What if the storms in our lives aren't random accidents, but divine appointments?

In Episode 11, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis are joined by Larry Peidt — retired PCA teaching elder, former staff at Coral Ridge under D. James Kennedy, former VP of Evangelism Explosion, and retired Delta captain — to walk through Jesus calming the wind and sea.

Pastor Steven presses past the familiar, noting that the Greek behind "why are you so afraid" isn't phobeo but deilos — cowardly — the same word used in Revelation 21 for those cast into the lake of fire alongside the faithless. The question lands with weight: why are you acting like unbelievers?

The heart of this episode turns on the opening words — "on that day, when evening had come." The storm was no accident but a divine appointment; Jesus called for it. His expectation was not that the disciples would understand how deliverance would come, but that they would trust what he had already said: let us go across to the other side. Augustine's image of "Christ asleep in you" anchors the application, and Travis offers a working definition of faith Pastor Steven promises to preach: faith is believing God is who he says he is, and that he will do what he says he will do.

Larry then previews his Sunday evening devotional on Job 38:8, where the same God who stilled the sea tells the proud waves, thus far and no further. The disciples' trembling question — who then is this? — is Job's school of humility in a single boat on a single night. He ordains the storm, appoints the hour, and carries his people to the other side.

Jesus has just told the parable of the soils ... and now he continues.

In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis work through Mark 4:21–34, where Jesus lays out three more parables in rapid succession: the lamp on a stand, the seed growing in secret, and the mustard seed. The question underneath them all is the one every honest believer eventually has to wrestle with — if Jesus is who he says he is, and his kingdom is really here, then where is it? Why does the world still look like this?

The conversation moves through some deep theological terrain without losing the pavement. Pastor Steven argues the lamp is Jesus himself — the light that makes sense of everything the Old Testament could only hint at, like sunlight finally hitting stained glass. From there, the seed and the mustard plant reframe the problem: the harvest is coming, even when you can't see the growth, and the kingdom's smallness now is no argument against its greatness later. Along the way, the guys touch on Isaiah 6 and 9, Zechariah's vision of the menorah, 2 Peter 3, and why walking by faith and not by sight is really about trusting what you hear more than what you see.

This episode is for anyone tempted to measure God's faithfulness by visible results, or to read slow-moving providence as absence. Why would God build his kingdom this way? Why leave sin in the world at all? And what does it look like to stop demanding the harvest now and start trusting the King who knows exactly what he's doing? 

When we encounter the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, we often focus on identifying which type of soil we are ... but what if that's missing the point entirely?

This profound teaching invites us to see reality as it truly is: the soil of human hearts varies dramatically, and no amount of clever presentation or winsome delivery can change bad soil into good. Satan employs countless tactics—easy dismissal, intellectual objections, subtle persecution, social ostracization, and the creeping thorns of worldly cares and desires.

Yet here's the transformative truth: changing soil requires a creation-level miracle, and Jesus is precisely the One who creates new hearts. He sits enthroned over the chaos, just as the Spirit hovered over the waters in Genesis, declaring His sovereign power to transform what seems utterly hopeless. This isn't a call to despair over those we love who reject the gospel, but rather a profound invitation to prayer and humility.

We were all bad soil once. What happened? God performed a miracle in us. The same sun that melts wax hardens clay, and so the Gospel clarifies and convicts; revealing the true condition of every heart. Our calling is to faithfully sow the seed, to speak truth with love, and then to pray fervently to the Lord of the harvest who alone can perform the impossible work of regeneration.

What if the baptism of Jesus in Mark 1 and the crucifixion in Mark 15 are meant to be read as one story?

This week, Pastor Steven walks us through his Good Friday and Easter sermon preparation, tracing the stunning literary and theological connections Mark draws between those two pivotal moments — the torn heavens at the Jordan, the torn curtain at Calvary, and two declarations of "Son of God" separated by the entire arc of Jesus' earthly ministry.

We also spend time with two men who were surprised by the crucifixion: the centurion who had witnessed thousands of deaths and still couldn't explain what he was seeing, and Pilate, shocked that Jesus was already gone. What did they see that everyone else missed?

Then we turn to Easter morning where Mark tells the greatest story ever told in just eight verses. The angel's message is almost startlingly simple: “He is not here.” “He is risen.” But those four words, Pastor Steven argues, are enough to reframe everything — every disappointment, every doubt, every moment of fear or grief.

We close with reflections on why Mark names the women at the tomb — eyewitnesses the first century would have ignored — and what that tells us about the reliability of the resurrection accounts and the dignity God gives to those the world overlooks.

What do you do when someone's life can't be explained away? Jesus couldn't even stop to eat — and the people closest to him thought he'd lost his mind.

In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis dig into one of the most theologically loaded passages in Mark's Gospel: the moment Jesus' family tries to pull him away while the scribes accuse him of being possessed by Beelzebub. At the center of it all is a question that has haunted believers for centuries — what exactly is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and is it possible I've committed it?

Pastor Steven walks through the Greek text to show why this isn't a one-and-done sin, but a posture — a persistent, willful rejection of who Jesus is. With help from the warning passages in Hebrews, the Acts 27 shipwreck argument from Tom Schreiner, and Jeremiah's promise that God puts his own fear in the hearts of his people, the guys unpack why these hard warnings are actually instruments of grace rather than threats to our assurance.

Then Jesus does something strange: he looks at the crowd sitting around him and says, these are my mother and brothers. Not a rejection of his family — but a redefinition of what family means for those who follow him. The church isn't a club. It's a covenant community, and membership in it means more than shared bloodlines ever could.

What does it actually mean to do ministry — and what does it look like to live from rest rather than just for it?

In this episode, Pastors Stephen and Ben are joined by a special guest: Pastor Buck Rogers of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Braselton. Together they walk through Mark 3:7–19, where Jesus takes his disciples to the beach before ascending a mountain to call the Twelve. It's a deceptively simple passage that opens up into something bigger: a master class on how Jesus showed ministry before he shared it.

From the crowds pressing in at the sea to the quiet of the mountain where Jesus names his apostles, Pastor Buck traces two movements — observing ministry, then learning it. Along the way, the conversation gets practical: What does it mean to withdraw when the world won't stop chasing you? What does the calling of the Twelve tell us about friendship, vocation, and belonging? And what does Judas being on the list have to teach us about what it means to let people belong before they believe? In other words … So, what about us?

What happens when our carefully constructed religious identities become barriers to the very grace we're seeking?

This exploration of Mark 2:23-3:6 challenges us to examine whether we're clinging to old wineskins when Christ offers us new wine. The passage reveals Jesus walking through grain fields on the Sabbath, his disciples plucking heads of grain, and the Pharisees immediately crying foul. But Jesus doesn't argue about rule-keeping—instead, he points them to David entering God's house and eating the bread of presence.

The profound truth here isn't about which rules we can bend when we have needs; it's about recognizing that the Sabbath itself was always pointing forward to something greater. Jesus claims to be Lord of the Sabbath, then proves it by healing a man with a withered hand.

The Pharisees had made their identity so wrapped up in Sabbath-keeping that when the fulfillment of the Sabbath stood before them, they couldn't recognize him. We face the same temptation today—making our identity about how well we serve Christ rather than resting in what Christ has done for us.

The shift from working six days then resting to resting first in Christ then working out of that rest changes everything. Are we approaching Sunday as a burden to check off, or as the refreshing renewal God intended? The bread of presence sat in God's light all week, then was refreshed every Sabbath—a beautiful picture of how we're meant to be renewed in God's presence regularly.

The question for us isn't just what we shouldn't do on Sundays, but whether we're experiencing the joy and rest that comes from being with our King.

Jesus walks past a tax booth, calls a corrupt man by name, and ends up at his dinner table surrounded by people everyone else had written off.

In episode 4, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis dig into the calling of Levi — what it actually cost him to walk away, why Jesus didn't bother explaining the benefits package, and what it means that the "sinners" in this story were comfortable enough to show up for dinner.

They also wrestle with some of Jesus's most confusing imagery: new cloth, old garments, new wine, old wineskins. What's he really saying to people who keep living like the promises haven't been fulfilled? And what does that look like in our own lives?

What does the Mission Conference have to do with your stress on a random Tuesday?

In this episode, Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis dig into Romans 1:1-7 and 16:25-27, exploring the surprising connection between the resurrection power of Jesus and the everyday grind of life. Starting with an honest confession about feeling overwhelmed — selling a house, juggling kids' schedules, and the temptation to see missions as just one more obligation — the conversation unpacks how the gospel reaching the nations isn't separate from your daily struggles but is actually fuel for them.

The guys trace the Greek word for "power" through both the introduction and conclusion of Romans, celebrate what they call the "kingdom wins loop," and tackle a listener question about whether Satan still has access to heaven. If you've ever wondered why you should care about what God is doing on the other side of the world when you can barely keep your own life together, this one's for you.

Four friends tear a roof apart to get a paralyzed man to Jesus, and instead of healing his body, Jesus says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Why? In this episode, we dig into Mark 2:1-12 and explore why Jesus addressed the disease before the symptom, what it means that he saw their faith, and why he didn't try to reason the scribes out of their doubt — he met it with power instead.

So, what about us? Pastors Steven, Ben, and Travis talk about what happens when your mind hits a mystery it can't solve — the Trinity, the problem of evil, why suffering exists — and why Jesus doesn't hand you a theology textbook. He points you to the power and says, "Let that settle your heart." We also ask what it looks like to be the kind of friend who won't let obstacles, comfort, or busy schedules keep you from getting someone to Jesus.

If you have questions as we continue through Mark or as we look ahead to Romans 1:1-7 for the Mission Conference, please send them to: [email protected].