Kristy Christian Petrow looks at contemporary psychology and the teachings of Jesus to explore the toxic effects of shame. She also tells us a bit about her own childhood, and quotes one of her favorite poets.

The inexhaustible desires of our heart can lead us to inexhaustible loving, but if that desire gets pointed in the wrong direction, we get into trouble, or "sin." Even then, our heart's desires can still teach us something. Dr. Mike also reveals his wish for a chocolate fountain, the sad fate of his Led Zeppelin boxed set, why "testimonies" scared him, and his love for the ancient Christian concept of EPECTASIS.

Dr. Mike thinks that the in our day and age the idea of "Sin" has been used and abused in order to control and manipulate people, to the point that "sin" has become a miserable, ruined word in our day and age which some people can't even hear. And yet, Jesus uses the word too much for us to just throw it out, so we explore what he meant when he said it, and how it might be different--and more healthy--than our (mis)use of it today. We also learn about why Mike doesn't throw knives anymore, and can't stop thinking about ice cream.

Dr. Mike starts a new series, with a look at how bad religion has abused many people, and left our entire culture scared and scarred. We explore how the who cary the message of God's love should respond to this...

THE END!! Dr. Mike finishes a long study on the contemporary relevant spiritual and psychological themes in the life of Job. We talk about how we read scriptural stories to learn how to read our own lives as sacred stories told by God filled with deep spiritual meaning. We also talk about how terrifying Old Testament stories are, and how scripture is just as complicated as the people who read it. (PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulties this is a terrible recording of an excellent sermon. Apologies for the sound quality, a "podcast style" re-recording is coming soon, but this one is still worth a listen!)

Kristy Christian Petrow makes her teaching debut at the PARABLE, teaching us about the Biblical concept of MERCY and what it means for us practically and spiritually.

"Sometimes we come to love even more deeply by coming through the experiences of distance, discord or even death." Finally after all his troubles, Job is gathered around the table with all his friends and new family, showing us what the image of us gathering around the table with our loved ones can teach us about our own spiritual lives.

As we continue exploring relevant psychological and spiritual themes in Job's Vision of Love, we discuss how realizing that God loves us equips us to see God's love all around us, and love others, even our enemies. Loving those who've made our lives difficult helps us to see God at work in our story, even in the hard times, and even in the wounds that have made us less than we could be. Finally this helps us to love even our own shortcomings. Dr. Mike also discusses his love of Kung Fu movies, the archetype of the Holy fool, and talks about his Mom's birthday card from beyond the grave.

Job's vision of love gives us the key to understanding this most difficult of Biblical stories and the entire spiritual life of the Christian. (PLEASE NOTE: this is a VERY BAD recording of a GREAT sermon. Due to technical difficulties, our regular microphone failed and this back up was made using an iPhone. Apologies of the poor quality, Pastor Mike will be re-teaching this so a higher quality version will be available soon!)

As we continue discussing Job's silence, Dr. Mike shares a little bit about trying to be keep his mouth shut during a difficult season of his life (not his strong point), and we take a detour into the New Testament to look at some wisdom from the life of Jesus. (Learning from Job part 21)