What if the closed door in front of you isn't a setback—but God's direction?

In this episode of Dear God, Amen, Adam and Obie walk through Acts 16 and discover a chapter filled with unexpected turns, difficult circumstances, spiritual discernment, worship, suffering, and salvation.

The conversation begins with Timothy and the importance of spiritual mentorship before moving into one of the chapter's most challenging lessons: Paul and his companions are prevented by the Holy Spirit from going into certain areas. Instead of forcing their own plans, they follow God's leading—and that closed door ultimately leads them to Macedonia and a new opportunity for the gospel.

From there, Acts 16 introduces Lydia, a woman whose heart the Lord opens to Paul's message, and a slave girl whose words sound spiritually correct but come from a completely different source. Adam and Obie dig into the importance of discernment and why Christians must continually return to God's Word rather than accepting something simply because it sounds religious or contains pieces of truth.

Then comes one of the most powerful scenes in Acts: Paul and Silas are beaten, imprisoned, and placed in the inner cell. Yet at midnight, instead of giving in to their circumstances, they are praying and singing hymns to God.

Then the earthquake comes.

The prison doors open. The chains fall off. But the miracle isn't ultimately about Paul and Silas escaping prison.

It's about a jailer asking the most important question:

"What must I do to be saved?"

Acts 16 reminds us that God's purposes can be bigger than the circumstances we see in front of us. A closed door may be redirection. A difficult season may become an opportunity to testify. And sometimes the breakthrough God provides isn't primarily for us—it is so someone else can encounter Jesus.

This episode also explores spiritual warfare, the importance of standing firm, the full armor of God, worship in the middle of suffering, and the call to keep following Christ even when we don't understand where He is leading.

If you're facing a closed door, a difficult season, fear, uncertainty, or a situation you simply don't understand, Acts 16 has a message for you:

Trust God. Follow where He leads. Stand firm. And keep worshiping.

Listen to the newest episode of Dear God, Amen from Big Sky Testify.

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In this raw and deeply personal episode of Pray, Pray, Pray, Adam steps away from the prepared message he had planned and follows a conviction from the Holy Spirit into the woods—with his Bible in hand.

What begins as a simple reflection on Scripture becomes a testimony about faith, family, grief, spiritual growth, and the powerful role the Word of God has played throughout Adam’s life.

Adam shares how he went from feeling completely inept with the Bible when he returned to church to developing a deep love for Scripture. He opens up about the Bible that has traveled with him through marriage, fatherhood, church, work, hunting, and some of the hardest moments of his life—including the death of his mother.

His mother’s Bible became especially meaningful after her passing, as Adam began going through the passages she had highlighted and writing “Mom” beside them. Eventually, his children joined him as they explored Grandma’s Bible together. What Adam discovers is that the Bible isn’t merely a book—it can become a roadmap, a record of faith, and a way for God’s Word to be passed from one generation to the next.

Drawing from Daniel 12:1–3, Adam reflects on eternity, righteousness, and the call to become people who shine by leading others toward God. He also encourages anyone who is new to faith not to be intimidated by the Bible. Start reading. Read slowly or quickly. Start with John. Spend time in the Psalms. Read a Proverb each day. Most importantly, get into the Word and allow it to shape your heart.
Because just as we care for our physical health, Adam asks an important question:

What are we doing for our spiritual health?

The episode closes with a prayer asking God to use His Word as nourishment for our souls, a weapon against evil, anxiety, and depression, and a tool for building families and generational faith.

If your Bible has become dusty, if you're new to faith, or if you simply need a reminder of why Scripture matters, this episode is an invitation to open it again.

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Dear God, Amen is back in Acts 15—and this chapter gets real.

What happens when believers disagree? What happens when religious traditions get mixed with the gospel? And what happens when two faithful followers of Jesus can't agree on how to move forward?

In Acts 15, the early church wrestles with some enormous questions: Is salvation earned through keeping the law, or is it received through faith in Jesus Christ? How should believers handle disagreements? And can God still work through conflict?

Adam and Obie dig into Peter's powerful reminder that we are saved by the grace of Jesus—not by carrying a burden that none of us can bear. They also explore how easily Christians can bring old traditions, preferences, and personal convictions into their faith and accidentally make following Jesus harder than it needs to be. 

Then Acts 15 gets incredibly personal.

Paul and Barnabas have a sharp disagreement over John Mark and ultimately go their separate ways. But instead of allowing the conflict to end the mission, God uses the situation to create two missionary teams. And later, Mark becomes valuable to Paul's ministry.  

That leads Adam and Obie into a deeper conversation about discipleship, failure, reconciliation, encouragement, and trusting God with broken relationships.

The episode also explores what it means to encourage and strengthen others—including the role that encouragement and community played in the beginnings of Big Sky Testify. 

And ultimately, the conversation comes back to faith, hope, and love—and the reminder that God's love is bigger than our ability to fully comprehend it.

Acts 15 reminds us that we don't have to earn God's grace, we don't have to carry every conflict ourselves, and our failures don't have to be the end of our story.

Listen to the newest Dear God, Amen and walk through Acts 15 with Adam and Obie.

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In this episode of Pray, Pray, Pray, we take a journey through the book of Ecclesiastes and wrestle with one of life's biggest questions: What are we really living for?

Solomon had wealth, wisdom, accomplishments, possessions, pleasure, and influence—and yet he repeatedly described the pursuit of these things as "meaningless" and "chasing the wind." Why? Because nothing this world offers can ultimately satisfy the eternity God has placed in our hearts.

This conversation gets personal as we examine the rat race of work, the pursuit of money, comparison, possessions, achievement, family, contentment, and the temptation to let our careers become our identity. We also look at what it means to recognize the areas of our lives where our "axe is dull" and where God is calling us to sharpen our priorities.

But Ecclesiastes doesn't leave us hopeless. Its conclusion points us back to what actually matters: fear God, obey Him, live with eternity in view, and remember that we will give an account for how we live.

And if you've wandered from God, are struggling with hidden sin, or believe you've gone too far to come back—there is still time. Confess it. Repent. Bring it into the light. Jesus is our advocate, and God's grace is still available.

Sometimes we don't need more. We need to remember what actually matters.

Fear God. Obey Him. And stop chasing the wind.

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What does it really mean to follow Jesus when obedience gets hard?

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel boldly, witness signs and wonders, face opposition, and ultimately see Paul stoned and left for dead. Yet Paul gets back up—and remarkably, he returns to the very cities where he had been persecuted to strengthen the believers.

In this episode of Dear God, Amen, Adam and Obie wrestle with what Acts 14 means for believers today. They talk about why effective ministry isn't necessarily about having the right words or being the most eloquent speaker. We plant the seeds, but the Holy Spirit does the convincing.

They also explore the power of testimony, what it means to live out sanctification, the importance of relational discipleship, and how easily we can confuse significance with self-importance.

But the conversation ultimately comes back to one challenging statement from Acts 14:

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

What does persecution look like in our lives today? Are we prepared to stand firm when our faith is challenged? And when someone we love is struggling, are we willing to strengthen them—or do we try to fix what only God can fix?

This episode is a reminder that surrender isn't the same as giving up. Sometimes faith means taking our hands off the wheel, trusting God with what is bigger than us, and continuing to walk faithfully in obedience.

Listen to the latest Dear God, Amen as Adam and Obie walk through Acts 14 and ask what it looks like to remain faithful when following Jesus isn't easy.

Dear God, Amen.

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What happens when our concern about the darkness around us begins to consume our attention?

In this episode of Pray, Pray, Pray, Adam wrestles with a difficult week of seeing evil, cultural decline, political conflict, and the devaluation of human life. His first instinct was to expose the darkness—to research it, understand it, confront it, and bring it into the light.

But through prayer, God began redirecting his attention.

Not away from truth—but toward Jesus.

Scripture doesn't ask Christians to pretend evil isn't real. We are called to recognize evil, stand firmly in truth, and fight spiritual battles. But Ephesians 6 reminds us that our struggle is not ultimately against flesh and blood. The person who disagrees with us is not the enemy.

Jesus doesn't respond to darkness by becoming darker. He brings light.

Through passages including Jeremiah 7, Genesis 1, Ephesians 6, John 1, John 8, Romans 3 and 5, Romans 12, Matthew 5, and Philippians 4, Adam explores what it means to confront evil without allowing evil to reshape our hearts.

The question becomes:

Are we so focused on exposing the darkness that we've stopped looking at Jesus?

The Christian response isn't simply, “Look how bad the world has become.”

It's:

“Come meet the One who can make you new.”

This episode is a call to truth without hatred, conviction without contempt, courage without fear, and prayer that doesn't simply ask God to fix the world—but asks Him to fix us and make us light. 

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Acts 13 takes us from prayer and fasting to confrontation, persecution, jealousy, surrender, and ultimately the incredible reach of the Gospel.

In this episode of Dear God, Amen, Adam and Obie dig into Acts 13 and discover that this chapter is about much more than Paul's missionary journey. It's about what happens when ordinary people allow the Holy Spirit to lead them.

The conversation begins with a powerful question about prayer, forgiveness, and whether we can bring our past to God. From there, Adam and Obie explore what it means to make our homes our first mission, why worship involves giving God our time, talents and treasures, and how surrender means letting go of the desire to control both Christ and the world. 

They also tackle some difficult subjects in Acts 13: biblical confrontation, politics and faith, sin, pride, jealousy, and the temptation to turn ministry into something about ourselves. Obie's personal story about wrestling with jealousy in worship ministry becomes an honest look at how easily our gifts can become about us instead of God. 

Then comes one of the biggest themes of the chapter: the Gospel is for everyone. Paul preaches Jesus, His resurrection, forgiveness, and freedom from sin—and when the Gentiles hear that salvation is available to them, they respond with joy. 

And even when Paul and Barnabas are rejected and driven out, they don't quit. They shake the dust off their feet and continue forward filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. 

This is a conversation about what it looks like to surrender, stand firm, let go of jealousy, put your home in order, and carry the light of Christ wherever you go.

Come study Acts 13 with us on Dear God, Amen.

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Disappointment is something every person encounters—including Christians.

Sometimes we're disappointed in ourselves. Sometimes we're disappointed in other people or our circumstances. And sometimes, if we're honest, we're disappointed with God. We prayed. We hoped. We believed. And the answer didn't come—or the answer was simply no.

But what if disappointment isn't necessarily a crisis of faith? What if it can become an invitation to a deeper faith?

In this episode of Pray, Pray, Pray, Adam explores what happens when our expectations collide with God's sovereignty. Through Scripture, Adam considers the vastness, depth, beauty, goodness, faithfulness, mercy, holiness, and wisdom of God—and asks us to move beyond simply asking, “Why didn't God give me what I wanted?” toward the deeper question: “Who is God when I don't get what I want?”

From Habakkuk's worship in the middle of loss to Jesus praying in Gethsemane, we see that biblical faith doesn't require us to pretend we're not hurting. We can bring our disappointment honestly before God while still learning to trust His heart.

Ultimately, the character of God is revealed to us through Jesus. And the goal isn't simply for God to change our circumstances—it is for us to become more like Christ.

Maybe the question isn't simply, “How do I get past this disappointment?”

Maybe the deeper question is:

“Who am I becoming through it?”

Because when we don't understand God's hand, we can still look at Jesus and remember God's heart.

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What happens when the situation looks impossible—but the church keeps praying?

In Acts 12, James has been killed, Peter is locked in prison, sixteen soldiers are assigned to guard him, and Herod appears to hold all the power. Then God intervenes.

An angel enters Peter's prison, his chains fall away, the gates open, and Peter simply walks out.

In this episode of Dear God, Amen, Adam is joined by lifelong friend Eric for a conversation about one of the most cinematic chapters in Acts. Together they explore the miraculous escape of Peter, the power of a praying church, the danger of placing our faith in human power, and the judgment of Herod.

But Acts 12 also becomes personal.

Eric shares part of his own journey back to Jesus and describes realizing that he had built his own prison. That opens a deeper conversation: What are the guards keeping us in chains today? Pride? Addiction? Lust? Anger? Fear? Unforgiveness?

And what happens when we finally surrender?

The conversation moves from Peter's physical chains to our spiritual ones, from Herod's pursuit of glory to the danger of modern-day idols, and ultimately to forgiveness, spiritual warfare, the Armor of God, and the freedom found only in Jesus Christ.

Sometimes God breaks the chains.

Sometimes He calls us to be an ambassador while we're still in them.

Either way, we're called to declare the Gospel fearlessly.

Join us as two lifelong friends open Acts 12 and rediscover the wonder, power, and reality of the God who still sets captives free.

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Fear has a way of convincing us to stay exactly where we are.

Stay comfortable. Don’t take the risk. Don’t have the conversation. Don’t make the change. Don’t step into the unknown.

But what if freedom is on the other side of the very thing we’re afraid to walk through?

In this episode of Pray, Pray, Pray, we explore what Scripture teaches us about fear, faith, surrender, and trusting God when we cannot see what comes next. Looking at Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea, we see a powerful picture of what it means to walk through fear toward freedom. God made the way—but they still had to trust Him enough to walk through it.

Through personal stories of career change, uncertainty, surrender, worship, and learning to trust God in uncomfortable moments, this episode is a reminder that faith doesn’t always mean the absence of fear. Sometimes faith is choosing to obey God while you’re still afraid.

Whatever you’re carrying today—fear of change, financial uncertainty, anxiety about the future, a difficult decision, or simply the fear of stepping outside what is comfortable—you don’t have to carry it alone.

Bring it to Jesus. Surrender it at the foot of the cross. Trust the character of God.

And when He makes a way forward, have the courage to walk through fear into freedom.

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