Has a book ever jumped off the shelf, interrupted your life and left you forever changed? 

On today’s show the gang shares the books that have ambushed them and left them with a new view of life, themselves and God. These books have opened our eyes to beauty, truth, and goodness and we’re eternally grateful! Be warned, Listener, after this episode you will walk away with a “dangerous” reading list of books that are waiting to disrupt your life for good!

We hope you enjoy today’s show. Jesus thinks you’re the bee’s knees (aka, he likes you)

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Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

Do you know a lot about God, but still sometimes feel disconnected from him? What does it mean to love the Lord with your heart, soul, mind, and strength? 

Today’s guest, Dr. Reverend Alan Johnson shares about spiritual formation and his journey from knowing information about God to experiencing him relationally. As a pastor, Dr. Alan sheds some light on the unique challenges that ministry leaders face in cultivating their relationship with God. Anyone facing questions or trials can find it easier and safer to retreat into the realm of knowledge about God rather than wrestle relationally with these questions. Throughout the show Dr. Alan talks about his experience of spiritual formation and the practices that helped him relate to God and see himself more and more as a beloved child of God. 

So, come join us for a great conversation as we learn to let Jesus pull his weight and form us into who he made us to be, children of God. 

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Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

Does your everyday life feel boring and disconnected from a sense of meaning and purpose? What if your boring life is way more holy than you think?

On today’s show the gang tackles the topic of vocation and our desire for meaning and purpose. The question of vocation often feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack, if we miss God’s calling on our lives everything else is pointless! What if that’s not how vocation works? Looking to Martin Luther, the group discusses his idea of “The masks of God” and how it relates to vocation. God delights to work through ordinary means. Police officers, government officials, and grocers are used by God to meet our needs for safety, peace, and daily sustenance. This perspective is larger than the category of occupation, helping us understand how the embrace of a friend and our honest conversation with a loved one is God at work to meet our hearts’ need for acceptance and belonging. The group closes the conversation with a rubric for making decisions about life and vocation. 

We pray this conversation blesses you and opens your eyes to God at work for you, in the world around you. 

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Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

Is more information about God making you feel further from him? How do we know God more deeply when the only tool we have is mining for more data?

Join us for today’s episode as we navigate the dark woods of information overload. Together, Brandon, Liv, and Peter unpack the crisis of meaning and how the answer that is often presented is to amass greater knowledge about God. The difficulty with this answer is that it takes propositional knowledge about God and makes it the sum total of what it means to have a relationship with him. Many of us experience a disconnect between the information we know about God and our life experience. Is there a way to experience the truths we believe about God? The group discusses various types of knowing and how faith in God is most connected to a participatory knowing. Instead of always seeking more information, we are invited to consent to the fact that we currently are in relationship with God.

We pray you are blessed by this podcast! Jesus loves you! 

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources! Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

Does real rest feel like an elusive dream? Has your rest been turned into just another productivity hack? 

Today’s episode examines the nature of rest and why we all feel exhausted. Join Brandon, Liv, Matt and Peter as they unpack our human desire for rest and the obstacles we face to receiving it. A core insight that the group focuses on is that rest is really a trust issue. We can’t receive rest so long as we don’t trust God to give it to us. The group also challenges the assumption that we rest in order to work, citing the creation account for viewing rest as the culmination of work. The group closes out the conversation with some practical advice about how they’ve experienced rest in their own lives. 

Thanks for joining us today! Jesus loves you. Rest in his love. 

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

Does the Christian faith provide real hope for our day-to-day life? Or are we simply suffering here until we die?

In today’s episode, the group tackles the issue of whether or not faith in Jesus provides any real hope for our earthly life. Sure, we understand that one day we’ll be resurrected and live eternally, but what about dealing with all the sin and suffering we face right now? The conversation focuses on our expectations for the Christian life and our sense that we are doing something wrong if we are suffering. The group talks about how it can be freeing to simply accept the difficulty of life and lay aside attempts to deny or distract us from this reality. The episode reaches its conclusion as the hosts expound on hope as the expanding of our vision to include more than our sufferings and sin. 

Thanks for joining the discussion! Leave us a review and let us know what you think  

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

Is faith in Jesus more than intellectual assent? What if God meant for food and drink to invite us into the richness of embodied experiences of his love and goodness?

In this episode, Brandon interviews Gisela Kreglinger, co-author of “Wine in the Word,” a Bible study about wine and its place in Christian feasting and fellowship. A through-line in the conversation is the idea that modern Christianity emphasizes intellectual knowledge about God, but glosses over the idea of experiencing God with our bodies and our emotions. Gisela unpacks how wine in particular, rich in symbolism as well as flavor, is an invitation to enjoy God and his good gifts. 

Thanks for joining the discussion! Let us know what you think 

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

How are we supposed to survive this crazy world while we wait for God to redeem us and bring us home?

In today’s conversation, the gang wrestles through the question of how to endure life in the meantime between the cross and our eventual resurrection. They sit with Psalm 13 and reflect on the relatability in the psalmist’s words, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” This passage launches the group off, talking about how difficult (and dangerous) it is to give an answer for the suffering we experience in life. The conversation finds its focal point in Jesus’ passion and how he endured suffering alone so that we wouldn’t have to. 

Jesus suffered through hell for you and he promises to be with you through all of your own suffering.   

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

What is taking a spiritual retreat all about?

In today’s episode, Brandon interviews Niecy LoCricchio on her book Space to Breathe, which is aimed at helping you plan a meaningful retreat for yourself or your group. Together, Brandon and Niecy unpack the fears we often experience as we enter times of silence and intimacy with God. Throughout the conversation, Niecy gives practical advice and teaches us about the purpose of a retreat. You won’t want to miss Niecy’s unique perspective on planning for “reentry” after your retreat! 

Friend, God loves you. May you experience his goodness and find a space to simply be with him.  

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com

What if spiritual discipline is not about achieving, but about receiving?

In today’s episode, Brandon, Liv, Matt, and Peter explore the role of spiritual disciplines in the Christian life. Although easily twisted into a legalistic means of achieving moral improvement, the spiritual disciplines are actually the practices which help us receive God’s love. They are indeed disciplines, because it takes effort to train our hearts to let go of our own agenda and simply receive from God. They are paradoxically very hard and very easy all at once! But when we are freed from connecting spiritual discipline with our acceptance and self-worth, we can begin to engage with them in a receptive, curious manner. 

We pray that you hear the gracious invitation of Jesus to receive regular reminders of his love as you practice spiritual discipline! 

Links/References

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Check out our website for more resources!

Thanks to Rex Daugherty for creating the original theme music for this podcast. He's an award-winning artist and you can check out more of his work at rex-daugherty.com