Share Truth Apply Scripture

How do you define success? Don't use this episode as your standard for success. Wesley is out because he doesn't feel well; Jordan is out because of his newborn baby. But Jeremy and TJ give it their best shot.

Today's focus is how God defines success versus how the world defines it. The world looks to Bill Gates who was recently named the richest man in the world (or richest world in the man if you listen to TJ). He is a man who built a business from nothing to a global enterprise. He is the epitome of success and is using his wealth to accomplish some wonderful things.

But when we look for examples of success in Scripture, we can look to Noah, a man who did not convince anyone to join him on the boat; John the Baptist, who died speaking out against Herod but did not see him come to repentance; or Jesus who was betrayed by one of His closest friends.

Much like this episode, we must learn to do the preparation, put in the work, but trust God with the results. The next episodes we leave biblical examples and look to men and women who spent their lives working for the kingdom of God and would be considered failures by the world standard, but were definitely successful in God's view.

A few weeks ago we talked some practical practices to building a biblical worldview. We received so many responses to that program we decided to make another show talking about resources we use on a regular basis to help us study Scripture. These are apps or computer programs we use on a regular basis. And none of us have a ton of money to spend so most of these resources are free.

Online video resources:

Liberty University classes online.

Dallas Theological Seminary "Study the Bible Like a Seminary Professor"

Downline Discipleship Ministry

Engage YouTube Channel

The Bible Project

C.S. Lewis Doodle

Look at the Book

Audio resources:

Christian Audio (free audio book every month)

Sermon Audio

Martin Lloyd-Jones Trust (Android and iOS app)

Online Resources:

Got Questions (Android and iOS app)

Google Calendar

Kindle app (Android and iOS app) (Here is a large list of free Christian ebooks)

Logos (If you want to hear why it is such an awesome program/app, listen to the next episode.)

Wesley and TJ spent the previous episode listing some of their favorite apps, YouTube channels, and other resources for studying and understanding Scripture. In this episode, they focus on their favorite: Logos.

But they don't talk about it alone. Scott Lindsey, father to Autumn Lindsey who previously came on the show, is the Ministry Relations Director for Logos. Scott helps the guys discuss some of the benefits to using the Logos software while Wesley and Teddy talk about why it is their go-to resource.

If you want to try out Logos for free, click here and get started. You will not regret it, that is a guarantee from Wesley and Teddy both.

But if you don't really want to use the software, Logos has much more to offer. They have an online Bible, a physical magazine you can subscribe to, and much more. Be sure to look around the Logos website and see everything they have to offer.

There are some legitimate negative consequences of living online. That is why some of our Engage team have had a live a life completely void of social media. But there are also some great and positive results of living an online life. We have access to old friends, new friends, resources, and ideas we would miss out on if we did not use social media at all.

Using social media we can gain exposure to ideas, arguments, and concepts completely foreign to our natural way of thinking, and that is a good thing. We may not agree with them, but it gives us an opportunity to engage with them and defend our faith, or defending ideas we see in Scripture.

Wesley and Teddy talk about some of the great to benefits to having a social media life, only one of which being that you can connect with us at Engage through our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram platforms, not to mention connecting with us personally through Wesley's Instagram, or Teddy's (though don't expect much from him, he isn't cool enough to use it often).

There are some negative side effects of the social media culture we have created. But there are also some great positives to it. One of those positives is when someone creates a presentation of the truths of Scripture and it goes viral.

Wesley and Teddy talk to Autumn Lindsey who created a video in response to an article on Teen Vogue. The article made a joke out of abortion and Autumn decided the world needed to know just how wrong it was.

Her video (which can be seen here) has over 1,000,000 views without the help of click bait or sensationalism. It has gone viral because it is simple, it is true, and it is needed.

Autumn also talks with Wesley and Teddy about how Christians can use social media for good and how you can learn to get involved in the fight for life.

It is easy to fall into the trap of trusting a movie studio to entertain your kids and not challenge the worldview you are trying to teach them. Most of the time you sit down with your kids to watch a film and expect it to entertain, not indoctrinate. But too many studios are doing just that is often subtle ways.

Wesley and Teddy invite One Million Moms director Monica Cole into the studio to talk about the latest kerfuffle with Disney's latest live action film and how the modern entertainment industry is doing much more than trying to tell entertaining stories on a child's level.

What is the discerning parent to do? The trio discusses some of the great resources they use including Plugged In, the AFA Journal, Movie Guide, and IMDB. They also talk about some of the great films available at the AFA online store.

Look for the "bear necessities of life" while trying to "let it go" as you "whistle while you work." Kids' movies, including The Jungle Book, Frozen, and Snow White, have some great and memorable songs.

There is a balance to be sought between letting our kids watch movies they want to see and watching movies that don't drive us parents insane. Frozen may be good, but watching it for the 10th time this week is worse than getting a magical ice spike to the heart. (See what I did there?)

Wesley and Teddy talk about what they do to entertain their young children in a way that also engages them. Sometimes that means an animated film with a catchy tune, other times it means a historical documentary. In all things it means quality family time.

You can't build a biblical worldview if you can't identify what a worldview is. Teddy and Jordan invite George Barna with American Culture and Faith Institute. The ACFI has recently released the largest study of its kind dealing with how American Adults see God, the Bible, and the world around them.

You can take a look at the survey here. But one finding of the study that struck the Engage podcast team was that the younger a person is, the less likely they are to have a biblical worldview. Why is that? What causes Millennials to have a statistically significant weaker biblical worldview than older Christians? Listen to hear George Barna's insights.

Your worldview, whether it is biblical or not, was not built overnight. It has taken every day of your life to develop your belief system. So building, or strengthening, a biblical worldview is going to take time as well.

But what practices can we put in place to build a biblical worldview? What daily habits can we incorporate into our lives that will help us see the world through a gospel lens? Jordan, Jeremy, and Teddy discuss how they are pursuing the development of their worldview and making them conform to the truths of Scripture.

Have you ever read Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan? Neither has Wesley or TJ. But they are incredibly excited to see the movie. To help them talk about it, they brought in Steve Cleary, a producer of the new, animated film into the studio to talk about it.

Steve has a firm belief that good, Christian films should be appropriate and useable on the mission field. For what Steve means by that, and for what makes this movie so applicable to those on the front lines of mission work, listen in and check out how to support the movie on Kickstarter.

If you have an idea for a future show, you can always let us know at [email protected].