riverside_marisely_marte, take 03 _ jun 22, 2024 002_anchored_in truth &

Maricely and Sharon are hosting a podcast called "Anchor in Truth and Wisdom" where they aim to guide women from darkness to light, pain to purpose, and brokenness to restoration. They share powerful testimonies, biblical wisdom, and practical strategies for overcoming self-doubt and deepening one's connection with God. The podcast is for women in different seasons of life, such as moms, wives, divorced women, widows, or those struggling with identity, shame, or guilt. They hope to provide encouragement and tools to navigate life's challenges with resilience and grace. Maricely and Sharon discuss their own experiences and the difficulties they faced in their faith journeys and how they want to share the effectiveness of the gospel in transforming their lives. They also express the need for correct teaching of the gospel and the importance of clarifying misunderstandings and questions about faith. Hello, and welcome to the Anchor in Truth and Wisdom, the podcast where we guide women from darkness to light, pain to purpose, and brokenness to restoration. I am your host, Maricely Malte. I am a Christian biblical counselor, and joined by me, my wonderful friend, co-host, Sharon Anit. In each episode, we share powerful testimonies, dive into biblical wisdom, and offer practical strategies for overcoming self-doubt and deepening your connection with God. Whether you're a mom, wife, divorced woman, widow, or struggling with identity, shame, or guilt, this podcast is for you. Join our supportive community as we explore stories of faith and healing, providing you with the encouragement and the tools to navigate life's challenges with resilience and grace. Subscribe now and embark on this transformative journey with us, discovering hope, purpose, through Christ. God bless, and hope to see you soon. Bye. We're here. We're back. Yes. We're here. We're here. So now we can see the recording. The mic is on. Welcome, everyone. Yeah. Wow. So welcome to the Anchor in Truth and Wisdom, right? We needed some wisdom earlier with the mic. But we are here. This is going to be a community for women. And in this community, my name is Maricely, by the way, and this is Sharon. And please, this is not going to be your normal podcast. It's not going to be, like, super professional right now because we're not famous. We're winging it. We are being ourselves. That's good. And we're just going to wing it. Even if I can't say a word, she will say it for me and vice versa. But this is just for women that we want to dedicate this to actually help women walk along in different seasons of life, especially as a Christian woman that I come from a different background altogether. We would explain that throughout the podcast. We're going to be actually speaking about testimony, how God has transformed our lives, biblical wisdom, definitely, because it's something that, to be honest, I didn't get when I was growing up. And I know you're going to speak for yourself. And we also want to share practical strategies on how to help women to navigate these seasons. I know that at this moment I just became a member at a new church, and I've been there for about 11 months. Well, 10 months maybe. And to be honest, it was the hardest to join, to understand their theology. And I had to heal from my church hurt because I was church hurt for many years. And I needed to learn how to navigate the season that I'm in right now. So that's why when I spoke to Sharon about three years ago, she wasn't ready, and I don't think I was ready either. So now you will say, why did I reach out to you? Mariceli reached out to me. So, you know, this podcast is mostly we want to anchor women in the truth of the gospel. And Mariceli had reached out to me three years ago, and I was in a really hard season. My ex-husband had just walked out on our family after 25 years of marriage. And she reached out to me because she really was feeling from the Lord. And she thought that I feel from the Holy Spirit. And I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. Like, I don't know. I don't know how to tell her. Like, I'm not feeling nothing right now. I'm not feeling. But she was so good. I really feel like the Lord wants us to collaborate together. Like, you know, I'm just feeling that. And I'm like, sure, one day, yeah, sure, we'll get together. We'll have coffee sometime. But we never set up. And it was just like, yeah. At that time, I wasn't ready. I think I was in just a hard season in my faith where I was just questioning a lot of the things that I was taught that weren't working. And I was wondering, you know, if this is what I was taught, why doesn't it equal this in my marriage right now? So when Maricely reached out, I was like, yeah, sure, we can, you know, I was just like, yeah, you know, one time we'll see when we get together for coffee. But I was never really ready to talk. And I was always kind of the, and Maricely is a little bit like this, too. We're a little bit more skeptical when people just reach out really quick. We're just like, wait, let me see. And I knew that Maricely knew my sister. They've been friends for many, many years. But I didn't personally know Maricely. We didn't even know how. We were together in Facebook. In Facebook. I know that, you know, growing up, you know, churches will get together and we know people and we identify people. But I didn't know Maricely like that. So it was, I don't know, I still don't know how we got each other on Facebook. We had each other on Facebook for a long time. But we didn't really talk to each other until she reached out three years ago. And then a couple months ago, Maricely was, Maricely and I are always on Instagram and Facebook just talking and sharing. And I was like, Maricely, we should just record a podcast together. And she's like, are you serious? And I'm thinking one episode. And she's thinking huge. That's in my brainwaves. And I'm just like, and I'm thinking, sure, yeah. And she's like, are you serious? I've been praying for this. She was so excited. And I'm thinking, again, small. When I get here, my girl has all this ready of paper, you know. And I'm like, oh, wow. Like, this girl, hey. It's serious. It's serious. It's a heart attack. And we spent, what, four hours that day talking? Yeah, yeah. Because I think we left here at like 1.30 at night. Yeah. And then now, now we're together. Now we're getting ready to talk and share with a passion that's in both our hearts. I think it's to communicate to women the effectiveness of the gospel. Yeah. And not the effectiveness of how I look. And then the gospel. There's no adding to the gospel. The gospel is what transformed our lives. And I think because we realized that in our own lives and we've kind of been through some really hard, difficult seasons in our lives. And we were raised in the church. We were both raised in the church. Maricely, more Pentecostal. I was more charismatic. We'll talk about that in future episodes, the differences. And we'll talk about why that's so important. And we'll talk about and we'll reiterate that it's nothing against charismatic, more Pentecostals. Because we love our Pentecostal and charismatic backgrounds. We have it in our hearts. But there are a lot of things that weren't taught to us in a correct way that we learned eventually as we grew in the knowledge and the grace of who Christ is. We grew in the knowledge of his word. And that's why we're here today. We want to share that. We encounter women who are where we were. Yes. And it's so prevalent here at the Upstate New York, at Rochester meeting, because I don't have anybody outside of that. And it was hard for me to, even when I came back to Rochester, and, again, I moved back here in 2019, and I had her on my Facebook. And I think that's when I started watching her. And I started seeing her status, or she was going through something. And I'm like, what is she going through? And I wanted to reach out to her, but I didn't dare to. But I was praying for her at that moment. And when I started seeing my surroundings, I didn't know or I didn't understand that God was already aligning my life with a lot of things, like the theology. I started seeing things, and I'm like, that doesn't make sense in my life. At the moment that I thought that I would lose my salvation every day, that's when I realized, okay, what's going on here? And my husband, he came to know the Lord. And that was also a season that I needed to understand what it was. And when I came to know certain things, and even here, women out here are very, I don't know if it's a distorted view of the gospel or because the churches lack teaching the gospel. I don't know which one it is. Maybe it's both. But it is something that it was hard for me because I couldn't go to anyone with my questions. When I started having those questions, I went up to her. Like, okay, Sharon, I don't understand this. And you're the only one that actually shared certain things that I was, like, struggling with. Even with, like, my winger, you started sharing things like that. And I was seeing my husband wash my winger and coffee head. And I was like, wait, what's going on here? I don't understand this. I don't understand my husband. But maybe Sharon could explain this to me. Because I thought certain things. I'm so worried for my husband. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, what happened? Yeah, I was like, I even went on a fasting for, like, 30 days, okay? I was like, I'm going to pray for him for 30 days because, you know, God has to open his heart. But that's when I think it was God opening my heart to understand what I was seeing. And still, it's been three years with that. Still today, my DNA was Pentecostal. Yeah. So, when you start removing certain things, you start questioning everything. Or clarifying them. Yeah. There would be more clarification on things that you didn't know. It was confusing. Yeah. It's an inner struggle. Yes, it is. It was like, wait, what am I thinking, too? And that's when I started hearing the lyrics, music, even the music, everything, even today, I'll be honest. I love music because I do. But it has been a struggle in my life. It's been like my life went upside down. I couldn't share this with anyone. But, I mean, I shared it with you. But you understood where I was coming from. If I would have shared it with somebody that does not understand what I was going through, they would have said, Mary, you don't have Christ. Or Maricely, you're losing your salvation. Or Maricely, oh my God, you need to pray more. Or you have no faith. Or the devil's attacking you. Yeah, yeah. That's a prevalent one. Or you have a demon inside of you. Or something. So it was a hard moment for me because, to be honest, I couldn't, nobody could relate to what I was facing. I couldn't talk to anyone in this area about this because it was a personal relationship that I was going through, even with myself. Even my daughter, because later on I'll explain that, too. But it was a hard season for me. And you were struggling with the fact that you left the past here and that's who people knew when you left. And now this is a whole other person. Now you're stepping into a place where the only thing that people know about Maricely is the old Maricely. The old Maricely. And that was a struggle. That was a hard struggle because when I moved here, it was just a few months of me starting my sobriety. But to be honest, it was hard. It was, I had to put this space or this lifestyle that I was like, I got it, I got it, you know, I'm doing it. And it went around my kids because that's the whole reason why we moved here. It was to be closer to the kids. And I'll explain to that later on. But, yes, like you said, it was a lot of things that I really couldn't express. I really couldn't talk about it because a lot of people, sometimes when you say something, and that's the whole thing, I want to make sure that this is going to edify people because we're not here to point fingers at no one. We're not here to judge. But I am going to speak about my experience. And that's something that people also need to understand and respect your experience and my experience and how God really is still changing and transforming us to what it is to have that biblical wisdom in our lives. But, yes, it was a hard moment. And it still is to navigate this new season of the new learning, how to see things. When you see certain things now on social media or where you see certain churches, you're like, you kind of cringe like, Wow, did I do that before? Oh, yeah. My daughter and I were talking about that the other day. She was saying how she was thinking of just certain things that she would do that she just cringed thinking about it. Because, you know, even, this is what I will say, that even in those moments, God will be glorified. When you are his children, he's the one that sustains and keeps you. And even that he will use for his glory and for his honor. And they're teaching moments for us. They're growing pains in our spiritual walk. So I think that's our goal is that we really want to encourage women that if you're facing those kind of seasons, we've been there. And we're still there in certain levels, right, in certain levels of that season. We're still there when it comes to that. But we really want to encourage the gospel. Just the gospel. The gospel is what transforms. The gospel is what changes. The gospel is what reached us. The gospel is what sanctifies us. And that's a fancy word for just saying to make us look more like Christ. And the gospel is what continues to keep us. We don't need the gospel. We were talking about that earlier. We don't need the gospel just for salvation. We need the gospel for our growth in Christ. And that's what people kind of forget, that the gospel, the grace is sufficient for saving, but they forget that the grace is also sufficient for growing us in the knowledge and grace of who God is. And they sanctify us to make us look more and more like him. Do we mess up? Yeah. Do we, you know, sin along the way because we're still in this sinful nature? Yeah, we do. But the hope is that we no longer, that Christ paid a price and we no longer are bound to our sin and death. We are now a slave of Jesus Christ. So that encourages us and that moves us towards holiness. That when we mess up, we have a high priest who sympathizes with us and that we can approach the throne of God with confidence. Not in ourselves and not in, I did this and I look this way now because I look this way. Now, God, you're bound to do this. No, it's because of the work of Jesus Christ, the sufficient work of Christ. And now I can approach the throne of God with confidence saying, listen, there was a high priest who paid a price for me. Help me. I need you in my time of need when I'm struggling with sin. And as you're sharing this, what do you think that, because I know we're going to have pushbacks. And a lot of people might not understand where we are at. Because I think it's one of the things that I needed to understand was when I started to research things or the clarification, what if I wasn't ready at that moment? I would have had issues with my husband. Because to be honest, like you said, it's the sanctification process. I was raised that it was always you repent, you repent, you repent. But repent means to equal repentance that there's got to be a change. You can't continue repenting every single day and not have a change of life. Well, this is the tricky part about that, right? Because when we say the Bible talks about that there is godly sorrow that leads to repentance for salvation, and then there is worldly sorrow. And when we see the continual, right? And we got to be really careful, right? Because we're not the Holy Spirit. We're not the one that convicts. And sometimes people have to fall on their face 20 times before they kind of get the point that, you know, this is not good for you. This is not something that's good for you. Godly sorrow will always produce that salvific saving in your life that Jesus Christ gave. There will always be a fruit of salvation in our lives. It means that I will struggle with that sin. It means that if it's sexual immorality, I'm going to struggle with that. And every day I have to approach the throne of God with confidence knowing that there I will obtain mercy and grace. Grace is what I need for my time of need. Grace is what moves me, what keeps me, what motivates me, what continues to move me toward righteousness, right? So I need that grace for my time of, yeah, I'm sinning. I continue to sin. God, why do I continue to want these things? Listen, there's things that are not good for us. Let's go simple. Gossip. Let's go simple. Because we go to the heart of the sexual immorality. We go to the adultery. Let's go to gossip. How much do we really gossip on a daily basis? A lot. Specifically women. Let's be real. A lot, right? And we continue to do it, continue to do it, and continue. But when we feel that not just the Holy Spirit, yeah, don't talk about this and don't talk about that. That is the Holy Spirit doing His work in us of sanctification of, hey, that's not good for you. Yeah. Don't do that. I have something better for you than you gossiping. Bring that to me. Talk to me about it. You know, just simple things like that. Sometimes the problem is that we're so focused on the fruit, and this is the tricky part. We're so focused on the fruit of the person to identify 100% salvation. And yes, there has to be a fruit of salvation, but be careful to be the judge of the salvation. Does that make sense? Yes. We know that salvation will always produce fruit. That's it. Now, as Christians, let's also be real and let's be careful, right? Because as Christians, I have the right to judge you and say, Maricely, girl, you're not walking in the right path. What's going on? That's my job as a Christian to judge around that. We go to Matthew, I believe it's Matthew 18, where Jesus tells the sinner, hey, if this sin is causing you to sin, pluck it out. If one eye is causing you to sin, pluck it out, because it's better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with none, right? Or with two. And he tells the sinner specifically, this is how you purge that sin out of your life. But then he continues on later in those verses, down in those verses, and he continues to say, wait a minute. I just told you how to pluck sin out of your life, and you're not doing it. So this is what I'm going to do for you, because I love you. Hey, brother, if you see your brother sin against you, go to your brother and tell him. And by telling him, you bind Satan. But if your brother doesn't listen, Jesus says, okay, take a witness. Take a witness to talk to your brother about his sin. Because maybe, just maybe, you can save him. And then if your brother still doesn't listen, this is where Jesus gets even more harsh. Shout it to the church. That's it. And then he goes on to say, todavía, if he doesn't listen, hand him over to Satan. Because just maybe, just maybe, by doing that, you might save his life. That person's life. That person's life. And that's harsh. That is harsh. When you hear it, when you're saying it, and even if people today are like, well, that's not my job. Yeah. Or we say, my job is not to judge. Yeah. That's not what Jesus is telling us. Yeah, that's not what it means. I mean, if you look at the entire verse, if you look at the entire chapter, what you see displayed in the character of Jesus is, first, mercy. Mercy. That he's saying, listen, I know that you're living in the sinful world, but wait. Talk it out. Get it out of your life. You know, how can you do that? Well, confess to someone that you trust in. You know, hey, I'm struggling with this sin. You know, someone that you know is going to walk you back in that path of righteousness. And then if you don't do that, look at how his mercy continues to be displayed, that he sends someone to you to save you from that. And even in exposing us, even in exposing us, he's saving us. Yeah. Right? So God's love and mercy is displayed in that even while we're still sinners, God is eager to save us. He's eager to rip us from the hands of Satan to keep us from sin. So I think there has to be a balance to say, yeah, there has to be fruit that we need to see in the believer's life. But be careful to just quickly write off that believer because they sinned. Yeah. Even though they might sin differently than I do, right? Yeah. You can see it in the community more, right? You can see it and display more. But my sin could be hidden from the entire community, but it could be something that could actually affect the entire community of the body of Christ. And that's one thing is how to have the accountability because that's what I see is having that friendship, that Godly friendship that's going to help you. Because I'm not going to reach out to somebody that I actually see the same thing that I'm doing. Yeah. Because I know in the past I have had friends that are probably worse than I am, and those are the ones that I am not going to look for edification, definitely. I'm not going to look for a Godly word there because it might take me to, well, it's okay, Mariceli, God sees you. Yeah. It's okay for what you're doing because I do the same thing, but we just got to, you know, we do our best, but that's not what I'm looking for because that's not my best. Yeah. And that's where... And sometimes we will look for that. Yes, because... We will look for that because we feel so guilty. Or we want the path of least resistance for sure because we feel so guilty. Again, worldly sorrow, right? That leads to death, right? Those are the two things, the two sorrows that the Bible speaks of. Godly sorrow that leads to salvation and worldly sorrow that leads to death. And that worldly sorrow that makes me feel guilty because it does bring some kind of shame. Sin brings shame and guilt. It will produce death if it's not Godly sorrow. So, you know, those are the kind of... I don't get that. Yeah, I really don't. And that's where I think women lack or that's where some of these women that are actually looking for that connection with God, they see more of the worldly sorrow and that empty longing that they have. They want to fill it up with, well, this is how I look. I look perfect. Oh, they look amazing over there. So let me hang out with those women. Or if I just can look the part, then maybe God will keep me enough or save me enough or maybe just altogether get rid of the struggle that I have. You might have the struggle for the rest of your life and that's what keeps you dependent on the cross. That just might be it, right? But it's how do I receive that invitation that God gives us to come and approach the throne of God with boldness. Like, man, the boldness of Christ knowing that He paid the price. I have an advocate that is at the right hand of the Father and He's interceding for us day and night. Interceding for us that I can approach that throne with boldness and say, I must stop. I need grace for my time of need. There have been moments in my own life that I am struggling. Like, struggling that I have. I was sharing this with a friend the other day that I have seen the hand of God where I'm like, God, save me from this one. Save me because I feel like I am going to fall on my face. If you don't make a way out for me, I am going to fall on my face. The fact that that's approaching the throne of God with boldness, like, I am struggling with this big time. Can you please make a way out? Show me the way out, please, because I'm struggling with it. And that He's so good and so kind and so merciful that in our time of need, He provides that grace. He gives that provision to say, I'm sufficient. I'm enough. It doesn't mean perfection. It does not mean we're perfect. It means that we're dependent. We're dependent on our Savior. We're dependent on Christ. And that's the message that we want to convey to the women. It's not about looking the part. We can look. The Pharisees looked perfect. Yes, and they were. They looked great, but their hearts were so deceitful. And Jesus even referred to them as shrewd of vipers. I think I'm saying that right because my son and I, we just know those things. He's making it worse. No, he's making it a lot worse. Like, yes, it is true. But they didn't. They looked the part, but their hearts are far from God. And Jesus was like, I don't even know you. I don't even know you. Because they thought that their own righteousness, the way that they looked, the way that they behaved, the way that they had the Christian part down pat was what was sufficient to faith. So that's what we want to convey through this. We want to anchor women in the truth of the gospel because that is what's going to be the true transformation in our lives. We can go to counseling a million times. We both know that so very well. We can do all the steps that they give us. But what's truly going to transform our hearts is that our hearts need to be made alive again and that it's only to the power of the Holy Spirit. So that's what we want to say. And we have so many things that we want to talk about. Listen, they're just throwing all of it out there, a little bit of what we want to talk about. But it's because it is something that our heart wants to convey this to women. And, again, this is for the woman that wants to learn the word of God. It's not for everyone because I know we're not going to be for everyone. We're not going to reach everyone out there. But I just pray that the Holy Spirit will touch these women's hearts that are looking for that accountability, are looking to, okay, I messed this up. How can I do this? That we could actually explain to you or give you guys some of these strategies that are biblical strategies because it has nothing to do with what I'm doing or what you're doing, right, but what God is teaching us to do. And it's through his word. Nothing else that I have done, I'm telling you, I have done and I have tried a lot of things. But nothing can compare to what the Holy Spirit has done in my life and how the word of God has changed the way I think. Because in order for us to grow, we have to renew our minds, right? And also we also need to understand that we have to take our thoughts, right, and make sure that they're submitting these thoughts to Christ, to the word of God, right, to God. Because if not, I'm going to continue messing up. I'm going to continue saying, well, I feel guilty because I continue to do the same thing over and over. Well, then you need to reach out and find that godly sister that will be there to say, hey, I'm here to help you, pray for you. I'm here to keep you accountable even if you messed up because how many times I haven't messed up? Even if you mess up, even if you fall on your face or you say, I can't do this. I mean, there's so many different times that I felt like, hey, am I manic? Why did I create this business? Why am I here? Why are we in Rochester? Why even bother helping? Because sometimes I feel that way. But then something comes to my end that's not about you. It has nothing to do with your doing, Mari, because it's not. It has nothing to do with what I'm doing, but it's to try to engage with you sisters out there. And I hope that we could bring some clarity, some wisdom, and even the women that are going through this whole emotional healing process. I could tell you that that's the hardest, isn't it? That's one of the things that I can say that the emotional healing and that process could take a long time. Yes. Yes. I'm still walking through this. It's trauma. I mean, I know a lot of women out here have gone through trauma. And sometimes church, I'm not really equipped to help women that are broken. And even the emotional part of it, they could be church hurt plus womanhood. Trauma hurt. I mean, all around. And don't tell the sister, oh, that means you got to pray more. Do you think that's going to work? Yes. I mean, we know prayer does work, right? We do. But my outcome in my life is not contingent about how much I do. I think that's the problem. If you fast enough and pray enough and do enough, then that equals this. God is not obligated to be moved by my 30-day fast. He is not obligated, and this is not done. Okay, let me be clear. This is going to be the phrase I'm going to be using a lot. I use it a lot with my friends. What I am not saying, I am not saying that you shouldn't fast, that you shouldn't pray, that you shouldn't be vigilant when the enemy is attacking. I am not saying that you shouldn't do those things. I am saying that my outcome of those things is not contingent upon what I do. It's contingent upon who God is, his sovereignty and his plan for my life. So if God has allowed a season in my life for whatever it is and how horrible it may look, he knows that his children and he will keep you even through that. Again, those are things we're going to talk about in the future, but we want this to be a place where you know that even if you don't have someone that you can reach out to, we want to be there for you through this podcast. We want to be a safe place where you feel like, hey, I need to talk to someone about some things that I'm going through and some things that I'm living, and maybe you can encourage me in faith and in truth. We want to be able to be that. And I think through our life testimonies, first through the testimony of the gospel, because that's what truly transforms. The gospel that has saved us from the wrath of God, we understand that we were separated and the wrath of God was upon our lives as sinners. And to understand that he has come and has saved us and has regenerated our hearts, he has made us alive again where now we want, he has awakened us. And now we want and desire him. We want to encourage you guys in that truth. And we know that it's not what we say. It's not what we share. We know that it's only through the power of the Holy Spirit that draws the heart to Jesus. No one can come to the Father unless it's through Christ. And we understand that. So we're here wanting to encourage you guys. That's the goal of this. That was the first episode that we wanted to do, just introduce ourselves briefly. Because then we're going to do a podcast where we're going to talk about all about Mariceli. We're going to talk about her testimony and how God saved her from the wrath that was upon her from God. And then just testimony of what she's been through in her life. And yours, too. Yeah, and then we'll do it with mine. So that's what we wanted to do today. That's going to be hard. We didn't share this here, but hey. She's going to do it. She's going to do it. I'm going to do it, yes. I know that it's going to really impact a lot of women's lives. So we'll be anchored in truth and in wisdom. Thank you for being here. Please share this. Pray for us. This is for like-minded women like us. And that we could actually do this journey together. And I will put this on all the social media. Share, like, follow us. Download it, whatever. If you have any comments, if you have any questions. For us to do this better, let us know. I am still working on the whole setup. Yeah, yeah. We literally did this because we couldn't figure it out. But it will be a better setup. Definitely better. We just wanted to. We promised that it would be out in June. And we're approaching the end of June. So we wanted to keep our word. And at least do it that way. Even if it came out like this. But thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. And it's going to be good. It's going to be really good. All right. God bless you. Bye. ♪♪♪