A Mess, Nonetheless

Rachel shares her hopes and goals for 2025; she has been recognizing what needs to be left in the past and not brought into one more year. She talks about what is dead and has been buried in the spiritual realm and challenges listeners to consider what keeps getting dug up, which has already been buried and should stay in the past. "The old has passed away, the new has come."
Show notes:
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new".
Eph 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 
 
Romans 8:17 says, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory"
 
Col 1:13-14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 2:9-10 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Miss shares her experience with joining a new church and doing scary things in order to find a true community. Rachel shares her experience on staff at her church in the role of connections and how important it is to connect with others in our faith communities. Join them to be challenged this week!

Are you good at giving compliments? What about receiving them? Miss and Rach discuss the importance of encouraging and lifting others up and how it can change so much in our friendships and community.

This week, Miss and Rach had their fantastic dad, Curt, on the podcast. He brought them through his fifty-year learning journey to understand the importance of reading the gospels. He shared about his discipleship experience and how simple it can be to bring others along with us in the process of immersing ourselves in the gospel. You will want to catch this episode. His experience and process have been life-changing for so many people, Miss and Rachel included! Learn more from Curt on https://practicaltheologytoday.com/.

Jesus teaches us how to pray in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7). He said, “Hallowed be thy name.”  Do we ever stop to ask what that actually means? Miss and Rach walk through this one verse and dive into what living a life that reveres God as Holy means and what it can change. 

Miss and Rachel cover hot topics! They discuss the dangers of turning non-Christians away when we approach hot issues in a black-and-white way. They share their own experience with wounding people and no longer being able to be good news due to publicly taking stances on social media. Before posting on social media, they encourage listeners to ask, “Am I going to draw others closer to Jesus, or further, in how I am portraying myself?” They also suggest considering taking hot-topic conversations off of social media altogether and approaching them in a one-on-one manner. In this season of political hostility, we highly encourage you to tune in. 
Show Notes:
Am I drawing people toward Jesus or away in my response?
We should be loving others as image-bearers even when we disagree.
We should aim to listen with an open mindset to learn, not to change the other person’s mind.If we cannot do that, we shouldn’t be entering the conversation
Ask ourselves, who is our audience? If it’s non-Christians: 1 Cor 5:12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. 
Matthew 22: 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Carey Nieuwhof
Before you judge a non-Christian for behaving like a non-Christian, think about this: 1. They act more consistently with their value system than you do. It’s difficult for a non-Christian to be a hypocrite because they tend to live out what they believe. Chances are they’re better at living out their values than you or I. Jesus never blamed pagans for acting like pagans. But he did call out religious people for acting like self-righteous hypocrites.
Some of the most judgmental Christians have zero non-Christian friends. Is that a surprise, really?
Judgment is a terrible evangelism strategy
People don’t line up to be judged. Think about you respond to people you don’t know judging what you believe and how you live. I’d be willing to bet you’re not receptive to that kind of critical feedback. And why would you be? If you want to keep being ineffective at reaching unchurched people, keep judging them.
 
Challenge: Do you want to be good news to be people? Is the way you interact with others about hot topics showing the good news to people? 

Miss, Rach and their mom, Barb, discuss how the Bible displayed Jesus’ great value and love for women. Not all women feel valued in this world, in their lives, or at their jobs. The three women spend the episode overviewing the many instances where Jesus was counter-cultural in how He viewed women. We think whether you struggle with feeling valued or not, this episode will be an encouragement to all!
Show Notes:
Woman at the well (revealed he was the messiah (first time) and didn’t avoid her when the disciples questioned him)
Woman caught in adulteryHe was the only one who could have cast the first stone (let he without sin cast the first stone)
John 8 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
The women were the first to give the news to preach the news of resurrection Matthew 28:6​​He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” 8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Mary and Martha “a woman’s place wasn’t in the kitchen38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
The woman who kissed his feet with tears Luke 7 36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Challenge: Read a gospel and ask God to show you where you identify with the Pharisees.

Welcome back to Season 3 of A Mess, Nonetheless. Miss and Rach talk about their summer. They talk about the hard things they've been walking through, the good things God is doing in their lives, their faith goals, and what's new for this year's podcast! 
 
Challenge: Consider where you're at; ask yourself and God what your faith goals are for this next year. 
 

Miss and Rachel discuss the last season of podcasting and what they learned this year through the processing of creating episodes with you guys in mind. They will be back sometime in the next school year because they take off for the summer. See you then!

Are we slow to speak and quick to listen? Melissa and Rachel cannot say that's something that has come naturally to them! In fact, Rachel is still pretty much straight up bad at it! Melissa shares how God taught her to do just this thing, especially in conflict, and in the end it saved her marriage! We truly cannot know what God can do in the "space" unless we allow there to be "space". Tune in to this episode to hear what the Bible says on the topic and how you can be challenged today to grow in this area (with Rachel!).
Show Notes:
James 1:19 Be quick to listen, slow to speak.
Proverbs 29:20 Do you see people who speak too quickly? There is more hope for a foolish person than them.
Ecclesiastes 3:7 (paraphrase) There is a time to keep silent and a time to speak. But when? How? To discern the difference between knowing when to speak or be silent, we need to humbly seek the Lord through prayer, immerse ourselves in scripture and ask for his wisdom and discernment.
Challenge: Take inventory of yourself in conflict, are you quick to listen and slow to speak? How might your conflicts change if you applied the verse from Ecclesiastes 3:7?