Phylicia Masonheimer: From Secret Sin to Serious Theology

we moved and we had nowhere to go I felt like Mary there was no room at the end where was I going to live and have this baby I just had no idea none of the hospitals would take me because I was so late in term and so I had to switch to a home birth last minute and then I had to find a place to have the baby I had to find a home to have the birth so it was absolutely insane situation unemployment health challenges and a darker struggle years earlier they've all shaped Felicia masonheimer understanding of God and she hopes her experiences will do the same for you this is GPS God people stories an Outreach Of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association I'm Jim Kirkland through all of her struggles Felicia came to better understand who God really is that says Billy Graham is vital to living a life of meaning and purpose according to the Bible who is Jesus is the most important question you or anyone else will ever ask or get an answer to who is Jesus Christ who is Jesus Christ and what does he mean to you Billy Graham will provide some biblical truths to help you answer those questions a bit later in the episode you can also explore more about Jesus and who he can be in your life at our website the address is find peacewithgod.net that's find peacewithgod.net and if you'd like to talk with someone someone is waiting to talk with you at the Billy Graham 247 prayer line 855255 pray 855255 pray and if you're going how can I remember all this information don't worry at all we always include the web address and the prayer line number in our show notes PPS God people stories Felicia masonheimer grew up on a horse farm in northern Michigan it's the same rural area where she lives today we had a lovely childhood lots of outside time lots of reading lots of studying lots of friends it it was very beautiful and my parents worked hard to create that for us my parents were believers who really took seriously their role in discipling me and my five younger siblings her parents also took on the role of Educators homeschooling all six of their children they were very personally devout but they also were actively teaching us how to think critically about faith and one of the things I'm most grateful for from my childhood is that there was no question about faith that was off limits I don't remember feeling like I couldn't ask a question about God or the Bible or other religions even and that it wouldn't be answered but Felicia's eyes were also open to the hypocrisy of some other Christians there were aspects of my childhood and experiences with extended family that also exposed me to the reality of spiritual abuse and emotional abuse among Believers or professing Believers walking with my parents through those experiences did show me that there's a big difference between people who claim to be Christian and people who actually are and I think that also really shaped my understanding of the church and my desire for a just and righteous Christianity something else The Experience taught Felicia is that Redemption is always possible she learned that by watching her parents remain faithful to God and extend forgiveness to those responsible for the abuse there was another struggle in Felicia's life that would impact her faith one that was much more personal when she was 12 she happened upon an erotic novel at a garage sale it's so Randon but you know I was a big reader and it didn't have a cover on it it was just the cover had been ripped off so I was curious and opened it straight up to this explicit scene and curiosity and shame Drive things underground and my parents did the best they could but the time that we were living that's that's the height of Purity culture this is the end of the 90s the early 2000s when Purity culture was giving these messages about purity that were very Works based an action of Sheltering but no real teaching or communication on sexuality itself from a Biblical perspective and that did leave a void that made it very hard for me to open up about what I was walking through at that time that left Felicia more vulnerable to the Temptation and she soon sped into an addiction to pornographic fiction she found it difficult to talk to God about her addiction because she also struggled with perfectionism I was always messing up and I remember like literally beginning to have these conversations in my head with the Lord I was 12 or 13 starting to have these conversations and these questions internally and wrestling with God over like what's the point if I can't be good enough that wrestling changed to a life-changing realization a few years later Felicia was 16 and sitting in the back pasture of her family's horse farm she had read a devotional book that helped her understand that she could never be good enough like I realized that I couldn't do it on my own and that there needed to be an intercessor to make it possible for me to live in Freedom to live in Victory to live with purpose and so that's was very simple but that changed everything the intercessor Felicia realized she needed the intercessor we all need is Jesus Christ what pushed me over the edge into following Christ was really my desire to be good and a frustration with my inability to be good or perfect it transformed my view of myself in a profound way because there was this constant shame that was really pressuring me and part of the reason that I felt I could not be perfect I could not be good enough and a conflict within my soul which happens when you're entrapped in any kind of besetting sin there's an inner conflict within you that you do feel like you can't get out from under and and that was where I was so by coming to Christ the power of that was really broken that decision to surrender her life to Jesus was Felicia's first and biggest step in fully overcoming her addiction to pornographic novels she found more freedom as she studied what the Bible had to say about repentance like I was starting to see oh there's a way out of this and I began to really process what I was learning in the Bible writing it out for my own sake trying to understand like what does it mean to repent what does the Bible say about repentance and what I didn't realize is at 16 17 18 years old I was wrestling with very theological questions that would were impacting how I saw myself and how I saw the world that wrestling ignited in Felicia a love for studying Theology and scripture something she could do even more of when she started college at Liberty University in Virginia and Liberty is where she would also meet her future husband Josh we started out as as friends and you know I'll be the first to ad that it was a bumpy road for us we both were emotionally immature and needed a lot of growth I made a lot of mistakes I think in relationships at that stage of my life where I was learning how to walk in my identity in Christ instead of you know trying to get the approval of people Josh and Felicia had different hobbies and personalities but what they shared was a common desire to build a life that is grounded in the word of God that commitment to the word of God was also something that Felicia expressed in a blog she was writing she started it when she was a teenager and continued writing it while dating Josh my blog was related to a theology related again to that pornography addiction that I had had and my process of understanding the theology behind that addiction the Theology of repentance and sanctification like how can we actually be free from this because at that time very few women were talking about pornography addiction so I had this blog where I talked about sexuality and Theology and cultural issues and the conversation around sex and Purity and modesty kind of undoing some of those messages from Purity culture but also just engaging with the questions that single women had but soon Felicia was no longer a single woman she and Josh tied the knot in 2014 I'm almost 24 when we get married and and I continued blogging and writing and had more opportunities to do that so I was writing for other magazines other websites and building out my own website which at that point had 400 or so blog posts on it and so we were using that content to continue to share with people Instagram came into existence at this point so you know we're using that we're using Facebook and Pinterest and things like that to reach more women with this truth Felicia continued to build her online online Ministry while also working in higher education everything was going extremely well for us because we're living in Virginia I had a job that I loved Josh had a well-paying job and we were in a lovely little apartment and it was just a really great situation then they became pregnant suddenly Josh's heavy travel schedule was going to become a problem so he took a new job one that moved them from Virginia to Lancaster Pennsylvania when Felicia was pregnant and in fact they moved when she was almost due we moved and we had nowhere to go I felt like Mary there was no room at the end where was I going to live and have this baby I just had no idea none of the hospitals would take me because I was so late in term and so I had to switch to a home birth last minute and then I had to find a place to have the baby I had to find a home to have the birth so it was absolutely insane situation it may have seemed insane from their perspective but not from God's he led them to a midwife to help with the baby's delivery then he answered their prayers about a place to live we drove around and saw three Apartments they were all like second floor which you really can't really do um for this situation and then we were driving down Main Street and there was a little tiny sign just like kind of obscured by bushes and it said for rent on this little house on Main Street and we were like oh we'll call them and we went in and met them and beautiful little duplex the landlord lived on the other side and this is a sweet woman who ended up being a Believer had been a missionary to Mexico and um as we were touring it she said so so where are you having your baby and we're like well we're not we can't I don't know if we should like tell her like that we kind of need to have it here and we said well we're not going to lie like we have to have the baby here is that okay with you she said yeah absolutely 5 days after they moved in Felicia gave birth to a healthy little girl they named Adeline but shortly afterward Felicia faced a Health Challenge a pregnancy induced autoimmune disease when Adeline was a week old I was so miserable because my autoimmune disease had realized itself and come to the surface and I was like what is going on I was covered in blisters and hives and itchy none of that discomfort kept Felicia Josh and Adeline from visiting a church as we walked in with her this little tiny baby after the service all these women came up to me and said are are you new here do do you go to the do you know about our mom's Ministry do you need help getting to our mom's Ministry we'll pick you up we'll drive you here do you have a meal train they made me a meal train never having met me brought me meals for 6 weeks and offered to drive me to the mom's group offered to come to my house and help me these people completely surrounded us and many of them are still our friends to this day we still go back and see them we still go back to that church whenever we visit Pennsylvania out of gratitude for for How They carried us in that season That season in Pennsylvania ended up being a short one for the masonheimer once again Josh's job threw a wrench into their plans ended up traveling just as much and was gone constantly which is why we then moved to Michigan about a year into their new Michigan life and seven months into their second pregnancy Josh was part of a mass round of layoffs at his new job it came one day after he and Felicia had signed the mortgage on their new home and he was one of the people who was laid off cuz he was a new hire and when he came home saw him I saw him drive up and I was like I know exactly why he's here early in their marriage during a time of prayer Felicia felt as if God was telling her that Josh would lose his job and that she needed to be prepared for it when it happened the way she'd been preparing without even realizing it was through her years of writing we're down to our last $500 we had just bought our house it did not look good I thought well what if I compiled all of these blog posts that I've written on sexuality into a book and I sold it as an ebook for $10 so that's what I did and the ebook was so successful that it provided for us for three months and allowed us to kind of make it through the birth of Eva and help Josh find another job when that happened Felicia realized they could compile her other works and to Affordable ebooks ebooks that would provide more resources to help people think theologically about different cultural issues still it was a difficult time for their family we had to pause our payments on things and my father-in-law sent us $500 to help us make it through you know it was scary because there aren't a ton of engineering jobs in a small town Josh was really having to work hard to to find a job it's very nerve-wracking but again God provided and we made it through so that was a blessing and and of itself Josh found a job and not only did they make it through they thrived as Felicia's online Ministry continued to grow in 2020 Felicia was pregnant with their third child a boy while also taking care of their other two children we knew that the direction the ministry was headed and the growth that we'd had in our marriage and in our vision for reaching people with the gospel was growing in Clarity that we thought you know it would be really cool if in between 3 and 5 years Josh could come home to work with the ministry and we could work together this was not our immediate Vision we expected it would take quite some time but it didn't they felt like the time to make a change was then Josh said you know what if I come home now temporarily and I will supplement our income by working part-time and I'll take over watching the children and you can write and by having that time to write you can produce more books they would then support the ministry and support us Felicia knew it was risky but decided to give it a try he resigned came home and we just completely switched roles he took over meals he took over cleaning he took over laundry he took over the kids and I wrote sometimes 12 hours a day those long days of writing produced a book she called theology Basics it's an overview of Christian theology for beginners and once again one of Felicia's books provided for their family through that in 2020 God completely changed the trajectory of our family and ever since then Josh never had to take a part-time job he was able to stay home and work for the ministry and he still does today together the couple runs their Ministry its name is every woman a theologian it teaches Christians to know what they believe why they believe it and how to communicate it graciously to the world Josh leads the logistical side of the ministry and I lead the executive side and we have 10 amazing people who help us to run the ministry today it's amazing our twoyear plan became immediate plan and we didn't know what we would do but yeah little by little God just provided the masonheimer family has seen God provide for them in every season of their life and they know that they can continue to trust him through whatever lies ahead even in the hardest Seasons last year we walked through secondary infertility we lost two babies to miscarriage and we had a series of other significant losses in 2024 but you know once again it just comes back to do you trust him to work it all together to weave it all together to do something greater than we can see and by trusting him we have seen the goodness of God in the land of the living ((music playing)) maybe you can identify with Felicia Mason heimer's story of walking through difficult seasons of life but maybe you've never trusted Jesus Christ to carry you through and be your savior the way the Felicia has you can change that right now you can begin to experience the peace that Jesus offers even in the most challenging circum irst ances we can tell you more at find peacewithgod.net that's find peacewithgod.net and if you would like someone to pray with you you can call the Billy Graham 247 prayer line someone is waiting to talk with you at 855255 pray 855255 pray and if you didn't catch the phone number or the website address no worry you can always find them in our show notes now a question how would you complete this sentence I choose to see Life In Christ as you might be surprised how Felicia masonheimer finishes that sentence you'll hear it in just a moment you're listening to GPS God people stories a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association who is Jesus Christ Billy Graham according to the Bible who is Jesus is the most important question you or anyone else will ever ask or get an answer to who is Jesus Christ and what does he mean to you the Bible says he is the creator the Bible says that Jesus created it all Jesus Not only was the creative Christ but he was the compassionate Christ see God loves us he's interested in you he will direct your life he will give you a joy and a peace and an assurance and a certainty of Heaven that you never dreamed existed if you put your confidence and your faith in him and then he has also the crucified Christ and because of what he did on that cross God says I forgive you not only did he die on the cross he rose from the dead thank God we have a living Christ you can begin discovering right now the difference that the living Christ can make in your life go to find peacewithgod.net that's find peacewithgod.net or talk with us call us at the Billy Graham 247 prayer line 855255 pray 855255 pray our guest in this episode of GPS God people stories is Felicia masonheimer she's founder of the ministry Every Woman a theologian she wants to help you whether you're a man or a woman see Life as a follower of Christ as something to embrace and enjoy and so for us to have hope after walking this path and the ups and downs that have been on this path for us I choose to see Life In Christ as this adventure you just don't know what's around the corner but it's going to be good and I expect it to be good even if it's hard that there will be a good that's coming out of it and that expectation is biblical Jesus said in this world you will have trouble but take heart for I've overcome the world John 16:33 and so in that passage he's saying yes there will be trials there will be difficulty and I have overcome that difficulty and you will see our Redemption within it and so looking at church history and the people who came before us and how they walk through things like this that inspires me and I hope it would inspire you to know you're not alone in walking through hard things you're not alone in suffering but look at your life as this adventure with God where he's leading you personally specifically by his holy spirit you don't know what's around the corner but it's going to be exciting and there's going to be Redemption and that means that every day you get to wake up do what's God going to do today and that to me is a very exciting way to live we're thankful for Felicia masonheimer joining us on this episode she's a woman who tells the world about Jesus by talking about Theology and culture Al topics oh and after we recorded our interview with Felicia she announced on social media that she and Josh are expecting their fourth baby this fall speaking of sharing things on social media would you consider sharing this episode of GPS on your social media if it meant a lot to you it'll mean a lot to somebody within your circle it helps us a whole lot when you tell other people about GPS it also helps when you subscribe and when you leave a comment WE Post new episodes every Wednesday I'm Jim Kirkland and this is GPS God people stories it's an Outreach Of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association always good news ((music playing))