The Ancient Path with Cliff Johnson

Are you following God—or trying to please everyone around you?

Before we meet David in the fields, we need to meet the king who came before him. In the opening episode of our eight-part Life of David series, Pastor Cliff Johnson explores the backstory in 1 Samuel—and the difference between looking like a leader and having a heart that follows God.

Israel wanted a king like the nations around them. Saul seemed to have everything they were looking for: wealth, stature and an impressive appearance. Yet when the moment came to present him to the people, he was hiding among the baggage.

We follow the story from Hannah and Samuel to Saul's rise and the confrontation that exposed his deepest struggle: he feared the people and listened to their voice. His story raises a question that reaches into our families, workplaces and daily decisions. What happens when the need for approval becomes louder than the voice of God?

This is not a call to become a flawless hero. David's story will have failures of its own. It is an invitation to humility, dependence on God's grace and a heart willing to turn toward Him.

A question to carry into your week: where is the desire for someone's approval making it harder to do what you know is right?

Scripture explored: 1 Samuel 1–3; 8; 9:1–2; 10:20–27; 15:1–26. The episode closes by anticipating David's anointing and the contrast in 1 Samuel 16:7.

THE CHRISTMAS I NEVER KNEW — OUR FREE GIFT TO YOU
Rediscover the people and places behind the Christmas story. Cliff's short book, The Christmas I Never Knew, is free throughout November and December as both an e-book and an audiobook. Read or listen together as a family as Christmas draws near. Sign up to receive both in your inbox, along with The Ancient Path's Monday morning devotional.
Get your free e-book and audiobook: https://ancientpath.bible/christmas

SUPPORT THE ANCIENT PATH
Help keep this teaching free for others. As our thank-you for a gift of $25 or more, we'll mail you a copy of Pursuit: a 40-day guide through the spiritual disciplines, with short morning and evening readings.
Give and receive Pursuit

WATCH, LISTEN & FOLLOW
New episodes every Monday.
The Ancient Path website
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube

#LifeOfDavid #BibleStudy #TheAncientPath

The people repented. God relented. Jonah resented.

Why was Jonah angry at God for forgiving Nineveh? In the final episode of our Book of Jonah series, Pastor Cliff Johnson explores Jonah 4—and the grace we gladly receive but sometimes struggle to celebrate for someone else.

Jonah sits outside the city, waiting to see what God will do. A plant gives him shade. A worm takes it away. A scorching wind exposes more than his discomfort: it exposes his heart. Why does the prophet care so deeply about a plant, yet struggle to care about the people God loves?

We follow that question into the stories of Ananias and Saul, Peter and Cornelius, and our own lives. God's compassion does not excuse wrongdoing. It challenges us to ask whether we have written off people He has not stopped pursuing. The book ends with God's question—and leaves us to consider our answer.

A question to carry into your week: who would you struggle to celebrate if God showed them mercy?

Keep walking: Overwhelmed? Read 10 Psalms in 10 days.
Still Waters is our free 10-day prayer journey through the Psalms. Ten Psalms. Ten days. About ten minutes a day. One psalm, a short reflection, and a prayer you can actually pray.

When you cannot find the words to pray, the Psalms give you words. Written by Chris Pappalardo for The Ancient Path, Still Waters helps you pray the way God's people have prayed for three thousand years. Find rest for your soul. Download Still Waters for free and start today.

Give:
Everything The Ancient Path makes—this podcast, the Still Waters guide—is completely free, and it stays free because of kind, generous friends who give. When you make a one-time gift, we'll send you Pursuit, a 40-day devotional on the spiritual disciplines, built on the ancient rhythm of the Daily Office. Give here.

🎧 New episodes every Monday. Watch or listen to the full Jonah series at ancientpath.bible/podcast.

Was Nineveh Waiting for God?

What if God is already at work in the people you have written off?

Jonah finally goes to Nineveh—but his heart has not caught up with his calling. In Part 3 of our journey through the Book of Jonah, Pastor Cliff Johnson explores Jonah's brief warning, the city's unexpected repentance, and God's mercy toward people the prophet would rather avoid.

Through Jonah 3, we consider the difference between reluctant obedience and sharing God's heart for others. Could the neighbor, coworker, or friend you assume would never respond be more ready than you know?

A question to carry into your week: who have you written off—and what simple step of obedience might God be inviting you to take?

Next time: Jonah's response to Nineveh's repentance, and the surprising conclusion of the book.

Keep walking:
Still Waters is a free 10-day devotional journey through the Psalms—learning to pray the way God's people have prayed for three thousand years.
https://ancientpath.bible/still-waters

Give:
Everything The Ancient Path makes—this podcast, the Still Waters guide—is completely free, and it stays free because of kind, generous friends who give. When you make a one-time gift, we'll send you Pursuit, a 40-day devotional journey into the spiritual disciplines built on the ancient rhythm of the Daily Office.
https://funraise.org/give/Ancient-Path/3f082043-b1dc-46c5-bb80-a7fb0b01b092

New episodes every Monday:
https://ancientpath.bible/podcast

"God is a God of second chances. That is grace."

Jonah is overboard, and most of us carry a Sunday-school picture of what happens next: a roomy, Pinocchio-style belly where a prophet sits and waits it out. The real story is darker, tighter, and far more beautiful.

In this episode, Pastor Cliff Johnson picks up where chapter 1 left off: how one man's sin ripples out to everyone on board, and how pagan sailors end up looking more godly than the prophet. Their vows to Yahweh come after the sea goes calm. This is no foxhole conversion. Then we go under the water. To the ancient world the deep was the edge of Sheol itself, and that is where Jonah prays the prayer of Jonah 2. We look honestly at the great fish of Jonah 1:17 (the heat, the dark, the acid), and at the grace hidden inside it. Jonah's confession, "Salvation belongs to the Lord," is the turning point. The fish vomits him onto dry land, and Jonah 3:1 opens with a word of grace: the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

A question to carry into your week: what if the thing swallowing you right now is God's mercy keeping you alive?

Notes and full transcript: ancientpath.bible/blog/jonahs-prayer-in-the-belly-of-the-whale

Next time: Jonah chapter 3. Jonah finally walks into Nineveh, and finds that God has been preparing hearts there all along.

Keep walking: Overwhelmed? Read 10 Psalms in 10 days. Still Waters — free, from The Ancient Path — teaches you to pray the way God's people have prayed for three thousand years. Find rest for your soul. Start right now.

Give: Everything The Ancient Path makes — this podcast, the Still Waters guide — is completely free, and it stays free because of kind, generous friends who give. When you make a one-time gift, we'll send you Pursuit, a 40-day devotional on the spiritual disciplines, built on the ancient rhythm of the Daily Office. Give here: funraise.org/give/Ancient-Path

🎧 New episodes every Monday: ancientpath.bible/podcast

"When we choose a path that is opposite of the one God wants us to walk, one of the biggest lies is that it only affects us."

The Ancient Path opens with the story everyone thinks they know — and the backstory almost no one preaches. Before the ship, the storm, and the fish, Jonah was a nationalistic prophet in the pocket of an evil king (2 Kings 14), discredited by his contemporary Amos, carrying real hatred for the Assyrians. He was the worst possible choice for Nineveh. So why did God pick him?

In this episode, Pastor Cliff Johnson rebuilds the world of Jonah chapter 1: who the Assyrians really were, why Scripture puts Nineveh in the same category as Sodom and Gomorrah, what fleeing to Tarshish actually cost (the end of the known world — a year at sea, his whole life packed on a chartered ship), the storm that terrified seasoned sailors while the prophet slept, and the stunning turn where Jonah's rebellion becomes the very thing that brings pagan sailors to the living God — pointing straight ahead to Jesus, the perfect Jonah.

A question to carry into your week: where are you running — and who else is paying the price?

Notes and full transcript: ancientpath.bible/blog/why-did-jonah-run-from-god

Next time: Jonah chapter 2. The prophet is in the water, and God is not finished with him.

Keep walking: Overwhelmed? Read 10 Psalms in 10 days. Still Waters — free, from The Ancient Path — teaches you to pray the way God's people have prayed for three thousand years. Find rest for your soul. Start right now.

Give: Everything The Ancient Path makes — this podcast, the Still Waters guide — is completely free, and it stays free because of kind, generous friends who give. When you make a one-time gift, we'll send you Pursuit, a 40-day devotional on the spiritual disciplines, built on the ancient rhythm of the Daily Office. Give here: funraise.org/give/Ancient-Path

🎧 New episodes every Monday: ancientpath.bible/podcast

What path are you walking?

Most of us are standing at the same fork: a wide, well-paved road everyone seems to be taking — and a smaller path that leads somewhere older.

The Ancient Path is handcrafted Bible teaching with Pastor Cliff Johnson. Every episode is built from a blank page — the history, the context, the connections across Scripture — always asking one question: what should this truth change? Deep without being hard to follow. Practical without being shallow.

New episodes every Monday. Episode 1 arrives Monday, October 12: the Book of Jonah — a story about running, and about a God who won't stop coming after the people He loves.

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." — Jeremiah 6:16

🎧 Start here: ancientpath.bible/podcast
📖 Free 10-day devotional through the Psalms: ancientpath.bible/still-waters

What if your entire life was defined by one moment?  When people discuss you in the years to come, they don’t mention anything about your childhood, family, accomplishments, or any other defining characteristics.  They only remember one moment and the aftermath.  It would be hard to find someone in human history who fits this description better than BATHSHEBA.  Her story is typically told as a brief encounter with tragic and long-lasting consequences.  What if there was more to her life than we realize?  What if there is another way to understand her life and story than we have been told before?