From Life-Taker to Life-Giver with Karen Hodge
On today’s episode of the Journeywomen podcast, I chatted with Karen Hodge about being a life-giver! Something I know we all desire to be. We talked about everything from the distinction between a life-taker and a life-giver, to who our ultimate life-giver is, Jesus Christ.
Honestly, this is an incredible opportunity to sit at the feet of a woman who has spent a lifetime saturating her life in Scripture. You guys will be able to tell that as you listen to Karen Hodge speak. So you’ll know her a little better, Karen serves as the Coordinator for PCA Women’s Ministry, where she seeks to connect women and churches to one another and to sound resources. She is also having the time of her life serving alongside her husband Chris, Senior Pastor at Naperville Presbyterian Church in Illinois. Chris and Karen have two children Anna Grace and Haddon that round out “Team Hodge”. It is from the perspective of a wife, mother, leader and fellow pilgrim that she hopes to offer insights from God’s Word concerning how she and the listener can most effectively learn to enjoy and extend God’s glory.
I loved it when Karen said “a life-giving woman sets the gospel on display in her life, and people look in and they look at it. It’s a stunning thing, because it’s not about her, because it’s all about him".
I am so thankful for Karen’s encouragement to simply treasure the gospel and to trust that as we do, God will continue to transform us into the life-givers that we desire to be. If you want to talk more about the topic of being a life-giver, you can hop over to @journeywomenpodcast on Instagram or Facebook. A huge thanks to Chris Mann with podshapter who edited this week’s episode! It’s such a joy to get to journey with you guys. Can’t wait to see you here, next Monday! Have a great week!
Can you tell us a little about who you are and what you do?
What is the distinction between a life-taker and a life-giver?
What examples do we see of this in Scripture? Do you have a favorite story/example you'd like to share?
What enables us to be life-givers?
What fruit might we see in our lives if we are life-takers? How about life-givers?
What ought we do if we see that we are functioning/acting as a life-taker over being a life-giver?
What truths might we cling to and remember to stay on the life-giving path?
What would it look like to be a life-giver to our husbands? Kids? Friends? Church leadership? Community?
What would it look like to be a life-giver in the context of discipleship?
How are theology and doxology interconnected?
THREE QUESTIONS I ASK EVERY GUEST
What 3 resources would you recommend for someone who wants to grow in this area of their life?
What are your 3 simple joys?
Who has had the greatest impact on your own journey with Jesus?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“All women have to do is look over their shoulder, and someone is following them. It might be a four year old, and it might be a woman they serve with at church.”
“We either breathe life in or we take life out. We can go back to the garden to see the way were made. God created life in the garden, and it was very very good. He created women to be his image bearers. He created us to be helpers, not hinderers.”
“The essence of changing from being a life taker to a life giver is ‘do I have a self orientation or do I have a God orientation?’ That happens minute by minute in our life. That is why life is about repentance and faith.”
“The gospel actually redeems our capacity to be a life-giver and to actually do what God has called us to do. The gospel redeems our design and our mission. It’s something that we have to rely on all the time. As we look to Jesus, we are dependent upon him. It’s not about us having the capacity to do it. It’s his life, through us.”
“Life taking is walking in the flesh. It’s walking in our own strength. Life giving is walking in the Spirit. Paul’s epistles talk all about what this looks like.”
“He is calling you die to your comfort, die to your convenience, die to what your plan was, die to your desire to be in control of what is going on in your life right now. I want you to die so you can live. The only way you will ever bear fruit in your life is when you die to yourself. We are crucified with Christ.”
“This is the part we don’t want to talk about because death is scary and painful and it is inconvenient; and yet, it’s the only way.”
“These lifegiving women have had profound suffering and opportunities to die, yet robust joy. It’s because they are always looking up. They are not looking in or at their circumstances.”
“God is not going to leave us the way that he found us. He wants to change us and he wants transform us.”
“Saturate your life with the life giving words of Scripture. Deuteronomy says to write it on your walls, write it on your forehead. I forget all the time. Maybe it’s on your phone or your mirror or the table where you dine together. That is what is life giving. Scripture is like a fountain. It is a refreshing drink of water, and we are a thirsty people. Thirsty and hungry people are life taking.”
“Worship literally means that what I hold as worthy shapes me. It shapes everything I do, everything I say, every choice I make. If he is not the most worthy in your life and if he does not captivate you in such a way that you prize him above all else, then you are never going to see the transformation that you long for.”
“A life giving woman sets the gospel on display in her life, and people lean in to look at it. It’s a stunning thing.”
“Our doxology, what we worship, impacts our theology, our study of who God is. They are inseparable. I cannot take them apart.”
KAREN'S RESOURCES FOR BEING A LIFE-GIVER
The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness by Tim Keller
War of Words by Paul David Tripp
The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood by Susan Hunt
OTHER RESOURCES
Transformed: Life Taker to Life Giver by Susan Hunt and Karen Hodge
KAREN'S SIMPLE JOYS
Going to the movies
Barbecue
Her children
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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