0:04

At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast

0:06

. Our goal is to help you delight

0:08

in God's Word and thrive in Christian

0:10

living . Each week we talk to

0:13

subject matter experts who broaden

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your biblical understanding , encourage

0:17

you in hard times and provide

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life-building tips to enhance

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your Christian walk . We are so

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glad you have joined us . Welcome

0:26

back to the Coffee and Bible Time

0:28

podcast . I'm Ellen , your host

0:31

, and today we are going to be

0:33

talking about a topic that

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I think everybody can relate to

0:37

in one way or another . So

0:39

let's start with . Have you ever studied relationships

0:42

in the Bible and come across this precious

0:45

friendship that existed

0:47

between Jesus and his siblings

0:49

, mary Martha

0:51

and Lazarus I shouldn't say Jesus'

0:53

siblings , but the sibling group of Mary

0:56

, martha and Lazarus . And

0:58

we have so much to learn

1:00

from Jesus' perfect

1:02

example of friendship by

1:05

how he demonstrated his love

1:07

to them , his compassion and

1:10

acceptance of his friends

1:12

, and because of Jesus's

1:15

remarkable friendship with them

1:17

. They were actually willing to sort

1:19

of lay down their societal expectations

1:22

and unhealthy patterns in exchange

1:24

for a healthy relationship that

1:27

Jesus offered . And the good

1:29

news of that relationship is that we

1:31

too can experience that

1:33

kind of friendship with Jesus

1:35

. And I'm joined today by

1:38

Amy Boucher-Pai , who wrote in

1:40

her book Transforming Love

1:42

how Friendship with Jesus Changes

1:45

Us , that studying Jesus's

1:47

friendships is a great place to

1:49

start in our goal of experiencing

1:52

him on an intimate level . Amy

1:55

Boucher-Pye is an author

1:57

, speaker , retreat leader

1:59

and spiritual director . She's

2:02

the author of seven

2:04

books and resources , and

2:06

her first book , finding Myself in

2:08

Britain , won the Christian Living

2:10

Book of the Year in the United

2:13

Kingdom . She also writes

2:15

for publications such as Our

2:17

Daily Bread . She has an MA

2:19

in Christian spirituality from the University

2:22

of London and enjoys leading

2:24

retreats . Please welcome

2:26

Amy .

2:27

Hi , I'm so glad to be

2:29

here with you , Ellen , thank you for having me

2:31

.

2:32

Oh , what a delight . You know

2:34

, Amy , when I was sort

2:37

of getting myself familiar with your book

2:39

and I learned about

2:41

your experience here

2:43

in Minnesota and

2:46

you're living in the UK . Maybe

2:55

just greet our listeners here in America with just a little bit about your growing

2:57

up here in Minnesota .

2:57

Sure , yes , well , I had 20

3:00

wonderful years in Minnesota

3:02

and then , when I was at university

3:04

, I went to Washington DC and spent 10

3:06

years there , and then now I've

3:08

been in England for a long time .

3:42

Why don't you share with us when

3:45

Jesus lived here on earth , he

3:47

was not only friends with his disciples

3:49

, which I think is what's more commonly talked

3:51

about a lot , but

3:53

he also developed this close relationship

3:56

with this group of siblings . So

3:58

tell us about what

4:00

was special about this friendship and what you've

4:03

learned through that .

4:04

Yes , definitely . Well , Mary

4:07

, Martha and Lazarus . Their home in

4:09

Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem

4:11

and it was really Jesus's

4:14

home away from home . It was the

4:16

place where he went to relax

4:18

, to put his hair down , as it were

4:20

, and Martha

4:23

was noted as the head of the household

4:25

, which would be countercultural , and

4:27

maybe because she was the eldest , maybe

4:30

Lazarus had a chronic

4:32

condition . We don't know , but

4:34

it's really fascinating how she

4:36

is the one who welcomes Jesus and

4:39

his friends to be there

4:41

together where he could relax

4:43

. He knew them the

4:45

sisters are . It

4:47

says in John's gospel that they are those

4:49

whom Jesus loved . So

4:52

there was clearly this really wonderful

4:55

, deep , intimate

4:57

friendship between the three

4:59

of them , where , God

5:01

, you know , Jesus takes them on a journey . We

5:03

see that through the three stories of the gospels

5:06

and we'll probably get into that . But it's amazing

5:09

how he takes them on this wonderful journey

5:11

, just like he takes us on a journey

5:13

of transforming us , changing us from

5:15

within .

5:18

That's so beautiful In

5:20

this perspective of Jesus

5:23

in his relationship with

5:25

the siblings , tell us about

5:28

how

5:31

it can sometimes feel elusive

5:33

, you know , for us here on earth not having

5:35

that one-on-one . You

5:37

know him sitting down with us at our table

5:39

. For the person , maybe that's listening

5:42

, that's like , but I don't know

5:44

how to do that for

5:46

me . How do I make that happen

5:48

? What would you say to that

5:50

?

5:51

Well , Jesus , when he was preparing

5:53

his disciples , his male

5:55

friends , for when he was going

5:57

to die , after they'd had their last supper together

6:00

. In John's Gospel we see him saying

6:02

I'm going away , but

6:04

I'm sending the advocate , the spirit

6:06

, and you'll be better off

6:08

. He's like you'll be better off because you've got the

6:11

spirit living within you which

6:13

came at Pentecost . When we

6:15

accept Jesus , he

6:17

comes and lives within us . So he

6:20

was like it's okay , you won't

6:22

have me face to face , but I'll

6:24

be there inside of you . So

6:26

you know , we just need to cry out and God

6:29

will give us a sense of peace , or we can

6:31

put our hand on our heart and remind ourselves

6:34

that Christ lives within us

6:36

Every time we wash our hands . We can make

6:38

it a habit to go . Lord Jesus , I love

6:41

you and you live within me . Give me peace , give me hope , give

6:43

me patience . Give me hope , give me patience

6:45

, love me , help me , love others . You

6:47

know we can build these practices in

6:50

to our lives . And as

6:52

tempting as it is to think , oh , I really

6:54

am jealous of Mary and Martha to

6:58

listen to Jesus in John's Gospel and go

7:00

, but he's right there with me

7:02

all the time . I didn't have to wait for him to

7:04

rock up at my house in Bethany . He's

7:06

with me always . I mean , it's just

7:08

life changing , isn't it ?

7:11

Yes , it sure is , and I think that that's

7:13

something we need to remind ourselves

7:15

on a continual

7:18

basis and tap

7:20

into the Holy

7:22

Spirit and being attentive

7:25

to the spiritual

7:27

nudgings . If you will , I'd

7:30

like to step into things

7:33

that you use to

7:35

describe this friendship

7:38

with Jesus , like you talk about

7:41

sort of three different aspects

7:43

of being and doing

7:45

as one , and how grieving

7:47

and rejoicing is part

7:49

, and then loving and serving . So

7:52

those three different aspects

7:54

. Why don't we take just a

7:56

little bit of a tour through

7:58

what you learned in

8:01

these different gospel stories

8:03

? That sort of

8:05

helped you bring out those particular

8:08

aspects .

8:11

Well , the first one is the one

8:13

that we , especially as Christian women

8:15

, we perhaps know the best

8:18

the Luke 10 story , which

8:21

and , as you said , I look

8:23

at being and doing with that . And

8:25

that's the story where Martha's in the kitchen

8:27

, she's getting ready because Jesus and his friends

8:29

have landed on them and Bethany

8:32

and they didn't text ahead . So she's

8:34

trying to get everything sorted . And

8:37

Mary is there at Jesus's feet

8:39

, being massively countercultural

8:41

, because a woman just did not

8:43

sit at the feet of a teacher . That was not

8:46

acceptable . Women couldn't even

8:48

read the Torah , they couldn't

8:50

read the scriptures . Their husband or

8:52

their father had to read it to

8:54

them . So Jesus is there

8:57

welcoming Mary to sit

8:59

at his feet and Martha's all getting

9:01

all upset in the kitchen like tell

9:03

her to help me . And then Jesus

9:05

does that wonderful thing of Martha

9:08

Martha saying her name twice

9:10

Come , she's chosen the better

9:12

thing , come and be . So

9:15

it's that being and doing . And

9:17

he's not saying doing is a bad thing , you

9:26

know . He's not saying Martha , you just should be sitting here at my feet . He's inviting

9:28

her to release what's weighing her down so

9:30

that he can transform

9:32

her . So , you know , we can have this wonderful

9:35

relationship between being and doing and

9:37

I learned so much . I read up on a

9:40

lot of the church fathers , the ancient church

9:42

fathers from way back . So

9:44

a bunch of men looking at Mary and Martha

9:46

and going . This is a wonderful

9:49

look at contemplation and action , of

9:51

being and doing , and it was

9:53

just marvelous to learn and to see

9:55

that we can be and

9:57

we can do .

9:58

Yes , it sure is

10:01

. How about for you

10:03

, amy ? Do you see yourself

10:05

as sort of the

10:08

be present in the moment or the doer ? Do you have a natural tendency

10:11

, one way or the other ? Cause ? I know what mine is

10:13

, but I'll let you go first .

10:15

Well , I think I do

10:17

like to do a lot and that's

10:19

part of um , I think that's

10:21

, yeah , that's part of how I've been made . But

10:24

I also increasingly love

10:26

to be and to sit at Jesus's

10:28

feet and and I

10:31

hope that my being

10:33

fuels my doing . In my best

10:35

moments , my being fuels my doing

10:37

. I mean , I don't always get it right , but

10:39

yeah , let's hope that . The being

10:41

and the doing . How about you ? Which way do you

10:44

tend to go ?

10:45

I find myself definitely more

10:47

tending towards the doing aspect

10:50

and I need

10:52

to be very intentional about

10:54

and I find the greatest joy

10:57

when I'm actually spending

10:59

time at Jesus's feet . So

11:02

I think for

11:04

me it's a it's , it's a struggle , it's

11:06

this . You know , I feel

11:08

like I should be doing all these things and

11:11

sometimes guilty that I'm taking time out

11:13

, but I think that's

11:15

such a great reminder in this story

11:18

of Mary and Martha , uh , of

11:20

recalling what truly is

11:22

, um , that

11:24

Jesus is asking , and if we want to grow

11:26

this friendship with Christ right , we

11:28

need to spend time learning

11:32

and reading and praying

11:34

. Well , how

11:36

about the grieving and rejoicing part

11:39

in the John

11:41

11 story ?

11:43

Yeah , John 11 is an amazing

11:45

story . It's the second longest

11:48

narrative in John's Gospel outside

11:50

of his passion , and

11:52

so the space that John

11:54

gives it means that it's really important

11:56

. And so we

11:58

see , I love this story because I

12:01

think Martha gets a bad rap so often

12:03

, this

12:07

story , because I think Martha gets a bad rap so often . But Martha is the one there who goes out to

12:09

Jesus and who says you're the Messiah . She proclaims

12:12

him as the Messiah . She's one of three people

12:14

pre-resurrection who says

12:16

you are the Messiah , and

12:19

I think that gets overlooked , doesn't

12:24

it ? She and Mary say exactly the

12:26

same thing to him . Lord , if you'd been

12:28

here , my brother wouldn't have died . But

12:30

the way Martha says it is kind of matter

12:32

of fact and you're

12:35

the Messiah , you could have dealt with this , whereas

12:38

Mary , who is so often

12:40

lauded in contemporary Christian

12:42

culture , goes and

12:45

slams herself at

12:47

the feet of Jesus , weeping

12:49

inconsolably . She's

12:51

basically having a crisis of faith

12:53

, and Jesus , it

12:57

doesn't say anything to her , but acts . He

12:59

goes and he resurrects Lazarus

13:02

. He calls Lazarus back

13:04

to life , and this story

13:06

is kind of a precursor to show

13:09

what's going to happen in the resurrection

13:11

. You know , we have the grieving

13:13

and we have the rejoicing . He's

13:16

showing it's kind

13:18

of a worked out example

13:20

that he is indeed the Messiah , he's

13:22

the Lord of life . So

13:24

I mean Lazarus we never hear

13:26

anything from him in the Gospels

13:29

, but he changes the most in

13:31

one way , doesn't he ? Because he dies and he's brought

13:33

back to life . So , grieving

13:36

and rejoicing we'll all have grieving

13:38

in our lives . Grieving and rejoicing we'll all have grieving in our lives

13:40

and I pray and hope that we'll all have rejoicing

13:42

and

13:50

welcoming Jesus into those experiences is

13:53

how he can change us , to make us more like

13:55

him and to be there and to comfort us , to give us hope and to pick us

13:57

up when we're at his feet , saying

13:59

, Jesus , I've lost hope , I've

14:01

lost the will to

14:03

love and to hope .

14:06

Yes , I feel like

14:09

when you see that Jesus

14:12

did grieve , it helps bring

14:14

out the humanity side

14:16

of him . Yet we also

14:19

see the divine power of god

14:21

in this act of resurrection

14:23

, and how

14:26

would you say ? The two of those

14:29

you know . Combining those two

14:31

together can just help us

14:33

trust him more

14:36

well , I think you've said it

14:38

beautifully .

14:39

You've brought out that we do really

14:41

see how he is fully man

14:43

and he's fully God

14:45

. And we have that famous shortest

14:47

verse in the Bible in John 11 , John

14:50

11 , 35 , Jesus wept , but

15:02

I read Bible scholars . The original language shows that he's like , he has this anger

15:04

against death that is shown in him weeping , and

15:07

so to know that God is

15:10

fully human , we can relate

15:12

to him . And then we see him

15:14

bringing back Lazarus from

15:16

the dead , so we can believe that he's

15:19

fully God , so he has the power to change

15:21

us . He has the power to change

15:23

and he's stronger than evil , isn't

15:26

he ?

15:27

Yes , Praise

15:29

God for that .

15:30

Yeah , we feel like we need to stop and

15:32

say thank you Jesus , thank you Lord

15:34

.

15:36

Yeah , yeah

16:31

, absolutely All

16:33

right . So we've touched on

16:35

sort of the being and doing

16:37

aspect and grieving

16:40

and rejoicing . Let's

16:42

talk about loving and serving

16:44

and how that can help

16:46

us in our

16:49

friendship with Jesus .

16:51

Sure . Well , John 12 is

16:53

the story of this

16:55

big meal that they were having

16:57

to celebrate , and Mary and

16:59

Martha were there . It wasn't actually in their

17:01

home in Bethany , but it was in a

17:03

different home , Simon of Cyrene and

17:06

I love that . All

17:08

we see of Martha is this two

17:10

little words . Martha served and

17:13

it's just so beautiful that she was doing

17:15

what she loved to do . You know Jesus

17:18

had changed her , but she was still fully

17:20

Martha . She was happy , but

17:22

she's not . Like you know , she's

17:25

not stewing in the kitchen anymore

17:27

. She's there serving and

17:29

fulfilling who she is

17:31

. And this is the beautiful story

17:33

where Mary takes what

17:36

probably could have been her dowry

17:38

, this very expensive

17:40

bottle of perfume which would have been worth

17:43

a year's wages of a working

17:45

man , you know , like I

17:48

don't know today's equivalent , $30,000

17:50

or pounds or whatever and

17:52

she breaks the opening

17:55

. So there's no going back , there's no putting

17:57

it back in , and she anoints

17:59

Jesus with love . She's so

18:01

grateful for the way that he's

18:04

changed her and that he's brought

18:06

her brother back

18:08

to life that she

18:10

just pours out her

18:12

love onto Jesus , onto

18:14

his feet , anointing him for his death

18:17

a week later . So

18:19

he would have probably still had that lovely

18:22

wafting smell on

18:25

the cross . And that's what he

18:27

invites us to do . He invites us to serve

18:29

, like Martha , and to

18:31

anoint him with our precious gifts

18:34

, which , you know

18:36

, go up to heaven in beautiful

18:38

ways that we don't even , we

18:40

won't know . We don't

18:42

know how God uses the ways that we anoint

18:44

him , but he receives them as a precious

18:46

gift , amy , if you could ask Mary and

18:49

Martha a question .

18:50

Amy , if you could ask Mary

18:52

and Martha a question , what

18:55

would you want to know ?

18:57

Well , I would want to know from

18:59

Mary what did you learn

19:01

when you were sitting at Jesus'

19:04

feet ? What was he teaching ? I

19:06

mean , wouldn't that be the most amazing Bible

19:08

study ? We talk about coffee in the

19:10

Bible , but I want to have that

19:12

Bible study with Jesus and Mary and

19:25

with Martha . Ooh , I think I want to ask her about that experience

19:27

of her naming Jesus as the Messiah , how that felt , how he affirmed

19:30

her . What happened after that ? What was her life

19:32

like after these three

19:34

episodes that we see in Scripture

19:36

? It would be so fun , wouldn't it

19:39

.

19:41

You know , I think one of the things that really

19:44

stands out to me is

19:46

the fact

19:48

that she used

19:51

this expensive perfume

19:54

to

19:56

pour this on Jesus' feet because

19:59

of such an overwhelming

20:02

deep sense of loving

20:04

, believing that Jesus

20:07

is who he says he is and

20:09

I feel like that's something that all

20:12

of us are striving

20:14

for is just to

20:16

have this incredible

20:19

faith . What

20:21

do you think we can

20:23

learn from that

20:26

act and how it ties into our own faith

20:28

journey , our own faith

20:30

journey ?

20:32

Well , I think , as we stop

20:34

and stop some of our

20:36

busyness and receive

20:39

, receive God's love , receive

20:42

God's love through Jesus and the Holy Spirit

20:44

, receive

20:55

, like Mary did . She received so much from God that she wanted

20:57

to pour it out on Jesus , to anoint Jesus's feet

20:59

. And so , as we find out who we are in Christ , as we've become

21:01

so , so certain of our

21:03

identity as God's beloved , then

21:06

what we do is we'll just be bursting

21:09

forth with thanks and

21:11

praise and adoration

21:14

and anointing God just

21:16

simply in our daily

21:18

lives , because we'll be so overflowing

21:20

with love and thankfulness . So

21:23

I think it's about receiving and knowing

21:25

who we are and knowing how much that we're

21:28

loved , and then it's

21:30

. You know , it's no hardship to love somebody

21:33

and to pour out your love on somebody , is

21:35

it ?

21:37

No , it really . You

21:39

find such great joy in

21:42

doing that . Amy

21:45

, one of the beautiful things about

21:47

your book is how

21:49

you tie in prayer

21:52

. How

22:00

you tie in prayer . Tell us a little bit about the process you used in setting up this time of prayer

22:02

for each of these sections

22:04

and what people can expect

22:07

to be able to take away from that

22:09

.

22:09

Yes , I love

22:11

prayer and one of my recent books is called

22:14

Seven Ways to Pray . It came out

22:16

of the work that I did with my masters

22:18

of just exploring ancient

22:21

ways to pray , not because

22:23

they're ancient , but because they're time

22:25

tested and because God

22:27

loves to pour out

22:29

his love on us . So whenever

22:32

I lead retreats in

22:34

any of my books I always want

22:36

to leave space for

22:38

people to encounter God . So

22:40

at the end of each of the chapters in Transforming

22:42

Love I have a prayer exercise

22:45

, two prayer exercises . They're

22:48

either based on prayerful reading

22:50

or imagining yourself in

22:52

the gospel story or these other

22:54

wonderful ways to pray , and

22:57

then also personalizing Psalm

22:59

23 . How are we

23:01

viewing God ? Is

23:03

he a distant father ? Is

23:05

he an uncaring judge ? Is

23:08

he a dictator ? Or is

23:10

he our shepherd ? Is he our friend ? For

23:13

me as a writer , sometimes I say the Lord

23:15

is my publisher , the Lord is my reviewer

23:17

, the Lord is my , you know , teacher

23:19

. There's so many different

23:21

ways that we can put in different

23:23

things of . It's just an exercise

23:26

to go . How am I viewing God

23:28

? Am I really viewing him ? Is

23:30

he really meeting all my needs Like he

23:32

promises he will him

23:36

? Is he really meeting all my needs Like he promises he will . So that's my biggest

23:38

pleasure is to hear how people , how people , encounter God through prayer

23:40

, and so I love making available

23:42

those kinds of prayer exercises .

23:47

Okay , I absolutely

23:50

love this idea of

23:52

personalizing Psalm 23 . For

23:55

me , that is , you

23:59

know , something that I memorized as a young

24:01

child and even to this

24:04

day I use it . Probably

24:07

every other day . I think

24:09

of it in some circumstance or another

24:11

where I'm saying it to myself . But

24:14

I love how

24:17

you make it so personal

24:19

and I'm just looking at one of the examples

24:22

you have in the book here where you said

24:24

the Lord is my colleague . I lack

24:26

nothing . He makes me a hot

24:28

drink , he leads me to a quiet

24:31

space for a break , he refreshes

24:33

my soul , and I won't

24:35

tell everything , but I

24:38

just found that so encouraging

24:41

and just the personalization

24:43

of that particular

24:45

psalm to be so

24:48

meaningful , and I think it would be

24:50

something great . For if you're listening to this

24:52

, that would be such a great journaling exercise

24:56

. Yes , totally .

24:58

Yes , I have instructions on my website

25:01

just my name

25:03

, amyboucherpye . com of how to do

25:05

this , and it's just very simple . Just

25:07

ask God what

25:11

aspect of my life can

25:13

you meet my needs in at this point ? Where's

25:15

my point of need right

25:18

now ? And then

25:20

name the Lord is my so-and-so

25:22

, and you just model

25:25

it on Psalm 23 , which is one

25:27

of the most amazing set of verses

25:30

out there , isn't it ? I was reading it today

25:32

and going oh , surely

25:34

your love and mercy will follow me all

25:36

the days of my life , even though I walk through

25:38

the valley of death , or even

25:40

though I walk through the valley of bad reviews , or

25:43

even though I walk through the valley of sagging

25:45

flesh or I don't know whatever sagging

25:51

flasher , I don't know Whatever . Seriously , yeah , you could write

25:53

something different every day .

25:54

Yes , yes , which , which I really love . I

25:57

think I'm really going to remember that when I'm

25:59

in my workout class

26:01

, the

26:04

Lord is my hero

26:06

.

26:06

I can

26:09

the lord is my instructor , my aerobics

26:11

instructor yes

26:13

, yes I love that .

26:16

Well , amy , as we start to kind

26:18

of wrap things up with this part of the discussion

26:21

, tell our listeners

26:23

like something that they can do

26:25

right now to cultivate their

26:27

friendship with god do

26:32

right now to cultivate their friendship with God ?

26:33

Well , turn to God , that's just the number one thing . Turn to God with your heart and

26:35

express your desires

26:37

, and God will come rushing towards

26:40

you with open arms , just

26:42

as he did with the prodigal son , and

26:44

I'm not saying that we're prodigal daughters and

26:46

sons , but God rushes

26:48

towards us . So , yeah , and

26:51

try out the Psalm 23 . Exercise

26:54

, that would be another great thing .

26:57

Yeah , yeah , absolutely All

27:00

right . Well , how can people find out

27:02

more information about

27:04

you and the book ? I know ? You mentioned

27:06

your website , but why don't you ? Do you need to

27:08

maybe spell that ?

27:09

Yes , I'm sure I do . So

27:11

it's Amy Boucher Pie . It's Amy

27:14

, and then B-O-U-C-H-E-R-P-Y-Ecom

27:19

. And then I'm on , you know , instagram

27:21

and Facebook and X , formerly

27:24

known as Twitter . So yeah

27:26

, and I have a YouTube channel with prayer exercises

27:29

. So if you want to check those out and

27:31

do some prayer exercises , I

27:33

was recently on the island of Iona

27:35

on the western part of

27:37

Scotland and I'm going soon

27:39

to the south coast of England all these

27:41

amazing places where I lead retreats

27:43

. So if you want a taste of some beauty

27:46

, I love sharing prayer

27:48

exercises from these places . I get to go

27:50

.

27:50

So it's , yeah , it's , I love to help

27:52

Tell us a little bit about one of these

27:54

retreats .

27:55

Yeah , well , I just went to Iona

27:57

. We all met in Glasgow

27:59

, so we all had a journey to Glasgow

28:01

, and then the next day we took two buses

28:03

and two ferries to get

28:05

to the inner Hebrides . This

28:08

is the western part of Scotland

28:11

where St Columba in

28:13

ooh was it in the 300s

28:16

brought the Christian faith

28:18

to the British Isles

28:21

with its Celtic Christianity . And

28:23

so it was this amazing , rugged

28:25

, gorgeous place , and

28:27

we had to leave the island with an hour to

28:29

spare before the storm Kathleen

28:31

came in . So we

28:33

had a taste of being a pilgrim , but God

28:36

was with us .

28:37

So , yeah , it's amazing , god is God

28:39

, pours himself out when we turn

28:42

toward him that

28:46

sounds incredible , especially just combining

28:48

the aspect of nature

28:51

and the beauty of God's creation

28:53

into that whole process . It must be

28:55

pretty , pretty incredible .

28:57

Yeah , yes , it is . Yes

28:59

. I'm very grateful to get to do these fun things

29:01

and to share them with others .

29:10

Okay , well , we will make sure we put links to all of that in our show notes Before

29:12

we go . Amy , I want to ask you about some of our favorite

29:14

Bible study tool questions

29:16

. What Bible is your

29:18

go-to Bible and what translation is

29:20

it ?

29:21

Yes , I have with

29:24

me the NIV Bible

29:27

Speaks Today Bible , which I

29:29

just love . I love it because it

29:32

has the wonderful commentary

29:34

of the Bible Speaks Today series

29:36

and it's all condensed down

29:39

so you can just get into the text

29:41

, get the context , get this wonderful

29:44

, lovely commentary from

29:46

the Bible Speaks Today NIV . I

29:48

highly recommend it .

29:52

Okay , excellent recommendation

29:54

. Do you have any favorite journaling

29:56

supplies or anything that you like to

29:58

use to enhance your Bible study experience

30:01

?

30:01

I do . I like to use coloring

30:05

pages from the Lindisfarne Scriptorium

30:08

, this wonderful group

30:11

of people up on Lindisfarne which is

30:13

known as Holy Island Again , that

30:15

Kelton Christianity . They have lots

30:17

of wonderful resources , especially coloring

30:20

in Bible

30:22

passages , just as a way to slow

30:24

ourselves down . And that's just

30:27

so much of the beauty of encountering

30:29

God . And , like when Seven Ways to Pray

30:31

, a lot of my practices are how

30:33

can we slow ourselves down and

30:36

really interact with God so that we

30:38

can stop and hear God and hear all

30:40

the wonderful things that he has for us and

30:42

that he likes to share with us ?

30:45

That's so neat ? Is there a special

30:47

website that people can go

30:49

to to get those ? Yes , yes

30:51

you certainly don't have to go all the way there

30:54

.

30:54

No , you don't . Yes , it's lindisfarnscriptoriumcouk

30:59

, so lindisfarn

31:01

, l-i-n-d-i-s-f-a-r-n-e

31:05

, and then a little dash and

31:07

then scriptorium E

31:14

, and then a little dash and then scriptorium S-C-R-I-P-T-O-R-I-U-Mcouk , and they're all available

31:16

for purchase for not too much money . Definitely recommend

31:18

them , okay awesome

31:21

.

31:22

That's really cool . I'm going to check that

31:24

out and we will also put the link to that in our

31:26

show notes . Lastly , what is your favorite

31:28

app or website for Bible

31:30

study tools ?

31:32

Well , one thing that I use a lot is

31:34

the NIV Audio Bible

31:36

, narrated by David Suchet

31:38

, who you might recognize as Inspector

31:41

Poirot , the Agatha

31:43

Christie . I just love

31:45

hearing him narrate it . Sometimes , if I

31:47

can't fall asleep , I have these like little

31:49

, these little headphones

31:51

that are like a headband , you know , so you can sleep

31:54

. I have those too . They're

31:56

amazing . Yes , so

31:58

you can put For sleeping . Yes , exactly

32:01

yes , so you just

32:03

put on the NIV , you put on the

32:05

timer and you hear

32:07

scripture and

32:09

you get to just , and I love how it comes

32:11

alive in a different way than reading . I

32:14

tend to be more visual , so

32:16

I love all the things that you all do

32:18

with Bible journaling and colors

32:20

and sticky notes , but I also

32:23

love hearing the Bible too , and

32:25

it's like God speaks it over us

32:27

. It's like it almost , you know , singing

32:29

over us in love . So I

32:31

recommend that the NIV audio

32:34

, the Bible , app .

32:36

Okay , excellent . Well , we will make sure

32:38

we have links for all of those things in our

32:40

show notes . Amy , thank you so much

32:43

for joining us today . I

32:45

just think it's been such a great reminder

32:48

for us to think of

32:50

Jesus in terms of being our

32:53

friend too , as

32:55

well as our savior . So , and just

32:57

like any friendship , we need to tend to

32:59

it , and Jesus is

33:01

the greatest example of how to do

33:03

relationships well .

33:05

So Amy thank you . Oh well

33:07

, thank you . It's been an absolute pleasure

33:10

. So thank you so much .

33:11

I'm very grateful all right

33:14

, you are welcome and for our listeners , be sure

33:16

and get a copy of Amy's book, Transforming

33:19

Love, today . We will have

33:21

the link in our show notes . Thank

33:24

you so much for listening . We appreciate

33:26

you all . Have a blessed day .