The Rescue
Rebellion. Redemption. Rescue. This is what the gospel is all about: Jesus Christ coming to rescue us from our sin and enabling us to be reconciled to God, restoring us to the purpose for which we were created. In this episode, Janet Aucoin and Jocelyn Wallace discuss the salvation story and help us think through how life can be radically different as a result of Jesus's deep, abiding love for us.
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Transcript:
Resources:
Books
Gospel Primer for Christians - Faith Resources (faithlafayette.org)
What Is the Gospel? - Faith Resources (faithlafayette.org)
Explicit Gospel eBook - Faith Resources (faithlafayette.org)
Videos
The Story - On Right Now Media
(6) Gospel of The Kingdom - YouTube
Janet: I don't just need to feel better. I need the truth. And ultimately that will make me better.
Alexandra: I just want to make it as totally simple and no brainer as possible for ladies to see that
the Bible is really applicable to their everyday life.
Jocelyn: When they understand theology, the application flows out of it quickly with joy.
Janet: It is a journey, but even the journey itself is joyful when I'm doing it, holding the hand of
my savior and trusting him all along the way. This is the joyful journey podcast, a podcast to
inspire and equip women to passionately pursue beautiful biblical truth on their journey as
women of God. When you choose truth, you're choosing joy.
Janet: Welcome to our second episode of Joyful Journey Podcast. I'm here with Jocelyn Wallace
and last episode, she broke down the creation mandate more for us. This time she's going to look
at another part of the big picture of the story of the Bible, our rescue, but to get us started,
Jocelyn, give us a little bit of a recap and kind of an overview of what is the big picture of the
Bible. So we know where we're fitting in today.
Jocelyn: Sure. Well, when you think about the storyline of scripture, there's four main
components, and we're going to be talking about one in particular today, but to understand that
one, you have to know all of them. Last episode, we talked about the creation mandate, which is
when we can see why God created humans and what their purpose was. And God said He wants
to create a universe to pour out His love and have them respond by loving Him back and
adopting His view of what was right and good and then living it out, emulating it in the world in
such a way that anyone that encountered those humans, living out their purpose, would be
blessed. God blessed the humans and then said, now go take my blessing and live that in the
world around you. Live my way. Think My way. Function My way. And when you do that,
you're going to bring My blessing into the world. So, we have the creation God, the King, made
a kingdom for Himself. He put two people in it and He gave them a job to represent Him to live
out His righteousness in that domain.
Janet: And then we lived happily ever after.
Jocelyn: If only that is true, you know, it gets so cool to hear the story of the creation mandate
and be like, Oh, it's so gorgeous and amazing. And then Genesis 3. So two chapters into the
Bible. It's beautiful. So, creation is the first part of the storyline of scripture. And then the second
part of the storyline of scripture is the fall. And the fall, um, can be summarized by the fact that
Adam and Eve ate fruit, but it's so much bigger than that. And I want to take a second just to
unpack a little bit, to make it as beautiful, the rescue story, as beautiful as it actually is. So in the
fall, Satan in the form of a serpent, lied to humans and said, listen, humans, you can have
everything you need to do the job that you have, but you don't need to have a relationship with
God to do it. So, he basically said, you can have wisdom for life outside of learning that wisdom
from God. You don't have to know God's righteousness and His goodness in order to do a good
job being successful. And so he basically invited them to write their own definitions of what was
good. And to write their own definition of success. And the sad thing about that is, is God had
warned them that if they disobeyed, they would have grave consequences. And the consequence
of the fall is unfortunately death, which is tragic because it means to be separated from the
person who created you and also to have really terrible consequences on your actual physical
body. So, separation from God is bad enough. But then on top of it, you have separation of your
body and your soul. And that was never supposed to happen. Bodies and souls are supposed to
stay stuck together but there's also this tragic possibility of eternal separation from the Creator.
Janet: Yeah.
Jocelyn: So, we have these humans that were created for this beautiful purpose to love God, to be
loved by God, to know His righteousness, to live it out in their dominion in such a way that the
whole earth was filled with the beautiful character of God and they were living out His
righteousness. And then we have these humans that say, we'd rather do this job a different way
with different definitions of good and evil and different definitions of success. And as a result,
sin and death entered into the human experience. So, humans that were created for an
environment of beauty and a job of purpose are now ruined, ruined. They can't do the job that
they were made to do. And death is a part of their story and they have the inability to complete
anything successfully. As their only option. So, the fall is tragic. It was not just eating the fruit. It
was all the thought that went behind the choice to disobey that they wanted to do life without
obeying the commands of the Creator. So, at the fall, there was a big list of consequences that
were given to everyone and a beautiful promise that in the middle of the ruined state of humans,
God promised to send Someone who would rescue them. And so, the Bible tells the story of
thousands of years of history unfolding and nations developing, and people looking forward to
this person who would one day come and free them from the consequences of the decisions that
they had made to live life without the authority of their Creator, running their life. One day when
the timing was perfect. God sent His Son to take on a human body in order to do the job that
Adam had first been given, but had been unable to do. The Bible talks about Jesus being the
exact representation of God. He is the exact image of God the Father like Adam and Eve had
been told to be. Jesus finally did that job. He came and bore the image of God and then lived
with only God's definitions of what was right and good. You can see in scripture, Jesus
constantly referring back to God the Father. God the Father sent Me. God the Father gave me a
job to do. And I don't think My own way. I don't speak My own way. I speak the words of the
Father who sent Me. So Jesus bearing the image of God and agreeing with God in every way
about what was right and what was good, lived life without any defect. And then instead of just
being super stoked that He was able to do the job, He said, and I'm going to offer My perfection
to the people that I was sent to rescue. So in His perfect life, He offered Himself as a sacrifice
that could be applied to cover the cost of our sins. That cost of sin, of death, it required a
sacrifice, it required blood to cover it. And so Jesus fulfilled the plan of God the Father, went
through all of the things that He required and offered Himself on the cross as a sacrifice to pay
for our sin. And the scripture tells us that if we place our faith, if we believe that Jesus did that
job, that the consequences of His perfection and His sacrifice can be applied to our life. And the
cool thing is humans through their faith in Jesus, Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, they can
be brought back to the original purpose that God created any of them for. They can be rescued
from those horrible consequences, death and alienation from God and each other. Be brought
back to a right relationship with God and a life of purpose that they can live out on their days on
the earth.
Janet: So they're moving back from initially. God is their master. He is the authority. At some
point, we know in chapter two of the Bible, they become convinced that there is another way
other than God's and it would be a better way. So they begin to say, I will determine what is
good and what is successful. And so what you're saying is only because of what Christ did,
there's the opportunity to say now I agree with God. And His way He is now the master again.
Jocelyn: Exactly.
Janet: And all of my sin that kept me from God. Jesus took care of for me.
Jocelyn: Exactly. One of the things that's a little bit challenging for me as I teach women and
disciple people, is that sometimes people think, That they are saved just from hell. And that is a
terrible consequence.
Janet: Right.
Jocelyn: But they're also saved from life without purpose and life of rebellion, where they have
to think through everything on their own. We'll come back to that in a second. The fourth part of
the storyline of scripture is restoration and it's so cool and exciting to study about. In summary,
Jesus is going to one day, come back and He's going to bring all of His believers with Him, with
their glorified bodies. And they're actually going to rule with Christ on a new earth that has been
recreated, kind of like this first creation story in a similar, wonderful, amazing way. But the
restoration is coming where Jesus will sit on the throne. All of God's saints will join Him in
ruling over His creation the way that God had designed us to do from the very beginning. But
now we can. Now our consequences of our rebellion are taken away from us. We've been given
life. Because of Jesus's death and His payment for our sin. And we can think the way that God
told us to think. We can think, what does God say is right and good? What can, what are those
definitions? And then we will live them out on the earth that God has recreated as His kingdom.
So we have these four chapters in the storyline of scripture creation, fall, redemption, and
restoration. The end of the story is the point of the story. And the end, the beginning are so
similar, a creation, a new creation, a purpose, a new purpose, and Jesus' rescue is the only thing
that makes that possible both to have a future and to have a life right now that makes any kind of
a difference and gives us any kind of joy.
Janet: I love that. I love that. And thinking that should be the hope because what we're living in
now is obviously the in-between.
Jocelyn: Exactly.
Janet: And there's so much that's unpleasant. I mean, we don't even need to read the last two
weeks. There's so much that's unpleasant. And individually people have all kinds of things to add
to that. But when you talk about what's coming, it makes me think of the Hebrew word, just that
Shalom, that wholeness and peace that are we all long for. We just want that and to know that's
coming, but first I'm asking you to explain more about the rescue. What happened and what's
necessary and what does that mean for us? Because not everybody is going to experience
Shalom.
Jocelyn: Exactly. One of the sad consequences of our initial rebellion in Adam, is that the curse
of sin has passed down through all people. And as a result, all people have death as their only
option. We were born alienated from God and unless something drastic happens, we're not going
to be able to be in friendship with God. And so at salvation, what Jesus offers is an opportunity
for life to be given to us and our sin debt to be erased from us. And us to be able to live life now,
the way that He designed us to live. So He gives us His help. He gives us His mind. He gives us
a new heart. And so at salvation, the rescue included the payment of our sin debt and also the
possibility of living the way that God asked us to live, to begin with.
Janet: I love that the way that we were actually designed. Good.
Jocelyn: So one of the things that is a common theme in scripture is that God designed the earth
to be filled with His glory. God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, fill the whole earth
with His glory. And we see that in the end, the whole earth is going to be filled with God's glory.
And so, if humans have been rescued from their sin, if they have been redeemed, so placed back
in a position where they can do the job that they were created to do, that means that they're
rescued from both the death problem but also the rebellion problem. And so rebellion just means
like, I choose to think through life on my own. I choose to think through what definitions would
be good and what would be defined as bad. And I choose to define what would be successful in
what would be a failure. With a redeemed mind I think what has God said is good. And then I
understand it. I make sure I can fully agree, grasp it. Then I implement it into my life so that I am
quickly obeying it. If I've been rescued from death and I've been rescued from rebellion, what
that means is that my new life is going to be filled with thinking, what are the things that God
says is right and doing what are the things that God says are good? And as a result, we're going
to find that God's blessing is passed through our lives because of our relationship with Him into
the lives of those around us. So thinking God's way, understanding what He says is right. And
doing life God's way. Understanding what He says is good is going to result in people all around
us being blessed because of our relationship with God, which if you remember, was the point of
the creation mandate that our relationship with God would cause blessing to those around us and
our dominion and people would know and understand God better because they were hanging out
with us. So the applications of the rescue are enormous. What does it look like to think rightly
and do good?
Janet: So let me, I want to back up first and I'm thinking about two different kinds of people who
might be listening to this. And one is someone who is, maybe not convinced of the truthfulness
of the Bible, or maybe just struggling to understand it. And I think you've done a great job of
explaining what the rescue is. And so I'm just going to summarize, okay that means that I was
created by God for God, not for me. And when I live separated from that, not only does it
dishonor God. It doesn't work.
Jocelyn: Exactly.
Janet: When I recognize that the answer to that is understanding and humbling myself and
agreeing with God that His way is right. Mine is wrong.
Jocelyn: Exactly.
Janet: And knowing that He loves me so much that He did everything that was necessary for all
of my rebellion to be taken care of, if I will humbly confess and acknowledge that and run to
Him and be hidden in Him.
Jocelyn: Exactly.
Janet: Then at that point, I have the opportunity to live the way I was designed. Now I'm thinking
of another listener saying, okay, I believe that. And I am a follower of Christ, but I don't always
live that way.
Jocelyn: None of us do.
Janet: Right. So you're not saying if you're a believer, you will always live this way.
Jocelyn: No, because we still have the habits of our flesh that still live in the members of our
body. Like before I was a believer, I thought, however I wanted, and my body was really good at
building habits to do whatever I wanted. And just because I've been made right with God,
through Jesus' salvation, doesn't mean that automatically it's going to be super easy for all the
habits of my life to be restructured. In the scripture, it talks about the process of becoming more
and more like Jesus and more and more Holy and less and less, you know, carnal. And when you
think about what Holy means, it just means set apart for a specific purpose. Yeah. So if I was set
apart for the purpose of knowing God's love so much, that that changed me and because of
Jesus's sacrifice, I can be in a good relationship with God now. It means that my life now, as a
believer is set apart for something special. It's set apart to do the work that God asked His
children to do, to know Him, to love Him and to love those around me, the way that Jesus loved
us and such a hugely sacrificial way and in such a way that good came to others because of the
way that we function. So, we're living in a way that emulates the Savior who rescued us.
Janet: And I love that the scriptures, knowing that we would not do that perfectly, even as Christ
followers tells us how to deal with that, you know, I would suggest one evidence that we really
have become one of God's children is that when we sin there is conviction, which happens to me
on a daily basis. This is not like a once a month thing. And, We will grow to more quickly
confess and agree with God and desire and confess to others. You know, so being a Christian
doesn't mean impressing everybody because I always do everything right. I do think it means the
freedom if I understand the rescue, the rescue wasn't about my righteousness, it was about God's.
So the fact that when I'm not abiding close to Christ, my sin stinks just as bad as it always did.
Doesn't bring me to despair. It brings me to repentance. Abiding back in Christ where that's my
only righteousness, not me.
Jocelyn: And the beauty of first John 1:9 says if we confess, He's faithful and just, and will
forgive us. And confession means, I agree with God, which makes us think back to the garden
and think forward to the new earth. What it means to agree with God is that I agree with His
definitions about what is right and what is wrong. And I adopt His definitions of right. And when
my life has been lived in a way that doesn't match His definitions, I agree that what I did, it was
not only wrong, it was sin. And I acknowledge that. That's what confession means. I agree with
you God. And please forgive me for having done life in a way that is inconsistent with what you
say is right or good. So there's the initial salvation where we say, Jesus, I need your death to
cover my sins. Please let Your righteousness, Your perfection be what covers my sin. And then
there's the growth pattern that happens as a believer where we say, I don't want. I don't want to
think through life my own way. I want to think through life God's way, I want to adopt His
definitions of what is right. And I want to live out His thoughts about what is good. And when I
find that I don't, I'm going to be quick to point them out to myself and ask for God's forgiveness
so that I can get on the right track and to not be limited in my joy of my relationship with Him.
Janet: Because it's based on Him.
Jocelyn: It is.
Janet: Good. And I know I'm sure we'll do a future program more on how to grow, but I wanted
to put that in there. So someone's not thinking I must not be a Christian because I don't always
live that way. But as a Christian, what have we been rescued from? But what have we been
rescued to?
Jocelyn: Well, we've been rescued from death. And we'd been rescued from rebellion. And so
what we've been rescued to is life and the ability to live the way that God asked us to live. So
success. We've been rescued to be able to think the way that God says we should think, and for
His definitions of what is right to become our definitions of right. And then the possibility of
living it out. And it's always high level when we talk about theology, like we could just sit here
and talk about theological doctrine all day long, but unless we talk about what that doctrine does
to our daily life, it's not really gonna make a whole bunch of difference. So here's just a tiny little
example of a way that you could apply this concept of being rescued to live a different way. My
family are organic farmers and we run a farmer's market. And Jesus says in His word that we
should not use false scales, which means like we make our vegetables weigh a little bit more than
they actually do so that we can make a little bit more money than we actually deserve. So by
saying I will not use bad weights to measure our vegetables and overcharge our customers. I'm
adopting God's definitions of what's right. And as a result, good is coming to our customers. So
I'm not over weighing the produce, so I'm not overcharging the produce. And so our customers
are being blessed by the fact that they can get vegetables at a fair price and they didn't get
cheated. And one of the ways that we bring God's blessing into the world around us is that.
People can be comfortable knowing that they're buying stuff from people who aren't going to
cheat them. That's a beautiful part about being a Christian is people can relax that we're not
going to take advantage of them. So that's one application possibility.
Janet: Yep. We've been thinking about what does that look like in a practical way. So, I think
about that in my life. What does the fact that I've been rescued and the reality that I have the
righteousness of Christ, how does that affect me on a daily basis? Because the awesome thing is I
get to represent Christ wherever I am. I don't have to be anywhere specific. I don't have to be a
CEO. I don't have to be on TV. I can, wherever I am. So I think about, okay, in my marriage,
how does the fact that I've been rescued impact my marriage. And as I think about that, one of
the ways that I think it impacts my marriage is, the basis of our relationship is not our own
righteousness. So if I am exposed in front of my husband, in my sin, if I'm not focusing on my
rescue. I have to rescue myself. I have to justify. It wasn't me. And you're worse than me. And
it's only because you provoked me and I'm only because. I'm tired, and I'm hormonal. It's not my
fault. But when I recognize I am completely covered in the righteousness of Christ, my rescue
screams the fact that I had nothing to offer. God had to come and do it all. The Bible says I was
dead in my sin when He came. So I have nothing to prove when my lack of being amazing on
my own is exposed in front of my husband. I can choose humility. And I can say, that's why I
needed a savior. I need my Savior today. I need Him every day and I can be exposed and I can be
humble and I can be a peacemaker and not focused on building up my own righteousness and
trying to rescue myself because I know I've already been rescued and it's all based on His
righteousness and not mine. And it leads for a lot more peace in my home.
Jocelyn: It leads to the possibility of being vulnerable in a way that is really precious and
beautiful and mirrors the gospel. If we're not always trying to cover up, when we mess up, it
allows that other person to love you even when you do make sinful choices and they have to be
exposed. What a much better place to be than someone who has to perform perfectly in their
marriage and never mess up. I mean, how can you live a lifetime with that kind of pressure.
Janet: It's exhausting, but I know that to a degree, a lot of us try to do that.
Jocelyn: Totally.
Janet: And it is exhausting. Yeah. What do you think about, how does it impact your parenting?
Jocelyn: Well, I love the fact that God gives us His righteousness to guide our thinking, because
that means, you know, as your kids grow up and every new age brings new challenges, you don't
have to think through it as if the problem was just invented. You know, God tells us that our
children are going to need to learn a lot. And they're going to need to be taught and disciplined.
And so we either are teaching them something new or disciplining them to obey what we've
already taught them, but I don't need to sit down and think through something for the first time,
every single time I face a problem in parenting, like God's word is full of information about what
to do when a child doesn't tell the truth or when they don't want to obey. So I'm thinking
through, what does God say about the situation? And then I'm quick to adopt it myself and quick
to help my children understand how to live it. It just makes parenting joyful and not so irritating.
I don't just, Avoid situations where my kids are going to be naughty cause I just don't want to
deal with it. I can know that when my kids are naughty or we're all tired or we're all hungry,
God is going to have answers that we can apply quickly. And it's going to diffuse the situation
from becoming a bomb. And it's going to give us hope to be able to handle practical situations in
a way that all of us are blessed because of it.
Janet: I think about as well in parenting, the temptation is to expect a lot of your children and
scold.
Jocelyn: Yes.
Janet: And to think so how should the rescue effect that? Well, here's what the rescue tells me.
Number one I'm no better than my child. God of the universe had to be murdered for me. So
like, I'm going to look at my kid and go, how could you do that? And number two, I should
expect they need to be rescued too. And some of our children are younger and haven't been
rescued yet. And even those that have, are still in the process of growing. So I'm going to expect
that they're not going to handle everything right. And every time they sin is an opportunity for
me to exalt the gospel to them again. To say either as a believer, this is why Christ died because
we need His help right now let's pray, or child this is why Christ died and my prayer is that one
day, instead of being angry, that they sin the rescue, the fact that we all need rescue. Why is that
even a surprise than any of us sin?
Jocelyn: Yes.
Janet: We should expect it.
Jocelyn: And one of the things that I think has been helpful in my parenting is to realize that I'm
expecting my children to obey me. Knowing that if they're not believers, they won't be capable
of it. But that leads me to gospel conversations where I can help them understand. I will still
expect you to obey, but you won't be able to obey unless you are rescued from your sin problem.
And it leads to gospel conversations that are less about here quick ask Jesus into your heart so
you don't go to hell and more about let's deal with the problem that you have of being separated
from the very One who can help you. And let me help you find the help that you need to do what
I'm asking you to do, which is obey. And you can't do it without someone who's helping you.
Janet: And that's only because of the rescue. I mean, otherwise all of our parenting is how do I
get you to do what I want you to do?
Jocelyn: It's behaviour modification.
Janet: What I want. Because quite frankly makes my life easier.
Jocelyn: Yeah.
Janet: But when I know I've had to be rescued and you need to be rescued, then it's all about the
gospel. It's not about me anymore. And it's not about even ultimately just their behavior, it's
about how their behavior helps them see their need for rescue as well. So it changes the dynamic
completely.
Jocelyn: I was even thinking about conflicts between friends or even inside of your family or
whatever situation. Like without the gospel, without having been rescued from my biggest
conflict. Then all of my human conflicts are just going to look like irritations to avoid. So if
somebody makes me mad, I'm just going to write them off and say, well, I'm sorry that our
friendship didn't work out, which doesn't work well, if you're married or if the person you're in
conflict with is your family member. So it just is a terrible way to handle human relationships.
But with the reminder of our rescue, from our greatest conflict, the conflict that I had with my
Creator, if I've been rescued from that, then I can be that kind of a initiator in relationships where
conflict exists instead of just avoiding conflict. I can say this conflict is not going to stop me
from loving you. Here I am. My arms are wide open, just like Jesus, who, when He saw me in
my sin aggressively pursued me. He didn't just watch me wallowing and be like, Oh, I'm
bummed out for your wicked status.
Janet: Get it together and come see me.
Jocelyn: So in conflicts, I can say, this rift is causing tension and I'm not going to sit back and
just watch it. I'm going to pursue you. I'm going to love you. I'm going to, I'm going to be the
one that says we're not just going to let it sit in this stink like this.
Janet: And there's no guarantee on how they will respond. But I think when you do that, you are
being in the image and likeness of God who came and died for people who were still spitting on
Him.
Jocelyn: Yes.
Janet: So regardless of how they respond, it's moving from I'm in this friendship or any
relationship for what it does for me too I'm not even my own anymore. I belong to the One who
redeemed me. I belong to God. I was made for Him and by Him. So now any relationship I have,
the goal is how do I represent God to you? How do I love you the way God loves me? Not what
am I getting from you? So now conflict is just another opportunity to love biblically.
Jocelyn: Exactly and if you think about all these different applications as opportunities where
God's righteousness can fill the whole earth, it changes the focus off of how annoying it is to
have to deal with something difficult into an opportunity where I can think God's way about this
and live out His goodness. In a way that the entire world is filled with representations of what is
right and what is good. And when that happens, God's glory is being shined out in the dominion
that God's placed us in. So at our home, at work with our family, even in the grocery store, any
little circumstance that you can imagine when we are living God's definitions of what is right and
what is good, because we have been rescued from our death that we chose when we rebelled
against the Creator. If we've been rescued from that, and we've been returned to the possibility of
thinking rightly and doing good, the whole earth is being filled with the glory of God. And the
people around us are being blessed because of that relationship that we have with the Creator,
because we have been rescued by Jesus.
Janet: I love that. And if you think in general, if you've been on a human level, if you have
someone who has rescued you from death. How loyal, you would be to that person who did that
for you and how grateful you would be. And that's what should mark our lives. And we're in a
world where we want more and more of the glory of God, but it's very dark right now. But I
think about even, I shop at Meijer, I think about even just going to Meijer, whatever it is you do
on a daily basis. If I am looking to love other people the way God has loved me. There is a little
bit of light that's walking around Meijer.
Jocelyn: Exactly.
Janet: And it might be dark there, but there's a little bit of light and I get to do that. I get to show
people what my Savior is like, and that should be such a privilege when I realize what He's done
to rescue me.
Jocelyn: Exactly. Exactly. It's such an awesome privilege to realize that our life is not about us. It
is about being returned back to the purpose that God made us for. And that is to represent Him
accurately. So when people see us function, when my husband sees me, when my girls see me,
they're hopefully learning who God is better because of my interactions with him, because I have
been rescued from my being ruined at having chosen to rebel against the Creator.
Janet: Excellent. Is there anything that you would say we've said a lot I think it's, I've been
encouraged by it. What would be, this is what I want to give them as a takeaway.
Jocelyn: Well, as a takeaway, it's important to remember that God created us for a purpose. So
that He could pour out His love on us. I think sometimes we think of God as this just big judge in
the sky waiting to pound us, God made the world so He could pour out His love on us. And He
wanted us to respond by loving Him back and then emulating Him, thinking His way,
functioning His way, in such a way that anyone that was encountered by us living rightly and
doing good would be blessed by our presence in their life. That only is possible if Jesus has
rescued us from our rebellion. So being saved is not just about one day going to heaven. It's
about our life being returned to a purpose. I can live out emulating God now, loving Him, being
loved by Him and living according His definitions of what's right. And doing good in order to
bring a blessing right here and now in my life. And like you mentioned, it's going to be an
ongoing, growing venture. But I can have a purpose. I can do the thing that God created me to
do. And I'm going to have lots and lots of opportunities to practice that in small little moments
where glimpses of Jesus can be seen. Taste of the rescuer can be experienced. And the way that
we live our life has the opportunity to really live in a way that makes people want to know more
and learn more about the reason that we live our life, the way that we do.
Janet: Great. So. Do you want to share some of the resources that we're going to also be
including?
Jocelyn: Yes. We wanted to include some recommendations for resources that would help you
think more about the gospel in general. And one of our favorite tools for both of us is the
"Gospel Primer" by Milton Vincent.
Janet: Absolutely.
Jocelyn: Both of us probably assign that in counseling frequently. Yeah.
Janet: Yes.
Jocelyn: So we have three books that we're going to recommend. in our episode notes, one is the
"Gospel Primer" and then also "What is the Gospel?" and the "Explicit Gospel" three books that
are not too big, that would be easy to share. I also really love to use videos because we live in a
world where people don't really love to read. And that's cool. We need to meet people where they
are. We have a resource that our church uses called right now media. And as a church member,
we have access to all the stuff on that really cool, tools site. One of my favorite, I think it's
appropriate for kids of all ages, video is called "The Story" and it is a comic book that is just put
to music and, put to voices that tells the story of the gospel in a really compelling way. I love it.
It's called "The Story".
Janet: I've never heard that.
Jocelyn: It's very awesome. And I also love the Bible project. I feel like they do a great job
explaining really big complex topics two of my favorite videos that they have are "The Story of
the Bible" and also "The Gospel of the Kingdom". There's a bunch of videos that the Bible
project makes it talks about the gospel. But I think those are really simple.
Janet: We'll have links for both of those.
Jocelyn: We'll have links for those and it just presents what is the gospel and why does this
matter? And how does it affect your life? And what have we been rescued from in a way that's
really compelling. So there are some great resources that would help you understand this more if
you'd like to study it in a more deep way.
Janet: Excellent. Thank you, Jocelyn. This has been really great. What I would like us to think
about for those who are listening next week, next episode. Probably won't be next week. Next
episode, we'll talk about what is biblical love? Because we mentioned it a lot today. I noticed
that we want to love well, and I really do believe, especially as I've counseled a lot of women
there's a lot of confusion on what that means. If we're going to live out our purpose and we're
going to love the way God loves, let's spend some time talking about what that really means.
Jocelyn: And how He loves us. It's such a huge topic.
Janet: Yes. Yes. So we're going to delve into that next week, but for today, thank you for
coming. And we're looking forward to talking together again in a couple of weeks.
Jocelyn: Sounds good.
Janet: To keep from missing any future episodes, please sign up for our newsletter on our
webpage joyfuljourneypod.com. From there you can also subscribe to this podcast on Apple,
Google, or Spotify. You can also visit us on our Facebook page or Instagram at Joyful Journey
Podcast. If you have questions or comments for us, you can email us at
joyfuljourneyquestions@outlook.com. Joyful Journey Podcast is a ministry of Faith Bible
Seminary. All proceeds go to offset costs of this podcast and toward scholarships for women to
receive their MABC through Faith Bible Seminary.
Host Janet and her husband, Brent, also speak at a variety of conferences as a way to raise money
for the seminary. If you want to look at what they offer or book them for a conference, go to their
website.
