WVW #001: Are You Friends with God?

Renee (00:00): Welcome. Welcome to the very first episode of the well-versed woman podcast. I am so excited to be here today. I'm sitting in sunny Florida. I'm Renee teller and I'm here with my cohost Theresa Morgan, who is in somewhat called New York. And we're here bringing you the very first episode of this special podcast. You know, we're just two perfectly imperfect women who have a heart to share our experiences with women like you, but be patient. I told you it's our first episode and it may be really imperfect, but the love we're going to be sharing, we know and I promise you, is totally perfect. See what Theresa and I have experienced in our life is the love of God. And if you stay too, we know what we're about to share will fill your life with love, and guess what that means? That means a piece you've been looking for, especially right now in these crazy times. All you're thinking one of those religious podcasts, stop right there. Stop. This is not a podcast about religion. This podcast is all about relationship. We're going to be talking about how to develop a friendship, a relationship with God himself. Oh my gosh. You know, it's a lot like the relationship. Theresa and I have developed

Renee (01:31): Dover, I don't know, tree 40 years, I think 40 years only. This one, Theresa knows, and I know this one relationship with God. It's perfect. We're going to share with you how you can hear from God. Seriously, how you can communicate with the very one who created you. How cool does that sound? Oh my gosh. Right in the middle of a global pandemic. You could communicate with your creator. Can you imagine really being able to hear God's thoughts during this time in your life? Oh, instead of feeling anxious and hopeless and doubtful, you could feel hopeful. You could have peace. You really can have that T deep down joy. Even in the craziest of times, Theresa and I have been talking about doing this podcast for a couple of years and we were planning to launch it this year, right before this pandemic. You see how perfect God's timing is now is when we were able to do this, we were able to get ourselves together and execute on the plan that was put before us a couple of years ago.

Renee (02:52): That's how perfect God is. And you know, we want to help you fast track that transforming of God in your life. So we're going to release the first three episodes today. Absolutely the whole first three episodes right now. So I want you to pause this podcast, hit the subscribe button right now, and come on back and buckle up because we're going to plug into the power source, the created you. Theresa and I are going to be here every week. Art with Theresa. Yes we are. And we're going to walk right beside you every step of the way. Pouring more love into your life than you can imagine. I mean, I remember Theresa, when we were going to get this started, we were just sitting around, I think, you know, have a coffee at my house. And I was like, Teresa, I just feel a need to do something like a podcast.

Renee (03:50): And you were like, uh, I, Renee, I think you practically stuttered Theresa and you said, I've even been given the name Renee, it's well-versed, it's well-versed. And then we added woman at the end because we have such a heart to help women just like us, right Theresa? Yes we do. Renee. Absolutely. We had been studying and had been developing our own relationship with God and wanted to help others do the very same thing. And you know, where do you start? Where do you start? And it's called the well versed woman because you need to become well versed in the word. What do I mean Theresa? The word, right. That's right Renee, the word of God. The scriptures are the word of God. And as we're going to learn episode after episode that God speaks to us through his word, through his scriptures, we're going to learn who God is.

Theresa (04:58): We're going to learn some of the attributes of God and we're going to learn what the Bible says that he is love. And you know, the scriptures are really based on the integrity of God. So everything that you see, the beauty of the world, this is who God is. He makes beautiful things including you and I, Renee, including the human being, did he so loves that he's so gave his life for, we're going to be looking at this God who is a lover of our souls and of each of us. You know Theresa, it's so true. One of the first things and one of the shortest sentences I love to remember is God is love. And for people who wonder about God, wonder who he is and does he exist? And as you reveal that, just that simple phrase in the very beginning of my journey and my building a relationship with God was so simple. God is love, but it was also about that relationship, not about religion. And I know that I came from a background of religion. I was raised as was Theresa, very much in the same kind of religion and it wasn't working for me. It wasn't working for me at all. Like it was something I set over on the shelf, right Teresa, it was just kind of a thing that was always there.

Theresa (06:32): That's right, Renee. It wasn't until um, I met the Lord. Right? It wasn't until you come into a full blown relationship with him by giving your heart to him that you experience the first buddings, uh, uh, of, of relationship with God and like a flower that is like a seed that is planted for a flower to bloom. Um, the relationship grows and buds and it's just a beautiful thing in life.

Renee (07:03): Yeah. I, I know for me, Theresa, when I became a mom, a lot of it started to make sense. You know, the first thing, any moms on the listening right now or, or your relationship with your mom, if you just think back to that and think about how simple and pure and deep our relationship is with our moms. I started to understand God better when my son was born. Aye. First of all, I was like blown away, right? That I created this with my husband, that, that we actually created another human being and it was so precious and so crazy to me to, to see how much like us this baby was. And all I wanted to do was love this baby and take care of it. And to this day, even with Theresa and I, with our grown children, our greatest treasures, right? Our greatest treasures and times are the times we spend with this child that we created. Well, I translated that to God and I said, Oh my gosh. It was like a light bulb went on for me. Theresa, if I feel this way about this creation, what must God feel about me? He must love me this much. He must want a relationship with me. Just like I want a relationship with my child.

Theresa (08:45): Absolutely Renee. You know, we're going to learn about how God loves us and how much he loves us. And you know, that brings me to one, my favorite scriptures, the cornerstone of my faith in John three 16, which says that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever shall believe shall not perish, but have everlasting life. When you think about the love that God has for each one of us, that he would go to the cross, suffer, uh, suffer on behalf of mankind. That is the type of love that we are talking about here. And it's that type of love that is going to lead us through God's scriptures week after week. I'm so thrilled

Renee (09:35): that that goes back to the word right and that the word is the word of God. It's through that word that we grow and develop. So again, back to my son, like I love that each stage of life we were able to grow and develop into a deeper and deeper relationship with each other. And that's how it is with God, right? We want to develop a deeper and deeper relationship with him. How? How do we do that tree?

Theresa (10:05): So God is, he leads us into a personal relationship with himself. He'll start speaking to us through his word. The word of God is the will of God. So we can be certain that we are going to dive off, um, on solid footing. We're going to be walking on solid footing is we commune with God. Um, and of course we're going to learn about that, the presence of the Holy spirit and how he interacts with us and how he brings to light. Um, the, the meaning of the word, how we're to, uh, apply the word of God in our life. So we just have such a great, great force, uh, through the word and the Holy spirit, uh, in the Holy Spirit's movements in our life. It's just such a dynamic duo, if you will, to enable us to experience all of the blessings that God has for each one of us that he died to provide. Uh, it's just a beautiful way to live life. And I believe with all my heart, it's what God envisioned. Um, when he was looking down the quarters of time and decided to create mankind.

Theresa (11:24): I know that I always had a lot of questions about faith and how can I actually believe that this is true? How can I believe that God is real? And that what you're saying is even the truth, right? And, and this whole, this whole idea about faith and it's like, why don't I don't have faith? I just, you know, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I don't like when I can't see something Tracy. That's right Renee. And that's the beautiful thing about faith is that the Bible says faith comes by hearing and by hearing the word of God and so is we see with our eyes the word on the pages of our Bible and as we put our hearts belief that that is true. We see God move in our life in ways that we cannot think that it's pure coincidence and one transaction will lead to another transaction where all of a sudden your heart is so full of faith and things are happening in your life that can only be attributed to God in his love for us.

Renee (12:42): You know, I love when you've taught me before, Tracy, you've said like, it's like plugging into the power source. You know, we've got to plug into God and we do that through the scriptures. We plug into God and we develop our faith by studying the scriptures, which is the word. Those are synonymous, right? And if we can plug into that power source, which we all understand in today's world, today's world, we do nothing without plugging in, you know, electronically. If we can plug into God, we can develop the relationship and this podcast is going to help you do that. It's going to help you plug into God every week so that you can develop this. You know, it's no different. I remember Teresa Antoinette, a dear friend of mine, right? Very successful woman, very smart, graduated at the very top of her class in accounting and Theresa and I get the accounting field because we're both CPAs and Antoinette was a CPA, but the top of our class, like Teresa, I can't imagine, I mean I did well, but I was not number one.

Theresa (14:04): So this is a pretty smart cookie and she got out in the world, has had a very successful career still to this day and not too long ago she came to me and said, something's missing Renee. And I know you talk about God all the time, but I just don't get it. I mean, I've had religion my whole life for an a, but I still don't get it and I said, treat I ant to Nat. I said, it's about relationship. You need a relationship with God. And she said, but, but I don't know how to have a relationship with God. And we got into a big discussion about how in the last 10 to 13 years she and I have developed a relationship. How

Renee (14:52): did she do that? She made sure she spent time with me. She made sure she reached out to me when I was in need. She was always so generous and is so generous with me, always thanking me and being grateful. Those simple principles, tree say if we just do that with God, if we just sit still with him and tell him how grateful we are for our lives, for what he's done for us, that's the very beginning of a relationship with God. And you know, some people call it meditation. There's a, a whole place in the Bible, Theresa, where we talk about meditating on the word, but this meditation is simply the act of developing our relationship with God. Really, when I look at it, don't you think Theresa? Absolutely. Renee, you know, there are a few scriptures that are so near and dear to my heart.

Theresa (15:49): Um, the Bible says, uh, in the first Psalm, uh, that if we would just meditate on his word day and night, we shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water to bring forth its fruit in its season whose leaf shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper. There's another scripture that is near and dear to my heart, Joshua, on a, where Joshua was going to be going into the battles of life and God says, do not fear I will be with you. Just meditate on my word, morning and night. Because when you do your way will be made prosperous and you will have good success. So really, what is God saying? It's through the meditation of the word. You see it on print. You think about it, you pray about it. You, you actually, uh, in the Hebrew language, the word meditate means mew mutter to yourself in so is your confessing it in your ears are hearing it and you're talking about it maybe to a good friend.

Theresa (16:57): The Holy spirit gets in there and gives you a revelation of what his word is saying and how to apply it to your life. And all of a sudden you're going to be in a place of trust and a faith. You've plugged into that power source in amazing, amazing things are going to start to, you will see God's word come to life. So if he's praying, if he's says that healing is yours, uh, your healing will manifest as you put your faith into that, this thing will happen because God's word says it. Well, and that's what happened with me Renee sometime ago when I needed healing in my body and the doctor said it was a K a cancer. Of course I felt in anxiety, but I knew God was saying, hold on, let my word be the anchor yourself. Continue to believe me for that healing. Believe you have received it and it shall be yours. And that is exactly what came to me

Renee (17:58): pass in my life. Wow, that's amazing. It's just amazing. And um, people probably say, well that, that sounds like magic. I don't know that I can believe in miracles. And again, I can't stress enough, right Theresa, the difference between our religion and our relationship and that kind of faith grows over time. So no, on day one, when we first started learning about this relationship, our faith wasn't quite so big. Right, Theresa. But by the time you got to that situation where you had a big physical challenge in your life, your faith was in a different place.

Theresa (18:44): That's right, Renee. I think about all their gratuitous, beautiful things the Lord did for me when I was a baby Christian and how he would prove himself. He would prove the validity of his word over and over and ended. I have, you know, a strong faith in my heart. I was growing, but like a child that has the ability, you know, in the genes and in the muscles of his body or his or her body to run and to walk, uh, you know, they're still going to take those baby steps when they're learning in the parent is just going to come along and pick them up time and time again. And that's how God teaches us. It's you see, you see something in his word, you believe it's true and then you say, okay Lord, I'm going to test you in this. If, if I might, um, believe for it and it, and it comes to pass. It's just a beautiful way of interacting with the father as you grow in faith and grow, uh, to the place where you believe every word.

Theresa (19:53): Yeah. So what I would say to you listening today is be patient. You know, we want to fast track this relationship and we can write just like a relationship that you have with another human being. If you want to fast track it. If you want to become deep friends quicker, what do you do? You spend more time with that person, you, you are thankful for them. Again, I go back to the story of Antoinette. She was just always there. She just wanted to spend time with us and would spend time with us. So if you're new to this and you're new to a relationship with God, or if you're very advanced, you know that tuning in to a podcast like this where we're going to be about challenges in our life and what the word of God says about it and what we can do to grow our faith, to have the outcome in our life that we want, right?

Renee (20:59): We want to go from weakness to strength. We want to transform from chaos to calmness, from sickness to health, from weeping to joy. I can't tell you as women how much weeping we do, right? How many tears we shed from one thing to another and the Bible says there will be tears, there will be challenges, but when you have God walking beside you, joy comes in the morning. You know that he's there and that not a worry needs to be had because he's got you. That's what I hope for everybody listening, Trey saw that they can all come to that place of peace in their life where they know

Theresa (21:44): everything's going to be okay. Absolutely. Renee. It's really God's will for every person that walks the face of the earth to CA to have a confidence in God and in his abilities and what he promises in his word. Um, you know, there are so many beautiful scriptures that I have clung to with, with all my life. Uh, Romans eight 28 comes to mind that he works out all things together for our good. Um, the scriptures that talk about he always gives us the victory. Um, everything in his word is yes and amen to us who believe. So as we go through life's trials and tribulations, we, we go through them knowing, knowing, and the deepest part of our knower that he is there and he will bring the outcome to pass in just a beautiful, victorious, prosperous,

Renee (22:39): right. He, well, he, well, well, this is just the beginning, everyone. And I do want to take a minute to introduce ourselves. I'm glad we got to talk a little bit, but maybe you want to know like, who the heck are we in and how did they have a 40 plus year relationship? Well, let me tell you a little bit about my friend Teresa. Um, it was probably in the late sixties, maybe 1968, 1973 we met on a golf course, right? Our families had us enrolled in a golf program. I know for me, you know, my dad actually played, uh, golf at Syracuse university. So he was a lifelong golfer and of course wanting to share his love of the game with all of us, all five of us. Um, but it's so funny how much mine and Theresa's lives have paralleled each other. Even though over the course of our lives, we haven't been, you know, we weren't in the same school district.

Renee (23:48): We didn't attend the same college, believe it or not, in 1981 after, you know, childhood summers together, we ended up in the same CPA firm. I mean, how crazy is that? Those were the days, Theresa, right, where there were very few women in the accounting field. And so we glommed onto each other pretty tight right away. And, uh, we, we, I spent some time in the firm. I ended up moving to Boston. When I moved back, I was building a home and a friend of mine said, Oh, you've got to talk to my friend Theresa. She just built a home and she had a great contractor helper. And I'm like, she says, Teresa Morgan. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, are you kidding? I'm probably better friends with Theresa than you are. That's right. Just kidding. We got, we got reconnected through that and realized that we had both found God and had this incredible relationship going in our lives.

Renee (24:54): Even though we'd both been through divorce, we'd both been through cancer. We'd both been through job challenges and career challenges. Um, and here we were, you know, just able to share the, all the deep journeys that we'd been on, um, side by side, walking together by the grace of God. I say Theresa, right? Yes. And, um, Theresa stood by me when I was going through my own cancer journey. She would pray with me every single morning for three months leading up to my surgery. I mean, it was amazing and she's just, she's so strong and at the same time just so gentle. I would love to hear her voice in the morning when we'd call and she'd through the word of God, just bring peace to a very crazy situation. And she, you know, so smart, but just so humble. Um, she's just been there for me.

Theresa (25:56): She's been my, my God on earth. We say like, like Jesus with skin on. She works on her relationship with God and she does it mostly to serve others mostly so that she can be for us, for all of us on this phone what God has been for her. And uh, there's nobody better. Ladies and gentlemen, listening to this podcast to, um, to learn from and understand just the beautiful things God has in store for your life. If you, if you let him, if you let them write Jaysa absolutely. And let me say a few words about my good friend Renee. Thank you Renee. That was so kind and I could echo and those words a

Theresa (26:44): million times back to you. Um, I love how our relationship is so descriptive of how God wants a relationship with each of us. Um, you and I have known each other so many for so many years, which makes, uh, our relationship just so that much sweeter. Um, and like the way you trust me, I just have such a beautiful trust in you and your husband. Um, I don't think there's anyone more generous on the face of this earth than my good friend Renee. Um, you know, not only in monetary gifts, in doings, but just in reaching out. And Renee, I have seen you not only reach out to me time and time again, but so many others that are in your path. Um, and I, I've seen, uh, how you work without sleep. Um, knowing that there's a human being on the line and I just so admire and love that about you and I feel just so blessed that God has put me in your life.

Theresa (27:55): Renee, and of course we, you know, the intelligence and everything else that goes along with it, um, makes this relationships just so endearing to my heart. And I thank God for it. I thank God for it. I'm so super excited to be hosting this podcast with you. I could not think of a better woman. Uh, Theresa, thank you. This is what we're doing ladies. I say and gentlemen, because certainly we'd love to have them share and all this joy and wonderful information that we're going to share. And until next week, how do you become a well versed woman, Theresa? What does the Bible say about how to grow our faith? Yes, absolutely. So this ladies is going to be one of the cornerstones of this podcast and you'll probably hear us say it, uh, episode after episode in it. It is in Romans 10 17 which says, faith comes by hearing and by hearing the word of God.

Theresa (29:00): So what does that mean? Um, you know, if you know a little bit about the Greek language, uh, they have a tense that is a tense that goes over and over. So faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. It means you just don't hear it one time. You hear it a second time and a third time and a fourth time. And you hear it for as many times as you need for the Holy spirit to anchor it deep in your heart. And the one thing that is so amazing and wonderful about the word of God is like a beautiful diamond. It's so multifaceted. The Holy spirit can just, when you think you understand, uh, a scripture verse and how to apply it, the Holy Spirit's going to show you another way that is equally as wonderful in how to apply it to your life. So Renee and I are big believers in studying the word of God, knowing the word of God, because it's the word of God that you know in, that you put into your life in that you can stand on, uh, to have, uh,

Theresa (30:09): free thing that he has for you, the blessings that he has for you come to pass in your life. So until next week, my friends remember we love you. God is love and love is the highest goal. Amen. Amen.