Faith in Action: Navigating Life's Challenges

In this episode, Angeline and Resa discuss their takeaways from recent sermons, the importance of community support during economic challenges, and the significance of faith in daily life. They highlight the song of the week by LaKia Stokes and celebrate Senator Cory Booker's resilience. The conversation also delves into the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding believers and the importance of living a spirit-filled life. The hosts reflect on their personal experiences and the dynamics of church community. In this conversation, Resa Crippen and Angeline Bishop Thomas explore themes of passion, purpose, and faith. They discuss the importance of understanding one's interests as a starting point for discovering passion, the significance of titles in relation to Jesus, and the complexities of fear and denial in faith. The conversation also delves into the role of Judas in Jesus' journey, the impact of kindness and community, and the exploration of personal beliefs in relation to faith.

Transcript

Angeline Bishop Thomas (00:02.67)
Hello everyone, I'm Angeline and she's Resa and welcome to Season 4, Episode 151 of With the Quickness.

Resa Crippen (00:10.613)
Tuesday everyone.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (00:12.45)
Happy Tuesday indeed. Today we're gonna share our takeaways from the March 6th, 2025 sermon given at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, and a past sermon given at Covenant Church in McKinley, Texas. So Resa, what is your big takeaway from First Baptist this week?

Resa Crippen (00:31.609)
No matter what happens, I am covered by God.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (00:35.214)
Okay. My big takeaway was with faith, even the impossible becomes possible. What was your big takeaway from Pastor Charlotte Gambill?

Resa Crippen (00:46.117)
Holy Spirit is within us, guiding us on our faith walk.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (00:50.638)
Okay, my big takeaway is we must ask ourselves, are we being led by the Holy Spirit or led by our own flesh? Now we're gonna get into those two sermons a little later in the show, but right now it's time for Resa's playlist. What's the song of the week this week, Resa?

Resa Crippen (01:08.101)
So the song of the week this week is actually by a new artist. Her name is LaKia Stokes and the song is called He Is. It's actually from her first album titled Diary of a Church Girl. Just a brief summary that I found on her website. LaKia Stokes is a passionate musician who began singing in the church at age six. Over the past 10 years, she has been a sought after background vocalist for major artists, including Tamela Mann.

And Kurt Franklin and has achieved recognition as a Grammy accredited singer. She was raised in a strict a strict of Kajik or COGIC household. She blends her love of R &B with gospel with Excuse me. She rate raised in a strict COGIC household She blends her love of R &B with Christian faith her third single reached number 36 on the billboard indicator chart in addition to music with

LaKia has ventured into acting, starring in stage plays alongside renowned actors and receiving award nominations for her performances in 2023. She signed with Sunny Girl, Inc. managed by hip hop icon MC Light. And of course, she just released her album titled Diary of a Church Girl, which happened two days ago.

And it addresses topics like Christian struggles and faith, and the album promises to offer a refreshing perspective in the music industry.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (02:43.048)
MC Light is producing, you know, Christian artists now?

Resa Crippen (02:48.079)
Well, she's signed a Christian artist, so I didn't know that. But I'm like, go, MC Lyte. I know MC Lyte, I normally hear her doing announcement work for the BET Awards. So hey.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (02:53.558)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (03:01.858)
Yeah, it's nice to see that she's actually giving someone a chance in the contemporary gospel arena. So what drew you to the song?

Resa Crippen (03:12.879)
Well, basically in the song, is, she's talking about God and all the things that he is and how she's able to do what she needs to do or what she wants to do because of him. So she's giving him all the praise. So I was like, you know, it fit with what I heard this weekend from Pastor Quick's sermon. So I wanted to put that as song of the week this week.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (03:38.21)
Yeah, he's really big on us making sure that we don't just leave praise to when you're in church. And some people do that. It's the routine of their life. They don't think about praising God until they get into the sanctuary or until it's Sunday morning. And he's like, no, you got to praise him all the time and give glory and honor where it's due. And I'm glad you picked the song if that's what has really resonated with you is that it's important to praise how powerful, how wonderful, how excellent he is in our life.

every day.

So you're gonna add this song to the With The Quickness playlist on Spotify, right? That's where we're gonna find it.

Resa Crippen (04:16.143)
Yes, I am.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (04:18.114)
and we'll make sure that that song is also featured on our website. Our website has to get updated. So please be patient with us. We're trying to get back in the rhythm, but we should be able to have that updated shortly. But in the interim, you'll be able to find it on Spotify, on the Mega List, and on Season 4's playlist, right? Well, thanks so much, Resa. We really appreciate you. Okay, now let's go on to the sermons that happened this week.

Resa Crippen (04:34.469)
Yes, they can.

Resa Crippen (04:38.233)
You're welcome.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (04:45.218)
There was a Sunday service at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens and it began like always with wonderful praise and worship by the praise and worship ministry. We had the mass choir this Sunday. They were in full effect wearing their black supporting the pastor and welcoming the saints into the sanctuary. Pastor Quick also made it known to everyone. And I think he was kind of leaning in early to his sermon because he said to everyone gathered,

that we need to not fear, have fear in these times as those that might not know people outside the United States that don't really listen to what's going on here. President Donald Trump has been putting tariffs on a lot of things that come into the United States and it's affecting our economy. And a lot of people are worried and there's a lot of people that also have been fired from jobs, government jobs. And Pastor Quick said he's actually gonna have in the church people in HR

that are gonna be actually making things, put things in place to help those that are looking for work again, Resa. What'd you think about him actually saying, you we need to take care of that here at home in our church and give them the resources that are needed.

Resa Crippen (05:52.549)
think now is the time to really lean on your community because of all the tariffs that have been coming out on a basically at this point like a daily basis. If because we are able because because our church is able to help so many people, I'm glad that they are, you know, not only making it known, but they're also constantly promoting it like different things that you're doing to give back.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (06:18.158)
Yeah, everybody's like, like I was watching the news today and a of people were worried about should they buy certain things, food things, or stock up on certain things, because they're worried about tariffs. We went to the store once and we had the nice Yuka app looking at what to purchase and not purchase. And it's interesting. You start noticing some things you can live without when you go shopping now compared to before. Before things were luxuries, you're just throwing certain things you love to have in your cart. Now everybody's kind of relying on staples.

and cooking at home and stuff like that. Are you noticing a difference too?

Resa Crippen (06:51.439)
Yeah, ever since we ever since the Target boycott took place and I realized that I was one of the ones that would find any reason to go to Target just to buy stuff. I've now because of the fact I'm trying to be more mindful of how I spend my money because things are starting to get expensive and I want to make sure that my I want to make sure that my dollars stretch. am

noticing that I don't buy some of the things that I used to buy that were that I that I would consider to be luxuries. It is a little sad, but at the same time, just like I'd rather do this now and, you know, save most of my money like then to like not do that. And then, you know, God forbid, there's like some type of emergency where I need to have extra funds on standby.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (07:44.802)
I know when I was younger, a lot of people used to have like in their windowsill, they used to have like herbs, like those little herb plants. And I thought about that. was like, I think I would like to have some herbs in my kitchen growing. Cause I do buy fresh herbs and to be able to grow it and to have even a church activity or something where you you learn how to grow those little planters yourself. That'd be kind of cool I think, you know? Cause I mean,

We are so used to convenience in the United States. you know, to just have somebody tell the difference, like, is this parsley or is this oregano? And they'll be like, I don't know which one does the spice jar say it is. That's how people think these are. They don't really understand it. And you can actually go and look and use real fresh parsley. You don't have to be at a restaurant to have fresh parsley put on your pasta or used in a dish. You can actually get it. And so when you go to the market,

Resa Crippen (08:25.179)
you

Angeline Bishop Thomas (08:39.074)
And that's the beautiful thing about garden markets. They have everything. All the mushrooms, all the fruits and vegetables and all the herbs and spices are right there. To know that when you go and get something as simple as ginger, people have ground ginger in their spice cabinets. Do you know what a real thing of ginger looks like? What real ginger looks like? A lot of young people don't. They don't know what it looks like. But to walk in a market,

and actually see those things. At first, it's of shocking. I'm not going to lie. When you first see things that you thought would look one way, it looks a different way. It's a little shocking at first, mean, but it's nice. It's almost like a field trip for your mind because you thought it would be one way, like garlic. Garlic does not come in a jar, nor does it come in a powder form. actually, you can go and see how it's a bulb.

Resa Crippen (09:15.867)
You

Resa Crippen (09:32.475)
Yeah, that actually reminds me of the first time that I saw ginger in real life. I, because again, at this point, this is like probably five or six years ago. it was like a while ago. But one of my old friends was talking about it she was like, oh yeah, you know, I was told that, you know, in her family, if you get sick, you would just boil ginger.

and then it'll knock it off your system. So she came in and like brought her ginger to it. Cause one day she wasn't feeling good and she like, you know, had her ginger and I was like, what is that? Oh, it's ginger. I don't know why, because again, I was used to seeing things in like spice rack form. And I was just like, what is this? And it's like, oh, it's ginger. And I was like, that's what I thought. I thought it was like a big stick. And I was just like, cause it wasn't, it wasn't that big, but I guess because again,

Angeline Bishop Thomas (10:17.408)
You're like, it's a stick. It looks like a stick.

Resa Crippen (10:26.843)
I had never seen ginger before, not real ginger, in its raw state. So it kind of took me by surprise about the time that I did start to go shopping at my local market, I was able to see, like when I saw ginger, I wasn't like shocked, I knew what it was. But if I didn't know, I'd have been like, why are we selling sticks? Like, I don't understand.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (10:52.972)
I remember when I was younger, I was like growing up in Washington DC, and this lady in our church wanted to teach the young lady's etiquette, right? So she decided, you know, we would all go to her house. I think there was 12 of us, and we got to use her real china, and she put the fear of God in us, like, don't break my china. Of course we didn't, and we got to learn how to set the table properly and learn to eat with whatever fork and knife. And she said, what do you guys think we're having today? And we're like...

I don't know. think somebody said finger foods, something like that. She's like, no, no, we're going to have a real lunch. for appetizers, she brought out artichokes. And I was one of the few little girls of color there. I said, my whole brain said, what the heck is this? You know, and kind of looking at everybody. We don't know what utensil to use and how to do it. And she talked us through it. And I remember.

Resa Crippen (11:39.265)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (11:48.408)
When I first learned about taking off the leaves and learning how to eat the artichoke heart and all of it. And I went home, I said, I have a new vegetable. My mom said, she goes, you have a good time? I said, I had a great time. I have a new vegetable. She goes, what's your vegetable? I said, artichoke. I love artichoke like that. She's like, I ain't buying no artichoke. Because first of all, we were like a corn, green bean, carrot, beans kind of household. My mom was not going to go out of her way to get no artichokes into this house.

Resa Crippen (12:08.187)
you

Angeline Bishop Thomas (12:18.432)
especially if most of the kids there would not eat it. But I grew up thinking like, when I grow up, I'm going to always have artichokes. I'm going to always have asparagus. I'm going always have all these vegetables that I had no idea about before. So the beautiful thing, like you're saying, about being in the garden market, it kind of opens your mind up. There's something different than what you thought. Like there is more than one mushroom out there.

Resa Crippen (12:41.659)
Yeah, like when I saw that our local market has dragon fruit, I was shocked. Because I thought dragon fruit, from my understanding, I thought it was like there was only one type of dragon fruit, but they had different types. There were ones that were yellow and they were red. And I was like, oh, this is great. Because I didn't know different types.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (13:03.394)
Yeah, I think that's why I think that's why we're it's a good thing that Pastor Quick is making sure that we have a community garden. Did you hear him talking about that a little bit Sunday?

Resa Crippen (13:13.031)
yeah, I did hear them talking about that and how they're going to start selling things out of the community garden for anyone that wants any produce.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (13:23.404)
Yeah, that's what they want to do. They really want to have something that is started by the church, owned by the church, and then be able to help the community and the congregation that way. I think that's a great idea, right? We should be able to, if you have a need, to come right on down to, I mean, there's some great local places already around the area, you know, in this part of New Jersey. So he doesn't have to totally go from scratch. You can actually talk to a lot of people about what's working and what works well.

Resa Crippen (13:35.278)
Absolutely.

Resa Crippen (13:45.134)
Right. And then

Resa Crippen (13:51.099)
Right, and then two, just to be surrounded by that. Because we are currently still in Lent, yes, we are still in Lent, the countdown, I'm just waiting for it to be over. No, because I'm craving a chocolate chip cookie so bad, and I gotta keep telling myself to go get a grape. And I say that all to say, I have found myself eating a lot of grapes, a lot of apples.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (14:03.95)
What's that sigh for?

Resa Crippen (14:17.883)
On occasion, strawberries, blueberries, whatever, because I'm just like, I want something sweet and normally I would grab a cookie here or there, but I can't do that right now. So to be around the fresh fruits that God has made, it has saved me during Lent.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (14:34.956)
Yeah, it saved me too. And I think it reminds us of how much diversity there is in the sweetness of the different fruits. Like you don't have to go to the same two or three cookies you enjoy. There's actually diversity out there. And it reminded me too, because I have such a strong sweet tooth. think Pastor Quick said the same thing. He has a strong sweet tooth. He talked about the cereals he liked to eat and the desserts he likes to eat and to put it all aside and realize, you your flesh is stronger than you think.

So lent's a good thing. It gives us a chance to reset a little bit, reset the taste buds, realize you can make it. You can make

Resa Crippen (15:13.401)
It might be a struggle, you can make it.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (15:15.454)
Exactly. Now pass a quick one on to talk to the congregation a little bit about celebrating Senator Cory Booker. He had a great week this week, right, Resa? Like he did what no one thought could be done.

Resa Crippen (15:29.071)
He did. I was, as a New Jerseyan, I was very proud because yet again, Jersey, I just want to go on record. People could say a lot of things about my state, haters included, but you can't knock New Jerseyans. We are very resilient.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (15:44.398)
We really, really are to go 25 days and five minutes on the Senate floor. Oh, sorry, 25, sorry, did I say days? Sorry, to go 25 hours, five minutes on the Senate floor. I mean, wow, you know, no bathroom breaks. And he was not wearing any kind of adult diaper to help him. He had days before been slowing down how much he ate, how much he drank, know, pacing himself to get prepared for this.

Resa Crippen (15:50.4)
Well, 25 hours, not days.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (16:13.89)
And to have his fellow Democrats actually stop and ask him questions during it so he could take a break from speaking. I mean, it was really a team effort and he had a great staff to help him pull it off.

Resa Crippen (16:26.041)
Yeah, he did. I was watching throughout the day when I could catch a moment to see how he was doing. And I loved the fact that everyone was coming together and, you know, helping him reach that goal. I honestly wish that there was more of this working together because I feel like right now it's just like, you know, we're just going to say yes to things. And like, to me, it feels like

I don't care what your political affiliation is. At this point, it's good versus evil. And you have to ask yourself, where do you stand? In the words of my Nana, pick a side. Because it's very clear that some of the things that are happening, they don't have to happen. But they are, because some people are afraid to stand up. And the fact that Cory Booker said, you know what?

Angeline Bishop Thomas (17:06.924)
Yeah, pick a song.

Resa Crippen (17:23.203)
I hear you guys, I'm gonna stand up, gonna do my part as your elected official to make a difference. That's what I wanna see from everyone in politics.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (17:34.412)
Yeah. And I like that he did it before the big marches that were taking place. Because it was like he did his standing up. And if I was him, next time I ran for any kind of office, I'd be playing Stand By Me as my theme song. I'd be like, yeah, so everybody can remember that when push came to shove, he did what he had to do. And he not only did that after it was over, he still did interviews. The next day, he still went out and did the march.

You know, he was still very much seen in the forefront. Like today, he was even still doing, you press. He was on The View. I mean, he was, he's everywhere, still saying that everyone needs to do their part. And I like the fact that Dr. Quick took the moment to not only have the congregants celebrate Cory Booker, but to remind us that he stands on the shoulders of the legacy of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Now, Powell,

He became pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church where he launched numerous social reform initiatives. And in 1941, he was elected to the New York council and later became the first African-American to represent New York in the U.S. Congress in 1945. He served about 11 consecutive terms in the house and became the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee in 1960. Now it's in that capacity that he played a leading role

in the passage of the Minimum Wage Act, anti-poverty acts, and bills supporting manpower training and federal aid in education. So there's about 50 pieces of legislation in all that he helped come to fruition. And so he gave us a chance as a congregation to hear Powell's words. And didn't you think it was so cool to hear him, like no matter what that reporter was throwing to him as questions, he seemed like he had such a calm, cool demeanor.

Resa Crippen (19:27.193)
Yeah, he was very calm. Like, again, like I'm used, again, I'm still young, but I'm just used to politicians being politicians. And this new, like, the way that they are, the way that they are today is just different for me, because I'm just used to them being more concerned about the work. And I feel like that has now shifted to them just, to them just doing things just to be in the headlines. And I'm just like, when,

When exactly did we get to a point where everyone's trying to basically get their 15 minutes quote unquote? this is like, this is crazy. And to your point that you mentioned earlier about the protests, I think they're great. But I also think that even though protests, do make an impact. It is extremely important to go out and vote. I don't know how many times I've heard people even like my

Angeline Bishop Thomas (20:05.399)
Yeah.

Resa Crippen (20:26.587)
Even people that are like around my age group saying, voting doesn't matter. Like my vote does, it does, it does. Like if you understand like where we are right now as a country is because people didn't vote because they thought their vote didn't matter. If people would have just gotten out and voted, things would be different. So, and I don't just mean for the president. I mean like your local elections for your mayors, your governors, the Senate, all those things.

are very important and you have to go out there. I don't care if you gotta like call your friend, call your mom, whoever, like make it like, make it a little event, but go out and vote and make sure that your voice is heard because we're now at a point and other countries are seeing this around the world where rights that we should have are now being taken away. Females right now, there, just, before we started recording,

I had saw a TikTok where a woman was talking about female rights are basically being threatened. And I don't want to like say it incorrectly, but basically it was in reference to women that are married. Like their rights are going to be taking away as far as like not having a voice. And that bill is it's basically a bill that is going to be sent to the house possibly. And these are the things that we have to...

vocalize in the booth and say no, like this shouldn't this shouldn't even be up for debate like just because I'm married or you know a female or I'm black or like whatever whatever You affiliate with like your human rights should not be taken away

Angeline Bishop Thomas (22:11.854)
Yeah. And I think that's the hardest thing, because when you hear a bunch of campaign slogans and people that just are worried about getting elected, it's really hard to differentiate between, is this the person they want me to vote for and there's someone else going to actually show up on the first day when they're sworn in, or is this an authentic person 100 %? And that's why you have to look at

the people they surround themselves with, the ones that can vouch for them. It's a lot of work you have to do because you're right, people's egos get involved and it is a lot of smoke and mirrors out here. Not everyone is forthcoming with who they really are. Some of it is just say what you have to say to get in office and then we can do whatever we want to do once I'm there.

Resa Crippen (22:59.395)
Right. And then this also to your point, because I did watch The View today, and they were talking about that, how politicians will say, I'm going to do all these things. You have to look at what they have done. Because right now, we have someone in the White House who has had multiple failed businesses, but the people that have voted for him thought, he's going to do all these great things.

If someone is not a good business person, I don't think you're going to do a great job running the country. It doesn't make sense because now you're voting on potential and you're not voting on facts. And we have to vote on facts of the matter.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (23:41.294)
Well, they say the same thing about when you pick someone to marry. They say, do you marry them based on potential? Some people say, well, you should. You shouldn't count on someone that doesn't have everything all together. So I think part of it has to do with, you you got to be prayerful in some of the decisions you make. It's okay to say prayers before you go into the voting booth. It's okay to say prayers before you decide to, you know, support a certain candidate or tell others to support a certain candidate. We need to start putting God in the forefront of our decisions.

Resa Crippen (23:44.453)
Right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (24:11.182)
and not have fear about it. And that's one of the things I loved about the sermon that Pastor Quick gave. His sermon was called, Don't Sleep on God. The speaker was Reverend Dr. Dante R. Quick. The scripture he referred to was Acts 20, verses seven through 12 of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. In this passage of scripture, it recounts a miraculous event where Paul, while speaking at a meeting on the first day of the week, a young man named,

a Eucharist fell asleep and he fell from the third story and is picked up and believed to be dead. But then he was miraculously raised back to life by Paul. Now in Pastor Quick's intro, he said, maybe we're limiting God with our thoughts. Faith caused us to trust in his divine power, believe that he can create a way where none exists, but with unwavering faith, we can transform

we could be transformed and things that seem impossible become possible. Like, and he even referred to when he was giving up sugary foods, like we talked about before, he leans on God's strength during Lent because the desire to eat those sugary foods is still there. But he knows that if he can lean on God, he can get through that hour, that day, that week, if he just puts them involved in that decision.

And you can relate to that reason. You just finished talking about it. We can both relate to that and learn. Like sometimes you gotta be like, I don't know, I want that cookie, but I'm gonna go get those grapes, right?

Resa Crippen (25:41.925)
Yeah, listen, this past week, I've been good up until this past week. I have been craving cookies, brownies, ice cream, and I can't have none of it right now because why? I'm fasting. But did I get those grapes? Did I get those apples and blueberries? Yes, I did. Because God was there in the mix of that.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (26:02.786)
Yeah, and that goes back to what Pastor Quick says. You can't just pray to him. You also have to have action. Faith isn't just belief. He says it's action. It's about staying steadfast, even when life brings challenges to test you. True faith isn't reserved for the big moments. He said it actually thrives in the small things and the daily decisions that we make to trust God and his power and his goodness. And that's so true, right? We can't just use them like when it comes to our finances and...

big things like, you know, when we're deciding which college to go to, we can use them in the small things like, I don't really feel like getting up today, but I know I need to, I need your help. Like the small things, right?

Resa Crippen (26:41.401)
Right, even, like, even something as simple as driving my car down the street to get some gas. The minute I get the gas and I come back home, I thank God for allowing me to go out, do what I gotta do when I come back home safe with no issues. Like, I give him praise regardless, like whether I'm, you know, the fact that he woke me up this morning, that in itself is something that I give him praise for.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (27:07.318)
One thing that I did like is how he passed to Quick reminded us that faith is the conviction of things not seen. He didn't say the evidence, he said the conviction. And when struggles come, don't waver in praising God in the midst of it all. Like we said at the beginning of the podcast, believe wholeheartedly in God's power that it can bring renewal, restoration, no matter what our situation. So even though when things get heavy,

and it seems like there's no, you know, recourse or no way out. We got to remember we're not in it by ourselves.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (27:44.716)
Resa is nodding. Okay. She's like, I'm nodding. agree with that. Okay. All right. When life feels heavy, Pastor Quick went on to say, allow your faith to guide you in one, believing deeply in God's promises, two, focus on his limitless power, and three, follow through to complete the work God has started in you. Now, you got to remember that

Resa Crippen (27:46.619)
Sorry.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (28:11.926)
You breathe new life into areas of your life that seem beyond hope. He will breathe new life in your finances, in your relationships, even in any addictions. But you have to trust that God can resurrect what was lost. He's the Restorer. He's the Great Physician. He is Alpha and Omega. He's there always. With faith, even the impossible becomes possible. So, Resa, what did you think of the sermon this week by Pastor Quick about don't sleep on God?

Resa Crippen (28:41.979)
love the sermon. I feel like the sermon was needed this week because again, with everything that is happening and continues to happen, it's very easy to get depressed. It's very easy to feel like, oh man, I don't think God's looking out for me because things are happening or things are starting to get a little, I don't know, tight or what have you, but you have to believe amongst all the chaos if you just keep Him in the mix.

you'll be okay.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (29:12.738)
Yeah, well said, well said. Reverend Dr. Dante R. Quick's sermon, Don't Sleep on God, was live streamed on March the 6th, 2025 on the FBC Somerset YouTube channel. When you get a moment, please check it out. Now let's go over to Covenant Church in McKinley, Texas. They posted a February 5th, 2024 message that we know you'll enjoy. The sermon is called Mission Possible. The speaker is Pastor Charlotte Gambill

The scripture she referred to was the entire book of Acts. Now, Acts of the Apostles is the only biblical book that chronicles the history of the church immediately after Jesus' ascension. And as such, it provides us with a valuable account of how the church was able to grow and spread from Jerusalem to the rest of the Roman Empire. In only three decades, a small group of frightened believers in Jerusalem transformed into an empire-wide movement of people.

who had committed their lives to Jesus Christ. Ending on a high note with Paul on the verge of taking the gospel to its highest government official in the land, the emperor of Rome. Now she referred to many scriptures in Acts and also one in Zedekiah, but here's a little bit about her sermon, a brief summary. She said, we're called to be the church that embodies Christ, to live out his teachings and actively

share the love in our communities. She reminded us, the book of Acts reminds us of the church's purpose to spread the gospel through action. It's a call to move beyond passivity and build a community of faith that serves, uplifts, and reaches out to others. The Holy Spirit was given to believers to guide and empower us in our walk with Christ. And God's vision for the church is one of power and witness to reach the ends of the earth.

Do you feel that, Resa, when you walk into the church, do you feel that the people there, from the ushers to the deacons to the people in the pews, that they're all people that are embracing that they are representing Christ? And do you feel warm, welcome, and loved when you come in?

Resa Crippen (31:27.631)
Yeah, like when I normally walk into the church, I feel at peace. I feel like I am in a good place. I feel safe. I feel welcomed. That's how I normally feel when I come into the church. And I do feel like from the deacons to the deaconess to everyone in the sanctuary, like everyone just has like good vibes.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (31:48.29)
Yeah, there's one beautiful thing about coming to church right before church starts where you can get your seat and talk to people around you. You can actually, you know, say hello. You can actually, you know, you know, find out somebody's name and ask some questions about me. One time we were sitting by a young lady, a sister, and we said, you know, what did we say? We said, I think we were talking about the past sermons or something. And she had said that her daughter actually goes to church online for another church.

She was like, what was the church she named? I forgot what she said. Elevation maybe, Elevation Church, something online. Yeah, something that resonated with her more. It was before our youth ministry got back up and running after COVID. And so, it was nice to talk and get some feedback on what was working for whomever in the church or to figure out someone so wasn't feeling well or why somebody was missing or how somebody did going through COVID.

Resa Crippen (32:22.171)
Oh yeah, I think it was Elevation Church.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (32:46.146)
Just coming early gives you a chance to talk and to meet other saints. And that's the benefit of coming early. When you don't come early and you barely make it in the door, let's say you had a hard time getting parking and you're finally getting in there, it can feel a little bit like, you know, it's warm to a point. It's like you don't feel the connection because no one said hi to you, you know, other than a brief good morning, you know, no one really, you know, asked you about yourself or how you're doing.

It could seem a little bit like, you know, the church is really standoffish at first, if you're visiting, if you're visiting by yourself. So I tell anyone that's planning on checking out a church, go a little early. Don't barely go into the door. If you can, I mean, sometimes you can't, sometimes it's hard to get yourself, the kids or whoever's with you out the door. But if you can get there a little early and get into your seat and watch how the people talk and see, they actually come up to you and they actually say, good morning and how are you?

extend their hands and they say their names. And it's really a nice warm thing, right, Resa?

Resa Crippen (33:50.619)
Right, like even the whole coming in late, I honestly feel like though, like regardless if it's church or not, if you come in late anywhere, like everyone's like looking at you and you're just like, let me find my seat.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (33:58.478)
Mm-hmm.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (34:01.966)
Yeah, it kind of feels like they hear the door open, everybody kind of looks a little bit. And then don't go, I when you have to go to a row, and it's kind of hard because the ushers see a seat open in the middle of the row, which means everybody on the row has to move down. And sometimes, even though we're church people, you get that look, like, you're making me move. And I don't know why the congregation does that. Everybody's congregation does that. We all need to stop that in 2025. You know that

Resa Crippen (34:05.272)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (34:31.916)
You know that there's a seat in the middle of the row and you don't want to sit right up next to the other family or the brother or the sister. You're trying to leave a space there for whatever reason. When the meeting starts, it's okay to move down because people are going to need those in rows. As much as you might like sitting on the end because it's closer to the bathroom, closer to the parking lot, whatever reason you have for wanting to stay on the end, you have to also swallow the ego and realize a usher may come along and make you move down.

Resa Crippen (35:03.103)
Yeah, like I, you know, I get it to a point, but then I'm also like, okay, if I come in late, like give me, I don't want to be for me personally, if I'm coming in late and I have come in late before, don't put me in the middle. Like put me like on, like in the, in the pew, towards the, towards the, towards the end. put me, like, cause I'm like, why am I making all this? Oh, excuse me, me. No, no, no, it's too much. kidding.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (35:26.478)
They don't try put you in the middle. What they do is make everyone that's sitting down move down. That's what ushers do. They say, can everybody move down? I have another person for this row. They don't make that person try to go to the middle like you're in the movie theater where people refuse to move because these are their seats and they got their popcorn. No, no, These ushers are different. They look at you and they're like, can you move down? You ain't got to say nothing. You can stand behind the usher. The usher's going to, with those little white gloves, make everybody move. And there should be no feeling about that.

Resa Crippen (35:30.917)
Resa Crippen (35:40.105)
Because people get...

If you were getting rowdy, the movie theaters.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (35:53.97)
The row does not belong to you. Your name is not etched in it. It's okay. You're gonna be all right if you're just, instead of sitting on the very end, you're one or two down from the end. You're gonna be okay.

Resa Crippen (35:58.767)
Bye.

Resa Crippen (36:05.275)
I'm trying to think, I haven't seen that in a long time. Now, I've seen it in movie theaters, yeah. I haven't seen that in church, so I'm be like,

Angeline Bishop Thomas (36:11.01)
Yeah, I it in church. When you come early enough and then people try to spread out and put their coats in the middle of things, put their Bibles and their coats on either side. You ever see that they try to spread out because they got people that are coming? But the people never come when you're already up to the point where they already had the return or tithing prayer. It's like, nobody's coming. Come on, you can move down.

Resa Crippen (36:30.597)
But you know what, in their defense, because I am also that person that has done that on buses, planes, and all that. Yeah, because I'm just like, no shade, but shade. I don't want somebody breathing on me. And I'm just like, like my space.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (36:36.174)
You are!

Angeline Bishop Thomas (36:44.91)
Oh, let me let you in on something. They made something called mask. You could wear a mask if you worried about people breathing. You can't just take up the role. So sister or brother, so-and-so can't sit down because like, don't want anybody, because believe it or not, there's someone behind you that's gonna cough or sneeze and there's somebody in front of you that could do the same.

Resa Crippen (36:49.307)
No.

Resa Crippen (36:56.026)
Well now...

Resa Crippen (37:01.783)
Right, like obviously if I'm at church and like I'm not gonna be that person to bring like you know all this stuff to to make a barricade or and I would clearly you know take just one area but I'm talking about like I've done on buses before buses and even movie theaters I'm like you know

Angeline Bishop Thomas (37:20.142)
Yeah, I think everybody's done it. But we've got to remember too, all I'm saying is we've got to remember too that it's not really needed. And if you're really worried about your space, can choose to be one of people that sits on the end that says, when somebody says move down, like, oh, no, no, they can take my seat and sit somewhere else if you're really worried about someone making you ill. I do like how going back to the sermon, sorry, that was a little bit of a tangent of mine, but going back to the sermon, Pastor Gambill had said,

She told us how to decide that we'll walk in the Spirit. She said, one, we need to be Spirit-filled. When Jesus became our Lord and Savior, the Holy Ghost moved into our life as a helper. To be filled with the Spirit, must clear a room in your heart by letting go of things that are selfish or deceitful. And that's hard, I because the human flesh wants what it wants. Like we came into this world being selfish little beings. We were narcissists.

It was always mine, give it to me, do for me, feed me, change me. It's all about me, me, me, me. We were narcissistic, little things. And over time, we have to learn it. And this is beautiful thing about having a religion and having a love of God in your life. When you get the gift of the Holy Spirit, you learn you have to let go of everything that's me oriented. You gotta look beyond things that are deceitful.

look beyond what things that are just filling up you and satisfy you. You look into generosity, you look into love. They say out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, right? So she's kind of remind us that if you really lean into being filled with the Holy Spirit and letting the Holy Spirit lead you, it actually will help you on your walk in your life. Have you noticed that the Holy Ghost kind of helps you or the Holy Spirit, some people say, helps you in your life?

Resa Crippen (39:14.299)
I would say yeah, you know I get a little It's not like I don't know how to you say it like yes, I I do feel that the Holy Spirit does Guide me in the right directions protects me from things. I don't need to be a part of Yeah

Angeline Bishop Thomas (39:34.648)
Her second point is be spirit led. She said, what dominates your life will lead your direction. So are you being led by the Holy Spirit or by your own flesh? We all have to ask ourselves that question. When we pause to follow the Spirit's prompting, even when it feels uncertain, are we still allowing God to do the work? Like when God told us to step down from the podcast, like sit down for a minute, concentrate over here. It was harder first.

You know, to say, all this work, we're letting it go. Cause you think about the momentum podcasts have or the momentum a ministry could have. And to have people that have to take a break or step out. It makes you feel like, this be God? Could this be something else? But it was very much God. You have to trust the spirit is leading you that God wants what's best for you. And sometimes him telling you not to go forward is not about a punishment. Sometimes it's just a redirection, you know?

I know that with the Holy Spirit trusting him, and I say him, but it's really like entities, it's another part of the Godhead. If you trust the Spirit in the workplace, in your home, in any place that you're tempted to do what you wanna do and be selfish, your life goes better. Like there's people that work right now. They say, I'm God-filled, I'm Christian, I would never lie, I would never...

you know, um, lead anybody astray. would never demean somebody's character. I honor my boss and yet they still take some of the office supplies home for their children. It's like, come on, you know, them pens that were at work, opposed to stay at work. What you got the work pens at your house for, you know? So, um, and they don't call that theft but it is theft Call it thing a thing.

Resa Crippen (41:24.315)
Well, yeah, I was gonna say that would be considered theft. Like if you're taking work supplies home, you have now committed theft.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (41:32.154)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's like, well, the battery's supposed to be the batteries for your mouse, your wireless mouse, but all of a sudden you take a couple batteries home because of what you needed for the mouse at home. No, no. If you really wanted that bad, why didn't you ask your boss or you could take some home? You know, if you're really being transparent.

Resa Crippen (41:51.803)
See, that's the thing because I've heard people do that as well, take work supplies and things of that sort. Let's not get to the point where these companies are like, you know what, we're gonna start docking people. And some companies do do that. If you decide that you wanna borrow printer paper, or not even borrow, you wanna take printer paper, you wanna take pens and they find out you took it, they're gonna dock your pay.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (42:18.498)
Yeah, some of them are getting really smart. saying to the person that orders the supplies, they're saying, don't order more than what the office needs for that month. You do you order once a month? And if there's something there that could be used in replace of, know, let's say they're looking for, they want to have orange Post-its, but all you have is yellow. You have to go to them and say, I'm sorry. I know you want orange, but we have all these yellow ones here that have to be used. So please take a yellow one.

It might not be what they want to hear. Cause they're thinking, this is a big corporation. What you mean I can't have my orange ones? Yeah, it's not a necessity. All you need for a Post-It is to write something down so you won't forget. It doesn't have to be that color. That's the hard thing. Like now we're in those times where everything is tight for everybody in every business. People are even not, you know, when it comes to, you know, trusting the Holy Spirit to not be in your flesh, it's hard because you're saving so much, trying to save so much money over here in your personal life.

Resa Crippen (43:06.991)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (43:17.314)
that it's more tempting now to use and do things in your workplace. And that's where you have to lean on the Holy Spirit. Like, Holy Spirit, now you know, my kid just said to me the other day, they need more pencils. And here we are at work. Got all these pencils in this drawer. Help me not take one. You're to say that. Gotta go there.

Resa Crippen (43:36.283)
I would rather ask my boss and get that permission than to take it because I don't know about y'all but me I feel bad because then it's like that's that's what I mean by the Holy Spirit be working on me because like if I do something that I know I shouldn't be doing I get that that like immediate regret like I shouldn't have done that I feel horrible I can't like I can't do it it's just I'm not I'm not built that

Angeline Bishop Thomas (43:51.554)
conviction.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (43:58.188)
The hardest thing is when you go to pray and the Holy Spirit brings to your mind you took something, that's the worst. Yeah, ain't nothing worse like, you you say, Lord, I'm really trying my best to lead a Christ-filled life. And he brings that instance to your mind, you took something, you're like, man, convicted, just like that. And the only thing that's gonna make it right is you take it right back to work. And you put it right back where you found it and say, sorry, Lord.

Resa Crippen (44:15.727)
Great.

Resa Crippen (44:20.879)
This is true. This is true.

Yeah, it's like just like the whole like, oh, well, maybe it was meant for me because some people think if someone lost something and they picked it up like, oh, well, that was meant for me. It actually wasn't. That was a test.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (44:36.11)
I did that once, Reese, I ain't gonna lie. I was 12 and that was in DC. Oh, I was 11, think I was 11, 10 or 11. And I was walking mine in my own business, just finished playing double Dutch with my girlfriends. And I was walking on the sidewalk and I saw this nice crisp $10 bill. I said, oh Lord, looked up and said, Lord, now you know I needed money, Lord. That's great, Lord, thank you, Lord. I took it, put it right in my pocket and walked on.

Resa Crippen (44:42.224)
Mm-hmm.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (45:05.934)
had no idea that my brother and his friend Jerome were looking for that $10, because somebody on the balcony above had dropped 10 bucks earlier in the day. And they said, oh my gosh, can you guys help me find it? And they were down there looking for it. They couldn't find it anywhere. I didn't know there was a whole search party out for that $10. I walked across and saying, God is good. Money came from the sky for me.

Resa Crippen (45:16.027)
Mm-hmm.

Resa Crippen (45:27.513)
See?

Resa Crippen (45:33.147)
But see, I have like a similar story to that. The only difference is it was more money. was about, so it was myself and my older cousin Ryan and we were walking through neighborhoods. We were gonna go to the gas station to get candy, what have you. Fine. So we're walking through this super nice development and we're talking, catching up. And he's like, do you see that? I see what? And next thing I know, he took off.

And apparently someone had just went to the bank and they had, you know how back in the day going to the bank, you would get money in an envelope. Well, apparently this envelope had fallen on someone's someone's lawn and it had opened. So the dollar bills were like all over the lawn, but it was 20s. I only got one. He got $80. So I look at him and I was just like, so seeing as though we both were walking on this sidewalk, but you saw it, you should split it. And he was like, absolutely not.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (46:14.924)
Whoa.

Resa Crippen (46:25.125)
It's not my fault you're slow, you didn't see it. he, so that's what saying. So yeah, we didn't.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (46:28.962)
and you're both in the wrong, could be the one of you knocked on the door and say, are you missing something? Somebody could have been rushing to get into the house or the phone was ringing or something was going on.

Resa Crippen (46:35.139)
Right, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, so I bring that up to say, had I been saved or had that happened today, I probably would have been like, let me ask them, like, hey, you got, like, because I've done it before when I was in college and we were at Sears, my friends and I, and we found a Blackberry. Now, again, I am a poor college student, OK? I could have easily.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (46:42.744)
Saved.

Resa Crippen (47:03.919)
taking that blackberry and got some money for it. But I was like, no, we went to the sales associate and was like, hey, we just found this blackberry. And oddly enough, the owner of the blackberry came back around and was like, hey, did you guys see a blackberry? And we're like, we just gave it to the sales associate. And they're like, my god, thank you so much. Stuff like that, I do give back. But in that instance with the money, did I? No. But that's before I got saved again. So it's OK.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (47:30.274)
I mean, a lot of people, you know, always wonder, they always say what they would do, but you don't know until you're in that situation. I mean, there was, you know, an armored car, armored truck once in New Jersey that, you know, mistakenly dropped off a bunch of money and there were people all over the highway stopping and gathering that money. Now one person said, let me get this money up so I can give it back to them. They were taking money and leaving, you know, because it's a rare occurrence and you think you're going to do the right thing.

Resa Crippen (47:36.505)
Right.

Resa Crippen (47:44.251)
yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (48:00.056)
What makes it bad about when people find money that's not theirs, they go, don't worry, Lord, I'm gonna pay tithing on it. I'm gonna pay tithing, I know the Lord wanted me to have this. I don't know how the Lord feels about that money. I always wanted to ask a minister that, like, how does he feel when you took money that's not yours, but you paid tithing on it? How does he feel?

Resa Crippen (48:17.211)
But see, okay, so then that is like the stories that have been coming out in the news as of lately about sometimes these banks will accidentally do an error. And the last story that I had read, this person, I think it was like a Chase Bank or what have you, and they had like a couple million dollars in their account. But luckily the bank caught it, so it got reversed. But there have been other stories.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (48:42.99)
Mm-hmm.

Resa Crippen (48:47.067)
prior to this one where the bank didn't catch it, the person just took off and they couldn't find him. But because technology is so advanced now, like, right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (48:57.878)
Yeah, there's a, you know, a trail of, yeah, there's a financial trail. They did some auditing and they kind of figured out some stuff,

Resa Crippen (49:02.221)
Right. Right. So it's like when you have instances like that where the bank can quickly, you know, fix that mistake, even though you might have saw it for 2.5 seconds. Okay. Even with the whole incident with the, with the truck that had dropped all the money, because the money has, has, codes on it that are now being tracked. It's like, it's even worth it because then it's like, well, not all of them, some, some of them.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (49:28.622)
Well, not all of them. I mean, not all the money. I but it's sticky because, you know, it all comes down to, you know, they say every police station has a lost and found. If you turn something in, if nobody collects it, it'll be yours. everybody also says, well, I watched enough crime shows how you know the cops ain't taking it. They yeah, somebody collected it. So it's like everybody feels a certain kind of way about they're jaded when it comes to doing the right thing. That's where the Holy Spirit is so important.

Resa Crippen (49:34.49)
Right.

Resa Crippen (49:50.329)
Honestly.

Resa Crippen (49:55.621)
Right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (49:57.806)
That's why I think God gave us the Holy Spirit because if we're left to our own devices, we're gonna walk in the flesh instead of walk in faith. That's what's gonna end up happening. Now the third part that Pastor Gambill brought up, she said, be spirit strong. In the book of Acts, it shows us strength and power that were given through the spirit. Each of us has an assignment to strengthen our families in faith and bring others to Christ.

Resa Crippen (50:05.243)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (50:25.344)
Even in chains, Paul and Silas praised God and he heard their hallelujahs. So don't look for reasons to quit and lean on the spirit's strength and complete your calling. That's hard, because some of us are still struggling to find out what our calling is. It's one thing to lean on to your calling, find your calling, but sometimes it takes a person a minute to realize what God put them on this planet to do.

Resa Crippen (50:51.835)
Yeah, that's something that I learned when I was at community college. were having, it was my computer professor and she was asking everyone like, what was their passion? Now mind you at this point, I'm like 18, 19. So I was like, oh, here we go. And also it was like my first class of the day and I'm not a morning person. So I was like, I don't want to have this conversation. But she was going around to everyone and there was one person I was like, oh, I'm not sure like what I'm passionate about. And she was like, okay, so what like,

what exactly do you like to do? And I guess the person was like, I like to write stories. And then she was like, that's your passion. And I was like, okay. So I said I'll.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (51:33.174)
And that's interesting. said, what do you like to do? The young lady said, I like to write stories. And she automatically said, that's your passion. That's how that went.

Resa Crippen (51:36.037)
Yeah.

Resa Crippen (51:41.741)
Mm-hmm, so she basically was saying like if you're not if you're not really sure like what you're passionate about at least start with what you like and then go from there

Angeline Bishop Thomas (51:50.062)
Mm-hmm. And I think that's what she should have said. Instead of labeling it, telling her that's her passion, I think she should have said instead, you know, start there. You know, start with writing and why you like it and lean into that and maybe you'll find out if that's your passion or not. Because the hard thing about when you're in a level of authority over a person like you're their instructor, you're their pastor, you're their, you know,

you're their boss, when you say, you're so good at that, that must be your passion. That must be your purpose in life. And the person didn't pray and thoughtfully go to God about it themselves, they can lean onto your understanding, even though it's not spirit-led, spirit-filled, you know, and you hadn't prayed about it when you said it. I mean, give somebody a word of knowledge and that happens. You could be, you know, with a very spiritual person and they speak.

life into you or to give you a word knowledge about yourself, but it resonates in some way. It validates something you've already been in your prayer walk about. So I don't know. think when it comes to me, when I think about purpose, when I talk about my students, I say, look at what keeps occurring in your life. It could be things around your talents. It could be things around your interests, but look what keeps popping up that you're leaning back into or keep revisiting.

you know, when you want to still yourself, when you want to find joy, you know, things of that sort. How do you kind of figure out what you find passion and is it, how do you kind of determine, are you still trying to figure that out?

Resa Crippen (53:30.331)
Honestly, I am still trying to figure that out because it's like, I think when I was younger, I was more clear about it, about what I was passionate about and what I was gonna do and then life happens and I'm like, okay, well maybe that's not what I'm supposed to do. And, know, so now I'm just trying to figure out at 33, what exactly am I really like passionate about?

Angeline Bishop Thomas (53:39.566)
Mm-hmm.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (53:45.688)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (53:57.356)
Yeah, I remember talking to you the other day and reminding you that, you know, we were talking about the podcast and it's coming back. And so I said, I reminded you that we've always kind of had a bit of a talk show or a podcast in our lives. And you're like, huh? I said, do you remember when you were going to college, we used to do a little podcast in our car. And you're like, yeah, I totally forgot. You know, it's amazing the things that keep coming around and keep visit, you keep revisiting this alliteration of that same.

Resa Crippen (54:17.691)
you

Angeline Bishop Thomas (54:25.368)
you know, talking and sharing our day and giving our viewpoints. It's been in your life for a minute, you know, when you really look at it.

Resa Crippen (54:34.267)
Yeah, when I think about it, it has, and it's funny that you even brought that up, because I do remember when I was in, I think I was in high school at this point, and one of my high school friends, because she had her own little, yeah, she had her own little YouTube channel, and she was like, oh, you should come by, we want to interview you, da-da-da. I didn't come by, clearly, but it was funny, because she was like, oh my god, we would love to have you on our show, we would just crack jokes, and I was just like, no, I'm too shy for that, I don't want to be on camera. But only the...

Angeline Bishop Thomas (55:02.222)
And look at you now!

Resa Crippen (55:04.003)
Yeah, only to fast forward and have like what is like our third pod our second or third podcast. I'm just like, yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (55:09.484)
Yeah, yeah. And every time, and it's leaning more and more into, you know, God's purpose. You know, I like how Pastor Gambill said it's part of us as being a spirit-fed, a spirit-filled and a spirit-strong church is our desire to bring others to Christ. That's part of our mission. And I love that we made that part of the blueprint, part of the DNA.

of the podcast is that we're here for new and rededicated Christians, you know, to give them to, we were worried about their ear gates and eye gates as they are starting this walk with Christ. And so I like that the direction this is going in. I really, really do. And I liked how her sermon kind of reminds us to ask ourselves, are we ready to live the kind of life that we said we were going to live when we decided to take Christ's name as our own?

Now you can view Pastor Charlotte Gimbels sermon Mission Possible on the Covenant Church YouTube channel. When you get a moment, please check it out. Now one thing I noticed, did you know, one thing I noticed when I reading my scripture, did you know that Judas called Jesus rabbi, but Peter and the other disciples called him Lord.

Resa Crippen (56:26.533)
Yeah, I noticed that. if you, for those of you that also watch, my gosh, what's the of the show? The Chosen, yeah, I did notice that Judas did call him Rabbi, and everyone's called him Lord. So was like, that's kind of, you know.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (56:33.186)
The Chosen.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (56:44.108)
Yeah, see the difference is more than just a choice of words. It's like it kind of reflects the spiritual distance between Judas and Jesus because rabbi just simply means teacher. It's like a respectful way. It's a respectful but ordinary title that they use for religious instructors. It's almost like someone called me professor, right? By calling Jesus rabbi at the Last Supper in like Matthew 26: 25, Judas reduces him to just a teacher despite witnessing all

Resa Crippen (56:54.074)
Right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (57:12.45)
His divine power firsthand. mean, like, think about it. He's seen Jesus cast out demons. He fed thousands with a few loaves of bread and fish. He walked on water. He calmed storms. He healed the blind. He even raised the dead. So after three years of witnessing Jesus do all kinds of miracles and walking alongside of him, the best Judas could muster was rabbi? Resa, come on.

Resa Crippen (57:37.275)
then when you think about it from, okay, so when you think about it, obviously, Jesus understands that, okay, Judas is calling me Rabbi, but then they're calling me Lord. So I say that all to say, don't think God, Jesus was like, that's suspect, because why are you calling me Rabbi, where everyone's calling me Lord? That doesn't make any sense. you're definitely telling me that you don't have the same level of respect.

that the other ones have and you feel like in some way either, I don't know, maybe he felt like he was better than him and that's why he wanted to just like say, you're just a rabbi to me. yeah, because it's like, because I didn't think about it until you just broke it down like that because rabbi does mean teacher. So.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (58:23.556)
I think you're onto something with that, Resa.

Resa Crippen (58:34.668)
If I don't like you per se, but I still want to give you some form of respect, I'm not going to give you the highest, I'm not going to call you like the highest term of respect in that setting. yeah, which is Lord for them at that time. So I'm going to call you Rabbi to let you know that like, I respect you but to a point, because you're not, I don't view you as this high entity the way that they do.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (58:47.874)
which is Lord, yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (59:02.914)
And you can look at it another way too. It's a very stark contrast. Peter and the other disciples recognized Jesus as Lord, right? It's almost like they understood the deep truth that they are his disciples. They are walking behind him, not just to learn from him, but to obey what he commands them to do. Like if he says, I want you to go here and teach this. Yes, Lord, we're going to go do this. Unlike if he says, go here and do this, a teacher, the first question most students have for a teacher is why?

Resa Crippen (59:06.031)
Mm-hmm.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (59:33.688)
Why are you asking me to do this? know, cause students want to learn. They're very inquisitive. So it's not Lord like in being, you know, Lord, being master and servant. It's not like that. It's Lord more like, I trust that what you've given me as direction, I am saying I'm submitted to how you decide to direct my life. I am going to walk with you as a true disciple.

Yes, I'm learning from you because you're my teacher, but I'm also obeying you because you're my Lord I think Judas wasn't ready to do the obeying part. He's like, ah, he's a good teacher. He's teaching us a lot. He's showing us a lot. But everything he says, I'm not really sure I can totally believe in. I think he had some questions. I think Judas had a lot of questions. And I think that's what was really heartbreaking for Jesus, that Judas was missing some deep truths.

about who Christ really was and what Christ came to do. And it's kind of heartbreaking when you think about it, right, Reese?

Resa Crippen (01:00:36.357)
Yeah, but see now I have questions, right? Cause now I'm thinking about this. Okay. So yes, Judas called him rabbi. The other ones called him Lord, right? Now Peter, cause I read this part of the Bible. Peter obviously denies Jesus, right? But here's the thing though, right? Going off what you just said. So they called him Lord because they, because they, they trust him and they follow him. Right? So now Bible quest question.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:00:43.5)
Mm-hmm. Lord.

Resa Crippen (01:01:06.287)
Did Peter did not do this because Jesus told him that ahead of time? So like, to like basically make that, I don't wanna say like prediction come true, but like technically like would Peter still have done that if Jesus did not warn him ahead of time to say, hey, just to give you a heads up, yeah, that you're gonna do this.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:01:26.242)
That you're going to do this? Yeah, yeah. That's a great question. I think it goes back to what Pastor Quick was saying in his sermon. When we get overcome with fear, we go right into how our flesh will react. We forget to lean into our understanding and let the Holy Ghost lead us and lead into understanding who God is and who Christ is. I think when Christ passed and people were like, is that Peter, is that one of the men that walked with him? Of course he's going to say no because his flesh is thinking.

I just saw my Lord and Savior up on the cross. They did the most terrible things to him to take his life. He was petrified the same thing would happen to him. He wasn't ready to die for the gospel yet. I mean, all of us have to grow up in the gospel, right? And so this is the first time where he's on his walk without his Lord and Savior walking beside him. And he hasn't, you know,

grown up in the faith yet. It's almost like being a young man that gets kicked out of your father's house. It's like, I can do it, but I have some things I'm still fearful of. And to have them look at him like, is that one of them? my gosh, is that one of And they just finished killing his Lord. I think it was his flesh talking more than him wanting to deny that Jesus was his Lord and that he was a follower of him. I think it's more he was scared. I think it's the fear that was talking at that point.

Yeah, and Jesus knew he'd be fearful. And he said to him, you know, you're going to deny me three times before the, the Rooster grows. And he's like, of course not. I'm not going to do that. Now we all can say stuff when things are good. Men and women are like, I'm a love my husband. He's going to say the thickness and health to Richard for poor to death do us part. And you let somebody get sick or you let somebody get poor. And then you start seeing things get a little challenging for people. we wouldn't be together, but he stopped working. we would be together.

Resa Crippen (01:02:50.299)
you so much

Resa Crippen (01:03:01.402)
Right.

Resa Crippen (01:03:12.667)
Right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:03:19.618)
But you know, she got too sick.

You

Resa Crippen (01:03:24.281)
And then, like, also to bring it back to Judas, now I wonder, because I didn't get to this part of Bible yet, now I wonder because Jesus knows that Judas calls him rabbi, but the other ones called him lord. Like, just how, just like how he knew that Peter was going to deny him three times. At that point, when Jesus made that correlation between rabbi versus lord, did he sense or feel like

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:03:28.334)
Mm-hmm.

Resa Crippen (01:03:53.625)
you know, he's gonna be crossed by Judas at some point.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:03:56.59)
he knew that. He's our God. He knew the part of him that was divine knew what was going to come to pass. He knew that Judah being in his midst, he was going to be the one that was going to betray him. Because God knows our beginning and our end. And if Jesus is part of the Godhead, which we believe that he is, then of course he would know the knowledge that Judas would betray him, that he would betray him in that way. The wonderful thing about our God is that if you

And if you ask a lot of people that are up in age, there's things that God saw in their life that they didn't see at the beginning. Like people said, if I would have known this was going to happen like this, I would have lived my life differently. Like if I would have known I wouldn't marry, find my husband when I was 42, I wouldn't have cared about those young men in my 20s, you know? But God does know. He knows. And when people have doors that are closed,

They used to say, rejection is God's protection. I don't believe that. think rejection or things closing is God's redirection. He's trying to put you in a situation where he wants you to go. And it's hard to see that because you want what you want. The flesh wants what it wants. Like we talked about before, it's very selfish. But he's like, no, lean into praying about every decision and following my lead. Did I want to step down from the podcast and put everything aside when, you know.

you're getting a little tired and things are getting a little tough and things are getting little rough. I was like, no, because God knew me. I would push through because of the work ethic. He also knew I was in my prayer closet talking to him and reading my scriptures every single day. So if he was really adamant that I need to be over here and work this, it would get tougher. I would get more in my prayer walk. And when he said stop, I would listen, I'd be, I would humble myself enough. If I pushed hard enough and there was so much resistance, he knew I would stop.

And I did. And I said, well, what am supposed to do now? And he said, do some genealogy and work on your marriage. Had no idea it would open up me finding a whole new family. Would never realize my marriage would be, you know, worked on and better than it's ever been. But if I would have kept going without listening, could I possibly be divorced now? Possibly. Or going through a divorce? Could I have never known who my father's family is? Yeah. Because I wanted what I wanted, trying to do it my way.

Resa Crippen (01:06:22.939)
true, but then.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:06:23.968)
Yeah, so he does know the end. He does know the end, our beginning and our end.

Resa Crippen (01:06:28.091)
So then to your point, right? So because Jesus knew that Judah or Judas was going to like cross him, excuse me, betray him, then why keep him around you? to your earlier point about like, well, if I would have known ahead of time, I wouldn't have, you know, done X, Y, and Z because he already knew. That's the part I'm kind of like, well, I know as humans we are all about self-preservation.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:06:56.814)
Mm-hmm.

Resa Crippen (01:06:57.391)
But for him, meaning Jesus, okay, you know this person is going to cross you at some point. Why even have him around you if you know that you guys are gonna be enemies in a sense?

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:07:07.598)
because he knows his father's will. If you remember the Garden of Gethsemane he had asked, can you take this from me? He knew what was gonna come with the people and how they were gonna kill him and how he was gonna die on the cross for our sins. And it was gonna be brutal. And he knew this and he pleaded, just anyway, know, take that. And he knew he had to go through with this. Judas had to be part of the plan. It all had to happen the way it happened. And...

to change any part of it, even though we like those stories where they say, you you can go back in time and change this one thing, have a different outcome. He knew that in order for things to transpire the way they did, and for him to now, which we're celebrating Lent, and then going into Easter, for him to rise again after all of it, he'd have to have everything transpired the way it did. There were many times they wanted to kill Jesus. And God spared his life until he died at the appropriate time.

Resa Crippen (01:07:41.956)
yeah.

Resa Crippen (01:08:00.283)
That's right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:08:05.76)
in the appropriate way. It's sad every time I read that part of the scriptures, I weep. People have done depictions of it, like the passion of the Christ and things of that sort, and it's so hard to watch how brutal it could be. And it doesn't even give us a real honest account of how horrific it could be, a person experiencing all those things. But he was not only a person here on the planet, he was also divine. So yeah, he did know. He did know what was coming.

And God prepared him the best he could. And he told his disciples, pray, know, stay up and pray. Prayers are wonderful healing bombs. It might not change the direction of what God wants your life to go, but it definitely sends, you know, the healing of the Holy Spirit with you and it gives you some peace. And that's what he needed to go through that. He needed to know this needs to happen. Why? Because men are so sinful. There's no way back to the Father unless it's through him.

Resa Crippen (01:09:05.787)
touché

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:09:06.924)
Yeah, so you know, it's hard to see that, you know, he knew this and how come he couldn't just deal with them? I get it. Because I know for us as humans, if you knew someone was in your midst that wasn't the right person to be around and they causing all kind of mischief, you're going to make sure you get them out of there, right?

Resa Crippen (01:09:14.554)
Right.

Resa Crippen (01:09:22.009)
Well, yeah, because I feel so, okay. So when it comes to Jesus and Judas, right? A lot of people, at least on social media, I've seen all the time, they're just like, they like to say this saying like, like you never know if you have a Judas in your group. And they're like, if you do have one, you need to cut them out. Cause like, you know, at some point they're going to cross you. Cause this goes back to like my earlier, my earlier

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:09:40.032)
huh.

Resa Crippen (01:09:50.427)
take on, you know, humans are constantly trying to self-preserve and they don't want anybody around them that could possibly, you know, betray them or cause them any harm. So the fact that even though he knew that was going to happen and like you said, he did plead to like have it be taken away, he knew that he had to go through it. humans are like, oh no, you tell me it's about to happen. I'm going to try every which way to Sunday to like not.

have that happen.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:10:20.098)
Yeah. And that's why Jesus had to come take human form and do this. He had to do this. It's the only way. We were just as humans, just too wicked, too sinful. We needed someone. We needed a God to come in human form and do this act so that we could have a way back to our Father in heaven. And people are still right. You know, if somebody is, you know, in your midst that does not have the best of intentions for you, that you should, you know, remove them.

I don't think anyone should have anybody around them that's not on the same walk they're on. But you also can't isolate. We're in the world, not of it. So you can be among a group of believers and still be in the world and knowing what the world is about and getting edified with those saints that are around you. I think anyone that has more questions about Christ and about Judas and the disciples, I mean,

You gotta open up the Bible. It's gonna reveal so much to you, especially if you get a good study Bible, know, get around people like you're doing, asking questions, just talking about the scriptures can really make you have a stronger love for the scriptures. And I know you have a strong love for the scriptures, because you read your scriptures all the time. But yeah, but you can't look at Jesus like he's one of us. You gotta look at him more like he's divine. He's divine. He's not just human, he's divine.

Cause I don't know about you, when I die, I don't think I'm going to be raising right back up and come talk to you on the road, Resa. I don't think that's going to happen. I got to wait for, I got to wait for God to say it's time for me to be reunited with, you know, my loved ones. I'm not going to be tapping on the shoulder or call you by name and you think I'm somebody else till I say your name a certain way. It's not going to happen.

Resa Crippen (01:11:49.687)
You know.

Resa Crippen (01:12:03.739)
That would freak me out. that, what's it called, Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:12:06.478)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:12:10.016)
I think it freaked out Mary Magdalene I think it freaked her out when she's going there, that she wants to know what happened to the body of her lord. then she's thinking she's talking to a gardener or somebody, and she's talking to the lord that has resurrected. I think it did scare her a little bit. But I think it also delighted her that, my gosh, like he said, he is risen.

Resa Crippen (01:12:15.141)
Yeah.

Resa Crippen (01:12:22.309)
Right.

Resa Crippen (01:12:28.111)
But wasn't it Mary and somebody else that went to the tomb? they like, I thought it was.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:12:32.757)
It might have been two, but I'm only thinking right now of Mary Magdalene that was told to go and tell the disciples that he has risen, that she saw him. But it might be more than just, but I'm only thinking about what she was instructed to do at the time. Yeah. But that was the sermon that was given by Pastor Gambill. And I'm glad we talked a little bit about how people refer to our Lord. I think it's important to today, just like Peter.

Resa Crippen (01:12:40.955)
Yeah, I think she be the only one that...

Resa Crippen (01:12:46.115)
Right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:13:02.414)
and the disciples called him Lord and Judas called him teacher. Today people are having their own ways of talking about Christ. Some see him as just a man, some see him as just a prophet, and some see him as their Lord and Savior. So as we're in this Lent season, like Nana said, pick a side, know where you're at, know who you believe Christ to be, and lean into that in this Lent season. you know, if you're calling yourself a Christian and that's part of

you know, how we identify him as Jesus Christ. You call yourself a Christian. Really lean into who is Christ to you? Is he considered your Lord over your life? Will you do what he's asked you to do? Or is he just a teacher for you? You read his word, he says some things that are a good way to live your life, but you're not willing to lay down the selfish parts of yourself that will require you to follow him. I think it's a question we all need to ask, right?

Resa Crippen (01:13:57.691)
Yeah, I feel like that needs to be on a shirt. Is Jesus your Lord or is he your teacher? Pick a

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:14:00.302)
Maybe.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:14:05.974)
Yeah, maybe somebody did. Maybe somebody made that shirt. If not, maybe FBCLG can make one. We'd buy it, right, Resa?

Resa Crippen (01:14:10.191)
Maybe. a side. Pick a side. Absolutely pick a side.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:14:15.116)
I also want a shirt, if FBCLG's listening, I want a shirt that says paper Bible club. Because everybody got Bibles on their phones and all these apps, I'm a paper Bible girl. I want one that says paper Bible club. People that actually have Bibles that have paper and they can hold it in their hand.

Resa Crippen (01:14:18.764)
you

Resa Crippen (01:14:32.857)
And to take it a step further, it could say, Paper Bible Club established. You could write in the year that you started using the paper Bible, and you still use paper Bible to this day.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:14:43.436)
Yeah, that's true. I like that paper Bible club because I don't think there's a lot of people in our church that have their Bibles and there's a lot of you guys that like them on your phones. So you're a little bit of both. You do the phone thing and you have your you have two paper Bibles. So, you know, I like that paper Bible club.

Resa Crippen (01:14:52.975)
Yeah, I'm a little bit of both. Yeah. Yeah. Because I write like my first Bible I got from my aunt Elsie when I was younger. Then when I was in college, I used to use the Bible app lot. My great aunt Elsie gave me a Bible when I was younger. Then in college, I was using the Bible app a lot. And then and now I'm using my paper Bible. So I go back and.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:15:05.742)
You're a great aunt, Elsie. She's a great aunt.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:15:16.95)
Yep, plural, yeah. All right, well, thank you, Resa, for that. Now let's move on to Dove of the Day.

Resa Crippen (01:15:30.395)
The of the day this week is brought to you by PrayerBowls. So I found another wonderful story from TikTok, which has basically been making the rounds not only on social media, but also on the news. I'm gonna give you guys a brief summary of it. So Tammy Conzer is a TikToker from Pittsburgh. She noticed her elderly server, Betty, at a restaurant struggling with chronic bat-

back pain and financial difficulties due to insufficient social security payments. Touched by Betty's plight, Tammy recorded their interaction and pleaded to donate any proceeds from a viral TikTok post to help her. As the video spread, support flooded in, resulting in a GoFundMe that raised over $328,000 to assist Betty.

Tammy was moved to tears by the community's generosity, and Betty expressed immense gratitude for the help, highlighting how a simple act of kindness can profoundly change someone's life.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:16:41.294)
Wow, that's a lot of money. Wow, how long did it take them to raise that kind of money up though?

Resa Crippen (01:16:42.095)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Resa Crippen (01:16:49.591)
That I don't know.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:16:51.522)
Yeah, but that's a lot. my goodness. That's life-changing amounts right there.

Resa Crippen (01:16:53.851)
Yeah, $328,000. Wow.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:16:59.35)
Yeah, yeah. Wow. Now that's tempting to even want to keep part of that. See, that's tempting too. Do you give all of it to the person? You say, hey, I helped raise it. I get a cut. Like, it's tempting.

Resa Crippen (01:17:11.493)
But see, that's one of the things that I've noticed throughout social media, like not only on TikTok, like there's other social media platforms that people use. Like if they come across someone who is struggling, like I will see posts about the person situation and asking people to help. And people do, even though, yes, we're all struggling, people do come together and they, you know, they try to help somebody else because we understand how hard it is. So that is a beautiful thing to see.

that even though, we are all legit struggling and taking it one day at a time, that we are still able to help our neighbor and not have them carry such a heavy burden on them. Because I actually saw another guy, he's known on social media for going to different yards that look like they're abandoned and not in the best shape.

And he came across this one house where there were like weeds and grass. It pretty much the house looked vacant, but he knocked on the door and it was an elderly woman. And he was like, hey, I was driving by and I just noticed your house. And he was like, I have tools in my truck. Is it OK if I do some yard work? And the woman was just like,

appreciative and shocked because she was like, you know, I appreciate that. Like I used to do it before, but I can't because I'm not, I'm not really mobile. So he basically cleaned up her driveway, her yard, and it got so much attention that everyone was like donating money because the woman, I believe she lived in a two story house, but she had trouble getting down the stairs.

So enough money was raised to get her one of those chairs that can go up and down like electronically. And she was so thankful and appreciative that she like broke down in tears. And I started crying because I was like, my gosh. But it's like, it's stuff like that, like small things like that. Like even if you're not able to give someone money, just being nice to someone, saying hi to someone can really make a difference in someone's life.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:19:25.454)
Yeah, I remember like they had this thing called, um, pay it forward. Like people had to drive through when you would like get your coffee that morning or whatever, you would buy yours and buy the car behind you's order. And then they kept, it going kind of thing where you do something nice for someone else. Um, that it's hard to continue. People are trying to be good citizens and good neighbors to each other. But when people come in and they're nefarious, have all these plots to find ways to.

you know, have all these schemes to get money out of people. It makes people kind of leery about donating because just like this, you know, young lady did something good and people donated. There's someone out there that's gathering up money for a claim of a person that's not really sick, you know, and they're taking advantage of people. So it's hard because, I mean, as much as you want to do something nice in the world, that's why I'm so glad you take the time to find people that are still trying to do good out here. Even though there's a lot of people that, you know,

are not doing nice things and not being nice people and are taking advantage of people because of their age or because of their disabilities or because they just don't know enough about finances and things. So I appreciate that you took the time to find someone that did something good. And I hope the lady is doing a lot better in her life because of this. I hope they follow up and realize that she paid it forward in some aspect to other people in her life.

Resa Crippen (01:20:43.109)
Thank you.

Resa Crippen (01:20:53.549)
Absolutely. From what I've seen, the woman Tammy, was posting updates to let everybody know like, the money has been given to Betty. I don't have it. This is like, because she wanted to be completely transparent. Because to your point, again, there are unfortunately some people out here that will take advantage of certain situations and people just to get a quick come up, which is not cool and bad karma. But.

In this case, Tammy was very transparent from the very beginning to up until the very end to the point where the Today Show basically wrote a story about it and they were following it too in different news outlets or like, this is great. We got to talk about this. again, it's important to tell these stories to remind people that humanity is not dead because I do hear a lot of times like, everybody's mean, everybody's off for self. And it may feel that way.

Everyone is entitled to feel how they want to feel, but there are still people out here that are like, yes, you may feel that way, but that statement is not 100 % true.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:22:01.88)
Thanks, Resa I appreciate you sharing your Dove of the day.

Resa Crippen (01:22:04.475)
You're welcome.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:22:06.466)
Now let's move on to the screening room.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:22:12.622)
Okay, this week's screening room, it comes to us from Netflix. They are not a sponsor of the podcast, but they do have some things that we would consider good family viewing. And they have a movie that's called All Together Now. It came out in 2020. It was written by Brent Haley, Mark Basch I think I'm saying that right, Mark Basch and Matthew Quick. It was directed by Brent Haley and it stars

Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho Justina Machado Fred Armisen Carol Burnett, Judy Reyes, and others. Now, here's a brief synopsis. Now, it's based on the novel called, Sorta Like a Rockstar by Matthew Quick. Amber Appleton is a dedicated individual who selflessly helps others through volunteering, teaching, and organizing events to benefit her school community. Despite her cheerful demeanor,

she harbors a significant secret. She and her mother are homeless and they reside in a school bus driven by the mother. Now Amber's kind of reluctant to accept any help because of her pride, but to better her circumstances, she may need to learn to embrace the support of others that are offering her help, even if it challenges her to move beyond her comfort zone. Amber Appleton remains

The optimist, even though her personal life is far from stable, and she's a gifted musician in the high school. And so she has aspirations of graduating from high school and attending Carnegie Mellon. So she tries to balance her work and life as she secretly hopes to go to that school one day. Now, when new obstacles present themselves in this movie, it starts to threaten her dream of being a musician at Carnegie Mellon.

So she has to really lean on the strength of her new chosen family to move forward. The themes of this movie are overcoming adversity, homelessness, character, purpose, finding oneself, personal growth, faith, courage, family, community, and friendship. Like I said, you can watch this movie on Netflix and we'll have the trailer for it on www.withthequickness.com.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:24:34.702)
I really like this movie. I think it ties into what you're saying about Dove of the Day. There's good people out here. This young lady, know, high school student, very gifted. She volunteers. She teaches. She's just a light. Anyone that knows her knows how beautiful and light she is and joyful. And to come to find out at the end of every day, she's sleeping in a school bus with her mother who drives school buses. That was kind of shocking. But there are a lot of kids out here that are homeless.

Resa Crippen (01:24:41.659)
Mm.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:25:02.872)
but they are still trying their best to do well in school and keep things all together.

Resa Crippen (01:25:09.392)
which also goes to my point of to all the schools that have or excuse me for all the schools that give out breakfast in the morning and have those after-school programs we have to keep those for that sole reason because you never know what somebody is going through and it's important to again vote at your local elections we can keep those programs going to help people out that need it.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:25:33.868)
Yeah, I mean, I did not like, you know, when people found out what was going on and her mother having to pay the penalty for, you know, using the school bus in the way she did to house her and her daughter. But when it's when it's the middle of winter and you're trying to do what's best for your family, sometimes you have to make the choices that most of us wouldn't make. You know, it's a blessing to have a roof over your head and to have a bed to sleep in at night. And sometimes we take that stuff for granted.

until you see someone else. There used to be a phrase like, you I used to be upset about having beat up shoes or something until you saw a man that was trying to get down the street and he didn't have any feet, you know? So it's like everything gets put back into perspective. And I think that's what the beautiful thing about having a prayer life and having the Holy Spirit and leaning into God's understanding of things. He opens your mind to things because if you're so me focused,

you don't see all the blessings you have around you. Like if you think your job, you have that job because you're just an intelligent person and you're able to do that job so well because of your intelligence and you don't see that job as being a gift that God gave you. Because there's other people in the world that are just as intelligent as you as you are, but they don't have a job right now. So he kind of opened your mind. He kind of like says, you know, take your view from being me centered to being more, you know,

centered on your community and your world and have a view like Christ would have. Christ, as you look through the scriptures, he's not thinking about him all the time. He's not walking around saying, I would like this to eat. I want to wear these clothes. I want to go here. He's all about what he needs to do. There was many people that was pulling at him saying, Lord, Lord, come here. My daughter's sick. Lord, Lord, come here. My son, think he's dead. Or I have this illness.

It was not about him taking time off and just doing him. Did he go away and pray and take time to himself and have self care? Yes, he did. And that's why it's important for all of us to do self care and meditation and prayer and pour back into ourselves. We see how he took care of himself. We see how he, pled with the father and prayed, had a prayer life. He's basically has to do the same. Get replenished, you know,

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:28:00.814)
put good things out in the world, help others. You might be the only Christ somebody experiences, right? They might not know who Christ is, but they know who Resa is. They know who Angeline is. And so do something that's going to help them see the Christ in you instead of just see you, which is hard because sometimes you might not even like the person.

Resa Crippen (01:28:25.177)
Right, and I feel like those are the times that you really need to lean not on your own understanding and just be nice to people because even though yes, they may get on your ever loving nerves, you still need to treat them like God's children that they are.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:28:41.75)
And sometimes the nicest is not saying what you're Nana would tell you that. Sometimes you being nice just by holding your tongue.

Resa Crippen (01:28:44.845)
Right, it's just being quiet. Letting the spirit of the hush just come over you as I've heard.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:28:51.874)
The spirit of the hush, I know. Well, I hope all of you get an opportunity to watch that movie. Like I said, it's on Netflix and I really enjoyed it. It's once again called All Together Now. Now let's go on to Before the Bema Seat.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:29:14.072)
Today's story on Before the Bema Seat deals with Micah Wilder, who discovered on a two-year Mormon mission trip that Jesus was all he needed. His powerful testimony shows what happens when God puts the right people in your path. So Micah Wilder, during his two-year Mormon mission in Orlando, Florida, he discovered that Jesus of the gospel,

led him to leave the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. Now he plays drums for a non-profit Christian band called Adams Road. In Micah contrasts of the burdensome nature of the Mormon gospel, he focused more on the worthiness of God with the Christian gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. Now he met a Baptist minister when he was on his mission and this minister opened his eyes

to the New Testament gospel. He emphasized salvation by faith, not by works. Now this realization led Micah to accept Christ as his sole path to salvation and it freed him from any kind of constraints of religious laws. They said there was some other way in which he had to get back to Christ. Now Micah expressed that his shift from faith in religion to faith in Jesus Christ,

he expressed what was going on with him with a group of his fellow Mormons, right? And it led to him being told that he had to leave his mission assignment early. The church didn't like, you know, that he was kind of converted by the, by the Baptist minister. Now, despite this, his words did influence a fellow missionary that was with him. His name was Joseph Warren, who later became the lead singer of Adam's Road after

of recording the event in his journal. Now, this whole event of them leaving the Mormon church, it sparked the chain reaction in which Micah's whole family decided to embrace Jesus, including his mother, Linda Wilder, who later wrote a book called Unveiled Grace about their journey coming out of the Mormon church. Now, Micah's conversion prompted his mother to question and ultimately leave the Mormon faith. And Micah, who's now part of the band Adams Road,

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:31:39.662)
went on to share his new profound relationship with Jesus Christ. And he ended up touring with his band all in 2024. And he's had a wonderful time with Adams Road. I mean, they've produced like 10 full-length studio albums, six instrumental albums, some spoken word albums, two Christmas albums, live album. They've just been focused on music that actually puts God's word, the Bible, into music.

and using that music as a vehicle to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think sometimes when we, the religions of our youth might not be the religion that we need to be in. Sometimes we all have to take a moment to really prayerfully understand why we believe what we believe. Sometimes the faith of your parents into being your faith, sometimes not. But we all have to have that moment where we have to wrestle and pray and say, is this where I need to be?

And to have that minister be bold enough to say, yeah, you're in Orlando and you're preaching about Jesus Christ and about this additional scripture and multiple things you have to do to get back to him and all these rules. He goes, but let's really look at that. And to have the conversation, he was inquisitive enough about the Mormon faith, this pastor was, to sit down and talk to a missionary and have those conversations.

And it's funny, because most missionaries, they're taught to try to win a person over to the Mormon faith. Instead, this pastor not only convinced this gentleman to question why he believes what he believes and to really look into the path that Christ is the path and the truth and the way back to our Father in heaven, he even convinced him to even talk to his family and his...

fellow Mormon missionaries, I he got kicked out of his mission. mean, they said, you got to get off this mission, man. If people can sway you, you're supposed to be out there swaying others. mean, Mormon church wouldn't like that too much. But in the end, he's very happy. He's singing for the Lord, playing music for the Lord, and he doesn't regret it. And he's closer to the Lord than he's ever been, according to him. And so I'm not sharing that to say there's something wrong with the Mormon faith. There's many faiths on this planet.

Resa Crippen (01:33:38.541)
All right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:34:00.662)
I'm sharing it to say all of us have to decide if Jesus is our Lord or he's our teacher or how we feel in our walk with Christ. Just like Pastor Quick has said, just like Pastor Gamhill has said in this podcast that we talked about, it's a decision you have to make for yourself. And he made the decision for himself. He was on a mission at the time, but he made a decision for himself like this, what this pastor is telling me, that resonates with me more. The weightiness of the Mormon faith is...

I don't think it's where I wanna be. And he still, both faiths believe as Jesus Christ, their Lord and savior at the center of them. They both do. But he felt a path that resonated with him better.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:34:47.726)
How do you feel about that, Resa?

Resa Crippen (01:34:50.107)
I feel like I'm glad that he was able to pick what he wanted and you know, and he didn't just he didn't just pick a religion because oh, well, you know, this is the one that you know, my parents introduced me to which again for those of us that you know, just did that just because that's fine, but there does come a point where you have to ask yourself, okay, like, do I really want to be in this religion? Like,

Do my beliefs align with this religion? And I even think about the people that get married to someone of a different faith. And I know for some of them, like I guess you can't, I guess in their religions, like I guess they can't marry someone of a different faith if they don't convert. So then I guess they're, not I guess, but there have been instances where I've seen with couples who have decided to document their journey.

where there is this hard conversation of, okay, well, I am of this faith, you're of that faith, are you going to convert? Because if you don't, then we can't get married at this church. And then it becomes a big thing because one party may be like, listen, this is the only faith that I've known, and yes, I love you, but I'm not gonna trade my faith for yours. Why can't we just compromise and just have both? And some faiths are like, you can't. So.

in those.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:36:18.958)
And your generation has been the first generation. I mean, my generation has started too, but your generation has really embraced, why do we have to do it the way our parents say that if one of us doesn't convert, we can't marry? We don't have to get married in the church. Your generation goes, let's just pick a venue, get married there, and we're going to keep over our faiths And you do. We have a lot of wonderful places people get married now. It's not just for houses of worship.

Resa Crippen (01:36:29.659)
Right.

Right, right.

Resa Crippen (01:36:41.103)
Yeah, right. And that's what I like too, that there's this, okay, you don't have to pick per se. Like you can stand in your faith and be proud and I can stand in my faith and be proud. And we can have two different faiths within the same household. Now, when it comes to the birthing of children, that's also, again, from what I've seen from couples that have documented this, some couples.

are like, well, you know, I was raised this way. I want my kids to be raised this way. And sometimes there's conflict. And I have seen some couples that say, you know what? Why don't we just let our child choose? We will expose them to both. And when they get of a certain age, they can decide which one they want to go. Which to me, I like that too. Because again, it's allowing the child to be exposed to two different faiths that are similar, but they are different. But the child gets to

gets to really explore and figure out which one they actually fit with better.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:37:39.554)
Yeah, I think it all comes down to, mean, it's hard having two faiths in the same household. Usually, if you have two parents that are very devout in their faith, it can cause conflict. If you have one person that's, have a faith, but I'm not as strong as he is or not as strong as she is in their faith, then there are some kind of leanings that happen more where some things are celebrated more on one side than the other.

And that couple has to figure it out. They have to figure it out with each other because like we say in the Christian church, I mean, you guys get married at the altar and you know what happens at altar things die at the altar. So you got to become more more one. So as the years pass, you might find out that, you know, they're leaning more towards one religion than the other. It might not be the same way when it comes to someone's political beliefs, but usually when it comes to religion,

Eventually, one kind of weighs a little more heavier than the other. It's hard for both of them to stay at the same level all through the marriage. There's ebbs and flows to it. In the beginning, you both could have been very stout in your individual, you know, faiths but then one starts taking a little more root. One starts, you know, becoming a little more dominant than the other. And, you know, they take it one day at a time. And it is a wrestle, though. It is something that, you know, some couples struggle with.

Resa Crippen (01:38:41.626)
Yeah.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:39:06.488)
with their faith being different or you're a believer and you're married to a non-believer. That could be a struggle.

Resa Crippen (01:39:06.501)
right.

Resa Crippen (01:39:10.489)
Right, because I have seen to your point too, where I've seen the most conflict is when one party of the couple, like their family is super heavy in a faith and the other person is not. So that's why in the beginning they're like, well you have to be this because my family has been this faith for like 30, 40, 50 years and I'm not gonna be that person that's like, we're not gonna do it. So I've seen that and I also.

to your point have seen couples where one person is not a believer and then what the person is and then there's this conflict because they're like, I love this person, but they don't believe the same things that I do. And like you said, it all boils down to figuring out what works best for you and your household, which is different for politics. Politics is like a completely different thing, but at for religion.

There's cases of compromise, there's cases of coexisting, and then there's cases of, okay, I will convert because I love you, and so forth, but it all depends.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:40:20.588)
And some religions, if you decide to not be a part of it, you can have family members that shun you in some religions. They're like, they won't even speak to you anymore, which is kind of sad because I know with me, when I found my father's family and realized that so many of them are Christian, I thought it was going to be like, hey, no question, it's going to be no question. I'm going to be accepted. A lot of these people are Christians, but you can have someone that's devout Christian and got a title in the church and still.

Resa Crippen (01:40:25.967)
Yeah, I've seen that.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:40:50.286)
in their personal life just not be Holy Ghost filled. They can be like, nope, sorry, I'm still stuck in my flesh on some things. And as far as I'm concerned, the only children that I recognize are the ones between my mom and my dad. You're over there, you had another mother, I don't acknowledge you. And it could hurt, and it did hurt. But I do know that's the...

That's the person that still has work to have to get done. I can't expect everyone in the Christian faith to be perfect people. They're not. You look them up and down the pews. We're all people that are struggling. Not one person, last person that was perfect, he died on the cross for us. You know what saying? So it's something. It is definitely something when it comes to having multiple faiths in a family. But I like the fact in the story that

Resa Crippen (01:41:35.098)
Right.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:41:45.614)
He picked for himself, he decided for himself. Yes, I'm in this faith. Yes, I've been baptized in this faith and I'm a missionary trying to win souls to join the Mormon faith. And this pastor, this minister of the Baptist faith sat down and we talked enough that it made me wanna take my own questions to the Lord and figure out what I honestly believe. And most missionaries are young, they're 18, 19, somewhere around there.

20s, know, early 20s. And so, yeah, I applaud him for wrestling with himself and praying and fasting and finding out for himself. Now, if you would like to share a story of your Christian experience, one that will inspire new and rededicated Christians, please visit www.withthequickness.com and select the Bema Seat tab. There you'll fill out an interview form so we can schedule a virtual interview with you.

You can also email BamaSeed at withquickness.com to begin our guest process. Theresa, another showdown. We're starting to get back in this rhythm, young lady. We're starting to.

Resa Crippen (01:42:50.875)
We are, we are. slowly getting the train back on the tracks. It's getting, you know, we're getting some momentum. Yeah, that's how I feel.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:42:55.758)
It feels that way. It feels that way, right? I really hope that as we continue this process that, know, and keep on shaking off the cobwebs, because that's what we're doing here, that people will realize that this is a labor of love for us. It really, really is. And we do appreciate the time that you give us, that you tune in and you give us a listen and...

We might not cackle about all the things that are going on in pop culture, like some people do on their podcast and we're just a different breed. We're more like, you know, doing our own thing over here in this part of the internet. And when you stop in and check us out, we are so grateful, grateful to you, right, Resa?

Resa Crippen (01:43:39.024)
Absolutely.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:43:40.59)
Yeah, because they can listen to anybody, anywhere, you know? But like my, they could. Like my big brother Tim Ross says, hey, I'm a dweller. So, you know, I'm a dweller over here doing some work, you know, trying to win souls like Pastor Gambill says. people have wondered too, why do we always mention what's going on at First Baptist Church in Lincoln Gardens? What's your answer to that, Resa? Why do we always mention First Baptist in every episode?

Resa Crippen (01:43:43.439)
Yep, they could.

Resa Crippen (01:43:51.525)
you

Resa Crippen (01:44:04.751)
We mention them because we are members of that church and we just wanna talk about the things that they're doing. And honestly too, in case anyone is in the area and they wanna visit the church, you can also see for yourself some of the things that they're doing and get involved if you want to as well.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:44:07.714)
Hello.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:44:22.37)
Yeah, I mean, and even if you're not in the area, we have a really big, you know, church online. And, you know, the saints there are so warm and inviting and a lot of churches have, because of COVID, have an online format. And we're not limited by the walls. And, you know, we feature our pastor, like Resa said, because he is, he has been doing wonderful things in the name of Jesus Christ in this part of his vineyard.

and he's a true man of God. And we are elevating the work that he, the ministerial staff and the diaconate of First Baptist are doing in this part of the vineyard. But we also highlight other churches. So if you have a church that you think, hey, you haven't mentioned my pastor, then drop us an email. Go ahead and send over to Angeline @withquickness.com and we will check your pastor out. Send me the link to the video. Because I think the local churches are gonna need their saints to

come back into attendance, go back to your houses of worship and be together because God wants, like we said, we got to pick a side. You can be in the world and not of it, but it's time to pick a side. All this lukewarmness got to stop. Are you a Christian? Are you a person that's of faith? And if you are, are your actions in alignment of what Christ would want you to do in certain situations? So.

We bring out First Baptist because yes, we're proud that we are a part of a local church. We hope all of you will become part of your local churches. Local churches can only do good in the community if we pour into them and we help them. And for those that are looking to be connected to a church that is Christ-led, that's why we mention First Baptist here. And that's why we mentioned the other churches here. They're all leaning on the understanding of Jesus Christ. And they believe that...

The only way the truth and the light is through Jesus Christ. Right, Resa?

Resa Crippen (01:46:20.379)
Absolutely.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:46:22.606)
Okay, so we're grateful that you tuned in today and our prayer for you is that God reveals to you that he is real and able to meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Have a great rest of the week everybody. Bye now.

Resa Crippen (01:46:37.883)
everyone.

Angeline Bishop Thomas (01:46:44.238)
We're done.