I met my first sequoia tree a little over a year ago.  If you want to feel young on your birthday, visit a sequoia.  He was over 1600 years older than me.  

Today's episode is about trees and autumn - my favorite season of the year.  It's about the mystery of watching God's dream unfold in ways you never could have imagined.  It's about birthdays and sequoia cones and Rich Mullins and Jesus holding all of this spinning planet together.  It's an eclectic blend of fresh ponderings and Spirit wind in the trees.  And John Mark McMillan's powerful song poem encouraging us to not only consider the magnitude of the seeds we sow, but the harvest that is to come as a result.

Come and sit a spell beneath the trees.  We saved you a seat.

Featuring the John Mark McMillan song "The Roads, the Rocks, and the Weeds" (Used by Permission).

A Conversation with Special Guest:  Lisa Miller

There is a sacred place where heavenly exchanges are made - beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of despair, healing for illness, disease, and heartache, trust for fear, grace for forgiveness, restoration for brokenness.

Today's special guest Lisa Miller knows firsthand the dark side of that exchange.  Her story includes being trafficked as a four-year old in Mexico, to family abuse, to losing her daughter.  Yet, even in the midst of such grief and trauma, the hope of Jesus kept bubbling within her heart and changed her life.  She now shares this hope with all who will listen.  Join this conversation with Lisa and guest co-host Steph Cherry.   We saved you a seat.

https://lisamillerministries.com/the-trading-floor/

Special Thanks to Singer-Songwriter Becca Jordan for her song "All I've Got" (Used by Permission).

A Conversation with Special Guest:  Andre Moubarak

Imagine growing up on the path of the greatest journey ever taken.  Imagine playing in the footsteps of Jesus.  Imagine exploring the winding Way of Suffering with the curiosity of a child.  Today's special guest, Andre Moubarak, describes Jesus' famous Via Dolorosa as "my playground and my battleground."

Get ready to walk, run, sail, linger, and worship with Andre as he leads us through Jerusalem and the Holy Land.  Guest co-host Steph Cherry comes along.  She and her husband Denbigh were with Andre in Israel 3 months ago.  For those of you who have been there, and for those of us who have only visited Israel in our imaginations, let's step into Andre's world and go with the flow.

https://www.twinstours.com

Special Thanks to Singer-Songwriter  Ross King for his song "Hallelujah for the Cross" (Used by Permission).

A Conversation With Special Guest:  Gerald Zgabay

Faith journeys seldom zipline from point A to point B.  It's more like a zigzag across spinning terrain.  The distance between who we are on our own and who God created us to become can be dizzying and daunting.  We all look like human tie dyes on the way to discovering Jesus.

Today's Table with husband, father, author, and men's mentor Gerald Zgabay is no exception.  His redemption story includes waking up completely disoriented on the Mexican border, addiction, strip clubs, timely encounters with individual Jesus followers, journaling, brokenness, awareness, marriage, adoption, and mentoring others still caught up in the empty spin of our world.

Guest co-host Steph Cherry and my favorite Skye Peterson song are also on the menu.  Come and join us.  We saved you a seat.

https://www.geraldzgabay.com

Featuring "Searching For Us" by Singer-Songwriter Skye Peterson

 (Used by Permission)

The Old Testament Book of Job is like walking across a brutal desert with someone with a hole in their canteen.  It is a long season's stretch across low terrain.  Job was in a season of loss and his so-called friends circled him like vultures attempting to pick apart his languishing faith.  No one expects a mountain top moment in a valley this deep.  And yet one occurs.  Job breaches out of the dust to make an Everest declaration of faith.

Welcome to the third session of a six-part series from 2021- Wrestling with God in the Season of Job.  The world was emerging from a year-long hiatus then and many felt as though they were living this story.  I am convinced many still are.  And that's what makes Job's story relevant for our generation.

Featuring J Lind's song "So It Goes" (Used by Permission).

A Conversation With Special Guest:  Bethany Garth

Every moment worth living comes gift wrapped in challenge.  Every hit and miss adventure is born out of dream.  For today's special guest Bethany Garth and her husband Dave, the possibility of an around the world bicycle trip was first proposed on their third date.  And that's just the beginning of this week's Table.

Today Bethany is a mother of three and the Executive Director of First Choice Women's Medical Center in Montgomery, Alabama.  We sat down recently to talk about the similarities between being a world traveler and leading an organization that seeks to reach abortion-minded members in our community in the name of Christ to make life their first choice.   

It is a joy to bring Bethany to the Table and to also introduce you to the music of Becca Jordan, a gifted singer-songwriter you need to know.  So air up your tires, strap on your helmet, put it in climbing gear, and join us for this week's wonderful ride.

Featuring "Everywhere I Go" by Becca Jordan. (Used by Permission)

https://supportfirstchoice.org

A Conversation With Singer-Songwriter:  J Lind

He's a poet collecting seashells on the streets of Manhattan.  He's a husband and gifted songwriter in his third year of medical school.  He's a student and observer of subway moments and human interaction.  And sometimes those collections and recollections become lyrics, and sometimes a single day becomes an entire song.

It is a joy and an honor to bring today's special guest J Lind to the table.  We open this episode with one of my personal favorites - "Oxford Sweater" - and we close with J's latest release - "Generous".  (Both songs used by permission).  And as soon as this table is wrapped, go check out more about J and his music at https://www.jlindmusic.com.

All of us have walked through seasons where it seemed God had nothing to say to us.  This can be a little disconcerting, especially when we have well-meaning friends who presume to speak in God's place. 

Welcome to this second of a six-part Table series from 2021- Wrestling with God in the Season of Job.  When this was originally shared, participants were encouraged to read 7 chapters from Job and search for verses that spoke to them.  I compared the mid-section of Job like looking for diamonds in a coal mine without a candle.  The diamonds are there - we just have to slow ourselves and allow our spiritual eyes to adjust from the darkness of the world to the light of God's truth. This session covers Job 8-14.  

Featuring Esther Spark's song "Ask the Animals" (Used by Permission).

In the spring of 2021 as we were still in the shadows of a worldwide pandemic, I was drawn to explore the Old Testament Book of Job during a midweek worship gathering I founded several years ago.  It was an uncertain time.  Many of us were struggling with our faith.  Many of us were afraid.  Many of us were grieving great loss.  We could all identify with a man who lived in the land of Uz several centuries ago.  As his story unfolds. so does our own.  

Welcome to this six-part Table series from 2021.  This was one of the most guttural, honest, electric, no holds barred speaking events of my entire life.  And we all know someone right now who is still in this season. Perhaps even ourselves.  There lived a man (Job 1:1) and there came a day (Job 1:13). And this is our story.

Featuring Ryan Proudfoot's song "A Man Named Job" (Used by Permission).

CHASING BUTTERFLIES

A Totally Spontaneous Conversation With Occasional Co-Host:  Steph Cherry

Nothing about today's Table was planned.  It was all inspired by a surreal moment at Disney World when Winnie the Pooh was espied chasing butterflies across a grassy field.  And hardly anybody noticed.  But I did.

I returned from Disney.  A special guest had to cancel.  Steph and I were set up for a Zoom conversation anyway.  And about half way through, I decided to hit the record button.  I'm still not sure why.  I had no plans to use any of what follows.

Then we started swapping recent trip stories to Israel, the Magic Kingdom, the Smoky Mountains, and the absurdity abounded.  There was no substance abuse in the recording of this Table, but there was a drug dog.  And Petra, princesses, camels, birds, Magdala, Indiana Jones, Jesus, and pixie dust, with Ross King's incredible new song "Like Jesus" (Used by Permission) to net it all together.

Listen as you're "busy, busy, busy doing nothing."  Winnie would.

https://www.rosskingmusic.com