Geocaching Scripture

We're joined by Caleb Williams, founder, owner and OG of Clear Hits Radio. He talks about the place of Christian hip hop in transforming his life and turning him back to Christ. We talk through Psalm 108, God using music and culture to speak truth and the time that Santa Claus punched a guy at church. 

**First a warning: There was a sound issue at the beginning of this episode that ends at about the 10 min mark. You can skip to there if you need to, it's fine, we won't be hurt at all. 

Josh and Dan dig through one of the most bizarre books in the OT, and that's saying a lot! Who is the drenched prophet who fled his calling? What's this book really about? End of the day, this is a tragic character study of one man who resists God's love for others. As we read it, we may find the proverbial "red sniper light" is on us. How do we read Jonah and how does Jonah read us? Also, he was eaten by a dog. Anyway, check it...

Have you taken down your decorations yet? Put the tree on the curb, taken apart the nativity set? Let us help you with that last one! There was no "inn" and no mean "innkeeper." Jesus was not born seclusion in a drafty barn as the cows looked on. Joseph and Mary didn't arrive in sudden duress with her ready to have a baby right away. The story is the same, but the picture is different than we've framed it in our modern minds. Let's bring it into accurate focus and see how Christ was, indeed, born right in the middle of our chaos – like always. 

Merry Christmas from Geocaching! The shepherds were rugged loners who kept no polite company. God chose "nobodies" like this to receive the announcement of Christ's birth. Then Jesus chose "nobodies" throughout his whole life and still does today. Who were these people and why did God choose them? Where is the highest geocache in Antarctica? Josh and Dan answer all your questions from the mineshaft. 

The "Murder of the Innocents" in Matthew accents the danger and corruption Jesus was born into. There is no corroborating extra-biblical evidence of this event, but it is well within the scope of Herod's brutality. We'll look at the historical implications and the advent implications of Herod being one of the first to recognize Jesus as king. 

Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to the temple, trying their best not to be seen. An elderly priest calls them out and prophecies over the child. What does this strange interaction mean? Where does that take us? What does it have to do with monoliths appearing in rural Utah? The answers, and a whole heaping lot more, are right here.  (Luke 2:22-32)

Josh and Dan huddle in the mineshaft to discuss virginity and barrenness as biblical themes that find their culmination in the birth of Jesus. Mary and Elizabeth are both unable to conceive, and both are suddenly "with child" at the beginning of this miraculous season. There's also some stuff in here about Zorro, and pound-for-pound the most laughter of any episode yet. Happy Advent! 

Jesus stops everything to watch an elderly woman give her two penny offering. Why would he watch that kind of moment, with all the "important" stuff He had to do? And what do Willy Wonka and Hunter S. Thompson have to do with it? Your answers are here...tune in. 

Why is Jesus always multiplying fish? As far as supernatural powers go, there are more exciting options. We look at the strange intertestimonial book of 2 Baruch and how it relates to the big fish fries in places like Luke 5 and John 21. What's this connection that made Peter jump up to Jesus in the surf and suddenly call Him, "Lord"? What were the expectations of the Messiah that were in the air around the time Jesus walked the earth? Also, where is the only geocache in North Korea? Stop what you're doing and tune in...

Inerrancy, meaning the Bible contains no errors in any details, is a high-tension word in the church. Careers can be made and lost over it, and it can become a dipstick of orthodoxy. In this episode, we consider how to understand inerrancy in a way that lets the scripture breathe as it is rather than clamping our categories on it, but still holding the word up as the true counsel of God. It's all a little more complicated than we think. Josh tells an embarrassing story about bothering a biblical scholar, and Dan almost lands the ending.