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The Truth In Love podcast will present God's timeless truth through the lens of His amazing love. We will do this not only through stories of people who have experienced His peace, love, strength, and wisdom through tough circumstances, but also by endeavoring to give the Bible’s answer to life’s great questions, like: Who is God, what's my purpose, who am I, how can I know God, what is heaven and hell, what is truth, and why is the Bible's truth better than my own version of truth? These are legitimate questions folks ask, and we as Christians should have the answers! God has a magnificent plan for every person. We are thrilled to be part of discovering and sharing what His Word reveals to bring hope, peace and great love into the hearts of all humanity. Join us every Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. CST for The Truth in Love podcast, with your host Kimberly Faith
Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. We seek to present God's timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love. Good morning, and welcome back to the Truth in Love podcast. We are on podcast number 5, which is the which is part 3 of the Beatitude series and living your best life. And, I I welcome back my regular guest now, my dad, John McLarty.
Kimberly Faith:Good morning.
John McLarty:It's great to be here.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. This is this is probably one of the most exciting things I think I've done in my entire life.
John McLarty:I love doing this.
Kimberly Faith:And we spent, spent 5 hours just during the recording studio recording one of my granddaughter's favorite songs. So I've got the raspy voice. You sound a little
John McLarty:I've got a little raspy.
Kimberly Faith:So Yeah. So we're just gonna we're just gonna give it our best shot. So part 3 of this Beatitudes series is rejecting destructive behavior enables our best life. In the last podcast, we talked about, we left everybody with this question, and it is, what is the one thing that keeps you from living your best life? And, Doug, what do you think people, people would identify as the one thing that keeps them from living their best life?
Kimberly Faith:Just from a secular standpoint.
John McLarty:Well, to me, it manifests there's different manifestations of it, but it's as I've thought about that, it boils down to selfishness, just pursuing self fulfillment and lacking God, that's the central part of that, it never fulfilled.
Kimberly Faith:You know, when I was thinking about that, I think you're a 100% right. And I was thinking about just from my own experience and being a born again Christian, but not not walking with Christ. And all the things that I kind of held up is if this thing would just change, then I would have my best life. Right?
John McLarty:Right.
Kimberly Faith:And and if and if if I didn't have this particular problem in my life or this particular person in my life who is causing me to have this constant stumbling block or constantly, you know, terrorizing my peace, you know, then I could have my best life. But in today's beatitude, we're gonna talk about what Jesus said keeps us from having our best life. Because this whole series is is based on, you know, what is it how do we have this abundant life, the life more abundantly that Jesus promised us in John chapter 10 verse 10. And so, you know, the first the first beatitude, we we talked about that the first foundational truth is to live understanding our complete rely need to rely on Jesus Christ. Our complete dependence upon God.
Kimberly Faith:That attitude of complete dependence, is that's a masterful foundation. Because all the other beatitudes we're gonna study are built on this. And, you know, we cannot experience the blessings that Jesus wants to give us if we're basing our everything we do on our own strength, our own logic, our own, you know, what we think resides inside of us. And so when we have this bankrupt view of our own strength and wisdom, the spirit of God actually produces a reaction in us that leads to this next beatitude, which is found out of Matthew chapter 5 verse 4. And Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Kimberly Faith:Now I I can share what my my initial my reaction to this beatitude is. But, dad, what what is what would be the typical reaction do you think of that Jesus saying, oh, you're blessed if you mourn?
John McLarty:To someone that's very sad and and just due to a loss, and Jesus comes and comforts them would be my first reaction.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. Yeah. You think about maybe if you're having a good day, you think, well, that doesn't really apply to me. Right. Right?
Kimberly Faith:And, but but, you know, in just further studying this, if you look at the ancient Greek about what this mourn this word mourn means, it's it's an intense degree of mourning. This is not a casual sorrow because, you know, you you, you know, your your deal fell through or, you know, you didn't get apple pie for dessert. This is an intense mourning, and and Jesus is is talking about here mourning over sin. And, you know, when when I kind of had to take a step back and think about that, That is a natural reaction when we understand that everything that everything that we are and we have and and and it happens is because of Christ. And with when we realize our spiritual bankruptcy without Christ, we also understand the great cost of our debt born by Christ.
Kimberly Faith:And then we become acutely aware of the high cost of our sin, not just to ourselves personally, but the eternal consequences for the entire human race.
John McLarty:Then that kinda ties in. I'm just thinking back to, what prevents us from being fulfilled is selfishness, and selfishness is sin.
Kimberly Faith:It's the opposite of love.
John McLarty:It's the opposite of love. And we've been we've been told to love God and love others. Right. So selfishness is the lack of that. It's loving self instead of others.
John McLarty:And that does not bring fulfillment.
Kimberly Faith:Right. Isn't it isn't it interesting how, you know, we we look at the bible, and the bible says that we're our our glorious purpose is to bring glory to God. And I remember when I first learned that, I thought, well, God's just egocentric. You know? But that was a very, you know, worldly view, cult Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:Cultural view of looking at, you know, at God. But the fact is, there's there's no one or nothing that wasn't created by him. So he does deserve all the glory because he's the creator. It's like, I'm not gonna what kind of person am I if I take credit for a Monet? I didn't paint that picture.
Kimberly Faith:Well, we didn't make ourselves. God made us. He deserves our glory. So when he says, love me with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. He's saying, I am love.
Kimberly Faith:And if you do this, you enter into my love. And your worship of me brings you into love, which is what everybody wants, because I am love and it and it's going to have free flow through you.
John McLarty:And what's great is so he wants us to glorify him, but not to his benefit. It's to our benefit.
Kimberly Faith:Right. It's kinda like telling your child don't play in the street.
John McLarty:Right. And then we end up being comforted. Yes. We we're blessed. We're comforted.
Kimberly Faith:Right. So let's talk about that. You know, you know, sin is kind of a bad word, and when we talk you know, people if you bring up sin, people get immediately defensive. Right? And and, actually, in podcast 1, you talked about that when in your It
John McLarty:made me mad to hear I was a sinner.
Kimberly Faith:And then but the holy spirit revealed to you that that was in fact the truth. And, and we all need the truth to keep from driving off the cliff. Right?
John McLarty:And sin is is manifest in different forms of selfishness.
Kimberly Faith:Exactly. Exactly. And and so, you know, when we think about the great consequences of sin, sin kills everything good. It it it has in the past. It still does.
Kimberly Faith:You know? And so when he's when when he's saying mourn over sin, I like to equate this to mourning over the death of someone we love very much. Mhmm. You know, if if if, god forbid, one of my children died, I would be more I would be mourning. I I don't know that there will be any comfort except for God that anyone could give me.
Kimberly Faith:And and and Jesus is saying, this is the way you need to view sin. It has destroyed everything. You know, we just had this horrible flooding in Tennessee and North Carolina from hurricane Helene. People's, you know, whole lives were lost. And and and the the Bible talks about that sin has wreaked havoc on this earth.
John McLarty:Yeah. It reminds me of a verse, you know, God created a perfect world.
Kimberly Faith:Mhmm.
John McLarty:Sin came into the world. And just reminded me of, Romans chapter 8, verse 22 says, for we know the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, the whole creation, but ourselves also for the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body. So not only do we yearn for a new body that's free from this this tendency of sin and selfishness. But the whole creation Right.
John McLarty:Has this curse, and so you have the hurricanes. You have the tragedies. You have the tornadoes.
Kimberly Faith:And and then you add to that all the just the atrocious, you know, the the just the terrible things that are going on in the name of even the name of religion and the have. You know?
John McLarty:Just human behaviors that are beyond awful.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. Again, setting this this beatitude, has kind of put a phrase in my mind, and it and it's it's this, sin terrorizes everything good.
John McLarty:That's true.
Kimberly Faith:Yes. It it just does. And but let's let's examine this idea of mourning. You know, a mourning, should should when we're talking about mourning over sin, it should produce in us a complete desire to abhor sin, to turn away from it. Right?
Kimberly Faith:And, I mean, if your child died, you would not wanna go through that again. But we have to learn to view Jesus is saying, we need to view sin as if it's something so terrible we never wanna go there again. And I think about this idea that Paul presents in, 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 about godly repentance versus worldly repentance. And, I just wanna read a excerpt from that. Paul says, now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance, for you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
Kimberly Faith:For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. And, you know, this, this beatitude is is kinda like the first beatitude. It's kind of it's kind of a double, it's a there's a double teaching here. One is repentance for salvation, which is necessary. Yes.
Kimberly Faith:You you you you mentioned this in the last the last, podcast that you can't just come to Jesus saying, I'm gonna I I want you as my lord and savior, but I'm a hold back these things. You have to come back saying, I don't want this anymore. I don't want any of it. I want you to forgive it all. I'm not hanging on to any of my sins.
Kimberly Faith:And but it also is necessary for us as Christians to live with a strong abhorrence of sin. That's godly repentance.
John McLarty:That's reminded me of of the story, in our life. Lynn and I's life stories. But when we first got saved, we wanted this, we just abhorred sin. We did a 180, and for a period of our life, we avoided a certain place in street in Fayetteville, Dixon Street. And it's where all the, you know, the bars were and and sin.
John McLarty:It was like the center of sin. We we would avoid we would go a couple of walks around
Kimberly Faith:Interesting.
John McLarty:Because we didn't wanna be reminded of that lifestyle.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:So it was an abhorrence of sin and that lifestyle and avoiding it, avoiding even thinking about it.
Kimberly Faith:And and you know what? It's it's kinda like, because you were a new baby in Christ and you were vulnerable.
John McLarty:And I have to fast forward a little bit. Years later, I'm thinking 8 years later, after we'd had 8 years of Christian growth, the Lord gave us a restaurant right on Dixon Street. But we were there and we had grown for 8 years. Right. And it didn't that power of sin in that area had Lost its whole.
John McLarty:Lost its whole. Yeah. And we ministered to those people and handed out tracts, right, in that very area.
Kimberly Faith:That is such a great example of what these beatitudes are supposed to do for us. Mhmm. You know? When we're first born again, we have the we are we are, indwelt with the righteousness of Christ. Christ does not wanna snuggle up to the sins that crucified him.
Kimberly Faith:No way. No. You know? And neither should we. It should produce such a changing, Paul Paul, he said, he for observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner.
Kimberly Faith:What diligence it produced in you? What clearing of yourself? What indignation? What fear? What vehement desire?
Kimberly Faith:What zeal? In all things, you proved yourself to be clear in this matter. In other words, you didn't want any part of what had what had killed you.
John McLarty:Exactly.
Kimberly Faith:And, you know, when we are, when we are kingdom citizens, this is what our life rep should be representing. You know, I I I think about a terrible situation in our community where a lady and and her her lover had tied up the lady's 7 year old child Mhmm. To the bed until she starved to death. And she and, and and the lady that was her lover, had gotten the older kids to keep her quiet by stuffing a sock in her mouth. And this little
John McLarty:How terrible.
Kimberly Faith:Oh, it was it was horrible. And I guarantee you, there was not one person in our community who thought that was okay. But, you know, that didn't happen in a vacuum. That lady didn't wake up one morning and say, oh, I think I'll starve my 7 year old child to death. You know?
Kimberly Faith:It cancer starts with one cell, and we as Christians need to be distressed over the tiniest sin, just like we were when we were first born again, just like Jesus is now. I mean, he understands the the nature of sin is so terrible. It produces such horrors. You know, Auschwitz didn't happen overnight. The the German people would probably tell you that lived in that time, It it's not like they woke up one morning and said they were living their best life with all their Jewish neighbors, and and they said, let's go put these people in a Right.
Kimberly Faith:In a concentration camp. Right?
John McLarty:Well, as an example of that, a movie we watched re recently was about Ackman and his capture. But he he was convinced in his own mind. He was only milk helping the trains run efficiently. But he knew
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:What the end result. But he his little task Right. Was to get the trains to run right. It was a massive task.
Kimberly Faith:But Right.
John McLarty:He didn't he didn't consider that as a bad thing.
Kimberly Faith:That's that's such a good example.
John McLarty:But it was the result was incredibly horrible.
Kimberly Faith:Right. 6,000,000 Jews. Yes. Yeah. And and that is a really good example of every choice that we make, you know, needs to be within the righteousness and the will of God, of holy God.
Kimberly Faith:And we need to understand that every sin that we make that falls outside that is selfishness, that is in opposition to God's word, it will have an effect. It it we won't necessarily always see it. You know, me, personally, I have made some terrible decisions in my life that have caused just chaos and horrible consequences for so many people. I can't change that. I can't change that the past.
Kimberly Faith:But what I can do is warn others and myself about the future by living a life that is transformed, through repentance. And repentance is not a one off thing. It is a daily it's a it's a daily attitude. It's a be attitude. Right?
John McLarty:Well, and that goes back to selfishness. We're so because we're in this body of flesh. The body wakes up, we wake up, and we just wanna brush our teeth, and none of that is necessarily wrong, but we're just so involved in self.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:So it is a as we progress through the day, take care of some necessary things. We need to get into the word of God and change that
Kimberly Faith:Transform ourselves.
John McLarty:Transform ourselves by the renewing of our mind.
Kimberly Faith:Right. And, you know, I I before we kind of I I wanna talk about that a little more, but I I am also reminded of, you know, the prayer of David in Psalm 51 Mhmm. Where when he was caught by Nathan you know, Nathan, the prophet, came to him and told him this this story about, you know, he he he he told him the story. He said, you know, there was a there's a guy in your in your kingdom who has a, who has a lot of, of sheep. And and, there's another guy who's poor, and he only has one little sheep.
Kimberly Faith:And the the rich man in your kingdom took and and and he he went on to describe how the poor man just loved his his little his little lamb, and and it was like a member of his household. And the rich guy had somebody come visit him, and he went and took the poor man's lamb, and he killed it for his guest. And Nathan, the prophet said to David, and I'm paraphrasing, of course. What do you think should happen to that rich man? And David was just he was just so angry.
Kimberly Faith:He said that guy should die. And Nathan, the prophet said, that's you.
John McLarty:Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:And you have taken
John McLarty:It's a powerful It's so free story.
Kimberly Faith:Absolutely. And you've taken Uriah's only wife, killed him, made it made her yours, and you have sinned greatly. David's reaction to that wasn't to start, oh, let me, you know, do damage control. He was completely repentant. And he in in in Psalm 51, why don't you do you have that read verses 1 through 3 and maybe 10 through 12.
John McLarty:Yeah. 1 through 3, just turn there. Have mercy upon me, oh god, according to the thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. So it's very he was confessing his sin. Wash me thoroughly from my inequity and cleanse me from my sin.
John McLarty:For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Kimberly Faith:So let's stop at that real quick because he acknowledges his transgression. His sin is always before me. Yeah. He's saying, look. I know myself, and we need to know ourselves.
Kimberly Faith:We need to know that our tendency is to sin. It it's kinda like when you prepare, it's like knowing the enemy. When you prepare for a battle, you wanna know where your weaknesses lie. And we are in a spiritual battle, and, you know, the the, we know that one of the enemies is our flesh. We sleep with the enemy.
Kimberly Faith:And I think David is under he's he's saying my sin is always before me. My tendency is there. And then what does he ask what does he ask God to do?
John McLarty:Well, it's really interesting. After that mourning of his own sin, and this is blessed are they that mourned. He says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice.
Kimberly Faith:Oh, wow.
John McLarty:Then he says, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. And then this is really great, Restore unto me, and I'm jumping a couple of verses. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Wow.
John McLarty:I just really wanna bring out that he didn't stay in mourning, and then he was comforted. Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:But
John McLarty:then he replaced that with this idea, then will I teach transgressors that thy way.
Kimberly Faith:That's a great point.
John McLarty:And we get we don't just, oh, I'm avoiding sin. I'm avoiding sin. I'm avoiding my life is terrible, but I'm avoiding sin. Mhmm. The Lord leads us into this wonderful joy and comfort of serving others.
Kimberly Faith:And that goes back to the abundant life.
John McLarty:And the fulfillment.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. So it's not mourning your sin just so you can find this self seeking comfort. It's the the comfort is God's presence. That's where we find our comfort. Right?
Kimberly Faith:He is love. He is our comfort. Then God's presence takes us into the abundant life, which is doing his his work, which is taking the the gospel to the whole world, discipling. Right?
John McLarty:Right.
Kimberly Faith:You know, and then we enjoy it. Like, I mean, we were just discussing before we started recording this podcast that how much fun this is.
John McLarty:Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:You know? Yeah. It's it's, it's early, and and and, we got ourselves out of bed and got ourselves ready, but we were looking forward to it.
John McLarty:I'm kinda getting chills thinking about this because relating back to we mourned sin. We stayed away from Dixon Street, but we didn't just go retire out into the mountains. I thought we could never see Dixon Street again. Right. But we avoided it.
John McLarty:We grew during the great church, and God didn't take us out to the mountains to live in a cave or a, you know, a a log cabin way out in the middle of nowhere. He brought us right back to Dickens Street to minister.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. That is that is that's a great story. That's a great story. And and he said, he you know, because your morning turned to turns you into, really, into people full of joy. Right.
Kimberly Faith:And then you are able
John McLarty:Comfort and joy. Comfort and then joy.
Kimberly Faith:Comfort produces joy. Right. And and it shouldn't produce stagnation. It shouldn't produce more self sufficiency. It shouldn't produce any more it shouldn't produce more sinful behavior.
John McLarty:Yeah. Isolation. Right.
Kimberly Faith:And and so, you know, it's again, when when we have this attitude that we are completely, you know, that every sin and and and just just, you know, for a minute, you said this earlier, and I think people need to understand, and and I don't think I understood this for years, that sin is what is sin is just a violation of God's come violation of God's love, really.
John McLarty:Right.
Kimberly Faith:Because he says
John McLarty:He is unloving.
Kimberly Faith:His law is love. Right? He is love, and sin is just violating that. And when we look at sin that way, and there's kinda 2 kinds categories of sin. 1 is the sins of commission, right, which is doing the the wrong doing what we ought not do, and the sense of omission is not doing what we know is right to do.
Kimberly Faith:And and I I think, you know, some people struggle with maybe pornography, which is a sin of commission. Some people struggle with being lazy in their prayer life. That's me. Which is a sin of omission. The they are their consequences may be different outwardly, but their consequence to our inward relationship with Christ is the same.
Kimberly Faith:It separates us from his presence, and, you know, that may be in varying degrees. Do you think that's probably accurate?
John McLarty:Yeah. That makes me think of the horrible tragedy you talked about in Missouri. Everyone would agree that was a horrible sin.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:It's just same with, you know, Hitler. But we seem to dismiss these small sins
Kimberly Faith:Mhmm.
John McLarty:That we commit or omit daily and put them in a different well, that's not that bad. Right. Which there is this that is horrible and tragic, but we I think you pointed out that didn't just happen
Kimberly Faith:In a bad
John McLarty:she just decided, I'm gonna commit this big, horrible sin.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:And the day before, she was this
Kimberly Faith:Godly Christian.
John McLarty:Godly Christian.
Kimberly Faith:Right. Yeah. And it's and it's and Jesus, the way he he puts us as a mourning for sin is so critical for us to to develop again, these are beatitudes. We need to have this attitude that is in our life presently in our life throughout every aspect of our life when we go to work, when when we get up in the morning and brush our teeth, when we you know? K, Lord.
Kimberly Faith:You need to cover down. Show me. Show me my behavior that I'm not doing that I ought to be doing, and show me if there's something I am doing that is in violation of your word. Because there are sense of ignorance. I mean, that's not that's a that goes without saying.
Kimberly Faith:We we have to learn. You know? But the holy spirit, when we are completely submitted to God through understanding, number 1, that we are we're nothing without him, he gives us that awareness because he fills us, and his righteousness reveals sin.
John McLarty:That's that's true. It's making me think of somebody who wants to find virtue is knowing what you doing what you know is right. And as a Christian, you just start doing that. So it's obviously to avoid whatever, you know, these destructive behaviors.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:But you don't necessarily know about prayer and quiet time and growth and learning how to share the gospel. But as you learn those things
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:Then virtue is stepping up to your new level of knowledge.
Kimberly Faith:Well, in the and and Jesus throughout the well, the God throughout the bible uses physical examples to give us spiritual lessons, and lessons, and and I think about, you know, a a a child, a baby.
John McLarty:That's yes. And, you know,
Kimberly Faith:the the baby doesn't know not to touch a hot stove. You gotta teach the baby that. They they're learning rudimentary things. Like, don't don't walk off the porch, you know, without, you know, doing it carefully. Don't play in the street, you know, don't hit people.
Kimberly Faith:They're learning all these, you know, things that you're supposed to mostly not do, really. Mhmm. But then as they mature, the the goal of all discipline is self discipline. But then that self discipline needs to morph into something that comes from the heart as opposed to just a self discipline that produces a certain result. And I think with I I I think we've talked about this, but one of the great mistakes of religious organizations is not taking people from the self discipline of following the rules into the, the the the falling in love with Christ so that you Jesus says, if you love me, you're gonna keep my commandments.
Kimberly Faith:We don't follow the rules because they're just the rules. We follow the rules because we know Jesus loves us and we love him back. And when a child grows to a point where they're doing things out of love for their parents, It's a different it it it's a game changer relationship. Changer.
John McLarty:So just avoiding all of this Right. Be so busy doing this
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:These things for God, and it's
Kimberly Faith:And that's the
John McLarty:self fulfilling.
Kimberly Faith:That's the abundant life. That's what Jesus is talking about. Yeah. He he's like, you know, oh, we didn't get up this morning and say, oh, we gotta do this podcast. You know?
Kimberly Faith:It's like, oh my gosh. We get to do this again. This is like, god, this is so fulfilling because you're you've got us in the stream. You know? We're not in a stagnant pond.
Kimberly Faith:We're in the stream, and this is gonna flow out and hopefully be inspirational and and set people on fire to live the abundant life because it's so it's so exhilarating. To
John McLarty:go, yeah, love God and love others.
Kimberly Faith:Exactly.
John McLarty:And then that fulfills us. It's this kind of a mystery.
Kimberly Faith:It
John McLarty:is. By seeking not just selfish fulfillment. Right. We love God and love others, and that is the fulfillment we all actually are seeking.
Kimberly Faith:You know, you you, you talk about the mystery. This morning, I was having my quiet time. And, one of the things that the Lord laid on my heart was it's okay not to know the answers to everything, Kim. Someday, I'm gonna show you everything. But right now, you couldn't handle it.
Kimberly Faith:And I think I think that is such a that's such a blessing to know that I don't have to know all the answers because God knows them all. I just gotta trust him. You know, just like just like, you know, a 2 year old doesn't have to know that they're gonna get their next meal when they they just know their parents are gonna give it to them. You know? Right.
Kimberly Faith:They don't know where it's gonna come from. They don't understand the the job that had to be worked, the food that had to be picked, or whatever went into that. It's a great place of peace to live knowing that when we're in God's will, when we we hate sin so much that it takes us into the comfort of God's presence that we are comforted, and then we, in turn, want to comfort others. We want to you know, the the thing about love is when we talk about the fruits of the spirit, one of the first one being love, love is not something we we we get. It's love something we give.
Kimberly Faith:And if we're not giving, then we're not loving.
John McLarty:That's really true. So mourning turns into comfort and then we can comfort others with that comfort.
Kimberly Faith:Right. And we enter into the the the stream or the cycle of God's love, which is the only way to experience it. You cannot experience it just taking it in. You know, that it's it's that is not what love is. It is in that stream of God's given it to me.
Kimberly Faith:I'm giving it to you. Wow. It's coming back. It's kinda like the cycle of moisture in our air. You know, we the the the clouds the rain falls out of the clouds.
Kimberly Faith:It waters the earth, and then it comes back up, and it does it all over again. You know?
John McLarty:So that repentance doesn't just leave us in this horrible, terrible state of continual Moring. Mourning. Right. But it brings that comfort.
Kimberly Faith:It leads us out. When I and we'll kinda wrap up with this, but when I help, a lot of people who, you know, they've lost loved ones or they're, you know, they're, they're just in a in a state of mourning for some tragedy that's happened in their life, and I see it in my office all the time. But one of the you know, if the Lord opens the door for me to talk with them and and help them about this, one of the things that that I try to encourage them to to do is to seek seek God in a in a really meaningful way because the mourning is part of the healing process. But like you just said, God does not intend for us to be stuck there, rather, we can use that morning to be comforted and then to use our experience with whatever evil has befallen us to have the abundant life through using our experience to glorify god. Look what god did.
Kimberly Faith:You know, look what god's doing, and he could do this for you. And without that without that that incident, we would not have the great story and the great display of God's glory to share. So I, oh, this is this is so exciting. We're gonna wrap up. I I I love that we wrap up a question.
Kimberly Faith:We've been this is we're kind of on a roll with these questions, but I think I think when we've so we've talked about developing complete dependence upon God. We've talked about mourning over our sin. And the question I wanna leave for everybody for for next week is is this, what is the best source of strength in order to have your best life? So how in other words, how do we sustain this this attitude of complete dependence upon God and a a mourning that a repentance for sin and abhorrence of sin? How do we sustain that in a world that tells us it's constantly putting pressure on us?
Kimberly Faith:No. Your sin's okay. No. You don't you you're you got this, girl. You know?
Kimberly Faith:So that question, what is the best source, is actually gonna be answered in the next beatitude, which is blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. So with that, we're gonna we're gonna wrap up. And thank you, dad. I appreciate your stories and your wisdom.
John McLarty:Well, it's great doing this, and I'm going to ponder that question, and the listeners can ponder it, and we'll dig into it in the next podcast.
Kimberly Faith:Yes. Thank you all so much for joining us, for podcast number 5, and we will look forward to, podcast number 6 in these beatitudes, and and discovering the real strength for the Christian life and and living in an abundance that Jesus promised us. You have been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us atgofaithstrong.com. Hallelujah.
Kimberly Faith:You rescued me.