Wrestling with the Inner Man

Spiritual dryness has a way of sneaking up on you, especially when you’ve spent years pushing, producing, and pretending you’re fine. We sit down with writer and father Eli Brackenbury to talk about what happens when a man hits that wall in midlife and finally admits the old ways of coping are not working. Eli shares how an unexpected spiritual awakening at 50 came after divorce, grief, and decades of trying to steer his life alone and how one ordinary moment became the start of real healing.

We dig into identity in Christ and why “surrender” is not weakness for men, it’s strength. Eli explains how spiritual warfare often shows up as performance, control, and numbness, and why returning to faith is less about polishing your behavior and more about letting God rebuild you from the inside out. We also talk honestly about church hurt, skepticism, and how to speak to seekers without preaching, using story and lived experience instead of arguments.

The conversation turns practical when we unpack what it means to be equally yoked in a Christ-centered relationship: communication, conflict, healing, and trusting God’s timing. We also explore Eli’s vision for “the restoration of man” and the difference between being successful and being whole, especially for men asking big questions about purpose in their 40s and 50s.

If this resonates, listen all the way through and share it with a friend who’s been living in the desert. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what part of the conversation hit closest to home.

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome To The Ring
• 0:35
• Naming Spiritual Dryness
• 4:55
• Identity After Failure And Drift
• 11:26
• When Church Leaves A Bruise
• 18:17
• Telling Your Story Without Preaching
• 25:03
• What Equally Yoked Really Means
• 32:48
• The Midlife Wall And Purpose
• 36:46
• What A Restored Man Looks Like
• 42:44
• Where To Find Eli And His Books
• 43:56
• Come Home And Be Present
• 44:55
• Closing Prayer And Sendoff

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Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Deception doesn’t usually kick the door down. It whispers, flatters, quotes Scripture just a little crooked, and then watches us sprint through the maze. That’s why this conversation with Tom Snow hit so hard for us: the fight isn’t only “out there” in culture, it’s right here in the mind, where competing voices battle for our attention every day.

Tom shares his personal story of trauma, miraculous healing, long wilderness seasons, and a near-death congestive heart failure moment that brought him back to the sweetness of “Papa God.” From that lived experience, we dig into spiritual warfare and discernment with a practical framework: four voices we hear constantly, how our old training makes us vulnerable, and why we can become our own worst enemy when we default to emotion, pressure, or ego. We also unpack the spiritual masquerade showing up in modern language, including New Age spirituality, energy healing, manifestation, and the law of attraction, especially when they get repackaged with Christian terms.

We end with battle-tested anchors you can use right away: knowing God’s Word for yourself like a Berean and learning the difference between a temporary “peace” and the peace of God that guards your heart and mind in Christ (Philippians 4:7). If you want clearer thinking, stronger spiritual boundaries, and a deeper walk with the Holy Spirit, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs discernment, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome And Why Deception Spreads
• 2:48
• Tom Snow’s Story And Calling
• 6:40
• Early Charismatic Years And Warfare
• 8:38
• The Wilderness Season And Heart Failure
• 12:33
• Walking In Christ Means Anointing
• 16:44
• Four Competing Voices In The Mind
• 22:56
• Yielding And The Danger Of Wrong Prayers
• 26:25
• Spiritual Mazes That Trap Believers
• 30:46
• New Age Wellness And Church Infiltration
• 35:18
• Manifestation And The Law Of Attraction
• 42:18
• Two Tests Word And Peace
• 48:28
• Where To Find The Books
• 51:02
• Final Charge And Closing Prayer

Website: https://just2beclear.com/  [to learn more about Tom’s current and upcoming books]

Substack: https://just2beclear1.substack.com  [for blog posts and podcasts Tom’s been on]

"The Daily Stand" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPNFRW3T

"Set the Captives Free" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FCJ2Z2LN

"Set the Captives Free Too" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GK5GZ2W9

@just2beclear FB: https://www.facebook.com/just2beclear

@just2beclear1 IG: https://www.instagram.com/just2beclear1

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Your life can look successful on the outside while your mind is drowning on the inside. I sit down with Kirk Kuykendall, a Houston energy executive and father of three, to talk about what happens when anxiety, grief, and family fracture start writing the story in your head and you believe you’re alone in it.

Kirk walks us through the “fragmented glass” moments that shaped him: his parents’ divorce as a child, bullying, and the devastating loss of his mother to suicide. Those wounds didn’t just hurt, they left cracks where shame, self-doubt, and fatalistic fear could settle in. When his own marriage began to collapse, the pressure to be the strong husband and dad turned into panic attacks and dark thoughts, and the accuser’s voice got louder: you’re a failure, it’s over, there’s no way out.

Then comes the turning point: a pre-dawn walk, a mind racing with worst-case outcomes, and a question that stops him cold, “Don’t you trust me?” We unpack what surrender actually looks like for Christian men, why isolation fuels spiritual warfare, and how brotherhood and support groups can become a lifeline. Kirk also shares the practices that helped him rebuild from the inside out: Scripture that anchors the heart (Psalm 40, Isaiah 43, Isaiah 61), learning discernment, and showing up for men’s ministry through Freedom groups and Wild at Heart.

If you’re battling anxiety, depression, divorce, loneliness, or relentless self-talk, this conversation offers real hope and practical next steps. Subscribe, share this with a man who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Anxiety, Regret, And Worry
• 2:15
• Meeting Kirk And His Mission
• 4:05
• Childhood Divorce And Fragmentation
• 7:55
• Loss, Bullying, And Feeling Alone
• 16:05
• Marriage Collapse And Dark Thoughts
• 19:40
• Don’t You Trust Me Moment
• 24:20
• Surrender And The First Steps
• 31:15
• Men’s Groups And Spiritual Warfare Tools
• 37:10
• Daily Gratitude, Freedom, And Closing Prayer

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

If you’ve ever hit a milestone you prayed for and still felt restless afterward, you’re not broken, you’re hungry in a way success cannot fix. We talk about that hunger from the inside out, starting with a blunt question: are we living our daily lives through the lens of eternity, or are we spending all our energy choosing the seat and missing the show?

I’m joined by award-winning author, theologian, and pastor Cory Rosenke, whose path includes childhood poverty, eviction, isolation, and a long season of searching for the “why” beneath human behavior, fear, love, and suffering. Together we get honest about why the most prosperous generation can also be the most anxious, why Christians often look just like the culture around them, and what it means to remember that our citizenship is in heaven. Cory lays out a framework from his book The Magnetic Heart of God: five cravings that drive every human life security, identity, independence, significance, and innocence and why peace only comes when those cravings are satisfied in God instead of substituted with money, control, pleasure, or self-defense.

We also wrestle with AI and creativity, including the temptation to gain knowledge without discipline and how that can make us feel wiser than we are. Then we go deeper into spiritual warfare, heaven and hell as ultimate realities, and how suffering in a fallen world can either harden us or recalibrate us. Cory offers a practical takeaway I keep coming back to: fear, anger, and even shame can act like barometers, showing us where we’ve placed our hope so we can turn back to the cross and the joy set before us.

Subscribe for more conversations that train up better men, share this with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a review so more wrestlers can find the fight that actually matters. What part of your life most needs an eternal perspective right now?

www.coryrosenke.com

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome And The Eight-Second Test
• 1:49
• Eternity As The Real Question
• 5:12
• Corey’s Road From Homelessness To Faith
• 10:32
• Why Prosperity Still Leaves Us Starving
• 20:22
• Five Soul Cravings That Drive Behavior
• 28:51
• AI Knowledge Without The Wrestle
• 34:45
• Feeding The Soul Through Creation
• 37:44
• Heaven Hell And Choosing Ground
• 44:39
• Making Sense Of Suffering
• 52:53
• Fear Anger And Shame As Signals
• 56:48
• Books Prayer And How To Connect

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Force gets results fast and breaks things quietly. Power moves slower, stays present, and builds something that lasts and that difference shows up everywhere from marriage arguments to leadership decisions to the private battles men fight alone.

We sit down with Garth Haslem, author of Power Over Force and founder of Manalizing, to get specific about what “real power” actually looks like in a man’s life. We talk about why so many men default to pressure, control, withdrawal, or manipulation when they feel insecure and how self-governance becomes a higher form of masculine strength. Garth shares a striking contrast between force in the home and power in the home, plus practical ways to respond to conflict with calm, curiosity, and connection without becoming soft or passive.

The conversation also goes straight at men’s mental health and isolation. When three out of four suicides are men, “handle it yourself” is not a virtue, it’s a trap. We unpack why brotherhood matters, what honest conversation can do that surface-level friendships cannot, and how shared community helps distribute the load. Garth ties it all together with a structural engineering lens: load paths, foundations, rebar, and the need to let God carry what we were never meant to carry alone.

If you want a clear, grounded take on Christian masculinity, leadership, marriage conflict, men’s groups, and building resilience without force, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s carrying too much, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re putting into practice.

To learn more visit his website at:

https://www.poweroverforce.com

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Power Versus Force In The World
• 1:40
• Why Men Feel Alone
• 4:52
• How The Host Found Podcasting
• 8:06
• Defining Force And Real Power
• 9:09
• Agency Versus Control In Genesis
• 12:25
• Powerful Marriage Conflict Looks Like This
• 20:44
• Engineering Loads As A Model For Life
• 28:30
• Self Governance As Masculine Strength
• 32:40
• Brotherhood That Can Hold The Truth
• 35:20
• Building The Stone And Pine Retreat
• 38:19
• Where To Find The Book
• 41:10
• Final Message And Closing Prayer

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Loving your enemies sounds simple until you’re face to face with betrayal, disrespect, or the kind of hurt that doesn’t go away. We sit with Luke 6:32–36 and ask the uncomfortable question it raises for every Christian man: am I really living by the mercy I claim to have received, or am I still letting my flesh call the shots when I feel wronged? If you’ve ever thought, “I can’t love that person again,” this conversation is for you. 

I’m joined by Dr. Aaron Thomas, senior pastor and longtime friend, to unpack what grace looks like when it’s not theoretical. We talk about why the gospel flips the world’s logic from “change then you’ll be loved” to “you’re loved, and that love changes you,” anchored in Romans 5:8. Aaron even uses a surprising Beauty and the Beast analogy to show how love can meet someone in their worst condition and still be the beginning of transformation, without pretending sin is no big deal. 

Then we get painfully practical. We dig into how to separate a person from their behavior, how to look past surface anger to the wounds underneath, and why losing your “first love” for Christ often shows up as coldness toward people. Aaron shares a raw personal story about wrestling with unforgiveness after a devastating family tragedy, and how God used remembrance, repentance, and time to move his heart from revenge toward mercy. 

You’ll leave with clear takeaways and weekly action steps: pause before reacting, pray for a difficult person for seven days, do one undeserved act of kindness, guard your tongue, and spend ten more minutes with God each day. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more men can find honest conversations about forgiveness, spiritual warfare, and learning to love like Jesus.

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome To The Inner Fight
• 0:37
• Luke 6 And A Hard Command
• 2:06
• Why Loving Enemies Matters
• 3:51
• Beauty And The Beast As Grace
• 7:10
• Look Past Behavior To Pain
• 15:27
• Abide Deeper Stay In First Love
• 16:09
• A Real Test Of Forgiveness
• 21:43
• Three Truths And Weekly Practices
• 30:49
• Final Charge And Closing Prayer
• 34:07
• How To Connect And Next Time

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Truth doesn’t usually get rejected because it’s obviously false. It gets rejected because it gets repackaged, renamed, and blended with just enough Bible language to feel familiar. That’s the tension we sit with here, especially as we mark America’s founding ideals while admitting how many of us have grown intellectually lazy, outsourcing conviction to feeds, algorithms, and talking heads.

We’re joined by Mark “Moose” Bright, director of the Relational Discipleship Network (RDN), to talk about discipling in the age of deceit. Moose lays out RDN’s core claim: you cannot divorce the methods of Jesus from the teachings of Jesus and expect the results of Jesus. We dig into what relational discipleship looks like in practice, why pastors must know the audience they’re speaking to, and how “presumption” becomes poison when culture no longer shares Christian assumptions.

Then we take the hard turn toward discernment: false teachers, incomplete pictures of Jesus, and the hidden appeal of any worldview that removes personal responsibility. We talk about Marxism’s oppressor-oppressed framing, why repentance is non-negotiable for salvation, and how America’s ideas of rights and self-government only hold together when conscience and moral formation stay strong. We also get practical about cognitive dissonance, limbic fight-or-flight, and how to have conversations that actually lower defenses instead of building walls.

If you want a clearer biblical worldview, stronger spiritual warfare habits, and a discipleship model that produces resilient men and families, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

You can learn more about the Relational Discipleship Network by visiting their website at www.rdn.org

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome And The Inner Fight
• 0:40
• Founding History Meets Modern Deceit
• 1:51
• Meet Moose And RDN’s Mission
• 4:02
• Why Culture Changes How We Hear
• 11:23
• Marxism And The War On Repentance
• 17:00
• Rights Self-Government And Greed
• 23:28
• Hermeneutics False Teachers And Truth
• 26:02
• Cognitive Dissonance And Limbic Defense
• 29:15
• Where To Find RDN Resources
• 30:39
• Self-Awareness Mentors And Next Steps
• 32:39
• Closing Prayer
• 33:09
• Outro And How To Reach Us

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Betrayal, disaster, career loss, family crisis, the slow grind of grief, they all create the same gut-level question: why, and what do I do with this pain now? I sit down with Tony Stoltzfus, a veteran Christian coach and author who has spent decades helping leaders navigate painful transitions, to talk about why “try harder” and pure self-discipline often fail when the real struggle is happening in the emotional brain.

We dig into how Jesus uses stories and questions to reach the parts of us that logic can’t reach, including a powerful retelling of Judas through an honor-shame culture lens that makes the betrayal feel painfully human. From there we move into the heart of Christian inner healing: unmet desires. Tony explains how longings like peace, belonging, security, and significance drive behavior, and how sin is often an attempt to fill emptiness. When those desires get handed to circumstances, money, control, or people, we get stuck. When they get handed to Jesus first, real change becomes possible.

You’ll also hear a practical tool we try live on the mic: “praying your desire” using the Questions for Jesus method, plus insights from Job, valley seasons, and what Tony’s work on heaven suggests about a future where evil is no longer even an option. If you want Christian coaching insights, emotional health, and faith-based tools for healing after betrayal, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s in a hard season, and leave a review with the one desire you’re ready to bring to Jesus first.

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome To The Fight Within
• 0:33
• Why Painful Transitions Shake Us
• 1:53
• Retiring From The Need For Significance
• 3:12
• Reading Scripture With The Emotional Brain
• 5:42
• Judas And The Power Of Shame
• 13:43
• Desires That Drive Behavior And Sin
• 18:28
• Betrayal Healing And Shared Destinies
• 26:54
• Praying Your Desire With Jesus
• 39:07
• Job, The Fire, And Valley Seasons
• 46:51
• Heaven Where Evil Ends
• 51:41
• Tools, Free Books, And Closing Prayer

https://www.likeahumanbeing.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Questions-Jesus-Conversational-Deepest-Desires/dp/1492177350/ref=sr_1_1

https://www.heavenexperience.net/

https://www.youtube.com/@TonyStoltzfus

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

“Separation of church and state” gets thrown around like a trump card, but most of us have never been shown where that idea actually comes from, what the First Amendment really says, and why the founders cared so much about protecting religious liberty. We’re heading into a major national anniversary, so we slow down and do something rare: we trace the history instead of repeating the slogan. 

We talk with documentary filmmaker Andrew Linn, whose film Church and State: Roger Williams and the Founding of Freedom of Religion spotlights a name many Americans have never heard, even though his ideas helped shape the future of freedom of religion in the United States. We walk back into 1600s England and Europe, where government-backed churches fuel cycles of persecution, then watch the same coercion reappear in the New England colonies. That backdrop makes Roger Williams’ “liberty of conscience” stand out as more than a theory, it becomes a working model in Rhode Island for people who just want to worship without the state enforcing religious uniformity. 

From there we tackle today’s friction points: whether faith belongs in the public square, how to think about leaders praying publicly, and how Jefferson’s Danbury Baptists letter produced the famous “wall of separation” phrase without rewriting the Constitution. We also get practical about civic engagement, local politics, and speaking up with courage while relying on the Holy Spirit. If you care about constitutional history, religious freedom, and the real meaning of the First Amendment, this conversation is for you. 

Subscribe for more, share this with someone who still thinks the phrase is in the Constitution, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of “separation of church and state” do you think most Americans misunderstand?

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome And The Inner Fight
• 0:38
• Why First Amendment Origins Matter
• 2:26
• What Separation Of Church Means
• 4:50
• Europe’s Persecution And Puritan Flight
• 8:20
• Roger Williams And Rhode Island Liberty
• 12:56
• Faith In The Public Square
• 17:33
• Jefferson’s Letter And The Wall Myth
• 20:11
• Filmmaking For Truth And Unsung Heroes
• 24:55
• How Christians Engage Without Fear
• 27:47
• Books To Go Deeper And Prayer

https://churchandstatedoc.com/

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

He chased success hard enough to build a global career and still ended up empty. Mitch Guinn joins us to tell the truth about what it looked like to spend years hunting for acceptance in all the wrong places: performance, sex, alcohol, and the constant need to be seen as “a man.” The cost was real: three marriages, five daughters growing up with an often absent father, and a level of guilt that nearly ended his life.

We walk through the roots of that pattern, including an absent dad, the craving for affirmation, and the way workaholism can masquerade as responsibility while starving your family of presence. Mitch shares the moment he first heard the gospel clearly, why it reshaped his understanding of worth, and how change can be both immediate in the heart and painfully slow in daily habits.

The conversation also goes where many Christian podcasts avoid: what do you do when your past echoes into your children’s choices, and you cannot fix what they decide? We talk about loving adult kids with clear boundaries, resisting constant arguments, and staying faithful to your “part” while trusting God with what you cannot control. Mitch explains the discipleship model that grounded him, the one Jesus laid out in his stories, plus the simple practice he credits with keeping him alive and growing for decades: opening the Bible daily, establishing direct contact and a living relationship with the God who created you, and maintaining communication with the source of all power.

If you are carrying a prodigal past, feeling disqualified, or trying to rebuild after divorce, addiction, or failure, this is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Send us Fan Mail

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.