#120: Marian Jordan Ellis: For His Glory
Marian Jordan Ellis is a speaker, author, podcaster and voice we all need in this season. We talk about what it means to listen to God, to erase old tapes, and how to know if we are loved.
This is an incredible conversation with a Spirit-led voice!
Links:
EP. 120
Tony: Hey everybody! Welcome back to the reclamation podcast where our goal is to help you reclaim good practices for faith and life. My name is Tony and today is episode one 20 of the podcast. I am so excited today to sit down with author, speaker, and pastor to so many Marian Jordan. She's got a brand new resource out called for his glory.
And she's the host of this redeemed life podcast. I love the conversation. That Marriott and I get into as we talk about what it means to live out our faith. We talk about old operating systems. We talk about renewal. We talk about relationships and prayer and how do we believe what God says about us?
So we get into some really great stuff in this conversation. And if you enjoy this conversation, do me a favor, hit that subscribe button, wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a rating or review on iTunes, and maybe even share this episode with a friend. Those are three action steps you can take right now to help spread the word about what God is doing through this planet.
Also, I don't know if you knew this or not, but we are a partner with spirit and truth, and I am so thankful for the work that we get to do together. Part of the spirit and truth podcast network to find out more and to support spirit and truth, check them out spirit and truth.la. So now without any further ado, here's my conversation with Mary and Jordan Ellis.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have today. Author, speaker, podcaster, extraordinary Mary and Jordan Ellis Marriott. Thank you so much for being here.
Marian: Tony. It's my pleasure. I begged and borrowed and stole to be here. It's so exciting.
Tony: Well, I'm really excited to jump into your your brand new resource for his glory.
And it's, it's about a study on the book of Ephesians. And so I was curious why Ephesians? Why does somebody like all of a sudden say, Hey, God's calling me to write a book on a Fijian. How does that help?
Marian: Well, Tony, one of my passions is, you know, Jesus said, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.
And my own story is really, I came to Christ out of a ton of brokenness. I was deep in sin. I'd walked in the darkness and really my identity had been shaped by abuse that was done to me. My identity was shaped by the world that I lived in. And even though I came to Christ and I loved Jesus, I was still living an operation.
Kind of under an old operating system and what God did was he use the truths in Ephesians to rewire my thinking, to help me to see myself as he sees me to help me understand who I am in Christ, the power I have in the holy spirit, really our purpose to live for God's glory. And so honestly, I came to know firsthand that when Jesus says the truth sets you free, that's what happened in Ephesians was one of the primary tools from God's word that he used to really transform us.
Tony: You mentioned the idea of an old operating system. I think that there are probably a lot of us who are listening, who, who may feel that, but aren't exactly sure how to name it. If you're going to look at someone's life, how do we know if we're operating in an old, old system that says, yeah, I, you know, I know who Jesus is.
I believe that you know who Jesus is, but I'm not quite living in his operating system. How do we know if we're in that spot?
Marian: You know, I love how first John puts it. First, John says, perfect love, casts out fear. And if I can look at how I was operating before the perfect love of Christ rewired me from the inside out, I would say I was really shackled to some old identities.
First of all, because of the abuse of my childhood and the trauma. I believe that I was usable and unwanted abandonment and then abuse. Really those two things really wired my thinking. And then growing up, living outside of God's will the darkness dad was walking in also programmed my mind to believe false things about God, which all sin does.
And so coming to Christ, I think we can recognize that we're operating under a faulty way of thinking and how we. View God and be ourselves. And so what happens in the renewal of the mind is that we begin to see God rightly so there are there's affection for God. We receive the love of God. We're able to abide and extend his love to others, but where.
Faulty operating system happening. We're not seeing the fruit of the spirit. We're not operating in the freedom that Christ says that as ours, we're still living under the shackles of shame and insecurity and fear and rejection. Those things are operating rather than what God says should be operating in our life, which is his joy, his peace, his love, his kindness, all of those things should be operating and they should be evident.
And anywhere that we're not. In freedom, displaying God's fruit and love and all of those things, then we can go back and go, there's something wrong. And either how I'm thinking, which what using a churchy word, the Bible calls that a stronghold. And so what I'm doing in this study is, Hey, let's let's acknowledge what these strongholds are and let's address them, but let's address it by using God's word to dismiss it.
Tony: So obviously this book wasn't written, when you renewed your mind and you tackled some of your strongholds, I'm curious, how did you go about that path in your own life of saying, you know, I'm going to be this, I'm going to be this new creation. I'm going to step into this renewal of the mind. How did that play out in your story?
Marian: Well, let me use it. Another biblical example. We're switching our metaphors a lot here, but I think our listeners can track with us. So you know, the story when the Israelites they'd been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and it's finally time for them to go into the promised land. And I think of the promised land is like this metaphor for this life in Christ that we're supposed to have.
Okay. It's the abundant victorious overcoming. Fruit filled life. That's the kind of a picture then? Well, they're coming out of the wilderness. So there's an element of faith to cross that Jordan river and go into the promised land. But then the first thing they encounter is the stronghold of Jericho. Now in my life, I would compare that stronghold of Jericho like this strongholds in my mind that said, I am unlovable.
I am usable. I'm unworthy. It's a miracle. Block that keeps me from living in God's will just as the stronghold of Jericho kept the people of God from entering and taking the promised land. And so what God had the people do is he had them circle that. Six times for one time, each day for six days. And then on the last day, on the seventh day, they did it 17 times the 13 times I'm getting to my point 13 times, they circled the city.
Now, when I look back on my own journey, what I see is sometimes God has Or allows us to keep coming up against the same thing over and over again, so that we can recognize, Hey, here is what my stronghold is. And for me, I will continually was seeing the same destructive fruit in my life that did not line up.
The victorious, abundant life that Christ had promised. For example, I continued to see, Hey, I'm a born again, woman. I know God's word, but I am. I am shackled by this insecurity and this, these feelings of rejection. So the question is. Where is that coming from? And it was almost like a Jericho in my life.
Why is the stronghold here? And so as I would circle it and circle it through relationships and through prayer and through biblical counseling, God began to show me the root of this stronghold is wounding. That happened as a little girl. So I needed to number one, I needed to forgive, but number two, I had to start believing more of what God said about me.
Which is his truth. Then I did what the circumstances of my childhood said about me. And so there was this active replacing the truth, replacing the lie with truth, which is in turn tearing down that stronghold, which if you look back at the story of Joshua, that's exactly what they did. They obeyed God's word.
And they blew that Ram's horn. Okay. Which is the shout of victory. And those walls came crumbling down and spiritually. We can see that happening in our own lives when we began to walk and God's truth, walking God's truth and saying, this is who I am. And then that Ram's horn is just a picture of worship.
It's a picture of declaring loud. I have a good, good father and I'm loved by him and I, I belong to Jesus. And so, yeah. Using that metaphor. I think it's, for me, it's always helpful to see that because that's what happens in our life when we began to really replace those lies with God.
Tony: I'm curious if there was a lie that you think most people need to start with.
Do you have any, any thoughts on what those would be? I'm not sure if there's, I know it's not one size fits. All right. Like it's not, Hey, there's one, there's one lie that we all should start with, or maybe there is, I haven't really thought much about it, but I wonder if there's a jumping off point for most people who might feel kind of stuck in a strong.
Marian: You know, I'm spending a lot of time in the gospel of John right now. And. When I think about what Paul teaches in Ephesians, and then what we hear Jesus teaching the number one by, I believe men or women, 80 years old or 18 years old. Here's the number one. I believe most people at the core of their being battle with the lie that says they're unlovable, but the key to actually living out our life in Christ is knowing that we're the balloons.
And so when Jesus has his last night with his disciples, And he knows he's about to be crucified. He knows he's going to the, but the father, he over and over 11 times in John 15, he says, remain in my life, remain in my life, remain in my life. So when we look at the opening of Ephesians, which is what I wrote this Bible study about renewing our minds.
Paul starts with you are chosen. You're not rejected. You are wanted, you are adopted. And then he goes, you are God's beloved. And I think that's so hard for some people for, especially, it was for me to really believe because here's the line we believe God's love is based on merit and it's not. Are we believe God's love is based on, you know, well, that's similar to merit, but our performance that day, but God's love is rooted for us in Christ, which is unchanging.
And some of the more we really begin to comprehend it. And own this, the more loved we feel, because we know it's not about us. And that's where we talked about just a minute ago. Perfect. Love casts out fear. Perfect. Loves, brings freedom. Perfect. Love transforms us. And that's why Jesus just said, come to me, remain in me, abide in my love.
And then out of that overflow, your life is going to be free. It's not striving. It's not performing. It's just knowing you're the beloved, I'm the root of the live. And from this root, there's going to be great for it.
Tony: That's beautiful. And I would imagine there's a ton of fruit and studying that kind of thing.
I'm curious practically speaking, you've you've got three kids that range in age, how has learning about God's love and, and. And the study that you've done in Ephesians, how has it changed the way that you parent or.
Marian: Hmm. Well, you know, it's interesting. I, I served as an evangelist for many years. I didn't get married till I was 38.
So I spent about 10 years of my life traveling to college campuses. That was, you know, early years of my ministry sharing the gospel and. Really telling women how Jesus had rescued me and love me. And I remember married my husband and I became a stepmom, a bone bonus mom. And really just fell in love with these kids and began to experience love on a different level and understanding the heart of the father on a different level.
And on November 9th, 2016, when they laid my daughter on my chair, And the weight of that. One of my first words to my husband, I said, I don't think I understood the gospel till this point. Wow that the love of the father that he would sacrifice his son for me is it is so profound and it's so deep. And it's so shattering that I looked back on years of ministry and might did I even get it up until this moment?
You know? And so parenthood has changed so much for me. I think it's been, you know, you and I talked before the show that we're both integral integral aids were these, you know, strong leaders, you know, all of those things, but it's brought a softener. To a, receiving the heart of God that I think I needed to be shaped by.
And it's helped me understand and which I'm growing in and how to love them better with God's love, you know, I'm daily failing and daily trying to, to do that better by the holy spirit.
Tony: Yeah. Hey, I think the hardest part for me is that sometimes I want to take all my eight NES and I want to bring it into parenthood.
And my daughter, who is this. Who I love dearly. She's my princess. She is she's, she's not taking any Ram, but I believe my wife and I really believe that she's a one on the Enneagram. And so her inner critic is already so strong that if I come in with any criticism, it goes straight to tears and I'm kind of loud anyway.
And so it's, it's it, she, she really makes me a much better human, I think, most days. And I, I, that's probably true for most of them.
Marian: Yeah. Yeah, my husband's a one as well. So he's a one, two. And so I have to always, because I'm just like a truth speaker like this, and realize that's coming into a sensitive place to a one who, you know, they take that very personally.
Tony: So yeah. Straight, no chaser Graham. Right, right. Yeah.
Marian: Yes, exactly.
Tony: Exactly. One of the things that you. Talk about in the book is that the church is God's masterpiece, you know, and, and it's it's I love that idea. I'm curious. Yeah. I mean, you probably started writing this up many, many months ago, and now here we are.
And it's coming out in the hopefully what is the tail end of COVID. And yet what we're seeing is this incredible it feels like shifting of the church. I'm wondering if you have some thoughts on that and what that looks like in light of and what you're, what you've studied and what you see currently.
Marian: Yeah. So I will tell you I'm a big fan of God's church, big C and the church in my life has been a hospital. It's been a community. And in studying of fusions, I think I came away with a deeper theological understanding of how important the church is to God's global plan. And if we look at you, you miss, you mentioned the word masterpiece.
So Ephesians. Paul's explaining our identity, Ephesians two, he's telling us from our, our perspective, we were dead and then God makes us alive. And then he goes on to describe God in his grace, as this glorious artist who redeemed us, forms us as this one body, the church, and this discharge is his masterpiece on display to show the world his glory.
And so as I've looked at the pandemic and I've looked at how really throughout church history, The church should not be here. But Jesus said, the gates of hell will not prevail against her. And I've become in my own life. More passionate, more convinced that God's plan for healing, this broken world. And for redeeming people is through his body, the church.
And we must fight against the division that is happening. There is a, there is a war against the bride right now, and it's happening internally through the little stupid things. My daughter would tell me not to use the word stupid, but if you read Twitter for any amount of time, some of these things that people are finding about it, it's there is no other word.
And what we're doing is dividing the body of Christ. And there's a war on the outside as well. Of course, there's some, some of your listeners are in cities and places where their government is saying you can't meet and you can't gather, and that's an outside war, but the one we can. The inside war and I need to know politically across the aisle, if that person claims the name of Jesus, that's my brother or sister.
And I need to find some common ground of unity because the unity of the church. The way that we are going to bring about revival in this world, that we are going to be able to be the, the hands and feet that God's called us to be, and to be the city set on the hill because the darkness is only increasing and the people's need and hunger for Christ is going to increase.
But if we're not shining, as we're meant to be, then we're not doing our job.
Tony: I'm curious, just from your experience, you went to Southwestern Baptist, theological seminary coming, kind of coming out of a Baptist tradition. Has it been hard to be a female preacher in the Baptist tradition? I mean, I, I know that sometimes that can be It edgy.
I don't know what that, I'm not in the Baptist tradition. So we're Methodist over here. We and we have our own who we have lots of things going on over here, but I'm curious, kind of what your experience is like and has that caused you to double down on your love for the church?
Marian: So I'm very. I would say non-denominational my, my Bible studies published by a Methodist publishing house, but attend a, a Baptist church.
Aye, aye, aye Christ as a whole. And as a woman, I do. I do hold to probably more traditional viewpoints about a women's. And thankfully I've always been in churches. Since I said yes to Jesus that have encouraged me and delighted in the spiritual gifts that God has given me now, that is not, that is not.
Every woman's situation. I've always been in churches where I've been called to teach. I've been called to preach. I've been called a minister and that has been great. So I have not experienced what a lot of women and what you would consider traditional Southern Baptist churches. Some of the complaints that may be you're describing, I've not had that.
So. I can't speak to that perspective. I will always, and I, and I would probably say I've been under very con biblically conservative churches, but who also say, you know, what a woman has every right to teach the word as you know, anyone else. So that's the, those are the circumstances I've lived in. But I also, I also am called to teach women.
So I'm not in a place where I really ha early on, since God really anointed me in calling me to really minister into the very specific places that women are wounded, where they've been looking for love in all the wrong places where they need to know Jesus. So it's not been a conflict in my spirit, if that makes sense.
And I haven't really had to struggle with that as well.
Tony: Oh, praise God. Right? Like I, I think that's a, that's a tremendous gift and I think it's good for us to hear it because I think it is important to hold a lot of that stuff. Intention when we, because, you know, we only hear the really bad stuff, but there's also probably so much good stuff happening in the church.
And so I think that that's a, that's a great testimony.
Marian: Yeah. Yeah. You know I came to Christ at age 25 under it was at a Southern Baptist church, but you would never know it from the outside. They don't put that on the billboard or anything. And the pastor, you know, was one of those kind of old school, you know, real strong Bible teaching and it was under his.
You know, church that I was told, Hey, you go and teach you, go be an advantage. You go. I mean, so I've had really incredible men who have had pastoral leadership roles over me who have. You know, looked at my life and said, this is what God's anointing you to do. And you go do just, as Jesus said to Mary Magdalen at the tomb, Hey, go tell the brothers.
And so I do think there's a lot of bashing of men and culture and a bashing of the church. So I want to speak up and say, Hey, there have been really great pastors and really great churches out there who have not, you know, diminished me as a woman who have not, you know, they haven't been bad dudes, you know, so they don't hear those stories.
Tony: One of the things I love the way when I listened to you preach and teach it really does sound like you have this tremendous relationship with God. And, and I love that and, and all of my teachers. And so I'm curious, what are some of the things that you do to keep your relationship with God strong on a regular basis?
What are some of your, like go-to disciplines got to do this, you know, that kind of thing.
Marian: Oh, absolutely. Well, thank you. My, and I don't take that for granted because I know all of our hearts can harden through the world and sin at any time. But my first real guttural prayer to God was give me a heart to love you more than anything else in this world.
That was my first prayer. And I cause I understood I'm gonna live a hundred percent for whatever I love most. And so I went through a season where Jesus really removed things from my life that I love more from him, more than him. And that wastefulness was a beautiful thing. It was, it was. But from that brokenness I.
I discovered that Jesus is my all-in-all. And so my daily practices right now, as cliche and simple as I sound, if I get two days removed from the word of God, I can sense my heart getting hard, and I can sense my sensitivity to the spirit. Getting dull but also just confession of sin, having people in my life, dear friends, my spouse, people that when I have blown it, which is often I can turn to and say, not that they're my high priests or anything, but I just need someone that I can go to and say, listen, I need to repent of this.
I need you to hear this because this is not okay. And so, you know, keeping short accounts with God and others and just the word of God. And I listened to a lot of great teachers and I love the dwell Bible app because I'm listening to the word all the time and you're a parent, you know, it's sometimes it's hard to sit down and just read big chunks.
But you know, those two simple things are. You know, they are that what Jesus said earlier that abide remain to me, abide remain in me and making sure just as if I don't talk to my spouse every day, that relationship is going to have some distance, the same thing as with Christ. I have to stay in that close communion with him.
Tony: Now, as I look at this studying Ephesians, I'm like, wow, you did a ton of study on this. What's your process in getting so deep into one book? Cause it even, yeah. Like, it feels overwhelming to me. And, and I studied the Bible pretty regularly for, to, you know, to preach on the weekends. But this, I mean, just in depth, solid study here, how does that, how does that work in your rhythms and in your life?
And what's that process like?
Marian: So when I'm getting ready to write something like this, currently I'm writing John and a couple of years ago is when I wrote this a patient study. I've first I'll sit with the book before. You know, a couple of weeks and just read as the whole read at home. And then I'll look and ask the holy spirit to show me how to break it down into its natural points.
Because our chapter and verse divisions don't always flow well with the flow of thought that the author. Is trying to make, and so I'll just, I'll sit with it as a whole for awhile, just marinade in it, marinade in it. And then I'll break down that book. So if it was a fusions, breaking it down into six weeks and then five days per week, and then just breaking that down.
And then my process is as I'll take that. Section of scripture gets three verses or six verses. And then I will just sit with that and meditate on it and dig into the keywords and the context and the history. And then write that day's homework. And what I do is just meditate on those few passages for the day. And then I'll look up the key words, the context, the history, and then I'll write that day's homework based on what I've studied in my own Bible study, and then invite women into that. And, you know, for a lot of women who don't have.
A seminary background, or they don't know how to use concordance or those type of tools. I try to bring that to the study for them so they can have that same experience. But in there, you know, 25 minute Bible study,
Tony: And, and one of the things that I appreciate about the way that this book is written, it's, it's very interactive, right?
It's a, it's a workbook that's designed for you to do the work in there. I also noticed that it's, it, it looks like it's really easily set up for groups. How in your, kind of in your experience, how important is it for us to study scripture with other people? You know, with kind of. You know, more assistance than just us in our, our quiet time important, but this is probably even a little deeper than that.
Marian: Well I love that you said that because that kind of ties back to what we were talking about earlier. And the women that have gone through this study so far, what I'm hearing is as they're processing through these truths, and then they're meeting in their small groups or their Bible studies, that's where they can then go, Hey, I don't feel like God's masterpiece.
When I read this, that's a struggle for me to believe, and then they can talk about it with other women, right. Let's find the root of, okay, what lie am I believing? And so I think anytime we can process God's truth in community, it bears a lot more fruit. So yeah, this study was designed for women to do in churches or small groups and things like that.
But I think the, the, the fruit of that is that as we're transparent with each other, as we talk about these things, it's not an isolation. And anytime we bring something from the darkness to the light, you know, we're going to have freedom.
Tony: Yeah. And, and that, that probably is a communal effort. Most of the time, bringing something from the darkness to the light. Don't you.
Marian: Oh, absolutely. You know, in my own life, God really surrounded me with some amazing women that as I was going through my own journey of, you know, recognizing those strong hold, recognizing the lies I believed, you know, they would be voices of truth to say, That's not who God says you are, are, you know what this area of your life, you're really still operating in that old operating system.
We need to start thinking about this a different way, you know, so we need each other. And that's a huge part of Ephesians that, you know, Paul spends almost two chapters talking about the body of Christ and how we're better together and that we're not supposed to do this alone. So, you know, it's a huge part that community.
Yes.
Tony: Well, one of the things that you write about in the workbook is this idea of a spirit filled life. And I think that that's something that a lot of Christians are striving for. Right. And, and yet life feels super heavy and overwhelming at times. W what, what do you, I mean, I, I circled the word abide.
But I'm curious, what are your thoughts on, how do we, how do we take steps to live a spirit-filled life and, and really how do we know for doing it?
Marian: So what's interesting as the spirit filled life is exactly opposite of the word we just use, which is strange. The spirit filled life is one that we are surrendered.
It's not striving it's surrendered. So in Ephesians five 18, Paul gives us incredible example. I don't know if you have an addiction background. Like I do. Sounds like you were pretty I had, I definitely had an addiction addiction background, but Paul uses this analogy. To drunkenness. And he says, do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery.
Amen. But instead be filled with the spirit. So that word filled is being paralleled to the word drunk, because what Paul is saying here is whatever fills you. Controls you. So just as someone with my background, I was filled with substances or tequila or whatever it was, I was then controlled by that thing.
And likewise, as a believer, when I am filled with the holy spirit, I'm under the operating and control of the holy spirit, that is why we call it being under the influence. So how am I under the influence of the spirit it's by yielding and surrendering. And so every day, I am yielding and surrendering my life to him.
And then in moment by moment, temptation I'm yielding and surrendering my life to the spirit because every believer has the flesh, which is our old operating system. It's our old man. And we have the spirit who indwells us, who empowers us. And so when we choose to yield and surrender to the spirit, that's when we will begin to bear the fruit of the spirit and the life of the city.
Tony: Let me ask you this. What, what, what does a practical example of yielding to the spirit look like? Like on a random Tuesday?
Marian: Oh, I love this. So random Tuesday, my husband comes home from work and we have, you know, those marriage conversations and in the midst of those marriage conversations, my flash or my, my sin.
May want to dominate control B little R J. Come at my husband with, you know, a tone that is not kind now the holy spirit in me who wants to have love joy, peace, patience. I am facing a choice in every conversation. Am I going to surrender to my flesh right now? Which feels maybe entitled to be snappy, maybe feels entitled to have my way or entitled to do what I want are, and I'm going to take a deep.
And say, holy spirit, help me respond with kindness. Holy spirit helped me put this person as more important than myself. Holy spirit helped me love here. Our holy spirit helped me shut up. And so when I do that, Jesus called the holy spirit, our helper and supernaturally in that moment, standing at the kitchen.
When I take a breath and ask the holy spirit to take over, he does. And it's amazing. And I can tell you countless times in that moment, Jesus says you always have that moment. You can choose to operate in the flesh, which is going to be stubborn and prideful and selfish. And all of those things that are old, simple nature are I can take a breath and say, holy spirit, help.
And he's gonna give me the response. He's going to show up in the moment he's going to do what my flesh does not want to do. You know, and sometimes that's dying to my pride. Sometimes that's dying to being right. Sometimes that's saying something that I naturally would not say that is going to bring the situation to calm and peace.
And so that's when we get to shut, see God show up and be real, you know, it's in those moments that we surrender to the spirit.
Tony: That's beautiful. And I think it's I think most of us have that kind of internal check, check, you know, where it's like, this is not going to end well, like w w the words that are coming out of my mouth are not going to help anything that is productive in my marriage, in my parenting and my work.
Right. That's is that the spirit kind of, you know, to add advocating on our behalf to, you know, shut up or whatever we need to do.
Marian: I love that you use that word checked because I believe that, well, first of all, every. Christ's follower has the holy spirit. That's not an, that's not like a special group of people, every Christ follower and the holy spirit is a person who is in us and he is speaking and leading and guiding.
And so we'd grow and our sensitivity to his leading and guiding and promptings. And as we are sensitive, then there. Everybody has a different way, but for me, there's a check in my spirit when I'm about to say something that is maybe unkind or untruthful, or is going to be hurtful. I'll feel this little nudge in my gut.
Like don't go there. And the more I learned to tune in to that boy, The more I pay attention, the more my discernment of the spirit and what Paul calls it, Ephesians, the ability to walk in the spirit, the more that grows. Okay. And, you know, there's also something we have to be aware of when we harden our hearts to the voice of the spirit, our ears are not as sensitive.
And so we need to have that lifestyle. When we have sinned, when we have dishonored God, when we have been. Hurtful or whatever it is that correct? God, forgive me. Holy spirit helped me, you know, keeping that conversation going, because this is a relationship. It's a relationship and we need the Lord.
We can't do this on our own. You know, if, if I could live the perfect Christian life on my own, a Jesus would never have died. And B he would have never sent the holy spirit, but clearly I can't do it. And that's why I need him.
Tony: Yeah. And I think the other, other part to that is, is that not only will the holy spirit stop you from continuing in sin, but will also propel you to do something that you never would have thought of on your own.
You know? And, and I, I find that. Yeah. I find that, that, that oftentimes that little nudge that I get, which is almost like the opposite of a check, but it feels the same way that nudges to go and do something like, oh, Hey, you should go over and talk to that person. You should go pray for that person. It happened to me the other day and I blatantly ignored it.
And I had to repent later because I knew that I ignored the holy spirit. I was not in the mood to go pray with people. And it was and I had to confess and repent later. And I think, but I think that the holy spirit. Right. Propels us, you know, as Paul says, to walk in the spirit, right?
Marian: Yeah. Tony, I'm so glad you said that because it is something we grow in and you know, there's so much grace and God, you know, it's like we have kids when your kid is learning to walk.
You're not shaming them because they're not running a marathon the next day, you know, you're like, good job, keep going. And so, you know, There's grace for the growth, but also if we don't grow, we miss out the greatest adventure and life is that I have the holy spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead living in me, who gives me eyes to see the world as he does, who is going to show me things.
And I get to be a part of this life is a lot more fun than just watching Netflix. We get to be part of what the king of glory is doing on earth and. Operate with the holy spirit and listen to those promptings and listen to him. We get to do that. That's what's so cool. Wow.
Tony: I love it. I love it. Okay. I also, I have in my notes, I really want to ask you about this redeemed life podcast.
I, the people who are listening here, they love podcasts. What are they going to get when they subscribe? Which I think you should go do right now. Go ahead and subscribe to this redeemed life podcast with Marian Jordan Ellis. What are they going to get when they subscribe?
Marian: So my, my heart is I really want to.
People to know the word, but also what we were just talking about. I want you to know how on your daily life to walk in the power of the spirit. And so a lot of conversations, just like the one we just had in last five minutes, this is what it looks like in this situation. This is what the truth is in this situation.
And this is what it looks like to walk in the spirit in this situation. And I'm going verse by verse through scripture. So right now we're still going through Ephesians verse by verse, and then we'll be going through something else after that. So we're going to be unpacking. You know, you're going to be diving into context, history, all of that, but then taking it home to our kitchens and to our workplaces and really how do I live this redeem life and to own in 21 in the middle of a pandemic, how do I live this?
Tony: Oh, that sounds awesome. I'm curious if I could ask a a personal question for me. What, what do I need to know about ministering to the women in the world today that from your perspective that maybe most male pastors don't know.
Marian: I think there's such a, not a cookie cutter definition for what a woman in this world is today, anymore. You know the there's such a broad range of. Different experiences and colors, and I've entered some churches one time and you can tell that they have a very narrow view of this is what a woman is.
And if a woman doesn't fit that, then they don't know how to minister to her. And I just think getting out of our bubbles and recognizing There are women serving in the military. There are women serving at home. There are women who are right now, nurses on the front line treating, you know, the worst in the course of COVID cases.
And at the same time, women do not escape the, the burden of motherhood. And I don't mean burden in a bad thing is that women have every possible potential. Yeah, we can do anything, but also that very heavy, the home is still so much of our heart and priority. And so I, I just think you know, for a pastor it sounds like you are very much have an open door anyways, but realizing your women are just so many different places.
And for most women, they are just. Just struggling to carry it all on their shoulders. And honestly, Jesus doesn't want us to carry all on our shoulders, but there's just so many things in a world where women have been told you can have it all. You can be at all when we buy into that, which is some of that's not bad.
But it there's just a lot to carry at the end of the day. And so I believe women are exhausted. I believe they are fighting to just to do it all. And then also the temptations that I think the same temptations men are battling on so many fronts, the women are battling. Yeah.
Tony: That's a, that's a really good word. And I think you spoke to me not only as a pastor, but also as a husband, just a really good reminder. So thank you for that.
Marian: You're welcome. Thanks for asking. I don't think I've ever been asked that before.
Tony: Well, I know that so many of my listeners are going to want to follow you all over the interwebs.
And I have one more question for you, but before we get to that where is the best place for them to learn more about you and your ministry and this redeemed life and all the, all the things to know about about what God is doing? You.
Marian: Super easy. Everything is at thisredeemlife.org. That's my website.
And so you can find links to the podcast there. You can find, I have tons of sermons on YouTube, but they're all linked there as well. All of my Bible studies and resources, and then I'm on social media under this redeem live. So you can find me on Instagram. I don't take talk. I don't even know what tick-tock is.
I am so old. But no, I'm not going to be on Tik TOK. But everything else.
Tony: I have a quick count, but only so that I can watch my kids watch my oldest, my younger two aren't even on it yet.
Marian: I need to get one, just so someone else doesn't use my name, but I have this, like, I don't know if it's my age, but in like no one wants me to see me doing this video.
Like, I don't need to do this. Like I'm just too awkward. I think. I have like middle school trauma of being like, so like five 11, and everybody was like four foot seven and I was already like awkward. I'm like, I'm not putting my awkwardness on Tik TOK.
Tony: That's that's wonderful. Todd. They can come to this redeem line on me.
Yeah. Yeah. So okay. Last question. I always love to ask people as an advice question, right? And you get, I'm going to ask you to give yourself one piece of advice except I get to take you back to a very specific time in your life.
Okay. And so I'm, I'm going to ask you to give the younger version of yourself a piece of advice the day after you graduated. A seminary. So you graduated seminary the next day. You wake up and I want you to go back and talk to that younger version of Mary and Jordan Ellis and, and give her one piece of advice.
Marian: Marianne, you don't know anything? I oh, goodness gracious. I would say the number one piece of advice I would have told that seminary graduate is to stay humble and stay dependent on Jesus degrees. Don't tell you anything. And everything we need is from that vine branch relationship where we're connected to Christ.
And so stay humble, stay dependent.
Tony: Amen. Amen. That's so good. Marion, thank you so much for being so generous with your time today and for this resource. And I know that somebody, my listeners are going to pick it up and it's going to be such a blessing to them. So thank you for what you're doing for the.
Marian: You too, Tony right back at you.
Tony: You're awesome.
I love Marion's heart. She is just one of those pastors that I think we all need to listen to. I love the way that she kind of nerded out on this study. I think it's so good for so many of us and the word masterpiece just really stuck out to me in our conversation today, what that means and how we can live that out in our lives.
I'm so thankful for all of you being here today. I'm thankful for you listening. Do me a favor, hit that subscribe button, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also leave writing a review on iTunes. We really are trying to get to a hundred reviews by the end of the year. And Hey, maybe even share this episode with a friend, it goes a long way in helping others find the podcast.
And remember, if you want to follow Jesus, you must be willing to move.
