In the midst of life circumstances, it can be easy to forget who the Lord is. Sometimes it's easier to focus on what is happening to us, and around us, rather than fix our eyes on the Lord. 

Even when we know we can bring everything to Him: our frustration, sadness, anxiety, depression, anger, and hopelessness... we can lose sight of Who it is that holds us in the midst of these things. 

In today's episode, we walk through Ephesians 1. Not from the perspective of our identity in Jesus, but from the perspective of who the Lord is, His character, and why it's out of the depth of who He is, He has done what He has done. I pray this episode encourages you wherever you are in your discipleship journey, as we all seek to mature in our faith and be held by the Lord as He leads us in His will. 

Scriptures Mentioned:

• The Book of Habakkuk
• Romans 1
• Ephesians 1
• Colossians 1
• Matthew 6
• Luke 8
• John 6
• Philippians 4
• John 3:16
• Ecclesiastes 3:14

Read Roy Baldwin's article: The Ache of Unfinished Endings

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

We've all memorized or had quoted to us the verses from Proverbs 3: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will set your paths straight. 

But what was Solomon saying to us? And what role does faith play in trusting the Lord?

On today's episode I want to encourage us to examine the relationship between faith and trust, what it means to believe the Lord is who He says He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and examine some of our own heart attitudes towards the Lord:

• Do we believe He will do these things?
• Do we suspect or accuse the Lord of not being good?
• How can we reframe things so that we are not suspecting the Lord, but operating from a place of trust, faith, hope, and endurance? 

I pray this episode encourages you and challenges you in your walk with Jesus. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Proverbs 3:5-6
• Hebrews 11:6
• Matthew 17
• Mark 7:24-30 and Luke 18:1-8
• Acts 1
• Romans 8:28
• Proverbs 24:16

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

*Please note this episode deals with some serious subject matter like abuse and anxiety. While these topics are not discussed explicitly, I encourage you to listen with discernment.*

What if deconstruction actually has a part to play in our faith?

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 1 of Honey From the Rock! I'm thrilled to have my good friend, Roy Baldwin on the show today. He's a father, writer, and faithful follower of Jesus, who is not afraid to ask hard questions and wrestle through things with Jesus. 

But that hasn't always been the case. Roy shares his story of coming to the Lord in his teens, what ministry, marriage, and family looked like in his twenties and thirties. As Roy shares his story, we talk about how the last several years of life - for both of us - have actually had parallels: beliefs we long held about the Lord that were wrong, idols hidden in our hearts, and how the Lord flipped the word "deconstruction" on its head. We also discuss the fact that if the Lord isn't challenging us in areas where we don't know Him well or have constructed false beliefs about Him, His character, and His word, are we actually maturing in our faith? When is deconstruction healthy and good for our faith and when does it truly lead us away from Jesus?

I pray this episode challenges and encourages you in your discipleship journey with Jesus today. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Ephesians 3
• Psalm 34:18
• Luke 10:25-37

You can find Roy at Though He/Yet I on Substack or read his self-published book, Held: Scripture and Soul Care for Sleepless, Anxious Nights, found on Amazon.

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Honey from the Rock has made it to FORTY episodes! Today, I'll be sharing from a heart full of thanksgiving. The Lord has blessed me immensely with His goodness, both through His person and Word, and through His body. It's easy to hop from thing to thing and stay busy and hustle and grind, but today I want to pause and give thanks to the Lord for His many, many gifts and blessings. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Psalm 100
• Colossians 3:15-17
• 1 Peter 5
• Exodus 24:1-2
• Joshua 4:2-3, 8-9
• Ephesians 3

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

There are so many lessons to be learned from the Exodus journey of the Israelites. Pictures of our own freedom and joy, as well as our doubts and complaints are all there in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 

In today's episode, I'm examining the disposition of the Israelites as they listen to the reports of the spies. 10 saw the goodness and fruitfulness of the land God promised to give them. But they were overwhelmed and thrown into doubts about their ability to claim the land. Why? Because giants who made them feel like grasshoppers inhabited the land. 

Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, believed the Lord. They knew Israel could take the land because the Lord had said it was theirs and proved over and over again that He was a faithful God who kept His promises. 

As we dig into this account, where are you in what the Lord has called you to? Are the giants opposing you looming large, casting shadows into your confidence in the Lord? Or are you confident that while you may be a grasshopper in the eyes of opposition, the enemy is as a grasshopper in the Lord's eyes? 

Will we believe, beloved friends, that the Lord is bigger, He is greater, and He is just as good as He says He is... and that if we will trust Him, if we will be strong and courageous... Do we believe and know that Jesus will be with us wherever we go? I pray this episode encourages and challenges you as it challenged me to trust the Lord and move confidently at His word into what He's called us to do. 

Scriptures Referenced: 

• Exodus 3
• Numbers 13
• Joshua 1
• 2 Corinthians 4
• Psalm 16

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Waiting is one of the spiritual disciplines of the Christian walk, and yet most of us don't wait on the Lord well. But what if Jesus wants to shift our perspective on waiting? What if waiting becomes a gift, a place where we can learn to worship Him more freely? 

While we are children of the Lord and have the privilege of asking our Father for things, we are also His servants. And it is the pleasure of the servant to wait on their King - to wait for His direction and will. While there is a time and place in waiting on the Lord to cry with David, "How long, O Lord?" (Psalm 13:1), there is also a time to say with Isaiah, "We have waited for You eagerly; Your name, and remembering You, is the desire of our souls." 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Isaiah 25:8-9
• Isaiah 26:7-8
• Psalm 62:5-8
• Lamentations 3:19-26
• Romans 8:22-25
• Philippians 3:20-21
• 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

There are many voices out there - telling us what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and how "it" should look. But what if we took a step back, and cut away the voices of this world, and even well-meaning voices, and asked Jesus to make His voice the clearest and the loudest to us. 

What would happen if we took away all the strategies, bells, whistles, and ideas and simply said, "Jesus, today, I"m going to show up. And I know YOU will give me the strategies, bells, whistles, and ideas that I need to do what You called me to do." 

I want to encourage you today: while best practices, platforms, and strategies have their place, nothing bests the plan that Jesus has for what He's called you to do. Or the way in which He has called you to walk where He's led you to minister. The pressure is off us: He's calling us to show up. To pursue Him. To be obedient, repentant, and to persevere. But the outcomes, the glory He gets, the souls that come to Him... they are up to Him. He is faithful - He will see it through!

Scriptures Referenced: 

• Philippians 2
• John 6
• Zephaniah 3
• Psalm 56:8
• Matthew 5 - The Beatitudes
• Mark 8:34-35
• Mark 12:29-30
• Isaiah 61

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John 20:31 tells us that, "...These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."

When we contemplate the Word, the vastness of the revelation of God... do we realize that every single part of it has been curated and picked by the Lord for the purpose of bringing us to belief and that belief would bring us to life in Jesus? This Word is designed to reveal the character of Yahweh, the glory of His Son and His sacrifice, and the nature of His Spirit. It is written to warn us about sin, the consequence of rejecting the Lord, and how to respond and repent when we are convicted. 

No matter where you are in your walk with Jesus, my prayer is that today's episode encourages you and reminds you that the God of the universe and the word He has given us can be trusted, believed, lived out, and loved. That it has the power to transform us because not only is it the written Word, but it leads us to the Living Word, Jesus Himself. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• John 20:30-31
• John 21:24-25
• The Books of Judges, Job, and Psalms
• John 14:6
• John 17:3
• John 10
• John 6
• John 1:1
• Hebrews 4:12
• Galatians 2:20
• 1 Thessalonians 5:24

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Are you in a season where you are in winter, in a cave, it's dark and difficult and every day feels like a wrestle? 

Or are you in a season where you see the tender tendrils of hope starting to bud in your life once again? 

No matter where you are - I pray today's episode encourages you: Jesus is on the move in the lives of His people. He is bringing forth fruit in freedom, and starting to show us the fruition of the hard seasons. A deeper faith, a stronger confidence, a richer understanding of His love in your own life. And I believe He is gracing us and equipping us for this next season, because there are people in your life and mine who need the glorious gospel of Jesus. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Song of Solomon 2:10-13
• Galatians 6:13
• Psalm 126:5
• John 15
• Matthew 6

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Psalm 23 is a super familiar chapter. Not only for the church, but even in culture. However, when we stop to take a look at it, the deeper meaning, and the revelation it holds is worth the digging.

Take for instance, verse 5: "You prepare a table for me in the middle of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows." There is much in this passage that's easy to explain - or read past. But what if the Lord wants to remind us: it is His goodness that keeps us in the middle of our enemies. And what if our cups overflowing means something different than we've thought? 

I pray this episode encourages you as you think about the abundance of the Lord toward you in your own life - and that no matter what you're walking through, you see His abundance in beautiful, life changing ways.

Scriptures Referenced:

• Psalm 23
• John 10
• John 7:37-39
• Deuteronomy 5
• Galatians 5:22-23
• 
  

You can find me on Instagram / Threads