No matter how hard you try, the work is never done. So. When is one supposed to rest? Join Sharon and Nicole in this encouraging episode as they share tips on how to rest well – even in the middle of the mess. God has made us with a desire to work and be productive and also a need for rest. Let’s honor Him in both areas, and stop thinking of rest as optional.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Oftentimes, God loves to work with small people, small starts, and tiny encounters. Join Sharon and Nicole as they discuss Philip’s one encounter with one man that led, eventually, to Christianity flourishing in Ethiopia. We don’t have to have a whole lot to do a whole lot for the living God who works within us. He enjoys working with small. And He can turn small into HUGE anytime He chooses! Let’s finish our series on the early church with a look at how God did exactly that and be challenged to go and do the same, today.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Do you find it hard to share your faith with people? It’s not easy, is it, even if your desire is to share good news with everyone. Our early Christians are now being persecuted, and that persecution is pushing them out of their comfort zones and into new places and situations. One of the first places they go is to Samaria – an area that would never have been their first choice before they met Jesus. And yet, they were met with great success! Let’s go to those who are hungry for truth – even if they seem unlike us. Join Sharon and Nicole as they unpack an early missionary trip into Samaria.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

When we rebel against what we know to be right, we are walking into Deep Trouble. Ever been there and done that? Like a child who learns the hard way that “Don’t touch the stove!” is a kind warning to keep one from being burned, adults who refuse to listen to God’s good commands also get burned. Join Sharon and Nicole as they talk about the high cost of rebellion and the great joy that comes from just doing the right thing.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Nicole and Sharon talk about remembering, today. Why is it important to think back on wonderful things God has done in the past? How does that keep us going in times when we don’t seem to see Him moving? We’re talking about Stephen, one of the first martyrs of the church, today. Let’s study what Stephen had to say about remembering and why we mustn’t forget.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole. We pray this is a time of refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. This is episode 136, Don’t Forget to Remember. Today we’re going to look at one of the Bible’s most famous sermons preached by a man about to be stoned to death. Yes, Stephen, one of the earliest followers of Christ, has been accused and is now about to give his defense in Acts chapter seven. It’s an interesting defense, Sharon. He basically recites the history of the Jewish nation, at least in the first part of the speech that we’re gonna look at today. Why do you think he spends so much time repeating old history?

Sharon:

That’s such a good question, Nicole. It’s something that I pondered a little bit because everyone there knew the history that Stephen shared and that we will read later in today’s discussion. So why share it again? I can think of several reasons. First of all, Stephen wanted them to know that he was a devout Jew. He knew his history. He remembered all that God had done in the past. Second, I think Stephen wanted to set the groundwork for the message of Jesus by grounding it in what had happened in the past, sort of finding common ground with his accusers and showing them his orthodoxy. See, I am orthodox. I do believe all these things to be true. I do support Moses, even though you told me I didn’t, you know? He believed the scriptures as they did. And third, simply that remembering the past is super important. We need to do that too. So we’re actually gonna do that. Before we look into Stephen’s remembrances, we’re gonna share a few of our own. This has been fun preparing for. (NIcole: It has) So let’s go back and forth sharing pivotal moments in our own faith journeys. I’d like you to start, what’s one of your early memories of something that drew you closer to God? Let’s start with our childhood years and kind of walk ourselves in faith up to today. We’ve gotta remember these pivotal moments and share them with others. So it’s story time. (Yay!) Go ahead Nicole.

Nicole:

This is so fun. So one of my very first early childhood memories was right after I asked Jesus into my heart and was baptized that next Easter. We were in my favorite childhood church ’cause we had moved quite a bit with military, but this church was just my favorite. They had lots of kids programs. They had dramas and play productions. I just loved being there. And that Easter, they did a really special drama. They dramatized, Jesus’ death an...

Sharon and Nicole study the growing pains of the early church. Think about it. What would your church do, if 5,000 people joined it in a day? Even good growth can be painful. Let’s learn from the wisdom given our church fathers via the Holy Spirit on how to grow a church well. And while we’re at it, let’s talk about what qualifies someone to serve the Lord. Hint. It’s not necessarily their resume.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole. We pray this is a time of refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

NIcole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. This is episode 135, Growing Pains. Have you ever experienced growing pains? I have. When I was a little girl, I would wake up crying because my legs hurt so bad and my dad would come in and rub them for me so I could fall back asleep. Now, as an adult, I’ve had different growing pains: growing into motherhood, and now helping my children grow into teen years as little women. It can be painful most days, trying to think ahead of all these girls and what they may need, and figuring out ways to guide and teach them to be kind and productive members of society. Oy. It’s hard to learn to think less of me and what I want to do with my day, and remember to look to God for help instead of trying to do it all on my own. Sharon, how about you? Are there growing pains at your age and stage of life?

Sharon:

There sure are, and it’s so kind of fun to have you take it from childhood, ’cause I’m gonna bring it to really old age.

NIcole:
We’ll cover all of it.

Sharon:

Right. Which is not where I am at yet, but oh where I am headed. I am so blessed with a mother who wants to prepare me for very old age.

NIcole:
Well, that’s lovely of her.

Sharon:

She’s still helping me, Nicole. (Nicole: Oh) she’s teaching me things. She doesn’t like me to stay a long time to like talk for four hours or so anymore and she gently says, in her little British way, when you get older, dear, your brains cannot handle the concentration necessary for a conversation. And then she reminds me that Billy Graham could only handle an hour of talking towards the end of his life. And so I stay two hours and we have wonderful talk and I can tell by the end, she’s almost 90, that her brains wanna break. And it is not me. It is not like, oh, I just wish this daughter of mine would leave, she’s boring, you know? She just can’t do it. And the other day she said to me, you know, when I was taking care of your grandfather, he told me that I needed to make the bed less tightly because it was hurting his feet. (Oh) And she said, to this day, I’m ashamed of myself. I thought, how on the earth could tight sheets hurt feet? What a ridiculous thing to say. And I don’t know any other way to make a bed. She said, guess what? The sheets hurt my feet. (Aw, that’s so cute) I know. I just keep thinking to myself, there’s even grow...

It’s bad enough to face opposition from ordinary people, but what happens when your own governing authorities disagree with you? The stakes can be quite high for disobedience in those cases. That’s where Nicole and Sharon find the apostles in the early church, today. Join them for a discussion about how to handle opposition when you are doing what is right and still getting in trouble for it!

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole. We pray this is a time of refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. This is episode 134, Facing Opposition. We are moving in our study of the Book of Acts from the earliest days when the Holy Spirit first indwelled believers to the beginning of persecution. Sharon, it seems like there has always been opposition and persecution for Christians.

Sharon:

Yes, there has. And you know what? It’s the strangest thing ’cause what did Jesus teach? He taught us to love. What is so scary about that? He calls us to come to him, that we might have life abundant. He forgives sins and cleanses people. He promises eternal life. We are even told to be nice to our enemies as Christians. So it puzzles me, Nicole, until I remember that the enemy, Satan, is as real as God is. The only explanation that makes sense to me considering Jesus’ teachings are so kind and so non-threatening, is that people throughout this century have been angry at peaceful Christians. So angry they wanna hurt them, is that the devil is at work in their hearts. There’s a battle raging.

Nicole:
Oh, there is.

Sharon:
And Satan does not want people to get clothed with immortality and live in heaven in a happy place.

Nicole:

No, he doesn’t. Well, he hates Jesus. He’s trying to be him. And he wants to get as many of us to follow him as possible. (Sharon: Yeah) I get get the Voice of the Martyr emails daily, and it’s always so staggering to me to see the persecution around the world. (Yes) And to see how powerful it’s happening and how big it’s happening, and how many people are affected by it ’cause we don’t, we don’t always see that here (We don’t) In the states.

Sharon:

I can remember communicating with a missionary in a restricted country and I could not use words like pray or God (Nicole: Wow) or Jesus or Bible. I could say, I talked to my dad about you. (Oh) And that was my way of saying, I’ve been praying for you. (Right) But she actually got kicked out because somebody was careless. (Oh, that’s so scary) And her phone was being tapped, and it’s a wonder she didn’t get imprisoned. (Yeah) You know? So, boy, oh boy, there’s persecution today, but here at the very beginning of the early church, there was persecution then. (Yeah) So, and I think it is absolutely related to the enemy. So we’re gonna look at what Paul has to say about the enemy and his tactics in a very familiar passage. E...

We pay a price when we choose to deceive others. And we never fool God. Join Sharon and Nicole for a look at the high price of deception, today, as they look at a couple in the early church and how their choice to deceive cost them their lives. Let’s speak truth. It’s safer. And also wiser and leaves us much more at peace with God and others – including our own selves.

If you enjoy what you hear, consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app. Comments are welcomed and answered. And, if you wish to become a partner with us in this ministry, you can donate here.

Speaker 1:

It is time for a pause in your day. Welcome to a podcast where we press the pause button on our busy lives for a few moments, and we focus on God’s word with Sharon and Nicole. We pray this is a time of refreshing for you. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole:

Welcome to Sweet Selah Moments. This is episode 133, Deadly Deception. Last week we celebrated the incredible unity amongst the believers of the early church. Today sadly we are reminded that human beings are fallible and sinful, and therefore churches are far from perfect. Also, we’ll learn that there are consequences when we sin.

Sharon:

Oh, that word consequences. It brings back such memories of the time when our daughter lived with us, with her four kids at the time, while her husband was in Afghanistan, she had a little girl who was three years old at the time, little Mercedes, and I can’t remember the context, but there was a rule she was supposed to obey, and I was in charge of her. It might’ve been getting to bed, and you know Mary said, now Nina’s in charge of you. You know, that kind of thing. So anyways, in the cutest little voice ever, she said, if we don’t obey you, there will be consequences. (Nicole: Oh!) And I’m like, oh, darling, consequences. I guess you don’t want those consequences. And she had these big eyes, you know, like there will be consequences. (Right. Not consequences.) I know, not that. It was probably with Mercedes, all you needed to do is speak sharply at her. I mean, you know how some kids are just softhearted. (Yeah) So it wouldn’t have been severe, but to Mercedes it would’ve been severe, just a little talking to a sweet girl. So how about you? Do you have consequences in your house?

Nicole:

We do, in fact. We have many. It’s funny, they change over the years and they change from kid to kid, because children are so very different.

Sharon:
They’re so different. You think you’ve got it figured out.

Nicole: Yes.

Sharon:
And then another one comes along, you’re like, wait a second. That didn’t work for you. Yeah.

Nicole:

Yes. Especially with four girls, I kind of figured, oh, we’ve raised one little girl so far, we’ll do the–, Oh, no, you’re completely different. Okay, well maybe we’ll use some of the–., Nope. The third one’s different too. And the fourth one, I just threw my hands up.You each have your own thing, but it’s been fun. So they have changed over the years, but recently we’ve been doing this button system. They can earn buttons for doing chores. And they can cash those buttons in for cash or for TV time, screen time. For like an ice cream date with dad or shopping, you know, lit...