Hello and welcome to the She Reads Truth podcast. She Reeds Truth creates beautiful, accessible Bible reading plans and resources to help you get into God's Word every day.

Each week here on the podcast, we talk about what we're going to read together as a community this week. I'm your host, Amanda Bible Williams.

And I'm your other host, Rachel Myers,

and this is week two of our Proverbs series. So excited to jump into this with you, we are joined by

Jamal Williams. Jamal is the lead pastor of Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville, Kentucky.

He has a heartbeat for the church. He loves investing in young leaders, equipping pastors for multi-ethnic,

multi-social economic, and multi-generational ministry. Love that. He is also the author of a book

called In Church as It Is in Heaven with Timothy Paul Jones. We will link to that in the show notes.

Y'all this episode is fantastic. And I love it when Jamal comes on the podcast. Let's get right to it.

Jamal Williams, welcome back to the Sherey's Truth Podcast. So happy to have you today.

Man, I'm excited to be with you guys. Love the book of Proverbs, so can't wait to dive in.

I was just saying before we hit record that you've been on with us for a book of the Bible.

We talked about Philippians and Colossians together. And then we also had you for topical study,

the everything new study, kind of at the beginning of 2024. And this study feels like a hybrid.

Because we're not exactly going through the book of Proverbs, but we're studying Proverbs thematically. So a little bit of both. That's right, a little bit of both. And I've enjoyed these time. And I know I hope that you guys did as well, those who've been able to listen. Can't wait to dive in. So you said you love proverbs. I would love, let's start there. Like talk to us about what do you love about Proverbs? Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it's just wisdom literature. It's sage literature, you know, and wisdom isn't always black or white, you know. It's how do you live in a gray? So even some Proverbs, you know, there are principles and I promises, but some Proverbs, like right back to back, it's kind of like, well, did you just kind of dick yourself?

And it's like, no, the Holy Spirit didn't. And what he's telling us is that we have to discern. And discernment comes from seeking the face of the Lord and spending time with them and living at a pace slow enough to be able to observe what God is doing. So that's been my favorite. I think it's also part of my story story, my father, when he came to faith when I was about nine years old, nine going on 10.

He started reading a proverb a day with me before school. Oh, cool. And I specifically just

remember one day, I was coming on like a passage about boasting and talking about let another person

compliment you and not you

yourself because I was starting. I was kidding at, you know, that age where I'm just boasting and

bragging. And I'll never forget the lesson because he was so gentle and so direct. And he was like,

you have so much pride. And I was like, thank you. He was like, no, that's not a good thing.

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