Life Around "The Fire"

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The biggest lie spiritual people learn to tell is, “I’m fine.” When we start curating a flawless exterior, we end up exhausted, isolated, and quietly asking, “Does God even care?” We keep this podcast free on purpose, because we want the space to be brutally honest about faith when it feels weak, leadership when it feels heavy, and the moment your mask finally cracks. 

We bridge thousands of years by putting three stories side by side: my own recent struggle with not being “on top of my game,” King David’s raw repentance in Psalm 51, and Peter’s restoration on the shore in John 21. We sit with that early-morning charcoal fire where Jesus cooks breakfast and then asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” The Greek matters here: agape and phileo expose the difference between boasting and truth. Peter cannot hide behind a religious script anymore, and Jesus does not despise him for it. 

Then we open David’s words about “a broken and contrite heart” and dig into the Hebrew picture of being shattered and crushed, not lightly embarrassed. The through-line is clear: in the kingdom of God, brokenness is not a disqualification from service, it is a prerequisite for it. That is why unbroken leaders are dangerous, and why grace, not performance, is the only safe foundation for real spiritual growth, Christian leadership, and healing. 

If you’re tired of performing, press play, share this with a friend who needs relief, and subscribe so you do not miss what comes next. After you listen, leave a review and tell us: where do you most need honesty to replace image?

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Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

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You can look like you have it together and still feel that quiet emptiness when no one is watching. We get honest about why self reliance eventually breaks down, why “being right” is a trap, and why real spiritual growth requires people who can speak into your life with clarity and care.

We share how relationship with God is not the same thing as religion. Religion can keep you busy, but it cannot produce deep change, peace, or wholeness. What we actually need is a living relationship with Jesus plus real Christian community, the kind where someone is close enough to notice your blind spots and kind enough to help you face them without shame.

Along the way we mention Trevor McMahan and the impact of hearing a timely word about elders stepping up to lead and encourage a younger generation. Then we read and unpack Galatians 5:16 through 6:15, including the works of the flesh, the fruit of the Spirit, and the command to restore someone overtaken in sin “in a spirit of gentleness.” We talk about bearing one another’s burdens, staying humble, and refusing to grow weary while doing good when life feels slow and resistance feels real.

If you want practical discipleship, biblical encouragement, and a clearer picture of what healthy accountability looks like, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs strength today, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

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Leadership pressure has a sneaky way of making us perform, polish, and overthink until our words land flat. We start with a simple baseball truth that turns into a spiritual gut check: when you aim too hard for the perfect outcome, you often miss what God is actually trying to do through you. Instead of targeting the “right” audience or trying to sound flawless, we choose trust, surrender, and the flow of the Holy Spirit. 

The anchor message is blunt and freeing: feelings are a fringe benefit when you’re a leader. We unpack why you can be called and still feel tired, empty, angry, or emotionally numb. We talk about the weird gap between what you know is true and what you feel inside, and why faith-based leadership cannot be built on emotional momentum. When feelings do line up, it is a gift. When they do not, we can still lead with integrity, availability, and obedience. 

We also dig into what it looks like to follow God’s word over your impulses, especially when your example is shaping your family, your kids, and the people closest to you. We clarify the role of scripture as the standard, the role of the Holy Spirit as the daily guide, and the importance of relationship over religious performance. The episode closes with a focused prayer for leaders who are not “feeling it” right now and need fresh life and clarity. 

If this encourages you, subscribe, share it with a leader who’s running on fumes, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of leadership has been hardest to carry lately?

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

Send us Fan Mail

Someone can hit you and you’ll shake it off, but when they say something false about you, it sticks. That’s the tension we sit with today, especially when the criticism comes from people you once trusted. We’re celebrating five years of Life Around the Fire, and we return to what has guided us from the start: relationship with God and relationship with each other, not empty religion that runs on pride, fear, or image.

We walk slowly through Matthew 5:10–12, where Jesus calls the persecuted “blessed” and then tells us to rejoice when we’re insulted, opposed, or lied about because of him. That command can sound impossible, so we get honest about the emotional and relational damage of gossip, backroom plotting, and the kind of religious competition that fractures churches and friendships. We also talk about why trying to “get even” drags us into the same low ground, while praise and worship operate with a different kind of authority.

From there, we explore how rejoicing can shift the atmosphere, soften hardened soil, and even create space for repentance and real change in the very people coming against you. We connect that hope to the story of James, Jesus’ half-brother, who moved from opposition to becoming a key leader in the early church. We also offer practical wisdom for processing pain with trusted counsel so you can tell the truth, own your part when needed, and step back into peace.

If this encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s under pressure, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What helps you choose praise when you feel misunderstood?

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

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Persistence gets a bad rap. It can sound like stubbornness, grinding harder, or trying to be “better,” but what if it’s actually a spiritual key Jesus hands us for prayer and for life in the Kingdom of God?

I’m David Huotari, and I am going start things off with a very down-to-earth struggle: building a new website at 67 years old and realizing that computer language can feel like walking into a foreign culture. The breakthrough doesn’t come from being a tech person. It comes from staying with it long enough for the “aha” moment, when what was confusing suddenly starts to make sense. From there, we connect that same pattern to spiritual growth and to the way God forms us over time.

We walk through Luke 11, where Jesus teaches his disciples to pray and then tells the story of a friend knocking at midnight. The turning point is persistence, and it leads straight into “ask, seek, knock.” We talk about what those words mean in the original sense: keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, until God’s promise becomes more than information and turns into spiritual reality. We also dig into the Holy Spirit (Ruak Hakadesh) as the true gift, the presence of God who brings God’s own character into our lives, including persistent love and focused endurance.

We also get practical about what steals persistence: “time bandits,” wrong pursuits, and settling for second best. Moses becomes our example of holy insistence on God’s presence, and we talk about big visions that exceed natural ability as a sign God may be inviting you into something that requires him.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s ready to quit, and leave a review so more people can find Life Around the Fire. What are you asking God for that’s worth staying persistent about?

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

Send us Fan Mail

Our culture trains us to trust what we can measure, buy, or prove, and then it wonders why so many people feel numb, anxious, and exhausted. We’ve lived long enough to watch “progress” pile up while the soul shrinks, and we want to name the real problem: when prosperity, productivity, and a purely scientific worldview become our highest authority, they cannot supply the life source we need to thrive.

We take that question back to Scripture, walking with Jesus through Mark 2 as he and his disciples pass through a grainfield on the Sabbath. The Pharisees try to trap him with rules, but Jesus reframes everything with one line that still confronts modern hustle culture: the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That shift exposes the difference between the letter of the law and the Spirit of the law, between religion as performance and relationship with God as a living bond that can’t be faked.

From there we get practical. Burnout is not solved by doubling down. Rest is not a weakness. Sabbath rest is one of the clearest ways we place our faith in God, releasing fear about money, status, and falling behind. We talk about grace as God’s empowering life, why “it takes God to live out the life of God,” and how healthier work, deeper contentment, and stronger relationships flow from making Jesus the center rather than our output.

If you’ve been carrying guilt for slowing down, let this be your permission to breathe and your invitation to trust. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who’s running on empty, and leave a review so more people can find a better path to rest and real spiritual life.

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

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A single line from Scripture can stop you cold when God turns the “familiar” into the personal. We open 1 Peter 5:5–12 and let it read us back, especially the command to “clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” Not humility as self-shaming, but humility as strength: thinking of yourself less, considering others more, and choosing honor even when someone gets on your nerves. That one shift can change the atmosphere in your home, your church, and your own mind. 

We also talk about why the Bible is our measuring stick for revelation and direction. When you anchor your life to God’s Word, you gain clarity without losing depth, because you never exhaust what He has to say. Peter’s next line is just as direct: “Cast all your worries on him, for he cares for you.” We wrestle with what it means to actually release anxiety instead of managing it, and how humility and trust work together when life is heavy. 

Then Peter’s warning brings sobriety: stay alert because the adversary prowls like a roaring lion. We discuss spiritual vigilance, standing firm in faith, and the comfort of knowing suffering is not uniquely yours. The hope is not hype, it’s promise: after you’ve suffered a little while, the God of all grace restores, supports, strengthens, and establishes you. From there we push back on empty religion and lean into relationship, love for one another, and unity that comes from the presence of God rather than denominational pressure. 

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs steadiness, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of 1 Peter 5 are you going to put into practice this week?

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

Send us Fan Mail

This episode is a Q & A time with Tracy Perez centering in on our imagination and how it has been called “make-believe” for so long that you might not realize what you lost. We sit down with Tracy for a candid follow-up conversation on the Christian imagination, why so many believers were trained to fight every battle in the mind, and why Scripture keeps pointing us back to the heart as the center of the person and the place where spiritual sight is formed.

We dig into a key problem beneath modern discipleship: the Western demand that truth must be rational, provable, and empirical. Tracy connects that mindset to the Age of Enlightenment and explains how a culture shaped by proof can slowly assume the supernatural is impossible. That assumption doesn’t just affect theology, it affects prayer, worship, and whether we feel safe admitting spiritual experience at all. We talk about what it means to renew the mind by protecting what our hearts behold and hold in affection, and why the desert fathers treated silence and attention as essential for intimacy with God.

Then the tone turns hopeful. We share stories of real impact, including spiritual seekers who felt pushed away from Christianity, then found a doorway back when they discovered a biblical, grounded way to think about imagination and the inner life. We close with a simple but demanding practice: we become what we behold, so we choose to look for Christ in all things, in people, in creation, and in everyday moments.

If this conversation challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so others can find us. What part of your faith has been most shaped by “proof-first” thinking?

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

Send us Fan Mail

Eternal life might be more than “someday.” What if it is also hidden in plain sight, available right now as the concealed presence of God in the world? David sits down with returning guest Tracy Perez for a deep, Scripture-rich conversation that reframes spiritual growth as learning to see, not just learning to behave.

We start with Tracy’s book, The Old Way, and the story behind it: his son Connor, diagnosed with severe nonverbal autism, begins communicating profound spiritual insight and describes “the old way” as a place of saints and angels. That launches us into Olam, a biblical word often translated ancient or eternal, and the idea that “eternal” can mean hidden, not only beyond time. From there we explore the “eyes of the heart,” the heart as the center of the person, and why the imagination is not make-believe but a God-given capacity for perceiving an invisible Father.

Tracy breaks down being made in the image of God as a function we live out, then traces how imagination shows up across Genesis, from the Garden to Babel, and why unity shapes what becomes possible. We also connect to the New Testament language of nous, the inner eye, and the early church conviction that we become what we behold. The conversation ends with a practical gut-check about distraction, scrolling, and what is quietly forming us, plus a hopeful reminder that God still speaks through creation and covenant.

If you want a fresh, thoughtful take on Christian imagination, hearing God, spiritual discernment, and living the kingdom of God with clarity, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.

Send us Fan Mail

Your life can be moving forward while your inner vision gets more and more blocked, like a windshield at dusk that keeps taking hits until you can barely see the road. That’s the picture we sit with as we talk about the sanctified imagination, not as make-believe, but as the inner “eyes of the heart” where God brings clarity, direction, and hope when the world is loud and chaotic.

We pick up a thread we’ve been learning through Tracy Perez and his book The Old Way, then ground it in a straight biblical blueprint: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) is not a distant promise, it’s a present reality. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18 names the issue directly: the heart has eyes, and the Holy Spirit can enlighten them. From Hebrews 11:27 to 2 Corinthians 4:18, we keep coming back to one idea: perseverance is often the fruit of clear spiritual perception.

Then we bring it down to street level with two stories that make it hard to ignore. Brother Andrew faces a Cold War border with illegal Bibles and refuses to let panic coat his mind. Helen Keller reminds us that having sight is not the same as having vision. We close with practical application: confess what you already know is clouding you, ask God to cleanse you, and keep the “wipers” moving through daily prayer and the Word so your focus stays steady.

If this strengthens you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s discouraged, and leave a review so more people can find Life Around the Fire.

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved! 
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life. 
Shalom to you and your home.