Gospel Spice | Awaken Delight in God through faith in Jesus Christ

What happens after Jesus asks, “Would you like to get well?” The story at Bethesda does not end when the man stands up. Bible teacher Stephanie Rousselle follows him beyond the miracle and discovers a deeper question beneath physical healing: what does grace actually do to a life once it has been received?Returning to John 5, Stephanie explores the Sabbath controversy surrounding the healed man. For thirty-eight years, he had known the exhausting restlessness of trying and failing. Then Jesus gives him something entirely different: rest rooted in grace. The healing is received rather than achieved. That distinction opens a larger conversation about obedience, gratitude, trust, and the subtle ways we can turn the Christian life into another system of performance.From Bethesda, the episode moves to another man undone by Jesus: Simon Peter in Luke 5. After the miraculous catch of fish, Peter falls before Christ and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” His response sounds strange until we recognize what happens when holiness comes close. Peter sees Jesus more clearly, and in that light he sees himself more truthfully. Yet Jesus does not leave him in shame. He calls him forward.Stephanie draws these two encounters together around a beautiful movement of grace. Jesus makes the helpless man well; Jesus reveals himself to the self-confident fisherman. Both men discover that life with God begins where self-sufficiency ends. Repentance is not groveling before a reluctant God. It is the honest response of a heart that has glimpsed who Jesus really is.The episode invites listeners to ask whether gratitude is becoming obedience, whether grace is producing worship, and whether our awareness of sin is driving us away from Christ or bringing us nearer. Peter’s confession becomes a prayer we can borrow: Lord, I am a sinner—and still, astonishingly, you call me.A word of caution: don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Right now we are going to take Scripture in. Like breathing, like eating, like smelling a flower. Don’t come to Scripture with the agenda of finding yourself there. Come with the firm intention of discovering God instead. And then Scripture will never disappoint. God promises to be found in the places where He dwells – His Word especially. And in the process, you will undoubtedly find yourself as you find Him. So as we enter the hallowed pages of Scripture together, through a humble doorway and a very simple story, ask yourself: what is this telling me about Jesus?NEW! REFLECTION QUESTIONS.Several of you have reached out and expressed an interest in reflection questions to help you dive deeper into the content of each session. Here they are!1. What happens in you when you say plainly to Jesus, “I am a sinner”?2. How does acknowledging our sin relate to the healing and wholeness Jesus offers?3. Where are you tempted to defend, explain, or minimize what needs to be confessed?4. What does the episode suggest about repentance as a response to God’s initiative rather than an achievement of our own?5. How do you distinguish genuine repentance from shame or a determination to fix yourself?6. What might repentance, rest, and trust look like in one relationship or habit this week?7. What would you like to bring into Christ’s presence without hiding or self-justification?Stay tuned for next week's episode, a new question from Jesus.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

What if Jesus’ question to the man at Bethesda is far less obvious than it sounds? “Would you like to get well?” feels almost unnecessary when addressed to a man who has been disabled for thirty-eight years. Yet Bible teacher Stephanie Rousselle invites us to linger there, because Jesus is never careless with a question. He is reaching beneath the man’s circumstances to the deeper places where disappointment, identity, self-reliance, and hope have become tangled together.Stephanie brings listeners into the sensory world of John 5 and the Pool of Bethesda, a place crowded with sickness, longing, superstition, and the exhausting hope that perhaps this time the water might finally deliver. The man has spent decades looking toward the pool. Jesus arrives and redirects his gaze toward a Person. The contrast is striking: dead water cannot give life, yet Jesus speaks a command that carries within it the power to obey. “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”The episode explores the strange ways we can become attached to the identities formed by our wounds. Healing may require receiving a new story about who we are, admitting that our own strategies cannot save us, and allowing Jesus to define what wholeness looks like. Stephanie also notices the man’s response: instead of a clean declaration of desire, he offers an explanation of why healing has remained impossible. How often do we do the same?This is an invitation to bring our well-worn impossibilities to Christ and hear his question personally. Where have we kept staring at the water, waiting for circumstances to change, while Jesus himself stands before us? The passage becomes a doorway into grace: the One who asks the question is also the One with authority to make us whole.NEW! REFLECTION QUESTIONS.Several of you have reached out and expressed an interest in reflection questions to help you dive deeper into the content of each session. Here they are!1. Where in your life have you been waiting so long that disappointment has begun to shape your identity?2. What do you notice about the man’s answer to Jesus at Bethesda? Where do you recognize a similar response in yourself?3. What “pool” or familiar strategy do you keep looking to for the change you long for?4. How might Jesus be inviting you to look toward him rather than toward the solution you have imagined?5. What would it mean to receive a new identity from Christ instead of defining yourself by an old wound?6. Is there a command of Jesus that feels impossible to obey in your own strength? How does his authority change the way you hear it?7. If Jesus asked you today, “Would you like to get well?” what would your most candid answer be?Stay tuned for next week's episode, a response from the disciples.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

What happens when we’ve prayed, parented, sought counsel, tried to do everything faithfully—and our child still walks away?In this deeply personal conversation, Stephanie welcomes Bible teacher and author Erica Wiggenhorn to talk about Loving Your Wayward Child, a book born from Erica’s own painful experience of loving a son through seasons of turmoil and even complete separation.Together, Stephanie and Erica explore a particularly painful kind of grief: mourning someone who is still very much alive, while never knowing what tomorrow may bring. Erica describes how fear can quietly move us toward isolation, fixation, manipulation, or simply trying to escape the pain. She also challenges the “formulaic Christianity” many of us absorbed—the assumption that if we parent faithfully enough, our children will inevitably make the choices we hoped they would.But Scripture offers something far deeper than a formula.From the prodigal son to Cain, Erica traces the presence of a God who remains at work beyond what a parent can see or control. Our children may move beyond our reach, but they never move beyond his.This conversation makes room for grief without surrendering hope, and for honest questions without abandoning faith. Ultimately, it invites us to entrust both our children and our own wounded hearts to the God who knows the end of the story—and who is tenderly present while we wait.MORE ABOUT “LOVING YOUR WAYWARD CHILD”https://ericawiggenhorn.com/lovingyourwaywardchild For the Mom Who's Been Up Since 3 a.m.You’ve read the books.You’ve listened to the podcasts.You’ve prayed until you ran out of words.And your child is still walking away.You’re terrified of saying the wrong thing—so you say nothing.You feel like a failure, but you can’t admit that to anyone.Other Christians assume you must have done something wrong.You haven’t. And you’re not alone.Most books about wayward children are written after the happy ending. This one isn’t. Erica Wiggenhorn wrote Loving Your Wayward Child while still in the trenches—not knowing how her own story would turn out.This is not a parenting advice book. You’ve already poured out every last drop of your parenting heart. This is a lifeline for your heart—biblical perspective, emotional tools, and practical strategies to help you stay spiritually grounded, emotionally healthy, and relationally connected to your child when both connections feel impossible.This book will help you:·         Stay anchored in faith when hope feels foolish·         Recognize the four default reactions that keep you stuck·         Receive courage to make bids for connection– even if you’re afraid your child won’t respond·         Process grief, fear, and shame without drowning in them·         Build practical daily habits that sustain you for the long haulMORE ABOUT ‘MOMENTUM”https://ericawiggenhorn.com/momentum/ Your child is going their own way, in a direction you would never choose, leading to disruption and separation in your relationship.But what if you found a new pathway for connection, where you could both move forward, together?The Momentum Conference provides a safe place to rest, remember you’re not alone and receive tools and perspective empowering you to stand strong in faith and pursue healthy connection with your child.God is for you, for your family — and together we can cling to His promises and find hope.What is the Momentum Conference?Momentum is a Friday night through Sunday morning getaway with a balance of biblical teaching, practical help, group connection and time to pursue individual rest.The weekend schedule has been designed to lavish love, impart resources and provide hope to moms who are walking a hard road with their teens, young adult, or adult children.Freedom to pursue preferential activities provided by the resort promises a time of rejuvenation as well as a mental, emotional and spiritual reset.MORE ABOUT ERICA WIGGENHORNErica Wiggenhorn is a Bible teacher, author, and Proverbs 31 Ministries writer who has spent years helping women encounter God through Scripture. Her Unexplainable Jesus & An Unexplainable Life Bible Studies have been read by thousands of women all over the world in churches, small groups and military installations.But this book isn’t about her expertise. It’s about her experience.Erica is a mom whose son’s choices have taken her to places she never imagined—emergency rooms at midnight, months of silence, and the kind of grief that doesn’t have a casserole ministry. She wrote Loving Your Wayward Child not from the other side of a victory lap, but from the middle of the story—because she believes the moms who are in it right now can’t wait for a happy ending to find hope.When she isn’t traveling the country connecting with women at retreats, conferences or church groups, Erica makes her home in Arizona with her husband Jonathan.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

Some truths can be taught. Others must be lived. Today, Stephanie welcomes Kirby Kelly to discuss the path to confident hope when life is just too much to handle.When Kirby Kelly was fourteen years old, Jesus stepped into her life, which was marked by addiction, loss, grief, and instability. Her father died from alcoholism. Her mother struggled with addiction for years. Pain was not an abstract theological category; it was the landscape of her childhood.Yet what emerges from Kirby's story is not a testimony about suffering. It’s a testimony about God.In this deeply personal conversation, Kirby shares how the Lord has spent years revealing himself as Father, Comforter, Redeemer, and Hope. Drawing from her new book, The Fabric of Hope, she reflects on the surprising ways God weaves redemption through even the most painful chapters of life.Kirby describes becoming a mother herself. In the exhaustion of postpartum depression, grief over her mother's death, sleepless nights, and overwhelming uncertainty, she found herself returning to the very truths she had written about. What had once been theology became experience. What had once been doctrine became comfort.Can God really redeem suffering? Kirby's answer is not theoretical. It is rooted in a lifetime of watching God transform wounds into testimonies, grief into compassion, and brokenness into ministry. She shares how her mother's addiction eventually became the doorway through which she repeatedly shared the gospel, ultimately witnessing her mother's surrender to Christ.This conversation is an invitation to remember. To remember the God who has been faithful before. To remember the God who comforts like a mother and protects like a father. To remember that even when we cannot see what he is doing, he is never absent.Our story is not ultimately about pain. It is about the God who redeems it.MORE ABOUT KIRBY KELLYKirby Kelly is a speaker, author, podcast host, and content creator based in Dallas, Texas, who has spent over a decade using digital platforms to equip, empower, and engage a global audience with the truth of the Gospel. With a B.A. in Communication and Biblical Studies from Dallas Baptist University and an M.A. in Theology, Kirby has built a ministry that blends theological depth with cultural relevance. Her online presence spans Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and her podcast Bought + Beloved, where she helps listeners and viewers deepen their love for God and knowledge of the Word. Kirby has authored two books with W Publishing: You Can Be Free and The Fabric of Hope. From everyday evangelism to her online uploads, Kirby hopes to see this generation live saved, set free, and sent forth in their unique God-given calling.MORE ABOUT “THE FABRIC OF HOPE”Could God be interrupting your life with hope in the middle of your hardest seasons, stitching meaning into every square inch of the fabric of your story? Kirby Kelly wants to help you find the worth in what seemed like a waste, sweetness to what was once a bitter taste, purpose to your pain, glory to your shame, and relief from the strain of your burdens.Life has not dealt anyone an easy hand, no matter what we see on social media. We all have our scars and stories, our lemons and our laments. But something delightful, refreshing, and sweet can come out of the hardest seasons when viewed through the lens of God's redemptive plan that is woven throughout the biblical narrative and your individual story. He is the thread that stitches torn things back together making beauty that is worth trusting even when you're still in the thick of the process.In The Fabric of Hope, Kirby Kelly walks you through her own patchwork life with its unexpected love story, the sudden loss of her mom in the shadow of her graduation and Mother's Day, battling doubt, a family legacy of addiction, and betrayal to finding calling and purpose and synchronicity in God's design to show you the greater story God was stitching together. By showing you how God pieced together the bitter and the sweet she wants to help you:·         reflect on the stories you've lived through and recognize the goodness, kindness, and purpose of God in each chapter·         learn how to cope in the sable clouds and hope in the silver linings of God's great plan for your unique life·         embrace life's beautiful dichotomies of sadness and joy, pain and purpose, ache and wholeness often in a single season·         have permission to exist in both planes of suffering and rejoicing with God·         identify where God was, what He was up to, and how He used each interruption in your life for divine intervention.·         When you take the time to reflect on every place you've been, the seasons you’ve gone through, and each victory and celebration along the way, you might start to notice an interesting pairing. Some of the most joyful, peaceful, hopeful, and beautiful seasons with the Lord actually occur during some of your times of greatest hardship, suffering, change, and inconvenience. Kirby Kelly wants to help you recognize those moments so you can savor what God is up to in the middle of all your seasons.DISCOVER THE BOOK BEHIND THE PODCAST | "Awaken Delight" by Stephanie Rousselle"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 isn't a poetic suggestion — it's a promise. But many believers quietly assume it doesn’t really work, or it's not really possible here on earth.In Awaken Delight, Stephanie Rousselle invites you to rediscover what Scripture actually means by delight — not emotional hype, not religious performance, but a steady satisfaction rooted in who God is.Delight in God isn't a mood to manufacture; it's a relationship to receive.Through biblical theology and practical rhythms, you'll learn how communion with God reshapes suffering, quiets restless striving, and anchors your identity in something unshakable.Delighting in God isn’t sentimental optimism. It’s deeply rooted in Christ, Jesus.It’s the quiet revolution that reshapes how we endure pain, love others, and understand our own heart.Awaken Delight is a theologically grounded spiritual formation book for thoughtful believers who feel spiritually fatigued and are ready to embrace the reality of Psalm 37:4.More at https://www.gospelspice.com/awakendelight Purchase the book, "Awaken Delight" by Stephanie Rousselle: https://a.co/d/0bqhUb5JKind words from Jennifer Rothschild, Bible teacher, Author, Speaker, Podcast Host, Founder, Fresh Grounded Faith: “Stephanie helps us awaken to and experience true delight. It is a rich mix of God’s delight in you and your delight in him. This is the life you were made for, the life your soul deeply longs for. So, the table is set. Pull up a chair and let your heart sit alongside Stephanie. As your delight in God wakes up and becomes fully realized, you’ll find a satisfaction in Christ that makes you want more and more.”Kind words from Amanda Jenkins, Lead creator of THE CHOSEN's literary content: "I have yet to meet another person quite as eager to intimately know Jesus as Stephanie is. Her enthusiasm for the beauty found inside a thriving relationship with her Savior is downright contagious. Indeed, Stephanie’s joy and faith and commitment to growth—along with her love for really good food!—will implant themselves in the hearts of readers. Lucky readers."Kind words from Os Guinness, Theologian, Social critic, Author, The Call:  "Stephanie addresses one of the greatest needs of Christians today. Knowing God is not knowing about God, but knowing Him genuinely and with desire and delight. She does so practically and helpfully, and in a style that sparkles with a verve and joy that is distinctively French."Kind words from Pippa Gumbel, Pioneer, The Alpha Course; Author, The Bible in one year with husband Nicky: "Stephanie’s love of God is inspiring and infectious. Her book is an invitation to share in that delight and to come to know God in new and wonderful ways."More at https://www.gospelspice.com/awakendelight Purchase the book, "Awaken Delight" by Stephanie Rousselle: https://a.co/d/0bqhUb5JSupport us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!

We’re all living inside stories. The strange thing is, most of the time we don’t know they’re stories.“You do you.” “Follow your heart.” “Live free.” “Truth is relative.” They can feel less like cultural assumptions and more like oxygen—simply the way things are. In this conversation, Stephanie sits down with Michael Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Lincoln Square in New York City and son of the late Tim Keller, to ask what happens when we begin noticing the water we’re swimming in. They discuss the book Tim Keller co-authored with Michael before passing.Michael and his father began working together on a book exploring these cultural narratives before Tim’s death in 2023. What emerged became something more personal for Michael than he expected. They talk about identity that is received rather than achieved, why our culture’s vision of freedom may leave us lonelier rather than freer, and what happens when love slowly becomes synonymous with affirmation.And then the conversation gets tender. Michael shares what it meant to work among his father’s words after losing the man himself, and what he discovered about grief, fatherhood, and finding in Christ what death seems to have taken away. Stephanie and Michael come at that question from very different experiences with their earthly fathers, yet somehow arrive in the same place: Jesus.They also explore Tim Keller’s much-discussed approach to culture, which some have labeled as "third way-ism." Michael explains why “affirm, critique, redirect” isn’t an attempt to find a comfortable middle between opposing sides. The gospel stands somewhere else altogether, exposing what is broken while recognizing echoes of goodness and redirecting our longings toward Christ.So perhaps the question isn’t simply whether we believe the gospel. What stories are we actually living as though they were true?MORE ABOUT DR. TIM KELLERTimothy J. Keller (1950–2023) was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, cofounder of Redeemer City to City, and the author of numerous books, including The Reason for God, The Prodigal God, and The Meaning of Marriage. His thirty-one books have sold over six million copies and have been translated into twenty-nine languages.MORE ABOUT DR. MICHAEL KELLERDr. Michael Keller is the senior pastor of Redeemer Lincoln Square in New York City, a church he planted with his wife, Sara, in 2017. He grew up in New York as the son of the late pastor, author, and apologist Tim Keller, watching his parents plant Redeemer Presbyterian Church beginning in 1989. Michael earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and later received an M.Div. and a Th.M. in Apologetics, magna cum laude, from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He also holds a Ph.D. from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where his work brought computational linguistics into conversation with historical theology. Before planting Redeemer Lincoln Square, Michael served in ministry in London, Queens, and Boston and helped establish an urban Reformed University Fellowship ministry in New York City.MORE ABOUT “THE STORIES WE LIVE BY” by TIM KELLER AND MICHAEL KELLERWe are the stories we believe. But what if our culture's stories are failing us? The Stories We Live By reveals the hidden cultural narratives that shape us and points the way to the life we've been looking for."Do what makes you happy." "Be true to yourself." "Live free." If these slogans promise the good life, why do they so often leave us feeling hollow and empty? Could the very stories our modern world tells us about happiness, freedom, and identity be the source of our growing anxiety and disillusionment?The culmination of a journey Michael Keller began with his father, beloved pastor and bestselling author Timothy Keller, before his passing, The Stories We Live By unmasks the hidden cultural narratives that shape our lives, often without our knowledge. Examining seven dominant narratives of modern culture--concerning identity, power, freedom, morality, truth, happiness, and progress--the authors show how these stories contain elements of truth yet are built on flawed assumptions and internal contradictions that leave us fragile, divided, and unable to cope with the realities of life.The Stories We Live By helps us:Recognize where these stories appear throughout cultureUnderstand why they leave us feeling hollow and unfulfilledDecode the specific ways these stories hijack our decision-making--and learn how to critically evaluate them going forwardUnderstand why the Christian story offers a more satisfying answer to our deepest longingsMake sense of both the beauty and the brokenness of the worldFind a hope that can sustain us through suffering, grounded in a story that is bigger than death itselfFor the skeptic, this book offers a challenge to examine the unproven beliefs that drive our lives. For the Christian, it is an essential tool for recognizing where we have unknowingly absorbed cultural narratives that conflict with our faith. And for everyone, it is an invitation to discover a story that is big enough to make sense of both the beauty and the brokenness of the world--a story of grace that has the power to carry us through life's deepest joys and sorrows.Born from a conversation between a father and son, The Stories We Live By is more than a cultural analysis. It is a guide to finding a truer, more beautiful, and far more satisfying story to live by.Support us on Gospel Spice, PayPal and Venmo!