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Well, happy Hope Day, everyone. And welcome back to Life Works Better with Coach Mel. How are you, Coach? And Hostess Plymoutha. Obviously. How are you? I'm doing great here. We're trying this out. I'm out of town this week. So we're trying this out as a remote podcast. So hopefully, if anyone hears any difference, they'll just be able to get over it. Hopefully. I think the crowd is okay with it. So we're going to go with their response. I like it. Yes. Well, Coach, I miss you being in here today in the studio. I'm sipping on some Principio Pumpkin Spice, the flavor for the season. So I'm so excited about that. And we have a visitor here from Principio, Miss Principio 2023, Miss Liz Millett. Really? Yes. She is in the building. Hello. Come on in. Liz. Hi. Well, here you are on the podcast. You're a podcast guest. Here I am. How's it going? It's going great. Yeah, we miss you. Well, I miss being there, and especially now that you all are there and she's having a freshly made latte or whatever it is you made for her. What did you make for her today? So today, Clarissa has a Cinnamon Oat Latte. Okay. I was a little off on that. I called it a pumpkin spice, but I did. Clarissa, I actually know that you don't really like pumpkin that well. No. I wanted to make sure that you had something you could enjoy. Very delicious. I love it. And I think the podcast crew would love it, too. I definitely need to go out as our proud sponsors of Life Works Better with Coach Mel. Guys, go out there to Principio's website and get your subscription so that you, too, can enjoy a great cup of Cinnamon Oat Latte. I love it. Life Works Better with Coach Mel, but it works best with Coach Mel, Hostess Clarissa, and Principio Coffee and Tea. That's right. I love it. This is delicious. It's such a wonderful honor. Liz, you know, we talk about you on the podcast all the time. You do? And so I think it's only befitting if Coach Mel is okay with it for them to hear from you briefly. Are you okay with that, Coach? Yes, sure. All right. Well, Liz, I mean, you're in Principio, and you are doing a lot of amazing things. You have some great chocolates that you're pushing out for the holiday season. We have some new stuff coming down the line that we're working on. Okay. That would be a salted caramel chocolate bite. Oh, a chocolate caramel salted bite. Salted caramel chocolate bite. That's kind of a mouthful, huh? It is. Hey, that mouthful has got my mouth watering already. I know it. And how can you order these? So that is just something that we're working on. Okay. But if you go to PrincipioCoffee.com, you can purchase any of our three chocolates that we have out right now, and that is a chocolate-covered espresso bean and a chocolate crunch square bite and a chocolate peanut butter espresso bean. Oh, that sounds delicious. I was able to try that right off the assembly line. And, Coach, let me tell you, it's a mouthful of goodness. Yes, it is. It's wonderful. It's a great after-dinner dessert because it's just one small bite, not a whole lot of calories, compared to a piece of cake or pie. And so, yeah, it's just all the flavor that you could get and the fewest calories. Liz has done a great job. Yes, magnificent. And also, you have some spoons, I believe. I do. So those don't have any coffee in them, but they're so yummy. We have a chocolate mint spoon. We have a salted caramel spoon and a chocolate raspberry spoon and pumpkin spoon. And what you do is you take the little spoon that's got all this chocolate on it, stir it in your cup until it melts, and just have a wonderful flavored cup of coffee. It's delicious, and I think I've tried all spoons. You have? I love it. Even the pumpkin one? Even the pumpkin one. I've had them all, and they are great. And you have, like, a chocolate bomb, too, that you can take and drop into your coffee? I tried one of those, too. I know. I do have that. We kind of went away from it. I know. It was only you and Melvin who were really eating them, and you really weren't putting them into your coffee. You guys were just melting it a little bit and then eating the chocolate. So I was like, well, that's too much. You know, Coach, I thought we were all that mattered. I thought, you know. Yeah. I'll see what I can do for Christmas for you. Yes. I love it. And so now we have the coffee, we have the teas. You have cold tea as well as hot tea. We do. And you can purchase the cold tea online. You're just going to have to select pick up only on those and give me 24 hours to make your order with the cold tea. Yeah. Wonderful. And so you can place your subscription as well online to get your coffee. And you can even do your cold teas as a subscription. Wow. So what we do with that is it's kind of like a reusable thing, so earth cleanly. Two liters, $22 for two liter bottle of tea. And then when you bring your bottle back to me, I can refill it for $15. Oh, that's clever. Pretty awesome. Yeah, I like that. And you can do that in a subscription. Awesome. Man, Coach Presidio has it going on. Yes. Yes, she's doing a great job there. She's keeping everybody refreshed and caffeined up, and we're keeping them coached. There you go. That's a great combination. That's a perfect team. I love it. Absolutely. I love it. Raising awareness and increasing value. That's what we do. Yes. Let's go, Liz. Thanks for reminding us of all that. You got it. This is a walking billboard. I love it. Liz, we're talking today about how life works better with story. And Coach Mel has really been doing a great job in just unpacking the ecclesia and what we know it should be and how we probably have walked away a little bit from that in our modern-day society. Probably. Yeah. And so he's really been doing just a great job, and so we're back on that. Last week we did actually the last three episodes we had Carver Jones Market in with James and really informative about the underserved community and the disparities that are out there. And so now we are back on to the series and the episode with how life works better. So we're excited about that, and I think it's going to be really, really good in what we're going to be talking about today. So, Coach Mel, let's talk a little bit more about where we're headed with the life works better. Yes. Life works better with story. Yes. And, of course, story, we get that from the Latin word historia, which is the same in Spanish, but our English word history comes from that. And so story and history are actually the same word. So when someone says, hey, what is your history? They're just asking for your story. Right. So when you study history, you're just studying story. You're studying someone's story, the story of a person or a people or a location. It's the story of all the ages together. That's what history is. But every person has a story. God has a story, but not every person has a God story. But every person can have a God story. And what makes us have a chance to participate in that God story is, of course, Jesus of Nazareth. And through him, we can be properly related, forgiven, connected again to our creator in a vibrant way. And then our story is part of his story and vice versa. And so what we're looking at is the power of story and life works better with story. And we're looking at the story of the ecclesia. And as I've said before, this is not to be confused with the history of the church. The church is the earthly human organizational side of what we might call Christianity as a religion. But this series is a little different in that we're focusing on the story of the ecclesia. That is the ones that are part of society that have heard the voice of God, have felt the spirit of God, and they've responded to that call and they've come out, which that's what ecclesia means. It means those who are called out. So we've been called out of one existence and into another existence. And the story of the ecclesia, the reason that's different than the history of the church, is because a lot of times people got involved in their own things and just really got selfish with what they were doing, using God as an excuse to do things and to hurt people. You don't say it's an excuse to help people, but they changed the reason to help people into an excuse to hurt people. And it's really given the quote-unquote church a bad reputation many times. But the ecclesia is always a part of what God is doing in every generation, and so he is now. But as we look back at the story of the ecclesia, we see different people and different events that were important in the story of the ecclesia, and especially as that story may be different from the history of the church. I don't know, this sounds like it may be a little complicated or getting a little complicated with our listeners, but I'm sure they'll be able to maybe listen to this twice and figure it out. What do you think, Clarissa? I agree. You know, when you were talking, I remember when you were giving the structure and the breakdown of the ecclesia versus the churches we know it as being a building or an organization, and it's caused me to really go back and kind of look at the format of church and how we've grown to see it as it is today. And so we do so many things, Coach, and not knowing why we do what we do or how it came about, and we're just so adamant about it. No, no, no, it has to be like this. Do you even know why? We are adopting things that we've learned from years past, and we're calling it Bible. And I have my quotation fingers up, but it's not Bible at all. I mean, it's a man-made tradition that we've implemented, and it is not the ecclesia. Yes, yes, you're right. And sometimes the ecclesia can operate within the church, but that isn't always the case. And I will say this. Anytime the ecclesia begins to operate in a dominant fashion, there is always controversy within the church. Wow. Because church, of course the word church means of the Lord. That's literally what the word church means. It comes from the Greek through the northern German dialects and then over into Scotland and then down to England and then into our English language. Pronounced Kirk, but then our English pronunciation and even spelling is church. And that just simply means of the Lord, kurakos, of the Lord. And so it could be the people of the Lord. It could also be the building of the Lord. But for the most part, it's been translated, interpreted as being the Lord's property. So we say that the people go to the church, when really it's the church going to the building. It's the ecclesia going to a building that is the Lord's building. So it's the Lord's body going to the Lord's building. But that has really complicated things because we begin seeing the church as the building. We begin seeing the church as the organization rather than recognizing it as the organism that it is. And that Jesus is the builder of the ecclesia. Man is the builder of the church. And Jesus did not say, I'm going to build my church, my kurakos. He said, I'm going to build my ecclesia. I'm going to build and animate, enliven, invigorate and encourage and edify those who answer my voice as they hear me call them. And I'm going to work through them and in them for the benefit of the kingdom of God. That's different than church. A lot different. Yes. And so we've been looking at different dates and different people and things that have happened. And I think about a month ago now, since we took our little tour through the ecclesia, coming alive through just some people's vision. We've been talking with James Harris and Corber Jones Market. And folks can go back and listen to those three episodes. It's a great story of how when ecclesia intersects society, it really doesn't look like church most of the time. Because it's just a raw combination of those who are hearing from God and society that needs to hear from God. And that's how I would say, that's how I would describe true missions and true ministry. So anyway, the folks can go back and listen to those if they haven't heard them. But the one that we talked with last, when we were in the timeline of the ecclesia, was when the New Testament actually came together. It was in the 360s A.D. And today we're going to move on to another date. That's just a little later on from that. And that has to do with a guy named Augustine of Hippo. And we're not talking hippopotamus. We're talking about hippo. By the way, that's from the Latin word for horse. So there was a part of North Africa during the Roman Empire that was really famous for horses and the kind of horses they bred and trained. And so that's how that area got its name. And there was a person born there in the 350s A.D. And his father was a Roman official and was not a believer. His mother, whose name was Monica, she was a believer. And so when her son was born, she dedicated her son to the Lord. And he acted nothing like he had been dedicated to God for the first 30 some years of his life. He was very intelligent from the beginning. They were able to send him to the best schools. And so he had the best education that was available to him in his day. Which Clarissa reminds us of other people in the history of God's story. And actually the Ecclesia, even in the Old Covenant, people hearing from God and hearing God's voice. But Moses was one of the most educated men of his day. So was Daniel. So was the Apostle Paul. So here this guy comes along, Augustine of Hippo. And he got the best education that would have been possible. And he also got involved in philosophy. And of course the Roman Empire at that time was just a bubbling cauldron of different philosophies and paganism of all sorts. And he was exposed to Christianity early on. And so when his mother would want him to pray, this is the prayer that Augustine prayed. Whenever she was like, Augustine, you need to straighten your life out. You're not living a life of purity. And you need to pray. And he said, okay, Mom, this will be my prayer. Lord, make me chaste, but not quite yet. Wow. So it was like he was trying to satisfy his mom's desire for him to pray. And yet he was trying to keep an open door there, keep one foot in the world, as we would say. And how many have repeated that prayer? Yes. Lord, make me pure, but not quite yet. Yeah. Yeah, let's hold off on that being pure and chaste for right now. Right. Again, as we talk about Ecclesia, this is a very important part of the story of Augustine, who ended up, we know him best now as St. Augustine, or the English pronunciation, St. Augustine. Because he did change his ways and he did hear from God. And as a matter of fact, Clarissa, it came about in a very interesting way. He left North Africa and he went to Rome, where he went again to some of the best schools there. And he studied rhetoric, which is kind of a combination between speech and philosophy and law. Rhetoric just meant speaking. And so public speaking then, at that time, people made a living by just going around and hiring themselves up to different people for certain causes. So they would just go and they would be like the personal social media outlet for an individual or a cause. Right. Or he would hire himself an attorney to plead someone's case. And so they talked about, he learned about persuasion and speech and law and philosophy, all kind of ways. And he was just having a great time. But the longer he lived, the prayers of his mother just felt, he felt them stronger and stronger in his life. And so he went to Milan, another city in Italy, and he heard about a guy there that was a preacher. His name was Ambrose. And he heard that Ambrose was a great public speaker. I mean, everybody in Milan was just raving about Ambrose and how what a great speaker he was. And of course, that was Augustine. He wanted to learn all he could about speech and being a persuasive speaker. So he started going to the church services to listen to Ambrose preach. And it was like he started kind of listening then and he started hearing the voice of God and the call of God even more clearly. And so God used this man, Ambrose, to really get his attention, to wake something up in him about how that you could be intelligent and still believe in God and that you could be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth and not have to check your brains at the door, so to speak. And because he saw that in Ambrose, who was a very polished, developed speaker and a very devoted believer, by the way. And so he was just sitting in a courtyard one day, just like a public park area there in Milan. And this little child came skipping through the courtyard there in just little sing song verse saying, pick it up and read it, pick it up and read it. And so Augustine was like, what is that kid talking about? He looked around and there was a Bible sitting on a bench near him. And he went over to that bench and that Bible was opened up to the book of Romans and Augustine started reading. And he saw in the book of Romans where Paul was talking about how God through the Holy Spirit had given us the power to have victory over not just the penalty of sin, but even over the power of sin in this life. So that a person that was properly connected to the Creator through Jesus of Nazareth, once we've been forgiven, then we give in to the power of the Holy Spirit and that we actually have power. And we have the ability to overcome the power of sin in our life, not just the penalty for eternal life, but the power of sin in this present life. And that's what really got his attention, because all the other philosophies that he had studied, even though the religions, including Judaism, was like, yeah, they expect you to do these great things, but there's no power there. And he realized that his personal willpower didn't amount to enough to keep him pure and chaste because he really didn't want to be that way. But as he read through the scriptures and then he became convinced and God really spoke with him, spoke to him, and he became a part of the ecclesia as he responded to the voice of God. And so he literally was called out of where he was because of his giving in of listening to the voice of God. And so as he began to study the scriptures more and listen more to Ambrose, then he came to faith, was baptized by Ambrose, and then he went back to North Africa. And, of course, his mother was just overjoyed that he had become a believer. And he attempted to just do some writing, and he was doing speaking and all, and his study of the scriptures. And then he was, of course, a very learned philosopher. And so he just began to see so many things and so many ways that truth that God had revealed through some philosophers and how it coincided with the wisdom of scripture. And it just really amazed him how that God would work through someone that wasn't even connected through Christianity, but yet just through just observing life that he would, that someone would come to some of the same conclusions of wisdom as is found in the Bible. So that Holy Spirit would actually be talking with people, speaking to people. And, you know, it kind of reminds me of a verse, Clarissa, in John chapter 3. It's after the John 3, 16, which is one of the more famous verses in all the Bible, one that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. If you ever believe in him, you will not perish, but have everlasting life. But a little later on, Jesus continued that conversation with Nicodemus. And along about verse 20 or 21, he said that anyone who is practicing the truth is coming into the light. And so that God works with us and God draws us. And God actually draws people towards purity as he was doing with Augustine. And Augustine had this desire to live a purer life, but had no power to do it except through a connection with the Holy Spirit through Jesus. And so he began to teach on that and do some writing. And then he was actually, quote unquote, forced into becoming a church leader there. And so he became part of the organization, but he was still speaking out of his heart as part of the ecclesia. And many people took what he had written and attempted to use it to control people and for their own benefit and make it part of the man-made doctrine of what we would call the church. But I'm convinced that Augustine himself in his heart, he truly heard from God and he was part of the ecclesia. And he attempted in many ways to make the things that God was doing throughout the story, history, was truly pointing back to his truth and to the scriptures. And Augustine, as I said, he was a great philosopher. Some of the more interesting writings of ancient Rome, he wrote in Latin. So that switched the language from Greek and writings in Greek as the New Testament was written into Latin because of people like Augustine that started writing in Latin. And he wrote just a short book entitled Confessions, and it was kind of his own testimony. I've read through it several times. If someone's just interested in what the heart of someone, what the heart of someone may have been feeling back in the days of the Roman Empire, and how Holy Spirit could touch a heart and call him and he could become part of the ecclesia, I would recommend that you can find it on Amazon. It's just Confessions by St. Augustine. And it's considered one of the first true autobiographies in the history of literature because he speaks as one that is self-aware. And he talks about his feelings and he expresses his feelings as someone just observing his own life and then telling his story from the inside out. And then he wrote other great works. He wrote one on the Trinity. He wrote one on the city of God. When Rome fell a little later on in Augustine's ministry, the early 400s, Rome was sacked by Germanic tribes. And then people started blaming Christianity. They said, hey, it's because the empire became Christian and then got weak, and that's why all this happened. And Augustine defended the ecclesia through his work, his literary work called The City of God. And he said there are two cities in this world, in this life. There's the city of the world and there's the city of God. And he said Rome, as we know it, the Rome that got destroyed, even the church buildings, everything else that got destroyed, that was part of the city of this world. And that was the church. But he said the ecclesia is always alive and it's always doing well. And it's those that are connected to the ecclesia and not just to the church that can make it through these times even though they're very trying. Clarissa, that's a lot. It is. But, you know, you leave us with hope. Yes. Yes. And what this is all about, I mean, I really want to promote Augustine and his writings, and especially that it's a long book, The City of God. But you read that and you hear someone's heart, and especially confessions. I really want to promote that. You can get a very inexpensive paperback. They're used. You can probably get one for a dollar. It'll cost you more for shipping than the book does. But get that and read it. And we just kind of see into the heart of someone that was truly wanting to be part of the ecclesia and that had his struggles, as we all do, when we're hearing from God. But then there's not just the lure of the world, but there's even the lure of the church. Yes. And we can get off track, as God's calling to us, we can get off track in a church just as much as we can out in the world. Because, as has been stated a number of times, we look at the church and we see the world, and we look at the world and we see the church. But the ecclesia is always, as Augustine said, the ecclesia is always part of a city of God. And it looks different than cities of this world, even if they may have a church name on them. And they have been dedicated to something that's called church or religion. But that's not where it's at. Isn't that a beautiful thought? And someone in the late 300s, early 400s... Coach Males? Yes. Yes. I know the music kind of threw you there a little bit. Yes, it did. Okay, well, I'll tell you what, I guess... You know, you always leave us with these cliffhangers and these amazing statements. And I said, okay, that's my cue. Okay, well, I was listening here because I know we're doing this remote. And I'm like, okay, I've put people to sleep before talking, but I didn't realize I could bring on the music. Oh, you can. It's a special anointing. Man, I tell you, these episodes have been so amazing, Coach. And I would recommend all of the listeners to definitely go out there and grab your pen and your pad, as I said before, and write these notes down. Because it causes you to go back and look at your surroundings. It causes you to go back and just really review what you've been taught in the past. Because a lot of it is just not on point. A lot of it is just not on point. I won't say it's not true, but it's just not on point. So, Coach, thank you so much for your deep dive and getting the information to give to us about how life works better with his story and the Ecclesia. It has just really been spot on. All right. Well, thank you very much. And keep on, and I challenge our listeners to go become part of the story of the Ecclesia. Yes. Amen. All right. Now, Coach, safe travels to you coming back to Birmingham. Yes. Thank you very much. Absolutely. All right, guys. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you back here next week.