Felicia: So I want to talk to y'all about the only woman in the Bible that was called great. And most likely you've probably never heard of her. Because frankly, she doesn't even have a name. Nope. It wasn't Ruth or Esther, one of the two women, ⁓ you know, two of the women who we have books of the Bible named after. and yeah, the only woman called Great. And what the devil does she have to do with bread? This isn't a Fantastic, amazing story that I wanted to share with y'all. ⁓ because most likely, like I said, you don't know. This is something my husband has shared with me and I loved it. And I said I'm doing a podcast episode of it. Yes, yes, we are going to talk about this. So you're gonna want to break out your Bibles, y'all, and maybe some coffee. And we are gonna be talking about this today. So welcome back, y'all, to the Grains and Grit Podcast, extra gritty. ⁓ yes, sir, Rebob. This is an extension of the Grains and Great YouTube channel where I teach all about real whole grains, all from a biblical perspective. And I teach you how to be milling grains, myth busting that, all that stuff. And this is the podcast. It's extra gritty because it's unedited, unfiltered, where we can go a deeper dive than I typically can on my YouTube channel. So Welcome back, y'all. And I got a new setup. Look at me. Like I'm all fancy with the headphones, a fancy microphone. And so the audio hopefully is much better because my last one gave up the ghost, gave up the ghost, y'all. And so I got a better microphone. so that's why I got to have the headphones because I'm like official podcaster and you have to have this to hear yourself. Anyway, it's a it's a whole thing. It's something my husband told me, and so I did it. So yeah, and it's nice, but I got pink. I got pink headphones. If you can, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see them. Okay. So we are going and also before I go into that, ⁓ if you hear some random noises in the back of my house, just know it's normal. We're having some work done in the house, and this is now like a really sensitive microphone. ⁓ so ignore, ignore random weird sounds you may hear. It's totally fine. ⁓ just some work being done. Okay, so we're gonna go into the story. It is absolutely amazing. My husband has actually told me this before, but He was reading it again in his devotions because he found like a different aspect to this story. And it is absolutely incredible. And I I just have to share it for you, which to share it with y'all. So again, there is only one woman. Now, do you know I use the King James version of the Bible exclusively? So in the King James Bible, there is only one woman who is actually called great. She is called a great woman, and she's the only one. Who is referred to at this. Now, Ruth ⁓ was referred to as a virtuous, a virtuous woman, but this other woman was referred to as a great woman and the only one in the Bible. And crazy enough is we don't even know her name. But yet she did something that is incredible. And we need to talk about it today. And I promise it is relevant to bread. It's why I'm sharing this with y'all. So I want you all to break out your Bibles. We're going to Second Kings in the Old Testament and back where when Elisha was actually a prophet in Israel. So you had Elijah and then you had Elisha. So I think Elijah is definitely more well known, but Elisha came after him. And ⁓ so this is actually in 2nd Kings chapter four. And if you scroll down, there was ⁓ like with any many of the prophets, Elisha also performed some incredible miracles. Hold on for a second. My throat is dry. I've been doing some recording today. ⁓ so Elijah, we're in 2nd Kings. What did I say? Four. Second Kings four. And this is Elisha. This is after he told a widow woman to ⁓ fill up pots of oil to sell. And she just kept filling up pots and pots and pots and pots and pots of oil that she was able to sell because she was now a widow and it got her out of debt. So her two sons didn't have to be sold into slavery. So that's awesome. That's an awesome story. Maybe you've heard it before. ⁓ but then right after that is maybe something you haven't. And it says verse eight, and it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunim or Shunum, Shunum, Shunim, where was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as oft as he passed by. He turned in thither in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick, and it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. And he said to Kahazi his servant, call the Shunamite. And when he had called her, she stood before him, and he saying to him, Saying now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care, what is to be done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, What is what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi, his servant, answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, Thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life. Now we are going to continue the story and back up to talk about several things. And this is verse 18, chapter 4. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers, and he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to the lad, Carry him to his mother. And we it when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died. And she went up, and I'm gonna get emotional, and she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him and went out. And she called unto her husband and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go unto him to go to him today and It is neither new moon moon nor Sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, Drive and go forward. Slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. So she went and came into the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass when the man of God saw her far off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. We still don't have a name. Run now, I pray thee to meet her and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with a child? And she answered, It is well. To Gehazi, she's answering to the servant. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet. But Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins and take my staff in thy hand, and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again. And lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him, saying, The child is not awakened. And when Elisha was coming to the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eye upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands and stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm. I know that's kind of sounds weird, but go with it. But they did weird things in the old testament. But bottom line, then he returned and walked in the house to and fro, and went up and stretched himself upon him. And the child sneezed seven times, sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, Call the Shunammite. So he called her, and when she came in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out. Yeah. Yeah. The whole time we do not know her name. We never know her name. So what makes her a great woman? Okay, we're actually gonna pop in really quick to actually talk about today's sponsor, which is Four Generations Organic Farms. ⁓ if you've been around for a hot minute, Four Generations Organic Farms is my go-to place for hard red and hard white wheat varieties. These are organic wheat berries that are grown right here in the heart of the United States in Oklahoma. And I love Four Generations Farm because I'm getting clean wheat berries shipped straight to my house. So it is convenient in my busy lifestyle. I just order online, it's shipped to my house. But I also know that I'm supporting an amazing group of people. They are four generation farmers, as the name implies. They've been around since the 1800s. And one thing that I love about ⁓ Four Generations is that they are regenerative farmers, they are organic. Farmers, which means that they are taking care of their soil to make sure that their plants are as nutrient nutrient dense as possible because the more nutrient dense the soil is, the more nutrient dense your wheat and grains are. And so this is very important. And I love Four Generations organic farms. Their Butler's Gold is my favorite go-to hard red wheat. It is the best for beginners. And their Stardust is their hard white wheat, which is my favorite as well. ⁓ another one that is excellent for beginners to milling your own grains. And so you need to check them out. Grainsandgrit.com slash four generations. Use this coupon code up here on the screen for 10% off your first order. And thank you so much to Four Generations Organic Farms for sponsoring today's podcast episode. And there's many things to unpack with this. And this, yep, this is slightly a Bible study, but a lot of this is is things that my husband and I discuss. So my husband fully knows that I'm doing this and I'm definitely under his authority. And so just know that. ⁓ as far as I'm I know that this is scripture and expounding upon that. But one thing I'm definitely wanting to talk about is you know, what made this woman great. And I find it interesting that the very first thing we hear about this woman is she constrained the prophet of God to eat bread. She fed him. Okay. She fed the prophet of God. She fed the man of God. And then on top of that, she asked her husband, let us build. A small room onto our house so that that way anytime the prophet comes by, anytime he comes by, he now has a place to stay and feed and we can feed him and he has a bed. And y'all, I just I want to park on this right here. Because I think this really I find it interesting that I'm sure of all the stories of all the things that happened in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament. You know, in the New Testament, it talks about, I think it was in John. ⁓ where John talks about that if everything that Jesus did was written down, the world could not hold the books. Okay. So we have scripture and God, and it is inspired by God. ⁓ he inspired men to write certain things in the scripture. So we clearly don't have everything that happened both in Old and New Testament. So why did God choose to put this in? This Story right here. Why did he tell the writer of 2 Kings, put that in? Okay. Write that right there. ⁓ and I think it really shows, and God is clearly wanting to show things. And I think one of the biggest things that He's wanting to show us here is hospitality, the importance of hospitality, y'all, of feeding people good food. Ladies, we have so much power in our homes, okay. In Titus, it talks about the woman being the keeper of the home and that we should be keepers of our home. throughout scripture, we should be given to hospitality, ⁓ that we should be feeding people, that we should be ⁓ you know, allowing people in our homes so that we can help take care of them, minister to them. And it is such a powerful thing that, and and unfortunately, we have forgotten about it today. Because I think, especially with women, you know, our thing, whole thing now is you need to go out of the home and have a career. And it's all about you, it's all about your career. You know, don't worry about other people. You do your thing, girl, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. ⁓ and we have forgotten about the importance of hospitality. We don't even know this woman's name, but y'all, I guarantee you, when we get to heaven, we are going to see the biggest. treasures of God heaped upon women like her, who we don't even know existed, that we don't even know her. In this case, we don't, we know she existed, but we don't know her name. But she was considered, she was it was stated that she was a great woman. And I believe that she was a great woman simply because she was hospitable. She had a heart for hospitality. And then later on the story, the reason why I read you the rest of the story is this also was a woman who had Amazing faith. And she was a woman who clearly was not an emotional basket case, y'all, because her son dies. She tells her husband it is well. She didn't even tell her husband, ⁓ by the way, our son is dead. Okay. There were no theatrics, there were no freakouts. Okay. ⁓ there was no, you know, huge mourning and crying. She even she she just went to the prophet of God because I do believe, and this is something my husband pointed out that she had faith. That God would bring him back to life because ⁓ she made the comment like, I did not ask for this son. And I do believe that she believed and had faith that I didn't ask for this child. God gave me this son. And for whatever reason, this has happened, but I do believe that God's going to bring him back. And so the amount of faith that she had is astounding. So I think her faith and also her hospitality. Is why she is called a great woman. ⁓ but I I just really wanted to especially park on the hospitality aspect because ⁓ we have especially in the church, y'all, it is a sad state of affairs. Okay. I I will say this. I think it's very tragic and sad that we no longer Fellowship, I think, especially like people used to, the importance of having people in our homes that we have people over, that we feed them good food. ⁓ that we that's such a that's where the gospel happens. That's where discipleship happens, is around the table, is having people over and just simply feeding them is such a huge ministry. Even if you're just giving loaves of bread to people, you know, and maybe you're not having them over at your house, but you just give loaves of bread to people, real bread, like this is real bread that's actually gonna feed you and be good for you and be good for your body. And also, you know, that's such an amazing opportunity to share the gospel with them. Hey, Jesus is the bread of life. This is why this bread is actually good. This is what makes it different. It gives you the opportunity to share the gospel. It gives you an opportunity to disciple people simply by feeding them. Y'all, Jesus did it. Okay. He fed people. He fed the 5,000. He fed the 4,000. He fed them a simple meal, bread, fish. Done. It wasn't even elaborate. It doesn't even have to be elaborate. And in this case, the fact that she put the thought in to not only feeding him, but hey, he needs a place to stay. He they didn't have hotels in. Okay. I mean, they had inns, but for the most part, that, you know, that would have cost money. He was a prophet and God took care of him. And this is way, this is a way how God uses us. To be a blessing to others. And I'm not telling you just, you know, put up strangers in your house unless the Lord is leading you to do that. But I'm talking about the aspect of hospitality and how it doesn't have to be an elaborate thing because hospitality still is just giving, like I mentioned earlier, loaves of bread to people. Okay. And sharing with them the importance of maybe milling their grains and what real bread is. And let me introduce you to the savior who created it and who died for you and who loved you. ⁓ and so this is again, I hope that this blesses you. I do recommend reading the story, Second Kings four, about the Shunammite woman and how first thing off, she was a great woman and she, because she fed the prophet, she gave him bread. Okay. She gave him bread. And every time he came by, she fed him. ⁓ so I do want to encourage, ⁓ you know, I want to use this as an encouragement for y'all to be a great woman, like the Shunammite woman. Or a great man. Maybe, maybe you don't have a woman in your life and you're a man listening to this. ⁓ but to be hospitable, find ways to be a blessing to others in a huge and easy blessing that we all have is through food, but real food, real food that is going to point people to to our savior and use these opportunities. Minister like Jesus did. You feed people. You give them the gospel message. You, you know, and yes, people are gonna reject it. You may not change their lives. It's not up to you. It's our job to just give our testimony, to tell what God has done for us. And that may just be how, you know, this bread has absolutely, you know, you've gotten your health back, or just what Jesus has done for you in your life. What is your personal testimony? How has He saved you? ⁓ you know, these are all things that are so important. Okay, so I know that this is like typically not typical of what I talk about. This is actually very specific, it pretty much like a Bible study. But when my husband and I talked about it, I just I had to share it with y'all because I just thought it was super cool. So the only great woman that is mentioned in the Bible, we don't even know her name. And she was great because she gave a profit. She fed, she fed people. Okay. She fed them. She fed them some good bread. She ⁓ she put them up in her home. You know, she was thoughtful. She thought of others above herself. And that's something that we really, really need to get back to. So I encourage y'all this week. ⁓ I want you to find someone to have over to your house. Okay. It could be a simple meal after church, say, you know, you just have a charcuterie reboard or just, you know, bread and cheese or simple sandwiches. Even if you just invite, what if you find like another mom with kids and maybe you're a mom with kids still and you invite them over to your house for a play date? And you it's just P B and J sandwiches. Or just have some coffee and some homemade cookies, you know, or just have maybe that the widow woman that you know over for some coffee. And, you know, just be hospitable for others. Find others to bring into your home to be hospitable because y'all, that's how you're gonna know people. Okay. We don't get to know people by going to a church on Sundays, all sitting in one row, pointed at one man, hearing one man preach. And then we just do our little small talk. Maybe we shake each other's hands at the, you know, when you greet each other in the church and then leave. That's not how you get to know people, y'all. You know how you get to know me? You come to my house and let me feed you. Sit at my table. Okay. Sit at my table and let's talk and let's talk about everything. I I I like I love talking about whatever. But that's actually how you get to know people when they come over to your house and you fellowship together. And there's nothing like fellowshipping with kindred spirits, with kindred hearts. And you eat a good meal and you have that good food and then you have good conversation. ⁓ no screens, no TV, ban the screens. Okay. Just sit and talk with people because in this world with screens, you know, everything like that, we have lost that human connection and we need it back. And now this is, I feel like that we've made another huge rabbit trail from this. But these there's so many takeaways from this story because hospitality is so important that so many people have forgotten about. So I want to I wanna challenge you this week, have someone over. You know, it may be inconvenient because yeah, hospitality sometimes might be inconvenient because we are busy people nowadays, but it's so important. And also another thing with hospitality is start with your own family. Okay. If you are so busy where you're not eating meals together as a family, start with that first. Be hospitable to your own family first. And again, it can be simple, it can be beans and rice, okay. It can be sandwiches. It doesn't have to be elaborate type meals, but start with your own family. Be hospitable to your own family, having meals together, fellowship together, and then also start bringing others in as well. So hopefully this was an encouragement for y'all. Let me know in the description box below what your thoughts are. Let me know if you've heard of the Shunamite woman, if you were aware of this. and yeah. And also let me know ⁓ who you're gonna have over this week, what you gonna make? That's what I want to know. I wanna know. ⁓ so we actually have people coming over soon and I love having people over. it is such a blessing. It is such a good time. And honestly, for us, like it's so much more convenient for people to come over to our place now that my husband is, you know, he's a paraplegic, he's in a wheelchair. It's easier for him to be here, especially because we know he can navigate here. Not everyone has, you know, he's not able to get in everyone's houses now. And so for us, it is so much easier to have people over. But thankfully, I love it. I love having people over my house. ⁓ so hopefully an encouragement for y'all. Food for thought. Ha ha, pun intended food for thought. There you go. And as always, I hope that y'all have a wonderful day. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Grains of Grit Extra Gritty podcast. And I will talk to you later. Bye.