 This is going to be a terrific show. Amy, we asked the question, how do you please God? And is it okay to ask God why? And if you could ask God any question right now, what would it be? Oh boy, stay tuned, find out what the sisters think. Well, hello to all of you and welcome to Sister to Sister. I have the best bunch of sisters here on this panel. We're so happy that you joined us because we get questions from you and we answer from a biblical point of view but from our hearts. So I hope you enjoy our questions that you sent. And here we go, I'm gonna start. Oh my gosh, Amy, I'm gonna start with you. All right, good, this is really good. And you asked, is it okay to ask God why? Why? Well, yeah, yes, God can handle anything, any question that you have. And I've always really hesitated with this question. It just feels like there are no answers. Why aren't you acting God? Why aren't you answering me? Why aren't you listening? Why is this happening? So the questions of why can literally go on and on and on. And our friends of ours, Pastor Ed and Lisa Young, their daughter passed away a couple of years ago through an addiction. And they wrote a book called A Path Through Pain. And they answered this question in their book so eloquently. It changed me. So instead of why me, why me, why me, you switch to what now. So this takes you from discouragement, disappointment, grief, constantly to hope and healing that we find in Christ. And I just, I love that picture because the why me question, which is fine to ask God, but eventually it's like, okay, this has happened, God, what now? What can I do? I can't imagine. That's the King David. Like he was praying and praying and praying and praying and fasting and on his face for his little baby, but she was first son there to live and the baby died. And he did say what next? He said, okay, I'm still gonna serve you. So that is, for anyone who has lost someone, what's the name of the book again? A path through pain. A path through pain from a bit. Oh, wow, wow. What do you have? Scriptures? Well, absolutely. Psalm 22 and Jesus quoted Matthew 27. Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Repeating the words of David prophetically saying that. And the Psalm says that we can come to him as at 62 and pour out our hearts before him. He already knows the heart. He created the heart, pour out your heart. The only caution is how we approach him. Micah talks about those who say, you're not a God of justice, God's in just, you make good evil, evil good. And God said, you weary me because you don't understand who I am. But those who do and trust me through the difficulty, they are the righteous ones. Oh, that's good. What do you have? I love that because the truth of the matter is, is why, just like when you have a child. Why? You know, why when they're inquisitive like that, you know 9 to 10 is gonna be a very bright, intelligent child, especially if you feed it properly. I think the challenge for us as believers is it coming from a place of we can get stuck in anger? Even sometimes like with doubt, and I think if we're honest, most of us have doubted somewhere along the line, but the why shifts us to a healthy, maturing place if we'll allow it, because that's where you tap into God's wisdom. His, the revelation of the matter. What it is God may be trying to work out of us. And sometimes it's something as simple as moving us to another level of faith because we don't get the answer. But I gotta believe you anyhow. Yeah, yeah. Cory, do you have something for us? I mean, carrying on through that, God doesn't often answer the why. That's right, that's right. He allows us to share that emotion that he allows us to cry out in our anguish, in our anger, in our emotions, but he's often silent in the answering of the why, but he always assures us that he is there. That's right. That he never changes. That's right. He is in control. And that is what we can rest upon, that the promises of God are true and that he is faithful and that he will not change and that he will stand firm. Amen. It's tough because those of you out there and someone is healed and someone isn't healed and you don't know why. And it's a tough one. So I appreciate the pastors that lost a child that wrote a book about that. So I love all of you and I know some of you are struggling with the why. She was Miss America, I forget how far back, but she lost a child too and she got stuck in the why. And she did a book as well. But one of the things I remember them sharing was that why, and I searched it out, I couldn't find what she had, but that why was the root of confusion. And so that's something that you have to watch. And I really appreciated her husband who also took that time to share with the men about being watchful over your wife because she was slipping into depression and him as her covering had come in and really ministered her. This is a tough one. I mean, we could do a whole show on this, but I'm gonna move on and I'm gonna ask Corey. Corey, this is a good one. How do you please God? You know, there's many ways that we can please God, allowing him to be what we cannot be on our own. Got it. You know, those glimpses of heaven on earth when we forgive others, when we are forgiven, when we seek out his will, when our will becomes his will. I mean, we have a whole guidebook. Hello. In the Bible. But the thing is, is the Bible is not a Boy Scout guide of how to earn your badges. It's not, here's your guidebook of how to please God and earn a badge in forgiveness. Earn a badge of here's the fruit of the spirit and earn each badge of the fruits of the spirit. And I think that sometimes is how we get confused. We think, I need to please God and I need to earn my badge. That is the beauty of a relationship with God. It's not about our works at all. It's not about what do I need to do today to please God? What do I need to do to earn his pleasure? What do I need to do to earn my salvation? It's not about us. It's about him. He already did it. And it's just about giving that back to him because he loves us so much. It's about his love and reflecting that back to him. And that is just such a wonderful place to be. And when we can sit in that and not think about how do I need to please God today? It is so freeing. And so simplistic, Corey, because the word says we were created for his pleasure. So when we tap back into that, when we tap back to the Creator, right? He who fashioned and formed us and knew us before being placed in our mother's womb. It's getting back to being reconnected with him and how do we do that through worship? How do we do that through obedience? Obedience is better than sacrifice. How do we do that by taking dominion? Every living thing was given the same commandment to be fruitful, to multiply. But for us, his crown creation, it was to take dominion. And faith, without faith, it's impossible to please him. And so when we have things that water down our belief system and make it okay, such as the, I believe in the grace, the grace of God, but some teachings have been erroneous and taken people off their path. I so agree with your approach, but we have to watch that we don't slip into legalism, but we also have to watch that we don't just become very passé about the way God has commissioned us by kingdom protocol to live our lives. I hope you're getting all that. What do you have, Aimee? Well, you took my scripture without faith. It is impossible to please God. And I had a whole train of thought, but I'm just thinking about my kids. And they're not all pleasing all the time. And some are more pleasing than others. And different seasons, different things. So like, what is that? I happen to like Gloria, and I think she's very pleased. Oh no, are we duking? No, Gloria is amazing. She's amazing and fierce and awesome. But it's like, you know, the obedient child, there's a sweetness and a respectful and an honoring child. It just is a blessing, you know? It's pleasant, it's pleasing. I like that, I like that. Well, I'm gonna go to this other question for you because I don't wanna miss it. I don't want you to miss it. And it asks, you asked, if you could ask God a question right now, what would it be? And it would please me for you to give me an answer. It would please you, and I'm gonna get very sober for a minute. Going on through my mind in the last few weeks, and I'm not surprised that this question was here, is the issue of God, how does the church approach mental illness? You know, we might be drugs, it might be chemical imbalance, medical issues, PTSD, abuse. There are many facets of it, but we know that it's so prevalent in society. The church is now opened up to those that might have problems and not just say, okay, be healed, it's all done. But my question to the Lord is, what's the path? What is the avenue that we can begin to do it? Now, it says in Colossians, he disarmed spiritual rulers and authorities in high places and nailed them to the cross. All right, and Jesus rebuked demons, other things. Where is it all coming from? And can your church, can we understand it better? And I know it's a heavy question, but my goodness, everybody in society is dealing at some level with their mind not transformed. It says, don't be conformed to this world. Don't let this world drag you down with its culture and its demands, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, perfect will of God. And if we could begin to help people transform their minds, Lord, show us how to do that. Show us how to do that. Wow. I have to jump in, because literally, my question was, how do we deal with the mental health crisis facing our young people today? Wow. As Christian TV hosts, as church leaders, as parents, as relatives, as friends, I have never seen young people. I mean, older people as well, but young people today facing mental health, depression, anxiety as it is today. And this is causing a serious faith crisis as well. I mean, we are hearing young people leaving the church in record numbers. And so I think this goes right along with this mental health crisis that is happening. And I don't know what the root is. I don't know what is the cause. This is the question I just want to ask the Lord. What do we do about this? Because it is so serious. And I think that we're wanting to say, OK, give them scriptures that are anti-anxiety scriptures. And it's just not sinking in for these kids. And I'm like, how do we deal with this? How do we deal with this? We need to burn all of the social media. It's just feeding it like coals on a fire. You're not enough. You're not good enough. You're not worthy enough. You'll never have that. It's all of everything that you're not. And instead of who you are. But this isn't going away. Right. See, overall, for me, this really hit me because lately, the impact or the lack of impact that the church is having on the world. While I understand that we are pilgrims passing through that we're in the world, but not of the world. But we can't be the salt that has lost our flavor, our flavor. We cannot be that a lamp without oil in it. And when we try to live so close to the edge with such a high level of compromise. Now, don't get me wrong. There are times I'm just on my face. I really don't know how to deal with some things. You know, there's certain topics that are so controversial. But in my opinion, a lot of those controversial subjects are very clear in the word that this is not of God. But then there is that unique way to articulate the conversation of the Godhead to the people where it's palatable and it can penetrate their spirit and impart the level of revelation to them that will bring deliverance. And unfortunately, a lot of us leaders, including myself, don't necessarily always know how to do that. So the word of God says that He would that none should be lost. And so when I'm in the pulpit, my job is to pull people out of the pit. It is to throw out that lifeline to that one who was drowning. But I too have to stay in the face of God to hear the wisdom of God. We as the church, it's like the world is having an impact on the church. Instead of the church having the impact on the world. And we are not powerless, but we may be making some willful choices about not tapping into that power. Cause I'm so concerned about having the faces of people being moved. When a word clearly says don't be moved by the faces of people. This could be a whole show because God said be anxious for nothing. But like Corey said, we can't just throw scriptures at people. But our floor director Lori is happy all the time, right? And as she's putting my microphone on today, I said Lori, you're happy all the time. She said, I am Kathy. So some people by their actions, by their life, we see Jesus, we see hope, we see joy. Stay right there. Welcome back. We continue the discussion. I hope you did too. This question flows right into this and I'm gonna go to Flo for what we were just talking about, which is heavy and Flo is gonna answer this one. And you wrote, is the devil responsible for everything negative and bad in the whole world? Oh boy. So I love this question because it is something that sometimes I think we need to really think on. Cause it's so easy to, well, like Flip Wilson. The devil made me do it. But you know, but the fact of the matter is while I inherently believe that, inherently the devil is behind everything that's evil. So I definitely believe that and I agree with that. However, that does not excuse me from my responsibilities and my actions. And your choices. And so this is where we get into trouble because lots of times, some things, like one time we did, one of the questions was online. And we were even able to point out, well, this one lied in the Bible now, it still doesn't matter. We're not supposed to lie. And it has to do with the inability to handle the truth. Perhaps the consequences that are gonna come as a result of that. So the thing of it is, is when we look at wanting to blame the devil, I think sometimes we give him too much credit because by me constantly blaming him and not being accountable for my own actions, I am not tapping into the grace of God which is the enabling power to keep me from doing so. That's right. Do you have a scripture? Well, I have a scripture and I agree with Flo about personal responsibility. But Saul made team David says, and he rejoiced because Saul was chasing him and he was in caves and hiding and had his army and that he wouldn't touch Saul. And he says, you have trained my hands for war. Sometimes we have difficulties because we're supposed to be trained for war. That is good. We are supposed to be trained to go out there. How do you face opposition unless you've gone through? David, the lion, the tiger, the bear, whatever it was, the lion and the bear, sorry about that, adding the scripture, he was trained for war and he thanked God after his release from trouble that you trained me and I got skilled. And the other thing God does, he disciplines those he loves. Yes, he does. Sometimes we need the discipline of God in our lives. Flo was saying about lying or whatever else. We don't learn how to do the right thing. We learn obedience by the things we suffer. Help me Lord, don't make me go through something else because I'm saying this. But you learn as a disciple, we're not perfect, we're learning, we're all in progress. We're considered of one another's flaws, hopefully intolerant that God is teaching us. Someone might be there in that aspect and I might not be. So I think it's discipline and training. A lot of times that's the reason we're going through struggles, deep struggles. Well, talking about training, you don't go to war without knowing who your enemy is, right? I mean, there's an awareness of who he is. What is he doing? What's their tactics, what have they done in the past? What, you've got to, so there is an awareness of the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus said I've come to give you life. There's, he's going around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It says to even give the devil no place. That's right, I like that. I mean, he wants to come in with weapons of bitterness, jealousy, offense, hurt. And he just, he wants to take you out. He wants to take your marriage out, your mental health out, your life out. So I mean, there's an Uber awareness. Oh yeah, I've read a story about that in the Bible. I know what that tactic is. And I'm not letting, I'm not opening the door to that. I'm going to forgive, I'm going to move on. I'm going to get past it and don't get in his trap. He has traps to take out Christians. So not everything is on him, but he is very real. And there's a lot of evil in the world. Like my question to the Lord would be about sex trafficking and human trafficking. So why, why, Corey, what do you have? I don't think you can doubt the evil that are in humans or in Satan. And it always bothers me when people are, you know, joke around about, oh, we're going to be partying hell together with Satan. You know what I mean? People are so cavalier about hell and Satan. And I'm like, this is nothing to joke around about. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of the darkness. It is real, evil spirits are real. Satan is real and we need to face that. And he operates by strategies. I like what you put up. And then one of the strategies the scripture clearly tells us is to wear the saints out. And he does that through all the things that you list. And some of our challenges back to your point about understanding that we have enlisted in the war, you don't fight a strategy with just a tactic. So we, you know, somebody that's a strategist, they'll put something in place right now that they know will unfold 50 years from now, you know? But a tactic, I'm just addressing it in that moment. Well, there's a song that says, this is how we fight our battles. And of course that's worship and praise. And we have one last question. Now I'm gonna go to you, Amy, and see if you can give me a quick little answer. And cause it's a really good one. You wrote to us, what is faith? Well, that takes a long time, but how do I exercise the faith daily in my life? If you could address that. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about the enemy and Satan who's rowing around. There is a supernatural world that is very real. And that world is what we would call the world of faith. And I would just say in very briefly that faith is a substance. Faith is real, faith is tangible. It is seeing things in the spiritual as more real than the things that you're facing in the natural. It's that real to you. So, you know, we're praying thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, how does that happen? By faith, by faith are we saved? Not of works, let's say any men should both. This is the victory that will overcome the world, even our faith. It's a firm persuasion that what God said he will do in your life. So, being firmly persuaded and you stand there for till you get what you're standing there for. And there's lots of scriptures. I'm sure you have a good scripture for me. Can you give me one? Well, I do. And it was Hebrews 11. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And we must believe that he is and he is a rewarder of those who seek him. God's simple, believe God's promise. That's right. Hebrews 11, all the prior saints, it was accounted to them as righteous because they believed the promise. What was the promise? Jesus was going to come. Right, that's like the lady with the issue of blood. And she's going around, where is he? Where is he? Where is he? And all of a sudden she reaches out and she touches the hem of his garment and Christ turns around, who touched me? It was her faith. I love to, not just to seek him, but to diligently seek him. And let's stay right there. We're going to wrap this up right after this. I feel invigorated after these questions today. I don't know, I feel like my faith is strong and I'm ready to like face the devil in any situation. And I hope that you feel the same way too. You can, without faith, it's impossible to please God. But man, you have this firm persuasion and this confidence that God is faithful and he has your back. Let's go to the scripture. Psalm 149-4. For the Lord takes delight in his people. He crowns the humble with victory. Oh my, so I took this scripture. I looked it up in all these translations and I love this one so much in the message. He adorns just plain old folks with selfies. God adorns just plain folks. So if you're a plain folk out there, God is just adorning you today with victory. Another translation, let this get in your spirit today. He loves to give them the victory. He loves to give them the victory. Well, you don't know what I'm going through. I mean, my marriage, I've got this with my kids, our finances, career help. He loves to give his people the victory. So today by faith, take that word into your heart and let it become a real reality in your life. Oh my gosh, this was a great show. So I hope you taped it and you can watch it again too. And we always, we have scripture, we have our scripture girls, but we end with the scripture and it goes like this. As iron sharpens iron, so does the countenance of a man or a woman, sisters sharpen the other. And I always say, and I mean it with my heart, these girls make me a better cafe. See you next time.