This episode unwraps the marriage-like bond that God seeks with us. This theme central to Vermon Pierre's book "Dearly Beloved," and it is aimed revolutionize the way we forge connections within the communities.
Host Helen Todd talks with aithor and pastor Vermont Pierre about the root os the culture of isolation, loneliness and hostility, and the ways we can experience and give out God's love to others.
This discussion isn't just theoretical; it's a practical guide on how to navigate the complexities of personal relationship with God, community dynamics, seeing each other not as competitors but as companions in a shared spiritual quest.
Vermon Pierre (BA, Princeton University; MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the lead pastor at Roosevelt Community Church, a diverse multiethnic congregation in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
Find his book "Dearly Beloved" here: https://www.amazon.com/Dearly-Beloved-Church-Deepens-Other/dp/0802428592/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Sj2w17crwOUvFhwJ51rR3jBWp_O3QzO3Yr5YraEgzphnCYxIbRL0ycOZyFxQnkCRUKQ_WIcq2AX2QJq5hJEoI3ZDufjn5egdkyBYIyUAflSQ0etHDtAIkHRrcN0iTEwS7CMGo54g1hkucF9nsckxH9H4XNEE2mDsXgxdezIWpQVTYzMkHplp0tNsk5KClXGPhv4gbF-uSyaAP5zHnR9avmNBiYKiYwLbTO4adGa7oQA.19UiGEJSmulACW8v-AAoFy4vWvtWaqeznDdJ8x7EqCY&dib_tag=se&keywords=Dearly+Beloved&qid=1709754231&s=books&sr=1-1
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
This episode unwraps the marriage-like bond that God seeks with us. This theme central to Vermon Pierre's book "Dearly Beloved," and it is aimed revolutionize the way we forge connections within the communities.
Host Helen Todd talks with aithor and pastor Vermont Pierre about the root os the culture of isolation, loneliness and hostility, and the ways we can experience and give out God's love to others.
This discussion isn't just theoretical; it's a practical guide on how to navigate the complexities of personal relationship with God, community dynamics, seeing each other not as competitors but as companions in a shared spiritual quest.
Vermon Pierre (BA, Princeton University; MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the lead pastor at Roosevelt Community Church, a diverse multiethnic congregation in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
Find his book "Dearly Beloved" here: https://www.amazon.com/Dearly-Beloved-Church-Deepens-Other/dp/0802428592/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Sj2w17crwOUvFhwJ51rR3jBWp_O3QzO3Yr5YraEgzphnCYxIbRL0ycOZyFxQnkCRUKQ_WIcq2AX2QJq5hJEoI3ZDufjn5egdkyBYIyUAflSQ0etHDtAIkHRrcN0iTEwS7CMGo54g1hkucF9nsckxH9H4XNEE2mDsXgxdezIWpQVTYzMkHplp0tNsk5KClXGPhv4gbF-uSyaAP5zHnR9avmNBiYKiYwLbTO4adGa7oQA.19UiGEJSmulACW8v-AAoFy4vWvtWaqeznDdJ8x7EqCY&dib_tag=se&keywords=Dearly+Beloved&qid=1709754231&s=books&sr=1-1
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Welcome to Limitless Spirit, a weekly podcast with host Helen Todd, where she interviews guests about pursuing spiritual growth, discovering life's purpose through serving others and developing a deeper faith in Christ.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Limitless Spirit podcast. This episode is a conversation about what does God's love mean to us in practical terms, how do we experience it and how do we live it out? I'm your host, helen Todd. We're caught up in a love story. The Bible describes our relationship with God as a marriage, but what exactly does that mean? My guest today, author and the pastor Vermont Peer, ushers us into an understanding of that beautiful, life-giving relationship Through the metaphor of marriage. In his latest book, dearly Beloved, vermont shows us how we're loved and how to love God and how to love one another. We're living in a time of greater isolation, disunity and loneliness, and as we learn what it means to be dearly beloved, that all changes. Hello Vermont, welcome to the Limitless Spirit podcast. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well. Good to be here.
Speaker 2:I am looking forward to talking about your latest book, Dearly Beloved. But I always like to ask an author what prompted you to write this book, Because a book is a big undertaking. Whether you have written one or many, it's a labor of love. So there has to be an inspiration, that aha moment. So what was it? And this is not your first book, so what was the inspiration behind Dearly Beloved?
Speaker 3:Well, something that I've always been thinking about you might say a calling card for me and my ministry life has been thinking about community, especially what brings people together and what keeps them together. And I think I especially think about that because I've always been interested in what brings different types of people together, diverse communities, how do you build them, how do you establish them, how do you keep them? And so I've been thinking about that a lot, particularly in recent years. Everyone knows the polarization, the vision that we see all around us.
Speaker 3:So, really, as I've been thinking about this, and, of course, a simple answer to that question how do you bring people together, how do you keep them together is, well, we need to love one another. But really, for me, I began to think well, maybe there's some really strong ways to talk about how we might love one other. What are some of the strongest and best ways to talk about how we might love that can help us build community, particularly in this sort of current moment? And that's what led me to write the book, to begin thinking about the one of the most powerful ways we hear about love in the Bible, which is God's love for us, as a husband loves his bride.
Speaker 2:This is interesting because this is what prompted me to do this interview. I feel like we have lost the sense of community in recent years, or maybe it has never been, I don't know. People always say, oh, it used to be so much better. But I feel like we're losing. We have more than ever ways to connect with people, even people outside of our immediate geographic location, and yet that sense of community is gone and people are craving it, but instead the divide between us and the hostility between people is becoming greater and greater. And even the church community has changed. I think that maybe 20 years ago, or even 30 years ago, a church was definitely a community. A lot of times people joined the church because they were craving a sense of family and belonging. But even within the church, that sense has been lost. So what do you think the reason is for that?
Speaker 3:As great as our current technology is in this day, it has not helped us build community. We are more connected than ever, so I have more ability to find people all around the world who might be interested in even the most esoteric hobby that I have, and so there's good things there. But what that has allowed, though, is that what it's allowed us to do is essentially find community that really fits along our preferences, our desires, and to even become more narrow when it comes to community. You might say, ironically, there's still community, but it's a community that is sort of formed along homogeneity and to the degree in which, almost where community becomes less about. Okay, I'm joined together with these other people, but I'm joined against. I'm joined together with these people against everyone else. Everyone else outside of my group is the enemy, and that's not real community. It sort of eats itself eventually, when you're sort of part of a group that says that's essentially joined together by hostility against everyone else and our superiority because of whatever sort of different common interests that we have, and I think that again speaks to the power of the church.
Speaker 3:Church is the one type of community that allows us, first of all, to be humble about ourselves and admit when we're wrong. We don't have to. Our community is not based about us acting like we got it all together, but also allows us to confront the things that we need to, that are around us. It's community that's designed by God to draw all sorts of different people together. It's community is designed to create space for the things we got to hold in common, but also space for the things that we might disagree with, and yet there's still space for us to have a relationship with one another. You know, all that, I think, is modeled by how God moved towards us in Christ and think, when we sort of begin to see that and understand that, reclaim that for ourselves. My hope is that that would help us be the community that God has always a tendency to be, even against sort of the trends that we're in right now.
Speaker 2:I think you completely nailed it, actually, absolutely loved your answer. That's exactly what's happening, whether we're connecting in person with people, or we're connecting in social media or even, you know, creating these little groups within the church. If it's a large congregation, we gravitate towards people who think like us, who prefer things like us, instead of creating a community. That's exactly it. So let's look at your book now. The theme and I have not read it yet, but I'm looking forward to reading it, but the theme seems to be is looking at marriage, the institution of marriage, as a model for our community. Well, as an example of what God's love towards us is, but also as a model of what our relationship with other people should be like. Am I grasping the idea?
Speaker 3:Well, not necessarily the institution of human marriage. You might say that specifically, it's one marriage that I'm really looking at. It's our marriage, the spiritual marriage right, the marriage between God and His people, and of course, human marriage is meant to be a mirror right, a reflection to that ultimate spiritual marriage. I'm going to say that's the one marriage that's going to last forever, the marriage of Christ and His church. And you know that's a powerful metaphor the Bible uses. Out of all the ways God could describe how it relates to us, that he picks. That, I think, is very intentional and that's good to say that, you know, the spiritual marriage of the church to Christ is 100% equal to human marriage. It's a different reality but it's very intentional one. It suggests to us well, it tells us that God's relationship with us is full of intimacy, of joy, of delight, of affection, of presence, of commitment, all the things that feature in the very best marriage. And really the premise of the book is that we have been drawn to Christ in that and we sit in that.
Speaker 3:Now, romans 5.5 talks about how God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And so this love of God, what I call this beloved love of God drew us to the Lord and now is in us by the Lord's grace, by His Spirit. So when I think of how I love other people, I don't have to think about where I'm going to look for this love in my own heart and soul. I don't even think of how do I look at people. What do I personally think about people? I should be asking what does the Lord think about people? How does the Lord want me to see people? And, drawing from His love that's already in my heart, I love people in and out of His love, which I think opens up just new ways, powerful ways to love others around us.
Speaker 2:So let's pause for a moment on the concept of God's love towards His people, because I think this is one of the mysteries that is hard for people to comprehend, and especially if they grew up or lived their life without experiencing proper love and nurturing relationship, maybe from their parents or people around them. That idea of a loving God is very hard to comprehend because obviously it is being measured with human standards, and mostly flawed human standards. So how would you describe that concept of God's love towards us?
Speaker 3:There's a lot of different ways to think about God's love and obviously I'm focusing on one particular expression of God's love here, but I think the Bible just goes over the top and describing all the different ways God loves us. All sorts of ways, of sort of easy ways in to understanding the love of God towards us. So he loves us as a father, loves us as children, he loves us as a shepherd, loves us as sheep, and all that sort of brings different aspects of what it is to be loved by God. But I am it's a mystery and yet I think, one worth really stepping into, because it captures so much to think of God loving us as the husband who loves us as bride tells us that many people are wondering what's my purpose in life? Do I matter? Do I have value? Do I have meaning? Do I?
Speaker 3:Before the foundation of the world, before creation even began, god looked on you and said I want to be with you, I love you and I am committed to you, and I think that what that means then for people is the first place to look for why you exist. Is you exist for God and God wants you to be in relationship with Him. You don't exist for God as sort of property or someone for Him to step on. He made you and then he chose you for Himself and then decided to have this relationship of love with you where he's going to commit Himself to you. Commit Himself to you to the point of even dying on the cross for your sins.
Speaker 3:One of the things I say in the book is that this is the love story that holds the universe together. So if you're wondering, like what's at the very center of the universe, it's us being loved by God deeply, intimately, and it means you matter and value. When angels sit around the campfires of heaven, this is the only story they tell each other God's love for us. God's seeking us, finding us, choosing us and loving us, and he will love us into eternity.
Speaker 2:And this is the foundational idea of Christianity, and this is what sets apart Christianity from any other religion that it is not a set of rules. It's a love relationship between you and God, and unless you understand that, unless you accept that, you're going to struggle in your faith. But what was the defining moment for you personally? How did you come to that understanding of God's love for you and then how it changed you as a person, as a husband, as a pastor, as a human being?
Speaker 3:I'm not going to suggest that for a lot of authors if I'm one author who's willing to admit this you write about things and a lot of it you're practicing, but there's good parts of it you're still working on. So this part of the book I'm rereading to remind us of what I wrote and to help me practice it better. So the changes into 100%, even in the things I wrote about, but they represent what I do believe in and I think really what? Like anyone else in this world, I'm always looking for a relationship for community and particularly for my experience, my ministry of life. Our church, like almost every church in America, went through different divisions and turmoil Over the years of COVID and the different political and cultural unrest, and those things are hard to deal with and it really began to say to me I need to find a way to build community again and call others to that. That can help us, that can help us endure, that can help us face the things that we're facing, because we're not the first communities to do this and yet the church is endured, and so I knew it was about love. That's really what led me on that journey sort of my own personal experiences in seeking community and the result has been in many ways. It just gives me different language to use and different ways of thinking about those around me.
Speaker 3:And especially when I think of someone, my first thought now doesn't have to be well, they're different from me, or they've voted differently, or they prefer these things, and I wish they prefer these other things. My first thought is well, how does the Lord see them? How does the Lord move towards them? The Bible is very clear we were enemies of God and yet God loved us. So it's not that we first love God it's as a first John 4, but that he loved us. So it just adds me to have a general posture of leaning in towards others.
Speaker 3:And this isn't to say like there's not still issues and things for us to think about. This is not sort of a I'm not sort of implying that you should just brush things under rug when it comes to differences and other things like that. It just puts it in a different category. Our differences can be put in this category. That's okay. I need to sort of fight against them and whoever wins will be the one on top. And, as opposed to, our differences are there and yet God, by his grace has created us in the type of relationship where our differences, rather than being these jagged edges that cut us, god can reshape them and form them so that they're still there, but they become puzzle pieces that really build together to this broader tapestry of what it is to belong to God together.
Speaker 2:Can you give me an example, like a life, life illustration, maybe from your church experience? Because, like you said that it changed your language. So let's look at the real life example of how you would have perhaps reacted verbally, because our words matter. Our words are extremely powerful. We create reality with our words. Let's look at an illustration how your nature, your flesh, would respond to a certain situation and how that concept of love changes your language.
Speaker 3:Well, in this example it's sort of language, but even more so action. For me there's been. There was a particular leader in our church who I thought was being sort of unfair in sort of his critique of something that I was doing, and in our initial conversation it just seemed like we couldn't really figure it out and I became my most natural instinct, was become extremely defensive. When I'm in these sort of situations, at least for me, I tend to argue it's the person in my mind. I always win those arguments and so that was sort of my first initial instinct. But I think thinking in these ways, in these categories, allow me to say I well, it's the work of the spirit. I felt, this sense of I still need to be in a relationship with this person and I need to continue to pursue them as long as it takes.
Speaker 3:And it was multiple conversations and conversations that involve me sort of showing grace, thinking the best of the person, using words that didn't sort of say, well, you know you're absolutely wrong, but saying, no, I need to understand better where you're coming from. And this wasn't sort of resolving one conversation, was multiple conversations. But that instinct to, as I said, sort of to lean in, allow me to maintain the relationship with this leader and to to work out sort of a place that was and I want to say it was 100% solved, but it's solved in the context of saying no matter what, we have to stay in relationship with each other. The solution isn't for me to win or you to win, but to say Lord has brought us together in his love and so we're going to use the tools of his love patience, perseverance, grace, willingness to forgive when someone says something wrong To continue to stay in relationship, to work this thing out, and I think the result of that obviously is the kind of community that we're talking about.
Speaker 2:So how would you describe our relationship with God, with Yahweh, is so different than people's relationship with pagan gods?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, you consider the way people think about. This is true for the ancient gods, the pagan gods of ancient times, but even true today, the different ways people think of God. For some people, god is not a personal being, he's like a higher power, and so you, a lot of Eastern religions are this way. It's sort of a higher state of being that you've got to achieve and got to work towards to eventually get into this sort of higher state. For other people, god is more like almost like, a dictator, and so you, they approach life as if, like I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. They sort of always expect God to kind of come down hard on them. So they're always. It's almost an antagonistic view of God and trying to just wrestle with God and war with God. And other people view God more of well, like Santa Claus or a genie. So you, just God is just the. We just need to make the right wish. Make the right wish. I should say do the right things and you'll get. You'll get the things that you want. Other people, god is almost like a sleeping grandfather on the couch. So, in other words, god for them and you know this is some of the ancient pagan gods give this impression they're there but not really there and so you're mostly living life on your own and you got to do some things to get their attention every so often. But you're sort of living life, you know, apart from from any sort of direction, until you try to get the God, get the God's attention, to get what you want.
Speaker 3:A lot of different conceptions of God over the centuries. I think it's amazing to think about how the Bible thinks of God. Baba tells us this is not how God or the Bible is like that the God of the universe, the God of great all things, already sees us and notices us and pays attention to us. That's God, before the foundations of the world was looking at you and his first words towards you, towards his people, were words of love, that this is a God who was so willing to be with us he became one of us and so willing to make sure this relationship would work, even with us constantly. So essentially, as the Bible says, cheating on him, he's willing to die to cleanse us and remake us, to make us, as it says Ephesians 5, a pure and spotless bride for him.
Speaker 3:This is, this is who God is, and I think it makes all the difference, then, for how you understand your life, the purpose of your life, the fact that, yes, you're going to go through a lot of things, but you're never going through it alone. This is a God who's going to be right there with you. Whatever we face, whatever we endure, god will always be present with us. This is who, this is the God of the Bible, this is the real God that's out there.
Speaker 2:You know, once you understand that I think it's unimaginable for people to even seek any other God in life, because this is such perfect and so such comforting relationship. And yet, you know, just like Israel, after seeing all these miracles that God has performed for them, continued to seek other gods, our depraved human nature continues to create those idolatrous things in our lives. You know addictions, and that's just really a crazy thought. But let's talk about this word covenant, because it's used a lot in the scripture to describe the relationship between God and His people, as well as marriage. So what does that word really mean? What does it represent?
Speaker 3:Well, covenant, you know. A really simple definition is that covenant is a committed relationship and that's what we see with the Lord the God. This is from Ezekiel 16, verse 8. And this is sort of how God does relationship with people. I have made a vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. And that's marriage language, ancient marriage language in the Jewish culture.
Speaker 3:God sort of describing this is when I have a people for myself, I enter into a covenant with them, committed relationship, which means promises and obligations, a sense that's saying I'm going to be in a relationship with you that's unique and special, that's distinct from all other relationships out there.
Speaker 3:That's what a covenant is that, out of all the nations of the world, god chose Israel. But Israel, of course, was a blueprint for what God eventually do the brain, people from every tribe, language and nation and form relationship with them and what we call the church today. And again, I think that speaks to in the sense of the sense of intentionality the Lord has with us, in the sense of sort of rock solid, eternal commitment God has with us. God is not looking around for other people to be with, he's chosen us and he's uniquely interested in us, he will uniquely love us and be with us. And when we begin to understand that, as we've been talking about community, that same sort of commitment instinct of God is now in us by his spirit, and I think it then helps us understand how we commit to others around us. We can commit, we can follow through the things that we say, we can be willing to work through the things that are difficult. Necessarily, the word is done with us.
Speaker 2:So would you say that covenant is basically a contract or there is a distinction between covenant relationship and the contract?
Speaker 3:It's a contract not quite so in terms of like a business contract. It's a contract of relationship, of whole self involvement. If I could put it that way, you know, I might sign a contract with a business partner and it's based on sort of one level, right, we're going to do business together, but what we call a marriage contract is I'm going to attach my whole life to you and you're gonna attach my whole life to me. It's the ultimate contract. It's a sort of a commitment of intimate union, uniquely with this person which, yeah, has obligations to it, certain promises to it. But it's really a contract that's really grounded in that sense of promise. I promise to be with you and I will follow through on my promise.
Speaker 2:Well and this is the reason I brought this up, because I do feel like people many times they make a contract with God. They say, okay, god, I believe in you, I will do this and this and this, and you will do in return this and this and this. But I love what you said. It's committing your whole life. It's different. It's not that you know, okay, I promised you this and you promised me that in return. It's like I seek your very best intentions over my own, because that's how God loves us and that's where love comes in. I think difference between a love marriage and just a business relationship is that seeking the best of the other over your own interest. So let's talk about the solution to this problem of isolation and hostility and loneliness, what practically each one of us can do on our own level to see change in the community around us.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, one of the illustrations I use in the book is to imagine the inside of you is this well, right, a well of God's love that's been poured into your heart by God. So it's not your own water you're drawing from, it's the water of God's love that's been poured into you. On our own, our own well of love can, is easily polluted by our sin, but God has remade us and poured his love, and specifically his beloved love, into our hearts and souls, and so really, the call is to draw from that well and to say I'm going to love you with God's love right now and press in and lean towards you with God's love. When we do that very practically, that leads to, I think, just amazing ways of thinking about how we love others. In the life of the church, for example, it puts a priority on presence when it comes to our relationships.
Speaker 3:My marriage relationship doesn't work unless you actually live with the person, and so it's striking to think that the God of the universe makes an emphasis on the fact that he lives with his people. We see that in the New Testament. We see that, of course, with God coming to us in Jesus and living among us, jesus could easily have come and done a weekend seminar. So here's what you need to do and headed back. But that's not what he does. He actually lives with his disciples and then, of course, culminates with God living with us by his spirit, to the point of being present and living with one another.
Speaker 3:I think that leads to, and that same sort of instinct is now in us, to put a priority on what I say sort of regular face-to-face at the same time, in the same places. Relationships with other people that, yeah, we can go online and do other things, but those are always secondary to sort of the primary job of actually living together and community with other people. That's a priority on, in sort of, you might say, other overflows of that. I think shared meals are really important. Hospitality no wonder the Bible talks about hospitality so much. It's an important way that we reinforce love for one another and secure that bond of love with one another. The importance of perseverance when it comes to our relationships, of willingness to sort of say, hey, I know where we are now and because I know where we're going, I'm going to continue on in my relationships and my commitment with you. Those are just a couple examples of, I think what that might look like.
Speaker 2:This sounds wonderful. I plan to post a link to your book in the show notes so that people can easily find it. But for a person who picks up your book, can you give me three points of what they should hope to have? What would be the takeaway for them from this book?
Speaker 3:Well, first, that God loves you deeply and intimately. He loves you with a beloved love and, I would hope, people in some ways. That's the most important thing. The book doesn't work unless you really sense that and understand that. But then two, because God loves you, that way you can love others in the same way. We're, you know, un-beloved of God and you're beloved of God, which makes us beloved to one another, and so I would hope that you see sort of the flow of that almost instantly. The cover image of the book is meant to sort of imply that God's love flows from God to us and then now flows among us. So then three, because of that, and maybe this is a broad point I'd invite people to sort of think of just one or two particular ways in which you might express that same beloved love. Maybe it's through presence with someone, maybe it's a.
Speaker 3:There's a chapter on intimacy.
Speaker 3:So one example of intimate love is the importance of touch, and obviously that's been misused and abused in the life of the church and we need to sort of very clearly say that.
Speaker 3:But I think part of how we redeem it is reclaiming touch as the holy kiss of the Bible, and so, for one example, is sort of the hand in someone's shoulder when you pray for them, and how important that is, especially for someone who might be coming in, who's been maybe ignored throughout the week, and to see that you're noticed and that you care for them, the ways in which we hold hands together in prayer sometimes I think it's important expression of love. So maybe you pick that one, or maybe you pick I'm going to prioritize shared meals with my community. I'm going to prioritize being in regular worship with others. Just pick one of those ways in which to express that love and I think you will begin to see how God sort of shows his love more to you than that and you begin to feel that love as you express to others and they express it back to you.
Speaker 2:And I think there is a lot of healing and pursuing intentionally those relationships with the people that you disagree with, because through this God built something very beautiful. We can't create this unity on our own, no matter how hard we try, but if we are intentional about it, then God creates that unity and the community and the church should be the leader in that. So I think your book is very timely and very important and important read for every person who wants to increase the influence of the church and the sense of community within the church. Thank you so much for courageously writing this book and thank you for this interview, vermont. I wish you all the best.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I hope you have been inspired by today's conversation. I encourage you to check out this book Dearly Beloved, for just practical guidance on how to love others with words, how to love with delight, how to love with presence, how to love through difficulty. This is a very, very important conversation for us. Right now I posted the link to the book in the show notes. I'm sure you can find it on Amazon and join us again for future episodes of the Limitless Spirit podcast, where we continue to explore how our experiences with God equip us to share our faith with others, even in the othermost parts of the world. I encourage you also to check out our website, rfwmaorg, and invite you to the Greater Purpose Conference. It's happening April 3, 4, and 5 in Branson, missouri, and there you can be inspired and strengthened in your faith, connect with a community of people who are actively pursuing their greater purpose and find out more how to get involved in the Great Commission. Again, more information on our website, rfwmaorg. Until next time, I'm Helen Todd.
Speaker 1:Limitless Spirit podcast is produced by World Missions Alliance. We believe that changed lives change lives. If your life was transformed by Christ, you are equipped to help others experience this transformation. Christ called His followers to make disciples across the world. World Missions Alliance gives you an opportunity to do this through short-term missions in over 32 countries across the globe. If you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.