Back to Rurality

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, delves into the endless pursuit of satisfaction in worldly things and its futility. He shares his own experiences of chasing material things and legalistic spirituality, only to realize true fulfillment comes from a deep relationship with God. TJ encourages listeners to focus on knowing and delighting in God in prayer and the study of His word, surrendering other pursuits, and strengthening their faith within their church community.

Key Points:

• Feeling Restless: Do you feel like you’re always chasing something? Maybe you always are jumping from hobby to hobby. Or you want a new wardrobe, truck, or the newest iPhone. Maybe you want to feel that closeness to God that you felt at one point in your life. 
• Finding Rest in the Lord: When our minds are fixed on worldly, lesser things, we will never feel truly fulfilled. When our primary pursuit is the Lord, we can find full satisfaction and true rest. Don’t continue pursuing things that will not fill you up. Instead, reflect on what it means to really enjoy the Lord. 
• Put Your Trust in God Alone: Believe that His word is true and that he is not withholding one good thing from you. He is good and wants you to delight in Him! He will not leave you feeling empty. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Memorize Genesis 1:26-28 and Psalm 16:11. God has made us with a purpose, and that purpose is to reflect him as a people who know him intimately. Spend time in the word and take time getting to know the Lord. 
• Pray and thank the Lord that he’s brought you into a close relationship with him. Ask him that he’ll help you have a sense of his presence. Then just praise him and thank him for five minutes. 
• Surrender your competing pursuits! Take an inventory of your life and think about the things that you might be putting ahead of the Lord. It could be your time on social media, a hobby you really love, or any number of things. Reset your priority on Christ’s kingdom.
• Spend time with your church community. They are meant to aid you in your pursuit of the Lord. Let your church members guide you towards loving God more. If you don’t have access to a healthy church, get together with another Christian in your area and pray with them.
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, challenges the reliance on personality tests to define identity. He shares personal struggles with identity crises and emphasizes the importance of understanding one's worth as being made in God's image. He encourages listeners to root their identity in their relationship with God and to live out God's word, regardless of one's individual personality traits.

Key Points:

• Identity Crisis: Many Christians go through seasons of life where they struggle with their identity. We might seek out solutions in an online test, our professions, or our friends. Instead, we should seek out to live according to the Bible says about us!
• What the Bible Says About Us: The very beginning of the Bible tells us that we were made in God’s image. We are His representatives and we exist to bring Him glory!
• How Can We Represent God: We can best represent God by walking in relationship with Him. As we continue to grow closer to  Him in prayer and studying His word, we begin to look more and more like him. Then we reflect Him to those around us.

Listener Takeaways:

• We can confidently trust the Lord for the way he has made us. We can fight the temptation to be jealous of the personalities He has given our friends. 
• Our own personalities are gifts from the Lord, but we can still take time to reflect and make sure we are living our lives according in God’s word, and exercising dominion in the way he has called us to. 
• When our minds are set on representing Christ, a lot of our own insecurities and questions about ourselves are able to fade away. Live to make Him known!
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, host TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, delves into dealing with life's hardest challenges, from severe diagnoses to financial struggles. Sharing personal stories and biblical insights, TJ discusses practical ways to trust God and maintain hope when everything feels like it's falling apart. Through prayer, seeking God's perspective, and anchoring hope in His faithfulness, he offers listeners a spiritual toolkit to navigate tough situations.

Key Points:

• Overcoming Overthinking and Negative Thoughts: We have a tendency when we're struggling with various challenges to allow our minds to get stuck in an unhelpful thought cycle. Philippians 4:8 reminds us that in these incredible difficult moments we need to focus our minds on the good and be thankful. 
• Overcoming Isolation: Another natural response to hardships can be isolation. We can often try to tough it out, or solve our own problems. The purpose of the Church is to support and encourage each other. Resist this common urge and seek help! 
• Overcoming Control: When a situation pops up that is outside of our plans, it is often a reminder that we are not actually in control. That can be scary and then we can be tempted to grasp around to control everything around us! Remember that this will not help us. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us that we are helped most when we place our trust in God, not ourselves.

Listener Takeaways:

• Meditate on the Scriptures mentioned in this episode. 
• Pray honestly, transparently, and with thanksgiving. 
• Seek God's perspective. He is good, in control, and has a plan beyond what we can see in our current circumstances.
• Anchor your hope. Like David in Psalm 42, remember God is with you and you can put your hope in him alone. 
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, rural pastor TJ Freeman delves into the paralyzing effect of 'what if' worries and the importance of embracing God's grace for today. Listeners are encouraged to focus on 'what is' and let go of future anxieties. 

Key Points:

• God's Presence: Matthew 6:24 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 show us that God is with us and he is actively caring for us. His grace is sufficient for us right in the moment we are at our weakest!
• God's Grace is for the 'What Is': We often harbor anxieties and fears over various 'What Ifs'. Whether our fears are about our careers or our families, we actually cause more trouble for today if our eyes are fixed on our future worries. We miss the grace God has for us in this moment. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Be in God's Word. Memorize it and it will work on your heart! When you are struggling with anxiety think through those memorized passages. 
• Ask yourself where you actually need God's grace right now? What do you really need? That allows you to focus on asking God for grace in what is actually troubling us in that moment. 
• Remember God's faithfulness over time. Look through Scripture and look back through your life and reflect on the times that God has shown his faithfulness to you.
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman discusses the importance of love as outlined in scripture, emphasizing that love starts in the mind and often requires intentional, sacrificial actions. He shares practical tips for loving neighbors and handling difficult relationships. This episode also concludes our Rural Reset Series!

Key Points:

• Not Sure How to Love Your Neighbor? Maybe you have a family member who is really irritable and hard to love. Maybe it seems like that one neighbor is out to rile up your family. It is natural for us to struggle to love others. That's why the Bible says we have to bear with one another in love!
• Ever Tried Renewing Your Mind? When we really are struggling to love someone, we can take that cycle of angry thoughts against them and start replacing them with thankful, loving thoughts towards that person. We can commit to starting to love them in our minds. 
• What Is Love Anyway? Love is a commitment  or a decision to do what is best for the other person, actively, sacrificially, and unconditionally regardless of feelings to the glory of God.

Listener Takeaways:

• Meditate: Meditate on God's word. God's word will renew our minds and transform it. (Romans 12)
• Intentional: Intentionally love others by praying with them, writing them a note, or going out of your way to bless them. (Ephesians 4)
• Navigate: Navigate hard relationships with grace. It will often take dying to yourself, but that is exactly what we are meant to do! (Philippians 4)
• Depend: Depend on God's Strength. We are not able to love others out of our own strength. We are going to fail, but we want to keep trying to love others to honor the Lord and share his love with our neighbors. Remember that we love because he first loved us! (1 John 4)
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: Rural pastor TJ Freeman explores what it means to feel the Holy Spirit's presence. He emphasizes that spiritual conviction often surpasses fleeting emotions. Through personal stories and biblical insights, he encourages trusting in God's promises and recognizing divine work in our lives, even when feelings are ambiguous.

Key Points:

• Do you feel left out? Maybe you go to church and feel as if you are missing something. Fortunately, Romans 8:16 helps us see that being filled by the Spirit is less about an actual feeling and more about a conviction. 
• The Fickleness of Emotions: Emotions are constantly changing. They are unreliable and unpredictable. They can be caused by various biological processes and outside circumstances. The Spirit is unchanging and promises that it is always with us Christians. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Study the Bible. The more you know God's Word, the more you will remember and rely on it when your emotions take a turn. Knowing God's Word helps us wait on the Lord in difficult times. 
• Don't measure the presence of the Holy Spirit by your feelings, but by the Word of God, by the work of God in your heart, and by His faithfulness.
• Reflect on your desires and your actions. Can you see some evidence over time that you're becoming more like Christ? That is evidence of the Holy Spirit.
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, delves into the common anxieties of showing hospitality, particularly in small towns. Through scriptural insights and practical advice, TJ encourages Christians to see hospitality not as an obligation, but as an opportunity to live out their faith, break down barriers, and experience joy.

Key Points:

• What If My House Isn't Clean? Hospitality isn't about showing off, instead it is actually about living out your faith in a way that breaks down some barriers and reflects God's grace to those around you. 
• Isn't It My Home? Everything we have is a gift from God! Our home, our resources, our personalities and even our time. We invest what God has given to us for kingdom purposes.

Listener Takeaways:

• Think of one person, or family, that you could get together with this week. It could be a neighbor, a peer, a coworker, or a fellow church member! 
• Be creative with your hospitality. You can meet with people in a park, a coffee, shop, or have people over for a game night.
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, delves into the concerns and misunderstandings surrounding the Lord's Supper. He explores who should partake in it, the meaning behind the practice, and how it should be a joyous, communal act for believers. 

Key Points:

• Who is Communion For? Communion is for believers. We are taking the Lord's Supper together, placing our hope in work of Christ, instead of our own works. It is also for believers gathered together in local churches, not 'lone-ranger' Christians. 
• What is Communion For? Communion is like an ongoing Baptism. It is a symbolic reminder of our need for Christ. Just as God made us have a need for food, we have a need to go to him again and again. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Run to communion table with Joy. Praise the God who saved you.
• If you feel burdened by your sin, so much so that you feel as if you cannot take the Lord's Supper, talk with your pastor. Remember that communion is a reminder of all of our need for God's grace. 
• When you take the Lord's Supper, look to three things. Look back to the sacrifice that Christ made. Look around you to the people taking the supper with you. Lastly, look forward, in hope, to the supper feast of the lamb!  
  
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, addresses Baptism. He addresses common questions such as whether believers should get baptized, the legitimacy of infant baptism, and the significance of baptism in the Christian faith.

Key Points:

• Baptism as a Covenant: Baptism is a sign of entering into a covenant relationship with God, akin to a wedding ring symbolizing marriage. While baptism does not save, it is a crucial step for believers as an affirmation of faith and entry into the church community. 
• Baptism as a Front Door: When you are Baptized in a church, you effectively join that church community as a member. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says that we are baptized into the body of the church! The church is affirming your confession of faith as true. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Baptism is set aside for believers. 
• You only need to be baptized one time. 
• If you have questions about your baptism, your pastors would love to help you think through it. 
• Additionally, you should consider reading "Understanding Baptism" by Bobby Jamison. 
  
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, TJ Freeman, a rural pastor, addresses the common challenge of sharing the gospel, especially in small towns. He shares personal experiences and practical steps to help Christians overcome fear and awkwardness when evangelizing.

Key Points:

• Evangelizing in a Small Town: Sharing the gospel in a rural area can be difficult for many. You might be afraid to share, or maybe they don't even know how to start. You also might feel that you don't know many non-Christians. 
• You Have Been Commissioned: When you became a Christian, you became a citizen of heaven and an ambassador for Christ. In Matthew 28, we read that we have an assignment to tell people the good news of the gospel. Sharing the gospel is a task intended for all Christians. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Think of five people who you know that are not Christians. 
• Pray for one of those people one day a week, Monday through Friday.
• Reach out and have an intentional conversation once a month with those five people. 
• Turn that monthly conversation into a spiritual one on a quarterly basis. 
  
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook