Joseph’s story takes another sharp turn as betrayal gives way to temptation. Rising from slave to trusted servant in Potiphar’s house, everything seems to stabilize—until he’s pressured to compromise his integrity. In a moment where disappointment could have justified disobedience, Joseph chooses honor over impulse, faithfulness over feeling. Even when doing the right thing lands him in prison instead of promotion, he refuses to sin against God. This part of the story reminds us that adversity often tests not just our endurance, but our character. When life feels unfair, will you still choose obedience?

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is a weekday podcast designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

One of the most powerful stories in Scripture is the story of Joseph, a young man whose life unraveled almost overnight. Betrayed by his brothers, stripped of his status, and sold into slavery at just seventeen, Joseph’s dreams seemed shattered before they ever had a chance to unfold. Yet behind the dysfunction, jealousy, and injustice, God was writing a bigger story. If you’ve ever felt blindsided by disappointment, betrayal, or a future that looks nothing like you imagined, Joseph’s journey reminds us that adversity is never the end of the story. Even when the lower story feels chaotic, God is still working in the upper story.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is a weekday podcast designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

As we wrap up this week in the Old Testament Challenge, we arrive at the most intense moment in Abraham’s journey, a test that feels almost unthinkable. After waiting decades for the promised son, Abraham is asked to place Isaac on the altar and trust God beyond logic, emotion, and instinct. This episode explores what it means to surrender the very thing you love most, to trust God when obedience feels costly, and to see how this mountaintop moment foreshadows a greater sacrifice still to come. What is the “Isaac” in your life that God may be asking you to place in His hands?

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Faith is not just stepping out when God says go, it is staying put when God seems slow. Abraham and Sarah received an extraordinary promise, descendants as numerous as the stars, yet year after year passed with no child. Waiting exposed their doubts, their impatience, and their temptation to take control. When they tried to “help” God, it created consequences that rippled through history. But even after delays and detours, God proved faithful. 

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

What do you do when God asks you to move forward and you don’t have all the details? In this episode of Pursuing God, Gene looks at the life of Abraham and unpacks what real faith looks like. It’s not about having a clear roadmap or guaranteed outcomes. It’s about trusting God enough to take the next step, even when you can’t see the whole journey. If you’ve ever felt stuck between comfort and obedience, this conversation will challenge and encourage you to step out when God says, “Go.”

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Why Abraham? Today we look at the surprising beginning of God’s nation-building plan and the pattern we see throughout the Bible: God chooses the weak and the unlikely to accomplish His purposes. If you’ve ever felt too old, too broken, or too ordinary to be used by God, this conversation is for you.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Today we’re looking at God’s covenant with Abraham and the three promises that set His rescue plan in motion — land, nation, and blessing. From Abraham to Jesus, we see a promise-keeping God at work. What promises are you holding onto today?

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

From the very first pages of Scripture, God reveals that brokenness is never the end of the story. After sin enters the world, God covers Adam and Eve’s shame through the sacrifice of an innocent life, offering an early picture of redemption that points directly to Jesus. This moment in Genesis foreshadows the cross, where Christ would ultimately bear our guilt and restore what sin had broken. As we close the first week of the Old Testament Challenge, we’re reminded that God’s plan to redeem the world was never an afterthought. No matter how broken life feels, God is already at work, offering forgiveness, hope, and new life through Jesus.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

After sin fractures God’s good creation, the story of Noah reveals a powerful truth: brokenness is not the end of the story. Even in judgment, God is at work to heal, restore, and begin again. Through the flood, we see both the seriousness of sin and the mercy of a God who refuses to abandon His creation. From the earliest pages of Genesis, God paints windows of hope, including the first promise of a coming Savior.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Genesis 3 reveals the moment God’s good creation fractures through deception, disobedience, and sin. By tracing Satan’s tactics from the garden to the brokenness we still experience today, we see how guilt, shame, fractured relationships, and a broken world entered the story. Yet even in judgment, hope remains. Through Noah’s story, Scripture reminds us that God still seeks, shows favor, and offers redemption, pointing us to hope that persists even when everything seems shattered.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.