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Amelia Walden's journey is one of profound transformation and unexpected paths. What if a personal identity crisis could spark a creative revolution in your life? Amelia, the author of "From You to Gentile," shares how her shift from a religious upbringing to a vibrant relationship with God redefined her purpose and led her to write a compelling book. In our conversation, Amelia opens up about her passion for impacting lives through introducing people to Christ. She also shares the lasting influences of her father and a wise worship leader named Tabby, who taught her the art of "being a duck" amidst life's inevitable storms.
Explore how Amelia navigated her spiritual journey through the complexities of a mixed-religion household. From the rituals of Catholicism to a time of detachment from religion, her spiritual path took a pivotal turn in 2020, finding a new home in Christianity. Her father's gentle encouragement and her exploration of scripture, particularly the book of Ephesians, played crucial roles in reconciling her family's diverse beliefs. Amelia's story highlights her transition from viewing religion as mere ritual to embracing a dynamic and personal relationship with God, demonstrating the transformative influence of community and scripture.
A seemingly accidental meeting became a cornerstone of Amelia's faith and personal growth. She recounts her initial embarrassment at joining a worship team meeting by mistake, which serendipitously ignited her interest in music and led her to audition for the team. These experiences, which Amelia terms "Gig Breaks," reveal the divine interventions that connect the scattered pieces of our lives. Through these stories, Amelia encourages us to recognize and appreciate the subtle and profound presence of God in our daily experiences, inviting us to deepen our faith and embrace the transformative power of the gospel.
Amelia's Book Link, on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Amelia-L.-Walden/author/B0D3YZ9QVJ?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1734485216&sr=1-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Amelia's Website.
https://fromjtog.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHPBhhleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHcFv0ii8xG4NxSAUlLgX3MIgvyPS5SFcKO7nSJHHakTZau0Li4Rag0mYzw_aem_M6eAeUY-_t2LdO7FExhvZg
Let me know what you think of this episode?
https://buymeacoffee.com/dorseyross
Social Media Links,
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Thank You for Listening, I hope you enjoyed this episode and that it encouraged you. Please like, share, and leave a review.
00:00 - Author's Journey
07:31 - Faith Journey Through Different Religions
14:21 - Journey of Faith Identity and Transformation
24:51 - Finding Faith Through Life's Journey
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Hello everyone, thanks again for joining me on another episode of the Dorsure's Show.
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Today we have a special guest with us.
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Her name is Amelia Walden and she is the author of the new book From you to Gentile, and it is a transformation from religion to relationship Listen to Relationship.
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She lives in a small town in northwest Missouri with her husband Ronnie and her daughter Lena.
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She lives a pretty nifty little normal life, except that at the end of the summer of 2023, she had an after after an identity crisis.
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God gave her the mission puzzle piece to his calling on her life and it was my book.
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It was completely unexpected and she absolutely was shocked upon the delivery that she had never dreamed to write a book.
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She is a contract auditor with a social psychology degree.
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Shocked upon delivery that she had never dreamed to write a book.
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She is a contract auditor with a social psychology degree, no English major.
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However, she strives to lead a life filled with English love and laughter, graciously walking with those around me to show how her life lived with the Lord is well lived.
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She loves discussing and sharing the transformative power of God's love and hope.
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I hope you enjoy reading and listening to the new book and audio book Amelia.
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Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
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Thank you so much for having me, Dorsey.
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I'm excited to be here.
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Absolutely.
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One of my things that I do in the beginning is always ask my guests an icebreaker question, and today's icebreaker question is what is your biggest passion?
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My biggest, what, I'm sorry Passion, my biggest passion, oh man, well, I mean my family, but I really, I have to say, as far as passion, changing people's lives for God, I think reaching people's hearts, that is my ultimate mission.
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I feel like that is what has been laid on my heart.
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That is what I strive to do is to change people's lives for Christ, or to introduce them to Christ so he is able to change their lives.
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It's not me, it's him.
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You know, and I think that's yeah, that's my passion is really watching people's lives transform through knowing and finding Christ's love.
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Yeah, who is the most influential?
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person in your life and how did they impact you?
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Wow, Most influential person in my life.
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Well, okay, so that's a twofold question, I think.
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So I would first have to say my father.
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I had a very close relationship with him.
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He passed away about 10 years ago very suddenly from cancer, but he was the one that brought me to church when I was younger.
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He was the one that set the foundation albeit it was a Catholic foundation, which is not the faith that I follow today but it set the foundation for me to know that I could go to God, that there was a God, and so I think that was extremely influential in my life and just the man that he was.
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I strive every day to be as good as him.
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He was just a wonderful person, loved laughing, just you know, oh man, such a great guy, and so I think he was extremely formative in my life.
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But as far as ministry, the most influential person in my life has been the previous worship leader that I had, so my husband's in the military.
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We move a lot.
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We're in Missouri right now, but we were back in Texas a couple of years ago and that is the church where I found God again, and the worship leader at that church.
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Her name is Tabby.
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She has been instrumental in me finding God, finding faith, just a woman of God that I could lean on, that I could talk to, about anything.
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She has these things that I call tabbyisms.
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You know, she told me once to be a duck.
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And I was really confused and I was, you know.
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I had told her that I was writing the book and she said you know, if you get into any type of ministry, Amelia, you have to know how to be a duck, or you have to learn how to be a duck.
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And I was, you know, obviously confused with the statement.
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And so I asked her to clarify.
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And she said ducks will sit in the middle of a pond and rain will fall, storms will come, and they will sit and let it all come down around them and they will be completely unfazed, Be a duck.
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And I just thought that was so profound.
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She had so many more that just touched me throughout my life and I think she has just really transformed me.
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She is the hands and feet of Jesus.
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Watching her do.
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Ministry has given me an example to follow how to treat people, how to love people well, how to guide them to Christ.
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I just yeah, I'm very thankful for having them.
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Now, growing up, you had, you know, both parents.
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One was Jewish, one was Catholic, as you just said.
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Tell us about that uplifting and how did that affect you?
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Yeah, so my mother was, or we got more of the cultural side and it was from her parents.
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So our grandparents, really they brought the Jewish side to our family.
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My mother didn't go to temple, at least not that I ever saw.
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I think she did when she was little, but you know that wasn't anything that I saw.
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You know that wasn't anything that I saw.
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And then the Catholic side was definitely more pronounced in my life.
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So my father was a very devout Catholic.
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He would go to mass every single week, if not multiple times a week, before work.
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He would go to mass all the time, very devout in his faith.
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And I went to Catholic high school and so that was more of the religion that I grew up with.
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But I absolutely got the culture of Judaism and I say, you know, it's sort of funny.
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I got the culture part from my Jewish grandparents who would come and celebrate Hanukkah during Christmas time, it's like.
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So they would come to celebrate Christmas with us but then they would do all of the Hanukkah traditions while they were there with us, and so it just it.
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Yeah, it's sort of blended, but I always think that's sort of funny.
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And how did you come about to find your faith now, to find the faith that you're following now?
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Yeah, so my faith that I have now and I'm sorry I guess I didn't really answer your last question how did that sort of shape me?
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The Catholic side taught me the rituals and what I was supposed to do in church, the prayers I was supposed to say.
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It taught me the basis doctrine.
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But what was modeled for me out of the church, through the people you know, the parents that I interacted with, from you know, friends at the Catholic High School, or just what I saw going to Catholic High School, going to mass?
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It was very ceremonial and so you know that is what I got from it.
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I got that.
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You know this is what we were to do.
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It was a box to check.
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It wasn't a relationship and it wasn't a walk with God.
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Now, I know all Catholics don't believe that.
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I know many Catholics that you know they obviously have a very deep relationship with the Lord.
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But that is what I was taught and so after high school I really fell away from God.
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I didn't see any point in going to church.
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I just, you know everyone always told me I was such a sinner, I was so bad, and you know I just I didn't find the benefit or the allure to it, and so I walked away from God for a very long time, until 2020, when I walked back into a church and the sermon just hit me.
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It was emotional.
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I think every sermon for the first couple of weeks that I went it felt like the preacher was speaking directly to me, like it was a message that I was supposed to hear, and I will never forget the pastor saying at the beginning of the sermon we're in the book of John, matthew, mark, luke and John, and if anyone doesn't know, those are the gospels.
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And I remember sitting there going, whoa, I never knew that.
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I didn't know what the gospels were.
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I had grown up all around religion and nobody ever told me what the gospels were.
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I just didn't, you know.
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And so I remember thinking, wow, I've got a lot to learn, you know.
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And so starting to attend that church and listen to the sermons and feeling the pull to serve and watching the people around me be the hands and feet of Jesus and just the most grace-filled, loving individuals that I have ever met in my life really showed me that a relationship with Jesus is what it's about.
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That it's not about the ceremonial aspects, it's not about the prayers that you pray.
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It's about having a walking, living, breathing relationship with God.
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What brought you back to that church and to that church on that Sunday?
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circling to that circling that Sunday Well, I mean, it was 2020.
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So I think we were all sort of, you know, we had just moved and we had seen one of our friends.
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He became a born again Christian and we saw through social media that's how we keep up with a lot of our friends and so we saw him, via social media, become a born again Christian, and so when we moved back to town where he lived, he owned the ranch that the church was renting space from, and so it was an easy sort of in where we felt the pull to go back to church, and so that was a comfortable place for us, which, when we went back in 2020, we had actually gotten married at his ranch eight years prior, and so the lawn for the front of the church where you walk in that was the lawn that we got married on, the place where they held service was actually where our reception was.
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So I think it felt comfortable and, you know, feeling that pull to go back to church and then walking in and just everything.
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I mean God was so present in that moment and everything changed.
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Going back to when you you know, first you know walked away and you weren't serving God for that period of time.
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Did your father, or even your mother on either side, ever say to you, hey, you need to come back to knowing God, or ever have that talk with you about that?
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Unfortunately, no, I think my dad.
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He would put it it into conversations, but he also knew me and my personality.
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My dad he was a psychologist for a while and he knew that if he pushed too much it was going to push me away treaded lightly with the subject and my mom still is not a religious person.
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My dad really was the only person that had an active faith in my family and now that person is me in my family.
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The rest of my family doesn't have an active faith.
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So my dad was really the one that would bring it up in conversation, but it wasn't ever a sit down talk of please, come back to the Lord.
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When you have that many different religions in your life Jewish, catholic and now Christianity where do you see yourself?
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How do you view yourself?
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that I did not know who I was at all.
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I did not know my identity.
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And so I went back and I googled book in the Bible on identity because I didn't know.
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And so the overwhelming result was Ephesians.
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And I went and was reading Ephesians and right above Ephesians 2, I believe it is right above Ephesians 2, I believe it is it says Jew and Gentile reconciled together through Christ.
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And I remember reading that and it was like my eyes were open because the entire time I had read the Bible since coming to faith.
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Now the conference happened in 2022 and I had come to faith in 2020.
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So I had experienced a couple of years.
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I always considered myself a Gentile Reading through the Bible.
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I never even gave it a second thought and when I read those words it was like my eyes were opened to see the differences in the two and I thought to myself I was like wait, which one am I?
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I know that I am genetically Jewish and the culture side.
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You know you still have that culture side with your family, but I always considered myself a Gentile, so I really had to.
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You know, I went to God with it and that was what led to the calling of the book.
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So I would absolutely view myself, and do view myself today, as a Gentile.
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I know that I have roots in Judaism, but because I never practiced Judaism, I never went to temple, I never had a bat mitzvah, bar mitzvah.
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I forget which one is boy or girl, but I know there's the difference.
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But I don't consider myself Jewish or having changed from Judaism.
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So in that aspect you don't even do any type of the ceremonial aspect of that either or celebrate any of the holidays no-transcript.
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What is?
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your view on religion, my view on religion.
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Wow, that could be a loaded question.
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I think that religion is misconstrued by a lot of people.
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I think the word of God has been changed to fit different people's narratives, been changed to fit different people's narratives, and I think that the message of grace and come as you are and relationship with God and God knowing your heart, I think that message for a lot of people.
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I don't want to say all, because I've certainly.
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You know I'm part of a church now I've been part of a church.
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I've met you know I'm part of a church now I've been part of a church.
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I've met many wonderful people that know it's about a relationship.
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But I think religion, when you say that word, isn't the same as faith.
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I would say religion is more towards the legalism side, where it is ceremonial, it is about checking a box.
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It's about taking the steps forward.
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It's not about a walking relationship with Christ.
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What made you decide to write your book?
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God, I felt called, and I say that I heard the call.
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It wasn't an audible voice, but I think anyone who's experienced something like this knows what I'm talking about, where it is a loud thought that happens in your head and all of the other thoughts that you were having are just completely silenced and it stands out, and it stands out in a very what's the word I'm looking for, a very prominent way.
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And so while I was going through that identity crisis and reading through Ephesians and I saw that Jew and Gentile reconciled through Christ, I heard the call that morning as I was getting ready for work, just going about my day, sort of keeping it in the back of my mind Jew and Gentile, which one am I?
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And the loud thought came in and it said from Jew to Gentile write a book.
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Because I never wanted to be an author.
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That was not my thing.
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I didn't go to school for English.
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I had never thought about writing a book.
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I didn't want to write a book.
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It just wasn't on my radar.
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And one thing that I had learned through coming back to faith was that God loves our obedience and, even if we don't know what he is doing, we should follow his lead because he knows what's best, he's omnipresent, he's omniscient, he can see where we're going and he knows the path to get us there for his glory.
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And so I sat down to write and I opened a blank word document and the only thing I had was from Jew to Gentile.
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And I remember my husband looking over as I was sitting on the couch with the laptop, and he said what are you doing over there?
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And I said, uh, writing a book.
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He was just very.
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He was like excuse me, what did you say?
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I just started writing and I put my thoughts down and it felt like one chapter led to another, Things were happening, that all of the puzzle pieces were falling into place, and it really was like this outpouring of my thoughts.
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And it started as, if this helps me find my identity, it'll all be worth it.
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But then it turned into if this could help somebody else find their identity in Christ too, then it'll all be worth it.
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And now it's just, you know it's transformed into, you know spreading the gospel really, and you know bringing it to people so that they're able to find a relationship with Christ.
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But that is, yeah, I've heard the call and followed the call, and from start to finish.
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The draft copy was written in one month.
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Oh, wow.
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Yeah, it really was a wild experience for me, one that it's hard to put into words how has Christ in over the last you know several years now, how?
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how has Christ transformed your life, oh my goodness?
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How has he not in every single facet of my life?
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I grew up playing piano, playing sheet music, hebrew worship music into my life, which was something that I also never aspired to do when I started serving.
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I wanted to be on the ushers team because I wanted to be serving.
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I felt the call to serve or felt the pull to serve, but I wanted to be invisible in the process.
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I didn't want, you know, any spotlight on me.
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I don't like that.
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And so when you know he put the worship team back in Texas in my path, I was like, oh, absolutely not, I am not getting up on that platform.
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There's no way you can't get me to play piano in front of other people, no way.
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And somehow he made it happen, you know, he just through small steps and through people and his way.
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So he transformed that aspect and I, just through worship music, through those relationships, I absolutely just fell in love with Jesus and now I seek after him, I aspire to hear his word or what he's telling me for the day, the leading of my family, you know, with my husband, his faith being transformed, the relationships we have now, our lives, are completely different from what they were before we went back to church.
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When you speak to people about Christ and tell them about your story, even, and you tell them you know, I have roots in Judaism and I have roots in Catholicism, but now I'm Christian.
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What do they say about that?
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How do they respond?
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Say about that?
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How do they respond?
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I think a lot of people are.
00:23:27.973 --> 00:23:42.442
Their first question is how you know what happened there, like there's obviously a story there.
00:23:42.442 --> 00:23:58.224
But I think the people around me that I get to tell my story to, or that have heard my story and then share it with others, I think it's more, they're transformed into wanting to find that relationship where I think a lot of people really have experienced religion.
00:23:58.224 --> 00:24:02.352
I think they've, you know, grown up with that.
00:24:02.352 --> 00:24:04.726
I think a lot of people have been.
00:24:04.726 --> 00:24:17.152
Unfortunately, you know, their relationship with Jesus has been severed from you know, whether it's churches or individuals or whoever, but from that legalism, and they've lost that relationship and that walk.
00:24:17.152 --> 00:24:27.893
And so teaching them that, no matter how far gone you are, no matter how much of a prodigal son you are, you can always come back and you can always have that relationship.
00:24:27.893 --> 00:24:30.345
And I think that's really where the conversation leads.
00:24:30.345 --> 00:24:38.711
Once I explain the roots of my faith, how it was based in a lot of legalism and now I have found freedom in Christ.
00:24:40.621 --> 00:24:49.975
One of the hilarious Amelia Bedelia mistakes that you make out, that you make and talk about in your book.
00:24:53.081 --> 00:24:53.201
Yeah.
00:24:53.201 --> 00:25:01.550
So for any of the listeners out there who don't know who Amelia Bedelia is, it's a popular children's book and obviously I share her first name.
00:25:01.550 --> 00:25:14.413
But she is a person in the book who takes people's words all too literally and an example is she's playing a baseball game and they say run home, amelia, run home, and she runs back to the house, you know.
00:25:14.413 --> 00:25:23.250
So she really takes people literally and I find that I myself too do that far too often.
00:25:23.250 --> 00:25:24.320
I take things very literally.
00:25:24.320 --> 00:25:44.411
I don't really get the nuances of you know, I miss a lot of sarcasm a lot of the time, but I, in those mistakes, I feel like God has used those to further my relationship with him and like I spoke about with the worship team, sort of finding my way onto that.
00:25:44.411 --> 00:25:51.589
I was on the ushering team, as I said, and I heard the worship leader, who I didn't know at that time, tabby.
00:25:51.589 --> 00:25:56.433
She called for a meeting and she said you know everyone, come and sit down.
00:25:56.433 --> 00:25:59.888
We're going to have our meeting, you know, and I just I went and sat down.
00:25:59.888 --> 00:26:04.101
Well, I realized about 30 seconds in that she had been talking to the worship team.
00:26:04.101 --> 00:26:20.922
She did not mean everyone that was in the vicinity that could hear her say come, sit down she meant the worship team and I went and sat down and it was probably about a 20 minute meeting and I sat through the entire thing because there was no way I was getting up.
00:26:20.922 --> 00:26:26.594
I was so embarrassed I realized that I was not supposed to be in that meeting.
00:26:26.594 --> 00:26:41.673
Was so embarrassed, I realized that I was not supposed to be in that meeting and I fessed up to one of the vocalists next to me and we laughed about it and I asked her where they got their music from, because I had been going to church for a while and I wanted to play piano at my house.
00:26:41.673 --> 00:26:48.994
I'd never played in front of anybody but my family, and so I asked her where to get the music and she said, oh, you play piano.
00:26:48.994 --> 00:26:51.428
And I was like, oh, no, no, not like that.
00:26:51.428 --> 00:26:53.046
Nope, nope, don't even get it.
00:26:53.046 --> 00:26:54.566
Nope, I'm not going up there.
00:26:54.566 --> 00:26:56.507
I just want the music.
00:26:56.507 --> 00:27:00.912
I just want to fill my home with beautiful, faith-filled, christ-like music.
00:27:00.912 --> 00:27:03.704
You know that is my only goal in asking you.
00:27:03.704 --> 00:27:06.948
And she, you know she definitely pushed.
00:27:06.948 --> 00:27:09.272
She was reassuring that.
00:27:09.272 --> 00:27:17.432
You know, if I could play any bit of piano then I could get up there, but I just that wasn't something that I felt like I could do.
00:27:18.082 --> 00:27:20.700
I do not like being on stage in front of people.
00:27:20.700 --> 00:27:23.610
I do not like talking to big groups of people.
00:27:23.610 --> 00:27:25.767
I'm much better one on one.
00:27:25.767 --> 00:27:28.647
I just it is so nerve wracking for me to be in front of a groups of people.
00:27:28.647 --> 00:27:29.250
I'm much better one-on-one.
00:27:29.250 --> 00:27:31.843
It is so nerve-wracking for me to be in front of a bunch of people.
00:27:31.843 --> 00:27:34.389
It just makes me so, so nervous.
00:27:34.389 --> 00:27:46.650
And I actually make a joke all the time at church that if they would just let me hide behind the curtains of the movie theater and just stick my hands out and play the piano, that would be the ideal scenario for me.
00:27:46.650 --> 00:27:52.481
I don't want any lights on me, just let me stick my hands out from behind the curtain and I'll play.
00:27:54.306 --> 00:27:56.048
But I think God led that moment.
00:27:56.048 --> 00:28:10.496
I think I was supposed to be in that meeting and, while I didn't know that instance and that moment led to me learning music theory, because that's the music that was given to me by the vocalist.
00:28:10.496 --> 00:28:24.404
She told me about that and that led me down a path and eventually I found myself auditioning for the worship team and that team and that group of people we would have small group before practice every single week.
00:28:24.404 --> 00:28:26.108
Would have small group before practice every single week.
00:28:26.108 --> 00:28:41.610
And man, tears, growth, love, just a bonding that you can't describe happened every single week between that team and transformed my faith and has now led to us finding our church here in Missouri.
00:28:41.610 --> 00:28:51.975
When we were searching for a church, worship was a big part of that for me was finding a church where I could worship and continue that path that God had started.
00:28:53.781 --> 00:28:58.152
What is a gig break, and how did you come up with that term?
00:28:59.740 --> 00:28:59.980
Sure.
00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:19.661
So a gig break is a pause, a moment in time where you stop and you see what some people would call coincidences Puzzle pieces fall together, instances line up just perfectly, something happens and you can pause.
00:29:19.661 --> 00:29:22.929
And you know, I actually don't believe in coincidences.
00:29:22.929 --> 00:29:27.304
I think it's always God working and I think it's always God weaving our stories together.
00:29:27.304 --> 00:29:29.407
And you know so.
00:29:29.407 --> 00:29:36.666
I think you can look at those instances when they happen in front of your eyes and you can say God is so good.
00:29:37.488 --> 00:29:49.945
And what led to that was those happening to me while I was writing and I would take those experiences to my friends and the conversations always ended with God is so good.
00:29:49.945 --> 00:30:01.053
God is so good, you know, because puzzle piece would fall into place and it was enough for me to realize it and then, you know, go and share it.
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