Things Above

By Apprentice InstituteReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Things Above episodes

April 01, 2020 Conversation with Bill Gaultiere
In this episode James Bryan Smith has a Things Above Conversation with Bill Gaultiere. James and Bill discuss the importance of soul care, especially at a time when we are struggling with a global pandemic. Bill is a Psychologist (PhD; PSY12036 in CA) and pastor/mentor to pastors. He writes and speaks to thousands of people […]
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36 min
March 25, 2020 Certainty in a Good Future
“For those alive in the kingdom of God, the world we live in is a perfectly safe place to be.” – Dallas Willard Life throws us many unexpected things, and we are now living in a time of uncertainty. None of us had planned for the virus to spread this rapidly. It is easy to […]
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27 min
March 18, 2020 Conversation with Shane Blackshear
James Bryan Smith has a Things Above Conversation with his friend and fellow podcast host, Shane Blackshear. Shane is a Jesus follower, blogger, speaker & host of the podcast Seminary Dropout. The Seminary Dropout podcast features interviews with Christian authors, leaders, and thinkers where they discuss a multitude of topics around Christianity and current events. […]
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34 min
March 11, 2020 How to See Sin
The thought from above in this episode is: “We know our sin in relation to Him.” Sin is a very difficult topic to talk about. One of the most important things we can do is to think about how we understand it. We tend to be subjective to our own sin but objective towards the […]
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16 min
March 04, 2020 Remember You Are Dust
“What repeatedly enters your mind and occupies your mind, eventually shapes your mind, and will ultimately express itself in what you do and who you become” – John Ortberg The Thought From Above in this episode is: “Remember you are dust.” As we continue in the season of Lent we need to be reminded of […]
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13 min
February 19, 2020 Conversation with Richella Parham
In this episode, James Bryan Smith has a Things Above Conversation with longtime friend and author Richella Parham. She is the author of Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison, published by InterVarsity Press (October 2019) and of the Renovaré resource A Spiritual Formation Primer. Her online home is Imparting Grace; her physical home is […]
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50 min
February 12, 2020 Commanded to Thrive
James Bryan Smith begins this episode by sharing a story from Deuteronomy 30:15-19. In this passage, Moses offers some powerful words at the end of his farewell address. Moses essentially says: I have told you about God’s commands and, at the center of them all, is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind […]
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17 min
February 05, 2020 Brighter Than the Sun
In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith gives this thought from above: "God is happy about you." When Jim's son Jacob was around 7 years old he asked him a question that brought tears to Jim's eyes. Jacob walked up to his dad and asked, "Are you happy about me?" While Jacob's grammar was incorrect his desire was not. He wanted to know, like many of us do, if the person he loved also loved him back.
Of course most of us want everyone to think well of us. And it hurts when we discover someone dislikes us, or is upset with us. But at our deepest core we long to know if the significant people in our lives are truly "happy about us." Smith speculates that most of us live with some amount of deficit when it comes to truly feeling loved—loved without condition—by the significant people in our lives. That is why, for Smith, the real healing comes not from chasing the love and acceptance, but rather that healing comes when we encounter the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
James quotes the late great theologian Ray Anderson to help explain the connection between the Trinity and this idea of being happy about our existence. Anderson writes "ministry precedes theology." Ministry refers to the action of God on our behalf. And the action of God—God’s ministry toward us—determines our theology—what we think about God.
So theology is not merely dry speculation about God, for that we need to look at God’s ministry, namely, what God has done. Now we turn to the Christian story. God became human. The word of God took on flesh and dwelled among us. The Son of God, by the power of the Spirit, healed and forgave and showed love to the least, the lost and the unlovely. The second member of the Trinity—Jesus—willingly died in order to cancel our debt of sin, to reconcile us to God. That is God’s ministry—or rather, the Trinity’s ministry—on our behalf. What does that ministry teach us theologically? Smith would say that these actions loudly state that the Trinity is happy about us!
Smith closes with one of his favorite quotes of all time from John of Kronstadt. “When you are dejected, remember this: that God the Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun.”
14 min
January 22, 2020 Conversation with Derwin Gray
James Bryan Smith has a conversation with Derwin L. Gray about our identity in Christ and how we can learn to love and see ourselves the same way God does.
Labels you have internalized and apply to yourself every day. Labels like Afraid. Or Addict. Orphan. Damaged Goods. Failure. Maybe even Religious. These labels might be sewn into your life with such tight little stitches that they feel like a part of you. They feel like they define you. But that’s a lie. If you let Him, Jesus can remove those old labels and tattoo new ones onto your soul. Then you’ll begin to see yourself as God the Father sees you. The limits will be lifted, and your life will be transformed.
Dr. Derwin L. Gray is the founding and lead pastor of Transformation Church. TC is a multiethnic, multigenerational, mission-shaped community that loves God completely (Upward), ourselves correctly (Inward), and our neighbors compassionately (Outward) located in Indian Land, South Carolina, just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.
After graduating from BYU, Pastor Derwin played professional football in the NFL—five years with the Indianapolis Colts (1993–1997) and one year with the Carolina Panthers (1998). During that time, he and his wife Vicki began their journey with Christ and experienced God’s faithfulness and direction as He moved their hearts to know Him and to make Him known.
In addition to his role at Transformation Church, Pastor Derwin speaks at conferences nationwide and is the author of several books.
Hero: Unleashing God’s Power in a Man’s Heart (2010)
Limitless Life: You Are More Than Your Past When God Holds Your Future (2013)
Crazy Grace for Crazy Times Bible Study (2015)
The High-Definition Leader (2015)
49 min
January 15, 2020 Grace of God
The thought from above in this episode is: “You don’t have to make it happen.” In the summer of his junior year, James attended an elite basketball camp where he learned a very valuable lesson about the grace of God.
At the end of the camp was an all-star game that you had to be selected by the staff to play in. James goal at camp was to make the all-star team and be the M.V.P. in the all-star game. Before the game, the coach gave a speech titled “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
The whole point of the talk was this: you, and only you, are the one who makes it happen. You are the one who determines your future, your destiny.
In the world of self-help slogans, it is a pretty good one. It is the kind of slogan, or mantra, one can say each morning, and perhaps several times a day, to motivate yourself.
It is appealing because there is a part of us that really likes control, that likes to be at the center. Telling ourselves that we are the ones who makes it all happen is not only motivational, but actually a little narcissistic.
Smith will agree that there is truth in the slogan, but it does fail when it comes to living the life “from above” as he likes to say.
Think about some of the most important things about our lives. How about our redemption, our forgiveness, and our new birth in Christ? We had nothing to do with those incredible aspects of our lives.
Those are all acts of grace. Grace means gift, from the greek word, charis. God in Christ redeemed us, forgave us, reconciled us, and gave us new life, life from above. All we did was to accept these gifts, which is no merit on our part. We even needed god’s grace to accept those gifts.
James closes the episode with a story about Dallas Willard and ends with a verse from 1st Corinthians.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. no, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10)
19 min