It’s a solo episode, more or less, but it wasn’t planned to be. Supernatural topics are all the rage with books, movies and TV shows on magic witchcraft, and more. The amazing powers that get dramatized seem so cool, who wouldn’t want to be able to do them and take part. Then there’s the shows on ghosts and people who see dead people.

Christians are not immune to the lure, and follow their horoscopes, or seek advice from psychics as much as anybody else. Not good. The bible has something to say on just how wrong it is.

The law is laid down in clear terms. Don’t do it, or else. God turns his face against those who practice, and cuts off those of his people who turn to it. In ancient days it involved all manner of hated behaviors from idolatry to sacrificing children. Pretty harsh stuff, and with the consequence of being put to death, having no place in God’s kingdom. Do people today still do those things to hone their supernatural craft? I don’t know, but regardless, it is not good to take part in it, or support it by being a customer of those who do.

Are those supernatural powers real? To an extent, yes. Remember that no matter how impressive they may be, the power that God has far exceeds them. He can confound and confuse those lesser spirits. Even his apostles, or any Christian, has the power of Christ, and the ability to overthrow them. Those mysterious arts may even hold a degree of monetary value, and be sought out as a big business. Consider though that no amount of worldly gain can buy your way into heaven, the eternal security of a soul only is bought by the price that Jesus paid for it. If there is any spiritual value in this life to be sought after, it is in seeking what he wants for you.

I’m sure there are as many questions left uncovered. The point here is not to counter every facet of the kind of supernatural spiritualism that the occult involves. We just look at enough of it to know that it is forbidden, it’s powerless compared to God, the allure of being involved in it should be avoided. If anything, we should be trying to use the power of Christ to break those spiritual bonds, and set people truly free.

Do you still have questions? Drop us a line. Your suggestion just might be the next topic for a show.

Jump right into: Meeting the Hosts, as Keith and Nathan talk about what they’ve been up to since the beginning of the year.

Going on a ski trip with blind people, and our new project that we hope to turn into an audio drama… Dangerous Christian. A serial about a modern day super hero of sorts. No tights, capes, or masks involved, just a regular guy who helps people in need.

Ee may not have lots of academic credentials in what the bible is all about, but it doesn’t take a lot of learning, or life experience to know what God wants and expects from us. If even a child can do it, so can you. After recently talking about the gospel, and what it really is, then about sin and repentance, we turn to what to do next.

After our Main Topic, we spend a moment to touch base with our Bible Timeline segment. Today, it’s a little on the reliability of the sources that translations are built on, and why that is important. Documenting the family tree of those preserved texts can prove that just because a manuscript is older, the newer scrolls may still be more reliable when their family tree of preservation can be documented.

Main Topic

Choices

* Every person faces an important choice regarding his or her eternal destiny.

* MATTHEW 7:13-27

While many choices don’t result in severe consequences, some choices matter greatly. Regarding Jesus, how we choose will determine our eternal destiny and the life we will experience.

Jesus used a series of 3 illustrations to describe alternative choices to following Him and the resulting consequences.

NARROW VERSUS WIDE? (MATT. 7:13-14 HCSB)

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Where does the alternative paths lead? The broad road? The narrow road?

The wide gate and broad path leads to destruction. The narrow gate includes a difficult road, but it leads to abundant and eternal life.

* Why is it important to consider the end while persevering during the journey?

GOOD VERSUS BAD? (MATT. 7:15-21 HCSB)

Listen for how to recognize a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

15 Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. 16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.

* What is the responsibility of believers when they observe others producing fruit contrary to what the Bible expects of Christians?

* How do your Christian leaders lives show the genuine fruit of obedience?

God knows who the pretenders are. True believers still sin, but they also genuinely try to become more like Him—The inner change that Christ brings is demonstrated through outward conduct. Outward conduct is not a path to salvation but a proof of salvation.

ROCK VERSUS SAND? (MATT. 7:24-27 HCSB)

24 Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built ...

We have some extra helpers in the studio today to present a series of clips. Some are special moments sent in by listeners, and others are hand picked by Keith to showcase our guests that we’ve had through the past year.

We had some rough starts with technology, and getting things straight on our presentation as we opened the show. In some ways we have improved a lot, but it didn’t take long to develop our trademark.. um… messed up openings.

Though we make heavy use of our Retrobot guests today, they rarely get featured, but we share our first experiences in having them on the show. The Retrobots can more often be heard on Keith’s other podcast, Retro Radio Podcast. Check it out. We give homage to one of our favorite clean comedy podcasts during that Retrobot visit, the flagship podcast of James Kennison. Nobody’s Listening, now rebranded as… That Story Show. At some point, my clumsy Retrobots damage my control panel, and we lose Nathan off the Skype connection, but the show must go on. And it does.

Later, we would start inviting guests on the show. Here’s a list of those we had on, and where you can find them on the web:

Michael Prince. Because Family

Chris Cowen. Popmockors.

Greg Koukl. Stand to Reason.

James Kennison. That Story Show The Gospel of Kennison, and Made My Day.

John Steinklauber. Co-host of That Story Show.

Along the way we made some changes in our theme music. We started with selections from Handel’s Messiah, then briefly shifted to some bluegrass style country tunes. I think our current contemporary sound is a keeper. It’s a tune produced by Karrie Ligroin, and is something I found freely distributed on my copy of Theophilos Bible Software. It’s being used under the creative commons license. Freely distributed, freely used, and not for sale.

Somehow an extra clip got tossed into the mix. I blame it on the Retrobots. It really was a last moment add in to the production. It involves my favorite, unofficial show segment… Quest for Food.

Let us know what you thought of our year in review, of the guests, of the Retrobots, or anything we can do to improve the show.

Sacrifices and the Law:

Leviticus 5:14-19

Summary:

The trespass offering in sacrilege

and in sins of ignorance

14. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

15. “If a person commits a trespass, and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord as his trespass offering a ram without blemish from the flocks, with your valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, as a trespass offering.

16. “And he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.

17. “If a person sins, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity.

18. “And he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock, with your valuation, as a trespass offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him regarding his ignorance in which he erred and did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him.

19. “It is a trespass offering; he has certainly trespassed against the Lord.”

Comments:

Sin requires payment. In presenting this sacrifice, the trespass of that person was forgiven. The ram was required to be killed to cover sins. Even if a person doesn’t realize a thing is a sin, it is no excuse, and once it does become known, the price still needs to be paid.

God will always take a person back. Forgiveness is waiting,

The ram is an inadequate stand in for Jesus. but it reminds us that a living being is sacrificed. Jesus is life in himself, the one and only person to qualify for a sin price.

Silver was also used. As a sacrifice it seems to be more symbolic than a true sacrifice. If the ram is a stand in for Jesus, then the silver is a stand in for us.

Consider a few things about silver.

* It comes from the earth in an impure state. We begin in an impure, sinful state.

* Silver is refined and becomes purified. As believers, we reach a point where we are purified by encountering God’s word.

* Silver then obtains it’s real value and usability. You can make useful things with it: cups, bowls, or other utensils. It can be made into things that just have value: jewelry, coins, artwork. God can use his believers in his kingdom like that as well.

Repentance

MATTHEW 3:1-12

Let’s examine how John the Baptist prepared the way for the coming King.

PREPARING THE WAY (MATT. 3:1-6)

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Wilderness of Judea

2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:

A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight!

4 John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

5 Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were flocking to him,

6 and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.

Notice the message John preached that called for people to repent of their sins.

How would you compare John the Baptist’s style with that of some of today’s recognized religious leaders?

Which kind of delivery style would you respond to? Blunt truth, or shallow words?

PROCLAIMING THE TRUTH (MATT. 3:7-10) VERSES 7-8

listen for attitudes expressed in this passage.

7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the place of his baptism, he said to them,

“Brood of vipers!

We kick off the new year with a recap of our time off for Christmas, then get busy with defining this important feature of being a Christian, the Gospel.

Speaking of the Gospel

Background Passage: Galatians 1:1–2:10

LESSON PASSAGES OUTLINE

* Recognize the True Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9)

* Realize the Gospel is Divine (Gal. 1:11-12,15-16)

* Refuse to Accept a Compromise (Gal. 2:1-6)

BIBLICAL TRUTH

Unless Christians are clear about the true gospel, they may be deceived about its content.

Step 1 – Introduction

Think of a time when you settled for less than the best to save time or money.

It usually ends up costing more in the long run.

Discussion Question

* In what situations or about what products do you say “only the best will do?” Why?

Step 2 – Recognize the True Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9)

Read Galatians 1:1-5

1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Notice:

* (v. 1: God raised Christ;

* v. 4: Jesus died for our sins)

Read Galatians 1:6-9

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Notice also:

* (v. 6: it is a gospel of grace;

* vv. 7-8: the gospel cannot be changed)

Explain “different gospel” and discuss “Grace.”

There is no different one, anything else has been polluted or cheapened. Grace is not by our own works, law, or anything less than a gift from Jesus.

Example:  Display a piece of fruit and a piece of fruit-flavored candy.

Ask: How is the relationship between the one true gospel and artificial gospels like the relationship between this piece of fruit and the fruit-flavored candy?

* Should believers today reject the efforts to change the gospel as strongly as Paul did? Why?

Discussion Questions

* How did Paul respond to the Galatians settling for less than the real thing?

(He was astonished)

* Why should believers today not settle for something less than the true gospel?

(anything else is counterfeit and worthless, not from God, not of grace, not paid by Jesus)

Step 3 – Realize the Gospel is Divine (Gal. 1:11-12,15-16)

Read Galatians 1:11-12, 15-16.

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.

12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

We feature a guest, and talk about his testimony, and how he became a Children’s pastor. Due to scheduling, Nathan couldn’t be present, but Keith introduces John Steinklauber, co- host of the clean comedy podcast, That Story Show. John shares a little about his childhood, and upbringing in the church. He followed his calling to the ministry by going to a bible college, and worked as an intern. After time away in the business world as an IT (Information Technology) as a contractor, John found himself again responding to the call to ministry to children.

We also talk about the importance the family brings to raising kids as Christians. Despite pastors, teachers, or any church program, the example and leading of parents carries the most weight to impress a child on how to properly behave. The parent’s example of being well grounded in spending quiet time in bible reading and prayer is probably the best example to set in raising kids.

It was fun to get the chance to talk with John, and if you’re in the Atlanta, Georgia area, you can look him up and attend his church. If you can’t make it there, find him on That Story Show, where he and James Kennison have a good clean time sharing your funny life stories. At the moment the podcast is in hiatus, but there’s well over 200 shows to laugh your way through.

We also have some new intro and background music to kick off the new year. I thinks it’s a keeper, and as far as I can tell is freely available to use under the creative commons license, not to be sold. It was included at no charge in a collection in the Theophilos bible software bundle that they distribute.

ash

No feedback, or special segments today, but you know what to do. Leave a comment on this page, use the Contact Page to use the handy form to email us. You can send email directly to [email protected], follow the official tweets of Heltsley Podcast Network @HPNCast. Remember to use the hash tag #hpnqft50 to tell us what you want to include in the 50th episode. Or #hpnqft, just to notify us of something in general

Christmas Story

As read from these selections.

* Isaiah40:1-11;Luke 1:26-38

God’sPeopleComforted

Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth

* Luke1:39-55;67-79

Mary’s Praise

Zechariah’s Prophecy

* Matthew1:18-25;Luke2:1-14

The Nativity of the Messiah

The Birth of Jesus

The Shepherds and the Angels

* Luke2:15-20;Matthew2:1-12;

Wise Men Seek the King

* John3:16-17

Reading is the show is from the HCSB, and any errors are strictly by the reader.

Merry Christmas.

Meet the hosts with a word on wedding anniversaries, keeping busy with Christmas pageants, grand babies, and more. Want a copy of the Christmas song book that Keith has been working on? Click to open the html file in your browser.

If linkz aren’t clickable in the file, you’ll need to copy and paste them into your browser’s address bar. It’s based on songs as they appear in the order in the Baptist Hymnal, 2008 version,. Carols include both the lyrics and links to the tunes on Youtube. Some link to several versions, and are intended for personal use. Some material may be copyrighted, and is provided as a courtesy, and under the terms of use of youtube.com and the content owners.

Songs are formatted for ease of navigation by heading to locate the song, then by line to read the lyrics. Links will open the song on Youtube, or if your device hs the youtube app, it should open. Be sure you have an Internet connection. Data charges for transferring the media may apply.

We skip over the segment we had planned,, on Bible Timeline. Stay tuned for future installments though. Instead, Keith presents a short quiz on Christmas tidbits. Questions are based on Matthew 1, and the account’s in Luke 1-3. Some are pretty lame, and may have more than one answer, but we have fun discussing the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.

Main Topic

With Christmas nearly here, and the prominence of angels in the birth stories, we take a look at angels.

archangels

Gabriel,

Strong man, valiant man, Everyman, Any man, inxolent man,

of god.

mentioned twice in OT. Daniel 8:16, Daniel 9:personal use.

Both times revealing mysteries of end times visions.

Mentioned twice in NT.

Both times in Luke 1.

* Once to reveal John’s birth.

* Once to reveal Jesus birth to Mary.

Michael.

Who is like god

* Your Prince, Sent to help and fight for Daniel. Daniel 10:13,21.

* Prince of all believers (those written in the book), sent to fight at last times. Daniel 12:1

Mentioned in Jude 1:9, a reference to an unnamed angel who fought with Satan over Moses body.

Fights with the dragon, he and his angels against the dragon and his angels. Rev 12:7o

Several Hebrews as listed in Numbers, 1&2z Chronicles, Ezra, etc.

Archangel.

Not used in OT. #

specifically mentioned in Jude 1:9. See above.

Though a warrior, never blasphemes, or accuses, but leaves rebuking to god.

Zechariah 3:2 (ESV)

2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”

The Lord (Jesus) himself descends with shout of archangel. 1 Thess 4:16

Nathan includes a few more insights on angels,, what they do, and their role in God’s kingdom. After a full discussion, complete with a few bunny trails, we wrap up with a word on feedback. You know what to do…

* Use the commenting form on any of the show notes.

* Drop us an email on the contact page.

* Follow the official tweets of the network with @HPNCast.

* Use our official hash tags: #hpnqft to notify us of what you’re talking about.

* #hpnqft50 to alert us of something to include in our upcoming 50th episode.

Fpor our Meet the Hosts segment, we take time to meet our guest. Its up to Keith to share how they first met, since the guest is his son, Michael, and he claims to not remember a thing about it. It has been a mostly un remarkable week for the hosts, so after a quick shout out on other podcasting projects and a word on support through patreon.com, we turn to a new segment.

Bible Timelines.

This is intended to support the bible as a valid, true , and reliable resource to base matters of faith. A majority of people regard the bible as a good book at the very least. Over half take it as being inspired by God, even if there is som disagreement on whether it should be held as the literal word of God, or as a helpful tool for life, or some other positive beliefs about it.

Today we take a first glimpse at how we got to having so many versions of scripture in the English language. What are the translations based on? Arre all the Greek manuscripts equal? Which are considered trustworthy, and why? For that matter, hlw can we trust that those old, dusty parchments and fragments can be considered reliable?

So… is the good old King James Version the only real version? I don’t think there’s a definitive answer to that, especially not in this initial segment. Stay tuned to more on the time line that has preserved and delivered the familiar translations that we have today. In upcoming installments wetry to tackle such topics as considering the scripture as a product of men, or of god. Is it full of errors , or is it possible for perfection to come out of imperfect mehn. Plus much more. Feel free to drop us a line to let your voice be heard, or weigh in on a topic.

Main Topic.

oes the bible contain myths? Does it teach negative behavior that is counter productive? Some people think so. We take some foundational… or would that be better stated as fundamental… beliefs of Secular Humanists. Pulling statements directly from an article from a Humanist website, we try to make sense of their claims that it is corrupt, full of myths, and has only negative impact on society.

We can’t figure out the logic of the statements they claim. It is only clear to us that the humanist who wrote the article has never read the bible.

Claims of contradictions seem to be based on rumors of what the bible teaches. You know… “They” say the creation account conflicts with… Or, “they” say the bible teaches bigotry… oor “they” say… (fill in the false teaching here). Who is “They”? Bibles are everywhere. Why not pick up a copy, and read what it actually says, rather than what you heard a friend say about what he heard someone else say, who got it from a friend of a friend… Sorry for being a little flippant, but groundless claims need to be supported. It’s never good to build a doctrine on heresay.

This topic, Myths About the Bible, will also be a recurring segment for future episodes. Please feel free to weigh in on the topic. We have a list of faulty ideas that people have. If you have a burning question that you want us to discuss , leave a comment or email, and tell us all about it.

The plan was to include more Christmas trivia questions, but the discussion ran ,long. We still have next week so stay tuned to enjoy it then.

In meeting the hosts, we talk about Nathan’s recent appearance on the Alive and Still Married podcast. We somehow end up on a ide track on technical stuff, and some possible guest hosts.

Nathan brings up the Retro Radio Podcast,the podcast that Keith does that isn’t Christian based. We talk about some of the bloopers, and inuendo’s that sometimes make it into the old shows. Also some of the words that have meanings that have shifted, and other social slips.

Main Topic

Based on Luke 2, Nathan -resents a slightly different view on the traditional story of the birth of Jesus. Some of the concepts of the story can be hard to understand. We’re not here to convince you whether the virgin birth is real, or that Jesus was god in the flesh. The main thing we can hope to do is to share what the bible teaches, and it teaches that a virgin bolre a son, who was and named him Jesus.

Moving on to Matthew 2, and the account of the arrival of the wisemen, Nathan points out how they went out of their way to worship the new born king. Sometimes we want the truth, and may even have it in our hand, but don’t recognize it or its value until too late. Nathan also points out how Jesus is seeking for us. Our search for him isn’t as difficult as we make it. All these events were prophesied, and the time had become right to have god come to earth, to seek us out, and deliver salvation to the world.

It may b a bunny trail, but we talk about having the faith to be willing to die four our faith.

Before wrapping up, we share some Christmas related trivia. How well will you do in this list of general trivia knowlee of movies, music, poetry, traditions, and a couple of bible based questions?

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