The Narrow Door

Hebrews 5:12-14 makes a distinction between an infant believer and mature believer and interestingly, being one of the two has to do with the ability to distinguish the teaching that is coming from God and the teaching that is coming from the enemy or -- good and evil. Things get really complicated because the enemy knows the scriptures better than most and his work is to deceive, sow doubt and distort the Word that God has given to us resulting in confusion and division. How do we make sure not to fall for this trickery? That is one of the burning questions to be answered on this episode along with what is the quirkiest thing about Bernz's mom and what is Insta Harry and Tina's fave Zumba move? It's a hard-hitting one today, Door-itos!

Halo! Totally didn't plan this but we love it when the stars align - we're talking about Heaven on All Saints' Day 😇 Did you know that God's promise at the end of His salvation plan is for Heaven to come down here on earth? When that happens, there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain (Rv 21:4). Literally! At this point, I think we can say the story of the Bible in a nutshell is about how God has been trying to unite Heaven and earth (the world's original state) since the sin of Adam. The history in the Bible tells us that there have been many failed attempts because we couldn't keep our end of the deal but, of course, God's salvation plan will eventually fulfill and all will be restored. The question is - how do we make sure to be part of that if it were to happen today? 'Cause I hear they serve the best bread there. Sourdough? Focaccia? Ciabatta? Actually, it's naan of the above I'M SORRY NOT SORRY 🙊

I think we all know without question by now that God's heart for us is "lavish l♥️ve" as Brother JPaul so often puts it 😜 But in order to keep basking in that love, we need to put our God-given free will to good use and do our part to belong to Him. And according to the Bible, this isn't some vague undertaking but it comes down to LABO-ing - Listening, Accepting, Believing, Obeying - the word of God. This is the seed (Luke 8:11) and as it is the beginning of all life in creation, so it is with God. Now what of the 2 kinds of seeds, the harvest, and their different end results in Mt 13:24-30? A judgment, yes, but perhaps instead of letting that strike fear in our hearts we should make an effort to understand it so that we can make informed choices. Think of it this way - God is giving us a reviewer with all the answers for the big exam. Whether we study or not is entirely up to us. Needless to say, we're Team Study 🤓

It's what makes us Christian - recognizing and accepting Jesus as the promised Messiah when he came 2000-ish years ago. The first coming is something that we are all familiar with but on this episode, we take a slightly different but infinitely fascinating look at what Jesus did while he was here by breaking down God's promises in Jer 31. In verse 22, He promised to start a new thing with a woman surrounding a man as fulfilled by Jesus being born of a virgin. In verse 27, He promised that there will be a sowing of two kinds of seed as we see fulfilled in Mt 13:24-30. And in verse 31, the new covenant is promised which Jesus made at the night of Passover. You know, the Last Supper scene you saw everyday in the dining room next to the giant spoon and fork. And then your Tita Bhaby enters asking what's for lunch and you point with your lips to the sweet-style spaghetti with the red hotdog. Shouts 🇵🇭♥️

Insta Abi once said that sometimes, when she teaches about the covenants, she gets tired of repeating how the chosen people kept breaking the covenant again and again and it makes her reflect on the heart of God. And I think I get it. WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS 😩 Today, we are touching on the period of the judges, kings and finally the prophets who prophesied about the coming of a Messiah and this is where we can tie a nice bow around all the other previous eras up to this point because simply put, this is the Old Testament Bible. And the mystery that has been hidden all throughout these different periods is ✨Jesus✨. So many things were prophesied about him and this is super important because God does nothing without first making His plans known known (Amos 3:7) and believing in God's promises when they fulfill is what faith essentially is. This is what the disciples of Jesus professed at the time of first coming (and us today!) which was actually very difficult at the time because they all had their own ideas of who was to come as Savior. What can I say. He was no Oppa. 

How does Moses style his hair? With a parting HAHAHAHA. Sorry. Hope you Door-itos had a restful weekend 'cause we're hitting the ground running today with the epic period of Joseph to Moses (legends!). There is no way we could possibly do justice to this super eventful and colorful era with an hour-long convo but the point is this: God made promises to Abraham that he didn't live long enough to see fulfilled but God, being the faithful and promise-keeping God that He is, fulfilled them through Moses. The Israelites though were a different story - they were whiny and unbelieving despite all of God's amaaaazing provisions through the desert and ended up roaming for 40 years when the trip to Canaan should've taken them a couple of weeks! Another thing worthy of note is the pattern of creation and recreation that is emerging in the salvation plan of God. And then there's Moses, faithful and humble Moses, who saw the Promised Land from afar but couldn't enter. How come? 💔 Bust out your Bibles and come on in! Mind the parting.

So it seems like the best joke I could find about Abraham is "Who was the smartest man in the Bible? Abraham. Because he knew a Lot" and I feel like he deserves so much better because out of everyone that's been given a covenant so far, Abraham is the only one who was able to keep it! I mean, fine, he didn't live long enough to see the fulfillment of all of God's promises to him and well, yes, there was that one incident with Hagar that was weird but he's the father of faith darn it so please. Send your best Abraham jokes my way. Other than that, it's quite the story time on today's episode which is why we have popcorn! We also talk about the kimchi that Bernz's mom made for us. We're not a food show, promise. Back to our man Abe, he knew exactly what God's promises were which is why he was able to hold on to them until the end so we hereby pronounce him as the patron saint of blind faith ✨

1 Cor 10:11 tells us that the history that we see in the Bible serves as examples and warnings for us and boy oh boy does the story of Noah have them in spades! After the sin of Adam and Eve, God chose Noah and had him preach for a hundred years for the people to repent. Noah also warned everyone about the flood that was coming but no one listened to him and in the end, only Noah and his fam for a grand total of 8 people were saved. There's a popular notion that Old Testament God is a grumpy old man but on this episode, we get a glimpse of God's heart for all men to be saved and of His patience as He waits for our repentance. Why are we so stubborn and hard of heart? And after going through one deluge of a lesson, did Noah and his family keep the new covenant that was given to them? Well. Let's just say that what happened next didn't float God's boat 🙊

Greetings and salutations, Door-itos! 💙 Welcome to today's jam-packed episode where we welcome Insta Abi of NHNE as she kicks off our journey into the different covenants between God and His chosen people starting with Adam. Yes, Adam! (Hos 6:7) That whole story of Adam and Eve is rife with fascinating and puzzling imagery like how Adam was made from dust and given the breath of life, the two kinds of trees and their fruit, the talking serpent... It's a story that's been told time and time again and much has been said but what exactly happened here?? We are breaking down all that figurative language through what we see in the Scripture and it's amazeballs so click play and prepare to pick up your jaw from the floor 😱

It's a special episode for no reason whatsoever! 🥳 Today, we're revealing your new nickname which we hope you love as much as we do and we're taking you to the gag side by throwing in a blooper reel. This is one you wanna watch on YouTube obvi (https://www.youtube.com/c/TheNarrowDoorPodcast) but just putting it on here to let you know. Enjoy! Class resumes on Thursday 🤓