[0:00:02] Lois: Hey everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of the R. F. W. P. Podcast. I’m your host, Lois Mcnair and I have with me or other host
[0:00:13] Emily: Emily Louis.
[0:00:15] Lois: Hey Emily.
[0:00:16] Emily: Hi louis,
[0:00:17] Lois: it’s good to see you.
[0:00:19] Emily: Good to see you too.
[0:00:21] Lois: I am so excited about this week’s episode.
[0:00:25] Emily: Me too. I’m really excited about our Open mic minute, so we just roll it right away.
[0:00:33] Lois: Oh, I think we should, if you don’t know what the open mic minute is, you’re going to have to go to the website, right? But some people already responded.
[0:00:43] Emily: Yeah. So to set this up before I hit play for you all to hear the response to our prompt this week. This week’s prompt was what was a micro joy moment that you had And these are the responses, [Listener Recordings Played Here] awesome man, that was so fun to be able to hear everybody’s voices.
[0:01:05] Lois: Yes, I just wish we were all in the same room. But I love that and I loved those. Some were fun and some were just precious. You could hear healing and voices and that’s pretty cool.
[0:01:20] Emily: It’s really cool. It just feels so personal. I love it.
[0:01:23] Lois: Yeah, I love that too. I’m hoping a lot more people will jump on and start doing that with us because we’re going to make that weekly right?
[0:01:30] Emily: Yeah. Every week we’ll have a different prompt and some will be really light and fun like this or some will be make you laugh and we have we have some really fun ideas.
[0:01:44] Lois: Yeah. Speaking of micro Joyce you have a micro joy this week.
[0:01:49] Emily: I do I do not drink coffee. You know this? My friend
[0:01:54] Lois: brought me drinker.
[0:01:56] Emily: I am but I don’t do fruit fairy things very much like I don’t go to the coffee shop but my friend brought me a chai latte today and it was amazing. That’s my my great joy today
[0:02:10] Lois: chai latte. Yeah, rumor has it that you have found a cold brew that you like as well.
[0:02:19] Emily: There’s a chance if there’s a lot of sugar in it, it still tastes bitter though man.
[0:02:29] Lois: Yeah. So if you want to get rid of the bitterness, you’ve got to pop a little salt in there.
[0:02:34] Emily: There you go. Have I told you how I feel about coffee? I think it was to make everybody laugh. Coffee lures you in. Everybody likes it smells good. You take a drink and the minute it hits the back of your tongue, it’s like gotcha,
[0:02:50] Lois: so mean, it’s vicious. Uh my son and my son in law are like major baristas and I was just with them recently this past weekend, they went out on the back porch and decided to roast some um, coffee beans, you know, and they’re talking temperatures and grams and all this kind of stuff. And I’m just like, you know what? Just make me some Starbucks with enough sugar and cream in it. And I’m good to go. And he’s like, mom, you’re not even drinking coffee. That’s like not even coffee. Oh,
[0:03:39] Emily: okay.
[0:03:41] Lois: Such a coffee snob
[0:03:43] Emily: man.
[0:03:43] Lois: Well, I don’t, I don’t have a micro joy this week.
[0:03:47] Emily: Oh, you don’t, huh? I don’t, what do you have?
[0:03:50] Lois: You don’t have a micro joy this week. I have a macro joy this week. I have a major macro joy
[0:04:01] Emily: drunk,
[0:04:02] Lois: hinted at it a few weeks ago, but I had a really exciting week.
[0:04:12] Emily: Tell us I’m ready. Mm.
[0:04:16] Lois: First of all, our oldest son and daughter in law who have been married for six years are expecting a baby. That is my macro joy. They’re expecting a baby. And I’ll just tell you like literally this is she is very high risk because of some illnesses that she has. So first of all, the fact that she was even able to get pregnant is a beautiful miracle and that she was able to get pregnant as soon as they started trying is an even more beautiful miracle.
[0:04:52] Emily: And it’s so incredible
[0:04:54] Lois: to make the macro joy even bigger. She and Michael got to find out early what the baby was because of the um extra testing that she has to have. So I went to Nashville this past weekend. Unfortunately my husband could not go because of work schedule, but I went to Nashville and they had a gender reveal party. They’re big office fans. So it was all, you know the Office and they used a pinata and I helped him make it, it was just a big office coffee mug that said World’s best baby. Uh huh. If you’ve watched The Office, if anybody’s watched The Office, you’ll know exactly what episode I’m talking about. And so they got this baseball bat and we had people zooming in and they hit it and it’s a girl. Yeah, so fun. So that’s my macro joy and I haven’t been able to stop smiling and I had to keep it underneath my hat for weeks because we found out really early that she was expecting.
[0:06:09] Emily: You didn’t
[0:06:10] Lois: say anything. So it’s really hard for me to stay quiet about.
[0:06:14] Emily: Yeah. And if anybody can tell this is Lois first grand baby.
[0:06:21] Lois: Yes
[0:06:21] Emily: it
[0:06:23] Lois: is. I don’t feel like I’m old enough to be grandmother. That being said I’m super excited about this, but I don’t want to be named grandmother kudos to all of you out there that loves the grandmother or the grandma or all of those, but I want something different. I want a cool grandma name is that vein? I’m sorry, I just want a fun name. Um
[0:06:58] Emily: I don’t think so. Uh so you want feedback on that?
[0:07:05] Lois: I think I do. I think I’m going to be super brave and I’m going to ask everybody to go to our facebook page and the name of our facebook pages
[0:07:19] Emily: at our F. W. P. Podcast.
[0:07:22] Lois: Yeah, I always get mixed up.
[0:07:24] Emily: They’re all the same for a while. We had little cuter names on some of them, but now they’re all our F. W. P. Podcasts on all the social media platforms.
[0:07:35] Lois: Okay, so go to our facebook page like it if you haven’t liked it and then I need you guys to give me some cool ideas for grandma names that don’t have grandma or granny or grandma even those are cute, I just don’t want the G mall in it
[0:08:06] Emily: so that you’re not hard to please at
[0:08:08] Lois: all.
[0:08:10] Emily: No G or
[0:08:12] Lois: ma. So yeah, that’s my macro joy. I’m excited. Go to our facebook page and give me ideas for
[0:08:25] Emily: fun. Fine.
[0:08:27] Lois: Yeah.
[0:08:28] Emily: So do you have a quote for this week? I mean, I don’t know how you follow up your macro joy, but
[0:08:36] Lois: yeah, who? That’s a quick turn to the left, isn’t it? Okay, so I do have a quote this week. Okay, I do have a quote this week. Um, and it came from a sermon from my pastor who is preaching a series on the holy spirit. Oh my goodness, this has just been a phenomenal, phenomenal series and maybe you have heard this expressed this way before, but the concept that he brought out um of mark when jesus is being baptized, I had not heard this in this way before, so jesus is coming to be baptized. Obviously we know not because he has to, but to be an example. So God, the son Who’s 100 God and 100 man steps into the water to be baptized and the Holy Spirit, god the holy Spirit descends on him like a dove because this is the beginning of jesus ministry, it’s the beginning of that about 3.5 years of ministry. And then God, the father voice is heard and he says this is my son in whom I am well pleased and I have heard that all my life, I’ve heard that message multiple times, but here’s the deal. That was the twist for me and the beautiful quote for me, Jesus hasn’t done anything yet, quote unquote, We talk about doing things in our world and like, well, if you do this for jesus and if you do that, he hasn’t quote unquote, done anything. This is the beginning of his ministry. And at the beginning of jesus ministry, the father was already pleased with him and loved him. Jesus ministry started there. He went out from a place of acceptance, not for acceptance.
[0:11:19] Emily: I love that so much.
[0:11:22] Lois: He hadn’t even done anything.
[0:11:24] Emily: No. And if his value and is worth was not found in what he had done, the father speaks that over him, just as he belongs to the father are worth and our identity stems from whose we are. It’s a given to us so good.
[0:11:50] Lois: And I have just read it over and over and reminded myself. And so I wanted to share it with our listeners that you can walk, you can walk out your Christianity, You can walk out your faith from a place of acceptance, not for acceptance. And so yeah, it’s a little bit more than a quote. It’s a miniature devotional, but it’s, it’s my pastor Trey brought that beautiful reminder to us. So,
[0:12:35] Emily: so good.
[0:12:37] Lois: So good. I love that.
[0:12:39] Emily: So what are we doing tonight?
[0:12:41] Lois: Well, what we, what we wanted to do um, was bringing to you guys, um, basically a conversation that you and I have already had. Um, and we did share it, but it was with only a few people. So we decided that we wanted to share it with everybody. And so in tonight’s episode, we are going to play for you the conversation that we’ve already had about Unity.
[0:13:15] Emily: Yeah. So important to remember that we can have unity around christ and where our unity comes from because it doesn’t have to come from agreeing completely with someone, right? Isn’t that a
[0:13:29] Lois: blessing a blessing because we’re all different people and you’re going to hear in our episode tonight, that, you know, we don’t look alike, we don’t act alike, we don’t, you know, we’re different and we are unique because that’s how God created us to be. But within that We are to be one first Corinthians talks about the members of the body, you know, we have different gift ing’s, we have different things, but we’re one and and Emily, I don’t know about you, but I just know that, you know, even non believers want unity in our world right now, you know? Yeah, so as the body of christ, we should want it that much more unity um within the body of christ such an important topic and and that’s what we that’s what we’re going to play for you guys
[0:14:33] Emily: tonight, a devotional style. So Lois does most of the teaching and like you said, there’s so much polarization in our country and in our world right now, if we need something its unity.
[0:14:47] Lois: And I think that starts with listening, like you said, whether we agree with somebody or not, but what I sense and what I feel within the body of christ and outside of the body of christ that we are more interested in being heard and being right than we are about listening and being in relationship.
[0:15:21] Emily: Mm It is so true and that is going to be an upcoming podcast episode because we keep circling back to this.
[0:15:29] Lois: So true. So true. So thanks for coming along tonight and Emily I want to thank you ahead of time for kind of letting me do the devotional. It was a little bit different than what we normally do. But when you guys finish listening to the episode, give us some feedback. You know, go ahead, go on our website and and comment and let us know what the Lord shared with you during this episode.
[0:16:02] Emily: Let’s do it.
[0:16:03] Lois: We’re going to look at just for a few minutes. Unity in the body of christ because it seems to be and has been apparently for thousands of years an issue,
[0:16:17] Emily: right? So where do we find unity Show up then, in the bible, where it is this issue come up?
[0:16:29] Lois: Well, paul talks about it in the letter to the Church of Ephesus. Um and it may be a little bit topical, but passages are in Ephesians like Ephesians chapter two, you start at verse one and you and you go all the way through paul’s writing to the church at Ephesus and he just says you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince of the Power of the Air, the spirit that is now at work in the Sons of Disobedience, among whom we all once lived, The passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body. And he goes on to say um in verse four, but God and I love the but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with christ by grace. You have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ jesus. And as we know, goes down by grace, you’ve been saved. It’s a gift of God, it’s not a result of works so nobody can boast. And then he goes on to talk about, we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And then as he goes on and begins to talk, he is begins to talk about to the to the gentiles as well, because as we know a lot was going on between jews and gentiles at that time and there was, you know, sticking to the law on this situation and um not not healthy fellowship Between and I won’t get into all of that, but this is one of the things that Paul is addressing in here. And I love the way that he starts chapter two reminds us that unity is a product and it’s a product of the cross. So the unity comes through grace of what jesus did for us, it’s a product of the cross. It’s God’s work in christ, by the way of the cross. And when we accept him, we become a part of the body of believers. We become a part of the body of christ.
[0:19:08] Emily: I love that. You said it’s God’s work, it’s not us trying to like pull everybody together. And yes, we can do work in ourselves, but it’s by the Holy Spirit and when we are unified around what matters, we can have discussions around the tertiary issues without getting our feathers ruffled.
[0:19:32] Lois: Absolutely. Then then then he goes on and I love um if you look over in Ephesians chapter four, um Starting at Verse one, he begins to talk about, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Those are the fruits of the spirit that we talk. We hear paul talk about again and we’re actually before this in Galatians And then listen to verse for Emily there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of christ’s gift. So the first thing that we heard is unity as a product, it’s a product of the cross and then unity is of the spirit and we are called to be one. Unity is not something that we can produce in the body of christ Unity will come through the Spirits work in us
[0:21:08] Emily: and it doesn’t belong. No denomination has the market cornered on the Holy Spirit and no. When we say one faith, one baptism, it’s not my way of viewing things
[0:21:22] Lois: now, it’s
[0:21:24] Emily: it’s all his. And when we believe in jesus still believe the gospel, we’re all one in him.
[0:21:33] Lois: That’s right. We are. And and the word unity, Unified Union, the U. In and that means one. It means one. And so if we are truly practicing and living the fruits of the spirit in Galatians, you know through the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, patience, goodness. You know, if we are allowing the spirit to work in and through us, it’s going to we’re going to practice unity. The thing is we we we really don’t do that a whole lot. But if we’re living and practicing the fruit of the Spirit, um doesn’t it make sense then that a unified spirit would follow?
[0:22:31] Emily: Yes, yes, it does. There would be, we can set aside our differences and they don’t matter. And the Spirit of Unity, like there’s almost a piece there that binds us together. Like when you meet a total stranger and you just, the bible says your spirit bears witness with their
[0:22:52] Lois: spirit, just
[0:22:54] Emily: have that connection off the bat and makes you want to ask them more questions. Like, are you a believer too? Right?
[0:23:03] Lois: You know, and I love the fact that you just said that because um we talked about this for a couple of weeks that we are known by our love because that’s who God called us to be. Um and and Unity, a unified spirit will follow if we are seeking the Fruit of the Spirit of love and then joy peace. Um so unity is a product of the cross. Unity is of the Holy Spirit. And when we’re seeking to have the fruit of the Spirit, then Unity should be a byproduct of that. And then the next thing is Unity is organic. Now we’re all about organic these days, right? You know, a lot of people are organic and all the things organic comes from the greek word. Um organic coasts, organic owes. And I always get tickled when I always get tickled when I when I hear the greek word, organic coast because of the movie, my big fat greek wedding and the father and the father in the movie, he’s always like, you know, you you give me a word and I will trace it back, you know, to the greek. It’s always you know the greek word. So when I say organic coast, it makes me think of the big fat greek wedding father, um, anywhere. And I show you how the root of that word is greek. Uh, uh, but organic, just a couple of definitions. It’s organic means related to or derived from living matter matter. Okay. Um, denoting a relation between elements of something such that fit together harmoniously. Let me read that again. Um, one of the definitions of organic is denoting a relation between elements of something such that fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole. And what do we here in paul’s writings when we talk about the body of christ and members, there are there are different members. And yet one body and each has a different calling. Each has a different function in the body. So right. And it’s characterized by continuous or natural development. So Unity. Um, as I was studying this is just I love this. Unity is living vital ongoing process. It’s not mechanical, it’s not manufacturer manufactured. It’s not like math and numbers. You can’t take an algorithm and apply it to the problem of disunity and say this plus this equals this. And boom, the outcome is unity. It doesn’t come from a program. It even though those are vital in the body of christ to reach other people. But it doesn’t come from a program. Um, or creating an environment. It comes from being a new creation in christ, after salvation. It comes from the fruit of the spirit loving we are to be after salvation. You know, the body of christ has many parts. And really and some people are going to wonder why I’m saying this. But really Unity is diversity. Now. I’m not talking about the diversity that, you know, we have in our culture today. Um you’re hearing a lot about diversity. I I do. I am talking about diversity within the color of our skin, within our personalities, within our callings. Unity is diversity, Right? It really is. First Corinthians 12. Um, you know, talks about that. We already mentioned the members of the body all have a different. My dad used to tell this illustration about how the body of christ should be unified. And he uses his own physical body. And he’s, you know, would talk about when he would work on the car and years and years ago you poured coke or sprite over your spark plugs and you took a knife and you got all of the erosion off of it. And just not the erosion. The corrosion used the wrong rogge inward, but the corrosion at all. And he would slip and cut his thumb and he’s like, you know, the normal reaction is to, you know, he’s gonna suck on his thumb to stop the bleeding. He’s gonna hold his hand and the rest of his body automatically cares for that part of the body, right? It doesn’t go, you know, the thumb doesn’t go, I’m bleeding and and the mouth says, yeah, well I’m not going to help you out because you know, the other day when you were using a toothpick, you poked the roof of of my mouth and so I’m not helping you. And the other hand doesn’t say, you know, I’m not going to help you because last week when we were nailing something, you know, the the hammer slipped out of your hand and you you know, my hand was black and blue for a week and so on and the legs don’t say well yeah, you clipped my toenails too too tight and I’m not going to run into the house and help you and you know, I know that’s silly. But the truth the matter is the body of christ is diverse in all of its functions, just like our hands and our our feet and our eyes. But unity is not uniformity.
[0:29:23] Emily: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say. Unity is not uniformity. And that’s where the beauty of the diversity. We are unified around christ. We are unified, unified through the spirit. And like you’re saying, it’s an organic reaction truly, if we are honestly connected to what matters in the cross and the spirit, it will be a natural reaction to care for those around us. So how can we, as we wrap up, practically go about our days, how can we tap into the Holy Spirit? How can how can we organically cultivate this connection so that we can have this unity
[0:30:05] Lois: and I don’t want to glaze over the diversity portion of it. But you know, we don’t all talk alike. We don’t all look alike. We don’t all functional like we don’t all have the same gift ING’s. And yes when you become a christ follower you do receive a spiritual gift. You have a calling on your life. We don’t all have the same personalities were all created uniquely different but for one purpose for God’s glory but unique. What are the first two letters in the word unique? U. N. Yeah one. So even though there’s different gift ing’s in the body of christ all are important, different things, all are needed. Paul tells us that. So even though we may be diverse in our creativity and our functionality, we were created to function as one and we are not competitors, we are co laborers. So I think we have to look back at Ephesians for you know, again 1st 41 body, one spirit, one hope one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one god, one father. Which brings us to one goal to bring glory to God. It’s our differences, our uniqueness that when well equipped help us to contribute our best to the body of believers for the sake of christ. And I think it goes back to being fruit of the spirit, right? We cannot produce what we don’t possess. We can’t produce fruit if we don’t possess the following the um input from the Holy Spirit. And then yeah, so I think it goes back to the fruits of the spirit being intentional about allowing the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives to create that
[0:32:20] Emily: and like our episode last week where love.
[0:32:24] Lois: Yeah, absolutely.
[0:32:27] Emily: Yeah, thank you for this.
[0:32:30] Lois: I want to thank you for letting me share my heart about unity.