Last week I talked about how I did my parental duty and instilled the love of star wars into my child. 

Now let me talk about one of the stupidest things in star wars. 

And it comes from the same place that all of the stupidest things in star wars come from: the new Disney movies. 

This one is flies right into the face of common sense.

It comes from the inner turmoil experienced by the villain of Episode 7: Kylo Ren. 

Kylo is on the dark side. He seeks to prove himself a true, fully committed disciple of the dark side throughout the movie, and throughout the film he makes some comments. One of them is: 

Forgive me. I feel it again. The pull to the light.

Throughout the film, Kylo is dealing with this “quote-unquote-temptation” to turn good, and this is one of the lines he uses.

Now, to write a line like that betrays any understanding of how the human heart actually operates. We want to be good, but we wrestle with the temptation to be bad.

Like it says in Galatians 5: the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh…to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 

The Bible says we “want” to do good, but it’s our sinful desires that pull us back. But Kylo wants to be bad and wrestles with a temptation to be good. It’s completely backwards. It’s like saying, “Pray for me, I’m really tempted to eat this salad when I know I should order a double cheeseburger.”

There is not something naturally inside of us that pulls us toward righteousness and away from evil. What is inside of us pulls us to the flesh, to our natural instincts, toward selfishness and evil, toward…the dark side.

We aren’t tempted toward the light. The decision to pursue the light does not come from something within us naturally; but something that is given to us by God.

To be drawn toward the light requires God to put a new heart and a new spirit within us. 

Which sounds like what we’ve been studying as we go through the book of Ezekiel, and it’s something you’ll find out about today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

3:00 - The Spirit

11:00 - The Spirit Empowers You

14:15 - The Spirit Seals You

17:30 - The Spirit Guides You

27:00 - The Spirit is a Point of Connection Between You and God

32:00 - Next Time

34:15 - A Note about Hearing from the Spirit

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

Poor Nicodemus. That guy really gets a bad rap. 

Nicodemus was the Pharisee who famously came to Jesus by night, because he was afraid if he approached Jesus during the day that people might see, and people might talk. He was a wise man, a religious man, a scholar. 

And it’s a good thing that he comes to Jesus in the middle of the night like this because if anyone did hear what Nicodemus was saying, he’d never hear the end of it. When he was told that he must be born again, in

John 3:4, he replied to Jesus,

How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

And if this were a sitcom, modern people will stick the laugh track right here and we’ll all high-five and laugh at the dumb question. So Jesus makes this statement:

(Verse 5)

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus is still confused. He says to Jesus,

“How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”

Now the laugh track probably goes off again, but we should stop and consider this question. It’s actually kind of a tricky one. Jesus expects Nicodemus to know this. 

But why should he be expected to understand this? Why should Nicodemus know about concepts like “born again” and “born of water and the Spirit.” It’s not like the Old Testament teaches about these things.

Or does it? You’ll find out today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

2:00 - v24, The Return

4:20 - v25, Cleansed by Water

13:00 - v26, 

19:30 - A Note on the Future

23:40 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

A lot of people misunderstand the third commandment. The third commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

Most Christians think that means you shouldn’t say OMG. Now, you probably shouldn’t say OMG, but that’s just one part of what it means to break the third commandment. 

The third commandment means to misrepresent God. Now, you may say, how can taking God’s name in vain be a way of misrepresenting God? The reason is, because when you are a follower of God, you place God’s name upon yourself. Therefore, the way you behave will be a signpost of God to the world. 

For example, we followers of God today are most commonly known as Christians. Now think about this: what are the first six letters of Christian? Christ. When you’re known as a christian, you’re seen by unbelievers as a representative of Christ. 

That means when you show love as a Christian, you are showing people that God sees them and loves them and wants to know them. 

Likewise, if we show hate or malice toward people as a Christian, it gives the impression that God is angry with them and doesn’t like them, either. 

And that’s the essence of the third commandment. Yes, we shouldn’t use God’s name as a swear word. We shouldn’t tack God’s name onto things as a marketing strategy. We shouldn’t speak of God in a mocking way. That’s all part of this commandment. But misrepresenting God is the main way we take His name in vain. 

And what we’re going to see today is that God is not as laidback as Joan Jett when it comes to giving him a bad reputation. Turn to Ezekiel 36 as we continue that chapter today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

2:15 - For the Sake of His Name

18:45 - Secondhand Embarrassment

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

Is prophecy meant to be taken literally, or is it all symbolic? And if it’s both, then how can you know the difference? That’s the question we’re going to answer today. 

Because we Christians find a lot to argue about on the subject of prophecy. How can we know if the Israel of today is the fulfillment of prophecies in Old Testament Scripture? How can we know if the Millennium is something future or something happening now? How can we know if it is 1000 actual years?

It’s the “how-can-we-know” questions that I want to settle for you today. And the best way to understand how future prophecy should be interpreted is to examine how past prophecy was fulfilled. And you’ll learn about that today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - The Taylor Test

4:45 - v1-7, Thus Says the Lord

9:15 - v8, Timing of the Return

20:05 - v9-15, Restoration of the Land

26:30 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

We’re coming up on three years since I started this podcast, and when I started it, I didn’t know that by the time we got done, Israel would be attacked in the largest one-day massacre of Jewish people since WWII. I didn’t know Israel would be engulfed in a literal war with the Palestinian terrorists who have been seeking to overthrow it for decades. And I didn’t know we’d be seeing Ezekiel 35 being repeated so vividly right before our eyes.

But that’s exactly what’s going on. And the battle you see playing out in the Middle East right now is a battle that started- not on October 7, 2023, but- all the way back in the book of Genesis.

So how did all of this start, and where is all this going? I can’t wait to tell you about it today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

4:30 - v1-4, The Identity of Mount Seir

13:50 - v6-9, The Sins of the Edomites

20:30 - A Brief history of Edom

33:33 - The Origin of Palestine

40:10 - v10-15, Edom’s Doomed Future

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

Ezekiel has not been the easiest book of the Bible to study. Up until today’s lesson, most of it has been dark, depressing, gloomy and full of judgment and wrath. 

But regardless of the past, I have some news about the future: the best is yet to come. 

Because the book is making a major turning point in this section we’re in. So far, we’ve just encountered the bad news. But now we’re in a part called the Gospel According to Ezekiel. That’s what some commentaries call it. 

And the word “Gospel” means good news. 

So we have some good news for you today, and this good news will be in the form of future prophecy. This book is turning it’s attention toward the future for the material we’re going to talk about in today’s verses. 

We’re covering the back half of Ezekiel 34 on this episode, and we’ll answer these questions…

• Why does God bring trials into our lives that cripple and hobble us?
• Who is the David spoken of in verse 23?
• Is it possible that we’re in the Millennium right now?

You’ll find out today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

1:20 - v11-16, The Best Shepherd

12:45 - v17-24, Judgment Within the Church

19:45 - v25-31, The Millennial Sheep Pen

24:30 - Closing Thoughts

Special thanks to the Two Witnesses Live podcast for inviting me on their show recently! Here is a link if you’d like to see/hear it: https://www.youtube.com/live/Mh0bTZhUKwk?si=vqVdx6KZx9tQIZSo

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

A pastor must be a good public speaker, able to draw large crowds with his authority and charisma. 

A pastor must be like a CEO, an expert in management and leadership.

A pastor must be a skilled fundraiser, and know how to execute a building program.

A pastor must be on-call 24/7, even on holidays and vacations.

A pastor must be an expert psychologist and counselor, able to diagnose and treat every mental illness.

A pastor must have a picture-perfect family, a wife who leads the women’s ministry and teaches children’s church and does it all with a smile- and their kids must never misbehave or embarrass their parents. 

And by the way, the pastor is supposed to be one of the poorest members of the church, driving an old used vehicle, living in a 1000 square foot house, taking now more of a salary from the church than the absolute minimum needed to survive, as a way to show his true devotion to God.

These are some of the modern expectations of a pastor or ministry leader. This is what many in the modern American church want- or think they want- from their pastors. 

But are these expectations biblical? Are these the priorities that God said He expected from a pastor when He gave us the New Testament? Or are some of these things that we’ve added over the years? And if we’re adding human standards to God’s Word for what qualifies a pastor, is it wrong of us to do that?

We’re going to explore that question today by looking at a text from Ezekiel 34 where he shares God’s heart on the qualifications of a spiritual leader. All of that today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

3:50 - The Pastor as Shepherd

15:20 - A Pastor’s Job Description- I Timothy 3

21:20 - Ezekiel 34, verses 1-10

33:00 - Closing Thoughts- The Good Shepherd

Special thanks to the Two Witnesses Live podcast for inviting me on their show recently! Here is a link if you’d like to see/hear it: https://www.youtube.com/live/Mh0bTZhUKwk?si=vqVdx6KZx9tQIZSo

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

I have heard all my life about declaring God’s promises. The idea was that certain things in scripture became true in reality as long as you declared them to be so. 

Sounds a little bit magical. But is it biblical?

We’re going to talk about that today. We’ll also wrap up Ezekiel 33, and for the first time in 30 chapters, Ezekiel is going to be allowed to speak freely. You may have forgotten, but Ezekiel’s mouth was shut for a large chunk of his time in ministry. God supernaturally prevented him from speaking.

We’ll talk about that. And nobody wants to be unpopular, but if you listen to the end today, you’ll also learn about the dangers that come with being too popular. 

So are God’s promises something you just have to declare? Are they activated by faith? Or are there conditions that have to be met for God’s promises to be fulfilled? 

You’ll find out today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

3:30 - v21-22, No Longer Mute

7:00 - v23-29, Standing on the Promises of God?

18:30 - v30-33, The Dangers of Popularity

25:15 - Mailbag

26:35 - He Opened Not His Mouth

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

Entire books have been written about the thorny theological issue I want to talk about today.

James chapter 2. At face value, James 2 seems hard to reconcile with the rest of the New Testament. 

That’s because the rest of the New Testament pretty clearly teaches this doctrine of salvation by grace through faith not of works. That’s a direct quote, actually.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 

Romans 4:2-3

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Galatians 2:16

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,

So it’s like, every page of the New Testament makes this clear: salvation is only by grace through faith. There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation. Works play no part in it.

And then James comes along and says this in his second chapter,

Verse 14

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 

Wait a second here. Let me read that again. (Re-read it)

Is James going against Paul? I can’t emphasize enough how much this seems to be saying the exact opposite of so many other verses in the Bible. 

Is James contradicting Paul? Is James contradicting the Bible? Is James contradicting God Himself? 

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to James 2, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

3:00 - James 2

6:15 - The Context of James

11:30 - Going Back to the Greek

17:00 - Next Time

20:00 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

So we’re in this chapter called Ezekiel’s Greatest Hits. That’s my name for it. Ezekiel 33 recaps some of Ezekiel’s earlier lessons; in fact, some of my favorite lessons from earlier in the book. And today we’ll be looking at verses 10 through 20, which recap my favorite chapter of Ezekiel: chapter 18. 

This is the chapter on personal responsibility. It was one of my most popular podcast episodes before, and it’s still getting a lot of play even today. If you heard the lesson on Ezekiel 18 before, don’t tune out, because even though this is recapping something we’ve already studied, I’m going to expand on it today. 

A lot of people question how Ezekiel 18 fits in with the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, not of works. We’re going to talk about dispensationalism. We’re going to talk about Calvinism and God’s sovereignty. And if you listen until the end, we’re even going to talk about the difference in worldly sorrow and true repentance that Paul discusses in the New Testament.

So you’re gonna get a lot of good theology if you stick around today on the Cross References podcast.

0:00 - Introduction

2:30 - Javascript Bible

5:20 - v10-12, The Limits of Calvinism

13:35 - v12-13, The Limits of Dispensationlism

20:30 - Faith and Works

30:50 - Next Time

34:10 - v17-20, Worldly Sorrow vs Godly Sorrow (II Corinthians 7)

If you want to get in touch with me, send an email to [email protected]