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Episode 2: Identity In Christ
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Join us as we discuss our identity and Christ and why understanding this will help us understand all future episodes of Bloom Wild Girls/
Transcript
Introduction to Bloom Wild Girls Podcast
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Bloom Wild Girls
Welcome to the Bloom Wild Girls podcast, a podcast for tween and teen girls made by tween and teen girls to discuss how to live biblically in our current seasons of life. Grab your mom, a friend, or a snack and join us for a fun and encouraging conversation.
What is Identity in Christ?
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Bloom Wild Girls
Okay, I'm here today with Addy. Addy. Hello. And we are going to be talking about our identity in Christ today because we're going to spend many, many weeks talking about lots of different topics. And we want to make sure we start with the most important thing um because all these activities we're gonna talk about and ways of living we're going talk about don't really matter if we don't understand the first thing, which is who we are in Christ. So that's our plan for today.
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Bloom Wild Girls
But before we jump into that, how are you doing today, Adi? Good. It's kind of a different day here today. It's rainy. We're in California. It doesn't rain a lot. So we got some rain and it's been really nice.
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Bloom Wild Girls
And so we're going to jump in now to
Following Jesus: Implications of Christian Identity
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Bloom Wild Girls
identity. But the first thing we wanted to do was just talk about... what it means to be a Christian because this podcast is designed for girls who have decided they want to follow Jesus, that they want to honor the Lord with their lives. And that's what we're going to be talking about through all of the podcasts.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So Addy and I are both going to share a little bit about what that means to follow Jesus. So Addy, what would you say if someone was asking you what that means to follow Jesus? What's one thing you might tell them?
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Bloom Wild Girls
Um,
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To believe that he came to save you because he loves you and that if you repent and believe in him, he will save you and you will go to heaven. Exactly, right? We know we're all sinners.
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Bloom Wild Girls
And we can't do anything to save ourselves, but God sent his son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect life and to die in our place for our sins.
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And when we repent of our sins and we trust in Christ's death on the cross to save us, um we can be made new. And then we belong to him. And then out of gratitude for that, and because we are being changed from the inside out, we are able to live differently.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So that's why we want to do all the things that we're going to end up talking about on this podcast. All the, all these different things we do, the actions we do, those things don't save us. They're just an outpouring of our love and thankfulness to a God who was willing to save us.
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Bloom Wild Girls
And of course, we can't do things perfectly, but it should give us joy to live in a Christlike way.
Prioritizing Christian Identity Over Others
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Bloom Wild Girls
So what we want to talk about today is our identity in Christ, because as Christian girls and women, our identity should first be in Jesus rather than anything else.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So the first thing we we're going to talk about was a quote we mentioned from week. Maybe you remember we had this Elizabeth Elliot quote, which was about being a Christian first before we are ah girl. And that if we think about being a Christian first, that will help us determine what kind of a girl we are.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So i had some questions that I was going to ask Addie. And the first one was, why is it important to have our identity in Christ first? Why is that order important?
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Bloom Wild Girls
Well, I think it's important to have your identity in Christ first because you might start to wish you had something someone else has or like, be jealous of somebody because you think it would make you better and make you maybe, like, popular or something and people would like you for that.
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Bloom Wild Girls
But it's good to put your identity in Christ first because you know that you're perfect to him and that water matters way more than earthly things. I think that's great. Yeah, when we have a strong sense of identity, knowing we belong to the Lord, that can help us not to change who we are.
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Bloom Wild Girls
for other people based on what they want. But instead we're thinking, what would God want? um I belong to him. First, first and foremost, I'm a Christian girl. So um I'm going to stick to that and live like that before I do things that other people say.
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Bloom Wild Girls
I think that's great. um One verse that kind of goes along with that would be Corinthians 5, 17, first Corinthians 5, It says, if any anyone is in Christ, he, in our case, she, is a new creation.
Biblical Reinforcement of Christian Identity
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So we're made new by Christ. um And then John 1.12 tells us that we're children of God. Peter 2.9 says, we are a chosen people, his possession.
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And 1 Corinthians 6.19 reminds us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So all these things are just reminding us that we belong to Jesus and that we are in him and that is who we are.
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So another question I or actually I think Addy had something else you want to add to that. Well, that when God finished making the world, he said that it is good. And that means that we are good because we are his creation and he cares about us.
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Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. And we know that the Bible talks about how he created us the way we are while we're still in our mother's womb and all these different things about us. So we can have confidence then.
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Bloom Wild Girls
in our identity in him. Okay. another thought we had to help us with this idea that we should think about being a Christian first, before we think about being a girl or an athlete or a student or a sister or daughter or any of these other things, um, is this question that I i asked Adi, it said, will your other identities, the other things that you do or connect with over your life, will they stay the same all of your life?
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All right. So by other identities, you could mean like stages of life. Yes. So you won't always be eighteen teen or a tween forever. here And so you
Christian Identity and Life Roles
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don't want to base like stuff off of that.
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That's yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. And so you want to work on your identity in Christ more than so self-worth because it's worth it in the long run. And I have a verse that kind of goes with that. Okay.
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What is that? first 1 Peter 1.7. And it says, So that the tested genuineness... genuineness That's okay. go ahead. Genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Why did you choose that? Well, I like how it talks about that being tested and that even though it is tested by fire, it will still be strong when Jesus comes back.
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Yeah, that makes me think about that identity. It's in Christ and there's going to be different challenges in our life, different things that come up in different seasons like we're talking about, but we're still Christians. That doesn't change.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So I could give an example since I'm older than you and I've gone through more seasons that once I was a girl and then I was ah teenager and then I was, you know, an college student. Let's see what other things. I've been a cheerleader.
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um I was an employee. I had different jobs. I was a teacher. um and then I got married and I was a wife. And then I've had kids and I was a mom. Now I'm a homeschooler. So there's all these things I could put my identity in and I could make my decisions in life based off of being those things.
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Or i could put my identity in Christ first. And then no matter what happens, I'm still secure. And I still have a foundation for making all of my decisions out of no matter what else changes in my life. So I think that's what helps with the order is otherwise it can get confusing, especially if some of those things you're doing um it people can do them whether they're a Christian or not, right?
Personality vs. Christian Identity
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You can be a mom, whether you're a Christian or not, you could be an athlete either way.
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So being a Christian might change the way we do those things. Kind of like that Elizabeth Elliot quote, where she says being a Christian kind of determines the sort of woman or the sort of girl that we're going to be.
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Okay. So did I have another question for you here? um Oh, yes. How is personality related to identity? And and does the Bible talk about this at all?
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um We were going to talk about that. Let's see. What do you think of when you think of personality? um Like how people act, like what things they like. Yeah. How they do things.
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Did God create our personalities? Yes. Totally. And I think personalities and identity both kind of define who you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's still good to have our identity in Christ, even over our personalities, because he did give us our personalities.
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But sometimes our personalities or there's this pastor who uses the term bent or bent, like the way we are bent. um And sometimes those things can be really great and have positive sides, but sometimes they can have negative sides.
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And we don't want to ever say, well, that's just my personality as an excuse to sin. So when we remember our identity is in Christ and we're a Christian first, then we can look at our personalities and, um,
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we can be willing to
Practical Living Through Christian Identity
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change things if we need to. So I don't know if you know this Addy, but personality tests are actually really popular. And people like to take them and find out what it says about them and who they are. And that can be interesting.
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And sometimes it could be helpful. But a way it might not be helpful is if you were saying, oh, well, I'm i'm an introvert, which means i I like to be by myself more. And so because of that, I don't really like to have a lot of people over. I don't i don't like big events.
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um And then you could maybe turn that into an excuse for not being hospitable. i can't host growth group. yeah, I can't host that eventt in my house or i can't have people over.
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And then you're actually going against what it means to be a Christian because Christians are told to be hospitable and we're told to fellowship with other people. So we just want to keep things in their proper order, identity in Christ first, and then we live out of that.
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So what other thoughts did you have or anything else you wanted to share? on this idea or things that you think about when when it comes to mind? Well, I mean, I could say, well, I'm super organized, so I don't need to try and be extra organized.
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Oh, like i'm not I'm naturally this way? This way, so i don't need to. Maybe I don't need to try harder or something? Yeah, okay. Instead of thinking, you know, I should, what could I do better? Or is there another way I could do this? Yeah, we don't want to take pride just in our abilities or our personalities either.
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um So what ways, since you're 13, what are some of the ways you would identify yourself? Like maybe a middle schooler, would that be one way? Yeah. I'm a middle schooler. I'm an eighth grader. I'm an eighth grader, right? um I'm a student.
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That might be one. You're a sister. Yeah. ah daughter A daughter. homeschooler. A homeschooler. yeah all of those things. Those are good. Do you ah think that people sometimes maybe take an identity like teenager and then assume a lot of things about that?
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Yeah, like that they're really weird. That they're weird. Or maybe, oh they can't possibly be mature because they're a teenager. Or they really can't be that responsible or something.
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But if you're a Christian, you're still held to... Christian standards so we wouldn't want to put that kind of identity first um we want to see what the bible says about it and actually in the bible teenagers are doing all sorts of cool stuff can you think of a teenager in the bible who's doing something cool or impressive or ah how old was Esther That's a good question. She could have been a teenager. a lot of times the
Foundational Values and Life Choices Through Christian Identity
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girls were young. I'd have to look that up to know the exact detail.
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But even Jesus, he's when he's teaching or and he's talking and amazing the teachers. when He's 12. Yeah, he's 12. Mary was young. Yeah. She's like 16.
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So if we took today's... version of what people think about teenagers, um we would have said those things probably weren't possible. So that's why it's good to have identity in Christ first. And we talked about that a little last week when we were saying, you know, don't let people look down on you because you're young.
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Bloom Wild Girls
Yeah. Okay. That's great. So the reason we wanted to talk about this kind of big idea of identity is because When we're a Christian, that affects everything else that we're going to do. So knowing that and keeping that first in our mind can impact every area of our lives.
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um There's a book written by Francis Schaeffer that Addy's probably going to read in a couple years called, How Shall We Then Live? And it's kind of this idea of we should be asking that question to ourselves. So we say, you know, I'm a Christian.
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Bloom Wild Girls
How should I live? And that's what we're going to be doing in this podcast. So can you just think of an example off the top of your head? Oh, if I'm a Christian, then i should hospitable, be hospitable. So that's one. So that's probably something we'll talk about, right? So we're just giving you examples for why we're talking about identity first. So as a Christian, my hospitality should look like, and we'll have some biblical ideas or as a Christian, should lift others up. ah there ah
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Bloom Wild Girls
lifting others up. So maybe being an encourager, we could talk about that one week. um And the basis for all of it is that we're Christians, meaning that we're sinners who've been saved by grace and who want to honor the Lord um and live like Jesus did.
Preview: Stewardship in Daily Life
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Bloom Wild Girls
So that's the plan. Do we want to tell them what we're going to be talking about next week? Yeah, I think we're going to be talking about keeping our rooms clean. We're going to be talking about keeping our rooms clean. Yes. So the point of this podcast doing this one on identity first is we want to make sure people don't think we're saying, um keep your room clean because that makes you a better Christian or you're more saved the more your room is clean or something like that. But rather that we have this idea that we're
Career Aspirations Guided by Christian Identity
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Bloom Wild Girls
Christians. so
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Bloom Wild Girls
we identify with Christ and what he is like and what he says and what he does what How could we maybe demonstrate that in our bedrooms? And you should take care of the things God has given you. Exactly. So we're going to get into that in more detail next week.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So one more thought about identity, kind of for fun. Do you ever think about what you want to be when you're older, or what you want to do when you're older? Yes. There two things. I would either want to rehabilitate wild mustangs at this ranch called Sweet Bow Ranch Or I'd want to be hairstylist at a salon.
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Those are both awesome. And could you do those things like a Christian? Yes. Exactly. You can. So, and that's, to me, that's a really secure feeling. um And so you don't ever have to get to a place in your life, hopefully, where...
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Bloom Wild Girls
things have changed or, you know, maybe you you don't know what you're going to do or your job changes or things like that, or you don't get the dreams you thought and suddenly you feel confused. Who am i Or something like that. Instead, we'll have that solid rock like God is described as um and know that our identity is still the
Episode Wrap-Up and Music Recommendation
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same. Our value, like Addy was saying with the scriptures, our value is still the same.
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God still loves us even when those things change and that we are still in him we're still saved and belong to him so that is all we had planned for today um so last week i asked you if there was something that you were reading that you were enjoying so this week i'm going to ask you if there's something you've been listening to like music or a podcast or something else that you want to recommend one thing music music okay there's a singer called ann wilson she's really good
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Bloom Wild Girls
She's kind of – Kind of country. Kind of country. and Christian. She's on K-Love Radio a little bit. And she has a really interesting story, so you could look her up and maybe learn about yeah her if you want.
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Bloom Wild Girls
So that's our recommendation for today, Ann Wilson. And thanks for listening. We hope that you have a great day, whether it's rainy or sunny, wherever you are.
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Bloom Wild Girls
Bye. bye