Candace Nassar (00:00)
Well, welcome, Marian. I’m so happy to have you on the show this morning. You have such a gift for helping women stay grounded in truth and live with courage and grace. And I know your wisdom will really speak to the hearts of our moms listening today. So thank you for being here.
Marian Ellis (00:14)
Aren’t you kind? I just say apart from Jesus I can do nothing. So I’m thankful to pass that truth on to anyone.
Candace Nassar (00:22)
I completely agree with that statement, so great. Okay, so before we dive into Peter’s story, which we’re gonna talk about this morning, I’d love for our listeners just to get to know you a little bit better. So can you tell us a little bit about your background, your family, your ministry, and what life looks like for you right now?
Marian Ellis (00:40)
Absolutely, so I fell in love with Jesus a little bit later in life. I was 25 years old although I had been raised in a what I would call like a traditional Christian home There was a lot of brokenness in my childhood a lot of woundedness I came to Christ with so many strongholds and lies of the enemy So when I came to Jesus, I was radically redeemed by the Lord’s grace and then in a process of about seven to ten years, God put me into a spiritual hospital, which is what I call the church.
Really, women poured into my life, went through a process of being set free from a lot of darkness, a lot of strongholds. And in that process, this love for Jesus, I just couldn’t shut up about him. And so really, at the end of that, my church says, OK, you won’t stop talking about Jesus. We think you need to be teaching the Bible.
And so I was like, I thought I only had the gift of hospitality because I could bring chips to every church event. it was, I kind of just got thrown into teaching God’s word and absolutely love the word of God because not only do I meet Jesus there, but it transformed my life. And my church sent me to seminary and really in that I sensed the bigger call of God.
Candace Nassar (01:38)
Hahaha
Marian Ellis (01:57)
and what he was specifically calling me to do was to write and teach women how to live the redeemed life. And so that’s what I do today. I’ve been doing that for about 20 years now and just being able to take the word of God and expound it for women so that they can experience not just revelation but transformation. So I did a lot of things in life later than most people. I got married later in life.
So I got married at 38, met my amazing husband and ministry partner and he had two little boys when we got married so I became what I call a bonus mom and that was just an exciting new way to depend on God and learn to rely on the Holy Spirit and then surprise surprise when I was 43 God gave me our own little baby a little girl and so another
Candace Nassar (02:31)
Mm.
Candace Nassar (02:37)
I bet.
Marian Ellis (02:45)
huge way of, know, most women are becoming, you know, their kids are going to college and I was like bringing home a newborn. And so God has had to sustain me and the very, very weariness of young motherhood and learning to rely on him and all of that. And now she’s in third grade and we have two in college. So we’re just on the spectrum of motherhood here.
So now I write full-time women’s Bible studies. My first Bible study with Lifeway is out right now. It’s called Anchored and I lead the women of my home church here in San Antonio. So that’s my full big Jesus life.
Candace Nassar (03:22)
Love that so much and similar, somewhat similar in terms of meeting Jesus later in life to me. So I really appreciate that. And just the redeemed life that we have such a before and after to point to. That’s a really special thing. Although my kids were raised in a Christian home and they still walk with Jesus and they’re like, I have such a boring story, but everybody has their story, right?
Marian Ellis (03:43)
You know what I told my daughter, to that the other day? I said, you get to, from a very young age, know what the goodness of God looks like and to testify to that. And I had to live in the darkness of Satan’s grip and had to experience the worst of the worst. And so you don’t have to, that’s your testimony, you know, that you get to walk in all his goodness. So hopefully kids will take that and run with it.
Candace Nassar (04:04)
That’s so beautiful. Yes, absolutely. That’s so great that you’re sharing that with her now. So I know she’ll be looking for all of that, those God moments as she grows up. That’s so cool. Okay, so we’re gonna talk about Anchored and Peter. What led you to write Anchored and focus on the life and letters of Peter?
Marian Ellis (04:26)
You know, Candice, if I look back on those early days of discipleship, I’m reading through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and I am learning what it means to be a disciple from the disciples. And one thing that really marked my early days with Jesus is when Peter meets Jesus, you know, he has a couple encounters, but there’s that one encounter by the Sea of Galilee where Jesus astounds him with his glory.
We have this miracle of this catch a fish and then he says, come follow me. And then we see Peter, the words are, he left everything. He left everything and he followed Jesus. And that became when I was so in the darkness of my sin and living in the world, living for myself, living for climbing the corporate ladder. I was doing everything the world said was going to make me happy and make me rich and make me all of that and I was miserable but then I had an encounter with Jesus and that call to leave everything and follow him, I resonated with that with Peter.
And then on the other side of that is this abundance. So that catch a fish that Peter and the disciples had was just symbolic of living in the life with Jesus. Your nets are empty before but when you follow him your nets are full and so I wanted to bring Peter’s story to life because I learned how to follow Jesus.
I learned that Jesus is better from looking at Jesus through his eyes and understanding his story and everything he experienced. And so in many ways, Peter discipled me as I read the gospels. And I looked around and there were so many books on Paul, so many studies on Paul, so many things. And I love the apostle Paul, but Peter…
Candace Nassar (06:01)
Mm.
Marian Ellis (06:11)
with Jesus and we don’t talk about Him enough. And He teaches us how to say, Jesus, you’re better than anything else and pick ourselves up when we fall and to run to the Lord. And so I just felt like I resonate so much with His failures and His impulsivity that we need to spend time learning from Him what it looks like to follow Christ.
Candace Nassar (06:20)
Yes.
Candace Nassar (06:34)
That’s so good. can so relate. And I think so many of our listeners can where we’re all in and then we’re not. We’re doubting, we’re denying, we’re doing things that, you know, we’re during our walk as we’re going through our process of becoming more like Jesus, we can get discouraged and Peter and all the ways that the Lord called him back. again, that word redeemed comes back to me restored.
when Peter denied Jesus and all the things. I know we’re gonna talk about some of that, but it’s really encouraging to see a disciple, someone who walked with the Lord, who was so passionate and loved him so much and yet failed and then came back. I think that’s really encouraging to people.
Marian Ellis (07:17)
Yes, yes, and it’s a timeless encouragement because, you know, every generation we look to these stories.
Candace Nassar (07:21)
Yes. Okay, so Peter, well we were talking about him as a disciple, an impulsive disciple. Let’s talk about how his story has personally impacted your own walk of faith. Have you experienced that?
Marian Ellis (07:34)
yeah, you know, every believer goes through a time when their faith is tested. And Candice, I’m sure you have, know, we fall in love with Jesus, we believe the tenets of the gospel, but then we all have that season where the enemy comes after our faith. And I, in my mid-30s, went through a very, I call it a wilderness season, a very difficult trial, and lasted about two years.
Where my mind was bombarded by those fiery darts of doubt, those fiery darts of accusation, lies about the character of God. And I was holding on to Jesus just with like bare knuckling, just trying to hold on to my faith. And there’s a scene in the gospels and it’s in John chapter six. And it’s on the heels of Jesus has just done this miraculous feeding of the 5,000. And then he,
Candace Nassar (08:05)
you
Marian Ellis (08:05)
calms the storm and then he goes up and the crowds are following him and he has this very hard teaching where he says, I am the bread of life. And he has this very difficult teaching and there’s this line in John chapter six, verse 66, where it says, because of this, all of these disciples began to walk away. They began to walk away. It’s just a picture of when your faith is tested that so many people
Candace Nassar (08:45)
Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Marian Ellis (08:52)
in those times they may have started out passionate and on fire but when the testing comes many people do walk away from Christ and I was reading that passage and I felt like that’s what Satan’s tempting me to do right now and then Peter responds because Jesus looks at Peter and says do you want to go to and Peter’s response to Jesus in that moment was where else would we go because you alone
Candace Nassar (09:00)
Mm, mm.
Marian Ellis (09:20)
the words of life and that Candice became the anchor of my soul. I was like, I have tasted life apart from Jesus. I may not understand all the questions to the doubts and fears and lies that the enemy’s coming at me with right now, but what I know is Jesus alone holds the words of life and I anchored my life to that truth for about 18 months.
Candace Nassar (09:26)
Hmm.
Marian Ellis (09:48)
Jesus, you’re my life. You’re my anchor. You’re my hope. I don’t understand why my life looks like this. I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t get it. And I can’t go into right now all the things, the catalysts that led me there, but God brought me through it because I was holding on to the life giver. That’s where I anchored. And Peter taught me to do that. He didn’t have all the answers to the questions, but he knew who was life and it was Jesus.
Candace Nassar (09:49)
Mm.
Marian Ellis (10:15)
That’s sometimes all we can do is Jesus, I’m holding on to you. I’m holding on to you. I don’t get it, but I’m holding on to you.
Candace Nassar (10:22)
Yeah, that’s so great. I’ve taught on that before and on identity and how our identity is in Christ and when we anchor ourselves in something else, it’s like grabbing onto a piece of seaweed out in the ocean. We’re just going to drift around until we’re lost at sea. you and I, isn’t that good? I know, and I’ve seen that so many ways. And then when we are anchored to the Lord and to His truths.
Marian Ellis (10:33)
because.
I’m going to borrow that. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (10:46)
We are anchored. He is the rock. He is the rock of safety and we will not, we do not drift. He is with us. So that is so good. Okay. So let’s talk about some anchored practices that you share. What are some of those anchored practices that can keep us steady? Can you share a couple of those that have been transformational for you?
Marian Ellis (10:52)
Yeah.
Yes.
Marian Ellis (11:04)
You know in my own life the word of God has been, Jesus said, know, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And as someone who came to the Lord in such bondage to Satan’s lies and such strongholds, the word of God is irreplaceable. And so in my Bible study, I talk about being anchored to several things, being anchored to Christ, being anchored to God’s glory, but being anchored to the word is absolutely vital.
And so what has shaped my life for 25 years is getting up in the morning and you know Satan always tempts us with our phones but getting up in the morning and my first input into my brain and into my day is the Word of God. And so I’ve really simplified it for myself. I use a -read through the Bible plan- and I use it every year. I go through the Bible every year and every day my plan tells me an Old Testament, a New Testament, a Psalm and a Proverb to read. And it never fails that the Holy Spirit uses whatever I’m in that day to speak to me. And whatever I’m in that day, throughout the day there might be a situation that I walk into where the truth that, I didn’t think that was relevant when I was reading it this morning in Philippians, but then I’m in later in my day and I can hear the Holy Spirit.
Candace Nassar (12:09)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Ellis (12:25)
of bringing that back to me. So for me, I don’t care if you’re eight or eighty, every day in the word, that’s the anchor for me.
Candace Nassar (12:34)
100 % 100 % Yeah, I agree completely and anything else that you could
Marian Ellis (12:38)
Yeah, I think prioritizing the body of Christ in our lives and that can look like several different things. A lot of people in our culture will walk into a building where worship happens and walk out and they will say, I went to church. Church is a group of people. Church is a body. And we have to be known in a body where we’re sitting across from people who are going to ask us hard questions, who we are going to be talking about.
what we listen to in the sermon, that we’re gonna be admitting our struggles and our need for God’s grace, that we’re gonna pray over, this is what’s happening in my home. We have to be anchored to the body of Christ. And I mean, that’s an intentional purpose-filled, like, I’m gonna shape my week of my life around meeting with other believers. And that is different than corporate worship. That is corporate.
Candace Nassar (13:31)
Absolutely.
Marian Ellis (13:32)
Corporate worship is so vital to our souls, but being with other believers anchors us to where you see me, I see you, we’re talking about what the Lord’s doing, we’re being real, we’re asking hard questions, and I think that’s irreplaceable for believers today.
Candace Nassar (13:49)
Okay, I couldn’t agree more because that’s what MomQ is all about. I mean, we want moms to come together and share their struggles and bear each other’s burdens. And that is living out the hands and feet of Jesus and that authentic community where our number one core value is to pour out love, not judgment, but also to speak truth in love.
Marian Ellis (13:53)
Amen. Amen.
Marian Ellis (14:11)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (14:14)
Right? And so what you’re talking about is that community is what’s going to keep you on track. And I think so many of us today think we can do it without community and we can’t. And the online church and the trends of that is just, we see the result of that, right? Our society, there’s so many ways our society is more lonely and mentally just desperate than we’ve ever been. And the place to find your people.
Marian Ellis (14:23)
We can’t.
Candace Nassar (14:41)
and have that hope, is in the community of believers. So I love that, I love that. Okay, so the other thing that I really wanna talk to you about, you started in on it today when you introduced us as how you had that instant family. And I know that that is so common today. And…
Marian Ellis (14:45)
Yes, yes.
Marian Ellis (14:56)
Yes.
Candace Nassar (15:01)
you have such a heart for these bonus moms and blended families. I actually grew up in a blended family so I completely understand although we did not have Jesus so it was quite, quite different. What has Jesus taught you about loving children you didn’t raise from birth and finding belonging when family dynamics look different?
Marian Ellis (15:21)
Yeah. So, you know, I met my boys when they were four and eight before we got married and we were dating and they were delightful, you know, and when you, a blended family starts when they’re younger, I do believe it’s so much easier than moms who are starting with teenagers. You know, obviously that is, you have a lot more struggles.
So my experience is a little bit unique and the Holy Spirit just, It was a level of dependence on how to do it because there’s no playbook, right? There’s no playbook for motherhood. There’s definitely not a playbook for being a stepmom. And so I would just have to ask and seek the Lord and ask him to show me how to do. And I probably initially came on too strong wanting to have this perfect little family and the boys needed time. And so the Lord had to show me love equals time, love equals presence.
Candace Nassar (16:12)
Hmm.
Marian Ellis (16:14)
Love equals patience. And so it’s funny that we memorize like 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient, love is kind, love bears all things. But then you have to figure out, no, that’s what you do when you love. You do those things. And I think just like anything with motherhood, for me, being a stepmom meant first of all, dying to self. Even my expectations, my, what I.
Candace Nassar (16:36)
Hmm.
Marian Ellis (16:36)
wanted to feel like, like what I wanted them to treat me like, dying to self and also loving their mom and being all the things that first Corinthians says, love is patient, love is kind, you know, bears all things, you know? And so I think the fruit in our boys’ lives is they’re in college today, two young men who love Jesus.
Candace Nassar (16:48)
Yes, yes.
Marian Ellis (17:05)
And we didn’t do it perfectly, but we sought the Lord and we tried to bring Jesus into everything with them and to walk in the spirit with them. it was just a daily dependence for me and my husband. And I think the fruit of it today is we’re seeing it in their lives. And they saw us stumble. They saw us say, I’m sorry for this. They saw us say, I wish we had done this differently, you know? And it’s just that transparent, Holy Spirit dependent life.
that we had to model for them.
Candace Nassar (17:36)
Absolutely. Just apologies and asking for forgiveness when you mess up goes so, far. I know that with my own kids. But I just think it’s such a beautiful example because talking about who we are in Christ and identity is we are children of God. We are adopted into His family because we have believed and received Jesus. Adoption and blended families and making those situations work is to me such a picture of the family of God. So that’s great.
Marian Ellis (18:04)
Absolutely, absolutely. When you see all the commands about how to be unified in the body, how to prefer one another in the body, that’s what we have to do in blended families. We have to prefer one another. We have to give right of way to other people. We have to, you know, die to ourselves. And it’s sanctifying, but it’s the life of Jesus, right? And, you know, I don’t think a blended family is a second class family. I think it’s a redeemed family, you know?
Candace Nassar (18:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (18:34)
Mmm, that’s so good. Yeah, I mean we know that Jesus can redeem all of it and so, and the relationship between the stepparent and the biological parent is really important as much as you can, I mean a lot of times that’s not in your control, but just that sacrificial love, just showing that sacrificial love, I think it’s so good.
Marian Ellis (18:39)
And he does.
Marian Ellis (18:54)
Yeah. Yeah.
The boy’s biological mom did a great job of really prioritizing the boys not being in a battle zone and that we would both always do what is in their best interest. What is going to make them have stability, have love in both homes and not being in fighting and you know, and I have to give her props to that. She really worked hard and…
Candace Nassar (19:06)
Mm.
Marian Ellis (19:23)
was easy to work with on that account.
Candace Nassar (19:23)
Yeah, so that’s great. And I know there’s a lot of moms out there that don’t have that. And I just encourage you to continue to pray and just trust the Lord in that and know that again, whatever stage you just keep praying for your kids, praying for those relationships and God can restore and redeem it. So.
Marian Ellis (19:43)
And I would say to those moms interceding for that woman or that ex-husband will do, I mean, a world of good, not only in your own heart, how you engage and interact, but God does supernatural work when we pray for others. I mean, Jesus said, bless your enemies. And not that we want to call the other family our enemies, but…
Candace Nassar (19:48)
Mm-hmm.
Candace Nassar (20:00)
Mm, mm.
Marian Ellis (20:06)
you’re actively participating in the kingdom call when you bless, pray, do that for the one that the world would say, the world would say that’s your enemy, but they’re not, you know. But when we do what Jesus says is bless, pray, love, you know, he works out these battles in such a beautiful way that brings something that only God could have done that, you know, only God could have done that.
Candace Nassar (20:15)
Yeah. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (20:30)
Yeah. Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. I just have to share for a second that I have a stepmother and a biological mother. My stepmother came into my life when I was really young. My father has since passed away. There was a lot of struggle because it wasn’t a Christian environment. But now my mothers are friends and they talk on the phone and just speak into each other’s life. And I just, I love, I love that, you know?
Marian Ellis (20:54)
Well, that’s a testament to you too, and probably what you modeled for them and showed them the path of Jesus, you know.
Candace Nassar (20:59)
Hopefully. Hopefully, yeah. So it’s really, it can happen. It can happen. Okay, let’s shift and talk about how our world feels so loud and unstable right now. And Peter’s life can teach us to discern truth in our post-Christian culture. How can you speak to that in terms of what you talked about in the study?
Marian Ellis (21:22)
Yeah, so in my study, I am taking readers, participants through, first of all, Peter’s life, who models for us in his own world. was, persecution was real, darkness was real, all of those things that we’re experiencing now, he first experienced. And he models for us, if we look at his life from the first call until he is martyred for Jesus in Rome.
He models for us what it looks like to anchor ourselves to Jesus. And then in his letters, which we walk through in the homework, it’s the first and second Peter are like this handbook for Christian living. He writes to the church who he calls exiles. are in this world, but not of this world. And they are experiencing all, so much similarity to what we’re experiencing today. The world hates you.
You’re suffering for the name of Christ. It is not cool. Your lifestyle choices do not align with the choices of the world And so it’s this play-by-play handbook. Okay, so when this happens, what do you do when this happens? What do you do? And what I discovered and really studying first and second Peter is Everything he teaches us we can look back in the Gospels and we can see where Peter learned that from Jesus and so it doubled downs for me
Candace Nassar (22:38)
Mm.
Marian Ellis (22:40)
This is not just like, you know, Peter’s listening to the Lord, which is the inerrant word of God. We can see that Jesus taught him this for us, to equip us, to empower us so that we can stand firm in this world that hates us, in this world that is darkness. And so I just find that throughout studying Peter’s life and his letters, there’s these anchor points that we are given.
And it’s all of this truth that really addresses specific cultural moments that we’re in and helps us, be Christ and be centered on Christ today.
Candace Nassar (23:19)
Yeah, that’s so good. mean, we just we know Jesus said to expect these things, that in this world you will have trouble. And then we see Peter reminding these exiles in some really harsh persecution, right? Nothing. I mean, we we are not experiencing anything like they did and yet cause them to persevere and
Marian Ellis (23:19)
Yes, yes.
Marian Ellis (23:34)
No.
Yeah, we’re not experiencing in the West, but our brothers and sisters in Europe, our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, a million today have been killed. know, brothers and sisters in India, I’ve met beautiful brothers and sisters in India who are severely persecuted because of the name of Jesus. And, people in England who are losing their jobs because they won’t
Candace Nassar (23:47)
Hmm
Marian Ellis (24:08)
bow the knee to the culture. And it’s happening here. We, you know, we don’t probably hear about it as much, but it’s happening here. Faithful Christians. You can’t be a faithful Christian in Canada, Canada today and hold an office or rise up in corporations. And so the tide right now in America feels a little safe, but the culture at large, the global,
Candace Nassar (24:17)
True.
Marian Ellis (24:32)
world’s system is opposed to what it means to be a genuine true follower of Jesus. And Jesus did warn us, as you said, John 16, he’s like, the world will hate you, but they hated me first. And that’s the nature of realizing our identity as the light. We are the light and the darkness hates the light. And so I don’t say that to be flippant or to say, Hey, guess what? They’re just going to hate you.
But, when we’re equipped with that knowledge, we can learn how to stand. We’re also not surprised. And so what 1st and 2nd Peter teach us really is, in this scenario, when the world hates you, here’s how you need to respond. In this scenario, when the world hates you, here’s how you need to respond. And so he gives these examples to government, women who are married to unbelievers. When you’re suffering unjustly, what do you do?
Candace Nassar (25:02)
Right.
Yes.
Marian Ellis (25:24)
And so he gives us various scenarios of how to live this out in this dark world.
Candace Nassar (25:30)
Yeah, it’s so good and he gives us so much hope. And so that makes me think about what can we, what would you say or what does it look like for moms who are trying to live out and share their faith with joy, not only with their children, but with those around them, like you’re saying that are completely, it’s a foreign concept of some of the things.
Marian Ellis (25:52)
I would say first of all that our kids are, they can sniff out hypocrisy and fraud. They can sniff it out. And so in our homes, we have little eyes watching us. And do we live like our living hope is Jesus? Do we live our lives like my, you know, because we are tempted like everyone else to put our hope in our appearance, to put our hope in how well our kid does at soccer, to put our hope in whether or not we have a vacation that we can Instagram, do we put our hope in the things that the world is putting their hope in? And so as believers who love Jesus, we have a different source of hope and it’s living, it’s never fading, it can’t be taken from us and this is what we anchor to. It was like, you know what, good day or bad day, cellulite or no cellulite, you know, all of that stuff that we have a joy
Candace Nassar (26:44)
Yeah.
Marian Ellis (26:47)
because our hope is in something, it’s in someone that the world does not know. And so first of all, it’s like, we’ve got to be those women that I’m not, as you used the seaweed analogy earlier, I’m not anchoring my life to something that is fickle and fading. I’m anchoring my hope and happiness to the one who holds all things. And so that would be the first thing. And I would say the second thing is, Peter talks about
Candace Nassar (26:56)
Mm-hmm.
Marian Ellis (27:14)
Be ready to make a defense for the hope that is in you. And so our being ready is being conversational with our children, being conversational with our children as they’re bringing things to the dinner table, as they’re bringing issues in the car ride, that we are bringing things back to the truth of the gospel, the truth of our identity in Christ, the real hope we have in this world, because it will be tempting for us to shift over and try to do the same things that the world does.
And we have to be starting with ourselves, being women who hope in the gospel, being women who hope in Christ, and in the conversations with our kids, be ready to bring them back to those truths as those situations arise.
Candace Nassar (27:59)
Amen. So good. And I love even just the reference to the dinner table because I know that happens so much in my family where we would just have these conversations at the dinner table. And we would, I would share and the kids would ask. And if I didn’t know, I would say, why don’t you know, let me look it up. Or I’d say, you go research it, you know? And the being ready to give the defenses where, you know, I have that confidence that the word of God is living and active, right? And and I can share it knowing that it is going to pierce their soul as well.
Marian Ellis (28:33)
Yeah, yeah. And that being ready is being also rooted in the word for yourself because kids are asking big questions. And so as they are being discipled by the world through social media and through their schools, we have to have big answers ready. So we can’t just sit back and go, okay, church on Sunday, I did my part. No, we need to know.
Candace Nassar (28:41)
Yeah.
Marian Ellis (28:58)
why Jesus is the answer and that we have to educate ourselves as moms to some of the big philosophical questions they’re gonna be asking. Why do we believe in the resurrection? Why do we believe God is the creator? Why do we believe in a physical bodily return of Christ? Why do we believe that, you know, these things, they’re just not gonna accept pat tried answers anymore.
Candace Nassar (29:09)
Amen.
Marian Ellis (29:23)
We have to know the word and be able to teach our kids.
Candace Nassar (29:26)
Amen, because they need to own it. They need to own it themselves. And that’s how they’re going to. So that’s so good. Okay, so as we come to a close, it’s been a great conversation, Mary, and we’re so aligned, and I love, just love talking with you and hearing from you. If you had, just for fun, what’s your gospel in a sentence that would help kids grasp who Jesus is and why he matters? Can you think of that?
Marian Ellis (29:29)
Yes.
Marian Ellis (29:51)
borrow Paul’s Christ in me the hope of glory. Christ in me the hope of glory. And I think what that does is it builds the equation. On one side, Marian has nothing to offer a holy God. I am bankrupt, am empty, I am sinful. But God offered Jesus the answer, the solution. And when I have a relationship with him, Christ comes to live in me. Christ in me is my hope.
Candace Nassar (29:55)
Hmm.
Marian Ellis (30:18)
That’s it.
Candace Nassar (30:19)
That is just so true. Well, I can’t thank you enough. You’re so grateful for your voice and just the way you’ve pointed us back to Jesus, Marian. It’s been a great conversation and I wish you all the best. We’ll put all of the links to your Anchored Bible Study and your podcast in our show notes. And yeah, is there anything else you want to leave our listeners with today as we close?
Marian Ellis (30:35)
Thank you.
Marian Ellis (30:40)
know, just keep depending on the Lord and He keeps showing up.
Candace Nassar (30:43)
Amen. life is a testimony of that. So thank you. All right.