In the Fire

This episode brings us to an oft-avoided topic among Christians: giving. The goal of our discussion on giving is to talk about the Biblical reality of why we give, as well as how the Bible instructs us to give. While giving our money, talents, and time is never an easy thing to do, we are directly told to do so at several points throughout Scripture. So, what does this really mean for us today? That's a question we try to answer together in this installment of "In the Fire."

This week, we dig into an episode that is a mix of history, theology, and straight-up Scripture. Sounds fun, right? It is! The topic for this episode is the "Five Solas," a theological development dating back to the Protestant Reformation, where the Christian faith was redefined in many important ways. The Five Solas refer to five core tenets of Christianity, with each one pointing to a defining characteristic of our faith. Come along as we talk about each of these points and look at the Scripture that tells us even more about them.

In this episode, we get a chance to do one of our favorite things: we connect three parts of the Bible to get an overview of how God's plan unfolds over time. Specifically, we read Genesis 11, where we review the account of the Tower of Babel. From there, we ask ourselves how this piece of Biblical history connects with the Great Commission. That is, how are we called to reach the nations in light of the incident with the Tower of Babel? Finally, we flip to the Book of Revelation, where we see the outcome of everything and our final hope in achieving our calling as believers.

We continue a long string of episodes in the Old Testament, this time flipping over to the book of 1 Samuel for a lesson as old as the earth itself. 1 Samuel gives us a lot of great people and interesting stories, one of which is that of Israel asking God for a human king. After years of God's provision through chosen people and priests, His people ask the priest Samuel for God to grant them someone to rule over their nation. Well, God grants their request - but not without emotional pain and strong warning. He gives them King Saul, the first king of Israel. In this episode, we talk about how Israel's request for a king mirrors our own selfish desires, and we look at the consequences (both good and bad) of Israel's request.

Last week's episode about wisdom in Proverbs got us in the mood to examine the topic even more closely! To do so, we flipped over just a little bit to the book of Ecclesiastes, which was (as far as we know) also written by Solomon. Considered one of the wisest to ever do it, Solomon has some perspective on wisdom that we hope to understand by reading some select passages from Ecclesiastes. In doing so, we ask ourselves how to correctly seek wisdom, what true wisdom means, and how wisdom can be misunderstood. Grab your Bible, and hopefully some wisdom rubs off on us all through this episode!

In this episode, we return to a book that we have yet to cover in much detail! After a short discussion of wisdom literature in the Bible in general, we read a few chapters out of the book of Proverbs. Written (mostly) by Solomon, the Proverbs give us a collection of some of the wisest statements of knowledge in Scripture. As we discuss these chapters, we take some time to read and reflect, and suggest you do the same. We also talk about some of the lessons that stand out most to us in these unique and thought-provoking words.

Well, we've made it to the final episode of our series following the books of Ezra and Nehemiah! In this episode, we discuss the (somewhat unsatisfying?) conclusion to Nehemiah's account of God's people restoring Jerusalem. As we read through the final chapter of this book, we see some of the same themes come up that we've discussed before, and we talk about those along with some of our biggest takeaways from this series. Hopefully you all learned just as much as we did through these two great books of the Bible!

We continue this week with the sixth and penultimate episode of our Nehemiah series. Now that we've been studying this book for a while, the dots are starting to connect as we near the end of Nehemiah's account of leading the people of Judah upon their return to Jerusalem. In this episode, we read and talk through chapters 11 and 12 of Nehemiah (after a brief recap of some notable points from previous chapters). These chapters give us some more of the historical narrative that we saw earlier in the book, and also provide us with a useful roadmap for effective and joyful worship. Enjoy!

We're back! This week, we return to the fire to bring you the fifth installment of our series on Nehemiah! In this episode, we get into a deeper discussion about repentance and talk about how we can turn our lives fully back to God - based on the account of the people in Jerusalem after the city walls were rebuilt. As we read in these chapters (Nehemiah 8-10), our old pal Ezra returns to lead the people spiritually as they seek forgiveness and work to re-orient their lives on God. One of the more spiritually intriguing and challenging portions of the Book of Nehemiah, these chapters give us a lot to talk about regarding how God's people (including us) relate to Him.

Come along for the fourth installment of our series on the Book of Nehemiah! This time, we cover a good bit of ground as we trek through Nehemiah Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Here, we read some interesting details about internal conflict and division among the people in Jerusalem, as well as some external plotting and devious plans of outsiders who continue to oppose the rebuilding of the city and its walls. This episode also brings us some of the more dramatic and intriguing storylines that we see in the book - so be prepared for some fun scenarios!