All right now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but it's never too late to start and we're in this together.

This is the Join the Journey podcast.

Hi, everyone.

This is Christy Shermack, Executive Director of Walmart Health, back in the podcast studio, subbing in for Emma today.

And today we have Catherine Meredith, our elementary director joining us. Welcome, Catherine. Thank you, Christy. So you've been on the podcast a couple of times now. I have, which is awesome. And I'm really excited to learn from you, especially just with the background of kids ministry over some really interesting chapters in the Bible. And so we're going to dig into that. Before we get there, we're in Ephesians 4 through 6 today. Kind of orient us to what's going on in this book. Where are we picking up before we jump into some deeper questions on it? Thank you, Christy. Yes, I do think it is really helpful before we jump into 4 through 6 of keeping in mind Ephesians as a whole, knowing that Paul kind of writes Ephesians in two parts. And so we just

read and talked about how Ephesians 1 through 3 is the gospel. It is over and over that Paul is saying,

hey, this is the truth of the gospel. Don't forget it and see how it transforms the way you live.

And so it ends with a prayer, meaning, hey, remember, I want you to be in the love of

Christ and knowing that. Therefore, live out these truths. And so four through six really hits

more of the practical side of what does it look like if you believe the truth of the gospel

to live that out. Okay, well, let's see what these verses have to say for us. So I think in chapter four, we kind of kick off with a little bit of describing what unity in the body of Christ looks like, what maturity looks like. As you kind of think through especially the lens of kids ministry or some of the people listening who might have kids at home, how do we help kids understand their role in the body of Christ, what maturing

looks like in the body of Christ, and not just having it be some future thing that they're a part of,

but something that they're very much so a part of today? I think it's really helpful for us to

stop and kind of define the church. And so when talking with kids, this is a piece that we do

of really making sure they understand what we're

talking about. And so one aspect of it, we do talk about the universal church. By that, we just

simply mean that all people who have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ, past, present, and

future. And so knowing if they have accepted Jesus as their Savior, they have the Holy

Spirit and they are part of the universal

church. So we think that's helpful. And just talking with kids, it's not just a building.

We're not just saying, oh, a church building, but that is so much bigger than that. And yet there's

also an aspect of the local church that we know that this is a group of Christians who regularly

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