Are you ready to rethink what it means to study God?

In this inspiring episode of the Collide Podcast, we sit down with Phylicia Masonheimer to talk about breaking stereotypes around theology and helping everyday women engage deeply with the Bible. She shares her journey from knowing “Christianese” without understanding it, to discovering how the gospel transforms every area of life. Whether you’re navigating faith in a post-Christian world or simply want to live your beliefs boldly, this episode will remind you that deep faith isn’t just for scholars—it’s for every woman, in every season of life.

Meet Phylicia Masonheimer

Phylicia is the founder of Every Woman a Theologian, a ministry dedicated to helping Christians—especially women—understand, live, and share their faith. She’s an author, blogger, and host of the chart-topping podcast Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer. Phylicia is passionate about equipping women to become students of the heart of God, showing that theology isn’t confined to libraries or lecture halls—it’s for real life, whether you’re single, parenting, or building a career. Her story is a powerful example of living faith boldly and thoughtfully in a complex world.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• How Phylicia redefines what a theologian is and why stereotypes limit our understanding of God
• The danger of belief without grounding it in Scripture
• How to become a student of the heart of God in everyday life
• Practical ways to see the Bible come alive in real-world situations

How This Episode Will Encourage You

If you’ve ever felt like theology or deep Bible study is “not for you,” this episode will empower you to take ownership of your faith. You’ll be reminded that every woman can study God, live her beliefs boldly, and share her faith graciously—one step at a time.

Connect with Phylicia - Website | Instagram | Facebook

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Hey, there. This is Willow Weston.

I'm so glad to hang out with you on the podcast today, I got to interview Phylicia Masonheimer, who's the founder of Every Woman A Theologian. And if that sounds intimidating to you or not up your alley, I'm going to dare you to listen to this podcast and to listen to the very end.

Because actually, in the very end, Phylicia gets pretty, pretty emotional and she's telling a story, and it's inspiring and truly will give you a glimpse into why beginning to dig deeper into God's word can bring you so much value. So, friend, if. If the Bible' been used against you as a tool and a weapon, you have some baggage.

If you're bored with it, if you don't know where to start, if you've just been kind of ignoring it or not paying attention to it, I want to encourage you to listen to this podcast because I think you might end up leaving it feeling encouraged to jump in and grab a hold of what God has to say to you. So take a listen. Phylicia, it's so good to have you on the podcast today.

Thank you for having me. Willow.

Yeah. You are the founder of Every Woman A theologian. I am so curious. What made you start this?

Well, it's a long story, but the short of it is that I started out as a blogger writing specifically about my own testimony of finding freedom from erotica, pornography addiction in written form. And as I opened up about my own story, I found a lot of women were asking questions about sexuality and the Bible. And this was 12, 15 years ago.

So this is when there weren't many women talking about this problem. Struggles with pornography, struggles with erotica or sexual boundaries.

And just being able to share my testimony helped a lot of women feel less alone. And so I started just answering those questions, like here, what scripture says about this? Here's how to find freedom.

Here's how to know, you know, what repentance looks like, what forgiveness means. And as time went on, I realized that there were a lot of underlying theological questions that had to be answered to answer the sexual questions.

So, you know, you're talking about forgiveness and salvation and assurance and what happened at the cross. And of course, that all answers the question of what do I do with my body? But I ended up going to school for religion, getting a degree in religion.

I had a job, so I thought, I'm probably never going to use this degree, but at least it helps me with this little writing gig that I have that's kind of fun. And the Lord had other Plans.

It just opened door after door for me to continue sharing my testimony, but also to use my education to teach women about theology. And then over. Over time, over the years, every woman a theologian was born.

I love this idea of every woman a theologian because I think we have these ideas in our head that it has to be like the guy who got a doctorate or the person who has their M. Div. Or the professionals or the pastors or the popes or whatever. And so you're inviting us to study God as everyday women.

Why do you think that we think it can't be us? Like, what are some of the ideas that have formed that?

The most common thing I hear from women is that I am not educated enough. I don't know the Bible well enough.

And it comes from an assumption that theology is only an academic study, when theology is the study of the nature of God, not just academically, but intimately. Which means that every Christian should be a student of the heart and nature of God. Because, I mean, to be a Christian is to follow Christ.

To follow Christ, you have to understand who he is, what he claimed to be, and choose to believe that. And so what many people don't understand is that they already have a theology. They already have a worldview which is their theology.

And they just have to check if that theology is actually a biblical one. So what I always encourage women with is, you know, you're disqualifying yourself before you've even, you know, come to the starting gate.

And I would say you're more than qualified because you already have a theology. It just might need some checks, some balances, some depth that you can gain by applying yourself to the study of God's word among his people.

You talk about the theologian who drives to our corporate job every morning. Who knows what it's like to be single at 30 or who juggles babies while her husband travels to work.

What do you think would happen if women who follow Jesus were to all decide, yes, I can be an everyday theologian, what would happen in our lives and in our faith?

I love this question. I think what would happen is we would see a lot of women who are number one, more inherently fulfilled and purposeful.

They would have a sense of who they are and where they are going that is immovable because it's centered in who made them and who set them on that path.

I think, secondly, you would see a lot of women very quick to come alongside other Christians, even across denominations in different traditions, to elevate Christ. And that might be by serving. It might be by teaching. It might be by evangelizing or it might be by hospitality. Whatever they're gifting is.

We would see more of that as women say, you know what? Theology, studying God, taking ownership of my faith, that's for me. That's not just for the women who are in ministry.

It's not just for the women who seem like Jesus freaks. They would no longer disqualify themselves and would instead say. I say, I'm a Christian.

I'm going to take this seriously and allow Christ to transform them. Because it's not a matter of, like, I'm going to take this seriously. And so now I'm going to become the perfect Christian by my effort.

That's not what I'm saying. It's that I'm truly going to commit to this. Like, I really. I say I follow Jesus, let's follow Jesus. Let's see what happens.

I think it would be incredible what would happen in the lives of women if they simply took that step.

You have a passion that every woman would become a student of the heart of God. Can you yourself encapsulate in your studies, in your. In. In you saying yes to being a theologian? What have you learned about the heart of God?

What often happens with theology? And when I meet women who are like, I love theology, you know, they'll.

They'll be so excited because they think that, I mean, you know, reading lots of commentaries or, you know, spending a lot of time in the academic angle of theology. I do enjoy the academic angle, but that's not really what I'm talking about here.

I'm talking about a theology that is housed in intimacy, knowing God, not just intellectually, but personally. So that means prayer life. That means your ongoing conversation with him, listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit, walking by his leading.

I would say for me, that means that when I'm spending time with the Lord, sometimes, yes, I might have out the commentaries and the extensive resources, but I would say 80% of the time that's not the case. In my personal time with God, it is simply the Bible and a notebook where I write my prayers.

And then throughout the day, it's an ongoing conversation with him. It's a walk with God. That's what it means to be a student of the heart of God.

I think when we see in Scripture people who were after God's heart, we think like a man after God's heart. You know, I read that for many years as it's a person who was like, trying to copy God.

That's kind of How I understood it, like he was a man after God's own heart. He was. He was similar to God. He was trying to emulate God.

But now I kind of read it as a man going after God's own heart, a woman going after God's own heart, pursuing God's heart, chasing down his heart. I want to be as close to him as possible.

When we only think about the Bible or theology or Christian devotionals, et cetera, as more knowledge about God without knowing God's heart, what happens is we create Christians who are very interested in their smart answers about the Bible being right instead of being close to God himself. And I think that's.

That's the thing that I'm talking about here, is really walking with God personally and knowing his love for you, because that is what really changes everything.

It's interesting because it's. Your description just then said that sometimes it's kind of like we think that we have to know about God, but not, like, know God, experience God.

Like, there's that whole idea.

But it seems like it's important for our minds to have understanding of who God is, who his character is, but also that our understanding and what we know to be true infiltrates our heart. That it's actually not one or the other, but both.

Yes, exactly. Exactly the combination of the two. Because you can't truly believe what you don't know intellectually.

But if you know it intellectually and have not given your heart to it, there's no real intimacy there. God in the Bible, you know, uses the picture of the marriage covenant repeatedly for his relationship with people.

And even if you're not married, I think you can picture the healthiest marriage you know about. Like the one that you're like, if I were to get married, that's what I would want it to look like.

There should be both a knowledge about the spouse and also a knowledge of the spouse. If you met a couple where they're like, I love my wife.

She likes lattes, and she likes shopping and long walks on the beach, you're like, okay, but, like, what do you know of her, of her heart? And that's. I think we do this with God. We were like, yes, I'm in covenant with God, but I just know lots of facts about God.

He's righteous, he's love, he's just. He's kind. But do you know how he feels towards you? Do you know what it's like to talk with him daily?

Can you sense when his voice is speaking to you by sheer exposure and Time with him in his word. That's possible and it's available, but I think a lot of Christians kind of live short of that.

Absolutely.

Well, it seems like there's people who know a lot of facts about God and then there's people who believe in God, but they just sort of make up what he's like.

I'm curious what your advice is for women listening who are really intimidated by the Bible, Maybe have baggage with it, maybe feel bored of it and don't understand the context when they're reading it. And they just do Bible bingo and open it up. Or maybe they don't open it up at all.

And but for that intimidation factor, what's your advice on how to get started? How to. Like, where does a person start to begin to learn about who God is and let God infiltrate their mind and their heart?

That is such a good question. I was recently watching a testimony at our church. Our church did a baptism last week, and we filmed the testimonies of those who are being baptized.

And I was watching it, and in this woman's testimony, she said that for a long time she didn't read the Bible because she felt so inadequate and, like, she wouldn't be smart enough to understand it. And it wasn't until someone came alongside her and said, no, you are capable.

This was written for you to understand God's heart and encouraged her to read the Book of John, because the Book of John was written for that purpose. John says it's to tell the story of who Jesus was, what he did, that we may believe.

And so that is a great place to start for someone who feels intimidated. I think we often think as new believers, we think, well, if I'm going to pick up a book, I'm going to start at the very beginning.

So we start in Genesis and like, a couple months later, we're in Leviticus. Yeah, yeah.

In my 20s, they make it through.

You close it up.

Oh, yeah, I made it like a page or something. And I was like, okay, I'm going to put that on the shelf.

It's a lot. And without help, because it's such ancient literature, it can be hard to understand. But the good news is there is help for those books.

There is context, there is, you know, assistance. But if you want a good, easier place to start, that's why I love the Gospel of John, or.

And you could read the Gospel of John and then go read the other three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, just as a start of who is Jesus? Who did he claim to be? What did he say about himself?

Because we live in a culture where Jesus is someone that everybody has an opinion about and everybody kind of wants a piece of. Most religions have a place for Jesus, but the difference is that their place for Jesus is not the place that Jesus has designated for himself.

And so you will find him in Islam, you'll find him in Buddhism, you'll find him even in the new age where he will be presented as, you know, this person to emulate or a great prophet, or the person who achieved highest consciousness. Someone that we could, you know, get on the Christ frequency and we could experience him. But what Jesus said about himself is that he was and is God.

He is the Son of God. He is also equal with God. He is God.

And as such, he came as our mediator, as our sacrifice to reconcile us to the Father so that we could live in communion with him.

And I think that when you read his whole story and just his humility and his also his confidence, he was so humble, yet so confident because he knew who he was and why he came and his clarity in what he taught, it's just truly powerful and transforming. I've been a Christian for 20 years now and I still am impacted when I read the Gospel of John.

Absolutely.

For women who have been reading the Bible, but not necessarily understanding the context, do you have any tools or favorite like come along resources to sort of bring with you while you're reading the Bible? Reading the Gospels.

Well, one great resource to start is a, is a study Bible. So there's all different kinds of Bibles. I like the note taking Bibles, the kinds that have the space in the margins where you can write.

And we actually worked with Christian standard Bible to create one that has extra room. So that's a great resource. Another thing is a Bible that has cross references.

Look up that little letter on the page and it will have other verses that are related to the one that you just read. And you can go elsewhere in the Bible and you can look up those verses to get more context on what you're reading.

That's one of my favorite things to do. If you're just like, I want to stay in one Bible, I don't want to get any other books. You can do that.

A study Bible, like the CSB study Bible, they have A new women's study Bible coming out, I think will have notes at the bottom that will say more context of what is happening in the passage. And so that's an excellent resource for somebody who's like, I just. I have a hard time understanding especially the Old Testament.

And usually study Bibles will have an introduction to each book, maybe some maps, some descriptions of the people that are in the story. And there's all different kinds of study Bibles too. But I really like Christian Standard. That's the version I use.

And they've produced a lot of really cool materials. I think they have an Old Testament handbook and a New Testament handbook.

So those kinds of things are really accessible for people who want to know more about how to study, but maybe don't have a ton of funds to buy a lot of extra resources.

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I really like Christian Standard. That's the version I use. And they've produced a lot of really cool materials.

I think they have an Old Testament handbook and a New Testament handbook.

So those kinds of things are really accessible for people who want to know more about how to study but maybe don't have a ton of funds to buy a lot of extra resources.

I have a couple more questions for you because I'm thinking about listeners. I'm thinking about the woman who the Bible's actually been used as a weapon and a tool against her.

What's your advice for her as she has some baggage when it comes to opening the Bible?

Yeah, this is a really real. A real experience. I have experienced this personally.

Spiritual abuse is a real thing and it's heartbreaking and it's really hard to navigate because I think the enemy loves spiritual abuse because it's one of the easiest ways to twist God's words. And he. That's what he's about. He. He loves to twist God's words.

In my case, my own testimony, it was a family member who would repeatedly abuse the name of the Holy Spirit and use the Holy Spirit's, you know, quote, things about him to kind of authenticate their sinful actions.

And so that led to Me, as I was growing up in my faith, really struggling with the theology of the Holy Spirit or the concept of the Holy Spirit, because I had trauma associated with the use of his name and the use of the Scriptures around Him. So here's what I would say.

God sees when people abuse his teachings, and he reconciles all things, and he understands the wounding that you experienced. He did not cause it. They chose to participate in this. They chose to abuse God's word against you. But God did not abuse his word against you.

And God is the one who wants to heal you. And what is amazing is that he will often use His Word to do that and his people to do that.

People who truly love him and truly walk with him, not people who are abusing what he's saying. But for that to happen, sometimes we need a little scaffolding, like a little help to reframe.

So oftentimes, I'll work with women who maybe grew up in churches that were KJV only. I'm not against the King James Version, but say you were in a church that used the King James Version, and it was used in a way that was weaponizing.

One of the ways to kind of begin the healing process is to read in a different version than what was abused. Because you're hearing it from a new angle.

You're hearing it in different verbiage, and it can create new pathways for your brain that don't bring up that trigger of a specific verse or phrase that was said to you. So that's one way. Another way is to switch your methodology of how you're studying.

If you experience abuse in an environment that was really heavy on scripture memorization, or, you know, maybe specific songs, specific types of things that could be triggers. One of the ways you can kind of work around that and still be healing in the area of Scripture is to approach Bible study in a different medium.

So maybe you listen on audio, and maybe you listen in a woman's voice, or you listen in a man's voice, depending on which it was. In my case, this family member was a woman. So for me, listening to scripture read by a man can actually be very comforting.

For another woman, it could be very different. So just be creative. And remember, there are no rules about how to study the Bible other than that by experience.

Exposing ourselves to the truth of Scripture and allowing God to present Himself to us truthfully as he really is without other people twisting him is one of the most healing things that we can experience. But we are free to develop methodologies that allow us to Experience that in new ways.

What do you think the danger is of being a believer who doesn't read the Bible?

I think the, probably the biggest challenge for someone who is in that position is that they begin to lack discernment when it comes to who God is and how he speaks. The Holy Spirit is given to us at salvation to lead us, to guide us into truth. However, the Holy Spirit will never contradict the Word of God.

So if we are not in Scripture, we can begin to assume that certain things that we feel or think are God's leading when they are not. Because we aren't comparing those feelings to Scripture, we aren't checking our heart against who God is. God's not going to contradict himself.

So being in the Bible regularly, not out of rules, not out of a checklist, but simply out of that desire for intimacy with God help creates this like, echoing resonance almost between what you have in your heart, the Lord leading you personally by His Spirit, and what he's saying in the Word. And it's almost like you read the Word of God and what you see there implants in your heart. The Holy Spirit uses that to speak truth to you.

And then when you go back to the Word, you see that truth confirmed. And so the Word of God and the Spirit of God work together. It says that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.

And so if the Word is the sword, it means that's the weapon of the Spirit. To what? To divide what is true from what is false. So if you want to know how to make good decisions, you want to know how to discern what's true.

You want to know what to do in your life, parenting, marriage, dating, job. The best way to do that is to be regularly in Scripture.

It's so, it's so crazy out here, out there, I should say, because we live in a time where we're being thrown so much information, I mean, on social media, news channels, misinformation, confusion, division, like we don't even have to ignore, get into specifics, but it's like we're being bombarded with so much information and we have a computer in our pocket all day.

And so it seems like we're becoming people almost, who are almost taking all this information as gospel, all this, all the news sources, all the whatever, as truth. And, and it almost, it's like we're saturating it, but we're not turning to the Word of God.

I, I, I don't know if you can help me understand what this is doing to us. But I mean, I even know, like, you know, the morning temptation is to stare at my phone.

Oh, yeah.

Whereas when I didn't have a phone, I got up and, you know, got my coffee and opened up the word.

And like, you know, with all of the things in Covid and politics and news sources and all this stuff, it's like we're being bombarded with information.

And I look at it and I wonder, wow, how many of us are kind of setting, setting aside, turning off all the noise and still turning and picking up God's word and listening to him. How can we hear him if everything's so loud?

Yeah, yeah, I resonate with that. And I actually saw an Instagram reel recently. Ironically, it was on my phone, but of this woman kind of pretending that her Bible was her phone.

So she was treating her Bible the way that we treat our phones. And it showed her, like her alarm goes off in the morning, she rolls over and immediately picks up her Bible. That's the first thing she looks at.

And then she's like eating breakfast, looking at her Bible as she's reading, eating breakfast. Then she's in her car, like in the pickup line, reading her Bible as she sits in the pickup line.

And I thought it was just so convicting because I work from my phone, I do a lot of teaching on social media, and it's really hard. It's hard to have boundaries with it even, you know, it's just hard.

And so seeing that real made me think that is such a convicting picture of what is possible. Like, what if I tried that for a day?

And realistically, we're probably not going to do that every day, but we could make some changes and ask ourselves, like, if I claim I don't have time to read the Bible, am I being honest with myself or is it just not a priority? Because I certainly make time at 9:30 at night to watch my favorite show with my husband. I do that. So can I make time for this?

And if I won't make time for it, I must not think it's important. And why do I think it's not important? Do I really think I can do life with God without God's word?

That I know enough on my own, that I am omniscient enough, that I'm sustainable enough, that I don't need a refresher course on these things? Those are the questions I'm asking myself.

Absolutely. You know, as you're talking, it's bringing me back. I was, I grew up in an irreligious home you know, didn't go to church.

I maybe went a couple times, like, because I had a slumber party at someone else's house. But church and the Bible and faith and Jesus weren't a part of my family.

And in fact, there were some really strong, like, anti Christian feelings in, in my family. And so I had this radical conversion when I was 21.

And actually it's kind of funny because you were so honest and brave in the beginning of this podcast to share how you originally started your blog. Well, the way that I got my first Bible was I had sex with a guy within like a week of dating him or something in college.

And he, and he showed up to my dorm when I was 20 years and he handed me a Bible and he was crying and he said he was crying because he felt terrible about what we had done. And he said, I feel terrible about what we've done and I want to give this to you.

And he handed me the Bible, which was a really schmucky move if you ask me, but I never opened it and I put it on the shelf. And then a couple years later, when my life was in the lowest valley it's ever been in, I picked it up and I did start reading in Genesis.

And I think about sort of my process of coming to Jesus and giving him my life and surrendering when I started reading the Bible. I remember I became a youth leader right after I gave my life to Jesus.

And the youth pastor asked if I would lead a small group of girls like a Bible study.

And so I would start reading the Bible like three hours before these high school girls were coming over because I didn't know, I didn't know how to lead them through a Bible study because I'd barely read the Bible.

And I just remember being mind blown, like just reading it and spending time in it going, oh my gosh, I have a father who, who is, is good and he loves me unconditionally and he's. He is perfect.

And like I just remember being mind and he calls me to look like Jesus and the way Jesus is just treats people and the Gospels and just like, you know that like things life goes from like all sepia and all of a sudden it's color. Like that's what I felt like, okay. Everything was just coming alive. I'm sure that you've seen this in your work where you see people come alive.

And I'm curious because I know we could talk forever about the Bible, but I'm curious as we sort of come to a Close on.

On our podcast, if there's maybe a story in the Bible where you, you, you read it, and the heart of God came alive for you in reading it in a way that inspired you and gave you passion to keep reading more.

Oh, yes, and I know exactly what passage, I will tell you because it was the passage that my, my very first book was based around, because this story blew my mind. It's the story in John:4 of the woman at the well. Jesus is going north from Jerusalem to the northern part of Israel.

And it says in the passage he had to go through Samaria. Samaria was this area of the country where when Israel, Israel had been conquered by Assyria in centuries before.

And during that time, Assyria took most of the people, but left just a few and then left a bunch of Assyrians there too. And so they intermarried. And the people who were left there staying in the capital of Israel were in Samaria. So they were called Samaritans.

But when the Jews returned to the area, the Samaritans had been living there, you know, intermarrying for many years. And so the ethnic Jews who had a pure line looked down on them as half breeds because they had compromised with the Assyrians.

And they also had built their own temple. They had their own, like, worship. They only used the first five books of the Bible instead of the whole Old Testament.

So there's a bunch of different things that, that were going on. Well, the Jews hated the Samaritans to the point that they would not even go through Samaria when they traveled north.

They would take extra time to go around it. And so Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, it says, had to go through Samaria. Jesus did not have to go through Samaria. He chose to.

And he chose to go straight into Samaria to a city called Sakar that used to be called Shechem. And it says he sat down at Jacob's well. So I was studying this passage probably now, seven or eight years ago.

And I was following the cross references. I was following, like, what does this verse refer to? What does this verse refer to? And I noticed that he's sitting at Jacob's well.

And I thought, oh, that's from the book of Genesis. Like it followed the cross reference, took me into Genesis, I think 32. And in the passage in Genesis 32 is this story of a nut of a woman.

She's Jacob's daughter, Dinah. Dinah goes out to the well to meet her, to meet the women of the area.

And when she goes out, this man sees her and he, the prince of the land, sees her, thinks she's beautiful. He sexually assaults her, and then he asks to marry her. So he takes her against her will. And the story is not a happy ending.

Her father, her brothers, kill all the men in the town as retribution. Her father doesn't say or do anything. And as far as we know, Dinah disappears.

We don't know what happened to her, but most likely she's taken back into her father's house. She's living in shame because now her assault has been told throughout the entire region because of what her brothers did.

So she's been completely shamed. And instead of being rescued or defended by men, she's just being abused, quite frankly, abused multiple times. Shamed. It's a sad story.

So I'm looking at this story, and then I go back to John 4. And in John 4, a woman comes to the well to meet Jesus and kind of gets in a bit of an argument with him. She's kind of sassy with Jesus.

She kind of backtalks him a little bit. It's clear that she doesn't really respect him because he's Jewish and she expects him to disdain her. But right from the get go, Jesus speaks to her.

He turns to her. He's alone with her, which is against all the social mores. And he asks her to give him a drink of water.

And she's shocked and says, why would you, a Jew, ask me for a drink of water? First of all, we're alone. We're a man and a woman. You're a teacher. Why would you do this?

He asks her for a favor, and this opens a conversation where he talks with her about what it means to be truly fulfilled, to truly have a purpose, an identity. And through this conversation, he asks this probing question about her history. He tells her to go get her husband and bring him there.

And she says, I have no husband. And she just ends the conversation there.

And he says, you're right in saying that you have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the man you're living with now is not your husband. And what's so fascinating about this is that the two women at the well have such similar stories.

There's a very good chance that the Samaritan woman was divorced multiple times. It could have been because of adultery. It could have been because of infertility. It could have been for a variety of reasons back then.

But Jesus looked at her, and in a sense, Dinah's story comes full circle through the Samaritan woman. And what is the most wild about this story is that in Dinah's story, all the men in the picture just increase her shame.

And what is basically broadcast throughout the entire region is the shame of Dinah. But in John 4, the woman who meets Jesus, you know, the perfect God man, goes back into the city after meeting Jesus and broadcasts her own story.

Her own story. And it says that because of this woman's testimony, many came to know Christ that day.

And it's such a powerful story that it does not matter what you've done or what's been done to you. It does not matter what kind of woman the world has said that you are, that once you meet Jesus, he changes everything.

And you're willing to tell your story without any kind of shame because of what he's done for you. And that story is in the Book of John.

It's in right at the beginning of the Gospel of John, which is why I think it's one of the best places to start if you feel like you're not good enough to be reading the Bible.

Well. And it's so incredible because God actually uses her story to impact so many other people's stories, which is crazy.

I. I'm so glad I asked that question of you, Phylicia, and I'm so glad you just went where you went, because I can see your heart and your passion. But also, I think you just showed us why. You gave us the best example of why entering into God's Word and spending time there leaves you changed.

I think. I think you just showed us that and certainly gave us inspiration and encouragement to continue to jump into His Word.

So thank you for hopping on today and inspiring us to do so. And I know there's people who are going to want to follow along with you and be a part of what you're up to. How can they do that?

Yes, we have a website.

It's under my name, feliciamasonheimer.com and it has all of our books and Bible studies and we have hospitality resources and kids discipleship resources there too. And then we also have a podcast, Verity, with PhyliciaMasonheimer, that's on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.

And then lastly, I'm of course on social media, so mainly just Facebook and Instagram. I don't do TikTok. I'm not one of the youngins who can keep up over there, but we.

I do a lot of teaching on Instagram, both on my personal account and then also on the every woman a theologian account.

Well, I am grateful for you that you allowed Jesus to collide with your life and change you. And now he's using you to change others. And it's a beautiful thing to see.

Well, thank you for having me. Will I?

Yeah. It was awesome.

Friend, I don't know what your relationship with God looks like right now, but I do know without a shadow of a doubt that he wants to be close to you. He wants to sit with you, he wants to walk with you. He wants to listen to you and he wants to speak to you.

And I love what Phylicia shared about Jesus and how he didn't go around Samaria like most people did, but he actually went out of his way to run in to the woman at the well. And he does the same for you and he does the same for me.

We have a God who doesn't try to avoid you, but he actually wants to run right into the mess and the pain and the dreams and the hopes because he loves. So if nothing else, be inspired to spend time with Him. Dig into God's word, Watch Jesus collide.

Open up the Book of John this week and experience his goodness. Keep colliding and we'll catch you next week.