasts. Fantastic. To God be the glory.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. It’s such a tribute to God’s glory. And you know, I’m remembering back about three years ago when the Lord laid on my heart to do a podcast. And I was

John McLarty:  That’s interesting. I remember that. It was three years ago.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: The Lord put it on your heart.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: And it took two years to gear up for the first podcast.

Kimberly Faith: Well, ironically

John McLarty: Interesting.

Kimberly Faith: You know how things happen sometimes and you know it’s what you’re supposed to do, but we also know that God is never early. You know, he 

John McLarty: Timing. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. His timing is he’s never early. People like to say he’s never late, but I’d say he’s never early because I think sometimes we have to get prepared for the journey. And I remember three years ago at this time, what I didn’t know was what was about to happen in my life three years ago that was going to require me to scrape the ground clean in an area of my life that was about to implode.

John McLarty:  Interesting. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I remember, what I do remember about that time period was the, there were many people that I trusted at that time that I had misplaced my trust in. I didn’t even realize it because I wanted to believe what was being said, who are naysayers about this. Oh, you don’t have time. Your work is going to  suffer. You already have too much on your plate. It was kind of like, you know, what I think about now is when Noah was building the ark and he was being mocked.

John McLarty: The mockers.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And what’s even crazier is that the people that were telling me I shouldn’t do this were people who claimed to be following the Lord. Look, I’m not judging anyone because we’ve all been naysayers, you know?

John McLarty: Right. Just speaking in the wisdom of our own mind.

Kimberly Faith: Right. I mean, we talked last week about God’s perspective. And any one of us as Christians can have the wrong perspective based on what we see. We’re running by sight instead of by supernatural faith.

John McLarty: And we often do.

Kimberly Faith: We do. But God had to prepare me for this podcast the way, in many ways, the way that He prepared David for kingship, the way He prepared Moses for leading the children of Israel, the way He prepared Joseph for being the second in command over the greatest nation on the face of the earth at that time.

John McLarty: You had an era to go through.

Kimberly Faith: I had an era to go through to correct some

John McLarty: Trials.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. To correct some things in my life and put God in charge of everything. And that was a good thing.

John McLarty: It’s interesting.

Kimberly Faith: I don’t think-

John McLarty: God’s timing.

Kimberly Faith: I don’t think I realized that until just now, that in this podcast right now where the Holy Spirit, we’ve always asked the Holy Spirit to take over these podcasts and that it occurred to me that three years ago was when he told me to do it. And then he had to take me through a bit of a desert wilderness area and clean some things up.

John McLarty: It’s really something though, to encourage others, is we think something needs to happen in a week or a month or a year. And sometimes God’s timing is, no, that’s two years off. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  Five years, maybe even ten years.

Kimberly Faith: Sometimes it’s forty years wandering in the wilderness.

John McLarty: God’s playing the long game.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. He is. And he has to prepare us for the game because we think we’re ready before we’re ready many times. And that was definitely me. And I, again, when we started doing this, it was clear to me that I had no idea what I was doing. I don’t know about you, but it’s morphed.

John McLarty: Well, I just jumped right in. Lynn, I have great memories of starting these podcasts.

Kimberly Faith:  Well, and the first one, of course, to me was so led by the Holy Spirit, the first and second one, which was really the foundation of, you know, the first one was about yours and mom’s testimony and how the Lord led you, to himself, which of course, if you and mom had not been born again, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have been born again. And there’s a good chance we wouldn’t have been sitting here doing this podcast today.

John McLarty: And that’s a whole amazing story that people just need to go back and they’re all available, podcast number one.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.

John McLarty: And now when I hand out our little testimony tracks, I say, and I give your tract with ours. And I need to add the podcast to our tract.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: Some kind of little code or something. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty:  But I can tell people now in our testimony that’s in this little written tract, the fuller version is in this podcast.

Kimberly Faith: It’s been such a tool.

John McLarty: It is.

Kimberly Faith: And also I think about First Thessalonians 5:24 that says, He who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

John McLarty: He’ll do it.

Kimberly Faith: He will do it. He’s not going to say, do this and then say, and good luck. You know, He’s like the coach that doesn’t send you into the game unless he’s prepared you. And then He’s prepared to coach you through it.

John McLarty: And just think about podcast number one was about your parents, and two, but that you have come up with so many fascinating subjects and stories, people

Kimberly Faith: People. Right. 

John McLarty: To have a podcast every week.

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

John McLarty;  And now we’re coming up on fifty two weeks.

Kimberly Fatih: Well, you know

John McLarty: You probably didn’t grasp the magnitude of what you were getting into.

Kimberly Faith: No, and I’m glad I didn’t. And I still really don’t.

John McLarty: If we did, sometimes we’d back off things.

Kimberly Faith: That’s one reason I tell them, I’m glad God doesn’t show me the future because it’s too staggering a lot of times to wrap my mind around it in this time and space.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, one of the, I guess the thoughts that God put in my heart about this podcast when we named it even Truth in Love, is that you’ve got to have truth and you’ve gotta have love when presenting the gift of salvation to people. Because if you give one without the other, then it’s cruel. And that’s on both sides of the equation.

John McLarty: Right, we’ve talked about this in several podcasts, but Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, he had the truth, but in love.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Yeah. And if you give love without truth, that’s cruel as well. If you just say, Oh, God loves you, God loves you, but don’t explain God is also righteous and just, they’re never going to be reconciled to God.

John McLarty: People don’t have the solution.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. They don’t even understand their own anxiety. Like, if God loves me, why am I so anxious? Well, that’s the other part of the equation because he also placed in you a need for a relationship with him, which is severed because of sin and because he’s righteous and he’s just, he has to punish sin. That anxiety is because that’s where you’re at.

You know that you’re doomed and you know that something’s not right. It’s kind of like when you eat bad food and your stomach starts telling you something’s not right and you get quite anxious. And until that bad food gets out of you, you’re going to be anxious. And when Jesus cleanses us by his gift of salvation of our sin problem and makes our soul and spirit redeemed, of course we’re anxious. We know that bad food’s still sitting in there. And so this whole podcast though is the

John McLarty: That theme truth in love. I mean, that’s the biblical concept. We need the truth, but we need it in love. We need to portray it in love, not self righteousness.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And so just, I just wanted to kind of highlight, I guess, part of what I wanted to do is highlight some of the podcasts from the past year that, and how those have blessed me and that I know they’ve blessed other people because this has become a platform, not just for teaching the truth in love, but also for taking ordinary people and their stories and showing the extraordinary work of God.

John McLarty: And stories are so powerful.

Kimberly Faith: They’re so powerful. Yes.

John McLarty: It’s one of the greatest teaching tools.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And I mean, Jesus used stories.

John McLarty: Right. Stories and parables.

Kimberly Faith: Not only did he tell parables, like one of the most powerful stories, I think parables he told was the story of the two servants. When I am struggling with unforgiveness towards my fellow, like somebody who really, like I’d had something happen recently where I was just really angry with a person. And immediately I’m reminded of the story that Jesus told of the two servants. God was like, how much have I forgiven you, Kim? A debt you could never pay. You were that servant that owed so much, you were going to pay for that debt with your life forever and ever. And this person has sinned against you to an amount like $10.

John McLarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: You owed 5,000,000,000, this person owes 10. Really? Your bank’s not full enough to forgive? Bam. That’s such a powerful story.

John McLarty: It is a great story.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So I think it’d be great to kind of recap some of the great stories that we’ve heard. And, you know, and of course some of them, we started back in with your story, yours and moms, and then also just kind of your secrets for the abundant life. That was kind of the second story.

John McLarty: Yeah, the first podcast was our testimony, which was,

Kimberly Faith: A most important story.

John McLarty: Quite interesting. And then the second one was, how did that change our life? What did that mean for us? Did we just get saved and nothing changed?

Kimberly Faith:  Well, I think that’s right. What did it mean? But also, how did it give you a satisfying life? How did Jesus Christ, pivoting your direction, give you a completely satisfying life?

John McLarty: Right, did it turn us into a life of misery? No, but a life of 

Kimberly Faith: Adventure.

John McLarty:  Adventure and fulfillment, really, peace.

Kimberly Faith: And then we kind of, some of the, I know we’re skipping around a bit, which is totally fine. Over the month of December, we talked about the best gifts of Christmas and the stories of people who adopted out of foster care. For example, Corey and Teresa Stalkup, they had their adoption journey, they had biological children and they also had their ten children, five adopted five biological. 

John McLarty: I remember that podcast. That was really a good one.

Kimberly Faith: Their story. 

John McLarty: Amazing. 

Kimberly Faith: I mean, just people of great faith in action, and great love in action. Of course, one of the things we also talked about, part of Go Faith Strong is our Foster Kids Boutique and interviewing Joy Henkel and just our executive director for Foster Kids Boutique, which our boutique is a beautiful 2,000 square foot shop that volunteers have put together and foster children who get hardly any funds for their necessities get to come and have basically an American Eagle shopping experience.

John McLarty: That is amazing.

Kimberly Faith: And of course, we also, we have churches who have bought age appropriate Bibles. We have our testimony tracts we give them. And we don’t just send them in here to shop, Joy walks them around.

John McLarty: Joy is just a fountain of joy.

Kimberly Faith: She is. She is. And one of the things that Joy has walked through in this past year is the death of her son by cancer, awful, awful. And her, you know, she has been such an inspiration to me. You know, just that and that kind of reminds me of another podcast that we had, about Stephanie Zevallos, who lost their 17 year old son and that story.

Gosh, again, I’m skipping around a little bit, but it’s episode 30, Rudy’s Race.

John McLarty: Right. I remember that one.

Kimberly Faith: Just the story of losing a 17 year old son and how he was a born again believer for one year of his life and how his untimely death proved to be the catalyst for his whole family coming to know Christ. And, we’re actually going to have Stephanie back on the podcast.

John McLarty: That should be good.

Kimberly Faith: God willing, just, you know, on the one year anniversary. I actually went to Rudy’s birthday party. They had a birthday party for him in the park this summer.

John McLarty: Very nice.

Kimberly Faith: And I bet about a 100 people showed up just to celebrate his life.

John McLarty: That’s incredible.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Super encouraging for the family. So that podcast is

John McLarty: Great podcast. All of these Joy and Rudy.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. Well, what was one of your favorites?

John McLarty: Well, when you, well, there was a follow-up with Lynn and I on our fiftieth anniversary of marriage. And I tell you what, for our listeners, if you want some funny podcasts, just tune in to one that Lynn, my wife, Kim’s mom, is on. She is just a comedian. She doesn’t think she is.

Kimberly Faith: Oh my gosh.

John McLarty: She’s petrified and nervous, But when she gets rolling, she’s so funny.

Kimberly Faith: Her one liners.

John McLarty: Her one liners.

Kimberly Faith: It’s kind of like I love Lucy, really. 

John Mclarty: Right. 

Kimberly Faith: I mean 

John McLarty: Yeah. Great example.

Kimberly Faith: She is yeah. Episode 22, the fifty years of wisdom was really a great podcast as well. Just so many, just real life stories and how it’s so, we all, they’re all relatable. You know? The things that happen to all of us are not unique from the standpoint that they don’t happen to anybody else. They are unique in how we allow God to navigate us through them.

John McLarty: Right.  And another one of my favorites was the guy in World War Two. It was his dad. You interviewed the son and his dad had made a stand and would not turn over the names of the Jews.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Yeah. That was episode 34 on the eightieth anniversary of VE Day and interview of Chris Edmunds, who was the son of master sergeant Roddie Edmunds

John McLarty: Roddie Edmunds. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: In World War Two. And he was a prisoner of war. And because there were no higher ranking persons, he was over like a couple thousand prisoners of war. But the German commandant wanted him to give up all the Jewish NCOs and enlisted. 

John McLarty: Put a gun to his head. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: And he wouldn’t do it.

Kimberly Faith: And his famous words were, we are all Jews here.

John McLarty: And I’d heard that one liner and to hear the story of the son of where that phrase came from. That was great. And he did it based on his faith.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: He was a Christian.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And his Bible, he had smuggled his Bible into the camp, I mean, the story is great.

John McLarty: Just, yeah. People just need to listen to it.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, it’s a great, and of course, we condensed down a whole man’s life into as much as we could into this podcast. And of course, his son has written a book

John McLarty:  A book, right.

Kimberly Faith: About it, which is an excellent, excellent book. Yeah. That was a great podcast as well. You know, one of the ones I really also enjoyed and it ended up being a very lasting phrase for me, it’s produced a lasting phrase in my life and way of interacting with people was Marissa Spencer, who’s a licensed medical massage therapist. She talked about holding space for people in their pain. And this was episode 31. 

John McLarty: I remember that one. 

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. Explained when you hold space for people, I call it space for grace, you allow them to be able to feel like they’re entering into the love that you have with Christ and make themselves vulnerable. So then you can then help heal, help them heal.

John McLarty: And that was Marissa Spencer. She was the medical massage therapist 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

John McLarty: That could 

Kimberly Faith:  She could sense

John McLarty: could sense people’s pain.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. But

John McLarty: But then that turned into the spiritual application of that.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: That’s a good one.

Kimberly Faith: A great one. I also appreciated Misty Osmond in episode 31 who shared her very powerful, painful testimony about having lived in the lesbian lifestyle for many years of her life, believing that she was born that way and how it led to addiction and identity struggles, and then she was born again. And just her path out and the way she describes her path out there, how she got there and now where she is now.

John McLarty: She is such a champion.

Kimberly Faith: She is.

John McLarty: I mean, she was just transparent, resilient. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

John McLarty: But really to tell that story was, I would say, riveting.

Kimberly Faith: It really was and courageous because in today’s culture where Christians are afraid, I think, to a large degree, to even address the heart of the alternative lifestyle community, whether that be all the different varieties of gender that are being put forth now or whether it’s just straight up homosexuality or the lesbian lifestyle. We need to know as Christians how to love people and give them truth in that context. And it’s such a gift to take people who have this perspective, and this is what Misty did really well, take that perspective that has shaped their whole life and all their decisions and basically reflect that in God’s love and his truth and in his word.

John McLarty: Compare it to God’s word.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And just say, hey, here’s the reason that God’s perspective is going to give you hope and going to  give you joy and going to  give you satisfaction. And this perspective can’t. And it all goes back to human design and who God is, which is what we teach in the concept study. She did a great job.

John McLarty: She did.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, she really did. And she’s actually

John McLarty: She’s a great lady too. Lots of fun.

Kimberly Faith: She’s a lot of fun. And she basically thinks you and mom are her parents too.

John McLarty: Well, we just think she’s a daughter. And  you know, just Misty’s stories, just her life. And it’s so full of truth. And another podcast I really liked though was just a real practical How to Study the Bible by Doctor Kenny Francis. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: So these podcasts vary from real compassionate human stories like Misty’s 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: To just how do you go about studying the bible? And I know that one was really very listened to with a lot of Christians, just so practical.

Kimberly Faith: Well, it’s funny you mentioned that because even people that I’m facilitating studies with, I may have made several comments about there’s three podcasts basically that, Brother Kenny did that just how to study God’s word. And probably the most often heard comment that I had on that three podcast series was, why haven’t I been taught this?

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: This is a really pretty straightforward how to, and it’s really not that difficult. Why haven’t I been taught this? And my response is, I don’t know, but now you have, so run with it. Of course, Kenny, we know him as being a very excellent teacher. He’s very direct, unlike myself who likes to chase rabbits, always gets to the point he says he’s going to get to.

John McLarty: Well, you might be too shy to mention this, but speaking of God’s word, the podcasts that we did on the beatitudes were really good. You just did a deep dive into the beatitudes. You might want to prompt the listeners as to why they should listen to those, but I think that was, like a, was that a nine part series?

Kimberly Faith: It was. It was close to the beginning of our, when we started really kind of, we haven’t done I mean, we divided it between people’s stories and the doctrinal parts that are just most useful.

John McLarty: Yeah, that was in episodes 3 through 11.

Kimberly Faith: Ah, okay. Well, I have to tell you that I, not to, I think the Holy Spirit guides the podcast content based on things that are useful in day to day life. You know, we haven’t done too many podcasts that are on, you know, kind of more, I don’t know what you’d call it, esoteric subjects. I don’t want to say anything in the Bible is esoteric, but things that you would apply every day. And I think the Beatitudes series, which basically is a deep dive into the attitudes that Christ taught us that we should reflect if we are going to be blessed in life.

John McLarty: Sure. Blessed are the poor in spirit, number one.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: The key to salvation.

Kimberly Faith: And the good Christian life, that produces fruit. And these attitudes are something, I had never studied the beatitudes in the context of understanding how that would pivot my life, how it would change my everyday behaviors towards people. Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the peacemakers. That doesn’t mean peacekeepers. That doesn’t mean people that are just sitting in a corner with their legs crossed, saying, om.This is people who bring peace to families, to individuals, to cities, people who bring the peace by the prince of peace. And it’s all these attitudes, they’re attitudes. They’re not like intellectual knowledge that’s stored in your brain. Yeah, it is knowledge in your brain, but it’s an attitude of life.

John McLarty: Yeah. That was very challenging. I think a lot of us just, and me included, think it was just the beatitudes, just this thing you memorize and quote. But we did a pretty deep dive into them and it was very challenging.

Kimberly Faith: It’s something that

John McLarty: Beatitudes for  a fruitful life.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s something that I have to go back and reread because it’s easy to forget what my attitude is supposed to be. And it’s kind of like anything in life, end up living more reactionary instead of intentionally. And so a storm comes and I’m like, wait, what attitude should I be having right now towards this storm that’s caused by this person who’s just being hateful? You know? And it’s nice to have this list. Okay. You know what? That’s a chance for me to be merciful. And that helps segue me into God’s perspective, is what we talked about last week.

John McLarty: It’s amazing to think of the variety of these podcasts for a whole year’s worth. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty:  From kind of a deep dive into the beatitudes to just these human, these real people stories.

Kimberly Faith: Like your podcast on the story of the Cherokees.

John McLarty: That was really yeah. I enjoyed that. That’s something I’ve been studying for twenty years. And there were a lot of myths about the Trail of Tears. But I think we looked at a perspective of how many of those Cherokees were actually born again Christians.

Kimberly Faith:  That was episode 39 about the Trail of Tears.

John McLarty:  Yeah. I teach that a lot in PowerPoints, but people are amazed when they hear the true story of the Trail of Tears. So we’ll just leave that for people to tune into.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah, I mean 

John McLarty:  I got a lot of positive results of just people coming up to me saying, wow, kind of like you said about a Bible study, Kenny’s Bible study, how have I lived in America and I didn’t hear this backstory of the Trail of Tears.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. No. I hadn’t heard it. And so as Christians, it’s so nice to know that we have resources. Like, when you research that, I mean, went into the, you had pulled from government archives and people who had searched government archives, not necessarily you yourself, but you had

John McLarty: Yeah. And I’ve gone to Georgia and Tennessee and Alabama to the home country of the Cherokee and gone to museums and heard Cherokee speakers.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

John McLarty: Which just have such a different perspective than you might say the typical American thought.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And the Trail of Tears.

Kimberly Faith: It’s amazing to me that what my takeaway from that whole podcast, which is excellent podcast by the way, is that the Cherokee people that understand this element of the Trail of Tears do not view themselves as victims, but rather they’ve left a legacy that has, that has been enhanced by the experience of the Trail of Tears.

John McLarty: Yeah. And they want it remembered, but they don’t want to be perpetual victims. They’re survivors. They’re thriving. They recovered. And they’re doing quite well, thank you, in Indian territory.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. And I think about the I don’t know. That to me is such a, that’s a lifelong lesson for all of us because we’re all going to be victimized at some point because-

John McLarty: Bad things will happen.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Even when you’re doing good things. Yes.

John McLarty: Yes. That were wrong at the time.

Kimberly Faith: That were wrong.

John McLarty: Absolutely.

Kimberly Faith: I also think one of my favorites was interviewing our, how old is brother Brian? Is he 80?

John McLarty: Brian is 88.

Kimberly Faith: 88 years old.

John McLarty: About to turn 89.

Kimberly Faith: Pastor. And he I mean, you talk about funny. That was just to go over the last fifty plus years of his life, and well even back further, and how God took an ordinary man raised on a farm, taught to read the Bible by lamplight, who had a Bible believing mama and had a

John McLarty:  Ma Disney.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Ma Disney. And I didn’t know all these things about him, about the way he got into the Navy that was less than, maybe a little unconventional. How he was born again, how he invented things, all these stories. And because, you know, I credit him as being the person that you know, was directly responsible for my salvation.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith:  You know, I mean, he started the mission and ministered to you all. And as a result, even though you all had been saved through some different people, He disciples you, which meant that I got taught and then was saved. His story is just priceless. And he’s funny.

John McLarty: From farming to then to the Navy, to engineering, to high levels of corporate management

Kimberly Faith: And inventions.

John McLarty:  in the United States and inventions. And then when he got rededicated to the Lord, he had a burden for college campuses because he saw that’s where Christian young people were being just sabotaged. So he developed just straight from the Bible, the concepts that made sense and answered the tough questions that were kind of raging in the late sixties and early seventies.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And it’s formed the basis of our concept study.

John McLarty: It has. The basis of the concept study.

Kimberly Faith: He always tells me that, he giggles and he tells me, well, you didn’t pick a really good profession, the legal profession. He says, you should have been an engineer.

John McLarty: Everybody should have been an engineer.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

John McLarty: And then on to their career.

Kimberly Faith: And I corrected him and said, well, but we use the Socratic method, which you use without even knowing it. Some of us had to be taught.

John McLarty: Yeah. So people should listen to that podcast because if you, whether you know pastor Brian Disney or not, he gives so many insights from that slice of America. He was born in the late thirties and went through, as a kid, World War II and just that perspective and farm life and the  reading by the kerosene lamp and how that shaped his life. And God used these events to shape his life.

Kimberly Faith: It also reminds me that you don’t, he wasn’t, you know, he wasn’t someone that may be born with a silver spoon in his mouth. You know, he didn’t have  people look at him say, oh, he’s a pastor. He knows all these answers. No, he got that way by studying God’s word, by disciplining himself. He wasn’t sent to the best seminary. He didn’t go to seminary, you know? And so it’s anybody, that ordinary person can be used to extraordinary things.

John McLarty: That’s a good point. An unconventional path to being a pastor.

Kimberly Faith: And  I think that kind of inspired too I mean, his life has inspired so many things in my life, but one of them was episode 45, which is three levels of knowing God. That has been probably one of the most listened to.

John McLarty: That’s interesting.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: That’s a great one too.

Kimberly Faith: Because people think you know, you hear people say, well, I know God. And I like to ask them, what do you mean by that? If they haven’t been taught these three levels of knowing God, it’s kind of like me saying, well, I know who Tim Tebow is. Well, I know who he is because of media, you know? But do I know Tim Tebow? No. And if I was, you know, I mean, his wife knows him different than the other women in the world and his family knows him differently than other people in the world, than I know him or you know him. So we look at those three levels of knowing God.

John McLarty: Yeah, we use those definitions to think of, well, people know there is a God. Well, the devils know there’s a God. They can say they know there’s a God, but then to know God as in salvation. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: And then that’s the second level.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty:  And then the third level is to once we’re born again, like, to know God more intimately. We use the example of kind of like, Lynn and I have been married for fifty years. So I can just say, do you want to  go to such and such restaurant? And the look on her face, she doesn’t even have to say, I know she does or she doesn’t.

Kimberly Faith: Sometimes you don’t even ask the question because you know she’s not going to want to go to McDonald’s.

John McLarty: So that is a good example. And how do we get to know people or God on that level, spending time with them.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Again, I appreciate so much the Holy Spirit and God’s faithfulness through his word in revealing these things to just an ordinary person like you and I,

John McLarty: God doesn’t want to keep these things secret from us.

Kimberly Faith: He does not. He wants to give us the secret of his wisdom. But the secret to getting the secret is to align ourselves with his perspective after we’re born again, of course. So, of course, we could talk about a lot more podcasts that we’ve had. And I don’t know, dad, if there’s any other ones that pop in your brain, but I

John McLarty: I think we’ve given a good example. I would just encourage our listeners. All these podcasts are good. Take the time to listen to them.

Kimberly Faith: Well, what’s cool is that my little sister, Hannah, has done transcripts of all these podcasts on our website. So with each podcast, there’s the transcript. So if you prefer to read, you can always do it that way. And you can also search the website, gofaithstrong.com, if there’s a particular subject you’re looking for. 

John McLarty: Oh, that’s neat, so it’s searchable. That’s very good.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah, it’s searchable. And so you may not be able to do that on Spotify or iTunes or whatever platform you’re listening to the podcast on, but you can go to the website.

John McLarty: The website.

Kimberly Faith: So for example, were looking for the podcast we did last week on, like if you’re interested in the Amish religion, for example, you could search Amish on our podcast and you’d be able to

John McLarty: And by the way, that was a great podcast.

Kimberly Faith: Eli just

John McLarty:  From the Amish community became born again. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty:  Fascinating story.

Kimberly Faith: Fascinating. And the work he’s doing is so incredible. And his whole family, of course, has been involved with that. Well, dad, as we wrap up here, I just kind of want to also encourage people with where we’re going with this. Do we even know where we’re going?

John McLarty: Going in God’s direction is our goal as God leads.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. We want people to be engaged beyond the intellectual belief in God. We want people to engage beyond an intellectual understanding of God’s word. We want it to become relational. And what better way to do that than through people’s stories and then through lessons like how to study God’s word. When we talked about Jesus being the word, you know, that podcast was I’m still thinking about that. I’m still processing that because I don’t think I’ll be able to wrap my mind around that. We want to make people think about their life and have an abundant life.

John McLarty: I think it’s based on scriptures, and it’s based on application of scriptures, and it’s based on real people and real stories.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: And you might meet somebody or I might meet somebody that, boy, this story needs to get out. It’s so glorifying of God. So really the direction can go, it’s all truth in love, but it can be people, stories, scriptures, themes.

Kimberly Faith: You bring up a good point, dad. You know, if there’s somebody listening who has a story that they want to share, that glorifies God, then reach out to us. Send us an email at GoFaithStrong and we will follow-up with that. If there’s a topic that you want to hear about, if there’s a question that you want to answer, man, we would love that.

John McLarty: Very good.

Kimberly Faith: These podcasts have precipitated a lot of questions that’s kind of built on some of the future podcasts. Some of the podcasts have been in response to questions people have asked. One of them was, what’s the difference between the great white throne judgment and the judgment seat of Christ? Actually that devotional has been one of the highest or most read devotionals on our website all over the world.

John McLarty: That’s an important distinction.

Kimberly Faith: Very important. 

John McLarty: The two judgments.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I know one that we’re probably going to have coming up is, can you lose your salvation? I think a lot of people are very, very confused about that issue. And again, that’s a question we want to, I don’t want to be afraid to answer the hard questions because with God’s word and his spirit, and if he is the way, the truth, the life, then we don’t have to worry about that being self proving.

John McLarty: Yeah. God in his word said, come, let us reason together.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: So the tough questions, bring them on.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so we appreciate all of our listeners, of course, and we appreciate the people, especially who pray for this podcast and have become integral in their prayers. I know mom is one of those people. Of course, mom.  If you have any questions about prayer, send them to us. But if you really want to hear some entertaining and very good podcasts or thoughts about prayer, we’ve got several.

John McLarty: Several podcasts on prayer.

Kimberly Faith: That mom has been

John McLarty: Featuring Lynn McLarty.

Kimberly Faith: The one and only prayer warrior. She’s not the one and only, but she’s definitely out there on the front lines. So anyway, dad, thanks for

John McLarty: Well, this has been a great journey and we’re going to keep walking the journey. And I think there’s a phrase, keep telling the truth in love.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right. And we’ll keep doing it till the Lord says either no more or he calls us home.

John McLarty:  Amen.

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 post to worship music, it’s all there to help you stay connected to truth throughout your week.

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