Relationships - The First One, The True One

Transcript Teachable Woman Podcast

Relationships – The Real One- Part 1

Reverends Diana P. Cherry and Michele Owes

Rev. Michele Owes: [00:00:00] Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Teachable Woman Podcast. I am so excited to be back with you today. I'll ask you in advance to pardon my voice. I have a bit of, I don't know if we call it a cold or the crud, whatever it is, but it's here. And I'm going to ask you to pardon me in advance.

Rev. Michele Owes: Mrs. Cherry and I will work together to do the work of the Lord. We are Teachers of Good Things. Today, we're going to cover a topic that I know you've all been waiting for, the topic of relationships. We're going to be talking about all kinds of relationships. Mrs. Cherry, would you start us off into this wonderful season of relationships?

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Well, it's going to be interesting from my perspective because as women, primarily women, when we hear the word relationship, we [00:01:00] start getting all gooey and skin crawling and imagining, Oh, they're going to talk about, I don't know how to get him. Well, we need to start with relationships other than the male-female relationship or even the husband-wife relationship. And we need to start with our most important relationship, and that's our relationship with God. Years ago the first time was in 1988; my husband taught a series of Relationships. I went back today, and I looked back through some of his notes, and an interesting thing that he wrote was that the word relationship is not in the Bible.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: He could not find it. However, all that we believe, all that we do, and all that we serve with the Lord is based on a relationship with him. I thought about the fact that when I heard about the next topic being [00:02:00] relationships. I said, Oh, I know the lifegivers are going to be so excited because they're thinking about what can I do with this relationship of this perspective relationship?

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And how can I go about establishing a relationship? I would like to challenge us to establish a true, meaningful relationship with our Father in Heaven. I believe that if we establish that relationship, we might be able to pursue another kind of relationship or a male-female relationship. So, the most important thing I think that we can do as teachers of good things is to teach women about a proper relationship with God because without a relationship with God, other relationships will, in fact, fail. And it's out of [00:03:00] relationships that we have expectations out of every relationship that we have, we have expectations.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We don't want you to be set up for failure. We don't want you to have a desire in your heart for something that might not be best for you. So having that in mind, Let's talk about our relationship with God and how to establish a good relationship with our father. He is our father. We are his children. And I think it's important that the first relationship we talk about should be. Our relationship with our Father as children of the most high God. And I'll try to do as much talking as I can today because I know that you are struggling, and I understand that. And it just lets you know that we're just plain old human beings,

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen to that.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And we can be faced with the same struggles as everybody else.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes,

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We love you so much that, despite Reverend Owes's [00:04:00] struggles with her voice, we decided we had to do another podcast because it's just been too long since we've been together.

Rev. Michele Owes: That is so true. That is so true. I want to share in line with what you were saying that in Jeremiah chapter one, God lets us know that before he formed Jeremiah in the belly, he knew him.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: That's not just for Jeremiah. That's for all of us before God formed every one of us in our mother's belly. He knew us.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes,

Rev. Michele Owes: That means he had a personal relationship with us, meaning he had a purpose and a plan. And then he said, before you came out of the womb, that He sanctified him and ordained him a prophet to all the nations. So, before we leave the womb, there's a purpose and a plan for our lives.

Rev. Michele Owes: God knows exactly who we are, and we cannot hide [00:05:00] from Him. Returning to that first relationship, I 100 percent agree with what you say. After the first relationship, we are brought into this world, and we are entrusted to parents, caretakers, or whoever raises us. I think that's when our ability to have good trusting relationships, is either created there or it's

, or it's damaged there.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: True.

Rev. Michele Owes: From that point, we see the world and our relationships through how that relationship was. Can I trust people, or can I not trust people? Should I spend time with them, or are they not worth my time? All that comes from what we've learned in that household, whether it was the family household or whoever raised us.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: That's very true. A lot of times, our relationships [00:06:00] later in life fail because of what happened to us right from the womb, how we were treated, how we were mistreated, how we were used, how we were abused.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: It is the groundwork for how we make decisions, how we relate to one another and all that we do in life.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: It is essential that all of us know, regardless of who we were entrusted to once we were birthed into the earth, that relationship with those individuals pale in comparison to the relationship that we had with God, who knew us in our mommies bellies.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes,

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Despite who may have raised us or who we were entrusted to, it is essential that we know what God's plan was for us from the very beginning, of each one of our lives. If we could build our total life with the knowledge [00:07:00] that God would want us to have of Him and His expectations, we would be on a very good foundation for establishing meaningful, lasting relationships with others.

Rev. Michele Owes: That is absolutely true. You know, I was thinking about our responsibility as parents, which is to raise the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But how many of our parents did not know that that was their responsibility? Excuse me. Because maybe they were not raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Rev. Michele Owes: So we have this cycle where some of us missed out on that relationship until we were twenties, thirties, forties, before we even knew there was a God before we even knew there was the one who loved us and created us and provides for us. We've spent all of this time in our way [00:08:00] of thinking, if you will, and doing things to the best of our natural ability.

Rev. Michele Owes: Then it becomes really difficult to move over and let a God drive, you know, a God that you never knew, a God that nobody taught, taught you about.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Right?

Rev. Michele Owes: A God that was not discussed in your home. Or maybe you weren't in the church, but some things you saw didn't allow you to believe in the God we serve.

Rev. Michele Owes: Maybe some things we saw were not Him. And so, our relationships, all of the ones that we form, are hindered or helped by whether or not we understand that there is a God who created us.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Exactly. I chuckled because I thought about what my husband said when he first got saved, and the Lord called because we were saved and called him to the ministry within the same trimester.

[00:09:00] Rev. Michele Owes: Oh, wow.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: He used to battle back and forth with God. He was in business. You know, businessmen or businesspeople are so strong-willed. He said, okay, God, I will accept you as my Lord and Savior. I'll scoot over on the chair, and you can sit beside me. He did not want to surrender his all for a relationship with a God that he knew had sovereignly called him into the ministry to start a church for Him.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: And so

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: He often said he wanted to share the throne with God. He did not want God to lead.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yeah. Yeah. Amen.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: One of the most difficult things for him to do was to [00:10:00] sever his relationship with himself as the provider, the giver of all, and the great businessman.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: He did not want God to cause him to relinquish everything that he had worked so hard for. Finally, he had what he called his bedroom experience. He went into the bedroom, took his Bible, and held it up almost like a dare to God. he said to God, okay, I will get rid of my business. I will close it.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I will do what you tell me. I will do it how you tell me to do it. I'm going to preach this Bible wherever I go. If your words are true, I'm going to tell the world. If it's not true, I'm going to tell the world. [00:11:00Can you imagine? That’s what he did. And he said he had such a peace that came over him.] He said he could almost feel God smiling because he had relinquished his right to choose another option. He had chosen to establish a meaningful, righteous, holy, obedient relationship with the maker of his life, God in heaven.

Rev. Michele Owes: I could see that happening. In God's mind, I know my word is true. You'll find out. I don't have a problem with that. You know, this is not a threat to me. You'll be the one learning. My words are true. But isn't that amazing? I believe that the amazing experience of our founding Episcopal pastor is the same experience with us all. Once we have lived our life and we think we have done well, and we have planned things the way we plan things because of what we think and what we see, and then we learn of a God [00:12:00] who wants us to follow so that he can lead, and there's a, there's a desire to want to negotiate some things. Well, just where are we going?

Rev. Michele Owes: Is that even where I want to go? Where are you leading me? Here's my plan, you know, and what's your plan? So, I fully get that. I fully get that.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Whenever I think about relationships, I have to think back to my husband having the nerve to challenge God.

Rev. Michele Owes: Ha, ha, ha.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: But time has proven that God's word was true, is true.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes,

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I often say that one of the problems we have as believers is that we live in an ever-changing world, but we serve a never-changing God. It's evident in the world today with all of the relationships [00:13:00] that are really contrary to the word and the will of God. The world accepts all kinds of relationships as valid, true, and okay. We don't condemn people's choices but do not change or agree with their choices if they are contrary to the word of God. So, meaningful, long-lasting relationships must be based on God’s word and the truth of His word. God will not change and satisfy our fleshly desires and wants. He is a never changing God. Yes.

Rev. Michele Owes: You're absolutely correct. God will not alter who He is or what His word says because we have different thoughts. Oftentimes you hear [00:14:00] people say, well, that was back then. These are the new times now, as though God does not know what new times would be. We know that our God is all-powerful, that He's all-knowing.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yet we think that God doesn't know what's happening today, that somehow His hand is shortened in that regard. He has no idea how far mankind has come. However, His word is time-tested. It is time-tested. It has lasted through all generations and is held to be true. It is humankind. It's us who feel like the word may be outdated. We are just uninformed, really.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: God, we love alternatives. We choose alternatives. God is not a God of alternative relationships. He is a God of true relationships, [00:15:00] everlasting, long-lasting, holy, righteous, never changing, His Word relationships. And that's just the way it is. If only a handful of people will listen and agree to accept His Word as it is, so be it.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: We'll just minister to the handful.

Rev. Michele Owes: Yes. Amen.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I know the power of it. I know the strength of it. And I firmly believe that the more we teach the uncompromised word of God, the more we will effect change in the lives of others. We, as teachers of the word of God, must be what we want others to become. We must be a standard of righteousness. We must be a flag that people can see. We must [00:16:00] be credible witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. We must show the world that our God is God. We must show the world that Jesus is Lord. No matter how difficult it is, we must determine to maintain a righteous standard and glorify God in everything we say and think. What we think we're going to do eventually, and what we say we're going to do eventually. If you want to have a meaningful relationship with God, dedicate yourself to Him and to His word. Try to learn as much about God’s plan and purpose for your life. Establish a strong relationship with him. And then you won't have all of the influence and the pulls of the world. We're not supposed to be pulled by the world. We're supposed to pull the world over to us. And so it's important [00:17:00] that we be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. It's important that we be unchanging in what we believe and how we believe.

Rev. Michele Owes: You are absolutely correct. Before I start coughing, this will end our session for now. We will be back for the second part of the relationship. We want you to know that the first relationship begins with the God who created you. Understand that He has a purpose and a plan for your life and that His love for you is not changing.

Rev. Michele Owes: It's unconditional that no matter what we've done, no matter where we've been, no matter what we thought, whether we want him to drive or not, he still loves us. And to know that He's there. And His arms are outstretched still, just waiting for us to acknowledge that He is God and has a beautiful plan.

[00:18:00] Rev. Michele Owes: And it's better than anything that we could have come up with for ourselves. It's better than anything that we could have imagined, or any plan that we have will fail compared to his. Giving up the driver's seat. I rather like being a passenger, you know, and in my married life, my husband drove all the time.

Rev. Michele Owes: Matter of fact, he just looked uncomfortable in the passenger seat. And it wasn't because I was a bad driver either. But being a passenger could be quite nice. You sit there, take the ride, and see where God will lead you. We want you to know that that relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ, is the most important relationship that you will ever have.

Rev. Michele Owes: All other relationships can develop correctly from that relationship. Amen. In our next session, we will talk about the Woman at [00:19:00] the Well and all the relationships she had before she met Jesus. That will tell us how our decision-making is when we're driving the car, and we're not letting the Lord drive because it can lead nowhere.

Rev. Michele Owes: But we said in our very first podcast that our sole goal was to bring souls to Christ Jesus. And to deepen and establish a relationship with him. We're staying in line with that because that's our only goal: that we might know Jesus and have a close and personal relationship with him.

Rev. Michele Owes: Once we establish that, all other things can and will improve.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: Yes. So true. So true.

Rev. Michele Owes: All right. So we're going to come back for our next session. But in the meantime, have a fantastic day. Thank you so much for being with us. We are honored that you chose to listen to this podcast and allow us to speak into your little lives for a few moments in a day. [00:20:00] God bless you.

Rev. Michele Owes: We love you, and we'll be back.

Rev. Diana P. Cherry: I want to encourage you to listen to the podcast more than once. We are giving you so much information, and a lot of it you don't believe, really. So, listen back to it. Hear our hearts and decide for yourself that you need to change.

Rev. Michele Owes: Amen. Amen. Love you. Bye.