Purpose 106: Women's Discipleship With Melissa Kruger | Word First

[Music] hey it's John and Casey here from are you real and we've been sleeping on my pillow now for over a month and I'm telling you our sleep has improved drastically so what are you waiting for when are you gonna jump on board and start experiencing the kind of restorative sleep you need in your life are you waiting for a better offer while your wait is over because if you go to my pillow calm right now you can take advantage of the my pillow 4-pack offer right John that's right you get two premium my pillows and two to go anywhere pillows and half off just go to my pillow comm use my code real and get 50% off go to my pillow comm click on the 4-pack special and enter promo code real3d you got to use promo code real welcome to are you real finding the authentic you the podcast that focuses on christians that are active in everyday life join in as we speak to everyone from successful business owners to educators to athletes about their faith and how it helps them reach out and revolutionize those around them to do the same and now get ready to roar with your host the voice of manifestation john fuller [Music] Hale ordination John fuller here fired up for another beautiful day to do an interview and I'm excited for you guys to get inspired to go kick butt today so that being said are you ready Melissa yes I am it's good to be here all right okay so R ordination check this out so Melissa Krueger currently serves on staff is a women ministries coordinator at uptown Church in Charlotte North Carolina as an editor for the gospel coalition she enjoys teaching women in her church and the conference's around the country she is the author of walking with God in this season of motherhood and the envy of Eve she regularly writes articles for the Gospel Coalition and Table Talk magazine and encourage a blog of the Presbyterian Church in America she most churches her roles including being a wife to Mike and also a mother to her three children so Melissa barely scratched the surface it sounds like you just said mom with three kids so I know you got a lot going on we got that's right we got three kids so anyways besides that Melissa why don't you dive into a little bit more about you and who you are yeah I'm glad to know I'm married to Mike he works as the president of RTS here in Charlotte Reformed Theological Seminary he is a New Testament professor there as well and we do we have three kids I have a 17 year old a 14 year old an eleven year old and I love the teenage years actually I think it's a lot of fun and I do I work for my church and I work as an editor for tgc and I love my jobs I'm really I really feel blessed to get to work in women's discipleship it's a great thing to get to spend my time on and that's the thing I'm probably most excited about is healthy and women grow and their love for us were and through that watching the church flourish because I do I think as we are learning and growing in Christ I think the church changes and truthfully I think the whole world changes so that's what I love getting spend my life on yeah you said there's a lot of truth every when you talk about the church changes obviously because God is we could never understand or comprehend God than just his vastness so the more we learn about him the more we are growing therefore the church grows and that's so true I think if you got a dead church you might just have a bunch of dead people so not reading their work I know nobody wants to hear that but that's my job we got just got to speak the truth so if it's dead there's a reason cuz God is living and he's got a lot to say so that's right okay so we're gonna dive a little bit into well I will ask you this so along your journey I know you recently came out with a book and all things unshakable joy and we'll be talking about that throughout but during this last do you have like a life verse or do you have maybe a scripture just for this season that's been just sitting real deep in your spirit the passage that I continually go back to that I want my life to reflect is Isaiah 55 what I love about the passage is it starts with an invitation come all you who are thirsty you have no money come by and eat why spend your money on what is bread in your life and what does not satisfy and the Lord says listen to me and your soul will delight in the richest affair and so I love that it starts with this invitation to life come come to me and you will live and then how it ends it ends with this you will go out and joy and you will be read forth in the peace and the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you I mean this is that passage of the word going out and not returning void and I love this whole passage in Isaiah 55 because it talks about this invitation that leads to this going out from the Lord's we come to the Lord and we go out from him and we go out from him with all the wealth that he gives us and we get to share it with others so I think that's exactly what I want my life to be about this continual coming to Jesus and going out with his word to others sort of laughing with the moment you said Isaiah 55 for the last year and I have like life verses for me personally but Isaiah 55 5 has been for the last year year and a half like IC 555 where I'll be driving down the road and I'll see 5 5 like it has been I feel like everywhere I go I see God giving me Isaiah 55 5 almost daily and I've been chewing on that for a while so yes I'm with you I love that passage yeah it's beautiful it just says it so it get it paints an image rather than just gives you the truth it paints his lovely image of this feast and that's what our life of the Lord is it's a feast the richest pear and I like that I like I like what you said at the beginning it's an invitation because it is God is so inviting even you look at that at the banquet table in the New Testament and when he sends the servants out in the parable but it is God is constantly inviting us in we're always invited it's just a matter of going into feast with him and to hear his words and the thing he has to say hmm yeah yeah and he invites us that would I love is through a life of purpose I mean I think what we see in our culture in world today is a lot of people don't feel like their lives matter and so he invites us and then sends us and so yeah we're invited to enjoy and to share with others and it's it's just I think sometimes we we can get so focused on the hardships of the Christian life and that's all very true there's a lot of hard things but I also think it's wonderful to remember that in this broken world it's the best life we can hope for is feasting with Christ and sharing him with others amen all right so I gotta jump into this which was great so roar nation so you know when Melissa and I did a pre-interview talk you mentioned that God's humor and we could I want to dive into that because he is hilarious but and the reason i bring that is i want to talk about a little bit about your journey because you made the comment like i I'm a I'm a math person I had no intention writing and now you have what three books yes yes so go from math go from math to writing three books so I would love to hear your journey and because we're all about finding purpose on our podcast and encouraging people to find what God has for them and pursue it so I want to hear about your journey and how you got into that that's a great question I like what you're saying about the purpose and figuring out what you're supposed to do kind of with your life and so I the main thing I wanted to be when I went to college was a teacher I loved school I really liked a lot of subjects I was one of those kids who liked most classes but I had always really enjoyed mathematics and so I in college decided I major in that because I figured they always needed math teachers and truthfully I loved teaching math I loved working with high school students and helping them to see that just because something was a difficult subject it didn't mean they could learn it and so I really enjoyed equations and all the things that sometimes make people glaze over and fall asleep very quickly but I really enjoyed them and truthfully I love just logic and and following an argument about and so I think that background has helped me in writing because one thing I like to do a lot of my Bible studies that are write or curriculum and they're in a sense I'm getting to teach through the writing process and hopefully I'm doing it in a way that follows a course that's logical rather than just going back and forth all these different ways I hope we're getting somewhere in the learning process so really writing though is more of a love of my education background is what I'd say and so how can we take difficult truths difficult passes in Scripture and make them accessible so that women feel like hey I can do this myself because that's what a lot of what I have to do with math is really convinced kids they can learn it and I think the Bible can be intimidating to a lot of people and so there's some some part of us that as we write and as we write curriculum for people to study the Bible it's really helpful if we can convince them that you know what you can do this and so that's why I love getting women into the word and doing it to writing but I'm one thing I'll say on the whole purpose one book I've loved I think it was called mindset or was on mindset and it talked about having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset one thing I always like to say to students and to young people is what you made you're in is not what you have to do with your life because it's a lot when you when you think at 18 are you really supposed to know what you want to do with the rest of your life but I think if we have a growth mindset we just realized hey I can learn new things at age 40 I don't have to you have learned everything in my life by age 22 so I just encouraged people who are searching for what they want to do that you can start that journey at 40 it doesn't have to be solved by 18 in fact that would be pretty sad that's all you ever learn oh yeah I have tons of books and stuff I'm always diving into well ok so Melissa I'm really curious so I want to jump back like years just because a lot of times I get a lot of emails people are like hey I'm trying to find my purpose and I'm a you know paramedic or I'm a construction worker on whatever and and but they got a passion and a lot of times people want to know how that shift happens so I'm assuming somewhere in there you you went from maybe they overlap so you were maybe teaching at school as a career and then writing and somehow they overlapped and then you had a divide where you pursued writing can you get into that yes actually it was the birth of my children so I stopped teaching once I had kids and I was happy I stopped teaching in the public high school but what I started doing at that point was teaching Bible studies for women during the day and we found that we were struggling to find resources that we wanted to use for our groups so I began just writing questions for the women in our groups and then I found that people would miss and so I started writing summaries of what we had studied that week and that really took that's what began to form these studies was just that time of teaching women and getting to know women and studying the word with women that formed that that kind of changed my trajectory and so I was just doing it for the women in my church and it then turned into this writing ministry that I was completely unexpected to me sometimes the Lord shows us what he wants us to do by just opening doors in surprising ways I'm laughing because I've just I love how the stuff overlaps when you when you talk about you were trying to find curriculum and it just wasn't there there wasn't enough of it you filled the gap in what I love about this that's the exact reason I started this podcast was to promote what God was doing in other people's lives because there was a gap and I thought you know if somebody else isn't gonna do it I'm gonna do it and here's the other thing I tell people that that I don't think people realize when to find your purpose and and you stumbled into it and not stumbled into it but a lot of times you know we're called to be like Christ and what that means is what I look at is is Christ had the ultimate gift in the ultimate sacrifice but he took his gift and he sacrificed it for us and what I think so many times what people don't realize is it is our gifts are given to us to serve others and if we all use our gifts to serve others it just brings beauty and joy and just that a colourfulness of God that we've never seen but so many times we think our gifts are to serve us to make money or whatever but I love what you did you took your gift there was a gap you served the people around you which was through curriculum and what you were good at teaching and because of that it ended up providing income for you which makes me think what the Lord says in scriptures says seek first the kingdom and all those other things will be added to you yes exactly cuz you know I mean when I was in college if you had told me hey you can have a job teaching women the Bible and writing you know Bible says for him and I would have said that sounds great but there's no job like that and it's the exact job I now have but the Lord opened the doors for it even when I couldn't see I would have never said what's that major there's no no major yeah yeah yeah I would have known what to do but I look back and can say oh the Lord knew what he wanted me to be doing and he opened just the right opportunities and sometimes it comes I don't know if you found this like you were saying though through lack we didn't have a lot of older women in my congregation we were a church plant and so at 27 when I started this was years ago leading Bible study I was one of the older women which tells you there weren't a lot of older women and so because they weren't there we had to kind of make do and sometimes what is missing is the exact place the Lord wants to grow and shape us and at the time I was really frustrated I was like gosh I wish there were some 40 50 year-old women here to teach this Bible study but that was that what wasn't there was exactly what the Lord used to develop me in ways I was unaware of at the time I love that hidden opportunity Melissa I want to dive into I love stories I like like Moses at the Red Sea type stories because a lot of times in life we go through circumstances and we were just like oh God like how much worse can this get or this is terrible but after we go through it we're able to look back and God just we can see how like he came through and how he provided and all the amazing things that he's done do you have like a recent story or a story this is in your password like it's kind of like it couldn't be worse than this and then God just shows up and you're like he's like tada mmm I think yeah I think we all do I would say the one that comes to mind the most because in some ways I would say it was what I consider the first really hard thing I mean and by that I don't mean that other hard things hadn't happened but the first thing that was really not on my plan for my life and that was when I got married we moved in the first five years of my marriage we moved five times and I was the type of kid who had grown up on the same street for half my life and then we moved to one other street in the same city and that was all the movie night had and so and we moved thousands of miles away each time so we ended up I can remember sitting in we ended up in Scotland which sounds delightful to live in and it was but these were pre-internet days or Facebook days so I just felt really far away from everyone I loved and I actually had my first child overseas and I can just remember being in the hospital with her and thinking oh all the people I love aren't here to join in this moment with me and it was it was hard it was hard we lived in a one-bedroom flat my husband was in graduate school I used to see these lovely pictures of people back in the states with their beautiful nurseries and we were gonna bedroom flat she was in our room there was no you know beautiful nursery or anything like that and it was difficult I mean like I say my husband was in graduate school resources were really tight didn't have a car and we took a taxi home from the hospital all of these things it just wasn't going how I thought my life would go but you know we now work and my husband is a seminary professor and the women I ministered to so often are living the life that I once lived and so I can look back now and say the Lord was preparing me and giving me such sympathy for these women who would come to seminary one day and they would be struggling with some of the exact same things I did I know how hard it can be to move away from family and friends I know how hard it can be to be on a really really really tight budget and so the Lord prepared me by allowing me to go through something in ways that I think I could be sympathetic in a different way to the women I would come to know and so I'm really thankful he led me in those ways and he also just showed he is provider um he always provided for our needs and we got to see that in ways I wouldn't have seen without those experiences it's funny when you're going through them they seem terrible at times and I'm just being honest I mean I can grump about it and but then when you look back it's funny like I cherished the very thing that I despised I can back now and I now cherish because I see his goodness in it yes and yeah we know like we laugh for like how great would it be to have a one-bedroom apartment you don't have to do any work and you look back on my feel like it was a lot simpler back then when we had no money oh there's so much I thought that yesterday that is hilarious I was walking through my house and thinking my mortgage payment costs more than what I made in an entire month when I was like in my twenties I'm like this is hilarious exactly exactly and I'm you realize I think even just the longer you live yet why Paul said I've learned the secret of being content and plenty and in want plenty is no more of a satisfaction for our souls than want and that's what I've seen as the Lord has brought us into a season where we actually now have an income there are you know it doesn't satisfy either the Lord alone is the one who can really fill all those places and so I'm glad you showed us both he's shown us this times of Plenty and he showed us time some want and in each he has kept inviting us to himself and showing us that the feast is with him and that's that's good to see absolutely so I want to go back again to your books and kind of writing was there a point when you're at home with the kids and stuff in your writing and and doing the things you're doing did you kind of have was there a moment where you kind of had that mind shift where you're like I can actually do this now for a job like this is kind of like that aha moment like you never realized before because you talked about like obviously in college if somebody told you you would have done that you would have been like there's no career for that or there's no degree was there a moment you kind of thought wow I can actually God's providing through this and I can do this as a job no I am the slowest person on the planet I continually had other people recognizing that it was my giftedness or area to serve rather than me I was embarrassed for years finally one of my friends said you know you've been writing long than you ever taught math it's okay to call yourself an author oh that's so uncomfortable I I don't I don't I don't feel like that but it was other people who kept asking me to write for various publications even having a literary agent contacting me out of the blue things like that that kept happening that I the Lord just kept opening doors because I was probably the best hard-headed person or the last person to see what he was asking me to do um is what I would say you made the comment you said you're embarrassed why that's really interesting I've never heard anybody see you say you're embarrassed about your gift or the fact that you were being called a writer I think it's being called a writer because I was still stuck in the mindset that you are what you made you're in which is so silly that's what I wanted I was hoping you were gonna hit on me that's awesome so that's really good and I'm glad you said that because so many times we think we have to be qualified to do something when God qualifies us yes yes exactly I was pretty convinced I'm a math person yeah that's who I am and so it really took the Lord continually opening these doors to say you can actually write words and that's okay but just because you didn't major in it doesn't mean you can't do it I will definitely say I've had ketchup work to do you know I mean I have had to learn different you know writing rules especially as an editor that sometimes kind of drive me crazy but it has been good to see that it's really opened up my mind to say you know we can be a lot of things a lot more comes from I would say hard work and endurance and just sticking with something you really do learn as you do in some ways and so it's been it's made me laugh at my own life that's what I can say that the Lord has directed me in very different paths absolutely hey it's John and Casey here from are you real and we've been sleeping on my pillow now for over a month and I'm telling you our sleep has improved drastically so what are you waiting for when are you gonna jump on board and start experiencing the kind of restorative sleep you need in your life are you waiting for a better offer well your wait is over because if you go to my pillow calm right now you can take advantage of the my pillow 4-pack offer right John that's right you get two premium my pillows and two to go anywhere pillows at half off just go to my pillow comm use my code real and get 50% off go to my pillow calm click on the 4-pack special and enter promo code real3d [Music] so melissa what do you feel like your biggest strength is in what you do you know I would say I think and this might sound strange I think my biggest strength is that I realized my dependence upon Jesus John 15 is another passage that has always resonated with me and it's that passage where Jesus commands his people to abide in him and I really believe so 100 percent when he says apart from me you can do nothing that is something that I believe 100 percent so I would say in mothering in teaching in writing one of the most important things for me is that I'm always abiding in the vine that I'm reading God's Word that I'm I'm praying that I'm resting in him and so I became a Christian 30 years ago at 14 and really I came to the Lord through reading the Bible in a year and over all that time daily reading of the word and daily prayer I normally write out my prayers has been something that has anchored me to Christ in a way that I'm so thankful and so I can say those daily habits of walking with Jesus and abiding in him I think that's my biggest strength because I'm if I'm not attached to him I'm just that dry branch that has nothing to give and so he fuels everything he wants me then to do and for that I am so grateful I can't imagine life without this 30 to 40 minutes a day spent in his presence oh yeah and then obviously praying throughout the day and meditating throughout the day but that is the fuel for everything else in my life I love it okay so what do you feel like your biggest weakness is that's a great question my biggest weakness definitely I can say here's I am not good at saying no my husband would say yes yes that's exactly it I can think that because an opportunity comes around I am supposed to fulfill it or service need is there and I am terrible at letting things go in some ways and just letting other people have about the opportunity I think for some reason that I am supposed to do everything which is really just some form of pride you know I mean see that's the weakness is it's just thinking oh I have to come in and you have that long conversation with that person because who else could do it yeah or I have to be the one to volunteer for lunch recess duty at my children's school I mean it's just an over I'm sure it's some sort of pride of thinking I need to say yes because no one else might rather than trusting the Lord and being able to say no what I need to say no so if you don't mind I want to speak into that for a minute I'm just these are just the thoughts when you said that and you'd mentioned and and I and I questioned and this is obviously a hard issue that only you could answer but you know sometimes that question is it pride though because I think some of us and sometimes it is don't get me wrong but some of us are internally driven to just be abundant servers like my wife is that way she just wants to serve and love everyone around her and she's had to learn to say no and it's not so much of a pride issue is it's just like if nobody else is gonna do it I'm gonna do it because I want it won I want it done right into I just so I don't know I think sometimes we have to be careful about that to think that and don't get me wrong we all have pride and and I don't want to discredit that so I don't want any emails but I just think sometimes we're maybe harder on ourselves because that's not maybe the issue it's just we're looking at it from the wrong angle yeah that's a good question and I'm sure some days it's one and some days it's the others because you're right I do love to help people and so it's really difficult to discern yeah we're all finite you know and what we can actually do with the capacity the Lord's given us and the and the days that he's given us so it's tough it's really tough to discern that well okay so right now I'm excited you just wrote a book called in all things and subtitles unshakable joy I would love for you to dive into that because I think so many times and I'm probably preaching to myself right now as we let circumstances and for me it's literally like by the half-hour I have cause like my job is to deal with people's issues all the time like I fix problems all day long so by the end of the day like just the thought of having to mentally fix something as taxing but I allow that sometimes to control my joy and it's wrong and I recognize that I see that but well you dive into your book and talk about unshakable joy yes I think what I have loved about studying the book of Philippians so the book in all things as a devotional study on the book of Philippians I'm Philippines has kind of known to be this letter from Paul and he uses the terms joy and rejoice over and over and over and what I have loved as I delved into it is that Paul's joy is secure no matter what he faces he's writing the letter from a Roman jail he's dealing with people who are preaching the gospel from wrong motives he's dealing with the reality that he may die a martyr's death he's dealing with you know problems with people they're called the Judaizers she's dealing with theological problem should say it that way theological problems I'm within the church he's dealing with all of these things and yet his continual refrain is rejoice in the Lord and he takes joy in his friendship with them he takes joy even in the fact that the Gospels preach with wrong motives he says he rejoices because the Gospels preach and he has this unshakeable joy and it's because it's not rooted in his circumstances which is we're so often I want to root my joy I want my joy to come because all of life is good and circumstances are working out just how I intended but pause joy flows from the spirit within him and it is founded on God's goodness and graciousness not his output or circumstances the Paul has this well from which to drink that is always full but this is joy as in the Lord and it's just a beautiful thing to get to study and really dig into the ways I so often chase fool's gold when the real thing is right there for me to have and it's in the Lord and just because I think we can't we don't get it immediately it's not like you know you can eat something that tastes really good immediately but time with the Lord is a feast that savored every years of walking with Him and I think it grows our joy over years and we live in a instant gratification culture so we want things right now but I have seen as I've looked at Paul's life you know he is someone who learned contentment in all things that just didn't just descend upon him the moment he came to faith he learned it by walking in life and so I think there's a lot of hope because that means we can learn it too and that's that's a good news but I definitely think it's very different than what the world would tell us where to find our joy and so that's what I've enjoyed about studying the book of Philippians and writing on it has been delving into those truths so when you wrote this previous were you able to teach this at your church or in group studies already yes so I had taught it at a Bible study with we did for years we did what we called outreach Bible stuff in our community where we just invited women in the community to come and then I just actually finished teaching it again to the women at my church in our Sunday School class so I've taught on it numerous times at this point and still learn something every time I teach on it so I'm just curious if you had like a testimony or like a woman come up to you and something just was like this just radically changed my life because I was like X and now I'm like I was like this but now I see God's goodness type Y you know I'm probably that testimony because I'm the one who studied at the most that's a really good question I should ask women definitely had women come up to me and say you know I had never thought about joy in this way this definition of joy we had been thinking about it in fact we were just talking about it at Sunday school this week how often we think about it is what's outside of us rather than what's inside of us and that refrain over and over again but I think with it these truths a lot of times it's things we've heard before we all have heard the phrase money can't buy happiness but it's so easy to fall on the belief that it can and so a lot of these things I think are faithful reminders of truths we know but we are just people who are apt to forget so it's that constant being and God's Word and being reminded of the truths that we already know that I think sometimes changes the complete trajectory of our lives it's just remembering what he's told us amen to that man there's there's so much truth and know that you said okay what has been like a recent book besides have you read that you mentioned mindset which I wrote that down growth growth mindset but besides yours has there been a book or even a mom hack just anything recently that's really helped you that you want to share with our audience yeah one book I've read that I have truly enjoyed is it's a book called refresh and I think her name is Shonda Marie David and Shonda Marie I think those are the correct names who wrote it and it is is wonderful for people who are pouring their lives out to others so it's great for people who are in leadership in ministry but it's also great for a mom who's pouring her life out every day to her children it just deals with some of the physical realities of giving to others and our limited capacity when we tend to sometimes what I love Shonda writes at the beginning and she was she's a medical doctor and that really helps because there's this wonderful intersection between understanding the physical and the emotional and the spiritual and she kind of had this breakdown her father I believe her father is a pastor he said I think you have a physical problem that is looking like a spiritual problem yeah because she was just exhausted her work schedule had worn her out so much and so this book just goes through kind of healthy habits in life and what it looks like to be a person who does rest at times who works hard and Labor's hard but also gets enough sleep to fuel her body and eats the right things and exercises kind of a holistic approach to our spiritual life and I found it really really encouraging and really helpful very biblical but also very very understanding of the human body and our limitations go there I have to pass that on to Cayce my wife she does a weekly show as well on this podcast but she does one spirit soul and body and she's a personal trainer and she does that she hits both the spiritual and the physical side so I'll have to pass that on to her that's great she would yeah it'd be great for someone in those worlds that's great she's a physical trainer ya have to connect you guys okay so I got the big question for you you ready seat belt on you're ready to go for a ride in a DeLorean okay so you're gonna go back Melissa to a younger you you're gonna give yourself some advice knowing of all the things you're gonna go through in the future can't change anything but you're gonna give yourself like a motivational pep talk what advice are you going to give yourself what age - go - oh I'm gonna go to 14 and I'm gonna say keep reading God's Word never shop and don't turn from it that obedience to it is always better than whatever you think in your little mind might be better you will never miss out on life by obeying God and walking in his ways that you will experience fullness of life not because you have earned his goodness but because he knows how you work best and he is gracious to tell you how you work best and his word is full of so many good things don't miss life because you miss Jesus and so I would just say you're on the right track keep walking with Him you said keep walking dearie your kids are at the right age did you watch VeggieTales yes Jericho Jericho on the wall keep walking and you won't like a moment soon as you said that all I could see was Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber standing on the wall telling the wall that it was gonna fall anyways that is hilarious oh yeah yeah we still think of certain characters in the scripture as as vegetables because years ago oh yeah those came out right when our my oldest is 17 right when she yes I have a 17 year old book that came out right then so we had all of them and I actually enjoyed him I loved cartoons i sat there and watched him so I thought they were fun yes yes no we used to with my high school students actually we would have a fruit and veggie night and we would watch veggie tales and they would have runts I don't know if you remember that candy reionization our fruit and veggie night was with candy actually but we it was we we talked about the Bible using veggie tales might have to do that Melissa I want to ask you you gave yourself some advice going back to the future as we wrap up the show just want ask you what piece of advice would you give the men and women out there that are listening for their lives yeah it's always probably gonna be the same I think I beat the same drum my whole life and that is draw near to the Lord that in him is fullness of life and at his right hands or pleasure forevermore that we will miss life if we miss Jesus and so that is just I hope that's the advice I'll be giving at 80 you know I hope that's the advice I'll be giving at 100 because I think there there's just nothing better in life no matter what we're going through the Lord can meet us in it and he can rescue us from even the mistakes we make in the sin we find ourselves in he is can rescue us and he can redeem yea even the years that the locusts have eaten in so many ways as the Bible talks about that it is never too late to start learning the Bible and knowing Christ and that that will change our lives and it's the most important things in our life so that would be my advice to anyone that in him is life now if we're in Pentecostal church right now I jump up and shout and say come on somebody so that's good stuff okay so you are author speaker I want to know for my listeners those of you that would possibly love to have you come out to their church or speak get your book how do we connect with you yeah the best way is through my website I if you type in the gospel coalition my blog is hosted there they want to contact me directly they can go to Melissa P Krueger com then there's a contact page there so those are the best ways to find what I'm writing about or to contact me directly okay we will put it on there Melissa I just want to show you thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and just share your story and I love your foundation the one thing like you said whether I'm you know 20 40 or 80 is just going to be draw near to the Lord and in chase after him because there's honestly I cannot think of a better lifestyle have because things literally just work themselves out when we're with Jesus amen thanks so much for having me absolutely if you hold on just a second rawrr nation thank you guys so much for tuning in don't forget to jump on you got all kinds of books getting thrown at you today but do not forget to jump on our front page have a finding purpose course that we're wrapping up but we do have a free giveaway DIY remodel your life you can download that and if you have any questions please jump on our Facebook page and then every week every Monday we're giving away free books the book companies have sent me so many books that it's crazy so now I'm giving them away so if you will go on our Facebook page and sign up we have a app sign up for it it's of every Monday we do a drawing and then also the first five people to respond to this show I will be giving away five books of Melissa's book as well so please send those in sign up and get them and they will just absolutely bless you guys and we want to thank the publishing company for that so word nation just remember be real be authentic and be you god bless that's all for this episode of are you real finding the authentic you be sure to go to our You reorge for your free questionnaire to identify your gifts and talents and how you can use them to come leaders and catapult them into their destiny to help others become the leaders of tomorrow we appreciate you spending your time with us and look forward to helping you reach out and revolutionize next time on are you real finding the authentic [Music]