The Present-Day Saint

0043 - This is the final episode of our Galatians study. We have walked through the entire book of Galatians verse by verse using "Galatians for You" by Tim Keller as our guide. In this final section Paul issues a final warning and then an invitation. His final warning is similar to the rest of the letter in regards to not going back to legalism. His invitation is to a life of peace and mercy resting in the saving power of Jesus. We also talk about an area that I disagree with Keller on at the end of the chapter. The reference "the Israel of God" is hotly debated among Christians and I let you know my position and why I disagree with Keller. In the end I pray that God will use this Galatians study to grow believers in the gospel and expose others to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 

0042 - In this episode of our Galatians study we walk through the last verse of Chapter 5 and the first five verses of Chapter 6. Here Paul is challenging us to live out the implications of 5:13 - where he told us to love each other by serving each other. We talk about how we can't do that if I am focusing on myself. We discuss how insecurity and pride are really just two sides of the same coin and both of them are the wrong way to look at life. We use Tim Keller's "Galatians for You" as our guide and he helps us to understand what it means to bear each others burdens. This was such an important episode for me to challenge myself to live out the gospel in a better way.  I hope you enjoy. 

0041 - We continue our march through Galatians verse by verse by taking a look at Chapter 5, verses 16-25. In this section Paul talks about the works of the flesh and compares them to the fruit of the Spirit. We break down both lists. We also discuss what it means to walk in the Spirit vs. walking in the flesh. As always we use Tim Keller's, "Galatians For You" as our guide for the discussion.  

0040 - In this episode of the podcast we continue our march through Galatians verse by verse by looking at Chapter 5 - verses 1-15. As always we are using Tim Keller's "Galatians for You" as our guide through the epistle. In this section Paul begins to start applying the theological points he has been making in Chapters 1-4. He challenges us to walk in our Christian liberty but that doesn't mean that we are free to live any way we want. The freedom we have in Jesus is the freedom to be who we were created to be and that means following Jesus.  This is a really important section of the book because Paul shows us how the true gospel helps us walk the line between legalism and licentiousness. 

0039 - In this episode we continue to walk through the book of Galatians verse by verse using Tim Keller's commentary, "Galatians for You" as our guide. In this section Paul challenges the Galatians that they can either live free in Jesus or put themselves back into bondage under the Mosaic Law. He uses Sarah and Hagar to represent those that are slaves and those that are free. Sarah represents those that trust in God and Hagar represents those that are relying on their good works to make themselves right with God. We also discuss what it looks like to be a true Christian in regards to keeping the law and relying on the law for our standing with God. This is a great section of the book and I hope this study will bless you. 

0038 - In this episode I got a chance to interview Chip Thompson, the Executive Director of Tri-Grace Ministries in Ephraim, Utah. In the interview Chip talks about why he moved his family here to Utah 30 years ago and he picked Ephraim, a small Mormon community in central Utah. He talks about starting a church and getting involved in the community in Ephraim. Eventually God led them to be engaged with the college in town and that ultimately led them to buy a piece of property adjacent to the college and start a coffee shop. He talks about how God has used the coffee shop to witness to those in the community and at the college. He also shared with us about the Biblical archeology museum in the coffee shop and about the tours to Israel that he leads every year. We talk about all these things and more in this podcast. Check out his ministry here - www.trigrace.org

0037 - We continue our march through Galatians by taking a look at Chapter 4 - verses 8-20. As always we are using Tim Keller's "Galatians for You" as our guide through the book. In this section Paul discusses his changed relationship with the Galatians. They used to adore him and now they are angry at him. Why? Because he is challenging them with Gospel truth. The Judaizers are flattering them and trying to get the Galatians to love them. Paul is lovingly challenging the Galatians and trying to get them to love Jesus. We discuss this in detail as well as the implications for ministry. We also talk about how God uses suffering in our lives as well as the identity of Paul's "thorn in the flesh." All this and more in this episode!!!

0036 - In this episode I interview Adam Tucker from Southern Evangelical Seminary about Epistemology!! Epistemology is just the study of how we know what is real. Many people think that we can't know anything at all or that we can't know anything for certain. If that is true then we certainly can't know if Christianity is true. In this episode Adam walks us through how we know things as human beings and how we've gotten off track in our thinking of how we know things due to bad philosophy. He explains how we know things and how God knows things. If you follow Adam's arguments through to their conclusion then it means that God could not have a body and a man could never become God. This obviously has huge implications for conversations with LDS.  We also touch on what Biblical Faith is at the beginning of the podcast. We discuss how it is not based on feelings or emotions but is better defined as active trust based on the evidence. All that and more in this episode!! Check out www.ses.edu for more info on Southern Evangelical Seminary and also to download the short book, "Why Trust the God of the Bible?"

0035 - We continue our walk through Galatians by taking a look at the end of Chapter 3 and the very beginning of Chapter 4. As always we are using Tim Keller's book, "Galatians For You" to walk through the book of Galatians verse by verse. In this episode we discuss what it means that those of us in Jesus are "all sons of God." We discuss what sonship means and why it matters in our Christian walk. We discuss what it means to "put on Christ" and what that should look like in our lives. We discuss how believers are heirs to the promise of Abraham and the implications of that. Finally we discuss the difference between the objective truth of believers being in Christ and the subjective, experiential truth of having the Holy Spirit in us. I hope this study will bless you!

0034 - In this episode I am joined again by David Halevy from Builders of Israel. In this episode we discuss what the Biblical Temple was and why it existed. We discuss the nature of the Temple in light of the Mosaic and Abrahamic Covenants. We talk about how the Temple was about the way we relate to Yahweh (God) and how the Temple showed us how unworthy we were. We then discuss how all that changed with Jesus' death on the cross. We then compare the Biblical understanding of the Temple with the LDS Temples that have nothing at all in common. We talk about where much of the LDS Temple ceremonies come from and how they have nothing to do with what happened in the Temple in the first century. I hope you will be challenged and encouraged by this episode.