Deeper Roots

Ever since we were kids, those of us who grew up in church have heard of “the prophecy”, which is pretty much all of the book of revelation, where the Christians will be taken up and the tribulation will begin. And since then, we have heard that “Christ is coming soon” by both pulpit pastors and street preachers alike. And considering today’s events, it feels like Christ can come at any moment. But this same feeling has been felt by our generation multiple times, and has been felt by past generations many times before us. So, the listener-submitted question for today is “Is the Rapture More Possible Now Than in the Past?”

This week we are able to have Jon Moore on as our guest on a second episode, since we recorded this episode and the last one while up at Wolf Mountain. Mr. Jon is the director of the Wolf Mountain Christian Camp, which is where our church’s youth group goes every summer to give our teens a week away from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area. Wolf Mountain serves the northern Californian region and dedicates itself to be a place of decision for the teens. It isn’t a church, it’s a home missions ministry that uses the unique aspects of camp to reach out to young people, strengthen families, and serve local churches. You can learn more about Wolf Mountain and also find out how you can support them and their ministry by going to their website: www.wolfmountain.org.

If you like this podcast and want to see it grow, you can also visit our website: www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots. There, you can see where we publish our podcast and you can submit your own questions using the form on that page. Asking a question online is 100% anonymous, so you don’t have to worry about asking a question you might be afraid to ask. And, it can really be a great blessing to have someone have a conversation about your question through a biblical lens.

Life is difficult as it is already. We have make countless decisions a day and a lot of the time these decisions are ones that are very difficult to make. Now we bring our own social lives into the mix and it makes everything so much more complicated. People are social beings, and because of that, choosing the right friends is so important. The Bible recognizes this, and has given so much wisdom about how we can manage our social circles. One of the things that you hear a lot about Christians and friendships is that Christians can’t or shouldn’t have non-christian friends. Now that is a generalization, but that is essentially the question that was submitted to us. It seems that two people actually had similar questions, so I’ll read them here:

Can a Christian be friends with a non Christian? Are you truly friends if you are not actively trying to save them?

What are your friendships like with non Christian people? How are they different from your Christian friends? Can you have non Christian friends?

This week we are able to have Jon Moore on as our guest. Mr. Jon is the director of the Wolf Mountain Christian Camp, which is where our church’s youth group goes every summer to give our teens a week away from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area. Wolf Mountain serves the northern Californian region and dedicates itself to be a place of decision for the teens. It isn’t a church, it’s a home missions ministry that uses the unique aspects of camp to reach out to young people, strengthen families, and serve local churches. You can learn more about Wolf Mountain and also find out how you can support them and their ministry by going to their website: www.wolfmountain.org.

If you like this podcast and want to see it grow, you can also visit our website: www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots. There, you can see where we publish our podcast and you can submit your own questions using the form on that page. All the questions we talk about on here have been listener submitted, so don’t be shy and submit one for yourself if you have the curiosity to learn. It’s anonymous, it’s free, and it can really be a great blessing to have someone talk about your question through a biblical lens.

If you go to a store like Target or a mall that has clothes stores, some of the first images you will see will probably be of some people in minimal clothing. Now, obviously as Christians, we see that and we understand that there is a problem with how people are being portrayed in those kind of advertisements, but the cultural norms are a little more… obscure… with men.

So today’s question is “What are the guidelines for Biblical modesty?”, and the person who asked the question was specific to ask about men too. This conversation will be both about men and women, but most of the things we talk about will apply for everyone. We also talk about other topics like how you see yourself versus how other see you and how God sees you, since that fits in this conversation as well.

If you like this question and you want to hear more like it, go ahead and follow the podcast, or subscribe, so you can know when we upload next. We come out with a new episode every Thursday! Also, if you have a question of your own, you can ask it by submitting a short anonymous form on our website, www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots.

Hey everyone and welcome back to Deeper Roots. 

Whenever you go to a new church, there is obviously a lot of things that you might not be used to there. Maybe it's the time they have their service, or how friendly the people are at church, but one of the more commonly debated aspects between local church cultures is what version of the Bible they use.

I think that is why this listener asked the question for today: “How does a church decide what version of the Bible to use? And what is the doctrinal process for deciding what Bible versions are fine?” There are a lot of differences between the versions, some big and some small, but across a massive book like the Bible, it's important to understand why people use one version over another.

This question was submitted online using the form on our webpage, and you can submit your own question using the same form, which is found at www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots. If you like the podcast and what we do, please share! It supports the ministry by getting more people to listen, and from there, more people are able to ask their own questions.

Thank you for joining us here on Deeper Roots. Let’s get to the conversation!

Hey everyone and welcome back to Deeper Roots. 

If you took a look at the American culture today and you compared it to the world about 10 years ago, you would see a LOT has changed. Politics has seeped into everyday conversation even more than before and there is a wider divide than ever before amongst its people. However, one of the largest social changes between society then and society now is its stance on homosexuality.

This change snowballed from before 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled to take down state-level bans on same-sex marriage, and people who associate themselves with LGBTQ+ community haven’t slowed down on its push to be accepted wholly by the culture. Now, some people support that, and some people are against it, but one thing is recognized by both sides in the middle of all this, that Christians still recognize homosexuality as a sin.

So in the middle of this change, a listener asked the question “How Can We Respond Lovingly to Someone Who Asks Our Beliefs of Homosexuality or Being Transgender?”. This is so important, since as Christians, we are called to love, but also not to just let sin overcome us or the people we love. So how do we set a Godly balance in our lives regarding this?

Like I said, this question was submitted online using the form on our webpage, and you can submit your own question using the same form, which is found at www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots. If you like the podcast and what we do, please share! It supports the ministry by getting more people to listen, and from there, more people are able to ask their own questions.

Thank you for joining us here on Deeper Roots. Let’s get to the conversation!

Within Christianity, there are a lot of different denominations, and some denominations are different from others in what they do, what they practice, what they believe, etc. One of the things that are practiced differently is the practice of speaking in tongues. This is described as mumblings or sounds that people make that seem incoherent as well as when people act strangely. At Iglesia Biblica Bautista Vida Nueva, we are a biblical church first, and then we also consider ourselves baptist as well. Both of those are in our name, but in Spanish. In short, those names briefly describe what our church believes and practices. That being said, we don’t practice speaking in tongues.

So today’s question asks “is it bad to speak in tongues?” We go into why out church doesn’t practice it and what the Bible says about the practice. Is it biblical? How does the history of it coincide with the way that it is done today? I hope you listen in, because this is a great conversation to learn from!

This question was submitted online using the form on our webpage, and you can submit your own question using the same form, which is found at www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots. If you like the podcast and what we do, please share! It supports the ministry by getting more people to listen, and from there, more people are able to ask their own questions.

Hey everyone and welcome back to Deeper Roots. 

At IBBVN, one of the priorities of the church is its youth ministry. We see the youth ministry as not only the future of our local church, but the future of the church in general. Being one of the people in the team that leads the youth ministry, I can say that it is difficult to be in the leadership position, considering that the teens in the youth group are a complete generation away from me. I am 23 years old, so I am not that far off from their age, but I can already see and feel the differences between my generation’s culture and the teens’ culture.

One aspect of leadership is to be able to deal with issues as they come up between the teens. This is confrontations, possible fights, the unity between the members, and so much more, but over everything is their spiritual lives. When anything starts falling apart for them, sometimes their faith takes a hit. So today’s question is all about that: how do we resolve conflicts within the youth group?

I will note that the question initially submitted was worded differently, but we hope that we got the spirit of the question in this version of it. We talk about and acknowledge the possibility of unfair treatment, and biblical ways to resolve conflicts between people, and how different it is between teens and adults.

This question was submitted online using the form on our webpage, www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots. If you would like to submit a question of your own, you can do so at that link, and you can find the link in the description as well! If you like the podcast and want to help support us, please share the podcast!

Thank you for joining us here on Deeper Roots. Let’s get to the conversation!

Hey everyone, welcome back to Deeper Roots.

We've uploaded the two parts as individual episodes, but here is the full conversation as a single episode! Enjoy the over an hour long conversation!

One of the things that has been constant through the flow of all human history has been art and self-expression. Among those things has been a little something called music. People use music all the time to express the things they care about. Whether it is heartbreak and loss, or joy and love, or any intense emotion, people have been built to sing and dance and feel so such an intensity. And it’s an expression of something that only we as humans have been given.

Within song people have divided the medium up to different genres, one of which we are talking about today: Christian music, specifically modern Christian contemporary music. Why? Because in CCM’s history, there has been two sides debating on whether modern christian music is capable of glorifying God, and also which songs are good praise to God. The question of the week is “Is God glorified in Christian Contemporary Music?”. The way the original submission was worded was “How do we distinguish which contemporary christian bands actually honor God and which don’t?” And that is a valid concern, which we are going to talk about today. We talk about the trends of modern Christian music, we talk about what makes a Christian song actually glorifying to God, and a whole lot more.

If you want to ask a question about something we talked about today, or just any question at all, I also encourage you to submit a question at www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots.

Thank you for joining us here on Deeper Roots. Let’s get to the conversation!

This is the second part of our conversation from last week about Christian Music. thank you for joining us on Deeper Roots!

Hey everyone and welcome back to Deeper Roots. 

One of the things that has been constant through the flow of all human history has been art and self-expression. Among those things has been a little something called music. People use music all the time to express the things they care about. Whether it is heartbreak and loss, or joy and love, or any intense emotion, people have been built to sing and dance and feel so such an intensity. And it’s an expression of something that only we as humans have been given.

Within song people have divided the medium up to different genres, one of which we are talking about today: Christian music, specifically modern Christian contemporary music. Why? Because in CCM’s history, there has been two sides debating on whether modern christian music is capable of glorifying God, and also which songs are good praise to God. The question of the week is “Is God glorified in Christian Contemporary Music?”. The way the original submission was worded was “How do we distinguish which contemporary christian bands actually honor God and which don’t?” And that is a valid concern, which we are going to talk about today. We talk about the trends of modern Christian music, we talk about what makes a Christian song actually glorifying to God, and a whole lot more.

Before I get into the episode, I will note that this recording actually went long. So we are going to cut this to two parts, one released this week, one next week. If you are listening later, then you won’t have to worry about it. But we will continue the conversation next week, right from the get go.

So if you don’t want to miss the second part of this episode, I encourage you to go ahead and follow the podcast! And if you know someone who is interested in Christian music, or maybe someone who isn’t at all, share this with them, maybe they can gain some perspective on their side. If you want to ask a question about something we talked about today, or just any question at all, I also encourage you to submit a question at www.ibbvn.org/deeperroots.

Thank you for joining us here on Deeper Roots. Let’s get to the conversation!

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Deeper Roots is a ministry of Iglesia Biblica Bautista Vida Nueva, which is a local church in Castro Valley, CA. You can learn more about us and our church by going to our website.