Hi, I'm Susie Larson.

Here's the podcast from Middays with Susie Larson.

Enjoy the conversation.

Welcome to Ever since, ever since, please got you.

Welcome to Middays, I'm Sizzy Larson, so honored to get to spend this time with you.

In fact, you hear me say this every day, and it's just true.

I look forward to bringing you conversations every single day

that hopefully inspire you in your faith walk,

the deep in your understanding of God's word,

and that heighten your awareness of his very real presence in your life. Well, maybe you've heard

it said before that we tend to become like that which we behold, the things that we worship and

focus on. And idol worship is very much at play today. You behold your idols long enough,

you become just like them. But here's

the good news. If you truly get to know the Jesus of the Bible and not the world's concoction of him,

and you worship him in heart, mind, and soul, you walk intimately with him, you become like him.

In fact, you become your best self in the process. Thaddeus Williams joins me today to talk about his book, Reflect, Becoming Yourself by mirroring the greatest person in history. I had him on one other time. We had such a fantastic conversation that I asked him to come back again. He's battling a cold, yet he still kept the gig. I'm so happy about that. Let me give you a quick announcement. We'll get him on the show. Love to meet you face to face. We have an upcoming live studio event. But you know we've got listeners from around the world. But hey, if you're willing to make the track or you live in the Twin Cities area, I want to meet you face to face. Thursday, May 16th at 7 p.m. Right across the street from the station at the University of Northwestern St. Paul. Pastors, Peter and Carolyn Hoss will join me to talk about God's dreams for your life, the purpose, the way that he prepares you for the purpose and the call of God in your life. Mark Allen Schoolmeister's well-known singer-songwriter will lead us in worship. We'll have some refreshments, the Q&A, and then we'll actually record a show.

Tickets are $15. You get more information at my faith radio.com. All right, let me tell you about my guest. We'll get him on the show. Thaddeus Williams serves as assistant professor of systematic theology at Biola University. He also taught literature at Saddleback College and jurisprudence at Trinity Law School. He's a frequent speaker at churches and conferences and resides in Orange County, California, with his wife and four children. Thaddeus, welcome back to the show. It's a joy to be back. I have a confession to make as I'm prepping again and going through your book. I'm thinking to myself, I'm not smart enough to talk to this guy, but I want our listeners to know you. So I'm just going to buck up buttercup and we're going to go for it. But you've got quite a brilliant mind, sir. But thank you for coming back. Well, thank you. Well, I look forward to the conversation. We love to start by talking scripture. And I'm wondering if there's a verse you've been thinking about these days you can share with us? Absolutely. Lately, I've been reflecting a lot on Ephesians chapter 1, which is the

longest run-on sentence in the entire Bible. So in the original Greek, it clocks in around 204 words before Paul just kind of takes a breath and catches up

with himself. And he's talking about salvation. And if you think of Ephesians 1, 3 to 10 as a song,

he keeps coming back to the chorus, which is to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory.

He says it three times so that it's clear we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, so God and God alone gets all the glory.

And the thing that's really been jumping out on me at me in the last few weeks, in

...