Episode 66: The Best Gifts Of Christmas: Jesus—The Living Word

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

Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, I’m just I’m so excited to be in this Christmas season.

John McLarty: It’s it’s just a great season. It’s a time to think about Jesus, the birth of Jesus. Yes. All the to us.

Kimberly Faith: All the gifts he gives us. You know, in the the gifts of Christmas series that we’re in the middle of in the devotionals, just I think it’s it’s been so good for me to really reflect on the most important gifts. And and we talk about that with our lips, but do we experience it in our life? Right. And I think we need to talk about it and read about it to be able to experience it, because the more that we recycle those things through our mind, the stronger those thoughts become, and thus the more thankful we become in what’s really important.

John McLarty: Well, I think it’s interesting that we always think about this in the Christmas season that we give gifts to others, but really Christmas is God’s giving it the greatest gift to us,

Kimberly Faith: which is the

John McLarty: Lord Jesus Christ.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And to remember that.

Kimberly Faith: It is. And it’s then when we give gifts to others, we’re giving it for the right motive. We’re giving it to glorify God. Right. You know?

So this is our our next best gifts of Christmas series, the living word. And to kind of dig deeper into this, you know, this was kind of inspired by a little just a little fireside chat message given by Peter Kovacs back in November. And I remember that message. Yeah. About a pond.

So we’re gonna start off by just reading John chapter one. I wanna read John one one through five and verse 14. And it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him, nothing was made that was made.

In him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. We could stop there.

John McLarty: We could. And it’s so interesting that Jesus is the loving word, and he’s also given us the written word

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: Which is a manifestation of him, his thinking, his mind, the mind of God.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. He is God. And the more that we read and obey and study God’s word, the more it becomes an integral part of our life. You know, they they say when you learn when you really learn to speak a language, like, let’s say Spanish, you know you’ve really learned it when you dream in Spanish.

John McLarty: Yes. I’ve heard that.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And so, I can tell you that that when I’m obeying God’s word, when I am passionate about knowing the Lord’s will, when I am waking up in the morning, I wake up in the morning differently. I wake up thinking about God and praying and talk just talking to him like, good morning, Lord.

John McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: But when I’m not, when I’m when I stray from that, I don’t wake up the same way even. I don’t dream the same way. I know I told you about the there are couple times that this has happened to me where I’ve I’ve woken up my body has woken up in the middle of the night, and it’s almost like I’ve been observing my soul, my soul reciting Isaiah, the book of Isaiah.

John McLarty: Very interesting.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it’s I knew it wasn’t I had memorized, you know, and it was it it it both times, it lasted for the space that it seemed like an hour. And I knew I in my my mind had not memorized those verses, but because Jesus is in me. When we’re born again, Jesus he his righteousness, his spirit covers our he’s in our soul and our spirit. He makes us we are born into his family.

So it shouldn’t be any surprise that as John one says, he is the word, and he he became flesh and dwelt among us, which is what we’re celebrating Christmas. But that when we receive him as lord and savior and we continually want to surrender our life to him, that he’s going to become part of our most our deepest thoughts.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know? And and we’re gonna it’s almost like the veil of the flesh is set aside, and we get to see we get to see who we really are in Christ.

John McLarty: Well and it’s interesting when you think about reading the word and the word being the the mind of God, literally the mind of God spoken

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Is the word of God. So when I think of people, including myself, and we want to spend time in prayer and maybe meditating upon God Mhmm. And our thoughts can wonder. Yes. But when we’re reading the word, it’s almost like a direct input of the mind of God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s a good point.

John McLarty: So you just you can’t read the word too much.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And I’ve I’ve experienced that since I’ve been retired from my my day job.

Kimberly Faith: Got you pretty busy, though.

John McLarty: But just from regional planning, which was a great job. But just spending more time in the word, like, almost unless I’m disrupted, dental appointment or something, I might spend an hour just reading the word.

Kimberly Faith: And

John McLarty: I think I’ve shared this with you. My first method was just go through the book of Acts again and again because I I love history.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And then that got me intrigued in the the life of Paul and started reading the New Testament letters. But recently, I’ve been in the book of Psalms, and it’s just talking about the mind of God. Right. Just downloading into our mind.

Kimberly Faith: And the same.

John McLarty: It’s interesting because you do think start thinking God’s thoughts.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: It’s kinda like, you know, in foreign language immersion.

Kimberly Faith: Right. It’s like in in in situations that come up in life, like maybe a problem you’re trying to solve, instead of thinking the first thought you think is, how do I solve this? You’re thinking, wait a minute. God’s word has something to say about that. And you you mentioned the Psalms, you know.

Psalm one nineteen, if you wanna know what the word does for you, Psalms one nineteen is probably I mean, I don’t know. It’s it’s my favorite Psalm to just remind me of all the aspects of how God’s word is important.

John McLarty: I’ll just I’m just looking at one of the Psalms from Psalm I guess verses from Psalm one nineteen is one zero five.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And most people know it. There’s a great song about it. But your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And that is so amazing that God’s word will literally give us direction.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And, you know, and that ties back into John chapter one, because it says in him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness. And and he talks about, you know, the word Jesus is the word becomes flesh, which is what we’re celebrating. And he did that because he in order to purchase our salvation, obviously, he had to you know, that was part of the plan, God’s plan.

But then when we receive the gift of salvation, that light is in us, and we need to unveil it with by by putting our flesh under under control, you know, the the control of spirit. Paul talks about being transformed, right, by the renewing of your mind. That’s a constant process. I don’t I don’t wake up by accident thinking about God’s word. I or praying.

It’s because we have to discipline ourselves to not only read the word, but to be be wanna be one with the word, which is Jesus.

John McLarty: It’s interesting. The word will literally it’ll it the word will give us general guidance Mhmm. In our life. But at times, it gives us as we seek his word and his will, if we want his will

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: He will give us guidance. And sometimes just through the spirit, you might say, just like, you know, a closed door, an open door.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But often through his word.

Kimberly Faith: What do you think?

John McLarty: About a time when Lou and I had a we had a decision to make in life, and it was there was no clear answer. And I just thought I’d go outside and spend some time in the word, and I was just reading through Psalms. And I came across the Psalm that says, be still and know I’m the Lord. And that just spoke to me for that moment, that decision we had to make. I won’t get into all specifics, but there was this answer that we were about to have a phone call, like a three way or four way conference call.

And the Lord just said, I’m going to reveal this through this phone call. Interesting. Just the parties all involved came up with a suggestion, and it was like that’s the answer. But the Lord kind of prepped me. I’m giving you that.

I’m going to give you the answer. Not right now, but in this event. But it just gave me a peace.

Kimberly Faith: That’s that’s so I’m glad you brought that up because one of the gifts of Christmas we’ve we’ve taught where in the devotional series is letting go.

John McLarty: Mhmm. Well, it was the letting go.

Kimberly Faith: It’s such a gift that we can let go. We don’t have to hold on to the problem. When we when we have the mind of Christ, we can we can say, okay. I’m operating in your mind. You’re already there, Lord.

I and I can trust you, so I’m gonna let this go because I can’t change it anyway. The things that we can’t change, we let go, and then we just do what God puts in front of us today. Right. And he’s already solved the problem. And it’s always what’s crazy is it’s always a better solution than we could have come up with or even imagined.

You know?

John McLarty: It’s really amazing that that word is so deep. Mhmm. And has answers to in, like, in general of life, but specific situations. Right. And it’s amazing how deep it is, how applicable it is to every aspect of life.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And and I think the more that we integrate this kind of this dual I guess, this dual way that the word applies to us reading it and also living in loving obedience to Jesus, the word, right, the more that we see what a great treasure it is. You know, Psalms one eighteen fourteen says, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches.

John McLarty: That’s a great verse.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: Again, from the Psalm Psalms one eighteen fourteen.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. It’s it’s so and let’s kinda just by way of illustration, I thought that the illustration that Peter gave in his little fireside chat about the pond was a great way to understand just the value of the word. Why don’t you tell us about that?

John McLarty: Well, and I it’s funny. Some people had had not heard of that. I just been in the Ozarks and around the old timers and pond builders. I had heard something about a pond has to have a certain depth.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. I had never heard that.

John McLarty: Yeah. Stay clean, to stay lively, so to speak, or it’ll just turn into this green, what mom would call swamp water. Lynn hates swamp water pot because she hates snakes, and you think that’s where a snake’s gonna come out of a green swampy pot.

Kimberly Faith: Mom has a lively imagination, which we’re very thankful for.

John McLarty: But Peter’s illustration was that a pond needs to have a certain depth so it can have kind of a it’s an ecosystem.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: It can have some life.

Kimberly Faith: That’s actually an engineering thing.

John McLarty: It’s an engineering thing. Yeah. So those are operators. Pond builders know this. You’ve gotta have a certain depth to keep a pond fresh, and it can kinda turn over.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And so it doesn’t does not grow algae on the top. Mhmm. It’s really quite quite fascinating. There’s probably whole science Right. That.

But I’ve always heard that, that you can’t just build this shallow mud hole of a pond.

Kimberly Faith: It has to have depth. I hadn’t heard that.

John McLarty: Can have a life cycle. Yeah. And then the water can come in, fresh water, and water goes out. So there’s this whole, you know, life cycle of a pond. Yeah.

And and Peter really he he used that that our life needs to be like that.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: Like a healthy bond.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And he used the illustration about how God’s word is it it first of all, it it goes deep enough to clean out what needs to be clean. When we’re born again, we actually have the equip we we’ve been our pond has been dug almost, you know, and and and when we apply God’s word, then we have we the the word goes deep and it cleans out what needs to be cleaned out. You know, from time to time, we got we got baggage that needs to be removed, like, every day. But then when we’re also daily bringing the word in, that that makes us alive, that that keeps us vibrant.

And I I I don’t know, you know, I I it’s it’s kind of funny. One of the things that we say in our office, we have the fostering by faith boutique that gives, basically allows foster children to come and shop free in this beautiful boutique that God has been gracious enough to allow us to to put together with the community. And it’s all new clothes and shoes and jewelry and all kinds of stuff. And and, you know, we will have a fundraiser or we’ll get a donation. And and anytime I look at the bank account and it’s it’s fuller, then I then then I have peace about.

Like, wait a minute. We’re we’re not a a stagnant pond. We’re a Right.

John McLarty: We’re a

Kimberly Faith: we’re a flowing we don’t want this money to sit there. It’s not doing any kids any good. You know, we tend to hold on

John McLarty: forgiven.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. We tend to hold on

John McLarty: Distributed.

Kimberly Faith: Hold on to things because we we example. We look at it as our security. You know? That’s our money is our security. Well, what if we’re our organization runs out of money?

Well, if it’s God’s organization, it’s not gonna run out of money. And if it does run out of money, then he must have a different plan. It’s just so much easier to look at every aspect of our life that way, but we can’t do that unless we’re full of God’s living word because he keeps us from getting stagnant. And I I would I use that application in my own life, whether it’s my law firm, you know, it’s not my law firm. It’s God’s law firm.

And if he tells me to take a week a month and work on Go Faces Strong and not practice law that week of the month, then he must have a plan for paying the bills that I’m not aware of. But that keeps me from being stagnant. I could I could work eighty hours a week and have a big old bank account and just be a stagnant pond

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Instead of a living stream or living a living body of water

John McLarty: has to come in and then go out.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And God’s word, you know, God’s word tells us how it it the book of Hebrews says that the word of God is quick and powerful, and it’s it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. In other words, when we read God’s word, it’s like looking at a very honest mirror. Mhmm. You know?

We’re like seeing truth and seeing what we need to change.

John McLarty: And that yeah. That there’s a spiritual application there, what we need to change, what we need to clean out.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: And I think of this pond example. You can have a pond that’s getting freshwater Mhmm. Distributing freshwater

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: You know, leaves it at the evaporation or has an overflow, but that that water’s bringing in sediment. Mhmm. Right. That sediment builds up.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And the pond that started deep becomes shallow.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. That’s a good example.

John McLarty: Yeah. If you don’t clean the sediment out

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: The pond becomes unhealthy again.

Kimberly Faith: That’s that’s really good, Doug, because it kinda shows the two God’s word has a twofold purpose. It keeps us living and alive and oxygenated, but it also keeps us keeps the sediment cleared out. And you gotta have both. It’s kinda like the sins of omission and commission. You gotta guard on both ends.

You can’t just say, oh, well, I’m not drinking, smoking, and dancing on the tables. Oh, you gotta also be praying without ceasing.

John McLarty: Well, I’m and I’m paraphrasing the verse. This is I think it’s in Proverbs or or it may be Psalms. How how how shall a young man cleanse his ways? Mhmm. And it’s through the word of God.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, yes. That’s a good verse. I need to talk about

John McLarty: God is revealing things to us like, oh, oh, yeah. That’s that’s that’s a bad attitude.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Or I need to get rid of

Kimberly Faith: that. Right. No. That’s that’s so true. I think

John McLarty: That could be sins of a mission or a commission. Right. Know, the word of God is revealing something to you. That attitude that you have toward that person, you need to get rid of that.

Kimberly Faith: You know, it’s it’s so funny because we we talked about this in the podcast on the two podcasts on having the mind of Christ. And one of the the greatest things that God’s word has been doing for me is, like, I’ll be you know how our flesh is just so deceitful? I’ll be having my quiet time for heaven’s sake, and I’ll have a thought about somebody who has offended me just randomly in the middle of my quiet time and maybe some problem that’s coming. Maybe it’s, you know, Christmas plans or something. And and so what the Lord has been teaching me through his word is because he wants us to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds.

Take that thought and put it in a box over here. Okay? And and and then and then I have to ask the Lord, now give me a thought about that person to replace that thought I just put in the box.

John McLarty: Good thinking too.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And and and almost always, it’s right from his word. Like, the the one I’m the example I’m giving you, that’s the next thought was pray for that person. Mhmm. The bible says pray without pray for without ceasing.

Says love your enemies. Right? And so so my next question for the Lord was, well, what do I pray for this person? Because this person’s a big pain in my butt. And God always says to me, you know, this is always how he he he talks to me because I think this is why I need to be talked to.

He says, well, first of all, you’re you’re a pain in my butt a lot of times too. Now I’m this is Kim speak. Right? But he almost always then will put me in relation to him and show his grace and mercy towards me, And then he shows me something very specific to pray for that person. Like, this particular person had a death in the family.

And, and you know what? Lord’s like, you need to pray for this person’s healing from this death. And I was like, oh, that’s a good idea. You know? And so I started praying for this person, and they’re like, okay.

And then God’s word, you know, that he kept bringing back to me, love your enemies. Right? And and and and do good to those who spitefully use you. And then the next thought he said, well, now you need to you need to go and and buy this person some flowers and do something nice for this person. You know?

And I’ll tell you Good. You know, it it this was not Kim’s thoughts. These were not Kim’s you know, this did not come from my mind. This was clearly the mind of Christ because Kim wants to get watered up and angry and, you know, get derailed over the unfairness of how I’m not being treated right. Jesus was he was the most scorned and rejected person on the face of the earth, and he came.

He still came. He knew he was gonna be scorned and rejected, and he came anyway. Became flesh. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we’re supposed to represent that.

John McLarty: I like that thought of taking something that was a negative thought.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: And not just dwelling on that negative thought, but you replace it you replace it with a good action in your case.

Kimberly Faith: Yes.

John McLarty: I think of the verses. It’s I’m not sure where it even is, but it’s chew evil, but cleave to that which is good.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. Mhmm. So we don’t

John McLarty: just dwell on that, oh, I’m putting that you’ve you put it in a box. Yeah. Then you just don’t dwell on the box. You replace that

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Reaction. Yeah. I’m gonna

John McLarty: pray for that person, and then in your case, bring in some flowers.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and the and the thing is we’re not because if we’re willing to admit that we don’t have enough good thoughts on our own to really do justice to what God wants us to do in in in bearing out his image and and who he is. If we’re honest and just say, God, I don’t know how to have good thoughts towards this person. I don’t know how to have your heart towards this person. I can’t I can’t do it. You’ve got to do it for me.

He’s so good. He’ll he’ll give us ideas. But, you know, when we’re fully surrendered like that, which is the only really, the only battle we have to fight is being surrendered.

John McLarty: And it goes back to our podcast a couple of weeks ago on renewing the on the

Kimberly Faith: mind. Mhmm.

John McLarty: And there’s the mind of the flesh is only evil continually.

Kimberly Faith: It’s selfish. Right.

John McLarty: You know? Not that it’s not legitimate to whatever, brush our teeth or go eat, but that the mind of Christ. So when we when that’s replaced by a good thought, it’s coming from the mind of Christ.

Kimberly Faith: It is. And the result is instead of having this downward spiraling negative thought pattern that we started out with, we feel vibrant, we feel alive, we feel satisfied, we feel peaceful, we get all the the presence of God in its fullest form. You know, the book of Galatians says that when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son. Well, we can experience that fullness now when we immerse ourselves in God’s word and in living full obedience and surrender to Christ who is the word.

John McLarty: I think of refreshed water. We have that refreshed water.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: When we’ve switched from a reaction of the flesh to reaction of the spirit. We’re just thinking, you know, we think of the living water as Jesus, you know, partaking of it.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But this pond analogy is is interesting. Yeah. Because we love we love being around fresh water. Right. Clean looking water.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Refreshing to our minds. And God gives us that in our life, like a a pond that’s been refreshed.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. He gives us the ability to become that peaceful place of living water where people wanna come or a fruitful garden. Right? I mean, the bible talks about how we can become a fruitful vine. Right?

John McLarty: I’m thinking of a picture of, you know, some of the rivers around here in those arcs starting to dry. Like, the Buffalo River might run low. Mhmm. And it gets all swampy and Stagnant. And then a big rain comes through, and it’s just so

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So beautiful. So that flowing water, that’s interesting, to make that analogy in my own life. When the word Jesus is flowing through our lives, we’re more attractive to others because we’re reflecting him.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And attracted, and we can always take them back to Jesus because we can always say, you know, when someone says, I want the same kind of peace you have, we can say, well, this is just so you know, this piece is not something I manufactured.

John McLarty: It’s let others see Jesus.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. It it comes from God. And and, you know, Jesus promised in John four, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, meaning the well that he was standing next But whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst, but the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

John McLarty: That’s that’s that’s a refreshing water.

Kimberly Faith: An opportunity. What an opportunity. What a gift that Jesus came, became flesh, dwelt among us, died, lives again, and when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, gives us the ability to live as his the most vibrant, refreshing, and refreshed life that that we could ever we could ever imagine. It’s it’s but we have one choice every day to get that.

John McLarty: And we can help renew that just to tie that back into he’s the the living word, but then he’s the written word.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm.

John McLarty: So I was just thinking about this first. It’s in Hebrews four twelve. It says, for the word of God is living and powerful, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the word of God shows us. Like, oh, that’s that’s not a good place for

Kimberly Faith: the mind to be. Right.

John McLarty: Or here, go here. Think about this. Yeah. And we’re doing that very thing right now in this podcast.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly.

John McLarty: About the living water and how how we want that we want it to be a refreshed stream.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.

John McLarty: For our own life, our own happiness

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Our own fulfillment. But then, you know, who wants to who wants to be around a Christian that’s all sour and bummed out

Kimberly Faith: Dried up.

John McLarty: Miserable and just complaining about everything. Yeah. So we need to be lively Christians, and that’s through

Kimberly Faith: him. Absolutely.

John McLarty: Through his spirit, through his word.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. When we think about the best gifts that we can give each other for Christmas, I think to be in the word and to be living according to the word, not because of obligation, but because of love is one of the best gifts we can give, even to even to people who aren’t born again, because it’s such a contrast. Jesus, you know, the the the Bible talks about how he became light in the darkness. He was the light in the darkness. And we live in a, you know, dark world, and Christmas is hard for a lot of people.

Mhmm. There are people who are their saddest, their loneliest, their their most just the the most depressed at Christmas. And I think it’s because Christmas even the word itself carries with it and the idea itself carries with such a great expectation. And when we are in Christ, our expectations are met. And when we’re not in Christ, we’re disappointed because anything less than Jesus is going to disappoint us.

You know? So as Christians, the best gift we can give is to give people the living word, living through us and pouring into others.

John McLarty: And he’s the light of the world.

Kimberly Faith: He

John McLarty: is. And we’re told to not let put our light under a bushel, but let it shine. Right. Right. So we’re reflect what an honor.

Kimberly Faith: What an honor.

John McLarty: Reflections of him. And and this world is full of darkness and despair

Kimberly Faith: and Yeah.

John McLarty: Loneliness and anxiety.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. We get to be heroes for Jesus.

John McLarty: For those.

Kimberly Faith: I I love that idea. Well, dad, I think I think we are this this Christmas gifts series is just very exciting to me, and I’m glad that we the Lord led us to do this one about Jesus, the living word.

John McLarty: Makes me wanna go take a big old drink of water from the word. Are

Kimberly Faith: 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.