Grace or Grit

Shortly after Jesus' resurrection, He showed up hungry in one of the meetings where His apostles were gathered.  In that context He wasted no time reminding them what He was all about and what their responsibility was.

They were witnesses of His resurrection.  They had the gospel truth.  They had the job of telling the world about the living Christ.

It is recorded for us in Luke 24:44-49.

"Jesus said unto them, 'These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me.'

Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things.

And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until you are endued with power from on high.'"

POWERFUL!  PRECISE!  

Listen to this episode in which Dave & Patrick mull over the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ as He Himself presented it.

In this episode, Dave asks Patrick to answer 7 questions about short term mission trips.

Here they are:

Shortly after I (Dave) became pastor, one of our deacons (Bob Schmidt, who is now in heaven) stopped me one Sunday and started talking about how he was happy for camp and how excited everybody gets about it every year and all that, but he was concerned about how everybody seems to come back gung-ho for Jesus every year, yet a month later everything goes right back to how it was before camp; like it never happened and like the commitments made at camp were all either insincere or too shallow to stick. I think he had a valid point. Of course, it’s not just summer camp that suffers from this phenomenon. Revival meetings, big Sundays, new years resolutions, new programs, even weekly sermons often all affect similar responses: initial zeal and eventual apathy.

In my camping experience, camp weeks often ended with a campfire on Friday night.  That setting ends up being a microcosm of the complaint that I mentioned earlier. At the campfire you have a group of kids that are exhausted from a week of strangeness, activities, lack of sleep, and usually too much heat. They are emotional for many reasons, one being that they are going home the next day. And, to top if off, you sing some of your best songs and preach a really strong message there at the campfire and then maybe take some testimonies. Next thing you know, everybody is crying and making great and solemn statements about how they are going to be different. Often there is some ritual that might include writing your sins on a 3x5 card and throwing it in the fire or nailing it to a cross or something like that. Or everybody gets a stick that they put in the fire to symbolize there commitment to Christ. It’s usually all very moving. But is it a moving of the Spirit? 

Here is the ultimate question, does God work through these kind of emotional situations to affect lasting changes in the lives of His children? Of course we should be careful not to manipulate one another in situations like this, but is it ok to embrace (and even exploit in a way) the unique vulnerability of those moments? 

Listen as David, Patrick, and Tonya explore this controversial topic.

Why?

It is perhaps the deepest, most profound, most significant, most interesting, most painful, and most difficult question that humanity has to have and wants answered.  Toddlers ask it repeatedly.  Jesus asked it from the cross.  

On this episode Dave interviews a guest who has had to wrestle with this question quite a bit.  Cody Stevens and his wife Joan have a wonderful son named Luke Zechariah.  But Luke has debilitating, life threatening seizures.  

At the time of the recording of this surgery, Luke is scheduled for his first brain surgery.  He needs your prayers and mine.

This episode is a long one, but it needs to be.  Take the time to hear us out (and pray with us at the very end).

I love to read.  Reading is like magic.  It takes you away from where you are and transports you to other places, other times, and even into the minds of other people.  But that is only a manner of thinking and speaking.  

So, though it's not exactly difficult, controversial, or debatable... on this episode, Dave and Patrick discuss the role of reading in the life of the Christian.  Listen now...

Veteran missionary Jim Tanner shares his testimony of how God worked on and through him and his wife as they served the Lord and preached the gospel on the other side of the world.

Listen as Dave and Patrick share fellowship and Christ's love with one another and with this dear missionary.

For me, though it’s a bit of an oversimplification, I think I can break the levels of biblical doctrines down like this:

- Primary - the fundamentals of the faith (virgin birth, deity of Christ, sufficiency of Scriptures, salvation by grace through faith, the resurrection, etc.)

- Secondary - things that make me a baptist (other than # 1 biblical authority which is primary... baptized membership, 2 ordinances, 2 offices, etc.)

- Tertiary - spiritual choices I make based on culture, experience, calling, and personality (music style, clothing style, etc.)

Then, below that on the scale of significance are various preferences about which I should never be willing to fight and fuss.  Sadly, Christians do often fight and fuss most about tertiary doctrines and non-doctrinal personal preferences. 

On this episode Patrick and Dave discuss these issues with first time guest, Drew Inskeep.

Are you spiritual, or religious?  Or, are you both?

Some claim to be neither, but likely they are deluded.  Everyone is religious.  At least, that proposition is easily defended.

But what could it mean for someone to claim to be religious, but not spiritual?  Or how about the other way around?

Listen as Dave and Patrick approach these questions as humbly as they can.

I learned how to create podcasts.  Well, I didn't really learn that from COVID, but I did learn it during and because of COVID.  I also created a website (davetalley.com), figured out how to use ZOOM, discovered how to make online small groups a success, and became fairly good at turning multiple music video recordings into one.

But that's not really what I'm getting at here.

What did we learn about our economy and the world (from COVID)?

What did we learn about our government, our culture and society, and about modern medicine?

What did we learn about our families, friends, & communities?

What did you learn about yourself?

What did we learn about our churches and about God?