Sept. 4, 2024

Breaking Chains: Finding Peace Beyond Religious Legalism

Breaking Chains: Finding Peace Beyond Religious Legalism

Have you ever felt trapped by the relentless demands of religious expectations? Discover how Desiree Taylor broke free from the chains of legalism and found true peace in Christ. In this transformative episode, Desiree shares her heartfelt journey chronicled in her new book, "Created to Relate: Living Beyond Religion." Through poignant stories of overcoming low self-esteem, people-pleasing, and the crippling fear of not being saved, Desiree reveals the profound impact of seeing God as a loving father rather than a judgmental figure. Her candid insights about embracing forgiveness and maintaining newfound freedom offer a roadmap for anyone yearning for a deeper, more authentic relationship with Jesus.

Join us as Desiree discusses the importance of building meaningful connections within the church and cultivating genuine relationships with Jesus. She highlights the joy of fostering a supportive faith community and the positive ripple effects it can create. Through her website, Desiree continues to inspire and connect with others, championing the idea that true transformation comes from understanding and living out God's unconditional love. Tune in to hear how her journey and book can guide you toward a life of freedom and peace in Christ, far beyond the constraints of legalism.

Buy Desiree's Book:
https://www.arenewedcreation.com/

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Chapters

00:00 - Finding Freedom Through Faith

13:44 - Breaking Free From Legalism With God

23:07 - Building Community and Faith Through Connection

Transcript

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00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:05.421
Desiree Taylor has such a heart for discipleship and seeing people freed from the bondage of religion.

00:00:05.421 --> 00:00:17.824
Through her new book, which details her own escape from the prison of legalism, she shares nuggets of wisdom and her heart's passion to see people free to love Jesus in a healthy relationship.

00:00:17.824 --> 00:00:25.870
Today's episode will be uncomfortable for some, but it's also going to be freeing for all those willing to have an open heart in mind.

00:00:25.870 --> 00:00:44.002
Be sure to share this episode with family and friends so they too can be blessed by the contents of this episode.

00:00:44.002 --> 00:00:47.170
Hi, desiree, thank you so much for coming on the episode today.

00:00:47.170 --> 00:00:49.866
I'm very excited to talk to you about today's topic.

00:00:49.979 --> 00:00:51.243
Thank you so much for having me.

00:00:51.243 --> 00:00:52.850
I'm happy to be here with you.

00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:55.929
Why don't you tell us the name of your book and what it's about?

00:00:56.100 --> 00:01:12.444
Okay, the name of my first and newest book is Created to Relete Living Beyond Religion, and it talks about that transition from a life of religion to a relationship with Jesus, sharing a lot of my personal stories, but also help on how to move forward in your own experiences too.

00:01:12.484 --> 00:01:13.867
Yes, I loved your book.

00:01:13.867 --> 00:01:19.081
I had a hard time putting it down, although with four kids at home I had no choice.

00:01:20.421 --> 00:01:25.004
But listening to your story and the page was like my story.

00:01:25.004 --> 00:01:37.551
I have been through a legalistic family legalistic mindset that I'm currently trying to break through as well, so I was very happy to see that you were talking about this.

00:01:37.551 --> 00:01:40.352
This is a subject that needs to be talked about.

00:01:40.352 --> 00:01:46.376
Nobody's talking about it, either because they're stuck in it and they don't see it, or maybe they're just afraid.

00:01:46.376 --> 00:01:50.498
So I am glad that you were not afraid to talk about this subject.

00:01:55.859 --> 00:01:56.421
So tell us more?

00:01:56.421 --> 00:01:57.125
What can we find in this book?

00:01:57.125 --> 00:01:57.706
What topics do you cover?

00:01:57.706 --> 00:02:16.146
Well, I started from the beginning and kind of shared my testimony and how I became a believer in Jesus and then I just, yeah, just kind of went through the beginning of that but also my process in shifting from the things that I had been taught along the way, and it wasn't just in one place, it was at church and at home for me.

00:02:16.146 --> 00:02:21.049
And you don't really realize that you're in this stuff until later on.

00:02:21.149 --> 00:02:30.599
I really broke through a lot of this stuff as I was writing the book, not even before, because as I started writing this I didn't actually think it was going to be more about other people's stories.

00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:32.283
I did not.

00:02:32.283 --> 00:02:40.270
I did not really know the direction that God was going to take this in, and it became way more personal and a lot deeper than I thought.

00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:49.408
But it kind of takes you through the different struggles that I had with just seeing myself and seeing God for who he was, you kind of.

00:02:49.408 --> 00:02:59.866
As you move through that you know and how that affects studying his word and prayer and how we look at church and because so many people take their experiences from church and they walk away from God.

00:02:59.866 --> 00:03:10.485
That really hurts my heart because it's not God that's done these things to us, it's other people and in our humanness, these are the places that we go so to separate that.

00:03:10.485 --> 00:03:18.713
That's been hard to separate and I really realized how my physical relationships with different people in my life affected my relationship with God.

00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:27.292
I always thought I kept it separate and as I'm writing this book, I'm like, wow, I did not keep that separate at all, just even as we become free in Christ.

00:03:27.292 --> 00:03:32.801
We have freedom because Jesus died for us, but so many people don't live free.

00:03:32.801 --> 00:03:41.949
That's really what motivates my heart is it's been an awful journey in this and it's been a painful and it's just.

00:03:41.949 --> 00:03:58.724
There's so many consequences to all of this stuff, and that's made me really angry is how writing this has helped me work through my anger and um forgive the people that I need to forgive, but also to help other people come to freedom, much sooner than I was able to, and how to keep that like.

00:03:58.745 --> 00:03:59.729
We have to fight for this.

00:03:59.729 --> 00:04:11.663
We freedom in christ isn't just we get free and it's a wonderful thing, but we have to really fight for that and to be intentional about staying in that place, and so that's the other thing.

00:04:11.663 --> 00:04:14.551
You want to leave people with the ability to do that too.

00:04:14.551 --> 00:04:27.345
Like it's not, I find sometimes, when you know we do the altar calls and it's a simple prayer and we're saved, and my heart's always about mentorship and discipleship anyway, because I never had anyone walking with me.

00:04:27.345 --> 00:04:42.485
So I feel like in real life you know I do a lot of that in ministry at church, but this book will be something that people can take alongside them and keep with them and help remind them of the things that we need to do to stay in that life of freedom in Christ.

00:04:42.625 --> 00:04:47.384
Beautifully said and having read the whole book, I completely agree.

00:04:47.384 --> 00:04:50.350
I felt your heart in every page.

00:04:50.350 --> 00:05:10.048
I saw your passion for sharing the true Jesus in every page and now that you mentioned that you're wanting it to be like a discipleship companion, I can see that it's like having a mini you with everybody who has the book and you're telling them the truth and saying hold on, let's take a step back.

00:05:10.048 --> 00:05:12.173
This might be a little legalistic.

00:05:12.173 --> 00:05:14.363
Here's the right approach to have.

00:05:14.363 --> 00:05:15.867
I like how you did that.

00:05:15.867 --> 00:05:23.766
You compared and contrasted the difference and, having been through that myself, I saw that where you were.

00:05:23.766 --> 00:05:35.235
Oh yeah, I totally was doing the same thing, saying the same thing, and now I'm out of it and I'm realizing how hard it is to get out of it.

00:05:35.235 --> 00:05:45.351
It is like you said it's a struggle, it's something you have to fight for, to have that freedom, because it is so easy to get back into the comfortable and what you've been doing all along.

00:05:45.351 --> 00:05:51.413
But to stay out of it and stay free is where we want to be, because that's where true peace is found.

00:05:51.845 --> 00:05:54.574
So I am very glad that you wrote this book.

00:05:54.574 --> 00:05:58.675
I mean, it's not like it's a big novel or anything.

00:05:58.675 --> 00:05:59.716
It's not huge.

00:05:59.716 --> 00:06:09.505
It is perfectly compact to take and leave in your purse, leave in your backpack wherever you are and just read a little bit at lunch or whatever.

00:06:09.505 --> 00:06:11.971
It's perfect companion size.

00:06:11.971 --> 00:06:19.653
And the title is absolutely brilliant too Created to Relate that the subject matter is very relatable.

00:06:19.653 --> 00:06:29.685
I think there's a lot of people out there who, after reading this, will realize they've also had a religious, legalistic mindset that they didn't even know about.

00:06:29.685 --> 00:06:33.413
And now they'll have something to help them get out of it.

00:06:33.413 --> 00:06:36.206
So thank you so much for writing this book.

00:06:36.206 --> 00:06:43.608
It definitely mentored to my heart who is still trying to fight the urge to go back to the legalistic.

00:06:43.608 --> 00:06:51.634
So I appreciate the book so much and I'm pretty sure everyone else will as well once they get a hold of it and that's so encouraging to me.

00:06:51.694 --> 00:06:55.495
It's so great to hear that too, because this book took me like eight to 10 years to write.

00:06:55.495 --> 00:07:15.026
It's been a really hard journey, through a lot of hard things, and the enemy's been very good at trying to get me to give up on that, and I'm so grateful to see some of the fruit and to see that the vision that God gave is, you know, and the message that God gave is going to go out as he wanted that, so that makes me very happy.

00:07:16.108 --> 00:07:27.237
Yeah, you've already inspired me with certain parts of it to try to read my Bible different, to remember to pray and ask Him to help me understand what he's trying to tell me.

00:07:27.237 --> 00:07:32.574
Not make it all about me, but what can I learn about you from the Bible?

00:07:32.574 --> 00:07:36.706
Because it's his love letter to us, which I loved that chapter.

00:07:36.706 --> 00:07:39.132
It was not overly mushy.

00:07:39.132 --> 00:07:43.086
If someone reads that they're going to be like, oh no, love whatever.

00:07:43.086 --> 00:07:52.511
But that's not what it was and I love that chapter very much, and everything in your whole book was something I could easily relate to.

00:07:52.511 --> 00:07:59.494
So, yeah, I'm excited to see how many people's lives are going to be transformed through this book.

00:07:59.494 --> 00:08:02.463
I wanted to discuss chapter four.

00:08:02.463 --> 00:08:05.410
There was a part where you talked about memorization.

00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:09.298
I liked that a lot because that was a hang up for me.

00:08:09.485 --> 00:08:16.713
I went to a Christian school in high school and they had Bible class and you had to memorize a new scripture every Friday.

00:08:16.713 --> 00:08:22.598
That was not my thing, or at least that's what I told myself is I couldn't memorize scripture.

00:08:22.598 --> 00:08:38.533
So what I would do is I'd have the verse we were supposed to do inside a book and I'd be looking at it before it was my turn, so I could go outside and memorize with quotation marks the book, and I never really had memorization for the Bible.

00:08:38.533 --> 00:08:56.687
I had a few things that I learned through my life, the traditional things that they might teach you, but I never really desired to memorize the scripture because I wanted to have it hidden in my heart the way that we're supposed to, because it's God's love letter to us.

00:08:56.687 --> 00:08:59.133
It's his word, living word.

00:08:59.513 --> 00:09:01.037
I didn't think of it that way.

00:09:01.037 --> 00:09:07.837
I thought of it in the legalistic mindset that the more you have, the more people will know that you read your Bible.

00:09:07.837 --> 00:09:14.456
They'll know that you are smart in the Bible, that you are a really good Christian.

00:09:14.456 --> 00:09:16.466
And I could never memorize.

00:09:16.466 --> 00:09:19.855
And if I did, I always felt like I didn't know enough.

00:09:19.855 --> 00:09:20.657
And that's what.

00:09:20.657 --> 00:09:27.014
As I was reading those paragraphs about it, I was like yes, yes, she's talking about it.

00:09:27.014 --> 00:09:29.538
Yes, I loved it.

00:09:29.538 --> 00:09:31.667
You and I have the same story.

00:09:31.667 --> 00:09:32.970
It's crazy.

00:09:32.970 --> 00:09:39.389
I never thought I'd meet somebody who would share the same things that I felt I was going through.

00:09:39.389 --> 00:09:41.173
I love your story.

00:09:41.955 --> 00:09:52.875
Well, and I love that because that one chapter I knew was going to be challenging talking about with people, because it's almost offensive when I talk about that the memorizing scripture.

00:09:52.875 --> 00:09:59.638
And I tried to put it in a respectful way in the sense that not everyone has that battle, not everyone has this struggle.

00:09:59.638 --> 00:10:10.556
Memorizing scripture isn't necessarily wrong, but it is wrong when you put that in a box and your identity is based on whether you can memorize this or not.

00:10:10.556 --> 00:10:29.609
And as a mother too, because my kids I was a younger mom, because my older son is part of my testimony, so I was 19 when I had him and I was 25 when I had my other son, and so they grew up while I was trying to figure this out, so they were still in a lot of that along the way and it was the same thing with them.

00:10:29.609 --> 00:10:32.495
I was identified as what kind of mother I was.

00:10:33.605 --> 00:10:37.192
If my children could memorize well, and it made me so angry.

00:10:37.192 --> 00:10:42.066
How dare you put that on me and we do that to people?

00:10:42.066 --> 00:10:46.852
That's what makes me angry, I think, is we put identity markers on people.

00:10:46.852 --> 00:11:01.794
You have to be this, do this, in order to be something or someone, and that's not what God says and I think it was too much of an emphasis and I really wanted to bring that out and I did, and so we'll see where the conversations go on that.

00:11:01.794 --> 00:11:15.937
But it really blesses my heart to hear that you not that you experienced it, but just that you can relate to it, because sometimes I feel like I'm the only one and the conversations that I have with people sometimes it's you know, it seems like an odd thing.

00:11:15.937 --> 00:11:20.365
Everyone's all about the scripture memorization, which is fine, it's just.

00:11:20.365 --> 00:11:23.226
Yeah, it becomes a little bit too much, I think.

00:11:23.226 --> 00:11:24.846
Yeah, in the wrong direction.

00:11:25.207 --> 00:11:27.548
Yeah, it can become just a thing.

00:11:27.609 --> 00:11:31.931
You check off the box, which is another thing that you mentioned was box checking.

00:11:31.931 --> 00:11:33.692
I love my to-do list.

00:11:33.692 --> 00:11:40.934
I'll check things off all the time and I'll feel accomplished, I'll feel relaxed because I remembered something and I put it away.

00:11:40.934 --> 00:11:41.775
I finished it.

00:11:41.775 --> 00:11:45.658
But that's not how we should be with God or our walk with him.

00:11:45.658 --> 00:11:49.038
That's not a relationship, that's a to-do list.

00:11:49.339 --> 00:11:54.322
And I like how you mentioned that it's okay to memorize scripture.

00:11:54.322 --> 00:11:57.702
But if you're doing it with the wrong motive, then what's the point?

00:11:57.702 --> 00:11:59.893
Then it's just another thing you're doing.

00:11:59.893 --> 00:12:03.254
It's like what I did in school didn't honor God.

00:12:03.254 --> 00:12:05.044
I didn't have the scriptures memorized.

00:12:05.044 --> 00:12:10.509
I don't even remember half of the ones that I memorized before my test.

00:12:10.509 --> 00:12:12.393
That's not what he wants.

00:12:12.393 --> 00:12:18.754
He wants our hearts, he wants all of us, and that includes the sacrifice of.

00:12:18.754 --> 00:12:22.544
If you do plan on memorizing, do it for the right reasons.

00:12:22.544 --> 00:12:27.207
Don't just do it because you're worried what your school will think your friends will think.

00:12:27.207 --> 00:12:29.850
Don't just do it because you're worried what your school will think your friends will think, your church will think.

00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:32.773
You need to worry about your audience of one, which is another thing.

00:12:32.773 --> 00:12:39.798
You mentioned dancing with one with God, which also was not for the men who are listening.

00:12:39.798 --> 00:12:41.779
It was not overly romantic.

00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:45.802
It was something that would probably make you tear up, especially if you have daughters.

00:12:45.802 --> 00:12:54.394
It was a beautiful chapter as well, and honestly, I can't get enough of your book.

00:12:54.413 --> 00:13:14.596
I've been excited to talk to you because as soon as I read it, I was like, oh, this is going to be good, yeah, and that's you know, people pleasing the whole other thing, remembering that we're doing it for him and to know him and for him to meet us where we are with the scripture and stuff, and memorizing, getting God's word in our heart, like what you said, that's the most important.

00:13:14.596 --> 00:13:16.386
And for me to write it out.

00:13:16.386 --> 00:13:17.548
I would write it out.

00:13:17.548 --> 00:13:26.206
Writing has just always been a way for me in so many ways to communicate and get my feelings out and to work through things, and it was the same thing with scripture.

00:13:26.206 --> 00:13:31.596
I would write the scriptures out several times and that's how God got it in my heart more.

00:13:31.596 --> 00:13:37.556
I couldn't recite it to you even after I wrote it, but it was here because when I needed it it was there.

00:13:38.216 --> 00:13:43.496
And that's how I knew and that's where God really met me and said that's what matters to me.

00:13:44.004 --> 00:13:56.118
Yeah, tell us about your journey out of legalism, just a little bit of how you started coming out of it and coming into getting an actual, real relationship with God.

00:13:56.398 --> 00:13:56.698
I think.

00:13:56.698 --> 00:14:02.909
Well, and it's been a little bit along the way, but I think one of the first points was when I was just, I was married.

00:14:02.909 --> 00:14:19.452
I was probably married a couple of years and, with my hearing loss and everything you know, they're just I just felt like I was failing at everything because and with the legalism you know, when you go into marriage, it's all about what you need to do there too, it's not about who you need to be as a wife, it's what you need to do.

00:14:19.452 --> 00:14:21.437
So I couldn't keep up.

00:14:21.437 --> 00:14:22.488
I wasn't keeping up.

00:14:22.488 --> 00:14:28.347
It was just very oppressive for me in the sense of I just felt like a failure all.

00:14:32.437 --> 00:14:50.123
And he said to me that I was trying to earn what he had already given me, and that was really the beginning for me of him pulling me away from those mindsets and those thought processes and all of that and towards him, because it made me want to seek him.

00:14:50.123 --> 00:14:51.520
Okay, so what does that mean then?

00:14:51.520 --> 00:15:11.070
You know, and I've always been that kind of person, okay, if you tell me, I want to understand more of that and I wanted to believe it, but it took me a long time to believe that too, that what I did or didn't do didn't matter that much, you know, because I still had those voices around me telling me that it did.

00:15:11.070 --> 00:15:21.270
So that was a hard part is to lean into God and to keep bringing his word and really getting that in and listening to his voice in the midst of all the other voices.

00:15:21.270 --> 00:15:25.745
But that was really the beginning for me towards him that way.

00:15:26.235 --> 00:15:31.727
How did you see God while you were in legalism, as opposed to how you see him now?

00:15:32.134 --> 00:15:42.999
Well, I mean, while I was in the legalism and even as I was trying to break out of it, I think he it just it seemed like he was one of those dads you know, that was just um, I don't know they would that.

00:15:42.999 --> 00:15:44.866
He was just looking for me to mess up.

00:15:44.866 --> 00:16:03.116
I just felt like he was just sitting there waiting and I've gotten that picture of a judge too, with that gavel, and I wrote about that in the book, just just ready to just slam down saying, you know, like your sentence for this, I just felt like there was, he was just waiting for me to mess up, because that was my earthly experience too.

00:16:03.116 --> 00:16:05.462
So I was very comparative to that.

00:16:05.844 --> 00:16:09.919
Coming out of that, the more that I, the more that he showed me his love.

00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:17.556
And really, as I learned how he loved me and believed it because that's the thing, a lot of us know it I knew God loved me.

00:16:17.556 --> 00:16:18.539
You think God loves me.

00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:21.732
We sing these songs all the time even and I knew it.

00:16:21.732 --> 00:16:22.677
But I didn't believe it.

00:16:22.677 --> 00:16:25.086
And that's where I realized the disconnect was for me.

00:16:25.086 --> 00:16:39.849
But when I really grasped that and believed it, that was a turning point for me too, and seeing him differently, as a father who loved me and who wanted me and wanted a relationship with me, that I was special to him and that just was sweet to me.

00:16:40.274 --> 00:16:42.740
Believing that God loves me is something.

00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:48.581
If I'm being honest, it's something I'm still working on because I've had low self-esteem my whole life.

00:16:48.581 --> 00:16:51.066
I grew up very people pleasing.

00:16:51.066 --> 00:16:53.859
I was the good one in my family.

00:16:53.859 --> 00:16:58.493
I didn't make any waves, I was quiet, did what I was told.

00:16:58.493 --> 00:17:03.224
I'd clean my room, I'd take myself to bed, I'd do my homework right after school.

00:17:03.224 --> 00:17:05.276
I just didn't want to make any waves.

00:17:05.276 --> 00:17:06.939
I didn't want to upset anybody.

00:17:06.939 --> 00:17:08.362
I didn't want to upset God.

00:17:08.362 --> 00:17:12.838
I tried to be the best I could and I know I made mistakes.

00:17:12.838 --> 00:17:19.884
I also went through some other trauma issues in my life too, but because of that I had really low self-esteem.

00:17:19.884 --> 00:17:24.306
I did not have a good outlook on who I was.

00:17:24.306 --> 00:17:29.305
I didn't have any confidence and I wasn't sure how God felt about me.

00:17:29.556 --> 00:17:36.781
I know, during my whole time in legalism I was concerned would I actually go to heaven if I died?

00:17:36.781 --> 00:17:40.720
That was one of my biggest questions and I was always afraid.

00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:46.240
After watching the left behind movies from the seventies would still scare me.

00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:49.230
I would always be afraid what if that happens to me?

00:17:49.230 --> 00:17:50.955
And I hated that feeling.

00:17:50.955 --> 00:17:59.387
But I would get a glimpse where I felt, okay, I am saved, but then something would happen and then I'd go back into it.

00:17:59.387 --> 00:18:00.388
Well, maybe I'm not.

00:18:00.388 --> 00:18:01.510
What if I'm not?

00:18:01.510 --> 00:18:17.685
It was just never ending until I was 30 years old when I finally came back to Christ and I realized at that moment that I needed a relationship with Him, that I was actually, for the first time, really coming to know Him.

00:18:17.685 --> 00:18:25.721
I had asked Him into my heart when I was 12, but I don't really feel I was saved until I was 30, going through my second divorce.

00:18:25.721 --> 00:18:34.846
So that's when I really feel that I became a believer in Christ and that's when I tell people, if they want to know, when I became a Christian.

00:18:34.846 --> 00:18:43.420
That's when I tell them, because that's the moment I feel the legalistic chains were broken and I realized if I die today, I will go to heaven.

00:18:43.934 --> 00:18:59.721
It's wonderful that you were able to get out of that place of feeling like God was just a judge waiting for you to screw up, and I think there's so many people out in the world who feel exactly the same about God because of their earthly influences.

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And, like you, it makes me mad because it's not God's fault.

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We're humans and we make mistakes.

00:19:05.900 --> 00:19:18.849
Again, I'm glad that you wrote this book, because I think that is going to help a lot of people who are struggling in this specific area of feeling that God hates them or he's doing something to them.

00:19:18.849 --> 00:19:22.084
No, you're showing people a different way.

00:19:22.084 --> 00:19:23.240
No, he loves you.

00:19:23.240 --> 00:19:26.462
This is what he did for you, not to you.

00:19:26.462 --> 00:19:27.346
For you.

00:19:27.346 --> 00:19:30.763
I can't say enough good things about your book.

00:19:31.025 --> 00:19:45.190
I love that, yeah, and I'm really praying for that, because what you just talked about, I mean you and I both have struggled with that, because you're talking about being 40 and you know, and wishing you could have known these things earlier.

00:19:45.190 --> 00:19:58.998
I mean, I'm turning 50 on Friday and it's really been the last 10 years that I've had real freedom, 10 years that I've had real freedom.

00:19:58.998 --> 00:20:05.740
I mean, I've been going through and I've gotten closer and he's been breaking it along the way, but the freedom that I have now is just nothing that can be compared to anything along the way.

00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:10.395
And to really understand that God wants that for everybody.

00:20:10.817 --> 00:20:20.250
And I feel like this book can be used for, you know, people who don't believe, but people who have been hurt by believers, by churches.

00:20:20.250 --> 00:20:30.209
It really encompasses a lot, I feel like, and I feel like it's done in a way that's personal enough and simple enough that people can understand too.

00:20:30.209 --> 00:21:10.760
Because for me especially with my hearing, you know, and I've worked with people with special needs I really believe that God wants everyone to understand that his message is simple, and I think that's why that I write the way I do too, is because I want to, I want to be able to connect with a simple minded too and for them to know these things as much as that they can know, and that's just really important, because I really feel like that's God's heart and, honestly, if we don't get there first, it's hard to really walk through the other transit, you know, through God's word and looking at things differently and prayer and all those other things, until we really know who he is and who we are in Him and it is an easy read.

00:21:11.115 --> 00:21:15.287
I think anyone will be able to get a lot of benefit out of it.

00:21:15.287 --> 00:21:57.964
Obviously I have, but it is a very easy read and I probably will have my 12-year-old reading it too, because I'm trying for others who have teenagers who might be wanting to wander from the faith for the same reasons we did yeah, and I'm thankful for that, because I didn't have that option, you know I mean I did, but I was still walking through all of it and my kids got a lot of it too.

00:21:59.257 --> 00:22:14.460
So to realize too I want to give hope to the ones that even if their kids are older and they're just realizing these things, I am watching how the changes that God makes in my life still affect my children at 25 and 30.

00:22:14.460 --> 00:22:18.087
They can still see, because there can't be anything else.

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No one else can change us the way God changes us, not in a way that lasts, and I know that they're seeing that.

00:22:25.218 --> 00:22:30.536
So I pray that God can still redeem and use those things, even when our kids are older.

00:22:30.536 --> 00:22:33.843
So I just want to encourage people on that too, amen.

00:22:34.243 --> 00:22:36.955
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

00:22:36.955 --> 00:22:46.462
I've really enjoyed talking with you, resonate so much with everything that you're saying and your book is going to change so many hearts.

00:22:46.462 --> 00:22:49.635
Where can they find your book when it's available?

00:22:49.957 --> 00:22:58.849
Well, I'm sending most people to my website first, which is at wwwarenewedcreationcom.

00:22:58.849 --> 00:23:00.823
There is a Buy it Now button on there.

00:23:00.823 --> 00:23:06.988
You can also get it at Amazon, Barnes, Noble Books, A Million Thrift Books and Target.

00:23:06.988 --> 00:23:12.574
But I love connecting with people, too, on my website, so I really want to see more people go there.

00:23:12.955 --> 00:23:26.307
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you'll have a lot of people coming and talking to you once the book is out Good and bad, hopefully more good than bad, but there will be a mixed bag, I'm sure, All right.

00:23:26.307 --> 00:23:45.976
Well, thank you so much again, desiree, for coming on today and talking with us about a very important topic that is definitely thriving in the church and hopefully will stop thriving, so that relationships with Jesus will thrive in its place and we can actually see some lasting change in this world.

00:23:46.155 --> 00:23:46.497
Amen.

00:23:46.497 --> 00:23:49.559
Thanks so much for having me on, so it's a blessing to share it.

Desiree Taylor Profile Photo

Desiree Taylor

Author and Speaker

From a young age, my hearing began to go away progressively. Hearing loss has been a part of my story most of the way through.

At age 18, I was a young, pregnant, single mom. I was married and continued building our family with another child. I grew up in a very legalistic church environment and have dealt with insecurity, severe low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and anger.

I became a Christian and have gone through a journey of learning what it means to have a relationship with Jesus and breaking through the religious and legalistic barriers, which I wrote about in my new book, Created to Relate: Living Beyond Religion that I am getting ready to launch for August 20th.

I would love the opportunity to share these experiences with others!