 Welcome to this sister to sister. It is gonna be great. Here's one of the questions. Why doesn't God reveal Himself to everybody all the time? And are you out of spiritual shape and how do you get back into shape? And also, what does it really mean to love God? Well, we're in shape. Yeah, okay. Always. Stay tuned. Welcome to sister to sister. We are so glad that you joined us today. We are a panel of five women of God and we bring questions that you ask us and we bring the answers from our heart and mostly from the word of God. So we're gonna get started right here. And oh my gosh, Flo, I'm coming to you because this wisdom of Flo. So here's this question someone wrote to us. You ready? I'm ready. Good. Be ready. Be also ready, ready, ready. Oh good, I like when you sing. Here is the question. I really want to know this. Why doesn't God reveal Himself more obviously to everyone in everyday life? See, I think He does. I think the challenge is us being able to rest in Him. There's so many things. When you get hit with circumstances and situations, we tend to work out your soul's salvation with fear and trembling as we've been instructed with the scriptures. We don't always do that. We just let our emotions control us, you know? And so we don't necessarily take that rest in God. We begin to rest in the circumstances. We begin to be overwhelmed with whatever the circumstances. I lack money, something happened, something's going on with my children, the state of the world, the state of the church, you know? And it takes us away from God in the word. Now religion is always there, but relationship isn't. That's right, that's good. And so when you have relationship, the real intimacy is me learning how to rest in God. And when I rest in God, I can see the rest of God. Right, and you know, when you're talking about that, there's scripture, we have the peace that passes understanding. We shouldn't have peace in this situation because it's really messed up, but we have that peace. But what you're saying, we need to rest in it. What do you got? I think God does hide Himself sometimes. Why? I mean in the parables. Jesus said, it's not been revealed to them because they don't have hearing ears. They have ears, but they do not hear. They have eyes, but they do not see what's in front of them. He was manifest in the flesh, doing miracles, bringing peace, bringing joy, setting people free, and they still right in front of their face did not see Him. And Jesus said, I speak in parables, and then He told, what did He do? He told His disciples what the parables meant because they sawed Him. The scripture says, seek me, you will find me. Seek me with all your heart and you will find me. God sometimes does not reveal Himself because we are not willing to see Him to open our eyes to Him when He's in front of us. Oh, I like that. That's why Paul said to pray that the eyes of your heart are flooded with light because he is revealing Himself every day. And I just thought even simply, we're in this beautiful time of seasons changing, and it says in Proverbs, I was there when He set the heavens in place, when He marked the horizon in the face of the deep, when He established the clouds, when He fixed the, He told the water, you stop here and say, and you go here and mountains, you be here. I'm thinking all of creation is revealing who He is. When we meet other people, we are meeting really the very face, He said, you're created in His image and His likeness. So I think sometimes we're looking for the spectacular and we're missing the practical supernatural ways that God is revealing Himself every day. Cory, what do you mean? I mean, I completely agree. Creation itself proclaims God's revelation. And I think what are we distracted by? There's so much now in our culture, in technology, in our worlds that we are so easily distracted by. And I think that the enemy uses that, even good things to distract us, even volunteering our families, things that are good on the outside that just distract us from seeing the basic simplicity of creation, a snowflake, that each snowflake is an individual pattern that our fingerprints are literally unique to every single billion person that exists that if we cut our finger, that fingerprint grows back exactly the same. That's the Creator being revealed and a simple thing is that. Wow, I love that fingerprint thing. I didn't know that. So if you cut your finger, it grows back exactly the same fingerprint. Oh my, that is so good, Cory. Thank you. That's like wisdom. Yeah, absolutely. That's like wisdom from you to you. That's science. All right. That is science, but I really didn't take that in a squad. Okay, no, I took cheerleading, but it's okay. We can tell. Yeah, here's the next question. Here's the next question. It's good too. Oh, it's kind of good. Why do people some suffer more than others in this life? That's a really tough one. Roxanne, will you take it? It is. And I will in kind of two aspects. You know, Romans eight says that this world is suffering corruption and the world is waiting for the children of God to be revealed so that they can be restored. And we think of Paul, apostle Paul and apostle John. Jesus said, when you get, when you're gonna suffer Paul, he said, you're gonna go where you don't wanna go. You are gonna be crucified. And Paul says, what about John? John was exiled. He was not crucified. He wrote the book of revelations and first John and John. So what's Jesus saying? We all have a different path in life. And unfortunately as fortunate as we must accept the things that God has for us because he has said things many times are preordained but the corruption of this world is working against the children of God. So if you're Peter or you're John accept what the Lord has in your path. Oh boy, what do you have? Well, Roxy, you mentioned the word path and I have friends, they're pastors in Dallas, Texas. And I think two years ago, their daughter passed away from, you know, she was an amazing young woman working in ministry and she, you know, through COVID, things got weird. A bad boyfriend thing and she started drinking. Well, she wasn't used to alcohol. Somehow she goes into a seizure and in her father's arms, she passes away. And they just wrote a book called A Path Through Pain, How Joy and Pain Can Coexist. But the whole message is that when your whole world has been turned upside down, when something has happened to you, you did not choose, you did not want. Hope is the anchor of the soul that no matter what, it's the hope that we had that she is with Jesus, that we will see her again, that I still have grandkids and other children. It's this idea of joy and pain coexisting. I think that's the age old question. Why do people suffer? Why does pain happen? And I'm not sure there's any complete answer just that we're in a fallen world, but I do know this, all of the first century Christians, all of the heroes of our faith all suffered. So I just say, you know, suffering is going to be a part, but keep that hope alive and that faith alive, which is the anchor for the soul. What do you have wisdom of flow for me on this? This is a tough one. You guys heard me say this before. You are not, you do not have to create a doctrine or something for something that you don't understand. And so in all transparency, I'd have to say I don't really understand it. So I'm not going to sit here and do some S or Gs on it or anything like that. However, I will say this much about pain, that pain is an indicator that something's wrong. So whether it's a result of sin, a bad decision, someone else's issues being inflicted upon you, I do believe this, that there is a grace that you can tap into. And we have to be understanding, because sometimes, you know, we have this, what I call hyper-Christianism, you know? It's like, you know, something goes wrong. Well, you know, God, this and what? Right now I'm in pain. Right now I'm hurting. And I need to cry. And I need the ministry of presence in my life. I have not lost God. Jesus is still on the throne. God is still God. But I'm hurting today, I'm in pain. And so I believe that pain, as I said, is an indicator that something's wrong out of order. We serve a God that brings order and therefore pain can become a place of gain. After I allow myself to go through the process and ultimately a place of reign, because as books come out of your story, she's not the only one with a story like that. There are others, there are people who haven't written books. But their lives are forever changed and they have a compassion to now move and minister in that arena to others. So Jesus is in your suffering, we'll say that. And so this question kind of relates to that. Cory, I'm gonna come to you on this one. It's a good one too. Why does God want us to worship him? He's God. Does he need us to worship him? This is, you know, I think this is a hard question for our like human minds to understand because God is God and we are not. But when I stop and think about it, we are created in the image of God. And we are all created with the space for a need to worship the Creator. And so I see this need in humans where if that space is not filled with worshiping the Creator, it's filled with worshiping something else. And I already said it earlier in the show. It can be something good. It can be, you know, it can be volunteering. It can be your family. It can be, I mean, it can be sports teams. It can be people get, you know, crazy about solving, you know, crimes or whatever. People need to fill that space in their life with something because we're made in the image of God. We are God's most special creation. We, God, the rest of creation on earth was not made with the ability to worship him, but we are and that is a gift. And so when we are able to worship the Creator, that is a gift to us. It is because he loves us so much that we can fulfill that need in us to worship him. That's good. You know, the word says that we were created to worship him. And so worship is an act of reverence, thanksgiving. It's also an act of obedience. Because when I worship him, I clear the airways. I clear the paths. I break strongholds. You see, I learned from a man of God years ago that when you worship, you put yourself in the presence of the Lord, the presence of angels. When you complain, when you murmur, you know, then you're really worshiping Satan. So you put yourself in the presence of demonic. Wow. That's pretty tough. Just to dovetail that, John five says, Pharisees glorified themselves and honored themselves. Worship brings glory to God. We're not bringing glory to ourselves. That's why worship is not a performance. It is bringing glory to God, forgetting about yourself, leaving the cares behind and remembering who he is. That's right. That's good. My son just wrote the sweetest worship song and we sang it the past couple of weeks at church. And the words I thought were so applicable to this question. He said, I was made to love you. Why do we complicate it when this is how he made it? And then he goes into, it's simple. It's simple. God, I love you. It's not complicated. And exactly what Corey said, we are all worshiping something. We're worshiping our phone. We're worshiping intellect. We're worshiping education. We're worshiping government. We're worshiping sports. We are worshiping, you know, relation. We are worshiping something. There's something in us that wants to give glory and exalt something else. And that is all for God. It's for him because he is worthy of all glory and honor and praise and adoration. He's worthy of all of our attention. So don't complicate it. It's super simple. Just, I was made to love him. I was made to be loved by him and to love him back. Right. You know, there was a concert that K-Love Radio, which is the Christian contemporary music, it was put on at a place out west called Red Rocks. And we wanted to go there forever. George and I, we just want to go. So we went to the movie theater to see it in the big screen so we could see our favorite Christian artist sing. And it really answers this question because Mercy Me, a big band, if you listen to contemporary Christian, you'll know them. And they tell a story about and perform. And I shouldn't say perform, but they did perform. They were crazy good. The song is Who Am I To Not Worship You? So it's exactly what we're saying. So these men and women in this band have had a download from the Holy Spirit that says worship me. So the main singer wrote Who Am I To Not Worship You? It was really good. Check it out. And stay tuned. We'll be right back after this. ["Who Am I To Not Worship You?" by K-Love Radio plays in the background.] Welcome back. While you were gone, we were discussing that those questions in the first segment were kind of difficult. They took a lot of inside us to bring the answers out to you. So thank you for writing them in. Yeah, right. Thanks. Okay, you gave us this, too. You gave us this. And this kind of goes along with the worship him question. Amy, I'm gonna come to you on this. The question you wrote is, what does it really mean to love God, to love him? That's a great question. In a city that is a lot of my works is how I love God through religion and works. I think about Matthew 22, 37, that you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart. This is how you love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength. It really means like your whole. Because we are a three-part being, a spirit, soul, and a body. And you can be going to church and spiritually going to church, but in your mind, you're watching pornography, you're cussing like a sailor, you're ripping people off, you're stealing. It's like that's not loving the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. It also says with all of your passion, your prayer, and your intelligence. I mean, to me, loving God, it's considering him first above everything else. When I'm paying taxes, I consider him and how he would do things. Not that you're perfect, you don't act exactly like God does, but with everything you're trying to honor him to the best of your ability. That's good, that's good. Roxy, do you have a scripture for us on this? Well, I do too, but hers was awesome. And you know, first John says, believe in his son. And Jesus said, I have a new commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. That's good. So that means we do love ourselves, although we don't think we do, because we're number one, we get up, we think of ourselves, we do all this, 90% of our day is taking care of ourselves. But if we love someone like the Lord does, then we're loving God. It's as simple as my sister said, it's as simple as that if you're just conscious of how can I love that person? Can I forgive that person? Can I honor that person? Can I let that person speak first? Can I let that person go first? Can I let that person get the credit first before me? When you said about 90% of our time is spent taking care of ourselves, I'm thinking about the people who are watching us perhaps and have children or taking care of their elderly parents or grandmas taking care of kids. So remember that love that you exhibit to your loved ones that you're caretaking for is loving God. So I like that, I like that. Flo, do you have an answer for me, loving God? You know, I don't know if I have an answer or a response. If I say, if I compliment Roxy, she's probably gonna say thank you. She'll acknowledge that. If I say to Corey, you're here, it just looks gorgeous today. She's probably gonna say thank you. Love being God is an automatic response of his love for you. I like that, I love that's a great answer. And so when I don't know, I'm not in an intimate relationship with him. When I'm in religion, just church, when I, you know, even us in ministry, you know, I've talked about this before. You're in ministry and ministry becomes your identity instead of him. And you study the word so that I can give a message instead of getting to know him. Yeah, I like that. But when I spend time, there are times that I've spent time just fasting and praying just to get closer to him. And out of that, the response is a love for him. Because what was, there's a movie that just came, it was a documentary actually on death, people that had near-death experiences. And every one of them talked about how when they seen the light or when they, you know, how it was just they could, there were no earthly words here to describe it. And all they could feel was just love, love. And so, and that puts them, put them back on the path when they came home, some of them were atheists or came back into their body. Some of them were atheists, some of them scientists, but their response to that love changed their lives forever. We could do a show on that movie. It was called After Death, it was really good. But I don't wanna miss this very last question and I'm gonna go to Corey on it. And it was what Amy and I were doing in the promo about spiritual shape. So how do you get into spiritual shape if you've kind of fallen out from God? Well, I mean, you think about it if you are out of physical shape, if you need to go to the gym, you don't have to get into shape before you start going to the gym, okay? And I think a lot of times in our Christian walk, we think that we've fallen away or we're struggling with sin or whatever. We think before we go to church or before we get back in fellowship or before we talk to the Lord, we have to like fix our lives. And that is not the case. God is always there. He's always ready to hear us. You do not have to get into shape before you step back into the church or before you sit down and just talk to the Lord. Just come as you are. And then what's another thing when you're trying to get into shape, you have a diet change, okay? So let's feast on the bread of life. Let's drink of the living water, okay? The living water is Jesus. And the more you partake of Jesus, the more you're gonna get into shape. I like that. And don't eat carbs. No, just kidding. Okay, Roxy, what do you have? I'm just gonna eat a personal trainer to help you out. True. A nice accountability partner. Yes. But go ahead. I'm just gonna say one step because I could see Amy's mind going in there. You gotta repent. Oh. All right, you know what? Repentance means what? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, no. Repentance means I'm sorry. I see God's way, I see my way, and I turn. I turn from my way to God's way. If you're lying, tell the truth. If you're stealing, give back. If you're angry, don't let the sun go down on your anger. You know, there's our simple things that you could do step by step. God will show you one thing usually at a time because it doesn't overwhelm us. He knows our framing, knows we're sinners. He knows we're dust. There's one thing at a time to step in. I love that. I love personal trainer. What do you have, Pastor? I think about the scripture in Ephesians 1 Corinthians 12, you know, that you're part of a body and each one of you is a part of it. I don't know, to me, if you're born again, you're a follower of Christ, you're part of the body. There's no option. So like, where are you at? What are you doing? What's your responsibility? What's your part? What's your role? If you're disconnected, what's wrong with the body because you're not connected in the body? So it's talking about your body being in shape. I mean, somebody that hurts their foot, they can hardly think about anything else but their foot, because their foot is hurting, wounded, broken. It affects the whole body. So Rick Warren coined an incredible acronym for shape from his book. Spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences. When you examine all of these, you find out what is my unique fit in the body so that I will be in spiritual shape. I don't think there is a thing as an isolated Christian that's not a part of the collected body of Christ. To being in the body that's really good. And I love the personal trainer. And to me, that personal trainer is the word of God, the Bible, that I open every day and every night to stay in shape. We'll be back to close this thing up. Wow, those were some great discussions today. I wish you were with us sitting down at the table with a cup of coffee or your tea and talking about why is there suffering? How do we worship God? How do we really love God? We always like to end sister to sister with a scripture. And today that scripture is from Galatians 5 verse 7. Read it with me. You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? Now listen, that is a little bit of like correction. I'm pretty sure from this great apostle, he's talking about we have this new life of freedom. We have this new Christ has come and he has set us free. So who's gonna get in between your race, you running all the way for God? And so I just ask you today, what's getting in the way? What is stopping you? What's tripping you up? What is taking you off course from being in spiritual shape, from fully loving God, from fully worshiping him with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength. Don't get tripped up. This is not the time to be tripped up. This is the time to really be in the body and in tip top spiritual shape. Oh my gosh, I just wanna end right there because I wanna be in the body and we are and we end with this that says as iron sharpens iron. So does the countenance of a man or a woman sharpen the other? Do you understand how these girls, their wisdom, their words make me a better Cathy? See you next time.