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What Sets You Off?
When something sets you off, do you shut down or blow up? Morgan and Allen share front-line stories that focus on our hearts when the heat is on.
37 – Intimacy – 3/20/2019
3/20/2019: Intimacy – "For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone." Song of Solomon 2:11. Where is winter for you? Where are you feeling frozen, buried, the ground of your soul hardened? Where do you need Jesus to come with His Rivers of refreshing? Because your Frozen Places are the very places He wants to meet you. Join Stasi for this months Women at the Well.Video Clip One Night with The King (Youtube clip): https://youtu.be/Ob8DTU_m-aI End at 4:40Song Played at end of SessionHere I Am - (4:46) (Chris Renzema; Age to Age)Worship Set from March 2019Reckless Love - (5:33) (Cory Asbury; Reckless Love)When You Walk Into The Room - (4:49) (Bryan & Katie Torwalt; Kingdom Come)How He Loves - (6:48) (Jared Anderson; Live From My Church)Where You Are - (6:30) (Leeland; Christ Be All Around)Pasm 45 - (5:26) (Shane & Shane; Psalms Vol 2)Jesus, We Love You - (6:55) (Bethel Music; We Will Not Be Shaken)Arms of Grace - (4:21) (Bryan & Katie Torwalt; Praise Before My Breakthrough)Awaken Love - (5:10) (Kim Walker-Smith; On My Side)Throne Room - (4:45) (Kim Walker-Smith; On My Side)
98 | Making Choices for the Year while Living in the Day
Our lives are more than just the moment we are living in. They are the accumulation of billions of small moments, they are filled with weeks, months, years, decades. When we live in "the now" and forget about the trajectory of our lives we begin to make random and unhelpful decisions, but if we could see the small choices we make each day as fitting into the trajectory of our year or our decade we might make them differently. Throw in the momentum and direction and story of your community, your town, your country, and most importantly of all... the story of Jesus, then we might make very different decisions day to day. This is an area of maturity and balance. It takes maturity to not get lost in the now and lose the forest for the trees. But it also takes balance to not get swept up into the momentum of the culture all around you and forget that you might be called to live in a different direction.
Faulty Interpretation – Part 2
Discover tangible ways to gain a truer interpretation of God, your life, and the people you love as Morgan and Allen conclude this series.
97 | A Playful Jesus?
We've been reading "Beautiful Outlaw" again and it's been surfacing some wonderful things. What is Jesus' personality like? Yes, he is kind and merciful and all those other over-used but totally true things. Is Jesus playful though? And if he is, how does that play out on a personal, relational level? Might we learn something of him that draws us closer in and allows us to see his hand in our daily lives more often?
Faulty Interpretation – Part 1
There's a high cost when we misinterpret the people and events of our lives. Morgan and Allen share examples of faulty interpretation and the hope for seeing our stories clearly.
96 | A Profanity-Free Podcast on Swearing (aside from the intro)
Aside from the intro, of course. So we’re not going to do a series on drinking, swearing and smoking, but we are interested in talking about right action—how do we decide what to do? The word profanity comes from pro-fanum, Latin, literally meaning “before the temple.” The implications are not sacred, outside the sacred, etc. It’s interesting though that God doesn’t identify as sacred. God is holy. That’s a whole different animal. In this episode, we explore a set of related concepts. First, we talk about the human inclination to destruction as revealed in three Old Testament words: khata, pesha, and avon (not English words, btw). Khata is sin, i.e. moral failure, self deception and the devouring self. Pesha is broken trust. Avon is iniquity, or crookedness, and the consequences of human failure everybody’d live with if Jesus hadn’t come. Then we talk about transformation. Jesus is all about the restoration of the human heart. It’s what Moses predicts in Deuteronomy (30, we need a circumcision of heart), what the Psalms ask for (Psalm 51, for example), the Proverbs enjoin (4:23), and the prophets Ezekiel (36) and Jeremiah (31) and Isaiah (61) and yup, others anticipate God doing. In fact, in one of the passages folks reference in regard to profanity (Eph 4:29), Paul instructs the church not to let any unwholesome/corrupt/useless/un-life-giving talk come out of your mouth. The word is sapros, and it’s the same word Jesus uses when he says that you’ll know a tree by its fruit. “Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad (sapron) tree bears bad fruit” (Matt 7:17). What you produce comes out of who you are. This is the ultimate lesson of right action: become a transformed person (by receiving what Jesus has done and becoming his disciple) and the fruit of your life with change.
A Busy, Unhurried Life - Part 2
John and Allen offer practical ways to attain a less hurried way of being within the whirlwind of our busy lives.
95 | Developing a Family Culture of Readers
This podcast episode began percolating when we received several emails from different listeners, all of whom were asking the same question: how do you create a family culture that loves reading? Our love begins with enjoyment of story. To be able to enjoy the Gospel, theology, the sciences, the classics... it all begins with our love of story. Our very lives are a story, and we will not see the story unfolding all around us if we have missed learning to love the most simple of stories. Fairy tales may have more to teach us about ourselves and reality than you may have guessed.
A Busy, Unhurried Life - Part 1
Our lives are busy - but they don't have to be hurried. John and Allen discuss how to eliminate hurry and create space for soul care.
36 – Naomi, an Unsung Hero – 2/20/2019
Join Stasi as she unpacks the book of Ruth highlighting Naomi as well as the treasured characteristic of God's Hesed and how He mercifully multiplies what we have to offer even when it isn't very much. Video Clip Syrian Refugees (Youtube clip): https://youtu.be/hiujzFNgHcE Worship Set from February 2019Steady Heart (Youtube version): https://youtu.be/tp80oWtnJc0Met By Love - (5:30) (United Pursuit; Simple Gospel)Do It Again - (6:38) (Elevation Worship; There is a Cloud)Praise Before My Breakthrough - (6:03) (Bryan & Katie Torwalt; Praise Before My Breakthrough)Have it All - (6:30) (Bethel Music; Have it All)Faithful to the End - (6:36) (Bethel Music; Have it All)Who Can Compare - (7:56) (Mary Kat Ehrenzeller; Emerging Voices)Ain't No Grave - (8:13) (Bethel Music; Victory)What A Beautiful Name - (5:41) (Hillsong Worship; Let There Be Light)Throne Room (Youtube Version): https://youtu.be/aAVHxXcOM78
94 | Generosity: Embodying the Plenty of God
We want more of God. More intimacy. More miracles. More clarity. More play. More joy. It turns out Jesus has outlined disciplines as avenues into the life we want. Generosity—regular, radical giving—is one such discipline. In this episode we explore what it takes to become generous. It starts, like so many things, with knowing God as Mother and Father. The Father who tells you your crisis in not a problem. The Mother who tells you your needs are seen, and you will be satisfied. We are made to resource our life in God. When we don’t, generosity is a rough target. From there we move on to the nature of the discipline: the way God intervenes to rescue a person from isolation. That’s what giving is, after all: separating ourselves from our stuff in favor of satisfaction. It includes money, and it’s more than money. Whether your tight fisted, like we’ve been, or the world’s champion tither, there is a path forward into joy, and it’s rich and storied and, it must be said, more than a little nerve-wracking.
Lessons From Last Year – Part 2
John and Morgan conclude this series by sharing how to hang on to the words God has already given us as a way to navigate what's ahead of us.
Lessons From Last Year – Part 1
Discover the power of staying present to what God's been teaching you these past twelve months rather than always moving to the next new thing.
93 | The Cost of Following God
Many of our conversations with friends have been around the subject of the cost of "really" following God. There is a sort of understanding that we are not completely there yet, and to take the leap to full-fledged followers would usher in a high cost. Yet, as Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
Envy - Part 4
In this final session, John and Blaine share ways to break agreements with offense and restore a culture of admiration.