Small Steps with God

Twenty-seven books, written by eight different men, fishermen, a doctor, a tax collector, a rabbi-turned-church-planter, and the half brother of Jesus who didn’t even believe in him until after the resurrection, across fifty years and three continents, without any of them meeting to compare notes. If I told you that somehow adds up to one unified story, you’d think I was exaggerating. I’m not. As we close out our walk through the New Testament and get ready to start Genesis, this episode is a birds-eye flight over everything we’ve covered: the shape of the books, the ground the story covers, and why we’re heading back to the beginning next.

The Shape: Four Acts

The New Testament moves through four acts: the Gospels, showing four different angles on who Jesus is; Acts, the single book of pure narrative history describing a terrified handful of disciples becoming a movement that crossed the Roman Empire in one generation; the Epistles, twenty-two real letters to real churches with real problems, thirteen of them from Paul alone; and Revelation, the apocalyptic close that tells persecuted churches one thing above all, Christ wins.

Paul, the Unlikely Author of Half the New Testament

Paul wrote roughly thirteen of the twenty-seven books by himself, meaning half the New Testament came from a man who spent the first part of his life trying to destroy the church before spending the second part building it.

The Ground: From Bethlehem to Rome

The story starts in Bethlehem, a village so small the prophet Micah had to point it out by name, moves through Galilee, the backwoods fishing region nobody expected much from, and lands in Jerusalem for the trials, the cross, and the empty tomb. After Acts, the map blows wide open as the apostles carry the gospel to Antioch, Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and Rome, and church tradition carries some of them even further, to India, England, and Spain.

Mercy Before Judgment

The two threads that stood out to me most as we finished Revelation: every day we’re given is God’s mercy, one more opportunity to come back to Christ before that door closes, and Revelation shows plainly what happens once it does.

Why We’re Going Back to Genesis

None of what we’ve just walked through makes sense without the Old Testament. The king in Matthew was promised in Isaiah, the suffering servant in Mark was already there, the Lamb in Revelation was pictured on the altar in Leviticus, and the very first covenant was made the night God covered Adam and Eve’s shame. Starting after Labor Day, we head into Genesis, moving story by story instead of chapter by chapter.

The New Testament answers two questions: what does God require of us, and what has God done because we can’t meet it. Now we go back to where the answer to both first began to unfold.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

What if God’s first action wasn’t creation out of nothing, but organizing something that was already a mess? In my twenties, I loved chaos — it felt interesting, like things being shaken up. I’ve since learned two things: I don’t actually love chaos, and God’s original work in Genesis was to get rid of it and put things in order. This episode traces that pattern — order versus chaos — from Genesis all the way through Paul’s letters to Corinth.

Tohu Wa Bohu: Formless and Void

Genesis 1:2 describes the earth as tohu (formless, confused, wasteland) and bohu (empty) before a single day of creation happens. God doesn’t wave the chaos away — He organizes it day by day: three “forming” days that build categories and boundaries, followed by three “filling” days that pour substance into that structure.

Chaos at the Foot of the Mountain

While Moses receives exact, detailed instructions for the tabernacle on Sinai, the people below melt down gold and build a calf — Exodus describes the scene as unrestrained and out of control. Same nation, same moment, two completely different postures toward order.

Order in the Camp

Numbers 2 lays out, tribe by tribe, exactly how a couple million wandering Israelites camp and march. God cares enough about the practical structure of His people’s daily life to detail it precisely.

Paul and the Church at Corinth

Centuries later, worship in Corinth had devolved into chaos — people talking over each other, competing for attention. Paul writes plainly: God is not a God of disorder but of peace. This isn’t a stylistic preference; it’s a statement about God’s character.

Structure Isn’t Performance

None of this is about anxious perfectionism or a spotless calendar. Structure in Scripture isn’t a standard to fail at — it’s what makes flourishing possible, the same way a garden flourishes with rows and trellises instead of just growing wild.

The Gospel Underneath

None of us keep order perfectly. But the same God who spoke order into the world at creation is still doing that work in us — not because we’ve earned it by organizing ourselves well enough, but because ordering chaos is simply what God does.

Three steps this week: name the place in your life that currently looks like chaos rather than an ordered camp, remember that structure usually makes freedom sustainable rather than opposing it, and hold both truths together — God calls you toward order, and God meets you in the chaos before you get there.

I’m Jill from the Northwoods. My new email is [email protected], and you can find everything at jillfromthenorthwoods.com.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Have you ever known — actually known — that you were on the wrong road, but kept walking anyway? I've done that literally, driving lost and just deciding to see where it goes. But I've done it with my life too: moving forward, making real progress by every visible measure, while some part of me sensed I wasn't heading in the right direction at all. This episode is about that particular kind of faithfulness — the one that looks like turning around.

C.S. Lewis's Paradox In Mere Christianity, Lewis argues that progress means getting nearer to where you actually want to be — and if you're on the wrong road, going forward just gets you further away, faster. "The man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." Our culture treats turning back as failure and pressing on as virtue; Lewis says the opposite is often true. Refusing to turn back when you know you're wrong isn't determination — it's being stuck and dressing it up as strength.

A Wrong Road I Was On I was pushing hard toward graduate school and a career as a professor — a full ride, years of undergraduate work invested. Then I became a Christian at 22, and it suddenly struck me: I was going the wrong direction, even though that direction looked appealing and I'd already invested so much in it.

The Silver Chair's Four Signs In C.S. Lewis's Narnia story, Aslan sends Jill and Eustace on a quest with four signs to remember, warning that things won't look the same once they're down in Narnia. They walk past the first sign, miss the second, and cross straight over the third without recognizing it. The turning point isn't a clever forward move — it's their companion Puddleglum stopping everyone and forcing them to say out loud: we missed it, we have to go back.

Pharaoh and Jonah: Two Ways of Seeing the Sign Pharaoh doesn't miss the ten plagues — they're unmissable, one after another. He sees clearly and chooses to keep walking anyway, hardening his heart every time. Jonah is the mirror image: he reads God's instruction perfectly, understands it completely, and runs the opposite direction on purpose. But Jonah's story doesn't end on the boat — after the storm and the fish, he does the one thing Pharaoh never does. He turns around.

The Prodigal Son, Found The son who took every wrong turn available, spent everything, and ended up feeding pigs finally comes to his senses and heads home. What he gets isn't a lecture or a probationary period — his father was already scanning the horizon for him. Turning back wasn't the humiliating part of the story. It was the part where he gets found.

Three small steps for the road you're actually on: name one road, honestly, that you've kept pressing forward on even though you've known for a while it's the wrong direction. Ask yourself what's driving that — is it pride like Pharaoh's, watching the signs and staying the course anyway? And let the turning back be met the way the prodigal son was met — not with shame, not with a fresh set of hoops to run through, but simply as coming home.

If you want to sit with this more: Lewis makes the direct argument in Mere Christianity, tells the full story in The Silver Chair, and Luke 15 gives you the ending all of this points toward.

I'm Jill from the Northwoods. Find everything at jillfromthenorthwoods.com.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Strip every work Christian faith ever inspired out of Europe, and the skyline changes completely — no cathedrals, no Bach, no Michelangelo, no illuminated manuscripts, no universities that grew out of monastery schools. In this episode, I ask a question most Christians don’t spend much time on: not what we should avoid in culture, but what we should be creating.

Pope Leo’s Challenge to Writers

A recent address to a gathering of writers got me thinking, even though I’m not Catholic — the reminder that stories preserve memory, search for truth, and cultivate compassion applies across every Christian tradition, not just one.

Bezalel: The First Person Filled with the Spirit

Most people picture a prophet or a king when they think of someone “filled with the Spirit of God.” The first person given that description in Scripture was an artist — commissioned to build the tabernacle with gold, wood, precious stones, and woven fabric. That detail says something about God’s own character.

David, Solomon, and the Prophets as Artists

David was a poet and musician whose songs are still sung three thousand years later. Solomon explored wisdom through poetry. The prophets communicated some of their most vivid truths through imagery — Ezekiel’s wheels, Isaiah’s seraphim, Daniel’s visions. Even Jesus taught primarily through stories, not abstract theology.

The Monks Who Preserved Civilization

Year after year, monks copied not just Scripture but classical works from Greece and Rome, preserving them for centuries with painstaking care. Without realizing it, they became the bridge that carried much of Western knowledge forward — and that copying was itself an act of faith.

A Call to Make Art Again

Christians once understood, almost instinctively, that creating something beautiful was itself a form of worship. I make the case for why it’s time to make that stand again — not instead of speaking truth, but alongside it.

If you create — music, carving, writing, anything — I’d genuinely love to know how your faith shows up in it.

Find every show I do at jillfromthenorthwoods.com.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

“How are you?” “Fine. Busy, but good.” We’ve rehearsed that answer so well we barely notice we’re doing it — and here’s the uncomfortable part: we do the exact same thing with God. We walk into prayer already polishing the message before we hand it over. This week I want to talk about why we do that, why it’s not what God actually expects from us, and why realizing that is one of the most freeing things you’ll learn about who he is.

The God Who Already Sees the Heart

Scripture doesn’t say God watches our outside behavior — it says he sees the heart. That sounds terrifying if you picture God as a judge cataloging every failure, but that’s not the God of Genesis 3. When God asks Adam, “Where are you?” it was never a request for information — it was an invitation out from behind the fig leaves.

What This Reframes About Prayer

If prayer isn’t informing God of anything he doesn’t already know, then it isn’t a status update — it’s agreeing with God about what’s actually true in your heart, instead of negotiating, defending, or dressing it up first.

Confessing Sin Isn’t the Same as Whitewashing Suffering

This episode draws a line I think gets blurred constantly: sin needs repentance, but suffering was never something you were meant to hide from God. Treating joy, peace, and hope like moods you have to maintain 24/7 — instead of fruit that grows over a lifetime — is where the real damage happens.

A Fifty-Year Marriage and a Whitewashed Prayer

I walk through a picture that’s stuck with me: someone caring for a spouse who is slipping away, tempted to hand God a polished “we trust in God” instead of the anger and exhaustion actually underneath it. God’s response to real honesty isn’t judgment — it’s “I know how heavy this is.”

Vertical and Horizontal Honesty

Confession restores your relationship with God — but somebody still needs to sit with you. This episode makes the case that honesty with God and honesty with the people around you were never an either/or.

If you’ve ever felt like you have to look more “put together” as a Christian than you actually are, this one’s for you.

You can find everything I do at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. My email is [email protected].

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://twitter.com/schmern

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Before we open Revelation itself, we need the background: who wrote it, when, and why it took so long to earn its place in the canon. Revelation has a reputation as confusing or frightening — my own first encounter was a terrifying ’70s movie as a 12-year-old — but understanding where it came from achanges how we read it.

Who Wrote It?

Church tradition tr aaces authorship to John the Apostle, through a chain of testimony back to Irenaeus, who knew Polycarp, who reportedly knew John personally. Some ancient scholars noted the Greek style differs from John’s gospel — possibly because a very elderly John dictated it to a companion.

When Was It Written?

The majority view places it near the end of Domitian’s reign (95–96 AD), a period of intense demanded emperor worship. A minority view favors the mid–60s under Nero, before Jerusalem’s destruction, pointing to internal details like the temple still standing and 666’s numerical link to Nero’s name.

Who Was It Written To?

The seven churches of Roman Asia (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea) faced real pressure — economic exclusion from trade guilds, social ostracism, and occasionally legal consequences for refusing to worship Caesar.

Revelation’s Contested Path Into the Canon

Unlike most New Testament books, Revelation’s acceptance was genuinely debated. Early church historian Eusebius couldn’t settle on a single category for it. Objections centered less on authorship and more on how the book’s imagery was being misused to support extreme end-times speculation.

A Slow, Uneven Acceptance

The Western church accepted Revelation relatively early; the Eastern, Syriac-speaking church didn’t include it in standard translations until the 6th–7th century. By the late 300s, regional councils affirmed it as part of the 27-book New Testament — though even Martin Luther expressed reservations, initially placing it in an appendix of his German translation.

The history doesn’t undermine the book’s inspiration — it shows how carefully the church weighed what belonged in Scripture. And it strikes me that people were less troubled by the book itself than by how it’s been misused.my predfdfddf

Download blank templates, schedules here:

https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8

Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://twitter.com/schmern

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Who actually wrote the book of Jude — and why does it matter? Before diving into the text verse by verse, this episode lays out the full case for authorship: who tradition says wrote it, what the earliest church fathers believed, and why an obscure letter from “the brother of James” is more likely to be genuine than a forgery. This episode covers why Jude isn’t actually his name (it’s Judas, renamed by English translators), the Protestant case for Jude being a biological brother of Jesus, why Jude never claims that relationship for credibility, the early canonical evidence including the Muratorian Canon, the objection around Jude quoting the non-canonical book of 1 Enoch, and why Jude pivoted from a planned letter on shared salvation to an urgent warning about infiltrating false teachers. Timestamps: 00:00 Who is Jude, and why does this letter matter? 01:00 A servant of Christ and brother of James 03:52 Skeptics turned believers — Jesus’ own family 07:18 The case from the Muratorian Canon 08:16 The biggest objection: quoting 1 Enoch 11:43 Why the letter’s tone suddenly shifts 13:12 Three warning illustrations from Scripture 15:42 Jude’s vivid, original writing style Links: 🎙️ Small Steps with God — find every episode at jillfromthenorthwoods.com 📬 Questions or comments: [email protected] 📝 New Substack: The Northwoods Notebook — linked at jillfromthenorthwoods.com Had you heard of the book of Jude before, or is this your first time digging into it? Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod https://twitter.com/schmern Email the podcast at [email protected] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://twitter.com/schmern

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

I’ll be honest — when I was a kid, a movie based on The Late Great Planet Earth (which is loosely about the book of Revelation) kept me up for a month. So when I decided to start a Revelation series in The Bible in Small Steps, my first thought was “this might be the scariest thing I’ve ever recorded.” This episode is the why-and-how before we dive in — not the first real chapter, but the posture I want us to bring into the whole series.

It’s a Pastoral Letter First. Before Revelation is apocalyptic, it’s a letter written to real churches under real first-century pressure, meant to comfort and steady frightened people. That’s still its job today — Revelation is meant to settle you, not give you a puzzle to solve.

Four Views, No Need to Pick One. I walk through preterist, futurist, historicist, and idealist readings of Revelation — and explain why I’m taking a “yes to all of it” approach rather than picking a side, the same way a single image can be true of the first century, true throughout church history, and true at the end.

Birth Pangs, Not a Timeline. Jesus used labor imagery for a reason — waves of pain and easing that build toward a final delivery. Seals, trumpets, and bowls in Revelation work the same way: not three sequential timelines, but the same conflict retold with the volume turned up each time.

Don’t Make a Wanted Poster. Throughout history people have confidently named the Antichrist — Hitler, Napoleon, various popes and emperors — and every guess has aged badly. I explain why naming names actually undermines real vigilance, and why the better question is “what does opposition to Christ actually look like” rather than “who is it.”

Numbers Are Vocabulary, Not Math. Seven means completeness, twelve means God’s people, a thousand means “a really long time” — not a literal count. Holding the numbers loosely is key to not getting lost chasing dates and calculations.

We Already Know How It Ends. Jesus reigns, His people are secure, the Lamb triumphs. Every strange image in Revelation should be read forward from that ending, not as a mystery hanging over the outcome.

If you only take one thing from this episode into the series: don’t try to solve Revelation like a code. Let it do what it was written to do — steady you.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://twitter.com/schmern

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Have you ever trusted someone completely, only to have them start picking apart the very foundation of what you believed? That’s the situation the original readers of 1 John were living in — and it’s why this letter was written. Before we get into the text itself, I wanted to slow down and answer the questions that shape everything else: who wrote this, who was it written to, and what was actually going wrong in that church?

No name, but no doubt. Unlike Paul’s letters, 1 John opens with no greeting and no sender. The church has nonetheless attributed it to John for two thousand years, and the evidence holds up — starting with Irenaeus, who knew Polycarp, who knew John personally. That’s a remarkably short chain of testimony.

The fingerprints are everywhere. The vocabulary and rhythm of 1 John — light, darkness, truth, abiding, eternal life — echo the Gospel of John so closely that the two read like they came from the same hand and the same way of seeing the world. The letter doesn’t just share themes with the Gospel; it shares texture.

An eyewitness, not a historian. The author doesn’t say “I’ve studied this” — he says “we heard him, we saw him, we touched him.” That’s not secondhand testimony. It’s the voice of someone who was actually there.

A church under pressure. By the time John wrote, he was likely the last living apostle, writing from Ephesus to congregations being pulled apart by teachers offering “secret knowledge” — an early form of what would become Gnosticism. These teachers denied that Jesus had truly come in the flesh, taught that the physical world was inherently evil, and unsettled ordinary believers who started wondering if they were missing something.

Why John wrote it. Not as an academic exercise, but so that his readers could know — not hope, not guess, but know — that they had eternal life. Assurance, for John, isn’t arrogance. It’s the natural fruit of trusting a trustworthy Savior.

Four themes to watch for. God is light. Jesus Christ came in real flesh. Love is costly, not sentimental. And assurance is meant to be settled ground, not a source of anxiety.

I’m genuinely excited to walk through this letter with you. If you’ve ever had someone confidently tell you something that sounded true but wasn’t quite right, you already understand why John wrote this the way he did.

You can find this and all of my podcasts at jillfromthenorthwoods.com — see you in 1 John.

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://twitter.com/schmern

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

I’ve been obsessed with the story of Amadeus for about forty years. And I’ve been sitting with a question it raises for just as long.

What do you do when the most gifted person in the room is also the messiest, most broken person in the room? And what does it mean when God seems to work through them anyway?

This episode starts with the story of Salieri — a fictional treatment, not a history lesson, but one that surfaces something real. Salieri was faithful, disciplined, devoted. He made what he understood to be a deal with God: I’ll give everything to my art and to you, and you’ll bless me with greatness. Then Mozart walked in. Crude, immature, self-destructive in almost every direction — and the music that came out of him sounded, to Salieri’s ears, like the voice of God itself.

And Salieri’s response wasn’t envy. It was grief. Why is God doing this like this?

Most of us have felt something like that. Maybe not about music. Maybe about a coworker who got a promotion they didn’t seem to earn. A sibling who shines without trying. A pastor whose sermons are genuinely life-changing and whose private life is a wreck. That low-grade ache — part envy, part confusion, part honest theological question — deserves a real answer.

What the Bible actually says about giftedness

The Bible never promises that the most gifted people will live the most faithful lives. Scripture is full of the opposite: David — warrior, poet, man after God’s own heart, and also capable of adultery, deception, and arranging a murder. Samson, supernaturally powerful and completely unable to learn from his mistakes. Solomon, with wisdom that drew people from distant lands, who compromised himself into a fractured kingdom. Jonah, who delivered one of the most effective prophetic revivals in history while being furious it worked. Peter, who denied Christ three times in a single night and became the foundation of the early church.

The pattern isn’t that God uses imperfect people. It’s that God uses people, period.

Gifts vs. fruit — they’re not the same category

Paul makes this explicit in 1 Corinthians. You can prophesy, move mountains, give away everything you own — and still have nothing that actually matters without love. Gifts are not fruit. They’re not the same thing, and confusing them is the source of a lot of our surprise when gifted leaders fall apart. We still believe, somewhere underneath, what Salieri believed: that someone who produces something that beautiful must be living something beautiful. Scripture doesn’t teach that.

The hidden people

The kingdom runs on a different math than we’re used to. The widow with two coins. The woman who anoints Jesus and says nothing. The faithful servant trusted with small things. The unnamed believer Paul greets at the end of Romans. Not everyone is Mozart. Not everyone was meant to be. Faithfulness in ordinary things, when nobody’s watching and nobody’s applauding, is what Jesus keeps returning to.

Salieri’s real tragedy

By the end of the story, Salieri’s tragedy isn’t that Mozart had more gifts. It’s that he couldn’t receive anything in his own life because he spent all of it staring at someone else’s calling. He had gifts, influence, an audience, a life. And he couldn’t see any of it. That’s the spiritual danger — spending your one life measuring it against someone else’s calling and missing the one you were actually given.

Three small steps

Name the ache. Don’t spiritualize it away too fast. When you encounter a gifted and messy person, ask a different question — not “why them and not me” but “what is God doing here?” And then turn your attention back to your own lane. Not with resignation, but with intention.

Your faithfulness isn’t diminished by someone else’s gift. Your calling isn’t smaller because someone else’s is louder.

📬 jillfromthenorthwoods.com

✉️ [email protected]

Jill’s Links

https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod

https://twitter.com/schmern

Email the podcast at [email protected]

“Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

“The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”.

Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/

Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact [email protected]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”.

By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.