It is always a delight to talk with my friend, Dustin Messer. Dr. Messer is vicar of All Saints Dallas and visiting professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Dallas. Messer has contributed dozens of articles at Kuyperian Commentary and has co-hosted dozens of podcasts with me over the years. We re-gather the band to talk about Advent: its practices and meaning and generosity.

I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Mitch Chase, Professor at Southern Theological Seminary, on a recent substack making the case for Church Membership. You can subscribe to Dr. Chase's excellent substack and support his writing.

I interacted with a TikTok bible teacher who raised the question and offered a response to his analysis, as well as considered the phrasing of the question itself.

For more details, see my summary of the life of Samson in this episode.

My old friend, Alastair Roberts, joins me to discuss the Advent Calendar and its relation to Christmas. This is a really important conversation about the calendar and biblical chronology.

This episode looks at the Season of Advent with new eyes; contemplating its place in the Calendar of the Church. Advent precedes Christmas because the emotional and normative demands the meditation of promise before fulfillment.

Dr. Alastair concludes with some practical thoughts on celebrating Advent.

In this video, I answer Lecrae's most recent monologue against the institutional church.

This episode offers a quick overview of Thanksgiving and the distinctive nature of giving thanks. Tomorrow, we celebrate a more sacred, religious holiday than Christmas in the U.S. Even unbelievers sit around sharing their reasons for gratitude, but they have to borrow the Christian language of Thanksgiving in order to give thanks.

Gratitude has always been a Christian virtue, and it is articulated most clearly at the table of the Lord. When we feel grateful, we are moved to share our received goodness with others.

Resources:

Thanksgiving and the Church Calendar

The Discipline of Thanksgiving by Joel Ellis

Music and Editing by George Reed

What if I provided a dummies' guide to the life of Samson in 15 minutes? Would you listen to it?

Judges 13-16 is fraught with misunderstandings because people want to treat Samson like a 21st-century monk. But Samson is a Nazarite/Priest chosen from his mother's womb. His covenantal context and calling are radically different than just about anything in the Old Testament Scriptures, which means the Bible compels us to see him with different eyes.

Music and Editing by George Reed

Resources:

Sermons Series on Samson -15 Sermons

Through New Eyes by James B. Jordan

Tyndale Commentary on Judges by Arthur Cundall

I had a great time chatting with Brandon Lansdown from Reformation Coffee. We met at the Grace Agenda in Moscow, ID and I was really pleased with the coffee beans and the robust quality of their coffee.

This was a back porch conversation about coffee experiences and how to move our culture to a more mature coffee-drinking corpus.

Type SUBFREE with any subscription to get the first 12oz bag for free.

Welcome to this subscriber-only episode, where I continue to offer a chapter-by-chapter review of Through New Eyes.

As James Jordan summarizes it: “The highest heaven is invisible to us, but the firmament-heaven gives us a visible blueprint.” So, when we look at the firmament, we see God’s blueprint; we see his heavenly creation and should think about how that reflects the highest heaven. Birds are like angels; sun is like God’s mercy; rain is like his gentleness; the moon is like his glory; but they are also rulers of the day and night. They reflect different kinds of earthly rulers.

You can continue listening to these special episodes for $1 a month, or you can get the whole package by subscribing to the Substack Perspectivalist where you will get all these audios, special essays, and special videos.

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The rise of Oliver Anthony with his hit song, "Rich Men of North Richmond," was a prime example of the anger of the average American with what goes by the mainstream. It is evident that such tyrannical attempts to shape our imagination are not bringing in the ratings they thought they would. Thus, alternative voices have risen from the music, media, and movie industries. Netflix no longer holds the monopoly on entertainment.

In this episode, I speak with Loor.TV CEO and Founder, Marcus Pittman, about their project to bring a new standard to Christian movies. Christians shouldn't suck at their efforts, and Loor is a worthy attempt to provide quality movie entertainment.

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