The Cory Truax Show

On This Episode:

A NEW IDEA FOR 2023

This year, I’m going to try and open every show with a reflection on Scripture reading. The twist is that I’ll be using a CHRONOLOGICAL reading of the Bible. So, for this week, we start in Genesis.

LISTERNER QUESTION: WHAT DID JESUS MEAN WHEN HE SAID….

Jesus said that unless you’re more righteous than the Pharisees, you won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What did that mean? This question is a fantastic opportunity to learn how we understand verses in their paragraphs, chapters, and in larger context.

THOUGHTS ON THE BILLS PLAYER WHO COLLAPSED

Of course, this event is unspeakably sad. I’m noticing, though, some folks using the event for their own agenda. I want to kindly and humbly argue against that tactic.

NEW YORK TIMES ADVICE FOR THE NEW YEAR

I respond (and sometimes mock and correct) advice the New York Times gave its readers for the new year.

On this Episode:

MY MOMENTOUS YEAR

From engagement, to home selling, to home buying, to travel, and finally to wonderful marriage, it was an incredible year for me.

THEME OF THE YEAR 1: Anger

From viral videos of temper tantrums on planes, in groceries stores and in restaurants, the rage came often this year. Let’s consider how NOT to add to it and how to be a force for peace in the new year.

THEME OF THE YEAR 2: Everyone noticed men are falling behind.

Even the secular media started noticing we have a masculinity crisis on our hands. In God’s ordered world, we need men to eschew childishness, embrace the challenge of being responsible for others and to lead.

THEME OF THE YEAR 3: Winsomeness vs. Confrontation

In both Christianity and American Conservatism, we’re relitigating the role of power and persuasion. I’ve wrestled with it all year, and I have some final thoughts.

On this Episode:

THE HOPES AND FEARS OF ALL THE YEARS

Jesus's coming was the long-awaited answer to all our hopes for a good world being fulfilled. I want to walk through those details and demonstrate how Jesus fulfills our every hope and quells our every fear.

ORIGIN STORIES

Christmas is the Christian's origin story. Another compelling origin story is how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came to write, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I want to tell you that story.

JESUS CAME AS A BABY -- BUT ALSO A KING

Christmas is good for reflection and celebration. I want to close the show by challenging you to find some silence to question where the arrived and soon-coming King's kingship hasn't fully claimed your life.

On This Episode:

ADVENT WEEK 4: Love

The Christmas story is filled with love – Elizabeth choosing joy instead of jealousy about Mary’s pregnancy and Joseph choosing belief instead of skepticism about the same. But the greatest act of love was the incarnation itself. I have some thoughts from Romans 5 about how this Christmas seasons exemplifies God’s love for his children.

CHRISTIAN LOCALISM

There’s a lot of debate right now about something called “Christian Nationalism.” I want to tell you why Christian Localism is the much better idea. This is the idea that first being concerned with your street, neighborhood, school or workplace will be much more effective than trying to win the government of a country.

NATIONAL HEALTH CRISIS

I know the holidays are a terrible time to talk about this. However, I saw, back-to-back, a story about our obesity rate and then another about how giant food makers give millions to dietician and nutritionist programs. I have just a few thoughts.

BEWARE OF WHO YOU LISTEN TO

For the Christian, it’s tempting to listen to the voices that agree with you politically. It’s important to recognize, though, that many of those voices are not Christian voices.

On This Episode:

ADVENT WEEK 3: Joy

When hope is fulfilled, there is joy. We’ll take a brief look at the shepherds, Simeon, and Ana to examine how the first Advent brought joy. We’ll also take that cue to think about the first Advent as a signpost, pointing us to the second and final Advent of Christ. If we’ll live in that light, we’ll walk in joy.

WHAT DOES “REIGNING WITH CHRIST” MEAN?

I heard a challenging sermon this week about what it would mean or us to actually reign with Christ right now – reigning in our households and over the parts of Christ’s Kingdom he’s entrusted to us. I’ll play you some of that audio that has a particular challenge for Christian parents.

THE 303 CREATIVE VS. ELENIS CASE

Seeing the progressive, secular Left react to that case crystalized three things for me. First, there’s a segment of the secular hard left that despises Christians. Second, the modern Western world has concocted a novel system where one’s sexual desires are a CORE identity. That’s new in human history, and most of the planet now has no paradigm for sex being someone’s core identity. Finally, the just ruling is clear. The Supreme Court should end Colorado’s prejudiced law.

On This Episode:

ADVENT WEEK 2: Preparation

Week 1’s theme was hope. As we hope for ultimate Advent of Christ, though, we prepare. I’ll note in this segment that a too-common experience is that a promise – even a fulfilled promise – can sometimes leave us underwhelmed. Sometimes we overestimate our joy at an experience. The Second Advent will not be that, though. Whatever hope you have for Jesus’s Second Coming, you’re not hoping enough. So, as we await that hope, we prepare. I’ll give you some ideas on how to do that.

WHAT HAPPENED, WHERE WE ARE, AND WHERE WE’RE GOING

I saw data this week that recorded the rapid secularization of the United States. As Christianity’s influence has plummeted, the consequences have been devastating to the culture. I also want to point you to even more secular societies as a warning of where we might be headed if the church doesn’t go about its own purity and renewal to lead the culture around it in renewal.

OUR MEDIA DIET IS MAKING US SICK

Just as a bad nutrition regimen will make us sick, our media diet of relying on social media and internet is making emotionally, mentally and even physically sick. I have a solution.

On This Episode:

GRATEFULNESS IN AN ENTITLED TIME

Happy Thanksgiving! We live in a time totally unimpressed with our relatively easy lives. I have some thoughts to encourage you to be blown away by the physical and spiritual blessings we enjoy.

ADVENT WEEK 1: HOPE

One of main themes of Christmas is light invading the darkness. We live in a weary world that needs the thrill of hope. We live in a captive world that longs for Emmanuel – God with us. To appreciate fully the light that has come and will come again, we need to take the time to understand how dark it is.

INCARNATION – WHAT WE DO WITH OUR BODIES MATTERS

God chose to put on flesh and dwell among us. This means A LOT. One implication is God’s value of the physical world and how when we live, where we live, and what we do is eternally meaningful.

MUCH MORE

On This Episode:

ON MARRIAGE

I’m finally a married man, and I couldn’t be happier. I highly recommend marriage, first because of the companionship. There’s nothing like coming home to your best friend (I’m also fortunate my best friend is a beautiful woman). But second, I recommend it because it calls us higher and to be better. I also recommend all inclusive resorts in Cancun! I have some other thoughts to share on my wedding and the first two glorious weeks of marriage.

DON’T LET THE ELECTION GET YOU DOWN

Elections used to affect me emotionally. If you’re disappointed, let me challenge you on that to ask if elections have too much a hold of your heart.

MY ELECTION 2022 TAKE-AWAYS

1. It was a tie – maybe a slight win for the Right.

2. The only political brand more toxic than liberalism is Trumpism. I’ll prove it.

3. Abortion, sadly, mattered a lot – but not as much as the Left is saying.

4. Ticket-splitting is back and favors candidates just being the more normal of the two.

5. Conservatives need to USE early voting and mail-in voting instead of being skeptical of it.

6. Marriage and parenthood are starting to be emerging voter blocs.

On This Episode:

LEARNING FROM BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY

A listener sent me an effective line from this popular series of books that highlights a them of my show: our crisis of meaning and the negative effect thereof. This also served as a great reminder to watch, listen, and read with discernment – filtering everything through Scripture.

ELECTION SEASON BRINGS MADNESS TO PULPITS

From a “Renew America” rally in a church to Stacey Abrams taking the mic at a church on Sunday morning, Biblical illiteracy ranging to heresy is pouring out of our political process. I’ll play you the audio and provide critique.

ACCOUNTABILITY FOR PANIC

Near the end of the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, various hysterical people warned us of martial law impositions or an unwillingness to give up power. That’s happening again regarding right-leaning candidates likely gaining majorities in a few weeks. These claims have always proved false, and our institutions always hold up. There needs to be accountability for the panic-causing press.

THE CHANGING MUSCULAR CONSERVATISM

I’ve been chronicling the change in the church and on the Right regarding the role of government and the role of Christians in government. I’m still wrestling through it myself. In this installment, I have an argument from the Federalist that makes the full-throated argument that folks on the Right need to embrace the thinking of the Left: get power and use it to impose our ideas.