Become Good Soil

By Morgan SnyderReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Become Good Soil episodes

March 14, 2016 017: Dismantling the Fig Leaf (Part Two of Two)
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Eugene Petersen, author of The Message, makes this observation:
The two most difficult things to get straight in life are love and God. More often than not the mess that we make of our lives can be traced to the failure in one or both of these areas.
Sages have a capacity to see our lives illuminated with a glow that can only be appreciated through the view of many decades to come. From victory and defeat, agony and hilarity, they can help us see clearly the dangers we might not see that create a life that is simply not sustainable.

How do we choose a life whereby we become the kind of men who can not only finish well, but genuinely enjoy our lives and the people around us in the midst of our days? How is it that the things that matter most for many men are the very things that, over time, are discarded as casualties of war?

Join Reese and me as we pick up on the second part of a two-podcast series. If we are to truly come to this with sincere curiosity, honest consideration, and a willingness to not settle for less, it has the possibility and the hope to transform our lives for eternity.

If you haven't listened to Part One, I recommend you start there.

Strength and Honor,
Morgan

Below is a quote I reference in this teaching drawn from Dallas' words in The Divine Conspiracy:

Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak, to heal and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what He brought and what He still brings to ORDINARY human beings, living ordinary lives and coping in their daily surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness He gives us strength and imparts through His companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.
22 min
February 09, 2016 016: Dismantling the Fig Leaf (Part One of Two)
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download

I've lost the ability to bullshit. It's the me I've always wanted to be.

It's one of my all-time favorite film quotes, spoken by Jerry Maguire as he sheds the Poser and becomes more and more the kind of man to whom God can entrust His kingdom. The film is a modern parable of a transformational process being made available to us every day. Of the men I’ve encountered, few have become the kind of man who embodies these words more than Reese Bricken.

Join us in part one of a two-part dialogue where we risk putting words and questions to what we often feel but rarely talk about, exploring together what it means to keep company with the living God and learn to live freely and lightly.

Morgan

Make a movie night out of Jerry Maguire to see what shedding the Poser might look like.

For more on the True Self as considered in this podcast, check out The New Name – Going Deeper.
26 min
November 02, 2015 015: Getting Naked – Styles of Relating (Part 2 of 2)
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It was Dallas Willard, in The Divine Conspiracy, who suggested,

Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak, to heal, and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ORDINARY human beings, living ordinary lives and coping in their daily surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.

In this second podcast of a two-part series on the Predominant Styles of Relating, we begin by taking a deeper look at how Jesus moves fluidly with both authority and love in all three styles, not out of habitual reaction but rather divine response. We then move straight into honest application as Alex, JD, and I host a raw dialogue that is both painful and hopeful.

If you haven't yet listened to part one, start there.

Both podcast reference exercises. Access those here.

Take the time. Do the work. It'll bring more and more life for you and those you love.

Jesus, I long to have a life that, like yours, cultivates a "quality of eternity." I ask that you would increase my awareness of what it is like to relate to me. What is my effect on people? What is my impact? What are you revealing? I am asking for your supernatural revelation and insight. I give you permission and access. Lead me into the deep waters. I want more. Amen.

40 min
October 09, 2015 014: Getting Naked – Styles of Relating (Part 1 of 2)
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How we relate with other people is one of the greatest indicators of our spiritual maturity.

This was the counsel offered by an older, wiser man years ago as he helped untie the knots in my rope and my marriage.

One tough conversation began the beautiful and life-changing process of understanding how our predominant style of relating shapes all the relationship in our lives.

God is after the wholehearted integration of a person.

This podcast is part one of a two-part series where we take some risks and offer our vulnerability with the hope of partnering with Jesus in both His disruption and His enticing us into an ever more wholehearted integration of our souls.

You can find the exercises referenced in this podcast right here.
54 min
August 05, 2015 013: Quick
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"Deep calls unto deep..." the Scriptures suggest (Psalm 42:7).

There is in every moment of every day an accessible onramp to the narrow road that leads to Life.

Often the onramp is hidden in the ache and longing to ever more wholly experience life as a son. And when we pause and let this ache rise, we begin to sense the voice of our Father: His deepest provision tirelessly, freely, joyfully calling unto our deepest need.

In Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton suggests it this way:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

Could it be that our Father is "younger than we"?

Could it be that, eternally unwearied, He turns toward you and me, setting his gaze exultantly upon our hearts as sons, and offers us again and again a way to real and lasting life?

First offered at the Become Good Soil Intensive, this is perhaps the most important message I have had entrusted to my care.

With joy, hope, and deep anticipation, I invite you to savor it and to risk opening your masculine heart to the more the Father is making available to you today.

Click here to download this Podcast as an 11x17 PDF Poster.

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14 min
July 01, 2015 012: Your New Name
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C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, once said this,

What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can.

Every time we encounter the Living God in a deeper way, we are given another glimpse into the reality of who we are uniquely to Him and who He is uniquely to us. For each of us is invited to call upon Him personally as the The One Who Names Me.

George MacDonald, in An Anthology, says it this way,

The giving of the white stone with the new name is the communication of what God thinks about the man to the man… (Rev. 2:17) The true name is one which expresses the character, the nature, the meaning of the person who bears it. It is the man's own symbol—his soul's picture, in a word—the sign which belongs to him and to no one else. Who can give a man this, his own name? God alone.

This podcast is drawn from a session on The New Name that I offered at a recent Wild at Heart Boot Camp. I pray that it will strengthen you in your inner man as you come to know and believe more deeply who you truly are to God.

Click here to find more resources associated with this teaching...
45 min
May 06, 2015 011: Live in the Day and Measure in the Decade
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It is rare that we pause and pull back far enough from our daily life to observe and wonder about the who we have and have not yet become. At Wild at Heart we produce a weekly podcast, and Craig and Allen recently invited me into the studio to reflect on how we've each changed over the last decade. It was the first of a series of rich conversations that led us into some core ideas, hopes, and desires that have come to shape us as we pursue lives ever more true and ever more deeply lived in God and his Kingdom.

We wanted to make that episode of the Wild at Heart podcast available to you.

We strongly encourage you to check out the Wild at Heart podcast. You can find that and more through the Wild at Heart app.
35 min
April 15, 2015 010: Receiving the Heart of the Father – Cherie Snyder
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The soul searches for a Father.

It was John Ortberg who put those words to me in a way so succinct it cut to the core.

I see it in nearly every action of every day.

Every reaching.

Every ache.

Desire reveals design. Design reveals destiny.

It is the intention of the heart of our True Father that we would become sons in ways beyond what we could ask for or even imagine.

That's why George MacDonald offers this invitation:

"Since we are the sons of God we must become the sons of God."

It is available.

For the first time, my wife offered a session at a recent Captivating retreat on receiving the heart of the Father. While it was a session offered to women, as I soaked in it, I found my heart responding to yet another deep and vast portion of the Father's love pursuing me.

We offer it to you as a gift and a promise that there is more.

Endnote: This would be a great bridge to share with your wife and invite her into becoming a daughter more deeply than she has known. If you want to step into her world of becoming a daughter even more, watch The Little Princess for a date night as part of going through this podcast.

1 hr 2 min
January 26, 2015 009: Nearing the End of My Beginning
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For centuries, Celtic Christians have identified a "thin place" as a location where the veil between heaven and earth becomes especially sheer; a place where the unseen reality of God’s Kingdom is made vivid to the senses; a place where the Presence of God is unmistakable as it rouses the deepest spaces within the human heart.

I can't recall a conversation with a sage that suspended me in a thin place for as long a sacred period as this one.

John is a hero of mine and of many who was given a terminal diagnosis nine months ago: his cancer had returned with vigor, having spread into his lungs. He had already journeyed nine years with cancer, endured seven surgeries and multiple rounds of chemo, and at this juncture he felt the quiet, stirring invitation to choose quality of life over further medical intervention which, at best, could only delay his death. A physician himself, John said yes to living the fullness of life on behalf of those he loves, for however many more weeks and months he is granted.

(more)
56 min
December 02, 2014 008: A Conversation with my Aussie Hero, Dave Tolman
There are few men I respect more than Dave Tolman.

He is one of the giants who served as a sage and guide at the most recent Become Good Soil Intensive. I had a rare chance to turn on the microphone and record a conversation with him that I think you'll enjoy. Dave is a Kingdom strategist.

It's been said that a good king cares far more about your heart than he does your gifting. And it has also been said,

"The activity of love is to make space for another person to be totally themselves."

Dave is that kind of leader and that kind of king. He has that kind of impact on the men under his leadership.

He serves in many leadership capacities, from serving as a key Director of a denomination of churches throughout Australia to leading a big team over one of the most vibrant conference facilities in Sydney. His passion is ministry to families, and he lives out that message personally with his ridiculous holidays in the Aussie bush with the family in a pop-up trailer for six weeks at a time. In this conversation, I had a chance to lean into his many years of wisdom in the category of mentoring—and much more. Enjoy.
34 min