Father of the Inklings

By Father of the Inklings

Religion & Spirituality Christianity

What's Father of the Inklings about?

Dedicated to the legacy of bold thinking Christianity through the writings of George MacDonald and Michael Phillips.

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Father of the Inklings episodes:

06.20.2024
Command #86 - Speak Graciously With Words of Peace
Curiously, Jesus did not address the mode and manner of how we are to conduct ourselves in the normal flow of daily conversation. His comments about speech are very specific. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on...
06.18.2024
Command #85 - Do Not Doubt
We have spoken several times about Jesus' use of hyperbole, exaggeration, and metaphor. We do not actually "eat his flesh" when participating in a communion or Eucharist service. He does not really want his followers to "cut off" their hands or "pluck...
06.13.2024
Command #84 - Let Your Yes Be Yes and Your No Be No
Again we encounter Jesus making a point with overstatement. No one seriously expects us to go through life saying nothing but yes and no. Jesus himself did not do so either. Once more we gain further insight into his words from the Lord's...
06.11.2024
Command #83 - Acknowledge Your Discipleship
It is easy to hear words such as, "He who is ashamed of me and my words...of him will the Son of Man be ashamed." (Mark8:38, Luke 9:26), and read ourselves right out of the text. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read...
06.06.2024
Command #82 - Do Not Speak Carelessly
It continues to be astonishing, once we see it, how much of Jesus' teaching concerned the simple things of life - such "unspiritual" things. Where is all the theology and doctrine? Of course we can turn to Romans or Ephesians...
06.04.2024
Command #81 - Love Truth, Speak Truth, Do Truth
One of Jesus' most familiar "I am" declarations in John's gospel is, I am the truth. To love Jesus, therefore, one must love truth. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father...
05.30.2024
Command #80 - Give the World Its Due and Give God the Things That Are His
Many of the Commands of Jesus emerged out of free-flowing conversations with those around him. It can therefore be difficult to perceive his higher intent in the midst of a specific exchange. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More...
05.28.2024
Command #79 - Judge Rightly Not By Appearances
Most Christians are well familiar with Jesus' injunction against condemnation: Judge not. We are less acquainted with the form of judgment he does tell us to make. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found...
05.23.2024
Command #78 - Don’t Swear
Literalists eager to discover loopholes in the Commands will easily be able to dismiss a blanket injunction against obscenity. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father of the Inklings....
05.21.2024
Command #77 - Take My Yoke Upon You
The unfortunate image conjured up by this passage in the minds of many is of a poor suffering beast of burden, a hundred pound slab of oak laced to his back, a plow tied behind, laboring in the hot sun...
05.16.2024
Command #76 - Come to Me With Your Burdens and Find Rest
There are two ways to read Jesus' invitation, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found...
05.14.2024
Command #75 - Enter Through the Narrow Gate
Most commentators, theologians, pastors, and teachers, through the years have interpreted this passage through a salvationary lens. It may be, however, that a more subtle reading strikes closer to home, and perhaps probes more meaningfully to the heart of Jesus'...
05.09.2024
Command #74 - Ask, Seek, Knock
The familiar passage from Matthew 7 is usually associated with prayer, and the promise of answered prayer: Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. From The Commands by Michael Phillips....
05.07.2024
Command #73 - Deal With Your Own Faults Before Thinking of the Faults of Others
No pithier visual imagery exists in Jesus' teaching than his clever use of the speck and log in the matter of fault-finding. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father...
05.02.2024
Command #72 - Don't Judge
Many of the Commands are implied, but this is a direct, clear, forceful, and unyielding command--Judge not. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father of the Inklings. Visit Amazon to purchase The...
04.30.2024
Command #71 - Do and Think Toward Others As You Would Have Them Behave Toward You
Throughout the Commands, we have repeatedly emphasized that this or that word from Jesus is THE essential, THE first, THE foundational command. "Wait a minute," some may object, "If this is the most important command...how can that be the most important?" From The Commands by Michael Phillips....
04.25.2024
Command #70 - Take Up Your Cross
The cross has become the essential symbol of Christianity. It was not so, however, when Jesus spoke these words. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father of the Inklings....
04.23.2024
Command #69 - Remain Gratefully Aware of Your Spiritual Need
There are many "firsts" in the Gospel story -- the first disciples called, the first command, the first sermon, the first Follow me, etc. We have noted some of these as we have progressed through the Commands. One of the most...
04.18.2024
Command #68 - Do Not Pray Ostentatiously and With Empty Phrases
This is a very interesting and seriously convicting command. And one mostly ignored by the vast majority of Christendom's churches. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father of...
04.16.2024
Command #67 - Do Not Desire More Than God Gives You
Contrary to what many think, Jesus had nothing against either money or rich people. Many of his closest friends were possessors of means. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found...
04.11.2024
Command #66 - Worship the Lord and Serve Him Only
We here encounter a Command made all the more intriguing when we consider to whom Jesus addressed it. He did not speak these words to his disciples or followers or to the crowds. This was his response to Satan after the final...
04.09.2024
Command #65 - Do Not Show Goodness and Hospitality Only to Those Who Are Kind to You
So many of Jesus' Commands are interrelated. In these combined passages from Luke, we hear echoes of Love, Give to the poor, Do more than required, Be a servant, Be kind, Do good, Do not demand back what you have given,...
04.04.2024
Command #64 - Don’t Fret About Trifles
Two individuals in the Gospels occasionally cause the sensitive heart a pang of empathy. In both instances, at first glance we feel that Jesus is a little harsh. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and...
04.02.2024
Command #63 - Do Not be Diverted by Externals, Traditions, and Doctrines, But Look to the Heart
The passage from Mark 7 concerning the pharisaic worship of the letter of the law, as manifested by an obsession with clean cups and bowls and hands, gives a singularly important teaching in all the Gospels. Jesus here addresses an...
03.28.2024
Command #62 - Do Not Be Called Teacher or Leader
An entire history of Christendom could be written from the perspective of the slow, steady, continuous divergence of Christ's followers from Christ's commands. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found at Father of...
03.26.2024
Command #61 - Trust and Have Faith in God
Faith is truly one of the most complex attributes of spirituality. It is a word bandied about easily and casually by the unbelieving world as readily as it is used in the believing world. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael...
03.21.2024
Command #60 - Be a Good Steward Over What God Has Given You
It is unfortunate, in one sense, that the Lord's parable of the talents is about money and the return gained from its use. This has led to the false idea that God cares about the world of finance. The misappropriation...
03.19.2024
Command #59 - Have Salt in Yourselves
New Testament scholar William Barclay says plainly about Mark 9:48-50, "These three verses are amongst the most difficult in the New Testament to interpret." From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be...
03.14.2024
Command #58 - Receive the Kingdom of God Like a Child
At first I wrote Bring children to me in order to more directly represent Jesus' words. Then I realized that Jesus was addressing a larger principle: The childlikeness required to receive the principles of God's kingdom. There are several huge implications involved. From The...
03.12.2024
Command #57 - Learn Of Me
We continually find that the familiarity of certain of Jesus' words often obscures their astonishing meaning. Here, for example, many images of what it means to take upon oneself the Lord's "yoke" spring to mind, along with his oft-quoted words...
03.07.2024
Command #56 - Do Not Justify or Worry How To Defend Yourself
Self-defense is one of the most automatic of human responses. When challenged, threatened, contradicted, or accused, we blurt out a defense before the voice of criticism has even died away. Often we do not wait so long as that to...
03.05.2024
Command #55 - Be Born Again
With so much emphasis in Christendom through the centuries on salvation, it is remarkable that Jesus did not spell out in more detail exactly what salvation is. In his conversation with Nicodemus, in which he said that one must be...
02.29.2024
Command #54 - Seek No Spiritual Signs
One of the curious anomalies to arise out of the Evangelical and Pentecostal renewal of the late 20th century has been an inordinate obsession with spiritual "signs and wonders" as validating the work of the Holy Spirit. Entire churches, ministries,...
02.27.2024
Command #53 - If Someone Takes From You, Do Not Demand Back What You Have Given
There are a variety of Commands that all point in the same direction: Give and expect nothing in return. Some emphasize giving more than has been requested: Go two miles instead of one, when asked for your coat give your...
02.22.2024
Command #52 - Let Your Light Shine Before Men
We continue to encounter the strange dichotomy in the Lord's words between public and private righteousness. How do we balance, Beware of practicing your piety before men, with, Let your light so shine before men? The two commands appear less than a chapter apart...
02.20.2024
Command #51 - Guard Against Hypocrisy
Note that Jesus does not directly command Don't be a hypocrite. Is the reason perhaps because, in truth, to a degree we cannot help being hypocrites. We are all sinners, and thus hypocrites, together. It is part of the human condition. From The Commands by...
02.15.2024
Command #50 - Honor Your Father and Mother
None of the Ten Commandments has been so diminished of its power by our modern culture more than honor to one's parents. Independence is the god of our age. The cancer that has infected our time is not merely anti-family,...
02.13.2024
Command #49 - Do Not Exalt Yourself
After passing through Galilee and returning home to Capernaum, Jesus posed a very pointed question to the disciples: "What were you discussing on the way?" Their response was that of a group of children caught red-handed with their hands in...
02.08.2024
Command #48 - Do Good To Those Who Hate You
Jesus does not even leave it at Rejoice when you are persecuted and Love and pray for your enemies. He goes further still. The three-tiered progression of response to ill-treatment in Luke 6 is incredible and completely impractical. The program Jesus outlines is impossible...
02.06.2024
Command #47 - Love and Pray For Your Adversaries
As world changing as would be the influence of Christians taking the words seriously, Rejoice and be glad when you are reviled and persecuted (Matthew 5:11-12), Jesus goes on to elevate the relation between Christians and their adversaries to a shockingly ambitious...
02.01.2024
Command #46 - Be Kind
Biblical literalists more eager to find loopholes in the Commands than to obey them will be the first to point out that Jesus never specifically commanded kindness upon his disciples. We could find no better example of straining at a gnat to...
01.30.2024
Command #45 - Store Up Treasure in Heaven
The Command, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, may also seem an illusive one. A moment's reflection, however, reveals this as one of the most down-to-earth of all Jesus' Commands. From The Commands by...
01.25.2024
Command #44 - Seek First God’s Kingdom
Among the "spiritual" Commands, few are so illusive as this. Jesus concludes his Do not be anxious about your life discussion of the birds of the air and lilies of the the field in Matthew 6 with the words: Your heavenly Father knows...
01.23.2024
Command #43 - Do Good, Be Good
One of the profound mysteries of the Christian Church is that human goodness has not comprised more focus in its theology. While it is true that greater good has been done throughout history by Christianity than any nation, movement, or creed, one...
01.18.2024
Command #42 - Forgive 70 x 7 Times
If we transplant Peter's question and the Lord's response from Matthew 18 into the sixth chapter where the theme of forgiveness emerges out of the Lord's prayer, we would have a succinct teaching on prayer, forgiveness, and the reach of...
01.16.2024
Command #41 - Forgive
We noted that forgiveness is one of the least understood components of Christian doctrine. Sadly, it is misunderstood by Christians and non-Christians alike. From The Commands by Michael Phillips. Read by Michael Kimball. More information on this and similar writings may be found...
01.11.2024
Command #40 - Beware of Practicing Piety to be Noticed
Righteousness is one of the more curious character qualities of the committed Christian disciple. Jesus tells us to let our light shine before men, but to pray, fast, and do good in secret. If it is visible obedience by Christians...
01.09.2024
Command #39 - Pray, Fast, Give, and Do Good in Secret
It is fearfully easy to read the Do Not Commands and assume, "Oh, I would never do that." Because the context of examples used by Jesus sometimes seems so ludicrously absurd, we too easily overlook our own glaring presence in the midst of...
01.04.2024
Command #38 - Be a Son or Daughter of God
Created by his hand and in his image, all humanity are God's children. Yet we are put upon this earth to become something more, to become true sons and daughters of chosen obedience. Given life and, in time, independence, our destiny is...
01.02.2024
Command #37 - Do Not Defraud
Countless sermons and devotions have been based on Jesus' exchange with the man we know as the "rich young ruler." The first three gospels recount the story using largely identical words and phrases. Indeed, this passage is one of those...

What's Father of the Inklings about?

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Father of the Inklings episodes:

Command #86 - Speak Graciously With Words of Peace

Command #85 - Do Not Doubt

Command #84 - Let Your Yes Be Yes and Your No Be No

Command #83 - Acknowledge Your Discipleship

Command #82 - Do Not Speak Carelessly

Command #81 - Love Truth, Speak Truth, Do Truth

Command #80 - Give the World Its Due and Give God the Things That Are His

Command #79 - Judge Rightly Not By Appearances

Command #78 - Don’t Swear

Command #77 - Take My Yoke Upon You

Command #76 - Come to Me With Your Burdens and Find Rest

Command #75 - Enter Through the Narrow Gate

Command #74 - Ask, Seek, Knock

Command #73 - Deal With Your Own Faults Before Thinking of the Faults of Others

Command #72 - Don't Judge

Command #71 - Do and Think Toward Others As You Would Have Them Behave Toward You

Command #70 - Take Up Your Cross

Command #69 - Remain Gratefully Aware of Your Spiritual Need

Command #68 - Do Not Pray Ostentatiously and With Empty Phrases

Command #67 - Do Not Desire More Than God Gives You

Command #66 - Worship the Lord and Serve Him Only

Command #65 - Do Not Show Goodness and Hospitality Only to Those Who Are Kind to You

Command #64 - Don’t Fret About Trifles

Command #63 - Do Not be Diverted by Externals, Traditions, and Doctrines, But Look to the Heart

Command #62 - Do Not Be Called Teacher or Leader

Command #61 - Trust and Have Faith in God

Command #60 - Be a Good Steward Over What God Has Given You

Command #59 - Have Salt in Yourselves

Command #58 - Receive the Kingdom of God Like a Child

Command #57 - Learn Of Me

Command #56 - Do Not Justify or Worry How To Defend Yourself

Command #55 - Be Born Again

Command #54 - Seek No Spiritual Signs

Command #53 - If Someone Takes From You, Do Not Demand Back What You Have Given

Command #52 - Let Your Light Shine Before Men

Command #51 - Guard Against Hypocrisy

Command #50 - Honor Your Father and Mother

Command #49 - Do Not Exalt Yourself

Command #48 - Do Good To Those Who Hate You

Command #47 - Love and Pray For Your Adversaries

Command #46 - Be Kind

Command #45 - Store Up Treasure in Heaven

Command #44 - Seek First God’s Kingdom

Command #43 - Do Good, Be Good

Command #42 - Forgive 70 x 7 Times

Command #41 - Forgive

Command #40 - Beware of Practicing Piety to be Noticed

Command #39 - Pray, Fast, Give, and Do Good in Secret

Command #38 - Be a Son or Daughter of God

Command #37 - Do Not Defraud

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