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We are often faced with the question of ambiguity in our wrestling with God. That was the question Joseph faced alone in prison. What was God speaking to him? Had God ever really spoken to him? God spoke to him insights into dreams and wisdom to lead people. Yet, he was in prison, seemingly forsaken and forgotten by God.

However, God was doing something during those years, which would prepare him to be the kind of person he would need to be. For the dreams in his youth where his brothers were bowing before him were not about him ruling over them. It was about saving them, even when they had hated him and betrayed him. That was who God was forming him into in the pit--someone who would be able to do so. That is what God is speaking forth into the lives of those who follow the footsteps of Joseph.                   
             
 0:00   Question of ambiguity of God for Joseph           
 9:55   Who Joseph was becoming in the prison           
15:44 What God spoke through the Pharaoh's dream           
24:57 Joseph leads Egypt through the famine           
30:50 Joseph's brothers come to Egypt           
34:40 What God had really spoken to Joseph in his youth            
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We’ve now started the final set of episodes of the 3rd season, as we explore the life-story of Joseph, and the question he confronted: what happens when what God has spoken to you, seems to have been proven false? What do you do when listening to God seems to have thrown you into a pit? How does your journey with God continue from there? What can you still hold on to?

Also, I was recently interviewed by Dr. John D Wise in his podcast, “The Christian Atheist”. You can check out the podcast here: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-atheist/id1553077203

(Also check out the rest of their content, which starts by detailing a philosophy professor’s journey away from Christianity to atheism, and then from atheism back to Christianity, 25 years later.)         

 1:30     When your 'map' is being questioned           
 10:03     The dreams God spoke to Joseph           
 17:42     Joseph's life is thrown into a pit           
 24:50     What do you mean God is with Joseph?           
 31:28     Why Joseph still listened for God            

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Full title: "Questioning the Bible, and Risking Belief for Faith" 

Thank you for the loooong wait! 

We continue from the previous episode, which followed the trail of questions that begin when I thought to myself years ago, “Maybe there is no God.” In the previous episode, we followed how I wrestled with the questions about what we really mean by “God,” what it is to try to understand all of reality as a whole, and how this eventually led me to a book, written by those very people who came to relate to reality as a whole, as “Who,” that speaks with us.

This book, the Christian Bible, is the focus of my next set of questions, which this episode explores. It will recount how I wrestled with the questions of what it means for the Bible to be “the Word of God,” and how anything we can put into words and write on a book can meaningfully be God speaking, and the central role of the figure of Jesus in it all. We will follow how I tried to think through some of the questions posed against the Bible from science and history, and where I eventually arrived afterward. 

And what I found was: to take a journey of faith, you have to risk your beliefs.       

 2:02       How we’ve gotten our question of God backwards           
 8:25       How can a book ever be God “speaking?”             
 13:33     How life of a person is God speaking             
 19:43     Question about morality of the Bible             
 25:20     Question about science and the Bible             
 32:32     Question about history and the Bible             
 40:15     Bible is a map; follow at your own risk              

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We’re back for 2023. This is the first part of a two-part episode, which explores how today, in our modern, secular society, we wrestle with our belief in God. These two episodes will detail how I’ve thought through the questions and issues years ago when I seriously asked myself, “Maybe there is no God.” 

Because of that, these two episodes are a kind of alternative overview of this series so far, because this entire series was borne out of a journey that began with that very question.

So, this episode and the next will revisit the key questions and ideas that had been presented throughout this series so far in the past episodes, but describe them from a different angle. They are what I learned by having faced the question, “Maybe there is no God,” and wrestling with my beliefs regarding God.

This episode follows how my thinking about the general idea of God has changed, while doing so, and where this eventually led me to. Next episode will follow what questions then confronted me, and why it led me to examine what the Christian Bible testified.
       
 0:00     Wrestling with our belief in God       
 2:49     What does it mean to ask, "Maybe there is no God"       
 9:50     What is really meant by “God”       
 16:37    What is the question to ask, to find if there is no God       
 21:15    How to begin thinking of reality as “Who”       
 28:11    Where all these questions led me        
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I'm back for 2023, and here is an extra episode to update what is being worked on. Next episode, "Risking belief to keep your faith"  will air around mid-February. 

In the meanwhile, you can listen to this unscripted episode--if are so inclined--as I bemoan my troubles, trying to figure out which publisher would be appropriate for my book, and figure out how to write up a proposal that'd get them interested.  I'll also comment about the next episode, and what is coming up next season, slated Spring of this year. (not very surprising spoiler's alert:  it's titled, "Exodus")

The website for the conference I mention is here:   https://mcmasterdivinity.ca/transcendence/
I will be giving a talk in its 4th parallel session, which will be titled, "Recovering God: Mapping and Translating the Journey." 
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Many people are surprised that the name of the people of God, "Israel," means to "wrestle with God". But, that was the name God gives to Jacob, who is a character full of faults and failures, and that became the name of everyone who are called God's people in the Bible ( Christians are called "new Israel" in the New Testament). So, in this episode, we will explore how Jacob received this name and how we are to understand the relationship between humanity and God.

This episode is also a milestone of sort, as it was it was originally meant to cap the second phase of the series (the first phase being the first season). As such, the episode will reference many of the key ideas in the past episodes.

P.S. If I sound somewhat different in this episode, it's because I'm currently recovering from Covid; so please stay safe and healthy, everyone!
       
 0:00     The name, “Israel” means to wrestle with God         
 2:55     Overall recap of what “God speaks” means         
 10:25     Jacob’s ladder and God’s promise         
 19:05     Jacob’s life, struggling with family         
 25:09     Jacob's struggles and God's promise         
 31:57     Jacob wrestles with his fears and hopes         
 36:06     To live, is to wrestle with God          
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We're back with part 1 of the two-episode exploration of Jacob's life.       

What does it mean to be blessed by God? What is it about Jacob and his life that Genesis identifies him as the spiritual ancestor and representative of the people that God personally speaks with--people who journeys with God? After all, Jacob is an unlikely figure for a hero of a story. He lies to his father, tricks his brother, and even his deceptions are not due to his wit, but his mother's. We will find out in the next two episodes.
       
 0:00   From Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and Esau     
 4:35   What does inquire from the LORD mean?       
 10:22   Jacob and Esau, twins who were very different       
 16:55   The strangeness of Jacob being the hero of this story       
 24:35    The real question that the story asks       
 29:47   Why would God speak through dreams?         
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Isaac is the promised child of Abraham and Sarah. Yet, his life as described in Genesis seems, well, uninteresting. But, there is a very interesting idea behind what happens--or rather, what doesn't happen--in Isaac's life, and it has to do with to how humanity's relation to God develops through multiple generations, according to the Bible. Coming to learn the personal character of God is a journey, and journey means each step starts from where the previous step ended. And so, each generation begins their journey from where the previous generation ended. How that works and what that means is presented through Isaac's life.

 2:42      Those who watched Abraham's life       
 12:28     What you learn by watching Abraham's life       
 20:15      Knowing God through time and generations       
 26:42      Where Isaac begins and his life        
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A bonus, unscripted(!) episode. We'll see how this episode turns out.

So, we've been exploring "ideas, insights, and stories in Christianity." But, where am I in all this? Have I ever experienced some of the things I describe in this series, especially in the third season--God speaking personally to people, making promises, and unfolding miracles?

Now that I've wrapped up the main life-story of Abraham and Sarah (and I'm in the process of moving), I decided to share a few examples from things I experienced in my life. Just a few, but you'll get to hear a bit more of the person behind this series.
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Why did God call Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering?

The story of the "Binding of Isaac," is not simply about a story of a man obeying God to the point that he will sacrifice his own son.  It is about a call that everyone who speaks with God eventually hears. And we hear this call because all of humanity has been waging a one-sided Cold War with God, and to offer Isaac was to bet on peace.       

 2:22     Would you be at peace if God spoke to you?       
 7:57     Trouble with heirs - Ishmael and Isaac       
 14:48    Why what God spoke to Abraham is so perplexing       
 18:38    Humanity is waging a Cold War on God     
 26:07    Why Abraham needed to offer his son to God     
 33:05    Peace Child      
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