Save My Darlings

This might seem weird, but sometimes asking God to destroy someone or some group is a *good* thing. In fact, Jesus, Peter, and Paul all do it! The key is to understand why. Listen to this episode to get a quick course on what to do and what not to do and why.

In this episode we begin to understand humor in the Bible. Because there's actually a lot of it, we just don't usually get it because we have such a different culture. But the humor is there. And if you start to get it, you might find yourself laughing!

How do you know if you've interpreted the Bible rightly or well? Good question. We look at point #1 today, by way of 2 Timothy, Hebrews, and St. Augustine. The answer might surprise you because it has nothing to do with how good you are at reading!

On Sunday we talked about drawing lines that make us visibly different from the culture. One of the things we talked about but couldn't spend a lot of time on was the importance of choosing lines that are hard, unappealing, maybe even impossible for us. But why? Well, I think it comes straight from the text so take a listen!

Last week we talked about reading the Bible as if God is the main character of all the stories, poems, letters, histories, etc. in order to grasp his nature and character. Well what do we do when reading that way makes God look like a bloodthirsty tyrant? Are we wrong? How do we know? In this episode we use the analogy of the plot twist in mystery novels to explain how it can be that the God who orders Canaanite genocide is Love, the Father of Jesus Christ and that this doesn't force us to ignore or overturn difficult or strange readings. In the end, God is Love from beginning to end, we just need to read with the plot twist in mind to see how.

A lot of people ask me how to read the Bible. So I'm doing a quick and dirty series of tips for being better at engaging Scripture in a meaningful and practical way. This week? Remember it's God's story, not anybody else's. Only fifteen minutes to get way better at reading the Bible well!

We talked a bit about transformation and God's plans for our glory on Sunday. Here we expand the analogy of the fixer upper home with some input from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 to get a better grasp of what we can expect in the here and now and in the next life.

Here's a question: What are the implications of "You can't lose" for heaven? I mean, sure, Jesus can turn our losses into wins, but is there any reason to strive for that? Turns out, yes, and I'll prove it!

Since we got such a big response to the AI podcast a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd do another. There are a lot of questions about using AI, the ethics of it, and how it can help or hurt, and I'm answering them! Today we talk about the fact that AI lies, cheats, and steals BUT ONLY IF YOU LET. I've used Claude enough to see how it works and what it's capable of, and the extent to which pastors--and really anyone--need to approach the power of the software with intention and responsibility. It can do amazing things, but you have to teach it. It can do amazing research, but you have to prompt it. You get out what you put in.

In this week's episode, we look at CS Lewis, Revelation 3, and Colossians 3 to see how there is a way in which spiritual complacency is just as deadly to the goal of Life as murder. If that seems like a wacky claim, listen! And if you like it, share!