This episode is a conversation I have with my sister, Marla Taviano. Marla promoted my last episode in her social media circles in exchange for the opportunity to come on my show. The conversation we have is about her own journey of unbinding previous books she's written as well as attempting to come to grips with how a large part of the current church's expression of the Christian faith misses the mark on so much of who Jesus is and what he taught. I am thankful for Marla and I hope you hear this conversation as an encouragement!

The following is an autobiographical episode explaining why the long break from the podcast and what I'm up to now. Thanks for all the support I've received over the years and continue to receive! It means a lot to me.

In this episode, we'll wrap up our mini series on Israel: Yes, God still loves Israel. We'll look at Romans 9-11 and how we can both challenge the state of Israel today and yet still believe God has a place of honor for his people.

And then we'll get political and ponder the Christian's relationship to Donald Trump and how our understanding of the kingdom of God ought to impact that relationship.

I'm taking a break for the summer and wanted the chance to speak about this election year before things really start to heat up.

This episode is a sermon I preached Sunday May 5, 2024 in our church from John 15:1-17. I'm inserting it here on the podcast because of how well it ties in to our series on Israel and how the Bible speaks about Israel. In John 15:1, Jesus declares himself to be the "true" vine, in contrast to the false vine that Israel had become.

Passages referenced in this sermon: Exodus 15:7; Psalm 80:8; Jeremiah 2:21; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Genesis 12:7; Galatians 3:16; Romans 4:13; Galatians 3:27-29; John 8:31-32.

In this episode, starting with 2 Corinthians 1:20 and Galatians 3:16, we'll see that Jesus himself is the fulfillment of all of God's promises, even his promises to his people, Israel. As we saw in episode 190 - Jesus "Fills In" Israel, Jesus serves not only as Israel's representative head, but as Israel itself, thus receiving all of the promises God made to Israel, and then freely offering those blessings to anyone who believes in him - Jew or Gentile.

Key passages from today's episode: 2 Corinthians 1:20; Galatians 3:13-14, 16, 27-29; John 10:16; Romans 4:13; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:2; Ephesians 1:5; Revelation 19:10.

In this episode, we'll look at how Jesus fulfills all that Israel, as a people, was supposed to be. Jesus acts as Israel's representative head and also embodies the nation itself. Everything really does hinge on the person of Jesus! Get this right, and your ability to correctly interpret the New Testament will skyrocket.

Passages referenced in this episode:

2 Corinthians 1:20; Luke 24:44-47; John 11:45-53; Isaiah 49:1-6; Matthew 1-5; John 1:47-51; Genesis 28:12-19; John 4; John 15:1-11

In this episode, we'll continue our mini-series on "the land" of Israel-Palestine. We'll focus our attention specifically on how the Bible itself frames our understanding of "the land," particularly as it relates to both the garden of Eden and to the entire world. In this episode, we'll see that the garden of Eden is to the land what the land is to the entire world. In other words:

Garden --> Land --> World

Thinking about the biblical story in this way is immensely helpful and makes sense of so much of the Bible's story.

In this episode, we'll dive in to what the OT says about the land. Who owns the land? Were there any conditions placed on those living in the land? Do promises of "forever" mean "unending"? And why did God grant the land to Israel in the first place?

In this episode, we're beginning another mini-series, this time to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a biblical perspective. How should Christians think about this? Who are "God's people"? Does Israel have a divine "right" to the land? Was the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 a fulfillment of biblical prophecy? And how did Jesus think of himself in relation to Israel?

We'll address these questions and many others throughout our series. And I invite you to send me questions of your own!

In this episode, we'll wrap up our mini-series on heaven by looking at Revelation 21:1-4. In it we'll see the holy city coming down out of heaven from God so that God can forever dwell among his people, like he initially did in the garden of Eden.