It's time for "Third Wednesday Theology," where we devote the third Wednesday of each month to reading and discussing theology. Using Herman Bavinck's "The Wonderful Works of God" as our text, in this episode, we discuss Chapter 1 and the idea that God is man's highest good. (If you haven't already, we would love for you to get a copy of the book and follow along with us!)

In this episode, we're joined by our friend & local area pastor Kyle McClellan, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the book of Ruth. He helps us understand more fully the literary structure, imagery, and "melodic line" of this intricate biblical narrative.

What do Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, and William Blake have to do with the rise of the modern self? Carl Trueman suggests that they helped to lay the foundation for the modern view of the self. In this episode, we dive back in to Trueman's book "The Rise & Triumph of the Modern Self" to explore how these poets and philosophers have shaped our view of human personhood.

It's been almost 3 months since the U.S. presidential election... and things have been chaotically interesting, to say the least. In this episode, we look back on recent events and reflect on what God's people need to learn and take away from the turmoil of the last 90 days.

This year we're launching a new feature called "Third Wednesday Theology," where we devote the third Wednesday of each month to reading and discussing theology. We'll be using "The Wonderful Works of God" by Herman Bavinck as our text. In this episode, we give a brief introduction to Herman Bavinck and hopefully provoke you to pick up a copy of the book and read along with us.

Throughout the Trump era, we've been hearing more and more about the influence of "Christian nationalism." But what is that, exactly? And is the term precise enough to be meaningful? In this episode, we compare two recent TGC articles on the topic with the goal of spurring a more nuanced conversation about Christian nationalism.

Articles:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/christian-nationalism-patriotism/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/come-desire-of-nations-christian-nationalism-between-the-two-advents/

This is from an episode recorded in May of 2019.

What do you spend the first 15 minutes of your day doing? Looking at your phone? Hitting snooze over and over? Attending to your children's needs? In this episode, we talk about why beginning your day in communion with the Lord is important and give practical ways to begin cultivating this habit.

The third world problems we discuss in this episode are probably not what you're thinking. Carl Trueman presents Philip Rieff’s concept of "third worlds” in his new book The Rise & Triumph of the Modern Self. In this episode, we explore this concept and talk about why the church needs to be a counter-culture.

Various Christian movements tend to emphasize different aspects of Trinitarian theology - with most giving attention to the Son or the Holy Spirit. But could it be that we have under-emphasized the Father? In this episode, we discuss the importance of understanding the Gospel as a means to communion with the Father.

This episode from the archives takes us all the way back to 2014 when we preached through the book of Isaiah. In this episode, we discuss the season of Advent, how and why we observe Advent, as well as the importance of Sabbath during this season.