The Middle Podcast

Thank you for listening in to the second episode of related themes which we began last week. I'm hopeful you will find this informative but ultimately a pathway to engage the Bible in a way that reminds you of its significance to the follower of Christ. Enjoy and thank you for tuning in.

The Middle Podcast continues with this 4th week of our new series using contemporary music lyrics to launch us into our Bibles. Hope you have enjoyed the series so far, this one was really fun to put together. I'm hopeful that you find it useful and an encouragement to dive into our holy scriptures. Thank you for listening.

Back with more contemporary music lyrics launching us into biblical themes and stories. This week is no different and sourced from an artist you might not expect to see on my list of choices. Thanks for listening and I'm hopeful this is useful to your walk with Christ.

Episode 2 of a new series! I am taking cues from contemporary music lyrics with the goal of launching us into Bible stories. The title is a clue, got a guess? Thanks for listening.

The Middle Podcast starts a brand new season in this brand new year. We're still emphasizing our Bible, but with a new twist. Check out our broadcast and join me in the joy found in music and our scriptures. Thanks for listening.

Hey there Middle Podcast listeners. I just wanted to check-in during my break to encourage you a bit through this Christmas season, say "thank you" for tuning in this year and to give you a hint at what is coming in 2022. It's shorter than normal but certainly worth the listen.

I've been working a week behind for the last month so I decided to do a "2 for 1" episode to catch up. A quick look at parallels in the story of Jacob and in part 2, the background story to The Middle Podcast in Joshua. Thank you for listening.

This episode brings our reflections on a short series in the book of Habakkuk. We take this week to explore a transformation in spiritual formation and maturity and close with a message of hope in Jesus's love for His followers and His church. Have a great week.

Habakkuk records a conversation in which God presents a pretty grim view of the condition of humankind. This assessment leads us to explore a neat parallel to Romans 1 verses 16 & 17. I'm hopeful you enjoy this episode and thank you for listening.

Habakkuk is an Old Testament prophet who cried out to God after observing and experiencing a culture that was far from Him and His ways. This week we draw a parallel between Habakkuk's cry and the state of the human experience throughout the Old Testament story to this point in scripture. I'm hopeful this is helpful in your personal walk and thank you for listening.

I'll explain: My title this week is making a play on numbers in our scriptures. Many ancient cultures attributed deep meanings and symbols to certain numbers and ancient Israel and their scriptures are no different. This week we look through John 21 to examine the use of triplets in a conversation with Peter. Hope you enjoy!

This week we explore Jesus's healing of a man who has been blind since birth. This is not an episode about the miracle, rather it will focus on the religious opposition that Jesus and His movement faced. Let's take a "parallel" view of this story and look back into the history of the ancient Israelite priesthood to hopefully bring more depth and awareness to the resistance Jesus faced during His earthly ministry. Thank you for listening.

Now here is a well known and well loved story in the book of John. I acknowledge that there is historical challenges to its originality in this gospel, but I don't think it diminishes the reality of Jesus's activity and service during his earthly ministry. Regardless, the story does bring us a parallel theme that I really benefitted from researching this week: the finger of God. I'm hopeful you enjoy and benefit from this episode.

A portion of Moses's speech to the ancient Israelites in Deuteronomy has been titled "The Shema" and has become a very important part of the devout's daily prayer life. This was true in Jesus's time also and He references it to highlight the role of His followers in their community and culture. I hope this parallel teaching back to the OT is helpful in your daily walk. Thank you for listening.

We are continuing the Middle Podcast theme of passages in the life of Jesus or his teachings and linking them back to the Old Testament to deepen and hopefully draw us into Jesus's bringing of the Kingdom of God. This is from one of my favorite stories in the gospels, the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Hope this is helpful for you.

One of my favorite books of the Old Testament is the story of Jonah the Prophet. It is a complex and fascinating story and Jesus uses this story in His ministry when those who oppose Him are pressing in and conspiring against Him. Why Jonah? Let's explore that together. Thank you for listening.

Have you ever wondered where Jesus grounded much of his New Covenant teaching? Well, much of it was pulled from the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures which Jesus had undoubtedly grown up reading. The neat thing about Jesus is he generally has a "tweak" into how those scriptures were being practiced that leads to a greater understanding of living in the Kingdom of God. Hope you enjoy our new season!

Pastor Shannon led us through this strange and counterintuitive sounding phrase. But spiritually, a very important and helpful truth in our walk with Christ. Thank you for listening as we explore a bit more on this useful topic.

For most of us, Jesus's work in our heart is a life-long journey. The early verses of Mark are fascinating to look at closely: They are complex, ingenious and grab our attention as he binds us to a story of Jesus in action. I'm hopeful this is a useful episode for you. Thanks for listening.

We close out Living Word's sermon series in Daniel with a look at the concept of innocence. This was my favorite podcast of this series because it forced me to consider a topic that I don't necessarily spend a whole lot of time doing so. I'm hopeful you will be blessed by this union of Daniel and Jesus. Thank you for listening.

Zac gave us some great things to consider this past week in the story of Daniel. Hope is one of those. We're using another wild and crazy dream to connect our hope in Jesus to the ultimate restoration of relationship with God. He's the only way! Thank you for listening.

What do faithful followers of the one, true God do when politics, religion and culture all get wrapped up into one? One option is to take Daniel chapter 3's approach of resistance and restraint. I hope this episode is useful and thank you for listening.

The book of Daniel is a collection of well known stories in scripture and each of them explores faithful living in a culture opposed to our beliefs.  While the story seems to be of an oppressive, power hungry and evil king, it is actually a story of hope.  Thank you for listening and enjoy this episode as we examine these competing themes.

Living Word just started a series working through the OT book of Daniel. This story is well-known for the author's emphasis on maintaining our faith when up against systems and cultures which challenge our belief. I found it interesting to explore this week what Daniel did not consider a cultural challenge to his faith in chapter 1. It's pretty fascinating and I hope you find it the same as you listen. Thank you for joining our podcast.

Pastor John Accetturo led us this weekend from James 5 to Acts 2 while talking about our active participation and contribution in the life of the church. Such a great journey and we'll look at the word "koinonia" as we explore the teachings that John had for us this Sunday. Hope you enjoy this broadcast and it is useful in your walk with Jesus. Thank you for listening.

Ever get the feeling as you work through James that it is reads much like the Proverbs of the Old Testament? Well, if you have, you are on to something. As we've seen over the past few weeks, James is offering practical application of Jesus's teachings. Similarly, Proverbs is offering practical application of how an image of God conducts their life. The similarities are really fun to explore and that's what we'll do this Middle of the week. Thank yo for listening.

James makes it easy to find the context, but that doesn't always solve my issues with James. It should, but often times, it doesn't. Some walls kinda go up because it's not what I want to hear and it's easy to fall into a Clint Black line from 1992, "I've heard me tell myself these things before". The fix? Let James tell me what he's telling me. Hope you enjoy the show.

Building off what we covered over the weekend which was the last half of James 2, the Middle Podcast goes backwards in time to see what the apostle covered before he asked "can that kind of faith save anyone" and "faith without works is dead". In the beginning, James addressed favoritism. Hope you enjoy the show and thank you for listening.

This week Pastor Aimee Accetturo began a series on the Wilderness. She said one thing the ancient Israelites had to do in the wilderness was to unlearn habits and routines they had known in Egypt. Could there be some application to today's life in this renewed learning process? I think so. Thank you for joining the Middle Podcast today.

I'm glad you chose to listen to the Middle Podcast's response to last Sunday's "Essential!" topic: the church. In this Season 3 bonus episode, we'll highlight two witness stories involving the early 120-member church and also the early 3,120 (or so)member church. All within one day in the life of the church. Hope you find this helpful in your faith family. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for listening to our Christmas Eve release celebrating the 4th week of Advent. It's peace, we're talking about peace!! Enjoy and I'm hopeful you have a wonderful holiday season and a very Merry Christmas.

Katie Barnhart joined Living Word this week and brought a great message on JOY! In 8 minutes, we explore joy through a real-life story pulled from a war torn country in 2007. Hope you enjoy and please let others know how to find the Middle Podcast. Thank you.

After listening to Drew's Advent sermon on God's love, I had to go to John 13:35-"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." How can I be better at loving people? Take a few suggestions from Jesus. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Pastor Drew brought up an interesting picture this past weekend: He noted the 400 years that passed by flipping the page between the end of the OT and the beginning of the NT. In this episode, we explore some of what was happening in those silent years that would usher in the arrival of Jesus Christ. Enjoy and thank you for listening.

One quick story from the life of Jesus as we close out our Thanksgiving weekend! We all love a good feast and so did Jesus as He led a group of followers over the course of a few short years. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Thank you for listening to the Middle Podcast's first Saturday release after a few days of creative block.  But it finally came through the story of Jonah, so I hope you find it useful as we continue to consider God's generosity.

This week the Middle Podcast will begin to highlight the people and organizations targeted by Living Word's Arrival Offering. We look at 2 Corinthians under the theme of "churches serving churches" and talk about the hurdle faced by the church in Corinth. Enjoy the message and thank you for listening.

I'll take a little bit of a departure from season 2's look at biblical patterns this week as we explore the science of generosity. We'll dive into a couple of questions by looking the variety of ways generosity looks like in our lives and what is the source of our generosity: natural and learned behaviors. Thank you for listening and enjoy the show.

Living Word started a new sermon series this week on generosity With that in mind, the Middle Podcast explores one of Jesus's more unusual teachings: the Raven. It turned out to be a really interesting look into one of my least favorite creations of God: Resourcefulness and teamwork stand out the most. I hope you enjoy this take on generosity.

Thank you for joining The Middle Podcast-8 minute version-for our second installment from last Sunday's service: Jesus's letter to the church in Laodicea. Following repentance and prayer, we now explore a teaching on a posture of waiting. We continue to look at "doors" and "knocking"-this time from the book of Luke. I hope you enjoy this Middle Podcast episode.

In this episode of the Middle Podcast, we explore Jesus's direction to the church in Laodicea of "knock and the door will be opened" and seek application in our prayer life. We'll link back to Jesus's Sermon on the Mount to seek God's desire to form a relationship with mankind and the importance of prayer for all of us in our daily lives. Thank you for listening.

Repentance is the topic of the Middle Podcast's second response to Pastor Drew's sermon this past Sunday on Jesus's message to the Church in Sardis. Repentance is repeated throughout the scripture, from beginning to the end. God told Cain that in him, was the ability to overcome the threat of sin. Repentance is that God-given response to our sin: we hear it week after week in these messages to the churches. I'm hopeful you enjoy this episode and it pushes you into our scriptures to read these stories first hand. God bless!

This past weekend, Pastor Drew spoke about the church of Sardis in Revelation 3. The Middle Podcast follows up his sermon with a look at reputation vs. character. Which one matters eternally? What is the tone of Jesus's message to Sardis? We look back at Matthew 23 for the connection. Woe, there!

Lydia's story in Acts chapter 16 is an incredible account of new faith. Although she doesn't know it, she is ready for the Jesus story to be told into her life and for the Holy Spirit to light the fire! A founder of the Christian movement in Philippi, her response to God's message was the starting point of Christian faith in Europe. I hope you enjoy this short story.

The phrase "that Jezebel" should communicate so much to readers of God's word. Pastor Drew's message this past Sunday concentrated on the church of Thyatira from Revelation 2. The Middle Podcast will take 8 minutes to dive back into scripture to talk about the relevance of "that Jezebel" to the small church in first century Thyatira and it's message for Jesus's church today and our impact in our community today! Thank you for listening.

This past Sunday, I got the privilege of speaking to our congregation. What an honor!! The topic-Jesus's letter to the Church of Pergamum. As you can imagine, my research produced way more information and truth than I had time on a Sunday morning. My wife Kristen agreed to guest-host with me as the guest, in order to bring out some of the story that didn't make my final sermon draft. Kristen is a great host and thank you for listening. If you are interested in listening to the Sunday sermon, go to www.livingwordoakharbor.com/media. Thank you for listening!

On vacation from Burlington, VT, Jordan joined the Middle Podcast to talk about his church launch at the end of August and his ongoing relationship with Living Word Church. You'll enjoy this conversation as he talks a little about his past, the present and a bright future for a Christian gathering in BVT! Thank you for listening and enjoy.

I got a great opportunity this weekend to join Janelle Ibaven for lunch and a tour. She is a former staff pastor at Living Word and now a member of the Harvard Chaplaincy and we had a great conversation. She has always been heavily invested in our next generation of young people and continues that passion on the Cambridge campus. Thank you for listening to The Middle Podcast..

The Middle Podcast had a great opportunity to sit down with LW Interns as they start the 2020-21 season. This was a perfect time to follow-up on what we learned through Pastor Drew's "Who Is Next" sermon series as they discuss Gen Z and how to reach and come alongside a generation of Christian young adults who walk in faith, service and worship. Enjoy!

4 months before The Middle Podcast was hosted on listening platforms, we produced 17 shows that were only available through our church website. Because we have many new listeners, I wanted to put excerpts from some of those episodes together so the wisdom and insight of our guests wasn't lost to the digital vault. Enjoy 3 guest/staff speakers-Zac, Shannon and Roosevelt-each of who led our Sunday e-services during the month of late March and early April 2020. Oh yeah, and another riveting movie review by Ainsley-she's so fun!

Husband, father, small business owner, football coach and pastor John Accetturo tells his story and offers reflection on Paul and Timothy's relationship in the New Testament.