One Right Church

This episode is a special one because Cindy joins us to reflect on what the past five years have held. They have been out of The One Right Church for five years. Mark and Cindy found several things to be thankful for and sad about as they reflected on the five years since they left the Followers of Christ church.

In this episode, we talk about an important verse that was misused in Mark's past. More than that, we talk about how to tell if a verse is being used correctly. The verse in question is Jesus' teaching that if you want to save your life, you must lose it (Matthew 10:25). We really do hope you save your life...by surrendering it to Jesus.

To properly understand a verse in the Bible you have to figure out what it meant to its first audience. You do that with an ancient book the same way you do in an ordinary conversation. Context. We all hate having our words taken out of context. God doesn't like it very well either. We hope this helps you read the Bible better.

We take a page from Fiddler on the Roof and ask about traditions! Mark grew up with all kinds of traditions, some good, some bad. How do you discern whether you should keep your tradition? What makes a tradition a good tradition? These are important questions, especially if your traditions are religious ones.

P.S. We are sorry not to send an episode last week. We had a tragedy in the family. Thank you for your patience and prayers.

Is joy different than happiness? How do you know which you have? How can you have true joy even in you are suffering? These and other questions are ones we explore in the episode.

Some of the Bible verses that are central to this episode come from Romans 5:1-5:

[1] Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [3] Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4] and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, [5] and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (ESV)

We have attempted to define some important terms in the Christian faith. One of those terms we need to get clear on is sin. What is sin? Should we distinguish between sin and sins, between the principle or nature of sin and the acts that spring from it. This is especially important if you are keeping track of sins in order to balance out your sins with good works. These are some of the things we try to clear up in this episode.

In this episode, we discuss the difference between repentance and merely saying sorry. We all grew up being told to apologize and say we're sorry. If we didn't do it right, our parents would tell us to be even sorrier. Is that repentance? Repentance is an important piece in our relationship with God. I hope this points you in the direction of heartfelt repentance.

Many people have suggested times and dates for the end of the world. Walter White was one of those people. In this episode, we talk about the dream that was the basis of his prophecy as well as some of the downstream effects of that prophecy. We hope you will be prepared for the coming of the Lord, even though it didn't happen as Walter predicted.

In this episode, we attempt to define hope. How is Christian hope different from other hope? Does the resurrection of Jesus give you hope, as if you might have the hope of a raise at work? Or is the hope of a different kind? If you would like to be more hopeful, please listen in!

Salvation sounds like a religious word, if any word does. What does Salvation mean? In this episode, we discuss why we need salvation and how we get it. The simplest and most important thing about salvation is that you can't do it for yourself. That's why you need a savior, someone must save you. I hope you meet him. His name is Jesus.

It is easy to say," "Just have faith." It is hard to do. If you are saved by grace through faith, it is pretty essential to know what faith is. So, in today's episode, we work to define what we mean when we say "Faith." It doesn't help to use synonyms like trust or believe. I hope this episode builds your faith.