Cheer UP! Podcast
Cheer UP! Podcast
Caught in Grace: Where Are Your Accusers?
"Though your sins be red as scarlet, they are now as white as snow." The story of the woman caught in adultery reminds us that no sin is beyond redemption. Listen to our latest episode to discover how Jesus offers grace when everyone else offers stones. #CheerUpPodcast #FaithJourney #BiblicalWomen #FaithStories
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Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast. I am your host, Kara R Hunt, and with me is the amazing Sherri Swalwell. How are you doing today, Sherri?
Speaker 2:I am doing great. I am blessed to be alive today. That is the best way to put it. I can't believe it's the end of March and time is just going in 2025.
Speaker 1:I know it's just I don't know. It's like with every new year, with the 20 in front of it, it just always seems so surreal.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, it's like 2010, 2011, 2019, 2020, you know, it just sounds so. It just sounds so surreal I just keep. What comes to mind is a TV show my mom used to watch back in the day, and I think I was small and I can't really remember how small I was, but I do remember the show because she watched it quite, and it was called 1999. And it was a very much a show, very Star Trek-ish type of show, but it was called 1999. And back then, you would, it was like, oh my gosh, 1999 was so far in the future and, you know, there was all this scientific stuff and robotic stuff and spaceship stuff, and it was just so different. And so you just kind of would think, oh my gosh, everyone's going to be looking kind of crazy Because they looked kind of different, kind of like Star Trek-ish people from another planet, you know, and everything like that. And it just seems like, wow, when 1999 gets so far in the future, that this is kind of what it's going to be like. And here we are. What 26 years later? Yeah, yeah, and it's like we are still the same pretty much, you know, as we were then, though, because I did watch cartoons, I was one of those children that loved to watch Saturday morning cartoons back then, though I'm kind of a little disappointed that I don't have a robot made, I don't have a robot maid, I don't have a robot maid and we can't just, you know, go in our quote unquote driveway and get into a little car that flies in the air.
Speaker 1:So I think those are the only two things it's like. Back then, when you were children, you were like, wow, by the time that time gets here, everything's going to be so, you know, cool, when I have a robotic maid that's going to have a baby, tell us, do all the things that I don't want to do, though technically I should probably take a step back from that, because technically that may exist. Right now it's just out of my affordable range to get something like that. So, but technically it may exist right now.
Speaker 1:I mean we do have robotic vacuum cleaners, right, right. And I was shocked the other day when Hubby and not too long ago, I should say when Hubby and I were driving and there was this guy excuse me, this home that had a lavish lawn, like huge, but it was hilly, it was very hilly and there was a robotic lawnmower cutting the grass. I had never seen such. Yes, I had never seen. And I'm like, wait, what my husband's like, oh yeah, you didn't know they had those. I'm like no, and I'm like, wait, what my husband's like, oh yeah, you didn't know they had those.
Speaker 1:I'm like no, and I'm like it probably saves the homeowner like a lot of time, Because the lawn was, it was a lot of lawn and it was hilly. And you know, going down, you can't go down it in a riding mower, you know Right. And then trying to do, it've seen people do try to do it in the past with um the push mowers, but it's very difficult keeping your balance, you know I'm doing that I used to do that as a kid he had a rope.
Speaker 2:he would take a rope on his push mower and he would lower the lawnmower as it was running down the hill and then pull it back up and then down the hill and then pull it back up and then down the hill and pull it back up so he wouldn't flip his ride when it was super, super um, hilly, super steep. Because we lived in Pittsburgh, so we lived where the um it was. The place where we lived, the town was pleasant Hills and it was literally huge. The place where we lived, the town was Pleasant Hills, and it was literally huge, steep hills, because there were mountains right there.
Speaker 2:And so that's how he would mow, because it was so steep, Because if you fall with a lawnmower you could get seriously injured. Oh yes, that's how he did it.
Speaker 1:And I grew up thinking that was normal. Well, paul, I know it probably could, you know could have been. I'm thinking how ingenious to do that. You know to be able to do that, because you know it has to be cut, but yet you're like, oh my goodness, I just don't want to tumble down this hill with this lawnmower, with the blades wearing, you know, and everything else. So how ingenious, because I had. There was definitely homes that had treacherous heels to mow, like where I grew up, but I never seen them use a rope, as far as I know, you know, but they could have been doing that the whole time because the lawns were well kept.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the rope was really thick and he would just lower it and pull it back up. And lower it and pull it back up. I'll have to next time. We're supposed to be getting together for lunch soon. I'm going to have to see if he remembers that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that is like talk about ingenuity, right? Oh, and make sure you ask him does he now know that they have robots, robotic lawnmowers that can do that? Now, exactly, that's why we're going to be like wait, what, where is all that stuff? And I was having to pull this lawnmower back up, you know, via a rope, you know, and I couldn't believe it. And it was. You saw it cut in the grass like it was just going up and down and it was doing it very neatly too, you know, and everything. And I'm like, well, look at that.
Speaker 1:So I take back what I said Maybe there are robotic robots out there that could be made, you know, like there was in the Jetsons and everything else. And I just don't know about it, because apparently there's a lot going on in technology that I'm still just trying to figure my head about, because I didn't know there were robotic lawnmowers and apparently people around me, did, around me, did Around me, did. My sister knew, my husband knew Like, wow, I just I don't keep up with that stuff, but how cool, how cool is that? I don't know. I just think it's really kind of fun.
Speaker 1:I've fortunately never had to mow grass because me and my hubby have been together for so many years and I don't think he would ever trust me to be behind a lawnmower riding or pushing either way. And, to be honest, I've been ruined for push mowers because, like you and me, both Sherry have been medical transcriptionists and I remember when I would get ER reports the ER reports that we would get in in the summertime, mainly about people who were injured by their lawnmowers. I mean, people had lost toes, you know, and just all sorts of things that just kind of happened and you're kind of going, what in the world happened? How did they, like foot almost get cut off and things like that. So it's definitely not something that you don't want to mess with, that you don't know what to do.
Speaker 1:Like you know, and from what I understand, mowers nowadays are a lot different than the mowers back in the day you know when I was growing up or even when I was a medical transcriptionist, so hopefully those incidents are not as prevalent as they were. But you were a medical transcriptionist a lot later than I was, Sherry. Did you ever get any of those type of injuries? But then again, I transcribed for radiology.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I worked for like general surgery and psychology, so I didn't get those kinds. But we have had some major tragedies, just here in my town where a little girl was running out to talk to her dad who was on a ride on and she ended up dying.
Speaker 1:She ripped on the wet grass and he ran her over oh.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, I remember. And she wasn't that little Like. She wasn't like some little teeny tiny girl. I mean she wasn't. She wasn't a teenager, but she was. She wasn't like two or three either complete accident, like nobody could have prevented it All she was doing was running out to say something to her dad and she slips on the wet grass and yeah so you're right.
Speaker 2:You've got to be incredibly careful around any of those kinds of things. We have a zero turn now I can't even run it. I have no idea. I can't get the thing to stop Like you're supposed to. You know, move your hands in such a way and my husband makes it look so easy, my oldest makes it look so easy. I can't get the thing to stop, so I'm like until I can safely learn how to do it. I'm not going to even try because I'll run into a tree.
Speaker 1:I'm laughing because I could so see myself doing that. But go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll run into a tree or something and I'll break the machine and probably break myself. So, yeah, and I hate that too, because I used to love to mow, it was like my time to write. One of the stories that I haven't written on paper yet is completely written in my head from a summer of mowing and writing it while I was mowing Like in my head it was. I can't wait to get that one down on paper, but I'm doing a different series.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's going to be fun. Yeah, I can't wait to read that one. Yeah, I can't wait to read that one. For those of you who don't know, and if you're tuning in for the Tura podcast for the first time, sherry and I are both novelists and we both have websites, and Sherry will give you more information about those at the end at the podcast. But if you're a reader, an avid reader, and you're like the summer is going slower than I thought I need more books, then definitely hit up our website. We have a couple of good novels that we're just sure you're going to enjoy and or maybe be able to share with your friends and family.
Speaker 1:But if this is the first time of you tuning into the Tira podcast, welcome and thank you for joining us and we pray that you'll come back. You know, again and again, new episodes every week. You can tune in every week. They're uploaded on Wednesdays and we just want to thank you for tuning in and for joining us today our avid listeners, I should say, and that are always listening and tuning in. We want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for making the TRILL podcast what it is today. People in other countries are able to listen to it people nationwide and we just thank you so, so, so much. And we just ask that you continue to like and subscribe. And I heard a couple of podcast platforms are now allowing you to leave reviews and if you have been blessed by the Trail podcast in any way, even if you just type in great podcast, you have to listen to it. It could be as short as that. You could just leave a review and again, just like the likes and subscribing and downloading it helps that you're a podcast in the algorithm so that others will be able to find a podcast. So we just want to thank you so, so, so much for doing that and for continuing to do that, and we thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Well, today we are still talking about biblical figures, and the biblical figure in the New Testament that we're going to be covering today is the woman caught in adultery. I kind of wish I had a name for her, but I don't. Part of me just wants to give her a name called Jane, but I'm not because I think that would just be too confusing. But she's just known mainly as the woman who was called in adultery, and her story can be found in the book of John, the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 1 through 11. And I want to read that scripture. Those scriptures are very, very short, but to kind of understand that scripture first, I want to go back to the Old Testament and read Leviticus 20, verse 10, where it states If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Speaker 1:Okay, the reason I want to read that society, new Testament, ancient biblical things that adultery was looked at as very, very, very, very bad. It was not glanced over, it was not tolerated. It was not just said, oh well, or anything like that. Like, necessarily in today's culture, it was very much considered something worthy of you being killed for, and there were so many. Now, everyone wasn't always killed, but then there were so many different rituals that you had to go to. If you were, excuse me, even accused of well, the women, not necessarily to purify it, but it was kind of like they would drink this very bitter drink and they would be watched for a couple of days and if they had no reaction to it, then they're like okay, the accusation was baseless and the person who accused you was lying. You didn't have a negative reaction to the bitter drink or whatever. So you're good, you did not commit a guilt, you're telling the truth. However, if the woman got ill, help her. If she got even violently ill after drinking that type of drink, then they will be like you're guilty. You're guilty of sin, you're going to die, you know of thing. So this was not something that they played around with lightly, um, back then, and for those of you, just just for those of you who may not be clear, um, on adultery, it is defined as sexual intercourse between a married person and someone who is not their spouse and, according to the commandment that Moses had talked about, it was both the man and the woman who engaged in adultery were subject to the death penalty, highlighting the severity in which the sin was viewed in that ancient Israeli society. I think nowadays, if everyone, if women, were given bitter drinks like that, or heaven forbid men and women were both stoned and or killed or got the death penalty for committing adultery. Let's just say we'll be living in a very, very different society. Whether good or bad, we don't know, but it would be a very different society.
Speaker 1:So I just wanted to put the listeners in a frame of mind of, like, what was going on around this time and how it was absolutely positively not to be tolerated. It wasn't to be entertained, it wasn't you know, you were just to stay away from it, just because of the toxicity of it. It was like, okay, well, this person committed adultery and they got away from it just because of the toxicity of it. It was like, okay, well, this person committed adultery and they got away with it. Well, I think I can cheat on my wife and then I can get away with it. Or I can cheat on my husband and then I can get away with it. And they were just adamant that that was not going to pervert the society that they were living in, and so they were going to pretty much, to use today's vernacular nip it in the bud and it just was not going to be tolerated.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm going to read from the New King James Version John, from the Gospel of John, chapter 8. Actually, I'm going to start in Verse 2. Okay, and it says Now, early in the morning, he came again into the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery that has. I want to stop and emphasize the word caught, because, if I'm not mistaken, sherry, the law of Moses or the Levitical law, I should say was specifically about being caught in the act of adultery. There was one thing if you were accused of adultery, and then there was, like, another penalty if, like you, were actually caught in the midst of adultery, which, according to this verse, this particular woman was, it says.
Speaker 1:Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, referring to Jesus. And Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery referring to Jesus, and when they had set her in the mist, they said to him Jesus, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, again caught in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? Now? It's also important to point out here that they're trying to set Jesus up. Okay, they just want to see if, for some reason, they can get her and him stoned, or whatever the case may be. But they're trying to set him up, they're trying to trap him. But anyway, how do I say that? And if you say well, carol, what makes you think that they were trying to trap him. They caught the woman in an act and they're bringing her to him and they're saying but what do you say? So why are you saying that they were trying to set him up? Because of verse 6.
Speaker 1:It says this they said, testing him that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear them. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them he who is out sin among you, let him throw a stone at her. First and again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last, and Jesus was left alone and a woman standing in the midst.
Speaker 1:When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her woman where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said no one, lord. And Jesus said to her Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, what a relief this had to be to that woman who was probably shaking in her boots and afraid she's like oh my gosh, this is the Son of God and I was just called an adultery and I know what the law of Moses said, and there was tons of witnesses Like I was caught in the very act of adultery. And now here's the Son of God standing here right next to me, like what's going to happen to me. She's probably shaking and afraid and you know, and just scared, scared for her life. She didn't know what was going to happen, but then those who were accusing her weren't qualified to accuse her. Now no one knows what Jesus wrote on the ground. The Holy Spirit didn't reveal it to us in the Bible, in the scriptures. No one knows.
Speaker 1:There's been a lot of conjecture and speculation if you read different theologians and scholars, but no one actually knows what Jesus wrote on the ground. But whatever it did, it convicted them and they were not qualified. They did not have the right to condemn her. They didn't, and that's why he was like hey, where are those accusers? Has no one condemned you? And she's like no one, lord, there's no one here. And he's like neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Can you imagine a relief that she had to experience in that moment, sherry?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Talk about having an encounter with God, like I'm always praying and asking God if I can have an encounter with him or if he will have an encounter with my family, and talk about having an encounter with God, wow.
Speaker 1:I know Like what such an encounter, and you know it doesn't follow up with her per se to know exactly what happened after that, but I can't help but believe she took heed to his words. That but I can't help but believe she took heed to his words and that, whatever she was doing before, the people found her and or called her. By the way, you can't commit adultery by yourself, and Leviticus pretty much made it clear in the Levitical law and the law of Moses pretty much said the man and a woman, if they're caught in the very act, they are both to be able to face the death penalty. Where was he?
Speaker 2:where was he?
Speaker 1:Was he not there? Did he run, did he get away? You know, did he run, did he get away? Or was he there in a crowd, one of the men condemning her? You know it doesn't say, but it's very obvious that he was supposed to be there and that they both were supposed to die as a result of what they were doing, what they were caught in a very active doing. And I just one of those stories excuse me, that is one of those incident events in a Bible, one of those stories in a Bible, one of those what's the word I'm looking for in the Bible that resonates with us still today.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, today we don't face harsh penalties like that. If we're caught in adultery, or even if you're accused of adultery, women don't have to go through all these different rituals to prove if they were or if they were not actually telling the truth about whether they were caught in adultery. But adultery, when you get down to it, is a sin and it doesn't matter if it's adultery you were caught doing. If it was lying that you were caught doing. If it was stealing that you were caught doing. If it was murder, you know, you were caught in the middle. Someone actually saw you, for instance, take a knife and actually hack someone to death. No matter what the sin is, we have a gracious and merciful and loving God that is willing to reach out to you and say hey, you know, come to me, accept me as your Lord, jesus Christ of Nazareth, as your Lord and Savior, and you don't have to live like this anymore. You don't have to live with an adulterous spirit, an adulterous heart, a thieving heart, a murderous mind, a murderous spirit. You don't have to live like that anymore. Come to me and I will give you peace. Now that doesn't mean you're not going to face the consequences of your sin, because there's the legal authority, civil authorities that you will obviously have to answer to, especially if you were caught in the very act of doing some of those things. So you still have to answer for those.
Speaker 1:But when you truly come to Jesus, no matter what you have done, I love where it talks about in the scriptures that, though your sins be red as scarlet, they are now as white as snow. It is for your sins. Or as far as the east is from the west. We serve an amazing and loving God. Now it's white as snow. It is for your sins or, as far as the east is, from the west. We serve an amazing and loving God. He knows how dark and red and full of blood some of the sins we have committed have done, but he's paid the price for them. He's paid the price for them and that's one of the reasons why he could forgive the woman who was called an adultery. He knew he was going to pay the price for her sin. He knew that she didn't know that, because he pretty much was going against what the litical laws and the law of Moses had said.
Speaker 1:So they weren't wrong per se in what they were doing. They were wrong in the way that they were doing it and they were very hypocritical in the way that they were doing it. And, by the way, they were also trying to set Jesus up in the same process. So their hearts weren't clear. They weren't doing it out of. They were trying to follow the law. They were trying to dot every I and cross every T and they just felt like, hey, this is our duty, this is what has to be done. They weren't doing that. They had their own sins, apparently because they said they were convicted of their consciousness, and so they were doing it out of other reasons, but they were just going to have her pay the price.
Speaker 1:And sometimes that could be the case in your life. No matter what you've done or what you do or even why you did it, the thing is that what was once red as scarlet, it can be white as snow when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and whatever led you to do that point to rob that bank, to kill that person, to cheat on your spouse, to beat someone senseless, whatever did that you don't have to face and deal and battle those spirits anymore. When you give that all to Jesus, he will turn you into a completely new person and he will pretty much be saying to you I paid the price for all of that. I paid the price for all of that. Go and sin no more. And the key is don't do it again. Accept Jesus Christ in your life as your Lord and Savior and live the righteous life and path that he has set out before you. Don't ever think that anything you've done is beyond the redemption with Jesus Christ of Nazareth, because it isn't. What would you like to add to that, sherry?
Speaker 2:I have a friend who loves to say it's under the blood. It's under the blood, and for someone who used to have a really hard time forgiving herself and it's not that I thought that I was better than well, I mean my actions, because I could not forgive myself for things. When you don't forgive yourself, when you don't once you ask God for forgiveness for whatever sin you've committed, if you can't then forgive yourself, you're basically saying to God well, I'm better than you are Like you're, you're dying on the cross and you're suffering didn't mean enough, because I'm still punishing myself and I never really saw it that way. But that's the truth, that's the cold hard truth. And so when my friend keeps saying it's under the blood, it's under the blood, it finally got through to me.
Speaker 2:I guess repetition is what I needed. When we confess, when we truly confess with our hearts and with our minds, and we say, god, I'm so sorry that I did such and such, or I'm so sorry that I, you know, allowed myself to go down that path, or whatever it is, when we truly ask for forgiveness, it's under the blood and that means that God thinks of it no more. Therefore, we should think of it no more. We shouldn't be bringing it up anymore. We shouldn't be talking about it. We shouldn't be unless the only way I think that you could talk about it would be like Paul. But even Paul was never specific about the different sins that he committed. He was just always like it's under the blood, like I did horrible things, but that's not me anymore.
Speaker 2:So let's not focus on the past. Instead, let's focus on the present and the future and what God has called me to do, going forward. So even Paul tells us that it's under the blood and to sin no more. So I guess that's the encouragement that I want to give to people.
Speaker 2:If you're anything like I was and still have a tendency at times to be that, I have to remind myself it's under the blood and God has forgiven me. If you have truly asked for forgiveness for whatever it is that you did, it's under the blood. And if you're a believer, it's under the blood and you don't have to worry about those sins anymore. You don't have to dwell on them. In fact, God doesn't want us to dwell on them. He wants us to keep them under the blood, because when we're focused on ourselves whether it's our sins, our past sins, whether it's anything that has to do with any of that when we're focused on that, that is exactly where Satan wants us. He wants us focused on us and focused on the wrong things, so that we then aren't looking up and out and able to pray for other people and able to help other people and able to be a witness to other people.
Speaker 2:It's okay at times to use our past as a testimony of what God has brought us through and how we've grown, but it's not good to focus on it and to keep that in the center, as I'm this horrible person who did all these horrible things. No, I am forgiven, I am loved, and it's under the blood, and that, I think, is the perfect way to end our discussion today, because or our podcast today, because it's under the blood. If we are a believer and we have asked for forgiveness, then it is under the blood and it is remembered no more. And that's the way God wants us to live. So, if you are someone who doesn't know exactly what I'm talking about, who's like? That's what I want, but I don't know how to get it. That's that's what I want, but I don't know how to get it. That's who I want to be, but I don't know how to do that.
Speaker 2:If you want to become a believer, if you want to start a new chapter in your life, if you want to become a child of God, it's actually really simple. It's a heart change. It's a heart change, it's a heart decision. And it tells us in Romans 10, 9, if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, it says, you will be saved. So if that's something that you want today, if you don't want to end this podcast without having a life change and without making that important decision in your life, well, today's the day that you can do that. All you need to do is pray this prayer after me with a repentant heart oh Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus' name. I believe you died on the cross and that you rose again and you're seated on the throne. Jesus, forgive me for all that I've done wrong and I choose to forgive all others. Come into my life today and forever. I am yours In Jesus name, amen. If you prayed that prayer with us today, then I ask you to send us an email over at cheeruppodcastgmailcom. We also encourage you to find a Bible-believing church in your area and tell somebody. You can tell us, or you can tell other people, or you can do a combination. But we are so glad that you are part of the family now that you are a son or a daughter of the King, if you are interested in growing your relationship with God, you can head over to my website, sherryswalwellcom, and there's a monthly membership that you can check out. It helps you to grow that relationship, no matter where you're at, whether you have just become a believer, whether you've been a believer for 10 plus years, your whole entire life, whatever stage you're in, and if you're looking for community with other fellow believers, the Jesus and the Everyday membership is a perfect place to find it, so I would encourage you to try that out. You can try it for three weeks for free, before you are charged at all on your credit card, and it's $9.95 a month, which basically what you're doing is you're investing in your spiritual growth, and I can't think of a better thing to invest in in my life than growing my relationship with God. There's also fiction and nonfiction books you can check out on my website, as well as a YouTube channel and a few other things, so look around on there.
Speaker 2:Kara's website, karahrhuntcom. She, as she said earlier, we're both fiction writers. Well, we're both writers. I write fiction and nonfiction. She writes fiction, and they are some of the best books that I have ever read, and I'm not just saying that because she's my friend, but she truly. I was hooked from the first chapter I read of hers a decade ago and that's how she and I met. So I didn't even know her back when I loved her writing, and now that I know her, I love her writing even more.
Speaker 2:But she has a series out the Habastic series and it is an e-book, paperback and audio book. So if you like any of those versions, check out her books on KaraRHuntcom. She also is an amazing mentor and loves to help people as they're stepping foot into writing. You can find out how to get her help on her website as well. So we are just so glad that you are here. I cannot believe it's the end of March already. Next week we're going to be talking about well. Next week we're going to start into April, which is crazy, and we're going to be talking about the Sermon on the Mount, which is a lesson in hope. So I hope that you'll come back next week and hear our hearts on the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 2:In the meantime, have a great day, have a great rest of your week and join us again next Wednesday for another exciting episode of the Cheer Up Podcast.
