The Goodness of God

By Trey Comstock

Every week, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily talk about Scripture and what it means to try and be the Church in the 21st Century.

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FAQs about The Goodness of God:

How many episodes does The Goodness of God have?

The podcast currently has 151 episodes available.

The Goodness of God episodes:

October 08, 2024 Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
God upended the entire cosmos for love of us. What are we doing in respond? God suffers willingly, everyday, for love of us? Do we even come close to matching God with reciprocal passion? Romance may seem an odd angle to approach to the Letter to the Hebrews, but Scripture contains a long tradition of interpreting God's relationship with humanity in romantic terms. Approaching it this way, we have this lover willing to everything for us. Are we willing to do anything in response?
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52min
October 02, 2024 Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22
God isn't a character in the Book of Esther, yet it's all about doing what God wants. It's a realistic telling of uncertainty and needing to act, when you don't have all the confirmations that you want. God has arranged things in perfect order, but Esther and Mordecai can't see the full picture. They act. It works. God's people were saved, and God's will was done. We too live in that situation most of the time. We don't always know and have to discern as best we can.

We Don't Talk About Haman (Maccabeats)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjmLkEcaUAA&ab_channel=Maccabeats

Purim Song (Maccabeats)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgJInVvJSZg&ab_channel=MaccabeatsChannel
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48min
September 27, 2024 How to Restart a Church: Love UMC, Baytown, TX
Love UMC, in Baytown, Texas, was born out of a sudden need for a United Methodist witness in a city that was once well served. Right now, they are a scrappy new church start that first met in a decked out barn and now meets at a local college and various locations around the community. At the core of their vision is an inclusive theology that leverages the power of diversity. Suburbs and suburban churches can quickly become tiny boxes of conformity and uniformity. Love UMC strikes out in a totally different direction. What if every kind of person could find a home in a church?
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41min
September 24, 2024 Mark 9:30-27
Humans seem dead set on claiming every advantage possible. The greater the power that they have merely raises the stakes of what they will try to claim. God has literally all the power in the universe. Jesus as a God among us contained that power. How did he use it? He died for us rather than demanding a life of advantage.
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53min
September 19, 2024 Mark 8:27-38
Jesus was just as human as we was divine. He was God among us, but he felt and had all the same instincts as every other human - including the instinct towards self preservation. In calling Peter, "Satan," we see some of that instinct bleeding through. Across the Gospels, we see Christ wrestle with this idea that he is to die That struggle opens up for us an opportunity to witness the true character of Christ, and to understand that God always invites rather than force.
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41min
September 13, 2024 How to Restart a Church: What to do About Small Churches
Lovett Weems Jr. wrote a fascinating dive into the statics behind the growth in small churches. That is that 70% of all churches now have less than 100 regard attenders, and that the median church size in most denominations has shrunk. Many tiny churches have closed, but many have an opportunity to remain viable. The big question is how to do you do and remain actually focused of doing the work of the church. There is a real place for small, intimate, nimble churches who do vital ministry and let folks have a deeper connection with the people that they worship with. Sharing more than prayers is a way to start - coming together in networks of small churches to do more and take the edge off the isolation.

"5 Ways Forward for Very Small Congregations" by Lovett Weems Jr.
https://www.churchleadership.com/leading-ideas/6-ways-forward-for-very-small-congregations/
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39min
September 11, 2024 Mark 7:24-37
The interaction between Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7 is profoundly baffling. He definitely call her a dog, and not even a nice kind of dog, and she then quips back at him. They depart friends? Her daughter certainly receives the healing love of God. So, what do we do with all of this? It is dark humor, or cultural bias, or an example of Christ growing as a human, or an example of the humility that we all should practice before God? Maybe, it's all of that. Whatever it is, it certainly shows the breadth of God's love.
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44min
September 04, 2024 The Goodness of God: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
God's people (literally anyone who has claimed that title over the centuries) have a shockingly long history of hypocrisy. We seemingly live for the opportunity to judge others for their behavior even as we live in a wildly ungodly ways. Sure, our New Testament antagonists, the Pharisees, get called out for it here, but Christians picked up that mantle and ran with it in a 2,000 year long unbroken streak. Blessedly for us, God isn't like that. God sees your motivations and offers grace rather than judging you on your execution.
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38min
August 30, 2024 How to Restart a Church: Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath and Her Farmastery
This week, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily are joined by the Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath to talk about amazing Farmastery (Farm + Monastery), Spring Forest, where she is the Abbess and now lead farm worker. All of this grows out of a lifetime of various streams come together for her from being a young girl finding peace on a neighbor's farm, to being a professor of evangelism leading innovative urban ministry, to meeting a Kenyan pastor who is also a farmer. It all leads to an open ended, open minded, creation and creator focused spiritual community that is part working CSA, part new monastic community, and part safe and healing space for anyone in need of such a thing.

Elaine's Website:
elaineaheath.org

Spring Forest's website:
springforest.org
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54min
August 28, 2024 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43
The ancient temple in Jerusalem was more than a power symbol of God's importance. It contained at least a piece of God's presence. God is everywhere, but God also setup a specific outpost there in the Holy of Holies. In claiming a physical throne for God's self, God powerfully illustrates the true way of things. God reigns. God should be the one who reigns in our own lives as well.
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43min

FAQs about The Goodness of God:

How many episodes does The Goodness of God have?

The podcast currently has 151 episodes available.