Dwell Differently

“We have a God who first loved us…and sacrificed for us and served us, and that’s a beautiful, beautiful thing." — Jason AbbottThis month’s verse raises so many questions: Why is Jesus able to be a ransom for us? What does this verse teach us about the kingdom of God? How does our servant-King’s example impact the way we live our lives? What should I do when I know the right way to serve and love others but just don’t want to? Join Natalie Abbott, co-founder of Dwell Differently, and her husband, Jason Abbott, as they talk about all this and more, reminding us of the absolute beauty of Jesus—the God who came to save us and to serve us.This month’s memory verse: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." — Mark 10:45Today's Dwell guest: Dr. Jason Abbott is married to Natalie Abbott, co-founder of Dwell Differently. They have a big family of seven and spend a lot of time running around Jefferson City, Missouri, together. Jason has been in pastoral ministry for the past 20 years in the Evangelical Free Church of America. He’s currently the Senior Pastor at Central Church of Jefferson City, Missouri. Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell Differently’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Resurrection Rolls RecipeFree Devotional ResourcesSign up for our email list!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

“If we make Christ greater, then we are thinking of ourselves less…I just want my life to be about Christ…it’s Christ above all, Christ greatest, Christ more. That’s what I want. And so I think that if that is true of me, then service out of that is easier and also I stop vying for position and rank and approval.” — Vera SchmitzDo you tend to keep a scorecard when it comes to serving others? Our verse this month, Mark 10:45, helps us reframe what serving like Jesus really means—especially when we come face to face with our self-serving tendencies. Tune in as Natalie Abbott and Vera Schmitz, sisters and co-founders of Dwell Differently, talk through the implications of this verse, what genuine humility really looks like, and how to truly live our lives in a way that echoes John the Baptist’s words in John 3:30: “He [Jesus] must become greater; I must become less.”This month’s memory verse: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." — Mark 10:45Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell Differently’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Free Devotional ResourcesSign up for our email list!Immanuel by Beautiful EulogySupport the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

“Jesus is trying to flip everything you expect upside down so that you can see him as he actually is.” — Caroline SaundersCaroline Saunders joins Dwell Differently’s Natalie Abbott for a super honest conversation about what greatness really is, how to explain the truth of this month’s memory verse to a 10-year-old, what a ransom is, and more. You won't want to miss the practical implications and encouragement they share, helping us serve others like our Savior has served us!This month’s memory verse: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." — Mark 10:45Today's Dwell guest: Caroline Saunders is a writer, Bible teacher, pastor's wife, and mother of three who believes in taking Jesus seriously and being un-serious about nearly everything else. Her upcoming projects include her first women's Bible study called Come Home: Tracing God's Promise of Home in Scripture (May 2024, Lifeway Women) and a storybook Bible, Kids of the Bible Storybook (April 2024, B&H Kids). In every project, she seeks to use wit and wisdom to help others know and love God and His Word. Find her writing, resources, and ridiculousness at WriterCaroline.com and on Instagram @writercaroline. Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell Differently’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Check out Caroline's resources at KaleidoscopeFollow Caroline at WriterCaroline.com and on Instagram @writercarolineFree Devotional ResourcesSign up for our email list!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

“He came to serve us because we are actually incapable of doing the thing that we most desperately need, which is to be made right before God.” — Natalie AbbottHow would you answer the question Jesus asks twice in Mark 10: “What do you want me to do for you?”? If you’re anything like us, you may wrestle with what you think that answer should be and what it really is. Join Natalie Abbott to learn more about the context of this month’s memory verse, Mark 10:45, and to see what these three interactions Jesus has in Mark 10 reveal about what people wanted Jesus to do for them and what he really came to do for them—and for us. May you be in awe again today of our God who loves us and gave up his own life for our sake.This month’s memory verse: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." — Mark 10:45Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell Differently’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Free Devotional ResourcesSign up for our email list!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

When it comes to control, we often tend to fell like we have it all under control or like everything is spinning out of control. Our verse this month tells us neither is true. Jesus is the one who is in control. On todays episode our guest, Joanna Kimbrel, shares just how easy it is for us to live under the illusion of our self control, asking Natalie if she's been reading her journal. And she also shares specific times when she felt like everything feels out of control. Joanna tells us why we would want to give Jesus the reigns of our lives and she gives us practical advice for how we can make that happen. This month’s memory verse: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" — Colossians 1:17Today's Dwell guest: Joanna Kimbrel is a Bible teacher, a writer, and the coordinator of women’s initiatives for The Gospel Coalition. She is coauthor of Behold and Believe: A Bible Study on the “I Am” Statements of Jesus and author of The Greatest Hero: The Book of Romans. She is a student at Westminster Theological Seminary pursuing her Master of Arts in Theological Studies. Joanna and her husband, Chad, have three daughters and are members of Sojourn Community Church in Woodstock, Georgia.Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or vinyl stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Behold and Believe: A Bible Study on the “I Am” Statements of Jesus The Greatest Hero: The Book of Romans.Join us at the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference!Become a Dwell Differently member today!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

“He sees everything, and there is a peace that comes when you remind yourself of how big and capable he is to hold all things together.” — Vera SchmitzWhat do you do when peace feels elusive and all the plates that are spinning feel like they’re about to crash? Join Dwell Differently co-founders and sisters, Vera Schmitz and Natalie Abbott, as they talk about times they’ve felt a lack of control in their lives, share how praying the Lord’s Prayer has been so formative, and invite us to give the things that weigh heavy on us to a God who is fully capable of holding all things. Bonus: Vera and Natalie share a mini teaser about a big project Dwell Differently has been working on—you won’t want to miss it!This month’s memory verse: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." — Colossians 1:17Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Free Devotional ResourcesSign up for our email list!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

“But the Lord, I believe, in his mercy brought me to the end of myself and just said, ‘Actually, Jen, you can’t do it all. You are not self made. You are not self-sufficient. I made you—and I made you for me. And that’s where you’re going to find peace.’” — Jen OshmanWhat do you do when overwhelm strikes? Or when you find yourself in a place of relying only on your own efforts and self-sufficiency? Join Natalie Abbott, co-founder of Dwell Differently, and Jen Oshman as they talk about what to do when we come to the end of ourselves, what this verse means for us in our suffering, and how remembering who Jesus is truly changes everything.This month’s memory verse: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." — Colossians 1:17Today's Dwell guest: Jen Oshman has been in women’s ministry for over two decades on three continents. She’s the author of Enough about Me and Cultural Counterfeits, she hosts a weekly podcast about cultural events and trends called All Things, and she is the mother of four daughters. Jen's family currently resides in Colorado, where they planted Redemption Parker.Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell Differently’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or vinyl stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:Jen Oshman's website"Jen Oshman: The Good News about Failure" on the Dwell Differently PodcastAll Things PodcastFree Devotional Resources from Dwell DifferentlySupport the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

Explore the idea of Jesus holding everything together, find peace in His role as creator and sustainer, discover the significance of His redemption, and learn to trust Him with your burdens in this insightful and uplifting podcast episode.

Have you ever struggled with fear, control, or busyness? Who doesn't?! We wanted to revisit this topic today by sharing one of our all-time most helpful episodes (first released in August 2022). Dwell Differently co-founder Vera Schmitz shares how memorizing specific truths from God's Word has helped set her free from these struggles in her own life. She relates how the truth about God's transcendent peace in Philippians 4:6–7 has helped her in anxious moments. She shares how Exodus 14:14 has reminded her to rely on God to fight for her.  And she testifies about how the words of rest in Psalm 116:7 have come to mind in seasons of busyness. We hope that Vera's stories of freedom will be an encouragement to you as you consider how God's words have bolstered you when you've needed them. Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show.Link from today's show:Check out the Dwell Differently website and the free resources we have waiting for you!Join our Dwell Differently Community on Facebook—we’d love to see you there!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.

What is God's purpose for us in our pain and suffering? How do we walk through our trials in faithful prayer and even joy? In this episode, Kristen Wetherell answers these questions with vulnerable honesty. Kristen is a pastor's wife, busy mom of three, author, speaker, and she also suffers from chronic pain.  In our conversation today, she helps us see how knowing God in his Word is absolutely essential—it's the lens through which all of life makes sense, especially in our suffering. This month’s memory verse: "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer " — Romans 12:12Today's Dwell guest: Kristen Wetherell is a wife, mother, writer, and speaker. She is the author of several books, including Help for the Hungry Soul, and coauthor of the award-winning book Hope When It Hurts. Kristen is a member of the Orchard and lives in Chicagoland with her husband and three children.Memorize Scripture with us: Find out more about Dwell’s monthly kit with temporary tattoos or vinyl stickers, a display card, a key tag, and more to help you know and dwell on God’s Word.Get our weekly devotional email: Dive deeper into this month’s verse.Did you love today’s episode?: We’d love to hear about it! Would you leave a rating or review in your podcast player to help others find the show?Links from today's show:More about KristenKristen's booksTwo-year Bible reading planBecome a Dwell Differently member today!Support the showFollow Natalie & Vera at DwellDifferently.com and @dwelldifferently.