Pablo (00:00)
Hi, welcome to Words of This Life podcast. My name is Pablo, and here we share real and impactful Christian stories from believers who love the Lord and His word. Through these testimonies, we want to showcase the virtues of the one who's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Virtues that are a work in everyday people, shaping their character, guiding their actions, and shining forth His life into the world. We're so happy you're here with us for this episode. And let's get right into it.

Ayo (00:31)
Welcome back to the words of this live podcast. I'm Ayo. This is my co-host Pablo. And today is a very special episode. We have two very interesting guests with us today. Justin Street—I didn't want to say your full name. Justin. Vanessa. How are you guys?

Pablo (00:36)
Hello?

Vanessa (00:53)
Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Pablo (00:55)
Yes, we're excited.

Juston (00:57)
Yeah, this is great. This is great. Telling out the words of this life.

Pablo (01:02)
Amen. That's right. Yeah, you know, the marquee verse. Yeah, that's it. That's right. You got it right. Just in the words of this life. So we want to know all the all the this life has done in both of you in the in the frame of a certain topic that we're gonna maybe I can introduce that topic for today. Or should we have them introduce themselves? Maybe a little bio. Yeah.

Ayo (01:21)
Yeah, I was thinking about yourselves, who you are, what you do, where you are in life now.

Pablo (01:29)
Yeah. Of course. Yeah.

Vanessa (01:31)
I'll go for it. I'm Vanessa and I am an executive coach here in Austin and I'm married and have three kids, but we had a big surprise six years ago. We already had two kids and then we had a bonus. So I have a college kid, high schooler and a six year old. So it's been fun. But been married for almost 23 years and we're just living our best life. Yeah, enjoying our Christian community and just letting the Lord surprise us.

Pablo (02:07)
Wonderful. Amen. That's wonderful. Thank you.

Juston (02:20)
I'm Justin. I don't know this one. Hello. Justin Street. One of four, big family. Have had quite a bit of a journey as far as job titles go. Played sports and then worked in film industry for a period of years about ten and then just—

Pablo (02:24)
Yeah.

Juston (02:49)
through my twin brother and through the Word I got connected to a club. Well, I met the Lord Jesus and got connected to a club and work in ministry now. Yeah, so you're just thankful.

Pablo (02:58)
Let's say amen. Wow. Amazing.

Juston (03:10)
I guess just for God's sovereignty in everything, you know, like everything he's done and he just doesn't give up on us. And every season he brings us through is so purposeful. You can just look back and go, "Wow, you were doing something there." He's really, outwardly it all may change all the time, but he's working on building Christ into us.

Pablo (03:37)
Amen. That's right. That's like the whole point of this. Yeah, the Christ that has been built into us is what we want to see. Yeah, that's right. So were both of you, quick question, raised by Christian parents or in a Christian environment?

Vanessa (03:52)
Well, my parents had a pretty dramatic salvation when I was around five years old and so I grew up in a Christian home since I was six. Okay. Yeah. Wow.

Pablo (04:05)
Amen. How about you Justin? About the same. Same? Okay.

Juston (04:08)
Yeah, we were in a Christian home, taught to listen to the Lord. I remember praying at night before bed. But I think there was a point where, you know how Paul said, "I've suffered the loss of all things, count them as refuse," etc, etc. And then he goes on to say, "for Christ Jesus, my Lord." And there was a point later on, I think in my life where the Lord became my Lord.

Pablo (04:29)
Yeah. Wow.

Juston (04:37)
I had a sweetness since I was probably eight. I got saved at eight. So I had a sweetness with him, but knew him more as in service. I need to do good, serve God. Not much in the way of depending on him and yeah, yeah, just mainly out of my own strength.

Vanessa (05:00)
Yeah.

Ayo (05:02)
Yeah. Vanessa, how about you? When did the Lord become your Lord?

Juston (05:08)
Mmm.

Vanessa (05:10)
So growing up, my parents originally met with a, like a mega church and that's where I received the Lord was in a big mega church altar call. And then they began a journey of just church hopping. We went from meeting with Pentecostals to Messianic Jews. That was interesting. This Mexican family. Really? With Mexican, I mean, Messianic Jews. Messianic Jews. And you know, non-denomination, holy laughter. And my parents were so seeking. And then through neighbors, they found a group that they really loved. And so those were the years, my high school years, where the Lord really became real to me. But I would say it was college where I—I didn't want God to be my parents' God. I really wanted him to be mine. And I actually was hoping to run away from the Lord my college years, but the Lord just didn't let me go. And I feel like that's where he became real day by day. I mean, in high school, I had genuine experiences of the Lord, but college is where I actively chose the Lord. And then when I was picking a life partner, I was like, "I need someone who loves the Lord and wants an open home and wants to preach the gospel." And so that changed my whole trajectory of life.

Pablo (06:44)
Wow.

Ayo (06:45)
Did you go to UT? I did. Hey, fellow Longhorn. What starts here changes the world.

Vanessa (06:50)
Yes, completely changed my life. Because I met believers and met my husband.

Pablo (06:51)
Right. That's. Yeah.

Juston (07:00)
I've never heard of holy laughter before.

Vanessa (07:02)
Me neither! You brought it up!

Juston (07:04)
I heard of that. Sounds great.

Ayo (07:09)
Yeah. So today, we are talking about the divine romance. That term has kind of been thrown around in the previous episodes. And we're going to talk about love, and loving the Lord and what that means. So yeah, I think it's kind of funny when you think about love, there's a lot, a lot of thought.

Vanessa (07:35)
That's a loaded word.

Ayo (07:38)
There's so much culture behind it. You could say there's a whole holiday for love. Yeah. So when love pops up in people's heads, there's a thought that they go to. But one thing that the Bible unveils is that God is love. That's a different thought. I don't even know if people in the world consider that, that God is love, that his essence is love. But the thing is, that if God is love, he needs an object to love on. So we'll get into that. But just to kind of start the conversation, this is kind of a fun question. I want to ask the group, what is the craziest thing you've done for love? For someone you love? I can give you guys time and I can start or whatever.

Pablo (07:39)
That's right.

Ayo (07:44)
Yeah.

Pablo (07:54)
Yeah.

Ayo (08:06)
Mm-hmm.

Pablo (08:30)
I'll start. I guess, when I was getting to know my wife, I probably flew Boston-LA 10 times in two months. You know, a crazy amount of times. And I just racked up my miles like crazy. Anyways, I felt like every weekend I was there. And anyways, I just felt like... what am I doing? But I was crazy. I was crazy. I was in love, you know, and it happened so fast that my roommate at the time got me on a walk and I was like—I was like, in the cold month of—of—in Boston in a cold month and he wanted to go on a walk and he was like, "Bro. You've only met her. Are you sure, bro?" He's like—he was just—he wanted me to be—he wanted some logical explanation of why I was going so many times and why I was falling for this girl so quickly. Yeah, and I was like, you know, he's this—it's a lot different than—he's like very logical consultant, like very—and he's like, "Bro. Give me some data. You know, like why? Why, bro? Why her? Why are you going so much?" I was like, "Bro, I'm in love. I'm just in love," you know, and I—anyways, so I think I was a little crazy. I was a little crazy and anyways, I think that's what—that's what love does to you. Yeah, that's a bit crazy. It twists your mind a little bit. Anyway. Yes. Yes. Right.

Ayo (09:49)
Crazy things.

Vanessa (09:52)
You just do things that don't make sense to others. Yeah. So when my husband and I started seeing each other, I just knew from the beginning, like I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, but he was really unclear and there was a lot of noise in his life from family. You know, they just weren't on board with me. I mean, that's the truth, they just weren't on board with me. And we had this conversation where I asked him, like, "Do you love me?" Because that's all that matters. And he was confused. He's like, "I don't know." So we broke up. Ended it. And of course I was devastated. I was hurt. I was crying. But deep down I knew this one's for me. This is who the Lord has for me. So the crazy thing I did is I waited. Right? Could have moved on. Girlfriends were like, "Are you not going to move on?" My parents were like, "Are you not going to move on?" And I just felt I'm just going to wait and wait. I don't remember how long I waited. It wasn't super long, but I waited and that was crazy for me to wait. And eventually he came around and we continued seeing each other and got engaged. Almost 23 years later. It's a good thing I waited.

Pablo (11:23)
Yeah, really. Yeah, that's crazy. God gave you the best. Yeah, right. Is that your M.O.?

Juston (11:27)
That's my M.O.

Vanessa (11:31)
Tell us.

Juston (11:32)
Just wait, just keep waiting. Maybe, maybe keep waiting. No, I... That's, I think I'm thankful in general, like, you know, God has, he has to transform us, right? And that's, that's where he's—he's—you could say he's adding himself incrementally to us or dispensing or settling down, making his home in all the areas of our heart.

Pablo (11:34)
It's coming.

Juston (12:01)
And what that requires is openings and transactions. I mean, he's a gentleman, right? Like he's not going to force you. But, you know, I thought he would just like, you know, just get it all done and say, "Alright, let's go. Let's get out of here. We're done." But yeah, so that's been definitely an area of personally my life that has just—I just call it my area of transformation because it just keeps me dependent.

Pablo (12:08)
That's right.

Juston (12:12)
Amen.

Juston (12:29)
But when you, you know, as I'm speaking a lot to students and ministry and just thankfully being kind of forced to live in God's word a lot, because you have to see people and it's a great thing. You better get into the word. You just realize God has a purpose. And if you have—this is it right here. If you have a genuine need in your person. Like if you have a genuine need, that is actually an opportunity. And I love that word opportunity because you realize that we're Christians, like we're different. We realize that there's a purpose in all things, right? And all things are working out for us that we would more and more express God in our—who we are.

Pablo (12:42)
You're right.

Juston (12:58)
And so I'd say that like in that particular area, especially in my twenties, you know, when like that's pretty much the only thing on your mind is like—and then, you know, you got friends and there's certain numbers and—no, we're at this number now, you know, or now we're at that number. I'm like, "Yeah, now look at the one I got, man." Like, you know, you just realized that like—I'm thankful for it because I remember the day that I—I actually, we're talking about love. I remember the day I was sitting—I was in LA, and I was sitting in my little art studio garage, and I just said, "Lord," and I was reading, you know, and like, I didn't know a lot of these concepts. To me, you serve God, God is great, the devil's the enemy, and the world is full of temptation and trouble, and we need to serve God, you know, and you do good. And just keep trying harder. You know, pretty much I was an athlete. But I remember the day I just—I remember the day that I registered there was a genuine need for an intimate, caring—And I mean this in a divine sense—an intimate, caring lover to supply me. I asked him, said—well, I'm kind of matter of fact, I guess I go, "Well, looks like it's your job now, man." And I said, "Well, I have a need and you are the I Am."

Pablo (14:42)
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Juston (14:54)
The I Am in present tense. Not I was, not I will be, I Am. And so that's just one of—like, you know, how many areas we need the Lord to just come in and supply us with who he is. And I said, "Lord, you have to be a genuine—you have to be my intimate lover." And yeah, some things started happening. He just had a sense that like there was an increase in his presence in my daily life.

Ayo (14:57)
Amen.

Pablo (15:14)
Yeah.

Juston (15:24)
Walking with him, talking with him, and just opening in that way to share that aspect of my being with him that I don't—I honestly don't think I would have gotten if I hadn't have gotten brought to that end of need, you know. So yeah, so that's—that's—that's my—that's my experience and this human journey.

Pablo (15:42)
Yeah.

Vanessa (15:52)
Are you gonna share with us what the craziest—

Juston (15:54)
Yeah.

Pablo (15:55)
Yeah.

Juston (15:56)
Okay. Sure. I was thinking about it and I'm like, "Well, if we're looking on the side of crazy, I don't want to get in the weeds." I mean, I've painted. I remember I painted a really wonderful picture—when your parents changed from being Mom to being a child of God. It really changes. At least it was for me. It changed. Like she became a child of God. And I looked at her life and I was—I was like, "Wow, what a wonderful story of God," instead of, "Hey Mom," you know, like, "What are you doing, hey Mom?" And so one time I knew she loved sunflowers and I was looking for motivation to paint a painting and so I painted her some big thing, sunflower. You know, we're an artist—

Pablo (16:38)
Wow. That's right.

Vanessa (16:47)
Together.

Juston (16:48)
I was gonna tell you a story, but there was a brother one time I met. I was on my way home from a prayer meeting and he was getting off a bus car he had bags and bags and—this—this dude was like six foot six. His name was Luther King Johnson.

Pablo (17:03)
Have I told you that story? No.

Juston (17:05)
Bro. Brother Luther King Johnson, where you at? "Well, get your butt to church, boy!" As we—we—we had a—we ended up spending the whole—the whole night together on a journey. We were—he got kicked out of a family situation and was looking for someone in his family who had run away and—and he had all this stuff and we ended up having to camp out in a tent on Skid Row. Yeah.

Pablo (17:33)
Whoa. In LA. Wow.

Juston (17:35)
Yeah, it was crazy and we were—we were—but he loved the Lord. Mm-hmm. And so we were in a tent sleeping at night on one of the arguably one of the most dangerous roads in America just because of the—mainly the flesh and human addiction. And we were praising the Lord and I had one thing, a Perrier, and it was our champagne to praise the Lord.

Ayo (17:36)
That's insane.

Pablo (17:47)
Wow.

Juston (18:05)
They're like, "Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you, Lord. It is cold, but you have warmed our hearts up." And yes.

Pablo (18:08)
Amen. Amen. That's precious.

Juston (18:18)
I won't want to take too long, but I'll add one more. This is a brother, right? Like he was experiencing the Lord. He didn't want to say nothing. It started raining. And I started feeling water sneaking in through the tent. And it was so cold. We were shivering. I was shivering. I was shivering to a point where I was like, "I've never shivered like this before." You're just like, you can't stop it. And then finally, like, we were both silent for about 20 minutes, and he goes, "My brother, are you awake?" I'm like, "Yes I am, my brother. My goodness, it's cold, isn't it?"

Pablo (18:55)
Thanks.

Ayo (19:00)
Yeah.

Juston (19:01)
And he was like, "I didn't want to say nothing." I was like, "Me neither, bro. I was just trying to go to bed." And so yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's—he always said, "Whenever you think of me, always say, 'Get your butt to church, Luther King Johnson!'" We are the church.

Pablo (19:15)
Yeah.

Ayo (19:19)
Nice. Nice.

Pablo (19:20)
Awesome. Thank you for sharing. Yeah, you have it. Yeah, I want to hear what you did. Right.

Ayo (19:24)
Should I still go?

Vanessa (19:28)
Your crazy.

Ayo (19:30)
Well, when me and my wife were dating, we would just go all over Texas and do fun things. And I hate roller coasters. I absolutely hate roller coasters. I told you, I told you that's the one thing I won't do. We can go to SeaWorld, we can go to the beach, but please do not put me on a roller coaster. And I—she did not care. So we went to the state fair and there was this ride. It was like this swing thing. And it like spins while you're swinging. And the whole time I was there, I was like, "Not that one. Like, please not that one." And we were eating like cotton—I forgot, you know, the fair food. And I'd already gone in a few rides. I'm like, "Okay, hopefully she'll—she'll see that I'm really sacrificing here." Like I would never get on that roller coaster. I only went on that roller coaster because of her and so we were in line and she was like, "I want to go on that one." I was like, "Okay, Tammy, are you sure?" And she was like, "Yeah." And I was like, "Okay, okay, we're going to go on this one." And it was such a—it was such an embarrassing experience. I screamed so loud. I screamed so loud. I was screaming. I lost my voice. I had tears in my eyes. It was so bad that when I got off the ride and I was walking in the line, the people were looking at me laughing because you could hear me. Yeah, over the mechanics of the roller coaster and other people's—I was screaming like—because after a while, you know, you start swinging. It's like, okay, people are like—and it gets sharp. I'm still screaming really loud. Yeah, that's probably the craziest thing I've ever done for anybody I love.

Pablo (20:38)
Yeah.

Vanessa (21:04)
Cringing.

Pablo (21:21)
Wow.

Vanessa (21:22)
Poor guy.

Ayo (21:23)
Yeah, we're married. And I think—I think I got over my fear of roller coasters. So that's just—she's going to test that. But yeah, that's—that's—yeah, that's the craziest thing I've done.

Vanessa (21:37)
That's awesome you did that.

Pablo (21:39)
It's amazing. So we've all done something crazy for love to different ways, degrees. But I guess now we can talk about what on God's side—you—I feel like all our experiences of doing crazy things for love are just a decimal, like a small—for—a foreshadowing of what God—you know, like when we do things for love is actually because God is actually full of the desire to do something for love too. Know, God—God did something crazy for love, right? That's right. And anyways, actually the whole universe, like the heavens, the earth, it's all just—it's what he did for love. Like this is the setting for this love story that you're mentioning, this divine story of romance. And maybe we can comment a little bit on the beginning of this love story, right? Of Genesis. Know, God comes and he—I like the word that Justin used, lover. You know, God is—God really is a lover and we should know God as our personal lover. And in the first few chapters of the Bible, God kind of unveils in a very hidden, mysterious way that he is this lover in the picture of Adam and Eve. So maybe we can just reference that passage and just comment on what we—yeah, how that passage has become maybe a lie to us in seeing that God is a lover, you know?

Ayo (22:12)
God did a very crazy thing.

Pablo (22:39)
Anyways, I'm sure to some degree we're familiar, right? Is that right with Adam and Eve and God putting Adam in the middle of the garden and saying, "It's not good for you to be alone," but really meaning that it's not good for Him to be alone. So anyways, I don't know if there's an experience or some light from the truth where that became real, that God's feeling of loneliness is actually—or our—sorry, our feeling of loneliness is actually just a mirror image or a match that God is actually feeling this desire to be with someone else, you know. And—and then when we find out, then we realize God—God loves me in that kind of a way in the way that a husband loves a wife, you know. So anyways, I don't know if that's the right question. Is that right? Yeah, going to the right place here? Yeah.

Ayo (24:02)
I think every Christian in a sense understands that God loves. You know, you—the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16, right? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." So we see that God loves us in that way. And then if you go to Ephesians 5, you see that Christ died for the church. He gave himself up for us, you know, so that the love gets a little more specific. If you go to Galatians 2:20, you see that this Christ, he gave himself up for me. If you're a Christian, you know that God loves you specifically. He loves the church and even he loved the world too. But you might have this framework of like, "This is savior-saved. He's my redeemer. He's the creator that fixed my problem with sin." But he loves us in the most intense way. Humanly, the highest form of love is the love between a husband and a wife, that romantic kind of love. And if you go to Isaiah 54:5, the Bible says, "Your Maker is your husband." That's the extent of the love that God has for you.

Pablo (24:07)
Right.

Ayo (24:28)
Not simply to just be your savior and your redeemer, but you be in a husband and wife relationship, that kind of loving relationship with him. So, and you brought up Genesis. Genesis is this just picture of that desire in God's heart.

Pablo (25:23)
Yeah.

Ayo (25:27)
Yeah, right. Yeah.

Pablo (25:37)
Yeah, that's right. Maybe turning to our guest, when did your Christian life or Christian walk have a change when you realize that the Lord is this intensely desirous of having a relationship with you that is not just of a father and son or father and daughter, but is of a husband and a wife? You know, like He wants to have an intimate affection and did that kind of change your walk with the Lord or did that—or maybe it's changing. I feel like it's something that I need to remind myself every day. So I don't know if there was a moment in your Christian walk where this became more real. I think you already mentioned it Justin, but you can develop it a little more like how your relationship with the Lord changed when you realized He wants a loving, affectionate, intimate, private relationship with me.

Juston (26:36)
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just in general because it's just—I mean, same like I was saying—growing up in a Christian environment, you're kind of—you're kind of taught to—it's—it's in like the same breath of like being a good person. "Like I need to be a good person. I need to do good. Well, at least I'm better than that guy. You know what I mean? Like I'm not as bad as those people are. So I'm doing okay." But really, like we don't—we don't—we lose out on like kind of the key to the whole entire Christian experience, is whenever the heart turns to the Lord, right? The veil is taken away, right? The veil of the flesh that separates us from really experiencing Him. And that everything here is just a shadow. All the positive things in the universe are a shadow of Christ. So like even when people are singing about love, they may not know it, but they're singing about Christ, you know? And so I think just that there's just hearing that God is a romantic in a divine sense. It just changes you and that he wants to have a husband and wife marital relationship. It brings him into your day. It brings him into washing cups, you know, and going—and that there's a principle there that a wife takes a husband as her head, right? In Ephesians 5, right? I knew that my soul needed Christ. Then as a husband, the principle there is we live a life dependent. We depend on Him. We call on Him. Like the whole Bible is full of it. And just realizing that the Bible was written in a context of romantic love. Wow, it opens the whole thing up. But yeah, you just don't realize that even in the Old Testament, like in Jeremiah, he said, like, "Come back to your bridal love." You know, "my bridal love I had for you," you know, that's God's heart. That's God's person. He's a romantic lover.

Pablo (27:36)
Yeah. Good. Yeah.

Juston (28:53)
Yeah.

Juston (28:58)
And I just—because when people hear it, you—you get that like, "Almighty God!" Like, "Yes, almighty, wonderful, romantic God."

Pablo (29:03)
Yes.

Ayo (29:09)
Yeah.

Pablo (29:10)
That's great. That look you just did is the same look I have ingrained in my head of a student that me and this brother to today we laugh about. We showed him Isaiah 54:5 and he did like the same look you just did. He looked at the Bible like, "What? Like, he's my husband?" I think—he had never read that verse. So I think it's a shocking realization to anyone who's never—you know, I wondered, you know, how many Christians know that, you know? Anyways, it's just—it's a—it wrecks you, you know, we're talking about being wrecked. To realize that God wants you in that kind of a way, anyways.

Vanessa (29:46)
Yeah, I was considering while listening to Justin, yeah, there's this concept of God and us as his creation. And then as you one day believe in the Lord, there's this all of a sudden belief that you have to serve God, a doer, doing things for God. Just in my high school years, my relationship with the Lord was more, "I have to keep rules," and maybe a little bit of doing. And then in my college years, it started shifting to him more as my friend. "I can tell him everything. I can talk to him," but it still wasn't that love as a husband-wife idea yet. And it was probably more into my adulthood. When you read the scripture, it's so clear. He says, "I'm jealous over you with the jealousy of God." Jealousy happens because you love. Like you're so consumed and you just can't handle if they love someone else, right? And there's so many pictures of marriage where it's a picture of Christ and the church, right? "Love husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, loved and gave himself up for her." But I would say when I got married, that's where I really started to see it and experience it because—

Pablo (31:12)
Wow.

Vanessa (31:16)
When I married Sam, I was doing things I would never do because I loved him and I just wanted to be with him. I remember I was with him so much. He told me, "You need to get a hobby." And I was like, "What? I want to kind of a hobby with you." He's like, "No, no," but that was my first year of marriage. I was so in love. And—and that's where I started seeing like—

Pablo (31:30)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vanessa (31:47)
The Lord loves me like that where he wants to be with me all the time. But I will tell you, I started my own business five years ago and it has brought a whole other level of relationship with the Lord. And I am really experiencing him now as my husband. I don't have a boss to report to. I don't have people giving me feedback. Like—

Pablo (31:49)
Wow.

Vanessa (32:14)
And so I have to go to the Lord and let him really care for me and love me. And it's been so sweet to just let him be my husband. It's like in my marriage, I have my husband to help head things up. But in my business, my husband's not a part of it at all.

Pablo (32:23)
Well.

Vanessa (32:36)
You know, it's mine and actually the Lord gave it to me. And so I've been entering this relationship that's so sweet, so tender where I'm always checking in with the Lord. "Lord, are you doing this? Do you want me to do this? Should I network in this way? Lord, I feel so lonely. I wish I had a team." I'm just going to the Lord for everything as my husband, just caring for me and letting him guide me and lead me. So I feel like in the Christian life, it's just this continuous journey of experiencing the Lord in so many ways. And it does make me sad when believers are not experiencing him to the fullness, according to the word, where he loves us so much and is jealous over us.

Pablo (33:23)
Yeah. That's right.

Vanessa (33:30)
When we go to other loves. It's like marriage is really just a picture of what he wants with the church. That loving relationship, it changes everything. It changes how you serve. It changes how you show up. It changes how you dress, what you drive. It changes so many things because you're in this loving relationship with the Lord.

Pablo (33:36)
Yes. Yes, that's right. Yes, amen. That's awesome. Yeah. It touches every aspect of our life. Yeah, that's amazing. You got something?

Ayo (33:58)
Yeah. You know, for me, there was a moment in college where I was going through—I had went through a bad breakup, a really bad one. It was ugly. And I was just so down on myself because I'm like, "Woe is me. I'm so unlovable. Why didn't this work out?" I was in—I was suffering, but around that time, the people I was having fellowship with in Bible study were showing me what we're talking about now: that God wants this spousal relationship with us. And like you mentioned earlier, Justin, those verses and the way the Lord is speaking in Jeremiah is so sweet. He's like, "Remember your bridal days when you're walking with me in the wilderness."

Pablo (34:37)
Hmm.

Juston (34:50)
Thanks.

Ayo (34:53)
Like you read Exodus and it's like, okay, these people are grumbling. They don't want the manna. Like they're getting upset with the Lord—I mean, with, you know, with Jehovah—and to him, that was—that was like the bridal days. It was sweet. And, you know, there's a statement of—like, there's this verse—I need to pull it—but "What iniquity did you find in me that you forsook me, the fountain of living water, for a broken cistern?" And I was like, whoa, like you hear how God is talking in that verse. Like, "What is wrong with me? Why don't you love me? Why don't you come to me for supply? And you're going after other broken cisterns that don't satisfy you." And there I was—like, I felt like I was the woman at the well. Like, this is another relationship, it failed me. And here's God telling me, like, "Ayo, you think you're a lover that's heartbroken? I'm a lover that's heartbroken because you won't give yourself to me." And I was like, man, forget what I'm going through. I'm breaking God's heart by not allowing this kind of relationship to be had with me and him. At that point, I was being super religious and just, you know, being a rule-based Christian. But after that, I was like, "I need to be a Christian that's in love with the Lord Jesus and let him be my husband."

Pablo (35:29)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ayo (35:52)
What? Yeah. Wow.

Ayo (36:22)
And that's a very pure sense. Like the Lord wants to be our husband. He wants to be everything to us. He wants to speak to us about everything. He wants to let us into everything. And we consider him in all these things. And after that, it's just, I don't know, I had to give myself to the Lord and give myself to what the Lord wants, church. And like you said, it just shifts things. It upgrades your Christian life.

Pablo (36:45)
Yeah, maybe without that relationship ending and going south, you wouldn't have had that experience, that realization. It just points to me what you mentioned, Vanessa, that God is so jealous. Like, he's so jealous over us. He'll allow things to—I mean, he'll use the things that touch our hearts the most, you know, which is relationships and things, to just—he'll let things—and he'll let things just because he's just so determined to get to that we would be his. You know, that he would have our whole heart, you know? Anyways, I just praise the Lord that he's that determined. Like, he won't let us go.

Ayo (37:23)
Have you guys had an experience like that where the Lord is touching you that you'd make him the first love in something?

Vanessa (37:32)
Well, the first thing coming up is I've been considering my time and energy. You know, I have a lot of things that take time and energy. And when I have my quiet time with the Lord, I've been sensing him saying like, "I want more of you. I want more of your time. I want more of your energy. Like, you're not spending enough time with me." And so I've been looking at my calendar, because I operate a hundred percent on a calendar. If it's not on my calendar, I don't show up. And I was like, "I need to put my time with—like more times with the Lord in my calendar." Because I have a flexible schedule and just considering what to do with my time, the time that I have. But that's one thing I'm feeling—he's a little jealous about, you know, that one-on-one deep personal time with the Lord. Because in a marriage, a marriage is not healthy if you're not spending quality time. You know, my husband and I are top love language—have you all heard of the five—we both share the quality time. And if we do not have quality time, we tank. And so we know, like, we're just fighting because we're not having quality time. And quality time isn't doing business, because sometimes we'll go on a date and we just do business like, "Okay, who's picking up the kids? You're traveling this week. What do we do?"

Pablo (38:23)
Wow.

Vanessa (38:31)
Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

Vanessa (39:00)
No, it's just like, "Love, how are you today? Like, what's on your heart? What's going on? Like, are you doing okay? What are you struggling with? What's going well?" And I feel like the Lord's wanting more of that from me. Because I do like to do business with the Lord. Right? It's like, "Let's do business, Lord. Like, who are we praying for? My kids, Lord, this, the business, whatever." But it's just, am I making time to spend time with him, to know his countenance, to know what he's saying, what's on his heart? For us.

Pablo (39:03)
Yeah. Right. Yeah, right, right.

Pablo (39:29)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Pablo (39:31)
Some brothers say love is a four letter word: T-I-M-E, right? Without time there's no love. Like how can you love someone without time? You gotta give them time. That's right.

Vanessa (39:43)
I like that.

Juston (39:53)
My mom likes to garden and for a period of time she had one of her family members living with her and she was kind of venting to me, you know, saying like, "You know, like they have to work and this one was kind of getting on me because I don't have to work, you know, and I got, you know, I'm back in the garden," you know, and—but she experiences the Lord in the garden, you know, every day something new. It's like Song of Songs. "Let's go see if it's budded. Is there any buds?" Enjoying like the life is happening. "Let's go look." She was excited, you know. And I just remember the Lord put it on me because I had a period of time where the Lord just gave me nothing for probably two years and I just had nothing to do. But I told her, said, "Mama, you shouldn't—if it's not coming to you in life, just don't—just don't eat it. Don't receive it." Because it's a very important thing for those who are cooperating with the Lord to have time and to make time. The Lord is spending time with you and He's opening His heart to you and you may be praying prayers that are actually getting things done for Him. Like work—I'm so like that. I'm like, "Like, let's start praying. Alright, Lord, let me talk to you about something. I am not happy with this. This is taking too long. You need to hurry up over here." You've had five years of prayer that way. Like, hurry up. Why is that person not, you know, et cetera? Yeah. You know, I'm just so like that. I'm just so goal oriented. But like to take time, it's like Genesis, right? Where God came and met with Abraham. He had some food with him and then he walked with them and chatted with him and then he opened up his heart about Lot, you know. So time—making time. Like it's so important because our being is so loud and it takes—you get 30 minutes of time, you may have five minutes of time that's like really actually open, you know. You've heard all this, but it's—that's just—I forget what the context of the question is. Yeah.

Pablo (41:55)
Yeah. Actually, can we lean on that a little bit? Like our successes or failures of trying to find time in our life? And this, you know, spousal relationship with the Lord is—you know, if you don't have a schedule, it doesn't get done. Like, I feel like the listeners—I think we all struggle, right? It might be some help to just maybe go around the four of us and just say how we—yeah, what's our experience of—I mean, I can go—I mean, yeah, there's a lot of failure in that too. How to give the Lord and where to give the Lord time in our life in our daily lives, you know, kind of something that kind of—it's kind of a handle, you know.

Ayo (42:46)
I work in corporate America and sometimes that means working beyond eight to five. So sometimes I put off work and I got to wake up early in the morning to get to it, or I'm working late nights. And one thing that's been a struggle, but it's been sweet when I've given the Lord the time, is to give him time in the morning and like reserve that time for him.

Pablo (43:12)
Amen.

Ayo (43:16)
I used to feel a bit religious about this. Like, "I need to start the day with the Lord because he is the Lord. He's God. I need to start my day with God." That's right. You know, which is—you know, there's some aspect of that, but I just—I was kind of like touched over the past few weeks that I need to do this in love. Like I—I was—I'm trying to put an alarm clock next to my bed so I don't wake up with my phone. And I try to at least reserve the first 30 minutes of my day to the Lord in a loving way. Like, "This is for you. I'm preserving myself for you." And it—I don't know, when I started doing that, I realized like this is so much like how I am with my wife. Like, I like to eat with my wife. That's kind of our thing. We like to go out to eat together and or order food together and—she likes to make me food, like that's one of the ways that she expresses love to me. No, but I think I'm one of those people that—is it for—I think I like all five. What's that? There's a foundation: acts of service, gifts. Cool. Yeah, I like all of them. There'll be times where I'm like, "I want to eat this thing. I can DoorDash it and I can just eat right now." But I'm like, "No, I'll just wait."

Pablo (44:22)
Is there a sixth, bro? Food?

Ayo (44:41)
I'll wait for my wife to get home so that we can order something together and have that time together or go drive together. And I feel like that's kind of infused the way I deal with the Lord. It's like, "I'm going to give you 7:30 AM to 8:00 AM. And I'm going to give you 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM after work. I'm going to give you 7:00 to 9:00 on Sunday." And that'll be our time.

Pablo (45:08)
Wow.

Ayo (45:11)
And it's me and you, you know. That's kind of—I feel—you know, a lot of days I just turn to the Lord and I'm like, "I don't love you enough," you know, but those moments are sweet.

Pablo (45:23)
Amen.

Vanessa (45:25)
It changes, right? Whatever season of life you're in, you just have to figure out what works best for you. And that season—I was just thinking when I was single, I had a lot more time to enjoy the Lord and love on him. And then when I had babies, the best time was the middle of the night. I had the sweetest prayers with the Lord in the middle of the night. I mean, I would cry sometimes because it was so touching. And then when they started growing, it was like, "Lord, I love you. That's all I've got," you know? And now in my season, I have to get up before everyone else because once our day is going, it—it goes. So I get up before everyone else and I just have 15 minutes. I don't do a long time, but because of my work schedule, I sometimes have times to take a break. So I just go around the block and walk.

Pablo (45:27)
Exactly, that's right.

Pablo (46:03)
Yeah.

Vanessa (46:20)
And that's where I just really enjoy the Lord. And that's my season right now. Morning and walks with the Lord.

Pablo (46:24)
Amen. That's great.

Juston (46:34)
Later.

Ayo (46:35)
You know, when I first met you, we went on a walk.

Juston (46:38)
I remember that.

Pablo (46:39)
Whoa, what happened on the walk?

Juston (46:41)
I went on a walk with Ayo. It was like I had just started serving. And I just went on a walk with Ayo and I didn't know what to do. And I remember—I remember I was like—we were talking and I just remember like pulling—pulling something out and sharing it with him. And he was like, "Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, the Lord is like that." And then he would share something else. And I'd be like, "Wow, you know what? That's a really good point too. Here, let me show you this too." We went for 45 minutes. It was a 45-minute walk.

Pablo (46:51)
Yeah.

Juston (47:11)
And I was like, "My goodness, this brother is constituted." I pulled everything I had out and he was right there and tired like, "Yeah, totally. That's exactly right. But hey, let me show you this." And I was—I was blown away. I was legitimately blown away. And I'm like, "I don't know what we're going to get into next, because I think we just went through the whole entire Bible." But yeah, making time. You got to make time.

Pablo (47:15)
Wow, amen. Amen.

Juston (47:38)
We serve—we're serving our teams real busy. We're real busy all the time. And you don't—you love it. But sometimes you actually—you have to learn to say no. You have to learn to listen to if the Lord is doing that or not. Cause I used to always think the Lord is just—I was like—I was a yes man, you know? "Yeah, yeah. We'll get it done. We'll be fine." And then you're—you're stretched thin and they—you could say, well, what we say is like you—

Pablo (48:00)
Yeah.

Juston (48:08)
You gotta learn to serve by grace. You gotta listen to grace. Do you have grace for that or not? And maybe you don't. And sometimes the Lord's saying, "I'd rather you actually like be a person who's full of life than a person who's not, still doing all these good things." Like, "I don't care. I'm like done with all your sacrifices. I'm done with all that stuff. I just want someone to love me, you know? Take some time to like be together." But I was gonna—when you were talking, I was thinking—

Pablo (48:24)
Right, right.

Juston (48:37)
Isn't it amazing? Like, have you ever turned to make time for him and he didn't show up? Man, he is there. I mean, there's times where he's quiet and you have to seek him in different ways. I want to balance that. But he is so ready every time you turn.

Pablo (48:53)
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Amen.

Vanessa (48:56)
You sharing reminded me of then because I spent some years doing campus ministry and I remember that one morning we showed up to coordinate and figure things out and our boss started talking about, "How's your time with the Lord?" I don't know what triggered it, but he got fired up and he's like, "You're useless to the Lord and to the church if you do not have time with the Lord." And he made us all cancel whatever we had that morning and he said, "Go spend time with the Lord." And I have never forgotten that because we're—we're doers. We want to go do things for the Lord, but we forget he's God. He can do whatever he wants. He just needs to speak it into being. But what he wants is our heart. He wants that loving relationship of husband and wife. I'm just going to mark it—you're useless.

Pablo (49:44)
Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Absolutely.

Juston (49:51)
Mm.

Pablo (49:55)
Yes. To the Lord. That's right. Yes.

Vanessa (49:58)
And to others. We have to serve from a place of overflow, of love, of joy. And that comes from being with him. The spirit, right? The fruits of the spirit is in abundance when we're just receiving.

Pablo (50:02)
Yes. Yes. Yes. All that. Yeah.

Ayo (50:16)
There's a verse that we considered a lot when we were getting ready for this episode is—where is it? The love of God can just transist—like this love is like the fuel for our Christian life. It's a—that's what you were sharing was just reminding me of. This love, like this spousal relationship that we have with—

Pablo (50:29)
Yeah. Bye.

Vanessa (50:36)
So good.

Pablo (50:36)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ayo (50:45)
With the Lord is the center of the universe. It's—I heard that like last week, like someone was sharing and they were like, "You know, John 1:1, you get 'in the beginning,' but this is from eternity. And then in Genesis 1:1, you get 'in the beginning.' And that's right when creation started." And, you know, if you go to Revelation 4:11, you see that all things were created for God's will. So what was happening between that gap? What was the divine counsel in the Godhead for what—

Pablo (50:48)
Yeah.

Ayo (51:14)
The universe will be. And if you go back to Isaiah 54:5, you see that God's intention with the universe was that it'd be a wedding parlor, a wedding venue. And that us being giving ourselves to love—love God in this special—is the center of the universe. The universe is the backstage for that event. You know what I'm saying? And—

Pablo (51:38)
For.

Ayo (51:45)
Man, I don't know, like, that's wonderful. That's like, I don't know, that really helped me. It centered me to under—in my college years, to understand that the reason why I was made, why I was created, why the universe was created, is to love God in this very deep way.

Pablo (51:48)
Amen. Yes. So good. That's right.

Vanessa (52:05)
You know, when I was getting into the topic of this podcast, I had lunch with a mom friend of mine. Our daughters do a sport together and I've been so burdened for her to receive the Lord. And I got to preach the gospel to her about the divine romance only because we were in it. And people's basic need is to be loved. It just is. They just want to be loved and belong. It's the basic need of man. And so when I was preaching the gospel to her, I just said, "God, it's a love story." And that resonated with her because she's human. Anyway, she prayed and received the Lord yesterday. I wouldn't have done it had I not been in this topic of the divine romance. That's a much higher gospel than "sinner—"

Pablo (53:02)
Yeah.

Vanessa (53:03)
"You're going to hell," which is true. That's in the word. But that God just wants to woo you and be everything to you. But it doesn't even stop there, right? He wants to bring the country girl, match who he is. So then we're in this journey and I was telling her the Christian life is not about giving up things. It's about gaining so much to match him, express him.

Pablo (53:17)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. That's right.

Vanessa (53:31)
And I got to share that with her and she just wept because she's divorced, she's single, raising her daughter, and that's what people need. My God wants a romance.

Pablo (53:43)
Yes. Amen. Wow. And eventually that's what the Lord wants from us is that this love would fill our mouth. You know, that we would speak this love, you know. I was telling Ayo right before the episode started that this morning I was driving here and a song came to mind which is based on this verse. I'll just read it as Psalm 45:1: "My heart overflows with a good matter. I speak what I have composed concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are fairer than the sons of man. Grace is poured upon your lips." Anyways, when we love the Lord, we just want to speak about Him, right? So, it's just so awesome that as you were preparing for this episode, you spoke something to someone. I think that's just so—

Vanessa (54:29)
I overflowed. I just overflowed.

Pablo (54:32)
Yes, anyways, praise the Lord that that's what the Lord—anyways, I feel like most of the episode we talked about the personal side or personal time with the Lord, you know, but eventually this divine romance is this—is this verse in Song of Songs: "Draw me and we will run." So I think—anyways, the goal is corporate, right? Yeah, we're lovers in a personal, private way, but the Lord wants us to bring others into this love like you brought that—

Vanessa (54:57)
What is it for?

Pablo (54:58)
Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Amen.

Ayo (55:05)
And you know, it's all over—it's just all over the Bible. Like, Paul, when he was writing, was like, "I'm betrothing you to Christ." And like, even in the parables, like Jesus was likening the church to brides. You know what I mean? Like we are all together the bride of Christ. And that means we're to love him in this spousal way, in this deep way. And yeah, I'm just—I'm just overflowing. I'm just—I'm just.

Pablo (55:13)
Yeah. Hmm. Yeah.

Juston (55:35)
I'll give you a good one, too. You know the Song of Songs, there's Solomon, right? And then there's the Shulamite or the lover, the country girl—the so many things as she goes through the journey, right? That's, you know, the same word is used for both of their names. It's the Hebrew word for—like, you could say it's like there's the beloved and then there's the lover. But we just call her the lover because it makes sense. Like, she's the lover. But actually the word is just love. It's just love in Hebrew. Yeah. It's just, and it's the masculine form of it and it's the feminine form of it.

Pablo (56:10)
Wow. Yeah. Wow.

Juston (56:20)
It's just a story of what God is doing in love. Story of love and she's—know, I don't know if anybody knows this story—Song of Songs is like the personal Christian journey, right? The personal Christian life. As you start, it's like a horse, you know, really strong, really opinionated with tons of personality. And one thing about a horse, I like this, if you spook it—I saw a show on these Montana guys, they spooked a horse.

Pablo (56:24)
Amen.

Juston (56:50)
The horse is like, "I'm out of here, man." You know where they found it? 10 miles away. Still running. And then the Lord starts moving in and he starts being more, more one with him because the Seeker's name eventually becomes Shulamite, which is just the feminine version of Solomon. She becomes the same as Christ. Same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function. We're qualified to work with him.

Pablo (57:24)
Wow. Yes.

Juston (57:30)
This body as we become the same because—like, what are we building with if we're just in ourselves? We're just building with what? Wisdom? Our natural ability? Etc. But like we want to build—we want to be ministers of the spirit.

Pablo (57:37)
Yeah. Right. Yes.

Juston (57:50)
Yeah.

Vanessa (57:51)
And you know in a marriage, like you have that honeymoon love, right? That gooey, lovey, everything's wonderful. And then you realize you have two different opinions, two ways of doing things, how do you handle finances? And in my experience, there—there's the—in a relationship as you go deeper with the person, there's those hard conversations.

Pablo (57:56)
Yeah.

Vanessa (58:17)
And I feel like that's the same in our Christian life. Like, it's enjoyable, know, new believers are so fresh and they love the Lord, but then the Lord starts touching things. Right? "I'm jealous over you. You're doing too much of this," or, "You're holding back from me. You're not being vulnerable with me." And like my husband and I, know, he grew up not being vulnerable. And as a female, I'm very vulnerable. And we had to really work through all those things to have hard, vulnerable conversations. And that's what the Lord wants as well. And that loving—that's how he's transforming us is having hard conversations, letting him touch us in our deepest parts, even him just, you know, slapping us on the wrist. You know, like, "I wasn't doing that and you did it anyway."

Pablo (59:13)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vanessa (59:14)
Like, there's that too with divine romance. There's hard conversations. The Lord—we're confessing. "There I go, Lord." For me, it's like, "There I go, Lord, I did it again. I did this without asking you." And that's why I'm burned out and resentful because I didn't ask him and he wasn't doing it. And that was good. And it's the same in the human marriage, right? Anyway.

Pablo (59:20)
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Ayo (59:42)
I love how like our whole Christian life is on that line of the—of the divine romance. Like our salvation—like our—our redemption was by love. It was through love. Even like you said, our transformation is in this loving divine romance, like those hard conversations. That's our—that's—that's—that's when we get changed. That's when we—when he adds himself to us. Like even when we serve, like you guys mentioned, it's through love and it's by love. It's in love. And that's love that we have between us and the Lord. And it's just—

Vanessa (1:00:20)
It's like love is the sphere. All the Christian experiences, it's love.

Pablo (1:00:26)
That's—that's right. Yeah. Wow. Amen. Yeah. That's right. Love is the sphere. Love is the goal. I mean, I feel like all of us here enjoy this. The Bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage, right? The end of the Bible is a marriage, God and his people. It's just amazing that that's our story. You're right. This is the characteristic of our whole Christian life is driven by love, you know? So I don't know how we should end this, but is there—I feel like I enjoy my loving relationship with the Lord through singing a lot. I like to sing. I don't know if you guys sing. I don't know if you guys want to share a song you like to sing, but I don't know, you know, you got to keep the love fresh, you know? Like there's a—it's hard to keep the love fresh in—like just reading the Bible sometimes. Singing a really sweet, you know, short song—it keeps—keeps our love fresh, you know? Yeah.

Vanessa (1:01:23)
Yeah, on the drive here, I was listening to some hymns, Christians, and it just—like the love for the Lord percolates. It's like, "I really love you, Lord." You know, yes, songs are a great way to bring us back to our love for the Lord. You know what also helps me love the Lord more are the other believers. I had a bad week. It was low.

Pablo (1:01:41)
Amen.

Vanessa (1:01:52)
And the sister—and I just—another believer in the Lord and I—we got on the phone and you know, she gave me some tough love. She's like, "You're fine. You need to turn to the Lord." And she reminded me of all the ways the Lord has come through for me and my family. Like she was speaking truth to me. And then we just started praying and I was like, "Lord, that was your love for me was through that believer." So I feel like being believers. I just—it was—I hung up and I was like, "I love you, Lord, more." Like I just do.

Pablo (1:02:22)
Yeah. Amen. Right.

Juston (1:02:30)
That's a whole awesome topic: Christ in everybody else.

Pablo (1:02:34)
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Juston (1:02:40)
What God's doing and then we're all loving each other. It's like this is the commandment. "I can give you commandment one." I'm gonna give you one commandment, but you can't actually—we actually can't do it apart from him. It's like we just—we're short. You know, opinions—his peculiarities—that'll make others get into their opinions and—

Pablo (1:02:46)
Yeah.

Vanessa (1:02:53)
No way. So many preferences.

Pablo (1:03:00)
No. Right.

Juston (1:03:07)
But it's like, this is what God's doing. He's busy. He's working himself into man. And there's—now you have the masterpiece. This humanity, absolutely one with God, expressing God. And we're seeing and we're learning like God is a lot more than we thought. It's not our simple concept. Love even isn't our simple concept of love. Like—like what you were saying—like I'm not going to go long.

Pablo (1:03:14)
Yeah.

Juston (1:03:37)
Just blew me away because I've been thinking that—I'm like—that would—I wouldn't be frustrated if there wasn't even—if there wasn't love. Like he wouldn't be jealous if there wasn't love. Like the love is the motivator. It's like in God's heart and now he's filling all his people with his eternal, inexhaustible, unconditional—so there could be a humanity that actually expresses such a glorious, wonderful expression of God on the earth.

Pablo (1:03:59)
Amen.

Juston (1:04:06)
Amen.

Vanessa (1:04:10)
What you're sharing reminds me of that verse and maybe y'all know the reference. It's—know we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Pablo (1:04:18)
Yeah. First John 3:14. Yeah.

Vanessa (1:04:23)
So the result of us enjoying the love of God as our husband is we love.

Pablo (1:04:29)
Amen. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

Ayo (1:04:33)
There's this one hymn I love to sing and it's probably a top three hymn for me. It's a very simple, simple hymn. "Simply Loving Every Day." And the lyrics really hit for me. It's "Simply loving every day, loving through a stormy way."

Pablo (1:04:45)
Yeah. Yeah, even as...

Ayo (1:04:53)
As the moments fly, as the days go by, whatever befall, loving Jesus, that is all. Loving him while life shall last, loving him till earth is passed, till his gracious advent call, loving Jesus, that is all. That line, "Loving Jesus, that is all," like it centers me. Like I can get locked up in activity and work and life, but even in my Christian life I can—all these substitutes like knowledge and studying and service, they can get bubble up, but loving Jesus, that is all. And I love singing that—that line back to the Lord, that loving Jesus, that is all.

Pablo (1:05:29)
Amen. It's great to—

Vanessa (1:05:39)
It's a good question to ask yourself, myself every day. How's my love for the Lord? An older person shared that with me when I was younger. Your love—and if it feels small, that means we're not logging enough time. Right, or we find our hearts sticky towards so many other things. It's like, how's your love? I tell that to my teenage daughter: "how's your love?" instead of like, "how's your Bible reading?"

Pablo (1:05:52)
Yeah.

Pablo (1:05:52)
Yeah.

Ayo (1:06:08)
Yeah.

Pablo (1:06:09)
Yeah, it's good.

Vanessa (1:06:10)
It's like, how's your love for the Lord? Because when you love, you just give yourself to the Lord more, give yourself more.

Pablo (1:06:15)
Yes, that's right. Yes. There's no better way. No other way is so safe to love the Lord. Right, that quote is good, right, Juston?

Juston (1:06:25)
No other way. No other way so safe and so full.

Vanessa (1:06:30)
What's the entire quote?

Pablo (1:06:31)
Give yourself to love the Lord, right, no other way so prevailing. It's also a song, right? Sing it now. Hey, let's do a Juston solo.

Juston (1:06:39)
Hey babe, I really wanna sing, you know?

Ayo (1:06:47)
We can put audio auto-tune on it, right?

Juston (1:06:49)
Yeah, yeah, we can't help. We're just playing over the top and we'll just be moving.

Vanessa (1:06:53)
Terrible. But I love singing.

Pablo (1:06:54)
Yeah. Great. Wonderful. Well, we love the Lord Jesus. I feel like I love the Lord more after this conversation. He is—that's right. He's worth wasting our moment, you know, our time. Like, I love that we can just waste our lives on him and it is precious to him. To the world it is a waste, but to the Lord it is precious. And we're just crazy lovers.

Vanessa (1:07:04)
He's worth giving your life.

Juston (1:07:23)
That was very enjoyable.

Pablo (1:07:24)
I'm glad, Juston.

Vanessa (1:07:26)
The live wire.

Juston (1:07:28)
My heart is warmed up to love the Lord.

Pablo (1:07:30)
Amen. Amen. I think I might have some rapid questions, quick questions. Like, yeah, yeah, like you can't think too long, you just have to answer whatever comes first. Kind of hot. Yeah.

Ayo (1:07:36)
We're not done with you guys yet.

Juston (1:07:37)
Whoa.

Vanessa (1:07:39)
Like—

Ayo (1:07:46)
This first one should be easy. I hope it's easy. What is your favorite book of the Bible and why? You're the second person that said that today.

Vanessa (1:07:54)
Romans. I love Romans.

Juston (1:07:59)
Whatever I'm in.

Pablo (1:08:02)
Wow. Good answer. Good answer. Good. Yeah. Right. Good.

Juston (1:08:05)
The ends of the script.

Ayo (1:08:11)
Yes. Okay, so these people are real. When this question will call them characters, who's your favorite character in the Bible and why? Can't say Jesus.

Pablo (1:08:22)
You—

Vanessa (1:08:24)
Well, my first is Paul, but I also love some Old Testament women. I love to read about them.

Pablo (1:08:33)
Yeah, that's—yeah.

Juston (1:08:40)
First name that popped up was actually Hannah. She was the one who had the prayer, that prayer ministry in her situation that she had that brought in Solomon, who—

Pablo (1:08:43)
No.

Ayo (1:08:56)
Turned. Right. Yeah.

Juston (1:08:57)
Samuel. Samuel, thank you. Yeah.

Pablo (1:09:00)
I thought, in my head I heard Samuel.

Ayo (1:09:02)
Exactly.

Juston (1:09:03)
I brought in Solomon the second—no, I was reading Fourth John and that's where I got that from.

Pablo (1:09:04)
I didn't register that.

Ayo (1:10:14)
Favorite verse and why.

Vanessa (1:09:18)
Romans 8:28 and 29. Hey! You gotta have that 29.

Pablo (1:09:21)
Yeah, why?

Vanessa (1:09:25)
Because all things are working together for good. But 29 tells you what the good is: to be conformed to the image of his son. So it just reminds me we're in this process of being transformed, conformed. That's what's good.

Pablo (1:09:42)
Amen.

Juston (1:09:44)
That's a good question. I don't have a favorite verse right now. I was thinking, is that 2 Corinthians 4:16? Therefore we do not lose heart. Our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Right? Therefore we don't lose heart. We don't lose heart. We're process people.

Vanessa (1:09:53)
After me.

Pablo (1:09:55)
Yeah.

Vanessa (1:10:01)
What a hope.

Pablo (1:10:05)
That's right.

Vanessa (1:10:09)
That's good.

Pablo (1:10:10)
Good. You got one more? Yeah. Okay.

Ayo (1:10:13)
This one might require some thought, but what is one piece of advice you'd give to your younger self?

Juston (1:10:19)
Hmm.

Vanessa (1:10:20)
Stop caring what other people think. And go to him.

Pablo (1:10:23)
Amen.

Juston (1:10:28)
Mm-hmm. Schedule time in the word.

Pablo (1:10:31)
Amen. Awesome. Wonderful. Again, thank you so much for this conversation. This was really—enjoyed talking about this with you all. Yeah.

Vanessa (1:10:41)
Love it.

Juston (1:10:44)
Thank you all for what you're doing.

Vanessa (1:10:46)
Yeah.

Ayo (1:10:46)
No problem.

Pablo (1:10:48)
Thank you for joining us today. Don't forget to hit that like button, subscribe, and leave us a comment below. We love chatting with you guys.

Ayo (1:10:56)
We've got so much more content and powerful testimonies coming your way. So follow us on our socials and until next time, stay safe. Keep speaking about the words of this life.

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