Gospel Spice | Awaken Delight in God through faith in Jesus Christ

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Toxic masculinity. You have heard the term. Where does it come from? What does it mean? What is the Biblical framework we need today as Christian men and women to tackle this hot button in our culture wars? Stephanie welcomes Professor Nancy Pearcey to discuss the history, context, and biblical solutions for our generation. One of Stephanie’s favorite quotes from Professor Pearcey is found in the book they are discussing today: “Christians should read with their worldview antennae poised to pick up underlying messages.”On this episode of Gospel Spice, host Stephanie Rousselle interviews best-selling author and speaker Nancy Pearcey about her upcoming book, "The Toxic War on Masculinity." Pearcey shares her personal journey from questioning her faith in high school to becoming a Christian through Schaefer's cultural apologetics approach. They explore the impact of Darwinism on our concepts of masculinity, the importance of understanding the worldview expressed in literature, and the value of a biblical approach to apologetics. Pearcey's writing focuses on cultural apologetics to address questions and provide answers for young people today, and her upcoming book provides insightful theological answers to the issue of toxic behavior in men. This episode is full of thought-provoking insights that will challenge listeners to think deeply about their faith and the culture around them.It has become socially acceptable to express open hostility against men even in respected media outlets. "Why Can't We Hate Men?" asks the Washington Post. Almost half of American men agree with the statement, “These days society seems to punish men just for acting like men.” In her new book, the bestselling author of LOVE THY BODY Nancy R. Pearcey explains how secularism has villainized the concept of masculinity.Stephanie welcomes Professor Pearcey in a two-part interview and, together they discuss topics that Stephanie chose from the book, and from Nancy’s whole message throughout her many books:1. How have the roles of men and women have fluctuated throughout human history? How is this essential context to understand where we are today?2. Scientific Darwinism is mostly discredited today. How about social Darwinism? How is this generation equipped to handle it?3. How is the history of fatherhood relevant to the ruse of toxic versions of masculinity?4. What did men lose through the industrial revolution that they have not yet regained? What about women?5. How much do you think that your analysis applies to cultures outside the framework of Western thought?6. Tell us about the role of the workplace in making men more present fathers.7. How did culture occasionally take men “off the hook” and demand of women to “tame” them? How is this influential today?8. What about the response of the church in centuries past, and today?MORE ABOUT THE BOOKPurchase the book here: The Toxic War on MasculinityIn three parts, “The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes” reveals the surprising answers to questions such as:• Where did the idea come from that masculinity is “toxic”?• What impact did secularism have on the script for masculinity?• How do Christian men shatter the negative stereotypes?Let’s face it: When people complain that masculinity is toxic, they often point to evangelical men as their prime example. But findings from the social sciences debunk those charges. Research shows that committed Christian men who attend church regularly test out as the most loving and engaged husbands and fathers.These facts show that Christianity has the power to overcome toxic behavior in men and reconcile the sexes—an unexpected finding that has stood up to rigorous empirical testing. We should be bold in bringing it into the public square.“Masculine traits are not intrinsically toxic. They are good when directed to virtuous

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie shares what happened as she researched for this episode: "Let me tell you. I was NOT expecting what happened when I did my research. I think the Lord kindly likes to surprise us with glimpses of glory when we don’t expect them. So let’s say I wasn’t expecting to find myself in tears, flat on my face in my dining room, and almost breathless in awe of who Jesus is, as I saw Him through the research I did around this statement, "Behold the Lamb." I discovered fresh from the familiar pages of the New Testament an angle, a new depth that took my breath away. And I want to share the holiness of this moment with you today." Stephanie aims today to show us that, when we proclaim Jesus as the Lamb of God, from the standpoint of the New Testament, we proclaim his glory as the Lamb of God that will be revealed in the future. There is a future dimension that is clearly stated, but somehow overlooked. And it is glorious. So, let's dig together into Scripture for fresh tastes of glory!What do you think of when you hear the statement, “Behold the Lamb of God”? If you are somewhat familiar with the Old Testament and the history of Scripture, you know it’s a reference to the Passover lamb that was sacrificed annually as a covering for sins. Since they exited Egypt in about 1600BC, Moses and the Israelites were commanded by God to remember His salvation which He made happen by protecting all the people who had the blood of a freshly killed lamb on the door of their house. If there was blood on your door that night, the angel of death would pass over your house – thus the name “pass-over” – and would not come in to kill the firstborn male of your household. If you didn’t have that blood, then the firstborn male was killed. It didn’t make sense except by faith because God said so. And God did so.We love to remember that Jesus is the Lamb of God – meaning at least two things. First, He is fully God. And second, He willingly, voluntarily did this. God the Father didn’t force God the Son in some kind of cosmic tyranny to suffer for us. This was a decision that the Son made in full knowledge, and full power and love for us. “For the JOY set before Him He endured the cross” – that’s Hebrews 12:2. This is true power. Only absolute, ultimate power that has nothing to prove can so excruciatingly disrobe itself of power and become a helpless lamb. Philippians 2:5-8 tells us that He humbled Himself by going from heights of power we cannot even begin to remotely have a faint wisp of an idea of, to depths of humility that, similarly, we just cannot fathom because these depths are literally fathomless, bottomless, infinite – only an infinite being can go from infinite height to infinite depth and retain His wholeness. That is Christ. That is the Lamb of God. And it is glorious. And that is where we usually stop. For most of us, this is the meaning of the Lamb of God. And it is awesome and should cause us to fall in worship, to be sure. But there is more.Stephanie adds, "my most sincere prayer is that I can somehow convey what I saw and that you too will find yourself worshipping. I usually have it as a rule to never ever hype a lesson, so here is me breaking my own rules but then it’s not about me, it’s about you and the very Spirit of God at work in you to reveal to you unspeakable beauties about the One He delights in, the Son of God, our very precious Lord."We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!“Who do YOU say that I am?” Jesus asks this powerful question to His disciples in Matthew 16. It is the most important question any of us is called to answer - and make no mistake. We are all to answer it. The question unpacks a lot about who we are, and how we define our lives. We do not get to tell Jesus who He is -only acknowledge it. But He defines us. That is true freedom. Stephanie shares, "He doesn’t need to know who he is to you. And he surely doesn’t need us to tell him who he is. So, How do you feel, knowing he is actively seeking out your very own personal answer? Does it feel like it’s a quiz? Is this a test of your theology? Is this a test of your bible knowledge or your relationship with Him? Is this a test you may fail? Or could it be more like an invitation to unearth one of the most meaningful treasures in the world?"Jesus told a parable one day. Matthew records it just a few paragraphs before this question, in chapter 13. Here is what Jesus says. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Our understanding of Jesus’ identity is like that treasure. It will change our lives.Let’s go back to the context in the original text. First he asked what others were saying about him. Again, obviously he knew. He wasn’t seeking information. He was seeking relationship – as always. Being Jewish through and through, he asks questions to enter into relationship, into dialogue. Who do others say He is? The disciples can answer this one easily, there is nothing personal. And the answer is rather positive, it tells us about the people’s perception of who Jesus was at that point in his ministry. But you can quickly tell, this is not Jesus’ goal. He is only getting started. Then he asks the real question – the other one was just a primer. Who do YOU say that I am? Now that is completely different. Now they are in the spotlight. Now it’s their turn.Who we understand Jesus to be, determines who we are. Please hear this. Knowing who Jesus is, will determine the course of your life on earth, in heaven, and every moment spent here and there. Knowing who Jesus is tells you who you are. Jesus’ identity defines your identity – and this cannot be said of any one else. He alone claims this level of power, authority, and utter allegiance.Who your kids are doesn’t determine who you are. Who your parents or husband or best friend is, doesn’t determine who you are. Your enemies or your friends or your colleagues or your neighbors or your boss don’t define you.Jesus defines you.Where you were born, where you live, your ethnicity or your nationality, your income or your health, your size or your looks – these don’t define you.Jesus defines you.You don’t define yourself. If you are His disciple, then you have effectively renounced the right to define yourself. It means you don’t get to choose the criteria that define you. None of the above.Jesus defines you.This is truly the most freeing thing anyone can tell you.Who Jesus is defines who you are, because you are IN Christ. You cannot be apart from Him. That is the whole purpose of relationship.If Jesus is truly the King of all kings, and the God of the universe who can hold everything you can see and touch and feel, and everything you can’t, just by the power of His word, then being defined by Him is the most glorious thing and the highest possible calling.It is not reductive. It is enlarging. It is not confining. It is freeing. It is not limiting. It is boundless.You are who you are, because Jesus is who He is. And who He is to you, determines who you are.Ground yourself in Him. The greatest

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Amanda Jenkins shares about the 25th wedding anniversary she and Dallas are celebrating TODAY, JUNE 13, 2023! Happy anniversary to one of our favorite couples out there. Twenty-five years is a beautiful milestone and a testament to God's faithfulness through and in you! We love you and honor the Lord alongside you.Amanda and Stephanie talk about the crucible of suffering as the unavoidable process which our gentle Lord uses to refine us and keep us closely tied to His side, for our protection and growth. She explains how recent intense pain has led her to write the Bible Study that will soon release alongside season 4 of the show. She explains how she has discovered how God's goodness truly can eclipse our suffering - not in a pollyanna way at all, but through the pain and the daily releasing to Him who is more than able to bear it. We can only endure suffering when we are deeply rooted in who God is. As Amanda shares some of the recent personal struggles and sufferings she and her family have endured, she reveals how they have grown in the Lord through it, and what she has learned about herself and, more essentially, about God.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ziOcbz1ny9UIn our previous episode with Amanda, she talked with Stephanie about discovering new dimensions of relationship with Jesus, and the importance of experiential knowledge and resting in Him. Amanda told us how her family is faring through seasons of The Chosen, with a focus on discipling older children. She and Dallas have four children, aged 22, 20, 18 and 16. How are they parenting through the show, and towards intimacy with Christ? Amanda shared the power of intentionality and the necessity of embracing mistakes to grow from them. She told Stephanie how she and Dallas have nurtured a family culture for open conversations and for making God the center of their daily lives. She shared what it looks like to surrender your children to God at every age.We also invite you to watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/gospelspice DISCOVER THE CHOSENBest show of the century. Everything is at https://new.thechosen.tv/We cannot recommend Amanda's Bible Studies enough. Get all of them today at https://new.thechosen.tv/collections/books NEW BONUS! GO DEEPER WITH OUR REFLECTION QUESTIONS ON THIS EPISODE1. What does it mean to abide in Christ? How does this look different for each individual?2. How can we grow our relationships with our children and disciple them as they grow older?3. How do different families approach nightly devotionals or Bible study time?4. What can we learn from David's practice of turning his attention to God's character in times of lament? How can we apply this to our own lives?5. How does suffering impact our relationship with God? Can it draw us closer to Him or drive us away?6. How can we release control and trust God with our children's emotional development and spiritual growth?7. What are some natural challenges to reentry after a spouse has been away, and how can intentional conversations help with the transition back to normalcy?8. In what ways can we seek God when things are going smoothly and not get complacent in our faith?9. How can we avoid the temptation to seek validation from people instead of God? What are some practical ways to focus on abiding in Christ instead of looking to others for approval?10. How have our standards and priorities changed as we have matured in our relationship with God? What helps us to recognize what is worth fighting for and what is not? DISCOVER THE GOSPEL SPICE MINISTRIES The Gospel Spice Podcast is part of a larger range of tools given to you by Gospel Spice Ministries.In a nutshell, we exist to inspire Christ-followers to delight in God.In more details: we provide resources to empower Christian leaders across generational, social, ethnic and geogr

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Amanda Jenkins returns on the Gospel Spice Podcast today for a deep dive into what it means to abide in Christ in ever-growing ways. She talks with Stephanie about discovering new dimensions of relationship with Jesus, and the importance of experiential knowledge and resting in Him. Amanda tells us how her family is faring through seasons of The Chosen, with a focus on discipling older children. She and Dallas have four children, aged 22, 20, 18 and 16. How are they parenting through the show, and towards intimacy with Christ? Amanda shares the power of intentionality and the necessity of embracing mistakes to grow from them. She tells us how she and Dallas have nurtured a family culture for open conversations and for making God the center of their daily lives. She shares what it looks like to surrender your children to God at every age. She also shares with us, in a fun, whimsical ways, what plans she and Dallas have to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary this week!We also invite you to watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/i7fB68uKG_8?feature=oembedIn the second half of the conversation, which will air as our next episode, Amanda shares some of the recent personal struggles and sufferings she and her family have endured, how they have grown in the Lord through it, and what she has learned about herself and, more essentially, about God.DISCOVER THE CHOSENBest show of the century. Everything is at https://new.thechosen.tv/We cannot recommend Amanda's Bible Studies enough. Get all of them today at https://new.thechosen.tv/collections/books NEW BONUS! GO DEEPER WITH OUR REFLECTION QUESTIONS ON THIS EPISODE1. What does it mean to abide in Christ? How does this look different for each individual?2. How can we grow our relationships with our children and disciple them as they grow older?3. How do different families approach nightly devotionals or Bible study time?4. What can we learn from David's practice of turning his attention to God's character in times of lament? How can we apply this to our own lives?5. How does suffering impact our relationship with God? Can it draw us closer to Him or drive us away?6. How can we release control and trust God with our children's emotional development and spiritual growth?7. What are some natural challenges to reentry after a spouse has been away, and how can intentional conversations help with the transition back to normalcy?8. In what ways can we seek God when things are going smoothly and not get complacent in our faith?9. How can we avoid the temptation to seek validation from people instead of God? What are some practical ways to focus on abiding in Christ instead of looking to others for approval?10. How have our standards and priorities changed as we have matured in our relationship with God? What helps us to recognize what is worth fighting for and what is not? Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!"Lord, teach us to pray." The disciples came to Jesus with this humble, bold statement. Let's unpack it and appropriate it for ourselves today. Let's look at what it says about them, about Jesus, and about us. Stephanie invites you to ponder questions Jesus asks, and some statements that believers made throughout Scripture, that are really prayers in disguise, and an invitation for us to ponder the deeper things of the spirit and to invite Him to shape us into who He created us to become. Now you know that Stephanie loves to find unexpected connections in Scripture, so that we may experience afresh what might otherwise be stale and feel like microwaved leftovers, spiritually speaking. So today, let's sprinkle our time in Scripture with a dash of spice - Gospel Spice 🙂 In our previous episode we pondered the depth of Jesus' question in several settings: "What do you want?" Stephanie invites us to connect this question to another very familiar passage -- when the disciples come to Jesus, after watching Him pray in solitude, and tell Him, "Lord, teach us to pray." In this context, Jesus provides what we know as the Lord's prayer. This is as relevant as ever. What if we came to Jesus with the same statement - "teach us to pray." What would it reveal about our hearts and our lives? How would Jesus answer? How can we emulate the disciples? This series is an invitation to immerse yourself in the various ways God communicates to us, and us to Him. So pay attention, He is here and willing to whisper in your ear.A word of caution: don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Right now we are going to take Scripture in. Like breathing, like eating, like smelling a flower. Don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Come with the firm intention of discovering God instead. And then Scripture will never disappoint. God promises to be found in the places where He dwells – His Word especially. And in the process, you will undoubtedly find yourself as you find Him. So as we enter the hallowed pages of Scripture together, through a humble doorway and a very simple story, ask yourself: what is this telling me about Jesus?We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebratedhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/The perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your life!https://www.gospelspice.com/merchGo to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!“What do you want?” Jesus asks this powerful question on several occasions.What do YOU want? If Jesus asked you this, how would you answer? How would you feel?In the Greek and Hebrew, to “want” is a multifaceted word that speaks to the heart, the mind and the body. In Psalm 23 when we read, The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” it means I am made whole, complete, so that I have no more need or unmet longing. It is the state of heaven – and, occasionally, heaven on earth.“What do you want?” Jesus asks.Stephanie takes us deep in Scripture through three powerful Greek words today. God is inviting you to capture your imagination, heart, soul and spirit through a deeper longing for Him. It is an intellectual search, a deep desire for Him, and also a need of our body. We will connect the dots and find that Jesus gives us the blueprint to answer this question the way the Father would invite us to. Let’s embrace Jesus’ invitation to ask, seek and knock – only to receive, find and have the door be opened. It is the same trio of Greek words, and it will inspire us to answer His question in the way that will bring us delight, for His glory.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie is joined by Sheila Wray Gregoire to discuss how to raise girls to resist toxic Christian teachings about sex, self, and speaking up. This conversation aims to serve parents of girls (and boys too!) from pre-teen years all to way to young adulthood.Sheila and Stephanie have an hour-long conversation of which today’s episode is the second part (episode 206 was the first half, accessible here: https://www.podcastics.com/episode/237258/link/ or on your favorite listening platform)Parents want their daughters to thrive--to be strong, confident, and equipped to step into the life God has for them. Sheila asks, “What if the church is setting our daughters up to be small? What if the most common teachings girls hear in youth group make them more likely to marry an abuser? Less likely to understand consent? And more likely to blame themselves if they are assaulted?”Armed with data from an all-new survey of more than 7,000 women, the authors of The Great Sex Rescue, Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky, reveal how experiences in church as teens affect women's self-esteem and relationships today in their new book “She Deserves Better.”They expose common evangelical teachings that can backfire: the purity emphasis that can cause shame rather than good choices, the dating rules that can prime girls for abuse, and the one overarching belief that can keep them from setting healthy boundaries.This book tackles tough topics like:- The dating rule that works best—except when it doesn’t (and why we need nuance)- How we can talk about clothing choices without causing body image issues or blaming girls for boys’ thoughts- How to talk about saving sex without idolizing virginity or creating sexual anxiety- How we can protect our daughters from a church hurt that could send them fleeing the faithAnd so much more."Sheila, Rebecca, and Joanna are an all-star team, confronting the harm done to our daughters in both the church and the world,” said Aimee Byrd, author of The Sexual Reformation. “The title says it all. Full stop. Our daughters deserve better! This book is full of thorough research, refreshingly commonsense biblical wisdom, and practical help on how to talk with our daughters and prepare them for confidence and maturity."MEET SHEILA WRAY GREGOIRESheila Wray Gregoire is the face behind BareMarrige.com, the largest single-blogger marriage blog. She's also an award-winning author of nine books, including The Great Sex Rescue, and a sought-after speaker. With her humorous, no-nonsense approach, Sheila is passionate about changing the evangelical conversation about sex and marriage to line up with kingdom principles. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband. They have two adult daughters and two grandbabies.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie is joined by Sheila Wray Gregoire to discuss how to raise girls to resist toxic Christian teachings about sex, self, and speaking up. This conversation aims to serve parents of girls (and boys too!) from pre-teen years all to way to young adulthood.Parents want their daughters to thrive--to be strong, confident, and equipped to step into the life God has for them. Sheila asks, “What if the church is setting our daughters up to be small? What if the most common teachings girls hear in youth group make them more likely to marry an abuser? Less likely to understand consent? And more likely to blame themselves if they are assaulted?”Sheila and Stephanie have an hour-long conversation of which today’s episode is the first part (episode 207 will be the sequel, and will publish a few days later).Armed with data from an all-new survey of more than 7,000 women, the authors of The Great Sex Rescue, Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky, reveal how experiences in church as teens affect women's self-esteem and relationships today in their new book “She Deserves Better.”They expose common evangelical teachings that can backfire: the purity emphasis that can cause shame rather than good choices, the dating rules that can prime girls for abuse, and the one overarching belief that can keep them from setting healthy boundaries.This book tackles tough topics like:- The dating rule that works best—except when it doesn’t (and why we need nuance)- How we can talk about clothing choices without causing body image issues or blaming girls for boys’ thoughts- How to talk about saving sex without idolizing virginity or creating sexual anxiety- How we can protect our daughters from a church hurt that could send them fleeing the faithAnd so much more."Sheila, Rebecca, and Joanna are an all-star team, confronting the harm done to our daughters in both the church and the world,” said Aimee Byrd, author of The Sexual Reformation. “The title says it all. Full stop. Our daughters deserve better! This book is full of thorough research, refreshingly commonsense biblical wisdom, and practical help on how to talk with our daughters and prepare them for confidence and maturity."MEET SHEILA WRAY GREGOIRESheila Wray Gregoire is the face behind BareMarrige.com, the largest single-blogger marriage blog. She's also an award-winning author of nine books, including The Great Sex Rescue, and a sought-after speaker. With her humorous, no-nonsense approach, Sheila is passionate about changing the evangelical conversation about sex and marriage to line up with kingdom principles. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband. They have two adult daughters and two grandbabies.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie invites you to ponder questions Jesus asks, and some statements that believers made throughout Scripture, that are really prayers in disguise, and an invitation for us to ponder the deeper things of the spirit and to invite Him to shape us into who He created us to become. Now you know that Stephanie loves to find unexpected connections in Scripture, so that we may experience afresh what might otherwise be stale and feel like microwaved leftovers, spiritually speaking. So today, let's sprinkle our time in Scripture with a dash of spice - Gospel Spice 🙂 In our previous episode we pondered the depth of Jesus' question to the invalid at Bethesda: "Would you like to get well?" Stephanie invites us to connect this question to another very familiar passage -- when Jesus calls Simon Peter to become a fisher of man, on the heels of the miracle of the fish catch on the seashore of Galilee. Simon says, "I am a sinner. Get away from me, Lord." Let's dive deep.This series is an invitation to immerse yourself in the various ways God communicates to us, and us to Him. So pay attention, He is here and willing to whisper in your ear.A word of caution: don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Right now we are going to take Scripture in. Like breathing, like eating, like smelling a flower. Don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Come with the firm intention of discovering God instead. And then Scripture will never disappoint. God promises to be found in the places where He dwells – His Word especially. And in the process, you will undoubtedly find yourself as you find Him. So as we enter the hallowed pages of Scripture together, through a humble doorway and a very simple story, ask yourself: what is this telling me about Jesus?DISCOVER THE GOSPEL SPICE MINISTRIES The Gospel Spice Podcast is part of a larger range of tools given to you by Gospel Spice Ministries.In a nutshell, we exist to inspire Christ-followers to delight in God.In more details: we provide resources to empower Christian leaders across generational, social, ethnic and geographical boundaries towards more intimacy with Jesus Christ and discipleship effectiveness through a Biblical Christocentric foundation. The Gospel-Spice Ministries provide a safe environment for spiritual and community growth empowering people to know Christ more intimately, serve one another more powerfully, and reach the world for Jesus.PLAY IT FORWARD by SHARING the link with friends and family.PRAY IT FORWARD by praying for us and those you share it with!PAY IT FORWARD!! Would you consider supporting this show today to help others enjoy it for free? It comes to you completely free, but is labor-intensive to produce, and we want to keep putting it in the ears of people!Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status. Your donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170. We want to be the best possible stewards of your financial support. All donations above our minimal operating costs go to Christian organizations fighting human trafficking.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blog(*ListenNotes ranking, 2023)The perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your life!https://www.gospelspice.com/merchGo to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie invites you to ponder questions Jesus asks, and some statements that believers made throughout Scripture, that are really prayers in disguise, and an invitation for us to ponder the deeper things of the spirit and to invite Him to shape us into who He created us to become.Today we welcome Jesus' question to the invalid at the pool of Bethesda: Would you like to get well? A simple question, begging for a seemingly obvious answer. But let's go deeper. And let's see how we would answer this question for ourselves today. This is about physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological healing. This is about restoring intimacy with the One who made us body, soul and spirit. It is, ultimately, an invitation to worship and trust. How will you answer?This series is an invitation to immerse yourself in the various ways God communicates to us, and us to Him. So pay attention, He is here and willing to whisper in your ear.A word of caution: don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Right now we are going to take Scripture in. Like breathing, like eating, like smelling a flower. Don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Come with the firm intention of discovering God instead. And then Scripture will never disappoint. God promises to be found in the places where He dwells – His Word especially. And in the process, you will undoubtedly find yourself as you find Him. So as we enter the hallowed pages of Scripture together, through a humble doorway and a very simple story, ask yourself: what is this telling me about Jesus?DISCOVER THE GOSPEL SPICE MINISTRIES The Gospel Spice Podcast is part of a larger range of tools given to you by Gospel Spice Ministries.In a nutshell, we exist to inspire Christ-followers to delight in God.In more details: we provide resources to empower Christian leaders across generational, social, ethnic and geographical boundaries towards more intimacy with Jesus Christ and discipleship effectiveness through a Biblical Christocentric foundation. The Gospel-Spice Ministries provide a safe environment for spiritual and community growth empowering people to know Christ more intimately, serve one another more powerfully, and reach the world for Jesus.PLAY IT FORWARD by SHARING the link with friends and family.PRAY IT FORWARD by praying for us and those you share it with!PAY IT FORWARD!! Would you consider supporting this show today to help others enjoy it for free? It comes to you completely free, but is labor-intensive to produce, and we want to keep putting it in the ears of people!Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status. Your donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170. We want to be the best possible stewards of your financial support. All donations above our minimal operating costs go to Christian organizations fighting human trafficking.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blog(*ListenNotes ranking, 2023)THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie takes us to that very first effusion of the Holy Spirit on the believers gathered in obedience to Jesus' command to wait for the Spirit to come upon them. Have you ever wondered who the Holy Spirit is, especially in relation to God the Father and Christ the Son? How about who He is in relation to us? We are told that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit at salvation. What does it mean, and what does it entail?We're looking at the nature and goal of a seal in the ancient world--and it takes you much deeper than a dusty history lesson!It's the most glorious of promises, and frankly, one of the most misunderstood ones. So today, peel the veil back and dive deep into the glory of the Holy Spirit. You may leave wet from head to toe--drenched in the guarantee of your inheritance, until you take full possession of it!Have you ever pondered that Pentecost is what makes us superior to the angels? Take a listen today!ANNOUNCEMENT | We are switching to 2 episodes a week this season! Love it? Hate it? Please let us know by filling out this one-question survey. YOUR OPINION MATTERS! thank you! Stephanie mentions one of her favorite books, Chosen but free by Norman Geisler. At the date of the release of this episode, the paperback is listed for less than $10 on Amazon... you owe it to yourself to get it! Other resources are listed here: https://www.gospelspice.com/resources THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep producing and distributing them. Please pay Gospel Spice forward today! For example, a podcast episode takes close to 10 hours of work (and we release 2 each week). They come to you completely free, but we would truly love your support.We want the money to go to those who really need it. Once our operating costs are paid, 100% of your donation is redistributed to our partners who fight human trafficking. Each year, we aim to give as much as we can. For example, Stephanie works more than full time for Gospel Spice, entirely for free. All board members and volunteers are donating time. We limit our operational expenses to the bare minimum.Your pay-it-forward donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170.We want to be the best possible stewards of your financial support. Thank you!Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogThe perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your li

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!God the Father could simply not wait to welcome Jesus back in Heaven after Easter. So much so, that He told us about the welcome party hundreds of years before it happened! It is a foretaste of the party that awaits YOU when you enter heaven. This is the sure hope that is the foundation of our faith. In our current uncertain times, we can rest assured that if we are in Christ, we will have quite the welcome party in Heaven. Did someone you know and love recently reach the pearly gates? That is their reality today too!We look at the richness of the symbolism of the Ascension, but only because it is the precursor to one of the greatest celebrations for the believers: the gift of the Holy Spirit, the full indwelling of God Himself in the believers, given at Pentecost. We will delve deep into Pentecost in our next episode, but this is a glimpse into glory today!ANNOUNCEMENT | We are switching to 2 episodes a week this season! Love it? Hate it? Please let us know by filling out this one-question survey. YOUR OPINION MATTERS! thank you!DISCOVER THE GOSPEL SPICE MINISTRIES The Gospel Spice Podcast is part of a larger range of tools given to you by Gospel Spice Ministries.In a nutshell, we exist to inspire Christ-followers to delight in God.In more details: we provide resources to empower Christian leaders across generational, social, ethnic and geographical boundaries towards more intimacy with Jesus Christ and discipleship effectiveness through a Biblical Christocentric foundation. The Gospel-Spice Ministries provide a safe environment for spiritual and community growth empowering people to know Christ more intimately, serve one another more powerfully, and reach the world for Jesus.PLAY IT FORWARD by SHARING the link with friends and family.PRAY IT FORWARD by praying for us and those you share it with!PAY IT FORWARD!! Would you consider supporting this show today to help others enjoy it for free? It comes to you completely free, but is labor-intensive to produce, and we want to keep putting it in the ears of people!Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status. Your donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170. We want to be the best possible stewards of your financial support. All donations above our minimal operating costs go to Christian organizations fighting human trafficking.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blog(*ListenNotes ranking, 2023)Do you enjoy Gospel Spice? Then let's deepen our relationship! There are 4 very simple ways to do that, and it would truly mean the world to us. 1- If you’ve enjoyed this episode, you will love receiving our newsletter. It contains value-packed free gifts and rich content each month. It’s at gospelspice.com/signup. There is always something new and exciting happening around here, and I don’t want you to miss out! Sign up at Gospelspice.com/signup2- Did you know Gospel Spice has a YouTube Channel? There’s exclusive content there too. So, join Gospel Spice on YouTube! It's at https://www.youtube.com/gospelspice 3- Also please give us a star rating and a comment on your podcast listening app. Your reviews actually really do make a difference to help others discover and experience Gospel Spice. You would be surprised how helpful these are! So please leave a star rating and a review of a sentence or two. Thank you!4- As always, we are praying for you! You can confidentially email us your prayer requests and praise items at the email address [email protected]. It is our privilege to pray for you!So, would you please invest 3 to 5 minutes of your time, maybe even right now, to do one (or more!) of the following suggestions:1- signup on our website for our newsletter to receive gifts you’re going

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Christie Purifoy is Stephanie’s near-neighbor and dear, dear friend. They invite you in the conversation to deepen our relationship with God through simple ways to add beauty to your home through flowers, year round. What does gardening teach us about intimacy with Him? How do flowers invite us to trust Him through the seasons of life – the seasons of abundance, or growth, but also of winter, wilderness, and waiting?Through enchanting prose and delightful activities, avid writer, gardener and place-maker Christie Purifoy invites you to capture the curious magic of the garden and bring its life and joy into your home this season. A flower garden is a place where endless possibilities are contemplated (and celebrated), where reason bows to beauty, and practicality gives way to whimsy. It’s where we sink our roots deep, lean into the rhythms of each season, and wish for beautiful things to grow.Stephanie has been labelled a “black thumb” as a child – meaning, she is more apt to kill a plant, than to give it the environment to thrive! Can she cultivate a home in bloom? Christie brings hope to this helpless flower-killer who constantly seeks beauty in all areas of her life.Christie and Stephanie had initially met a few weeks before they recorded Christie’s first guest appearance on Gospel Spice, back in 2022. And now they are together again to discuss Christie’s latest book, A home in bloom, and its deep ramifications in our spiritual lives and our relationships with one another.MORE ABOUT A HOME IN BLOOMA HOME IN BLOOM is the second book in the trilogy that started with GARDEN MAKER. They go so well together, both visually and thematically, that it would be a shame not to own both of them! They make the perfect Mother’s day gift, among many other gift occasions.This fully photographed guide shows you how to enjoy the many gifts the garden offers inside your own home, transforming your living spaces into places filled with warmth and wonder. Each season, Christie shares her notes on what to plant and walks you through easy projects that will surely become lifelong practices that help you bring the outdoors in.Learn how to grow your house into a home in bloom.Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Home-Bloom-Enchanted-Seasons-Flowers/dp/0736982167A Home in Bloom is now available online and in local stores everywhere!MORE ABOUT CHRISTIE PURIFOYChristie is a writer and avid gardener. She earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Chicago and has taught literature and composition at the undergraduate level. Her books include Garden Maker: Growing a Life of Beauty and Wonder with Flowers, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons, and Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace. She explores her love of gardening and all things beautiful at her Victorian farmhouse in southeastern Pennsylvania.Meet Christie at https://www.christiepurifoy.com/We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebratedhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!God has been truly faithful to each one of us in this communal Gospel Spice journey. You, our beloved listener, is the reason why we started, the reason why we keep doing this week after week. Walking alongside you in your journey of faith, finding God at work in the every day and in the grand moments, and praising Him. Seeking Him and finding Him, delighting in Him and beholding His glory - that is the essence of life. It is meant to be a life lived in community - you and me, you and us, together. So, with humble gratitude, a heartfelt thank-you to you who are reading these lines and listening to (or watching) this episode. The best celebrations in life take place when we are surrounded with family and loved ones. So, today we are celebrating God's enduring faithfulness over 200 episodes by digging behind the scenes and spending quality time with Him through three very special women who have profoundly shaped Gospel Spice - each one in her own God-given way. Linda invites us to embrace the love that comes from God. Angel challenges us to stay on mission for the Kingdom. Lindsay reminds us to trust God for deeper things. Linda, Angel and Lindsay have done more to serve you, than you might know! So today Stephanie spends time with them and invites you to pull up a chair, put the kettle on for some tea or coffee, or maybe take us on a walk or on the road today with you. Scoot in, there is a place for you right here with us. We pray these conversations uplift you and encourage you to keep delighting in the glory of God today, tomorrow and every day! THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep producing and distributing them. Please pay Gospel Spice forward today! For example, a podcast episode takes close to 10 hours of work (and we release 2 each week). They come to you completely free, but we would truly love your support.We want the money to go to those who really need it. Once our operating costs are paid, 100% of your donation is redistributed to our partners who fight human trafficking. Each year, we aim to give as much as we can. For example, Stephanie works more than full time for Gospel Spice, entirely for free. All board members and volunteers are donating time. We limit our operational expenses to the bare minimum.Your pay-it-forward donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170.We want to be the best possible stewards of your financial support. Thank you!Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjo

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie is delighted to welcome Richard Foster, the author of one of the most influential books in her life, Celebration of Discipline. Today, Richard, with Brenda Quinn, talk about the power of learning humility. He tells Stephanie, “The practice of humility has made me playful and free.” In our culture of raging narcissism, Richard calls humility the "vanishing virtue." He says that practicing humility has been "playful, freeing, fun, and freedom from [his] need to feel important." How wonderful!When Stephanie asks about how to learn humility, Richard answers, “We learn humility by taking up other tasks, like serving others.”Richard explains that humility is a secret gift that keeps on giving. He says, “one of the things we need to learn is to embrace and enjoy anonymity.”Richard encourages us to develop a passion for culture, encouraging each one if us to keep on living at the intersection of culture and Scripture here at Gospel Spice. He says, “look for the finger of God at work through every culture.” He adds, “in every culture there are things that are consonant with Scripture, and some that are dissonant. Our task is to discern among them.”In a society where raging narcissism dominates the moral landscape, the virtue of humility is often dismissed as irrelevant. Not only is humility vanishing from contemporary culture, but we are also witnessing how destructive a lack of humility has become among our churches and ministry leaders. And yet, Richard Foster, the founder of Renovare, insists that humility is central to the journey toward character formation and spiritual transformation. For this reason he decided to spend a year studying the virtue of humility.Using the Lakota calendar as a framework, Foster provides us with a look into the insights he gathered from sources ranging from Native American culture to Julian of Norwich to Scripture to personal friends. By engaging with both the spiritual classics and Foster's own experiences, Learning Humility provides profound insight into what humility can look like in our current cultural climate.Join Richard Foster on Gospel Spice today, and embrace the journey toward a life of humility, which he says leads us into "freedom, joy, and holy hilarity."MEET RICHARD FOSTERRichard Foster is founder, past pres­i­dent and cur­rent team mem­ber of Ren­o­varé. Hav­ing stud­ied at George Fox and Fuller The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary, Fos­ter has served as a pas­tor and taught world­wide on spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion. Author of dozens of arti­cles and six books, includ­ing Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline, Richard con­tin­ues to write on the spir­i­tu­al life. He and his wife, Car­olynn, have two grown chil­dren, Joel and Nathan, nine grand­chil­dren, and live near Den­ver, Colorado.Discover more at https://renovare.org/MEET BRENDA QUINNBrenda Quinn is a pastor of spiritual formation in the Foursquare church and a writer of many years. She is also the author of the character profiles in the Life with God Bible. Brenda Quinn, former staff editor for Serendipity House and editorial coordinator for MOPS International, Inc., is cowriter of study guides for both "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What’s So Amazing About Grace?" She coauthored the devotional "Meet the Bible" with Philip Yancey. Brenda lives with her husband and son in Colorado.We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie welcomes fellow Gospel Spice team member Ros Evans for an in-depth conversation about taking Easter throughout the whole year. Easter is the most significant event of the Christian calendar--indeed of the world! How do we carry the meaning of Easter into all the other seasons of life? Why do we need the transformational power of Easter for 365 days a year, not just in March or April each year? How can we keep Easter fresh and new, and prevent the old stale flavors of Easters past to creep up in our passion for Christ?Ros has become an "everyday theologian," someone who is passionate to discover who God is and to enter ever more into deeper relationship with Him. But she was not always so. She shares her story of faith, from liturgical South African roots to vibrant American faith. She inspires us to never stop learning and growing, and role-models humble teachability. She explains how she used to think her faith was whole and full, only to discover there is so much more to fullness of life with Christ than she had ever dreamed to imagine. She chose to embrace the fullness of relationship with God over the last six years of her life, after a lifetime of real but lukewarm faith. She tells us how God met her, and how He is still today transforming her, by the power of His Spirit, into the person He created her to become. Ros invites us all to embrace our inner theologian and to dare to become more than we can imagine.In the course of the conversation, Stephanie shares a couple of illustrations to help us understand what it means to have the fullness of the infinite Spirit of Christ in us. Join us today!We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebratedhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/The perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your life!https://www.gospelspice.com/merchGo to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Welcome to our final and deepest Easter episode. Today, we are going deep! This episode is released on Good Friday and so its theme bridges history from Eden to Easter. You can also view the video of this episode on YouTube at https://youtu.be/AN0Vkhnms_Q You know the story. God created the world and everything in it. Including a man, for whom God created a beautiful garden. The man was to tend the garden and enjoy its luscious produce, amidst unbroken fellowship with God and with all the animals. But something was missing… This is not a story primarily about genders or human relationships. This is the Easter story. It is the origins story of our identity, and it is completely wrapped up in the identity of our King.You have heard it said that Jesus is the second Adam. It is straight from several passages of the New Testament. And when we see the birth and core identity of Adam and Eve, we behold Jesus’ death. God caused Jesus to die. God created a bride for the man – God created a bride for Jesus. We are Eve. We are the bride. We have been taken from the heart of the Son of God. And, when Adam is brought to sleep to birth Eve, this is God drawing a stick figure to announce to us what He has already decided in the heavenly places before time was. He is announcing what will take place in future time but has been decided before Genesis 1:1. We have been taken out of the beating heart of Christ, our eternal Adam. The decision was made before the foundation of time. The stick figures were drawn by the Father in the garden, with Adam and Eve as the actors playing for us the scene that would truly take place later. And later came on the cross. It is the Easter story.It means that our deepest identity is that we are Eve. We are the beating heart of Christ, the rib that was taken from Him through death. His beloved whom He calls bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. There is nothing you can do to lose your identity in Christ, because you did nothing to earn it. It is the Easter story.All the Pauline passages about the roles of Adam and Eve suddenly shine with new depth when you consider this. Indeed, Christ is the head of the church, and that is symbolized in the way Adam was first and gave life to Eve. Christ preexisted the church – He preexisted humanity as a whole. Easter is the actual event to which this passage points. On the cross Jesus was put to sleep, so that the church could be born. On the cross His side was pierced. That is where the bride came from.The church has one name that echoes through the centuries as its most compelling identity. We are the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. Just like Eve is, literally, the body of Adam and the bride of Adam. When Jesus sees you, He sees the bone of his bones and the flesh of His flesh. He sees His bride, his beloved. Just like Adam knew that Eve had come from him, yet was different.It took the death of the Son to birth the fullness of the new creation, the fullness of what it means to be Imago Dei. This indeed is the Easter story.THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Nicky and Pippa Gumbel are among the most influential leaders of the church today, on a global scale. They have a unique vantage point on the state of the world, and the challenges facing our generation as believers. At the same time, they are humble and unassuming, so approachable and genuinely kind, that they would love to share a cup of tea with you if they met you. This rare balance is deeply attractive, and the fruit of a lifetime of dependence on the Holy Spirit. Stephanie and her husband Jonah have the deepest respect for them, and find themselves blessed to get to learn from them. When they lived in the UK with their pre-teen kids, they attended the church where the Gumbels were pastoring, Holy Trinity Brompton in South Kensington, London. One of the fastest growing churches in the UK, HTB is a multi-site church that the Gumbels only recently retired from.Stephanie welcomes them on the show today, and she is ready with a lot of questions! They talk about the state of the universal church of Christ today in the world, from their perspective – including a word of encouragement for the new generation and the red flags they are noticing in the culture. They share where they think the power of influence is shifting, and how we can depend on Christ to guide us in the challenges ahead. Their passion for defining the line between Scripture and culture leads to some great advice on what it looks like for our generation. Nicky shares one thing he regrets, and Pippa shares about the power of revival and trusting God’s sovereignty through life.Having been married 45 years, Pippa and Nicky share wisdom and insights into the makings of a marriage that holds the distance to the glory of God. Their dependence on the Holy Spirit is palpable, and deeply attractive.They tell us about the Alpha Course, the global phenomenon that invites spiritual seekers to embrace faith through conversations and personal connections. If you do not know the Alpha Course, Stephanie warmly invites you to discover it and to try it out. In this Easter season, it is the perfect time to invite your seeking friends to attend. Join them for a life-changing experience of faith!Pippa and Nicky share with us how they are running their race with perseverance, through the hardships and the good times, and pray for us at the end of our time together. You WANT to receive this prayer for yourself, so make sure to tune in!DISCOVER THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR APP: https://bibleinoneyear.org/en/The Bible in One Year is a daily Bible reading plan which takes you through the whole Bible in 365 days. It is ideal for anyone who is looking for an easy and accessible way to read and understand the Bible.Each day includes passages from a Psalm or Proverb, the New Testament and the Old Testament along with a daily commentary from Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, leaders of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) Church in London and pioneers of Alpha. The Bible in One Year will encourage you to engage more closely with the Bible, to apply its teachings to everyday life and to grow in your relationship with Jesus.You can follow along by reading the text or listening to the audio commentary and you can choose the version that best suits your lifestyle; the Classic version (25 minutes), or a shorter Express or Youth version (both around 15 minutes).Over 4.5 million people from 160 countries have experienced Bible in One Year. Why not join them, find your own rhythm and draw closer to God.Nicky Gumbel is the pioneer of Alpha and Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton in London, which he leads with his wife Pippa. Together, they introduced the Bible in One Year commentary in 2009 as a daily email for their congregation. Since then, it has become a successful app, book, podcast and website with a global following. Join them today as they take you through every chapter and verse of the Bible, shar

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him! Stephanie invites us to enter the last week of Jesus' earthly life. We will take a long, slow look at the events that precede the Cross and the Resurrection. On the menu here at Gospel Spice today, the first-century Jewish custom of betrothal! And, more specifically, how Jesus shouted loud and clear that He is the Bridegroom come the fetch His bride, the church... Matthew makes abundant use of non-spoken cultural clues to deliver this message clearly to his audience. But wait, we don't even really know what betrothal is anymore. And who knows what the ceremony entailed in first-century Israel? Well, you might actually know more than you think! It will remind you of many familiar passages taught by Jesus... who knew we knew so much!?! 🙂Stephanie opens the first-century Jewish custom of betrothal to our 21st century western minds. We focus on the betrothal ceremony's elements--the proposal, the bride-price, and the drinking of the cup as covenantal agreement. We follow the bride-to-be as she took up to twelve months to prepare and adorn herself in every way--physical, and spiritual. We follow the groom-to-be in his various endeavors to prepare their future life together. And then, the big day finally came--the wedding celebration could start! Jesus drew one parallel after another to help us understand He is the Groom come for His bride, the church universal. Find out what 2,000 years of western history made us forget!This episode is a bonus episode to accompany Episode 195 which aired jsut previously. Make sure to listen! If you enjoyed this episode, you may appreciate Season 1 of Gospel Spice which aired in 2019 and 2020. Check out episodes 1 to 50!THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep producing and distributing them. Please pay Gospel Spice forward today! For example, a podcast episode takes close to 10 hours of work (and we release 2 each week). They come to you completely free, but we would truly love your support.We want the money to go to those who really need it. Once our operating costs are paid, 100% of your donation is redistributed to our partners who fight human trafficking. Each year, we aim to give as much as we can. For example, Stephanie works more than full time for Gospel Spice, entirely for free. All board members and volunteers are donating time. We limit our operational expenses to the bare minimum.Your pay-it-forward donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170.We want to be the best possible stewards of your financia

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!We invite you to consider Easter under a fresh light, a slightly different angle, maybe with a sprinkle of unexpected spices. Our goal today is to know Jesus more – because that is the essence of Easter. One of the best ways to experience Scripture afresh is to connect the Old and the New testaments, so today is about creating a sense of wonder and astonishment at the very event of Easter. We are entering the banquet that Joseph gave his brothers in Genesis 42-45 as the gateway to experience the Last Supper in the Upper Room – Jesus’ last meal with His disciples, and the instruction of the Communion. We will also study another key event that links the two and is linked to each of them, namely PASSOVER – that will be instituted by God through Moses as they leave Egypt.You can also view the video of this lesson on YouTube at https://youtu.be/94zE3huzJiw SUPER SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! WE WOULD LOVE TO FEATURE YOU ON GOSPEL SPICE! For our 200th episode, Stephanie will compile a handful of stories from our beloved listeners. How has the Lord met you recently, and has Gospel Spice played a role? Email us at [email protected] today to apply! Deadline is March 25, 2023. Thank you!About our episode today... Joseph’s banquet represents the entry to Egypt, the escape from famine and death. It is a family reunion and a hopeful new start for the young Jewish nation that is summed up in the 70 family members.The last supper, taking place in the upper room on the night that Jesus was betrayed, the last night before he was killed, is a symbol of spiritual freedom. Just like Moses liberated the Jews from the physical oppression of the Egyptians, Jesus will liberate all who believe in Him from the spiritual oppression of sin and death. So Jesus is like Joseph in the sense that he provides escape from famine and death, and like Moses in the sense that he provides liberation from sin and death.The last supper is a mix of two primary events, and it is also where Jesus gives us the sacrament of communion, or the Lord’s supper. Every Jew would celebrate Passover on that night, ever since they entered the Promised Land 1500 years earlier. This particular last supper is the last Passover, really, because the true Lamb of God has finally come to do what the Passover has been pointing to all these years. So today we are connecting Joseph’s banquet to the last supper with occasional connections with Passover because Passover and last supper are intricately linked in places. We will look at the central role of Egypt, the freedom from slavery, the preparations being made around these two feasts, the guests who attend, the atmosphere around the events, the revelations made, the restoration of relationships, and the entry into a glorious future, and even the promise of hardships. We will ponder the role of cups and promises, access to Kingdoms, and the reversals of true intimacy. We will end with the glorious feast of the Lamb that awaits every one of us as followers of Christ. Happy Easter!Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!We wrap our series, Pathways to God’s Presence, with an invitation to practice heaven and the presence of God in our lives today. Stephanie beckons us to ponder the seasons and moments of our lives as cycles of growth towards deeper intimacy with God. She opens for us the joy and privileges of godly stewardship of our resources – time, talent and money – as so many opportunities to implement small, incremental God-ward changes in our daily rhythms. She asks, how do we spend our time? How do we invest our God-sourced resources? Do we truly aim to live each moment in awareness of God’s presence? He is the source of all things good and beautiful and perfect and joyful. Do we live in accordance with that truth? And, since none of us fully do, how can we make growth an abiding reality?You can watch this episode on video on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/MMPHvXFGAUoYou are invited to enjoy a BONUS episode where Stephanie shares her favorite books as the resources she has used for this series. It is available on video only on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/W6G8rvgviSY - Enjoy!Stephanie invites us into the Lord’s prayer to taste fresh flavors of humility and practical tips on how to experience the presence of God. She invites us to make our lives a continual practice for heaven as the convergence of all that we have seen through our series—all the pathways to the Presence of God converge in the place of intimacy with Him through Jesus Christ our Lord and King.Finally, we take our place around the table of the Lord’s Supper, our final moments together in the series, to embrace our life as an other-centered witness for the glory of God. Stephanie says, “I hope our times together have help you find answers to become the person God has crafted you to become, the person you know you want to be when you meet Jesus on that glorious day at the end of the path, only to discover that the path will have only just begun and that, in the words of CS Lewis I already quoted in an earlier episode: “Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep producing and distributing them. Please pay Gospel Spice forward today! For example, a podcast episode takes close to 10 hours of work (and we release 2 each week). They come to you completely free, but we would truly love your support.We want the

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!You are in for a super special treat today as Stephanie welcomes back her all-time favorite guest and friend, Os Guinness, to discuss his latest book, which you do not want to miss, and also to celebrate 50 years since the publication of his first book. The book they are discussing today is going to go down in history as one of the most influential books for our generation, Stephanie is absolutely sure of it. It is simple yet so powerful. You will read it quickly, yet you will find yourself pondering it for months. You will want to gift it to every spiritual seeker you know, as well as every serious believer, because it has something to tell each one of us about the meaning of life. Stephanie read right through it the first time and could not put it down. Then she went back and reread it slowly, savoring its stories and discovering deeper meaning. She is currently enjoying her third read through, and is even more inspired than before. Oh, please make sure to enjoy this absolute treat.Through the course of our conversation, Os gives us his take on what has been happening in Asbury, and what we need from there. Os calls us to pray for a true spiritual awakening and challenges our culture’s understanding of “legacy” and they discuss the meaning of a truly successful life. Os even reveals what he thinks is his favorite book among his many!You can watch the whole conversation on video at youtube.com/gospelspice - make sure to subscribe so you never miss another exciting Gospel Spice episode!SUPER SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! WE WOULD LOVE TO FEATURE YOU ON GOSPEL SPICE! For our 200th episode, Stephanie will compile a handful of stories from our beloved listeners. How has the Lord met you recently, and has Gospel Spice played a role? Email us at [email protected] today to apply! Deadline is March 25, 2023. Thank you!EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR ALL GOSPEL SPICE LISTENERS!Go to IVPRESS.COM and enter the coupon code SPICE to receive 30% off all of Os’ books until March 24, 2023!WIN ALL OF OS GUINNESS’ BOOKS WITH IVPRESS THROUGH GOSPELSPICE at gospelspice.com/giveaway Gospel Spice and IVPress are celebrating 50 years of Os’ books by giving away an entire LIBRARY of all of Os Guinness’ books published by IVPress, and a beautiful organic canvas Gospel Spice tote to carry them all! The tote features the Gospel Spice motto that Stephanie and Os discuss in the interview: “God’s glory, our delight.” Go to gospelspice.com/giveaway to enter for a chance to win the bundle. Giveaway is open until March 24, 2023. Winner will be picked among all the valid entries.Let us tell you a bit more… This year, 2023, marks fifty years since Os Guinness published his first book back in 1973, “The Dust of Death.” It started what has become a prolific writing career for the well-known social critic. Today in our time with Os, we hope to introduce (or reintroduce) you to Os Guinness, and his profound contributions to discussions about freedom, culture, faith, and the quest for meaning and purpose.Stephanie and Os start by discussing Os’ latest book, a truly brilliant, magnificent little gem for all of us to be inspired by, and titled, Signals of Transcendence.The modern world is a place of great distraction, and it can be difficult to make sense of our human existence. But at some point in our lives, we may experience particular moments that prompt us to search for something deeper. Sociologist Peter Berger described these hints and clues as “signals of transcendence” that awaken us to unseen realities. In Signals of Transcendence: Listening to the Promptings of Life, Os Guinness tells stories of people who experienced signals of transcendence and followed them to find new meaning and purpose in life. Notable figures such as Leo Tolstoy and C. S. Lewis as well as lesser-known individuals experienced a variety of promptings that signaled to them

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Today is the episode where we tackle all sorts of countercultural concepts, like fasting, silence and solitude, and rest as a form of worship. So let’s get to it!First, Stephanie reminds us that fasting is expected – not mandated. She also says that fasting requires a biblical purpose – otherwise it’s just going hungry. Fasting is a fast-track to intimacy with God, for the primary reason that He has declared it so. He has wired us to be body, soul and spirit, and in some mysterious way when we go without food, it nourishes our spirit. So fasting has to be undertaken with a deeply-rooted purpose that has to be biblical, otherwise it doesn’t fall under God’s ordained blessing, and don’t expect anything from it except going hungry and being miserable.You can watch Stephanie give this lesson on video format on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/3qGg1gv7z2o She says, "Fasting is an accelerator of spiritual growth." Stephanie shares that fasting is a joyful privilege. WE GET TO FAST and when we do, as Christians, we access the ear of God in ways that He said work mysteriously. If you want the ear of God attentively tuned to your words, then fast. He always listens and hears you, of course. But He also promises that He bends His ear in undivided attention when we fast. Why would we not enjoy this privilege?Stephanie gives us the details of fasting – what it is and what it is not; the purposes within it; and some tips and best practices for the proper focus and perspective. She says, “Fasting is super-charging God’s answers to our prayers, so fasting is also us inviting God to answer prayers as HE sees fit in even more powerful ways.”She also reminds us that “fasting is an acquired taste” and it will require practice and growth. Fasting is a way to discover easter eggs in God’s plan for you—extra, special blessings that He will reveal only to those who enter into this most intimate privilege. So the question is not, Should we fast? But the question becomes, When do we start?Throughout the rest of the episode, we cover Bible memorization, the disciplines of silence and solitude, and then focus on rest and sabbath. Rest is another countercultural concept, like fasting, silence and solitude. Stephanie focuses on the aspects of rest and the deep-seated freedom it brings. She brings up a few points: First, rest feels like it goes against our nature. Also, rest is countercultural. And finally, rest puts us face to face with our sin. Rest requires perseverance, and promises a plentiful yield of peace and harmony. Rest requires accountability, before God, before one another, as well as before our own souls and hearts.How intentional are we about setting time to rest, and just as importantly, entering true rest in experience?Stephanie says, “Rest is doing something you don’t normally do during the week, something you really enjoy, not to escape your life and empty your mind, but to live life to the fullest and fill your mind and heart with what brings you joy and pleasure.”Let’s then focus on Jesus, who was after all, the Lord of Rest, the Lord of the Sabbath. Rest is a mindset. Just like work is a mindset. The world would have us believe that we should always work. That is bondage and slavery. But rest in Christ is available every day – not just once a week, or whenever you choose to incorporate patterns of rest in your life. A good rule of thumb, like with silence and solitude, is to incorporate daily rest, weekly rest, seasonal rest, and annual rest. Weave rest into your rhythms.As you travel the pathway of rest deeper into God’s presence, you begin to acquire the perspective or worldview of heaven on rest. It is constantly available to the Christ-follower. Follow Christ on this pathway of rest because he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He knows the way. He will show you what it looks like for you specifically in

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Today we are tackling some big topics in our Pathways to God’s Presence series. Our focus is on what God calls us to do, and specifically how we are called to do it. We are not going to emphasize trying harder or striving deeper or hustling a bit longer. These are not pathways to the presence of God. These are the counterfeit ways of the world to trick you into exhaustion, dryness and uselessness and then defeat when we finally realize it was a dead end.We are free to choose – God’s way of patience, waiting, praying, trusting, or the world’s way of hustling. It is truly our choice. We have that much freedom and power. And the truly wise will choose the pathways of God. Love and humility and surrender in joyful obedience are the hallmarks of the believer’s fullness of life. Now, If love requires freewill then humility requires freewill too. Love is a choice, and in the same way humility is a choice. Jesus role-modeled both for us when He left heaven for earth.The last act of the will is surrender to God. Humility is surrender of our will to God. As you have probably heard us say before here on GSP, the voluntary loss of our freewill and our free choice to the will of God is our ultimate act of love and the proof of our growing humility.You can’t measure your growth in humility but you can measure your growth in genuinely other-centered love and it’s connected. Genuine Love is the visible manifestation of authentic humility. We know that Love is one of God’s most essential characteristics, which means God is the most humble Being. We are made in His image and are never happier than when we are behaving from the identity He created us to have. It follows that love and humility go hand in hand in our very being too.We are looking at Prayer in the form of intercession and supplication in this episode. We ponder the prayers of Paul and of Jesus as inspiration to pray for others and for ourselves. That is the power of Scripture at your fingertips to alter eternity and change the course of people’s lives for their good and the glory of God!We ponder Bible intake in the context of community. Finally, we look at service as an act of worship today. Humility and service go hand in hand, and the Apostle Paul role-models these in poignant ways. He is our example today. You are invited to watch Stephanie teach this episode on video at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/I_xR5YUsBRU?feature=oembed Paul’s prayers have it all. They are intercession and supplication. They show deep intimacy with the Father and exhibit profound Christlikeness. They are rooted in Scripture and have become Scripture – this is Bible intake to the next level. Paul’s prayers are rooted in serving and loving the people he is praying for. Often, the deepest service we can give someone is to pray for them the words of Scripture over them. Paul’s prayers are true, Christ-focused worship of the highest order.This is fellowship. This is community. This is love.This is worship.Paul shows us that service – which in his case was pastoring the churches – that service that feels like sacrifice, because it is sacrifice, is worship. We don’t hear any overtones of bitterness from Paul. He is sacrificing a lot, and he is doing it gladly.We are called to grow IN grace. We are already fully walking the path of grace because we are IN Christ. So we are called to keep taking the next step on our journey in grace and towards deeper experience of grace. Not find another pathway into grace. You cannot walk into something you are already fully immersed in. That’s the thing. Many Christians seem to believe that we have to find this grace. That we have received salvation, but that it is now up to us to grow in sanctification. That we are to grow into the grace we have already received. That sounds exhausting. But that’s the thing about being IN Christ and growing

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Do you often feel stuck battling the same fears, temptations, lies, and doubts, wondering if you’ll ever overcome them? Does it seem as if you’re in that battle alone? Stephanie welcomes Judy Dunagan to discuss Christ-centered solutions to these problems that plague most of us. How do we live in the victory that Christ has purchased for us? How does it become our reality TODAY? Judy has traversed many valleys of anxiety, burnout, relational conflicts, and more. She is well-equipped from the trenches to give us insights on how to walk the pathways to God’s presence that Jesus opened for us. In this conversation, Judy focuses on the nature and power of prayer, as well as the essential foundation of a high Christology. You are invited to experience Jesus as the mighty Lion of Judah today!Judy says, “Take heart. The enemy’s roar is but a whisper in the presence of our mighty God.”In The Loudest Roar, you’ll marvel at the power, majesty, and authority of our Lord Jesus and learn how to stand in the unshakable victory He’s already won for you. In that victory, you will:- Discern God’s voice over the lies of the enemy- Stand firm in faith rather than give way to fear- Dwell in the cover of God’s armor over you and your loved ones- Keep your thoughts captive to truthFind victory over cycles of sin in your life God’s roar over you will become your roar, diminishing the lies of the enemy . . . to a whisper.You are invited to watch Judy and Stephanie on video at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/MEmLfVLN4DA?feature=oembed MEET JUDY DUNAGANJUDY DUNAGAN is an acquisitions editor for the women’s Bible studies and books at Moody Publishers. A wonder seeker of God and His Word, Judy is passionate about discipleship and making God’s Word and prayer come alive in everyday life. She is a speaker and Bible teacher and serves on the Board of Deeper Walk International, the ministry her father Mark I. Bubeck founded. Judy and her husband Rick live in Colorado.Connect with Judy at: www.JudyDunagan.comEndorsements for The Loudest Roar“The Loudest Roar is a much-needed book for today, filled with truth and wisdom. Judy writes with clarity, strength, and warmth, inviting the reader to take hold of everything that Christ has taken hold of for us. Reading it will empower you to understand your position of authority in Christ and how to live in the victory that Jesus has won for us. Read it. Underline it. Marinate in it. Take it to heart. Make it your own.” —Stasi Eldredge, New York Times bestselling author, Captivating“If you want to rise up and make a difference for yourself, those you love, and your community, read this book. To be victorious, which God wants for you, you must appropriate God’s strengths and weap[1]ons. I benefited from so many of Judy’s explanations, stories, and challenges, and you will, too. I need[1]ed her insights and refreshing, vulnerable, and accurate explanations of relevant Scripture. Passages came alive! And her prayers! They’ll mature me and give me hope. I’ll be reading them often. Truths here will allow you to become who you know you want to be—an equipped and powerful warrior in God’s army!” —Kathy Koch, founder of Celebrate Kids, Inc., and author of Five to Thrive, 8 Great Smarts, and other titles“If you long for courageous faith, authentic truth, righteous living, and a prayer life that faces fear and uncertainty head-on, look no further. In The Loudest Roar author Judy Dunagan teaches us to defeat the enemy and stand firm in the mighty strength of our powerful Lion of Judah! This book gave me tools to develop my ‘roar’ in the face of disappointment, discouragement, temptation, and unfulfilled expectations. Read this treasure on your own, or better yet, with a group of friends who will explore the ‘Going Deeper’ section together. The prayers in the back of the book give you everything need

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!With the overwhelming pace of life, many of us struggle to stop long enough to be present. Too often we live our lives more at the pace of the culture in self-interest, drivenness, empty excitement and anxiety. Alan Fadling has spent years coaching leaders and communities how to live an unhurried life, teaching that productivity and success are not our chief end, but rather living at the pace that our true self longs to live. So, he and Stephanie discuss how to follow the pace of Jesus Christ. Jesus never hurried, yet He accomplished everything He needed. How can we run counterculture and embrace rest as part of our spiritual roots? Alan invites us to ponder the essential nature of slowing down in a culture that tells us that productivity is the measure of our worth.Brew yourself a cup of your favorite hot drink, curl up with a blanket and join this slow, purposeful conversation about worshipping Jesus Christ through rest. As part of our “Pathways to God’s presence” series, Stephanie and Alan invite you to slow down enough to hear the whisper of God’s presence in your day.You are invited to watch Alan and Stephanie on video at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/2-byU4PN32s?feature=oembedMEET ALAN FADLINGAlan Fadling is president and founder of Unhurried Living, Inc. in California. He speaks and consults internationally with organizations such as Saddleback Church, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Cru, Halftime Institute, Apprentice Institute, and Open Doors International.He is the award-winning author of An Unhurried Leader and An Unhurried Life, which was honored with a Christianity Today Award of Merit in spirituality. He is also coauthor (with Gem Fadling) of What Does Your Soul Love? Alan speaks from his award-winning book, An Unhurried Life, about unhurried life with God, in community, in leadership development, in solitude, silence and prayer, and in doing the hard work of continued growth. From his book, An Unhurried Leader, he speaks on leading from overflow, working and leading with God, grace-empowered leadership, and leadership vision. He addresses the intersection between personal spiritual formation and fruitful leadership engagement. People leave these gatherings inspired, encouraged and energized for their life and work with God.Alan consults with groups of leaders to provide training in a way of planning, strategizing and leading that is well-rooted in deep intimacy with God. Incorporate a “seek the kingdom first” approach to leadership. Learn to plan events from a center of listening to God and seeing people through His eyes. Learning these patterns contributes to the sustainability of your leadership, and can produce “much fruit that lasts (Jn 15:16).”Alan offers coaching to focus individual attention on issues of personal spiritual and leadership formation. He has served as a sabbatical coach to many. He brings decades of leadership experience to those he coaches. His coaching combines the essence of a spiritual director and the practicality of a leadership formation coach. Alan can help you get unstuck and find your unhurried and fruitful way forward in leadership and ministry.GO TO https://www.unhurriedliving.com/ for more. Buy Alan’s new book at https://www.unhurriedliving.com/ayearofslowingdown Alan says, “These devotionals had their beginnings in my personal journal. I began to practice the regular discipline of spiritual journaling in my twenties. Since then, I’ve journaled thousands of pages and millions of words. My journal is a place where I wrestle, meditate, reflect, create, and, in it all, pray. It’s a place where I acknowledge the presence of God with me. I trust that the Spirit of God with me along the way will be with you as you read.”Endorsements for “A year of slowing down”:"The brilliance in this book cannot be overstated. Resting takes time. Lord knows, it t

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!With our current series, we hope we can learn to do community together as the body of Christ because we share the same experiences of these pathways we travel on together. So, this series is less of an in-depth approach to Scripture, and more a simple framework for deeper intimacy with God through the pathways He has ordained.Today we are talking about discouragement and how God stewards our times of dryness for His glory, our transformation, and the growth of the fruit of the spirit in our lives.Discouragement can take many forms. Did you know that courage comes from the French for heart? Coeur is the heart of the word courage. So to be encouraged is to have an increase of heart – and discouragement is the opposite. It’s when you lose heart. You lose perspective. Discouragement can feel like darkness, or confusion, or chaos, or loneliness. Or all the above. Or so many more things. Discouragement breeds anxiety, depression, fear, shame, guilt – especially in us Christians.As Christians we should be the most joyful people on earth – so encouraged, in fast, that we are a constant source of encouragement for others. That is true. But it is not our experience every day. So how can we remedy that, but in a way that brings consistent victory over discouragement?When we are in a season of discouragement, and its manifestations of anxiety, depression, fear, shame, guilt – that is when we need to travel the pathways to God’s presence more faithfully and consistently than ever.We cannot learn to walk when there is an earthquake. We cannot learn to swim in the stormy ocean. We need to practice the pathways to God’s presence in peaceful circumstances, so that when the earthquakes and the storms hit, we can recall what has become second nature.Discouragement can come when you feel you have been in this same storm before. It’s not your first trip to the darkness of depression or the pit of anxiety. You are all too familiar with the taste of fear or the burden of guilt. The cloak of shame fits just too well around your shoulders because it’s been there before. Why are we going through this again, God? haven’t I learned the lesson last time?Learn to walk the pathways before the crisis hit, so that you will have created pathways within your brain, actual physical pathways of neurons that will help you in your body, soul and spirit when storms hit. You will have created habits of intimacy with God that will become your lifeline.Discouragement is rooted in many trials of many colors and shapes.You are not alone.Stephanie shares her heart, “I shared in the first episode of the series that I have been going through a tough patch in 2022, and I have heard from several of you that it was encouraging for you to hear because you can relate. Thanks for reaching out and letting me know. Hearing from you is super encouraging. And hearing that our times together are helpful to you – well, that’s the best thing you can tell me, because if it doesn’t serve you, then what is the point of all this?”Thanksgiving is the most potent antidote to discouragement. It might feel like a cliché, but it is a truth bomb. We have heard it so many times we are numb to it.But try it one more time. because it does transform us. It really has that much power. No wonder the enemy of our soul wants to portray thanksgiving and gratitude as blasé cliches. Don’t fall for it.Gratitude is not a spiritual gift because it is not given to a few. It is for all. It takes many forms. In essence, it is remembering all the good things in our lives. That is the easy part.And then, the hard part. Try thanking God for the hard things. For the discouraging things. For the darkness. because winter is a blessing too. darkness prunes our hearts from the shallow delights to remind us where our true desire for delight lays – in God Himself. When God strips your life, be gra

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Welcome back! We cover much in our Pathways to God’s presence series today. We invite you to grow into the moment by moment surrender to God’s will and whisper as, together, we practice the presence of God today.Stephanie says, “There is a virtuous cycle between what we believe and who we become. We develop this strategy of turning belief into identity through habits of spiritual disciplines.”You are invited to watch Stephanie teach this lesson live on YouTube at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/HJpqEyLh7O4?feature=oembed After establishing the dangers we face as we walk the pathways towards God – namely, the flesh, the world and the devil –, Stephanie takes us on a trip through the French language to experience spiritual disciplines as holy clothing to be worn daily. Then, we dive into the three aspects of prayer, Bible intake and worship we will cover today. They include,CONFESSION AS PRAYER: Confession is the path to freedom. Confession is not groveling before an angry God. It focuses on removing sin from self. It is an essential pathway to humility, self-knowledge. Honestly assess your heart before the Lord, daily, or more. Whenever you feel that little twinge of the heart, this little prick from the Holy Spirit who kindly informs you that you have need for forgiveness. He knows, and he lets you know. not to condemn you, but to bring you to freedom through releasing the burden for Him to carry and cancel. The habit of confession is powerful. It is the gateway to true, lasting freedom.MEDITATION AS BIBLE INTAKE: When we meditate upon Scripture, we practice the presence of God. We enter His presence, we remain and dwell there. It is a good foundation for a good day, and little by little the daily puzzle pieces of Christ-centered meditation color our lives with freedom, gratitude and no small measure of humility and patience.EVANGELISM AS WORSHIP: Pondering Scripture is a form of worship, too, in the sense that we are preaching the Word of Truth to our own hearts. It is a form of evangelism! And evangelism, which is the sharing of the truth of Scripture, is a powerful and effective form of worship.Confession in prayer. Meditation of Scripture. Evangelization as worship. They are all encapsulated in the dedication of the temple by Solomon, and they are rooted in the presence of God whose glory has come to dwell in our hearts and lives through the HS.Jesus has clothed you with garments of salvation, and equipped you with everything you need to walk the pathways to His presence. You are dedicated for holy use, set apart as a vessel created to honor your Lord and King.We are all priests and priestesses to God, in Christ. He has dressed you with the habit befitting your priestly set-apart position: “the victor will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before My Father and before His angels” (Revelation 3:5, HCSB). You are dressed in Christ with white robes of purity, victory, and eternal life. Your robe is your habit.THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NE

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie invites you into her conversation with beloved friend Jennifer Hand to discuss how to approach 2023 and most importantly, how to keep God at the very center of our lives, our hearts, our passions and, yes, our fears and anxiety. They have an honest, raw conversation about our fears, our God-sized challenges, and what can hold us back from the fullness of God’s good will for us. Jenn is a seasoned warrior in the Kingdom of God, and Stephanie holds the high honor of calling her friend. Together, they invite you to say YES to all that God has for you in 2023.What's holding you back as you envision 2023? The risk? The unknown? The unwillingness to shake up the comfortable status quo? Whatever it is, if you're not in God's best place, you're missing out on something great. The Lord is calling you into a Promised Land. But it's going to take some faith steps to get there.Jenn Hand wants you to be able to say to God, "My yes is on the table." Not halfheartedly. Not half the time. Not halfway there. Jenn wants you to go all in with God—because God is all in for you. You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/SQMyyDPlYYU?feature=oembedMORE ABOUT “MY YES IS ON THE TABLE”My Yes Is on the Table takes you into the story of the Israelites as they journeyed out of the wilderness and into the Holy Land that God had granted them. Each chapter will challenge you to move from a fear stop to a faith step. And once you've started taking those steps with God, there's no telling where you'll end up.For too long, you've been paralyzed by fear of the future. You feel God calling. You want to go forward with His plans. Yet fear has stopped you from taking the leap. No more! Instead of letting fear stop you short, let faith call you forward with newfound confidence and holy boldness. Put your "yes" on the table and watch God do more in your life than you could have ever imagined. MEET JENNIFER HANDJENNIFER HAND, Executive Director of Coming Alive Ministries, founded the ministry in 2012 and loves the honor of traveling nationally and internationally, inviting people to come alive in Christ through conferences, retreats, written resources, and counseling. She has had the joy of serving in over thirty countries. With a Master's degree in trauma counseling, God has opened a unique door for her to respond after natural disasters around the world, providing trauma counseling and the hope of Christ on the holy ground of suffering. She would love to keep up with you in her cozy internet corner of the world at www.comingaliveministries.com or on social media @comingalivejenn or Jenn@comingaliveministries on Facebook.https://www.comingaliveministries.com/https://www.moodypublishers.com/authors/h/jennifer-hand/We invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebratedhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Our goal is to enter and remain in the presence of God through the pathways He has ordained for this purpose. The presence of God is our path and our destination. In Hebrew, the word Presence and the word Face are the same. In the ancient world without zoom and facetime, you could only be in the presence of someone when you were face to face with them. There was no remote presence.Each week we are going to approach the pathways to God’s presence, or the spiritual disciplines, by linking one element of prayer with one aspect of Bible intake and one facet of worship.You are invited to watch today's episode on video on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ti3IKJtTIRQ?feature=oembed This is our second episode in our Pathways to God’s presence series. If you missed our intro, please make sure to listen to last week’s episode, episode 185. We spent time laying out the land of what this series is about –the spiritual disciplines with a twist. We established that Jesus is the only pathway to God’s presence, and that He offers to teach us, through the Holy Spirit, how to nurture intimacy with God through the practice of timeless biblical principles that He himself role-modeled. If Jesus catered to His relationship with His Father through prayer, Scripture intake, and worship in various forms, then we too will benefit from the same.We are seeing today that prayer, in its essential form, is adoration. All the other elements of confession, thanksgiving and intercession are rooted in adoration. God is not safe confessing to, if he is not the utterly majestic Being we adore; God is not worthy of our thanks if He is not the resplendent glorious Being who gives us all things and works all things for our good; God is not safe coming to when we have needs, if He is not the perfectly omnipotent and otherworldly generous and gentle Sovereign who has chosen to be introduced to us with the meek and loving title of Father.About prayer, Stephanie says, “you are never more Christlike than when you adore God lavishly.”We consider the study of Scripture as the essential element to know God. We adore God most when we are most aware of His perfection, beauty, loveliness and holiness. In other words, when we are saturated with the knowledge of Him. And we can only know God from the place where He has specifically revealed Himself – Scripture.It means, we need to spend time in Scripture. We need to read it widely, and deeply both. We need to rake for leaves and dig for diamonds, as countless Bible teachers have described over many centuries.We interact with Scripture first and foremost to know God. Yes, the Bible gives us much about our relationships with one another, and about ourselves too. We will discuss these elements in the weeks to come. But the main, primary, most essential purpose of the Bible is to draw us into the presence of God. When the Holy Spirit who lives within our hearts opens the words of the Scriptures to us, we are allowed into the presence of God. We get a glimpse of His face and behold His presence. It transforms us forever because, like the light that shone on Moses face when he came down the mountain after having spent time with God, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is found in the radiant face of Christ Jesus our Lord (2Cor 4:6).So, we read and study Scripture to know who God is.The essence of this approach is actually worship. My primary goal is to meet God through the pages that He wrote. I want to know Him more. If I can discern a new glimpse into His face, if I can learn something new about the depths of His love and kindness and majesty and power, then I am a happy camper. A happy worshiper. Bible intake should always stem from adoration and lead to worship, which are essentially the same thing.So today we looked at the element of adoration in prayer, and we

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Welcome to our winter 2023 series, "Pathways to God's presence." How do we keep our relationship with God fresh and not stale? How do we avoid being disappointed or dissatisfied with our relationship with God? How do we explore fresh avenues to meet with Him especially when it’s dry or painful? How do we keep vibrant faith in the valley, in the pit, in the darkness, and also in the high places – how do we make God the center of our lives?Jesus walked with God perfectly at all times – in perfect harmony and communion. He tells us to imitate Him. How can we do that? how do we grow spiritually so that we experience the freshness and vibrancy that Jesus had with His Father? His connection to His Father was so obvious, especially when He prayed, that the disciples begged Him to show them how to pray. His connection to His Father was so deep, there was no disconnect ever. He always knew the Father’s will for all situations at all times. He could orchestrate healings and miracles at will, because He was so finely tuned in to His Father. We will never experience this measure of connection to the Father this side of heaven – because of sin – but Jesus still promised much intimacy with the Father through Him was possible, and even the normal life for the believer. In my experience and in talking with hundreds of people, I don’t think most of us live in the fullness of this promise of unbroken connection to our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. Many times we live the low Christian life. Nothing wrong with that – but there is so much more that is possible, attainable for us. We are called to a high Christian life, one that is characterized by love, humility, victory, and much fruit.You are welcome to watch Stephanie teach this lesson on video at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ti3IKJtTIRQ?feature=oembedOur series is called, “Pathways to God’s presence.” Let me be clear: Jesus is the way to the Father. The only way to the Father. Apart from Him we have no access. He is also our Advocate, interceding for us even now, and we know that His prayers are always welcomed and answered from the fullness of the Father’s abundance. So, when we are going to be pondering pathways to God’s presence, we must always remember – Jesus is the One who makes these pathways possible. That is why he is our role model, our guide. He is the way. He is also the destination. We are doing all that we do to cultivate intimacy with God, ONLY From Christ and in Christ and for Christ and through Christ. I think we underestimate this dimension of our spiritual life when we don’t place front and center the model that Jesus has given us. Jesus, before time began and before the incarnation, was perfectly intimate and one and united with the Father. That is the Trinity. We cant understand it, but we can apprehend just enough of it to see its matchless harmony and radiance. Then at the incarnation, and for the thirty-some years that followed, Jesus who was God and had been with God since before time was (see John 1:1), this Jesus took on fullness of humanity. And he walked among us, not lessening in any way the depth of intimacy He had always enjoyed with His Father. Only at the cross, and momentarily though thoroughly, was it severed—for our sake. So, yes, Jesus is indeed the only Pathway to God’s presence. But He also gave us means to grow in intimacy with God, just like He did as a human – He prayed and fasted and studied Scripture and had fellowship with others and served and loved and discipled and evangelized and role-modeled all the things He is inviting us to develop in our own lives as pathways to His presence. He is the way and He is the destination.The secret to the high Christian life, a life of satisfaction in God regardless of circumstances – good or bad, internal or external – the secret to the high Christian life is

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Naomi Zacharias joins Stephanie again on Gospel Spice to provide insights on the global fight against human trafficking and towards the restoration of dignity—one life at a time. She also shares how her faith has allowed her to make it through the last couple of years.Make sure to watch the live recording of this conversation and to subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/yuSfxAnzoUw?feature=oembed Naomi starts by sharing the stories of her ministry, Third Ladder, to serve the abandoned, the unloved, the forgotten of this world. In her incomparably gentle way, Naomi also draws our attention to the importance of little acts of kindness as we share the light of Christ with a world in need, one person at a time, one next-door neighbor at a time. Gospel Spice is proud to partner with Third Ladder financially.In the second half of the conversation, Naomi transparently shares how her family is doing after a couple of years of unparalleled struggles. She shares her perspective on living in the deserted valley, remembering what really matters. She shares how hard this has been, and how the Lord has been holding on to her. Naomi says, “I believe He is real, and He is who He says He is. I do believe He is faithful and good and true. When you are in the middle of the valley, you have to come back to what you know to be true.”Naomi says, “it is not faith if it all makes sense. Real is not always smooth and easy, but it’s deep and it’s got roots.” This deeply inspiring, raw conversation will draw you in, to give you hope in darkness, hopelessness, and loneliness. Naomi reminds us that the things that flatten us, break us, shred us are the perfect setting for God to use us. “This life will break us, and we will not have all the answers we long for. But He actually told us that, He gave us that foresight. He is faithful, and He doesn’t leave. He will sit with us through it, and this is not the end of the story.” Naomi reminds us that our stories matter especially when they are not (yet) tied up with a pretty bow and ending. We live most of our lives in the middle of the unresolved stories. And the places that don’t make sense force us to believe that faith matters in the middle of the darkness, the desert, the valley. Naomi reminds us of the importance of the body of Christ, and also that church hurt is real. We need community, and we have a deep desire to right the wrongs of this world. We also have so much at our fingertips to bring healing to the ones right around us.MORE ABOUT NAOMI ZACHARIASNaomi Zacharias received a BA in Business/Economics from Wheaton College. Her first job out of college was in Brand Development for Chick Fil A and she soon transitioned to Sales for The Coca-Cola Company to accept what was her perceived dream job. It was fantastic training under a superb manager, but a restlessness remained. She moved into the non-profit sector, seeking to apply herself to a cause she believed in. Following an internship in the Office of Public Liaison at the White House where she helped to organize presidential briefings for constituency groups, Naomi considered staying in Washington DC to focus on international justice issues. Instead, in a decision that surprised herself, she declined an opportunity at the US Department of Justice to return to Atlanta in 2004 to develop and launch a humanitarian initiative with a robust application process to evaluate international grant requests and distribute approximately 16M USD in grant funding over 16 years for rehabilitation for victims of human trafficking, healthcare, education, poverty-related issues, war-related issues, support for victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence, refugee aid and issues related to child welfare and orphan care in approximately 17 countries. This work led her into refugee and displace

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie welcomes Vivian Mabuni for a heart-to-heart conversation about God, passion for Jesus, and an all-out life of surrender to His plan and goodness. As He invites us into a new year, how would He have us depend on Him this year? What does it mean to have “open hands and a willing heart” (the title of her book)? Vivian is an Asian American Christian woman, wife, mom, and cancer survivor. Just like Stephanie, her different worlds influence who she is, how she leads, and the way she connects with God and others.We know that the center of God's will is the best place to be, but surrender is easier said than done. A host of hurdles, from busyness and bitterness to complacency and control, can prevent us from moving where He directs. As we cross over to 2023, Vivian Mabuni provides an authentic look at what it means to willingly risk saying yes to whatever God asks--and highlights a practical path to the deeper joy of a yielded life.Vivian and Stephanie also discuss living at the intersection of Scripture and culture, and how our culture influences our experience of Scripture, as well as how discovering cultures outside the European/Western circle will open up your eyes to the culture of Scripture and of Jesus Himself! You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/fWpXuLymFlQ?feature=oembedMORE ABOUT VIVIAN MABUNIVivian Mabuni is a national speaker, author, bible teacher and podcast host. Her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, SheReadsTruth, Our Daily Bread, Propel Sophia and her teachings have been featured on the YouVersion Bible App’s “Verse of the Day”. With over 30 years on staff with Cru, Viv loves teaching about the Bible and its practical application to ministry and life. She has been a keynote speaker at IF:Gathering, QCommons, Cru Winter Conferences, Family Life’s “Weekend To Remember”, and Biola University. Author of "Open Hands, Willing Heart”, she also serves on the Board of Trustees for Denver Seminary and is the founder & host of “Someday Is Here” a podcast for AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) leaders. Viv loves drinking coffee with her husband of 30 years, Darrin, and marveling at their three young adult kids.Connect with her on Instagram/Twitter @vivmabuni or on her website www.vivianmabuni.comWe invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebratedhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie reads her favorite passages about Jesus, both in the Old and in the New Testaments. Her goal is to magnify Him in your heart and life, to make this your most Christ-centered Christmas yet. We at Gospel Spice hold to a very high-christology, which is a fancy way of saying that we worship Jesus as our King, Lord, Savior, and Friend.Jesus is the most beautiful gift we can give one another, so here is your King.Suggestion: consider playing this episode as a family on Christmas day or any time this week! These Scripture passages will generate wonderful conversations about the meaning of the Incarnation, and will lead you to worship and adoration. We are praying for you, and are so grateful for the privilege to serve you this year!Also, check out our Gospel Spice Christmas playlist exclusively on Spotify for free here, or by searching "Gospel Spice Christmas playlsit" in your Spotify app.https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0S4BcfaOfjg2CGH7VBa8mm THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep producing and distributing them. Please pay Gospel Spice forward today! For example, a podcast episode takes close to 10 hours of work (and we release 2 each week). They come to you completely free, but we would truly love your support.We want the money to go to those who really need it. Once our operating costs are paid, 100% of your donation is redistributed to our partners who fight human trafficking. Each year, we aim to give as much as we can. For example, Stephanie works more than full time for Gospel Spice, entirely for free. All board members and volunteers are donating time. We limit our operational expenses to the bare minimum.Your pay-it-forward donations are tax-deductible under IRS Section 170.We want to be the best possible stewards of your financial support. Thank you!Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogThe perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your life!https://www.gospelspice.com/merchGo to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie welcomes Megan B. Brown, founder and executive director of MilSpo Co (Military Spouse Coalition), a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing Christ with the military communities worldwide. Megan shares her own story, her heart, and passion for building the Kingdom of God in original, powerful ways. This conversation will stretch, inspire, and challenge you! Megan says, "MilSpo Co. is a place where people can meet Jesus, engage in life-giving community, and everyone is welcome. We believe in creating a space where people can have authentic encounters with Christ, discover their gifts and use them for God's glory."MilSpo Co. began with a commitment to see military spouses gain access points to the gospel through getting connected, building a faith community, and to develop the skill of walking out their faith as they moved from place to place. Nearly a decade ago, a handful of military spouses began gathering around the Word of God in a military housing neighborhood. Their goal was simple: to know God and learn how to make Him known. The result was immense. These women were learning how to create friendships, building relationships inside of their local church, and starting to see how God would use their lifestyles to serve Him as missionaries.MilSpo Co.'s Founder, Megan Brown, began leading small and intimate Bible studies from her living room. What began with six women at Keesler AFB on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi has now become a ground movement. Women all over the globe are now meeting in homes, serving inside of the church, and using their gifts for the glory of God. The next step in mission for MilSpo Co. is to continue to raise up leaders in the military spouse space. By raising up indigenous leaders in the military spouse community who are directly connected to the local church, women in this space can lead others into meaningful connections, biblical community in the family of God, and facilitate their discipleship toward the task of fulfilling the Great Commission. You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/rzY9BMMoa-4?feature=oembedABOUT MILSPOCOMegan is a seasoned military spouse, mother of four, and military missionary. Graduating from Moody Bible Institute with a Bachelor's of Science in Ministry Leadership with a focus in Ministry to Women, she is passionate about leading women to pursue fulfilling The Great Commission. MilSpo Co. exists to intentionally disciple the U.S. Armed Forces through recruiting, raising up, and releasing an army of military spouses as paid and prepared vocational missionaries. These women are sent in partnership with the local church, collaborate with civilian communities for evangelism, and are ready to serve God at operational military installations worldwide. Find Megan at http://milspoco.com/DISCOVER THE GOSPEL SPICE MINISTRIES The Gospel Spice Podcast is part of a larger range of tools given to you by Gospel Spice Ministries.In a nutshell, we exist to inspire Christ-followers to delight in God.In more details: we provide resources to empower Christian leaders across generational, social, ethnic and geographical boundaries towards more intimacy with Jesus Christ and discipleship effectiveness through a Biblical Christocentric foundation. The Gospel-Spice Ministries provide a safe environment for spiritual and community growth empowering people to know Christ more intimately, serve one another more powerfully, and reach the world for Jesus.PLAY IT FORWARD by SHARING the link with friends and family.PRAY IT FORWARD by praying for us and those you share it with!PAY IT FORWARD!! Would you consider supporting this show today to help others enjoy it for free? It comes to you completely free, but is labor-intensive to produce, and we want to keep put

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie invites us to join her for a cup of Christmas tea alongside Mary the mother of Jesus. Let us ponder her life and legacy. Starting at he Annunciation (when the Angel told her the news of Jesus' impending arrival!), she lived a journey to faith, of faith, and in faith. How can we emulate this hero of our faith? Her journey to faith is marked with reasonable questions, born of ignorance. We are so grateful God does not condemn us for ignorance! Unlike Zechariah, Mary didn't exhibit unbelief--only ignorance. She chose to embrace that which she may not completely understand, though she tried to understand as much as she could. This role-models a healthy balance of faith and knowledge! Her journey of faith is marked with a deep rooting in Scripture, and flavored with deep joy and profound astonishment at being a part of God's plan--again, something we are invited to emulate! When was the last time you were astonished to be a Christian? We are called to daily rejoice that we are part of the Body of Christ. Joyful disbelief is the trademark of the grateful heart in Christ.Her journey in faith involves a movement from her intellect to her heart and emotions. She chooses painful grace in surrender.Jesus offers to incarnate in our lives too. How can He be born in you and in me today? What does Mary teach us about surrendering and inviting the Son to be born in our lives?Finally, Mary ponders all manner of things --events, people, Scripture, her Son's life, as well as her own practicaly daily life too. In doing so, she invites us to the same. The message of Christmas is at the very least that God has come to dwell with you and with me--within, indeed.Let us rejoice, give Him glory, and delight in Him today and forever!ABOUT THE GOSPEL SPICE LEADERSHIP TRAININGStephanie mentioned the Winter 2023 Gospel Spice leadership training program in this episode. This free, in-depth resource equips leaders who want to take their leadership skill to the next level. It is free, and has a very small number of available seats. Find more at gospelspice.com/leadership. NEW GOSPELSPICE CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY!Enjoy our team's selection of favorite Christ-centered Christmas hymns this season. Search Gospel Spice on Spotify, or click here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0S4BcfaOfjg2CGH7VBa8mm?si=grkc-ZS6TBu75sByFPvwfw&nd=1(note - there is also a Gospel Spice Worship playlist for all the other months of the year!)THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep produ

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Jill Briscoe is a prolific author, speaker and poet. Today she brings us two Christmas poems as well as the context that led her to write them. She and Stephanie have enjoyed many phone conversations over the past few years, and Jill was eager to bring our Gospel Spice listeners a special Christmas gift of encouragement, wisdom, wit, and humility! In the second half of this episode, recorded separately, Jill shares her thoughts on the legacy that her recently departed husband Stuart Briscoe has equipped her to continue building. She shares about how she had to learn that we each are called to carry our own cross as we are invited to enter into the fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. She shares her own vulnerabilities and fears with her trademark authenticity. She leaves us with a compelling challenge to embrace the fullness of the life we have been called to--and to do it afraid when needs be. You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WMfaKi21rHI?feature=oembedJill was a guest on Gospel Spice in episode 83 where she shared about overcoming fear with faith. We invite you to (re)visit this highlight of our show! Click here: https://www.podcastics.com/episode/70360/link/ NEW GOSPELSPICE CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY!Enjoy our team's selection of favorite Christ-centered Christmas hymns this season. Search Gospel Spice on Spotify, or click here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0S4BcfaOfjg2CGH7VBa8mm?si=grkc-ZS6TBu75sByFPvwfw&nd=1 (note - there is also a Gospel Spice Worship playlist for all the other months of the year!)The perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your life!https://www.gospelspice.com/merchGo to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie invites us to ponder an original perspective to help us determine how to invest our time, money and talents wisely, with heaven in mind. What does Jesus mean when He urges us to "accumulate treasures in heaven"? Surely He does not mean we will need money in eternity. What are these treasures? And most importantly, HOW do we accumulate treasures in heaven?Scripture teaches we are saved by grace alone, and faith in Christ alone, and that we cannot earn salvation. So, this is not about salvation. This is about living a life of delight in the glory of God on THIS side of heaven, and a life of investing wisely in what GOD says matters eternally.Stephanie uses a fresh analogy and describes our life this side of heaven as a garden in which we live and work and move and play. But there is a great wall, so high we cannot peek over it, and it separates us from eternal life. This wall is death and, apart from Christ, it is terrifying. It casts its shadows of pain and suffering, hardship and afflictions, disease and sickness over us all. This wall has a door for each one of us--we will not cross over until our time comes, but we will not be able to avoid that door when our time comes. What awaits us on the other side of it and, more importantly since you already know what awaits you in Christ, how do we invest our lives wisely, this side of the wall? Jesus tells us to accumulate treasures in heaven. In other words, He tells us there are ways to toss our treasure over the wall of death, and into eternity. What can we toss? And HOW do we toss it?In this episode, Stephanie invites us to ponder what it looks like to toss treasure over the wall, and then to discover how we will use it on the other side. What will this treasure look like? How will we use it in heaven?We at Gospel Spice hope and pray that this episode will encourage you to keep running the race set before you, and to fix your eyes on Him who has crossed over to bring you from death to life.NEW GOSPELSPICE CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY!Enjoy our team's selection of favorite Christ-centered Christmas hymns this season. Search Gospel Spice on Spotify, or click here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0S4BcfaOfjg2CGH7VBa8mm?si=grkc-ZS6TBu75sByFPvwfw&nd=1(note - there is also a Gospel Spice Worship playlist for all the other months of the year!)THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO PARTNER WITH GOSPEL SPICE TODAY!First, PAY Gospel Spice Forward: Give a tax-deductible gift so others can experience our ministry for free, just like you! You can pay it forward with any debit, credit card, or via PayPal. See below for more details about your impact.Also, PLAY Gospel Spice Forward: SHARE the podcast and the studies with your friends and family. FOLLOW, RATE & REVIEW on your favorite podcast app (leave a comment + a star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, IHeart, Google Podcast, etc…). It REALLY is the best way to help others find this content-rich podcast. And, last but not least, PRAY Gospel Spice Forward: We pray for you weekly. We covet your prayers for our ministry, the thousands we reach, and our team! Contact us to let us know you are praying for us!NEW!Another way to partner with us is to purchase our workbooks and online Bible studies. We keep them at the lowest possible cost, but they require a lot of work from us! For example, - a complete Bible Study requires an average of 500 man-hours. - a workbook for a series requires almost 100 man-hours.MORE ABOUT PARTNERING WITH US FINANCIALLY:Gospel Spice Ministries is a non-profit organization registered under the tax-exempt 501c3 status.Our goal is to provide in-depth, high-quality, free Bible resources for all. They are free, but expensive to create! We need your financial support to keep producing and distributing them. Please pay Gospel Spice forward today! For example, a podcast episode takes c

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie sits down with Dr. Richard Blackaby, who co-authored Experiencing God with his father Henry Blackaby. Richard and Stephanie talk about their common passion for Scripture, for The Lord of the Rings, and much more! They connect on the power of the spice of the gospel, and a common passion for delight in the glory of God as the ultimately most satisfying definition of a successful spiritual life in the Messiah. If you have experienced staleness in your relationship with God... this is the episode for you!The key topic of this conversation is the power of a godly legacy through several generations. Richard and Stephanie start off by discussing some key elements of parenting through Richard’s own growing-up years in the Blackaby family. Richard shares precious family memories, and experiences of faith from his parents. He highlights the essential presence of joy and laughter in their household. These are precious insights for today’s parents of young and teen children! Richard says, “I can’t think of a better compliment than when your grown children say they want to carry your own family traditions into their own new families.”Richard and Stephanie talk about Experiencing God, and the power of legacy through several generations being moved by this ground-breaking Bible Study, published in the early 1990’s. Through this conversation, you are invited to experience the power of God’s faithfulness, and the challenges of being in full-time ministry. Richard tells us the story of his father, and the process of writing Experiencing God.Finally, they also talk about the brand new CSB Experiencing God Bible, its unique features, and what Richard hopes it will provide for a new generation of Christ-followers. Might the CSB Experiencing God Bible be the perfect Christmas gift for yourself and/or your loved ones? MORE ABOUT BLACKABY MINISTRIES INTERNATIONALBlackaby Ministries International (BMI) was founded in 2004 to encourage Christians worldwide to know and experience God through spiritual leadership, coaching, renewal and revitalization of churches, online classes, church-wide weekend retreats, and cultural engagement. Born in British Columbia, Henry Blackaby studied English and History at the University of British Columbia and earned his Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) and Th.M from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Gateway Seminary) in Phoenix, Arizona. Henry and Marilynn Blackaby served in several churches in California before relocating to Saskatchewan, Canada, to lead a struggling congregation that had dwindled to only 10 members in 1970. During their 18 years in Canada, they saw God work in miraculous ways, helped plant numerous churches, and reared their five children. Through those experiences, God taught the Blackabys truths about Himself that became the basis for the best-selling book, Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, publishing in 1990 and selling more than seven million copies.Over the last 30+ years, more than eight million people participated in the Experiencing God Study. Both the book and workbook have been publishing in over 75 languages and used by almost every denomination. Blackaby also won the Gold Medallion Award for the devotionals, Experiencing God Together and Experiencing God Day by Day. Blackaby went on to serve in a variety of leadership positions at ministries such as the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the International Mission Board and LifeWay Christian Resources. He also served as President of Canadian Baptist Theological College for seven years.After growing up in a spiritually rich environment, all five of Henry and Marilynn’s children sensed God calling them into full-time ministry. Their oldest son, Dr. Richard Blackaby, is the president of the Atlanta-based Blackaby Ministries International and is th

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!If you know anything about Stephanie, you know she is a huge The Chosen fan! So what a joy to welcome Lara Silva to Gospel Spice! Lara plays Eden, who is the feisty, faith-filled, big-dream wife of Simon-Peter in the show. Lara tells us about how her own personality influences the character of Eden, and how her own personal life experiences have prepared her for this role (Lara even gets emotional when sharing such deep intimate details!). She tells us about her faith, her spiritual routine, and how Jesus has truly transformed her life, giving her a purpose and a passion. She seeks to glorify Him and delight in Him, and that makes her a true Gospel Spice girl!Lara invites us to obey and follow Jesus all the way, letting Him come near to transform us. She looks back at who she used to be, and looks forward to the person God is shaping her to become. Lara shares about her favorite spice, of course, and how her Brazilian roots and culture are so much a part of her daily experience of Scripture.Binge more exclusive The Chosen | Gospel Spice content! In the past Stephanie has welcomed Dallas and Amanda Jenkins (episode 88 | listen here) as well as Chad Gundersen and Chris Juen, who are the executive producers for the show (episode 123 | listen here). Watch this conversation on video and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/XCH6r7cXqNA?feature=oembed The perfect gift for everyone - apparel, drinkware, stickers and more for all the women, men and kids in your life!https://www.gospelspice.com/merchGo to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogGOD'S GLORY, OUR DELIGHT | THE GOSPEL SPICE SERIESDelighting in the glory of God. Does this concept strike you as reserved for spiritual contemplatives? What if, instead, it proved the highly practical, deeply foundational perspective you need right now?Why does God’s glory even matter in our day and age? How can we learn from Jesus to make His glory our true North and lifelong quest? What keeps us from fully stepping into this God-ordained purpose for our life? How do we kindle delight for God on a daily basis? And, once we have embraced God’s glory as our heart’s true delight, how can we then come alongside others?Join us to cultivate a sincere delight for God’s glory, rooted in an honest, hard look at the depth of our need, and in the much deeper Reality of His grace. Trace the glory of God through Scripture and in your own life. Behold the exact radiance of God’s glory, revealed in Jesus. Learn to see yourself as Christ does—through the lens of the Father’s love at the cross. Jesus offers to overwhelm our deadly self-centeredness with His resurrection power. He carries us every step of the way, even as He calls us to true humility on the path to glory.Who has time to cultivate the delight that comes from pondering the glory of God? And yet, nothing could be more urgent today. Marthas and Marys, Peters and Johns—we are all invited to dare to dream of a lifestyle of God-centered delight. Nothing could be more practical.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!This is our final episode in our much-beloved series, God's Glory, our delight! What a journey! Our conclusion today calls us to step from darkness to glory. Stephanie spends a moment reminiscing on the journey we have undertaken together. Over the 12 episodes of this series, we have sought to create a new perspective through which to view the world, our life, our circumstances, our choices, and our identity –by learning to see God as He is.We have wondered, How can I delight in God’s glory in…- My identity- My choices + behaviors + thoughts = ever deepening work of the Cross in me- My circumstances – past, present, future.- My relationship with God- OthersWe've looked at understanding what keeps us from delighting in God’s glory - misunderstandings about...- who He is- His heart for us- the depth of our sin nature and ability to overcome and our need for Him- His utter ability to save us from ourselves and give us His resurrection power.- who we truly are in His sight- what glory is, and what delight is- what humility isWe've pondered our lack of beholding the perspective of heaven, through His eternal purpose in creating us and our eternal glorified state (in body, soul, spirit). We've started on the path to step into His ultimate purpose for our life – delight in His glory. We've studied practical habits of growth in Christlikeness, individually (with a focus on humility as meekness; dependence on Him; correct beholding of Reality/Truth; love), delight through individual spiritual disciplines of Bible intake, prayer/fasting, journaling, worship) and corporately (church, mentoring, love).We've tried to approach a definition of the glory of God – who He is, and who we are. He says, " I am, and there is no other." So we are called to choose: His glory, or mine?What a journey! So today we are pondering: How can I be different because I delight in His glory? How delighting in His glory changes me?Today's verses: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2Corinthians 3:17-18)Let's be practical...- Reminder – there are listening guides for each episode. They allow you to follow with pen and paper, or with your phone to take notes from the app. These listening guides are part of the workbook you can download for free as a member.- Today and each GGOD episode has a listening guide as well as questions for either group discussions or your own personal time, inviting you to ponder what you heard in the days to come.- Today we are introducing a new feature which is a listener suggestion: about halfway through the episode, there will be a 30-second musical interlude to allow you to pause and reflect on the lesson. You are also invited to use the second music break at the end of the episode, it is newly expanded, if you feel the need to chew on the lesson some more.- Also use our membership page to muse, ask questions, ponder, reflect, connect with us!- Please do remember that you can go back and listen again. We aim to give you the best quality content we can teach so it is intense and deep – that is because we highly respect you and your time, and we want to honor you as you seek to deepen your faith. There are all sorts of people listening alongside you, from overseas missionaries to seminary students to brand new believers, people listening as they drive or jog or run errands or do the dishes. So you are welcome, at whatever stage of your spiritual journey you find yourself in. If it means listening twice or taking notes using the listening guide, that’s awesome! Take it slow. These epsidoes are more akin to a slow cooked French meal than a McDonalds drive-thru!- Finally, there will be a Gos

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Ruth Chou Simons joins Stephanie today to invite families into an unconventional, life-changing Advent season. How can we prepare for a DIFFERENT kind of Advent - when Jesus is truly the center? How can we cultivate a posture of gratitude, an attitude of receiving goodness from the Lord, and a desire of deeper delight in His glory this Christmas season? How can we live an Advent season that is a true experience of what we do know about the goodness of the Lord? And, how can we carry Advent into all our other seasons of life - from January to November? Why and how is Christmas relevant in March, in July, in September--and every other season?Don't miss Ruth's powerful prayer for you towards the end of their conversation! You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/B3nF0fd4wac?feature=oembed The Advent season, brimming with glad tidings and great joy, is often followed by disappointment, post-holiday letdown, dashed expectations, and exhaustion. Box up the ornaments and take down the garland; put away the artificial trees and cheery red bows and flannel sheets: Christmas, with all its hustle and bustle, tinsel and twinkle lights, carols and celebrations, is over. But shouldn’t post-Christmas feel more like an afterglow and less like an aftershock? Why don’t even the best of celebrations feel like enough? After receiving so many gifts—including the birth of Christ, why is unfulfillment still lurking?Bestselling author, speaker and gifted artist behind GraceLaced Co., Ruth Chou Simons once asked those same questions at the end of the Advent season. She found herself wanting, in search of something that outlasted the month of December. In her new devotional, Emmanuel: An Invitation to Prepare Him Room at Christmas and Always, Ruth offers a fresh take on the Advent experience, showing readers that the birth of Jesus—the Christmas story—is only the beginning. And that the resurrection—often overlooked in December—is the most life-changing event. She guides readers on a beautifully-illustrated 25-day journey that changes the way they celebrate the season and live the rest of the year. “If Jesus is the reason for the season, then the resurrection is really the most life‐changing event we can celebrate. The baby Jesus born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem is truly a miracle only because he was the promised Messiah,” she writes. “Without the cross, the baby in the manger is but novel and fascinating, not life‐changing. And what we long for right now, in the midst of the hustle, the mess, and the mundane, is life-changing. We want the Christmas miracle to change our lives and not just our wallets … Perhaps when we struggle to experience that kind of heart change at Christmas it is because we’ve left the resurrection out of our celebration of the incarnation.”In Emmanuel, Ruth combines her beautiful original artwork with personal insight and practical application. Each day in the book highlights a Bible passage, question to ponder, Christmas carol, and prayer. She helps readers understand they were created to know much more than the bustle, or even the magic, of Christmas; they were made to know Christ—the answer they have been longing for. “When you see an infant lying in a manger this Christmas—a popular visual image representing the miraculous story in Scripture—don’t let your affections remain there,” writes Simons. “Jesus is more than a baby, more than a beautiful miracle in a harsh world. He is more than a familiar figure sung about in festive tunes. Jesus is God with us—Immanuel, just as the angel of the Lord told Joseph.” “The true miracle of Christmas isn’t simply the virgin birth; it’s much greater than even such an impossibility. No, the miracle of Christmas is in this: that a holy God made a way for all w

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie invites us today to continue the conversation about depth of faith through trials and tribulation and hardship and suffering this side of heaven. She then moves to a glorious reality: Scripture is quite clear: there is a glorious inheritance that awaits us.Warning! This episode is particularly chockfull of Bible verses! It might maybe even contain mentions of some of Stephanie's favorite books- namely, The Lord of the Rings, The Pilgrim's Progress and The Chronicles of Narnia! She explains that Christian fantasy books can be a powerful drawing to point us to the reality of the perspective of heaven!So first, we discuss hardships. Hardships force us to decide if we’re going to trust God or self. Trusting self can take many different shapes in afflictions:- Plowing through and trying harder- Swallowing your emotions and pushing through- Crumbling in despair and despondency- Blaming everyone- Self-loathing- Choosing to distrust God.Or trusting God. It’s both harder and easier. It has to do with surrender and rest, and it does lead to greater delight in God through the hardship. If you trust God through your affliction, you will find yourself delighting in Him more on the other side of your affliction—and maybe even while you are still in it.If you have truly decided to make the glory of God your priority at any cost, then like Paul you can begin to see afflictions and thorns as blessings. Instead of recoiling, you can start embracing and maybe even welcoming afflictions. Don’t go looking for them—Scripture says they will come soon enough. But when God, in His perfect timing, allows afflictions your way, what if we had enough faith to say, “God thank you for this opportunity to learn to trust you, love you, delight in you.” That is exotic faith. It’s not your plain vanilla, slap-on faith that makes you feel good. This is exotic faith from deep inside the trenches.Resting in Him means knowing at a deeper, new, more profound level that He is trustworthy AND omnipotent. And then we start pondering our inheritance in Christ. A smattering of deep truth:Romans 8:17 - Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.Ephesians 3:6 - through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.Gal 3:29 - If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.Listen to the whole episode for the whole truth! Let's be practical...- Reminder – there are listening guides for each episode. They allow you to follow with pen and paper, or with your phone to take notes from the app. These listening guides are part of the workbook you can download for free as a member.- Today and each GGOD episode has a listening guide as well as questions for either group discussions or your own personal time, inviting you to ponder what you heard in the days to come.- Today we are introducing a new feature which is a listener suggestion: about halfway through the episode, there will be a 30-second musical interlude to allow you to pause and reflect on the lesson. You are also invited to use the second music break at the end of the episode, it is newly expanded, if you feel the need to chew on the lesson some more.- Also use our membership page to muse, ask questions, ponder, reflect, connect with us!- Please do remember that you can go back and listen again. We aim to give you the best quality content we can teach so it is intense and deep – that is because we highly respect you and your time, and we want to honor you as you seek to deepen your faith. There are all sorts of people listening alongside you, from overseas missionaries to seminary students to brand new believers, people listening as they

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Has reading the Bible ever felt like a chore? Have you ever wondered how to delight in God? How can love for God be your most tangible reality? How can we nurture a culture of curiosity and learning from one another, rather than be afraid of our differences? Stephanie welcomes Tara Leigh Cobble, the founder and CEO of D-Group and host of the Bible Recap podcast—and, most importantly, fellow lover of Jesus Christ! Together they weave an impromptu conversation that invites you to TASTE the delight AND SEE the beauty of knowing Christ more deeply! Their contagious passion for Scripture, their eclectic experiences of cultures, and their common excitement about knowing Jesus more will inspire you to delight in Him in fresh, spicy new ways. Tara-Leigh shares about recent archeological discoveries in Israel - including a synagogue in Magdala where Jesus most likely taught, and the very palace of King David. She shares her passion for Israel because it is a great way to fall deeper in love with Jesus!!Tara-Leigh shares her concerns for our generation, and her perspective on how to inspire our generation to delight in God. She explains how the Bible went from boring and unpleasant, to delightful and her ultimate delight! She also draws out attention to the dangers of taking Bible verses out of context and the essential nature of placing our Bible readings within context. Finally, Tara-Leigh gives us a clear call to unity, humility, and curiosity. What can we learn from one another? How do cultures and personality differences enrich our lives instead of creating fear of difference?Join them over a cup of coffee, with your Bible open and your heart ready to hear from God about how to grow your intimacy with Him today! Stephanie teared up and Tara-Leigh could not stop smiling from ear to ear—these are unmistakable pointers to God’s presence and goodness!Watch the live conversation on our YouTube channel and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/3RyztkQQKbQ?feature=oembed MORE ABOUT TARA-LEIGH COBBLETara-Leigh Cobble's zeal for Biblical literacy led her to create D-Group (Discipleship Group), which has grown into an international network of 300+ Bible studies that meet every week in homes, churches, and online. She also writes and hosts a daily radio show called "The God Shot", as well as a daily podcast called "The Bible Recap" to guide listeners through a chronological 1-Year Bible reading plan. The podcast has crossed over 140 million downloads and reached #2 on the Apple Podcast Top Overall Charts. More than 20,000 churches around the world have joined their reading plan to know and love God better. Her book The Bible Recap (Baker / Bethany House) and Bible study He’s Where the Joy Is (Lifeway) aim to help people not only understand Scripture but to love God more as a result!For more information: taraleighcobble.com | thebiblerecap.com | mydgroup.orgSocial media: @taraleighcobble | @thebiblerecap | @mydgroupWe invite you to check out the first episode of each of our series, and decide which one you will want to start with.Go to gospelspice.com for more, and go especially to gospelspice.com/podcast to enjoy our guests! Interested in our blog? Click here: gospelspice.com/blogIdentity in the battle | Ephesianshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/372022/link/Malachi: Messenger to Messiahhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/356130/link/Wisdom from the Book of Proverbshttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/324347/link/Come to the Table | The Feasts Jesus celebratedhttps://www.podcastics.com/episode/309956/link/GOD'S GLORY, OUR DELIGHT | THE GOSPEL SPICE SERIESDelighting in the glory of God. Does this concept strike you as reserved for spiritual contemplatives? What if, instead, it proved the highly practical, deeply foundational perspective you need right now?Why does God’s glory even matter in our

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie enjoins us to embrace exotic faith with the goal of developing the perspective of heaven in our hearts - namely, in order to start perceiving our life and circumstances and relationships the way God does.God sees us as He created us to be—not as we are today, right now, with all our imperfections. He sees the finished product. One of Stephanie's favorite descriptions of ourselves? "We are half-baked masterpieces."Masterpieces? That’s how God calls us:Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.Psalm139:14 - I am fearfully and wonderfully made;Genesis1:27 - So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.But half-baked, because we are a work under construction.Philippians 2:12-13 - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.Ephesians 4:24 - put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.Half baked masterpieces. That’s you and me today. Stephanie shares, "The more I see myself as God sees me, the easier I will find it to delight in His glory."So in this context, how do we approach suffering, and how does humility give us the proper perspective when trials and pain hit home? Humility is both the soil that allows faith to grow, and the fruit that grows from that tree of faith. And it all points to delight in the glory of God as our ultimate goal and purpose.Paul tells us of his amazing revelations. He says he was caught up in the third heaven (2Cor 12:2). He literally got the perspective of Heaven. And it was so glorious, that he was actually at risk of developing pride. At risk of thinking he was better than others for having been granted such a perspective. So God, in His wise goodness, afflicted Paul with a thorn. Paul asks for the affliction to be taken away.That’s the context for a few famous verses from the pen of Paul, when God tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2Corinthians 12:9) and Paul’s conclusion, verse 10: For when I am weak, then I am strong.This is a lesson we all must learn if we truly seek to delight in the glory of God. Pride has no place in this quest. So Paul went from pride of place to delight in God. He didn’t regret it for a minute: the moment he understood why this affliction was not taken away, but that it was given as a grace, then he stopped asking for it to be removed.He actually started thanking God for it. Not because he was masochistic or loved being in pain, or wanted to be pitied, or wanted to tell us how amazing he is for handling such pain. But Because he wanted to live in God’s strength, not his own. DISCOVER THE GOSPEL SPICE MINISTRIES The Gospel Spice Podcast is part of a larger range of tools given to you by Gospel Spice Ministries.In a nutshell, we exist to inspire Christ-followers to delight in God.In more details: we provide resources to empower Christian leaders across generational, social, ethnic and geographical boundaries towards more intimacy with Jesus Christ and discipleship effectiveness through a Biblical Christocentric foundation. The Gospel-Spice Ministries provide a safe environment for spiritual and community growth empowering people to know Christ more intimately, serve one another more powerfully, and reach the world for Jesus.PLAY IT FORWARD by SHARING the link with friends and family.PRAY IT FORWARD by praying for us and those you share it with!PAY IT FORWARD!! Would you consider supporting this show today to help others enjoy it for free? It comes to you completely free, but is labor-intensive to produce, and we want to keep putting it in the ears of people!Gospel Spice Ministrie

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie welcomes a guest teacher as part of our God's Glory, our Delight series. Steve Laube is joining us as a theologian and Bible teacher. Among many other things, Steve is a Sunday Class teacher with deep passion for delight in the glory of God, and decades of study in theology. He brings to us today his passion for Scripture and his eye for detail as we join Peter, James and John on the mountain to witness the once-in-history Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter's inkling to build "three tabernacles" (or "booths" or "tents") when he witnessed the event and the presence of Moses and Elijah, might indicate that the transfiguration took place in the general season of the "fall festivals" of Jewish faith - the festival of succoth, or festival of booths, being preeminent among the Jewish fall festivals. Succoth starts in 2022 on October 9, so we are releasing this episode in conjunction with this beautiful celebration.The transfiguration is the most paramount event in the earthly life of Jesus Christ to reveal His glory. Through the eyes of Peter, James and John we are invited to experience delight in the glory of the One and Only begotten Son of the Father, on whom His glory and delight dwell. So we ask,Why does the transfiguration matter to our faith today?Why does it matter that Moses and Elijah showed up on the mountain with Jesus?Why could they (and we) not stay on the mountaintop? Why do we need to descend back into the valley?What does the Jewish festival of Succoth have to do with the Transfiguration?Steve opens the texts of Scripture to us today to beckon us into experience of delight in the glory of Jesus Christ.You will find the notes Steve mentions, in the Gospel Spice Library available to all members! Join for free at gospelspice.com to access this, and much more!MEET STEVE LAUBESteve is also an influential figure in the world of Christian publishing as a veteran of the bookselling industry with over 40 years of experience. In the 80s he was a bookstore manager; then spent over a decade with Bethany House Publishers; later, he became a literary agent, founding The Steve Laube Agency. He was also inducted into the Grand Canyon University Hall-of-Fame by their College of Theology. He is married with three grown children and two grandsons.Steve is the President of The Christian Writers Institute and publishes the annual Christian Writers Market Guide. In addition, he is the Publisher for Enclave Publishing, a division of Oasis Family Media, one of the premier publishers of science fiction and fantasy written from a Christian worldview.You will find more about Steve and his literary agency at https://stevelaube.com/If you want to listen to Steve's teachings, check out inneraltar.com where you can listen from the device of your choice and also as a podcast format.You will find the notes Steve mentions, in the Gospel Spice Library available to all members! Join for free at gospelspice.com to access this, and much more!DISCOVER ENCLAVE PUBLISHINGEnclave is a leading publisher of Christian speculative fiction. Whether it’s Christian science fiction you love, or fantasy, time travel, steampunk, alternate history, spiritual warfare, superhero, or technothriller—if it’s speculative and it comes from the Christian worldview, Enclave is the place to go. We strive to get Christian speculative fiction into the hands of the fans who love and devour great stories.An enclave is a group of like-minded people in a place where they are surrounded by those who are not like-minded. It is not a place to hide, instead, Enclave is a place where authors and fans of Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction can come together and then go out and make a difference through worlds of words. Our stories can seem strange but underneath they contain powerful expressions of Redemption, Truth, and Hope.You will find

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie welcomes Pastor Jim Cymbala from the Brooklyn Tabernacle for a powerful conversation about the essential power of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers. There is no life in Christ apart from the Spirit, and this is deeply transformational. This episode releases on the official anniversary of the Gospel Spice podcast! So we are gifting you a very special bonus episode that Stephanie is particularly giddy about.In his new book FAN THE FLAME, Pastor Jim calls us to a return to a holy experience and study of Scripture and a renewed dependence on the Holy Spirit. We need a heart that searches after Him – the heart of the truly “poor in spirit” from Jesus’ Beatitudes. How do we then keep up this spirit of “Lord, I need you today and every day”? It starts with listening to God as He speaks to us through His word. It’s daring to pray, “Lord, whatever you want me to do, I will do it.”In the context of our Gospel Spice series GOD'S GLORY, OUR DELIGHT, Pastor Jim describes for us today the essential nature of humility and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Pastor Jim's first book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, was one of those books that deeply influenced Stephanie and her theology and approach to the Holy Spirit in the days of her young faith. She still reads it every few years, so she is celebrating the release of this new book for a new generation of believers.Pastor Jim says, “The Holy Spirit watches carefully how we treat the Book He Himself wrote.” Everything has to be judged by the Word of God. Amen! Pastor Jim shows us how the enemy of our soul works in the extremes – emphasizing either only Scripture or only the Spirit – and how balance is essential.Pastor Jim clearly spells out the illnesses that plague the church today. He says, “God uses people, not programs, to bring about his kingdom on earth.” He addresses Pastors and people in roles of spiritual leadership to call for a return to our first love and passion for Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He calls away from burnout and discouragement, from greed and self-interest, and towards humility, love, and other-centeredness.Pastor Jim reminds us of the essential nature of unity in the Spirit, and the bond of peace. We discuss the works of the enemy to cause slander and division, and the healing power of the Spirit in unity and against discord. “Once there is discord, then you know Satan is working. And God is the God of peace. We are not all going to agree on the secondary matters. But take the essential things, like discrimination and racial tensions. It is just shameful, we need to repent, so we see people the way God does.”Pastor Jim reminds us that we are all influencers, which comes with privileges as children of God, but also with the responsibility to steward this influence well. How do we as Christians enter this stewardship? He says that we are to be full of His Spirit and of His love so that our very presence will lead people to seek Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.Pastor Jim and his wife Carol began serving at the Brooklyn Tabernacle when just 20 people attended, and today thousands attend weekend services. The Cymbalas have seen seasons of discouragement become gateways to spiritual revival, and Jim longs to encourage weary and disheartened pastors to stay the course. Cymbala began working on his first new book in a decade, Fan the Flame: Let Jesus Renew Your Calling and Revive Your Church, while counseling pastors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book’s message is crafted for both pastors and church members. “We Christians are all on the same team. If one hurts, we should all feel it; and if one is blessed, we should all rejoice,” writes Cymbala. “Fan the Flame is my heartfelt endeavor to bring encouragement to the body of Christ and especially to church leaders. It has no magic formula or personal vision I wish to commun

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Stephanie welcomes Jo Saxton to discuss issues of leadership, and the general feeling from many leaders today of being overwhelmed, overburdened, and maybe even on the deep end of burnout. What happens when you don’t show up for your calling, because you are too busy or burned out to step into the fullness of it? And what does it look like to be faithful with what we have been given – for the long run? We discuss the perfect storm we have traversed and where we are today. Jo brings wisdom, encouragement, truth and brutal sincerity. She shares her own survival tips and how to thrive in the desperate times we have traversed. She is humble and honest - and Stephanie deeply appreciates that!What about the idea that we should haved our act together inthis day and age and should know exactly what to do these days as if we were perfect? As leaders, most of us have more responsibilities than ever — often in BOTH our personal lives and our professional lives. And, yet, many of us might feel like imposters even as the growing responsibilities continue. Many of us might be ignoring, downplaying, or shelving our God-given abilities, influence, gifts, and dreams. Many of us would not consider ourselves to be influential — even though we are impacting so many others for the good. Many of us don’t live beyond our own narratives of what we believe to be true about ourselves. Many of us would feel uncomfortable with the word “leader” — even as we guide our families and teams.Desperation for God is grounds for hope. Jo shares her own passion to delight in God and how it has been her anchor and survival technique. You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/B9yecAGWUZI?feature=oembedMORE ABOUT JO SAXTONJo Saxton is a speaker, podcaster, author, guest TV host and leadership coach. She hosts a digital coaching community and is the founder of the Ezer Collective,two initiatives dedicated to investing in women leaders around the world, equipping them to own their voice, and boldly step into their calling.Born to Nigerian parents and raised in London,England,Jo now lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters. She loves the everyday stuff like good music, good food, and good friends.And Target. She really, really loves Target.https://www.josaxton.com/Twitter/Insta/Linked In - @josaxtonFacebook: josaxton1CONNECT WITH THE EZER COLLECTIVEhttps://www.josaxton.com/ezer-collectiveJO SAXTON HAS SOMETHING TO TELL YOU… LET’S TALK MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE — OR CHALLENGES — YOU MIGHT BE EXPERIENCINGMany women know they were created and commissioned to lead, but they are often left feeling stuck, overlooked, and limited. After working directly with thousands of women and evaluating my own experiences, here are a few reasons why women in leadership struggle (even in a supportive, encouraging organizational culture):· Leadership simply wasn't the primary path for women in previous generations, so we don't always have accessible role models to illuminate our path forward.· With the realities of family life — marriage and/or children — a woman's career path is rarely linear. Statistically, it's more likely that a woman will have to take an extended leave from work. This is a unique challenge for women to navigate as they often return to greet a new environment at work with more responsibilities at home. Even if you have a supportive male leader, he can't and won't understand how to navigate the challenges and realities of leadership as a woman.· What's expected from women in society, what women are allowed to do in your organization or industry, and what's required of women outside of work, requires different tools, different practices, and a different process for women to develop their leadership.WHY WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP NEED COAC

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STEPHANIE:I want to share a special invitation with you. You may have heard that I will be releasing my first book with IVP on July 28, 2026. It’s a big deal and I am so overwhelmed with God’ goodness in allowing me to share such an essential message about delighting in Him as the true essential foundation for all our spiritual growth and maturing. Truly, when we delight in the Lord, He promises to give us the desires of our hearts – namely, more of Himself!So, here's the invitation. If you feel this message is indeed important, and you know people – including yourself perhaps – who need to be encouraged to awaken and cultivate their delight in God, would you consider joining my book launch team? It’s a great and super easy way to share the good news of God's love for us in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.**If you’re interested, please go to gospelspice.com/awakendelight and find the section about joining the launch team, or email me at [email protected] **Together, let’s encourage everyone we know with the wonderful news that, in Christ, God delights in us and invites us to delight in Him!Welcome back to our Gospel Spice fall 2022 series, God's glory our delight! We took a break from this theme over the summer with our "summer inspirations" but this is officially our "back to school" episode as we dive back into our favorite series to date. "God's glory, our delight" is Stephanie's personal motto. Today we are pondering 6 steps as practical stepping stones to grow in our delight of God. This is not a guaranteed recipe - it is between you and God! Here are the 6 steps that Stephanie invites you to step into, with much expectation, humility and deep gratitude:First, Ponder the life of delight in the glory of God.1- Believe it’s possible and real.2- Embrace the promise for yourself personally.Then, look at yourself.1- Admit we’re still in the wilderness.2- Realize we can’t do this on our own strength.Finally, enter the promised land.1- Cross the Jordan.2- Expect God to show up.Jews believed that the Temple was the place where heaven met earth—literally. They didn’t think of heaven as a galaxy far far away on the other side of the wardrobe. They understood heaven as being closer to us than our own breath. Heaven and earth overlap in intertwining circles, and meet in the Temple. We are the Temple of God because of Christ in us, the hope of all glorious things to come (Colossians 1:27). We are jars of clay, but we hold the surpassing treasure that is the uncontainable God Himself.Let's be practical...- Reminder – there are listening guides for each episode. They allow you to follow with pen and paper, or with your phone to take notes from the app. These listening guides are part of the workbook you can download for free as a member.- Today and each GGOD episode has a listening guide as well as questions for either group discussions or your own personal time, inviting you to ponder what you heard in the days to come.- Today we are introducing a new feature which is a listener suggestion: about halfway through the episode, there will be a 30-second musical interlude to allow you to pause and reflect on the lesson. You are also invited to use the second music break at the end of the episode, it is newly expanded, if you feel the need to chew on the lesson some more.- Also use our membership page to muse, ask questions, ponder, reflect, connect with us!- Please do remember that you can go back and listen again. We aim to give you the best quality content we can teach so it is intense and deep – that is because we highly respect you and your time, and we want to honor you as you seek to deepen your faith. There are all sorts of people listening alongside you, from overseas missionaries to seminary students to brand new believers, people listening as they drive or jog or run errands or do the dishes. So you are welcome, at whatever stage of your spiritual journey you find yourself in. If it means listening twice or taking notes using the listening guide, that’s awesome! Take it slow. These epsidoes are more akin to a slow cooked French meal than a McDonalds drive-thru!- Finally, there will be a Gospel Spice online Bible Study starting in a few weeks – go to gospelspice.com for more. It is free, live, weekly for 6 weeks, and on a private Facebook group. Small scale. In depth. More details to come. Sign-up now.- Also Sign-up for our newsletter so you know about those things before everyone else! This will also give you access to all our content for free, including a video version of this teaching. All in one easy place: https://www.gospelspice.com/sign-up-to-be-a-member This week’s key verses are:2Corinthians 4:7 - We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.John 5:44 - How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?We invite you to check out the first episode of each of o