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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. Welcome to podcast 4, which is our beatitudes series, on living your best life. And this is the second podcast in this series, and the title of this podcast is the foundational source for living our best life. I'm here with my very special guest, my father, John McLarty.
Kimberly Faith:Good morning.
John McLarty:Well, it's great to be here again, Kim.
Kimberly Faith:Well, I don't know about you, but this has probably been one of my favorite series, I've ever studied and just so powerful.
John McLarty:They're simple, but very deep.
Kimberly Faith:Yes. Yes. So let's just, let let's kinda pick up with a question that we we left off in the last, study, and that is the it's kind of 2 questions, actually. 1st question is, what is the one thing that you believe you can identify that if you had it would give you a completely satisfied life? And then the second question is, what would your life be like if you lost it?
Kimberly Faith:And, have you ever thought about that?
John McLarty:There can only be one answer, something that can't be taken away.
Kimberly Faith:Brilliant, dad. That would
John McLarty:be our relationship with God once we've had it by being born again.
Kimberly Faith:Exactly. But how much time and energy do you see focused on, number 1, making sure that you have that, because once you have it, like you said, you can't lose it. And number 2, pursuing that, investing.
John McLarty:I see that in my life, Lynn's life, that's not Lynn, my wife, our life together. People, Christians and non Christians, if I could only get that 3 bedroom house with the 2 car garage and the backyard for my dog, I'd be happy. Right. And then that they or we get it, and we're not.
Kimberly Faith:Right. We've all done it.
John McLarty:Lynn and I used to think our life was very, busy, and we could we thought if we could only get up on canvas mountain and build this log cabin and have this front porch and have this view, our life would calm down. That was 30 years ago.
Kimberly Faith:Right. Now you've been roped into a podcast with me.
John McLarty:And our life is busier than ever, but it's wonderful. But it's not the front porch that did it for us.
Kimberly Faith:Maybe we should come up with this podcast. It wasn't the front porch that did it for us.
John McLarty:We do enjoy the front porch, but if that was all our life was
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:It would actually be boring.
Kimberly Faith:Kinda like being in the teepee with surrounded by your food.
John McLarty:Yeah. Or just, you know, life on a beach, in a in a chair.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:I just can't picture that as, oh, I've I've made it now.
Kimberly Faith:Well, you know, I have a lot of people ask me, you know, other lawyers ask me, you know, what's your plan for retirement? And and if they'd asked me that 15 years ago, I would have probably said something like my my my toe's in the sand somewhere. Right? And I now I cannot imagine having a better life than I have. And and this Beatitude series has just taken that a step further
John McLarty:Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:And a step deeper.
John McLarty:Serving God is fulfilling.
Kimberly Faith:Yes. And so
John McLarty:In ways we couldn't have imagined Exactly. When we first got saved.
Kimberly Faith:Yes. It it's it's kinda like and aren't you glad that God didn't reveal that to you as soon as you're saved? Like, all of the the hard times, all the good times, all the whole future because it would just be overwhelming we couldn't handle
John McLarty:it. Right.
Kimberly Faith:And he gives us what we need today. And and and this that's one of the reasons the series is so brilliant and not the series, but the the actual beatitudes, that the series has just been our our experience and what we've learned through the through Jesus' teachings. But let's jump right in, with with, you know, we're talking about Jesus' words in John 10:10 about promising that he had come to give us life and life more abundantly. And, we we're starting here with Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, which says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And and last time, we kind of started, kinda gave the the listeners a little bit of a per a preview about how that is that is, that statement about being poor in spirit is actually a twofold twofold, attitude.
John McLarty:Correct.
Kimberly Faith:And and when we say it's twofold, what do you what do you think Jesus was talking about about that?
John McLarty:2 fold in the sense of it turns out with study that to be saved, we need to be poor in spirit. And there's kind of a whole study or concept about that that we need to be we need to take ourself off the throne and put God on the throne as part of the repentant side of salvation and just trust and believe in him.
Kimberly Faith:So poor in spirit, for salvation and then poor in spirit for Christian growth.
John McLarty:And then poor in spirit, it turns out, to have the abundant Christian life
Kimberly Faith:Mhmm.
John McLarty:Is not just pursuing our own worldly goals and careers. Right. It's pursuing him, loving him, loving others, and that fulfills us.
Kimberly Faith:So I like to I think you're a 100% right. And I I like to use the example from the law because for years, I practice bankruptcy law. And it was maybe a 5 year span. I kinda got tired of it after a while. But in bankruptcy law, in order to qualify for debt forgiveness, you know, bankruptcy, people file bankruptcy when they have more debt.
Kimberly Faith:They don't have the assets or the income to pay for the for the debt. So they file for bankruptcy, and and the goal is that a judge you it's it's a federal judgment in most cases, can, will say, your debts are all forgiven. You can walk away scot free. Okay? But requirement to have your debts canceled is that you must list every debt to qualify for the debt forgiveness.
Kimberly Faith:And if you don't acknowledge that you are in fact bankrupt, then you will not get forgiveness. And going to the the the first point about being poor in spirit for salvation, we in order to receive the free gift of salvation, we must come to Jesus knowing that there's not a thing we can offer him, and that our our list of debts is infinitesimal. I mean, we can't even name all of our debts. It's a good thing we don't have to name all our debts when we come to Jesus because we wouldn't be able to remember them all.
John McLarty:That's for sure.
Kimberly Faith:You know? But he remembers them. And then when we accept his gift of salvation, knowing that we are completely unable, we're completely without hope, then he forgives our sins as far as from the east is from the west. And that's really
John McLarty:And amen to that.
Kimberly Faith:It's mind blowing. You know? So I I like to use examples from the law because a lot of the times, it it it totally makes sense. And then bankruptcy for, you know well, let's let's just let's just camp out on the salvation part of this of porn spirit for a minute.
John McLarty:I think we should.
Kimberly Faith:Okay. So what what do you because because the bible says in Isaiah 646 that, that all of our good works are as filthy rags. Right? We are unfit. Even if we said we have the money to pay for our sins, so to speak, you know, like using the bankruptcy example.
Kimberly Faith:The Bible says, but we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and all our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We must come to Jesus acknowledging our complete inability to save ourselves.
John McLarty:Well, that makes me think of the famous Bible verse. It's Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 8. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, blessed any man should boast. So we just come to Christ's salvation empty. No good works in our hands.
John McLarty:It's just poor in spirit. Right. And we come to him poor in spirit saying, lord, I need your help.
Kimberly Faith:I like to I I I'd like to to coin I probably ain't coin this term, but my way of thinking that is we are spiritually bankrupt.
John McLarty:Spiritually bankrupt.
Kimberly Faith:And we have no assets to offer Jesus Christ to reconcile us to the father. Nothing. And that Jesus is saying, this is a foundation before you can even develop yourself into the abundant life, before you can even taste and see that abundant life, you first must be born again, and you must be born spirit to get there.
John McLarty:So to sum up, and we covered this in the first podcast of our testimony, is you realize you're in need because of our sins, that debt that we owe that you talked about, that Christ paid for the paid that debt, and that we come to him dethroning ourselves, this attitude of I I can't work this problem out. It's too big. And just to come to him bankrupt and asking for his for forgiveness Forgiveness. And for that price to be applied to us and believing as we ask him that he did it.
Kimberly Faith:And we become free.
John McLarty:And it is just that simple.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. It it's and to use the bankruptcy analogy, you know, if if if my client came to the judge and said, well, I got a few assets I can offer. The judge says, why you here why you here then? You know? And I think there's gonna be a lot of people who stand before the lord someday and say, well, I did all these wonderful things in your name.
Kimberly Faith:He's gonna say, I never knew you, which is what Jesus said.
John McLarty:You know, I just thought of another aspect of that. If somebody says that, that they they've listed all their assets Mhmm. But they're they're hiding some
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:As a backup Right. Then we can't come to god like that.
Kimberly Faith:Right. And, you know, it's I'm
John McLarty:kind of given most of my life to you, but I'm gonna save back these fun things.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. In in bankruptcy, the bankruptcy world, that's actually fraud. Right. And
John McLarty:We can't come to God.
Kimberly Faith:It's a slap in the face to the judge. Yes. You know? And, you know, when I came to the Lord for salvation, you know, I I had a couple false starts. I I I prayed and asked the Lord, please save me.
Kimberly Faith:And and then I added in my own heart, and I'll be good. You know, that was my own little storehouse of good works that I was gonna add to the pot. Mhmm. And and and so, you know, just to be clear for salvation, we have to come to Jesus, say, I had nothing. I need you to to pay my price for my the price for my sin to cancel my debt.
Kimberly Faith:And until we're there, Jesus is saying, you can't until you're poor in spirit, you know, you cannot possess the kingdom of heaven. But what's interesting is that until we're poor in spirit as Christians, we act like we don't possess the the kingdom of heaven. You know?
John McLarty:And that's where this has that double application.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:It's necessary for salvation, but key and critical to the abundant life is to be poor in spirit, not full of ourselves, which our flesh is full of itself. And that's our challenge as Christians.
Kimberly Faith:Exactly. And so just to dispel any doubt about what Jesus was talking about here. You know, being poor in spirit is he's saying this is a critical attitude, but what it is not, it's not some perverse sense of of self hatred or self flagellation. You know, it's the work of the holy spirit producing a response in us that we are nothing, Jesus. We are nothing without you because we know it's true.
Kimberly Faith:And when we live like we know that it's true, that we are completely bankrupt in every way, except for the grace of God and except for the possession that we now have, this gift of salvation, then it's like God takes over our life. And we do live like we're members of the kingdom of heaven. We do see the kingdom of heaven. We see we we live in it. We want to bring it to earth.
Kimberly Faith:Right?
John McLarty:Correct. I think of the verse God, and I'm paraphrasing that God gives grace to the
Kimberly Faith:humble. Right. James.
John McLarty:Is that
Kimberly Faith:He resists the proud and
John McLarty:gives grace. Proud and gives grace
Kimberly Faith:to the humble. Right. You know, Spurgeon said, of this particular, beatitude, he said, it's not what I have, but what I have not, which is the first point of contact between my soul and God.
John McLarty:I like what you're saying. It's not that we take an attitude of being somebody's the, everybody's doormat and being pushed around, but it's, it's humility. It's love for others. It's kindness, gentleness, grace.
Kimberly Faith:See, it's the fruits of the spirit. It's the
John McLarty:fruits of the spirit.
Kimberly Faith:As opposed to the works of the flesh that
John McLarty:I talked
Kimberly Faith:about in Galatians. And we're gonna talk about that. That that that's actually gonna come up later in our, in this study. You know, I I think I think this goes back to original sin, don't you? I mean, what happened in the garden is that caused original sin was Eve said, oh, maybe Satan's right.
Kimberly Faith:Maybe I don't really need God. Maybe if I eat this fruit and become like God, then I can live independently from God. And and it's very interesting that Jesus brings this first foundational truth to our attention that in order to have a blessed life, we not only have to come to him poor in spirit for salvation, completely bankrupt, but we also have to come to him every day, every hour, every minute of the day, and live as if we can't live without him because we can't.
John McLarty:We can't, and we're so pride is one of the sneakiest of the sins of the flesh.
Kimberly Faith:Yes.
John McLarty:Because a lot of the sins, it's like gluttony or, you know, lust of the eyes, you can recognize those. Like, oh, wow. That's sin. Right. But pride is is subtle.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. And we think we when we think we have humility, we don't.
John McLarty:We don't. Exactly. We think we've done away with our pride. That's prideful to think that.
Kimberly Faith:If if if you ever hear yourself saying, oh, man. I'm I'm not even proud anymore. You need to re recognize those words are are are your own indictment. Doing all of that. So our our our add this attitude of independence from God is certainly the Christian's daily battlefield.
Kimberly Faith:I mean, we we you know, I like to when I wake up in the morning, if, you know, you don't always I don't always spring out of bed. Oh, praise Jesus. No. Most of the time, I don't. Most of the time, I lay in bed and I'm like, lord, take control.
Kimberly Faith:Those are the best days when I start my day like that. Just take control. And the one of the best prayers that god has ever taught me is a prayer that goes along these lines. Lord, everything I have belongs to you. My house belongs to you.
Kimberly Faith:My car belongs to you. My law practice belongs to you. My heart belongs to you. My desires belong to you. My time belongs to you.
Kimberly Faith:Oh, and by the way, god, my problems belong to you too. Since all this stuff is yours, that so are the problems. So I'm just gonna be here, and I'm gonna do what you tell me to do, but, man, it's freeing. And that is that is taking that independent spirit and saying, no. I'm not gonna live that way, which is so countercultural.
John McLarty:So here's a self confession for me of how that how that's tested in my life. I can think everything's going great. I'm good with God, but I normally have some kind of to do list for the day. And if something intervenes into that to do list, like, say somebody calls and just wants to, wants to have prayer with me. Right.
John McLarty:And that's a great thing, and that's what I should do, but I have to adjust. And that happens when that happens, there's this little struggle. And that's myself, my pride, my to do list. Even though any given thing on the to do list isn't wrong
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:It's just I need to go meet, you know, the need of God's plan for the day. Right. Right. And that's kind of the test of that that attitude of poor in spirit.
Kimberly Faith:That's a real situation in everybody's life that happens every day. You know, I I I can give another example that I, many and this has happened to me many times. I've got a big trial coming up, and I'm supposed to be preparing for that trial. And I've got a deadline. I always block off this time.
Kimberly Faith:I should be preparing your direct examination, cross examination, whatever. You know? And the lord is like, no. This person needs you. You need to go do this, or you need to write this devotional or whatever.
John McLarty:Redirect.
Kimberly Faith:Redirect. And I'm fighting it because I'm like, lord, I have an obligation to my clients. You know? This isn't just me. And and then the lord says, trust me.
Kimberly Faith:And so I'm like, okay. I'll trust you. You know? And the next day, the case gets continued. And so God knows this about us.
Kimberly Faith:He he is not ignorant of the fact that we have the struggle. And what's what's marvelous to me and and miraculous, this is just the the power of God's word. They're all throughout God's word. You hear inspired testimonies of people saying, god, I'm struggling here with giving you giving up my independence. I wanna read some of these scriptures.
Kimberly Faith:The psalmist wrote in Psalms 1211 and 2. I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. It's like he's saying, now I gotta remind myself who made everything and where my help comes from so I don't get off off course. Right?
Kimberly Faith:And and Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abide abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit. For without me without me, you can do how many things?
John McLarty:Nothing.
Kimberly Faith:Nothing. That's John John 15:5. Right? And and so throughout the scripture and and I don't know if you can there's a there's a verse in Proverbs. Oh, yeah.
Kimberly Faith:Proverbs 3, 5, and 8. You wanna read that?
John McLarty:I'll read that because that's actually Lynn and I's life verse. Proverbs 3:5:8 is, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. And in all ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
John McLarty:It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. And we've discovered if our heart is to serve God, and we want that, he will direct our paths.
Kimberly Faith:He's so faithful.
John McLarty:And in ways we couldn't imagine, and I could go on and on about just how did we end up with this wonderful life in this great church with great family, great friends, and it was all by him directing our ways in ways we couldn't have imagined.
Kimberly Faith:Well, we've mentioned, you know, we've mentioned before how in this in this series was so far that that what Christ was teaching is in direct opposition to our culture. Our culture does not teach us to be poor in spirit. Our culture hammers away at the idea that we're supposed to be self reliant. We're supposed to be self confident. We're supposed to be we're supposed to have a good self image.
Kimberly Faith:Right? I mean and and and that's taught as a good thing. Right?
John McLarty:Right.
Kimberly Faith:But Jesus well, I mean, he was so he was so counterintuitive because he keeps hammering home this thought that we can't do anything without him anyway. So the faster we enter into that reality that we are nothing without him, the faster we start enjoying a life as we were meant to instead of, like Paul called it, kicking against the pricks.
John McLarty:Right.
Kimberly Faith:Right? So if
John McLarty:we're poor in spirit, which another way the Bible puts that is dying to ourselves Right. We we have the abundant life.
Kimberly Faith:He gives us everything we can never get on our own. And and and and, you know, we'll come back to Galatians chapter 5 several times during the study. But if you compare the fruits of God's spirit, love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, meekness, and and and he sums those up Paul sums those up by saying, again, since there's no law, in other words, everybody wants them. Nobody's gonna argue with saying, oh, you're giving me too much love. Love.
John McLarty:So true.
Kimberly Faith:And you compare that with the works of the flesh, which are hatred, strife. I mean, just every evil thing you could possibly think of, and nobody wants to live that way. I mean, you were we were not created to live that way any more than a fish was created to walk on the earth. Then we we but but the thing is we cannot get that mentality and understand that and wrap our minds around how good that is, that the fruits of the spirit are actually better than the works of the flesh unless we've been born again, because our our flesh the eyes of our flesh cannot see the things
John McLarty:of God.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. And and so Jesus, this this first beatitude is so brilliant, because Jesus is saying in one line, unless you're poor in spirit, you cannot.
John McLarty:Poor in spirit to get Christianity, to become born again and poor in spirit to live the abundant Christian life.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. He says it's then we possess the kingdom of God. And and what is you know, this is a little bit of a rabbit, but you know, what what is the kingdom of God? What is that? You know, what what is Jesus offering us?
John McLarty:I think of a kingdom with a king and subjects and things to do, and it's a a fulfilling place to be.
Kimberly Faith:Well, when you're talking about heaven is used to describe a a concept we can't wrap our minds around because most of us haven't been there. Right? But we can understand understand the things we enjoy here on earth. We enjoy a sunset. We enjoy the beach.
Kimberly Faith:We enjoy the the the giggle of our grandchild. Right? We enjoy there are things we can identify that we enjoy. Those are our prelude to the perfection that God offers us in his presence. He is the creator of all the good things that we enjoy and the kingdom of heaven, the best conception we can get of the kingdom of heaven is everything we love and enjoy on this earth in its perfection in his presence.
John McLarty:And I think really the term fulfillment, we're all seeking fulfillment.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:And before we're saved, it's totally in a worldly way, but we're seeking it. But as Christians, we have fulfillment in a much different way than the world offers. Mhmm. But it's very fulfilling. The the Christian life lived on this earth and this life is not boring.
John McLarty:It's extremely exciting. Yes. And then this idea of the kingdom of heaven and it going on into eternity, it is not the idea of sitting on a cloud, playing our harp, or sitting on the an eternal beach. It's going to be fulfilling. It's going to be very it's going to be very relationship oriented.
Kimberly Faith:I I think I think that we can let our imagination go wild on that.
John McLarty:We really can.
Kimberly Faith:Because I I I I've asked God often, what is this kingdom of heaven? How do I relate how wonderful it's gonna be to people who, are searching? You know? And one of the things God has continuously shown me is you need to give them something they relate to now. What is the best thing that you enjoy?
Kimberly Faith:And of course, everybody's got a huge variety of things they enjoy. I'm I'm fairly certain and I enjoy the practice a lot. So I like helping people, but in the kingdom of heaven, there's not gonna be a need for lawyers cause there's not gonna be any evil or sin. But I also enjoy, creating designs for homes and and buildings and and landscaping. Well, I'm pretty sure that we're gonna have some kind of occupation like that up there where I can do that without inhibition.
Kimberly Faith:I love writing music. I'm pretty sure I won't need to even read music up in heaven. I can just write it like I do now freestyle. Right? But it's it's giving people a glimpse of all the glory they know is out there because they know their knowledge of God is planted in them.
Kimberly Faith:You know?
John McLarty:Yes. Yeah. We love a beautiful sunset. We love relationships with people. We love the work and seeing the the fruits of Weber.
John McLarty:Right. And that will all be in in heaven.
Kimberly Faith:It'll be on a on a scale that we can't even imagine because we're not gonna be it's not gonna be tainted by evil.
John McLarty:Just think about this. We love you and I both have a love of history. We love learning things.
Kimberly Faith:Right.
John McLarty:And I don't think the second we get to heaven, we're going to know everything, like all about Moses, all about Paul. How did this happen? So we'll discover it. We'll learn it.
Kimberly Faith:Right. All the mysteries.
John McLarty:Yeah. We won't just have the the full mind of God immediately and sent all knowledge. Right. But we'll learn it progressively. Yeah.
John McLarty:You know? Be so fascinating.
Kimberly Faith:It will be fascinating. And it's kinda reminds me of, you know, the pray in first Corinthians 13 when when Paul says, though we see through a glass darkly, someday we're gonna see face to face, you know, and and I'm paraphrasing that, of course. But, man, when we see clearly, because we're not veiled by this this culture of of evil, Satan is, he he has been bound, and our flesh is no longer, you know, holding us back. It's gonna be more glorious.
John McLarty:Glorious is the term I was thinking. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:It's gonna be so glorious. And the thing Jesus is saying though is he isn't saying, hey. These are these are attitudes that you need to you'll have someday. He says, no. These are attitudes that you need to have right now.
Kimberly Faith:You can see the kingdom of heaven on earth, and and and not in all its glory because you've got the veil of evil and sin. Right? But, man, you talked about the your life being so interesting and so abundant. Yeah. I can't imagine not living, in in this in this life that Christ has given us with this glorious purpose.
Kimberly Faith:I would hate to go back to where I was 12 years ago.
John McLarty:Absolutely.
Kimberly Faith:You know? Or even last year.
John McLarty:Little follow-up to that, in addition, is it's not all just glorious in the way like a Hollywood movie would show it. It's through some trials, some tribulations, some blood, sweat, and tears, but some some victories, but in difficulty. So the Christian life isn't just this, oh, what kind of cake would you like
Kimberly Faith:to get? Right. I'm so glad you said that, dad, because the the next beatitude that we talk about is is the thing getting rid of the thing that destroys our blessings. And, you know, when we when when we start talking about the next beatitude, there is it isn't it isn't all, you know, well, the the this life that Jesus is talking about, it isn't just, oh, we're gonna we're gonna float through life with no problems. Part of the beauty of what we get to do, and and this will especially become, become, evident when we start talking about the the 3rd beatitude is that we get to struggle together.
Kimberly Faith:We get to overcome together. And, you know, one of the greatest move the greatest movies ever made are not the movies about, oh, we went to the park. We had went to the circus.
John McLarty:Everything was perfect.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. No. It was the struggle and the overcoming. Exactly. And god knows us about us.
Kimberly Faith:You know?
John McLarty:The game that came down to the hill goal with 2 seconds
Kimberly Faith:left. I mean yeah. And and the heroics.
John McLarty:Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:You know? Oh. You you think about Correct. You think about the, you know, some of the greatest movies you ever seen, you know, I mean, who doesn't wanna be the hero? Right?
Kimberly Faith:Well, we get to be. Guess what Jesus is saying? Hey. If you're poor in spirit, I'm gonna put you on a mission that's gonna save souls for eternity.
John McLarty:Oh, you gave people that gave their life to save a friend.
Kimberly Faith:Right. Right. You know, the the what was the movie about the guy in in world war 2 who he didn't believe in killing, and, he he was he he he went and he saved
John McLarty:And was it Hacksaw Ridge?
Kimberly Faith:Hacksaw Ridge. Yeah. I mean, he he just he was a medic, and he even when he was blown up and he was being carted out, you know, he saw somebody else that was injured. He rolled off his cot and was bandaging this this this soldier up or marine. I can't remember if it was a marine or soldier.
Kimberly Faith:But, you know, that's we just look at that and we go, oh, I wanna be like that. Well, Jesus is saying, guess what? You can. You can because you're part of my mission, and it's the greatest mission on earth.
John McLarty:Great example. Yes. We can be a part of that.
Kimberly Faith:Yeah. So so this this idea that he's given us that we can be blessed if we're poor in spirit, it's not that difficult. It's
John McLarty:It's counterintuitive.
Kimberly Faith:It is.
John McLarty:It's it's true. It's it's lived out in the in the Christian life.
Kimberly Faith:Yes. And it's and it's every day you wake up and you say, okay, lie my life isn't mine. It's yours. And and I depend on you completely. And it's actually very freeing.
Kimberly Faith:That, you know, the the the cultures enslaves us with our need to be great. Jesus frees us with our our privilege to let him be great through us. You know? Correct. It's it is just these beatitudes.
Kimberly Faith:I'm telling y'all, these are the best this is the best study I've ever done.
John McLarty:Exciting.
Kimberly Faith:And so And
John McLarty:so true.
Kimberly Faith:So true. And so we're gonna we're gonna wrap up this, this first beatitude, where Jesus is telling us that we are blessed when we are completely dependent upon him and that we are able to live in our kingdom mission by that. And then just to to by way of introduction to the next, podcast, which is, the the second beatitude, and it's it's titled rejecting destructive behavior will enable our best life. And this is centered on the beatitude. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Kimberly Faith:And we're gonna talk about what that means. And in the meantime, a question I'd like to pose for our listeners, is, you know, last time we asked a question, what's the one thing you think you you that would give you complete satisfaction? But I think the question that is going to be critical in approaching this next beatitude is this, what is the one thing that keeps you from living your best life? In other words, what's preventing your best life? In the next podcast, we'll talk about what Jesus says prevents our best life and compare that to what we think.
Kimberly Faith:So thank you so much for joining us on this podcast. We hope that this journey is inspiring you through this series to live your very best life, and we look forward to joining you next week. 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 at gofaithstrong.com. Hallelujah.
Kimberly Faith:He rescued me.