Podcasts about apostles creed

This week we return to the Apostles Creed as Pastor Janelle explores the words: “I believe in God the Father Almighty” 

This week we return to the Apostles Creed as our sister Sharon explores the words “I believe in the Holy Spirit”

"This is the Way"Wrapping up our Apostle's Creed series, Pastor Brad confirms us that the Creed is "The Way" We determine truth from lies, told to us in Jesus' name.  The creed points to the word, and anything taught that doesn't point might as well be heresy. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/Rah78l44LQAThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

In the 7th week of our series on the Apostle's Creed, Pastor Beau Hamilton preaches a sermon on the section from the Creed, “I (We) believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints…”. Following the Ascension of Jesus, Pastor Beau points us to Acts 2:1-13 to discover more about what we can all agree on about the text. Join us and be encouraged today that the Holy Spirit now dwells within each of us.Things to consider as you listen:We live in a post-Pentecost world.“… the holy catholic church…”The beauty of God's design for His church is that it's a global church.“… the communion of saints…”Fellowship with believers of all times and placesReadiness to share with others who are in needThe transcendence of holy things“… the communion of saints"…”The strong wind of the Spirit is life giving to the church.The focus is not on what the proclaim but how they proclaim.they heard and saw the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit makes your faith in Jesus possible. He comes to you and calls you by the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the reason you now God. Join us as we continue in our series on the Apostles Creed as Pastor Mark preaches on what we believe about the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 40: 1-17

"I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting.  Amen."Our sermon governing the final line of the Apostles Creed, piggybacks of our previous weeks sermons, Today Pastor Brad delves deeper into the final verse, investing the resurrection, and the new body we will be giving for our everlasting life after death. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/qZD7YFmdFvgThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

Following up from an incredibly thought-provoking message on what happened to Christ after he died and “descended to the dead”, we move into the section of the Apostles Creed, “he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.” Moving through several texts in several books throughout Scripture, join us to learn a bit more about what Christ's ascension and his place at the right of the Father means to the Children of God he died for.Things to consider as you listen:Both Christ's descent and ascent have great significance in God's pursuit of humanity.The Incarnation of christ isn't over.In his human body, Christ ascended into heaven to be with God for eternity! Likewise, so will we!“The one who in his resurrection conquered death now sits at the very throne of God, and because he is there the evil that once held us captive no longer has the power to do so!” (Apostles' Creed for Today")Christ will come again to establish the Kingdom of God once and for all.When Christ returns, that which is captivated by evil must be separated from that which is captivated by God.The one on the judgment seat is the same one who lived & died on our behalf.

July 20, 2025 SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST REV. KENDRA L. BALLIET ORGANIST JAMES ROSS * Please Stand If Able Prelude - Prelude on "What a Friend"-Gordon Young Welcome & Announcements *Call to Worship Pastor: Children of God, in Jesus, Love became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. People: We gather to worship Christ, the image of the invisible. Pastor: In Jesus, we meet the fullness of God with no barriers to access. People: We gather to worship Christ, the image of the invisible. Pastor: In Jesus, our separation from God, neighbor, self, and creation has been removed. We are free for divine and loving connection once again. People: We gather to worship Christ, the image of the invisible. Pastor: Children of God, come! Come, let us worship God, whose power makes Love visible to us so that we might reflect Love to the world. People: Come, let us worship Christ, Love who came to dwell among us and within us! * Opening Hymn – “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” #103 **Prayer of Intercession O Christ, your cross speaks both to us and to our world. In your dying for us, You accepted the pain and hurt of the whole of creation. The arms of your cross stretch out Across the broken world in reconciliation. You have made peace with us. Helps us to make peace with you By sharing in your reconciling work. May we recognize your spirit Disturbing and challenging us to care for creation And for the poor who most feel the effects of its abuse. O Christ, the whole of creation groans. Set us free and make us whole. Amen. *Apostles Creed #881 *Glory Be to the Father #70 Children’s Chat Scripture – Colossians 1:15-28 Pastor: The Word of God for the people of God. People: Thanks be to God Series: “Dear Children of God,” Message: “Image of the Invisible” Tithes and Offering Offertory - Largo-Antonio Vivaldi *Doxology – Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow #94 Prayers of the People - Joys and Concerns *Prayer Hymn – “More Love to Thee, O Christ” #453 Pastoral Prayer & Lord’s Prayer *Closing Hymn – “Victory in Jesus” #370 Action Steps and Benediction Reflecting and Sharing Prompt: How have you experienced God’s love and presence when you sing and pray together in this church community? Postlude - Solid Rock-Anna Laura Page The flowers on the altar today are given to the glory of God and in memory of our mother's 100 birthday on July 19th by Joyce Minnis and Carolyn Turnbull. Thank you for sharing in this worship service. Please continue to stay in touch through our website (stoneumc.org) and/or by following us on Facebook (Stone UMC). If you have joys or concerns that you would like lifted up in prayer, please fill out the Prayer Card in the pew, on the website, or share them by contacting us at 814-724-6736 or churchoffice@stoneumc.org

July 20, 2025 SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST REV. KENDRA L. BALLIET ORGANIST JAMES ROSS * Please Stand If Able Prelude - Prelude on "What a Friend"-Gordon Young Welcome & Announcements *Call to Worship Pastor: Children of God, in Jesus, Love became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. People: We gather to worship Christ, the image of the invisible. Pastor: In Jesus, we meet the fullness of God with no barriers to access. People: We gather to worship Christ, the image of the invisible. Pastor: In Jesus, our separation from God, neighbor, self, and creation has been removed. We are free for divine and loving connection once again. People: We gather to worship Christ, the image of the invisible. Pastor: Children of God, come! Come, let us worship God, whose power makes Love visible to us so that we might reflect Love to the world. People: Come, let us worship Christ, Love who came to dwell among us and within us! * Opening Hymn – “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” #103 **Prayer of Intercession O Christ, your cross speaks both to us and to our world. In your dying for us, You accepted the pain and hurt of the whole of creation. The arms of your cross stretch out Across the broken world in reconciliation. You have made peace with us. Helps us to make peace with you By sharing in your reconciling work. May we recognize your spirit Disturbing and challenging us to care for creation And for the poor who most feel the effects of its abuse. O Christ, the whole of creation groans. Set us free and make us whole. Amen. *Apostles Creed #881 *Glory Be to the Father #70 Children’s Chat Scripture – Colossians 1:15-28 Pastor: The Word of God for the people of God. People: Thanks be to God Series: “Dear Children of God,” Message: “Image of the Invisible” Tithes and Offering Offertory - Largo-Antonio Vivaldi *Doxology – Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow #94 Prayers of the People - Joys and Concerns *Prayer Hymn – “More Love to Thee, O Christ” #453 Pastoral Prayer & Lord’s Prayer *Closing Hymn – “Victory in Jesus” #370 Action Steps and Benediction Reflecting and Sharing Prompt: How have you experienced God’s love and presence when you sing and pray together in this church community? Postlude - Solid Rock-Anna Laura Page The flowers on the altar today are given to the glory of God and in memory of our mother's 100 birthday on July 19th by Joyce Minnis and Carolyn Turnbull. Thank you for sharing in this worship service. Please continue to stay in touch through our website (stoneumc.org) and/or by following us on Facebook (Stone UMC). If you have joys or concerns that you would like lifted up in prayer, please fill out the Prayer Card in the pew, on the website, or share them by contacting us at 814-724-6736 or churchoffice@stoneumc.org

Pastor James teaches from Psalms 51:1-12In this weeks sermon, pastor James dives into the verse "Forgiveness of Sins" and explains that only the devil, and we ourselves keep track of all our sins, the LORD has already abashed them, washing them away when we chose to believe.YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/LAvvgwYkv2QThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

We say the Apostles Creed during worship. It contains the truth about God which is found in God's Word. It contains 3 articles (paragraphs), one for each of the 3 Persons in one Godhead. Have you ever slowly read and explored what is revealed in this prayer? It begins with: I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Join us as Pastor Dave unpacks the beauty and power found in our belief of God: Father, Almighty, and Creator.

Ever wondered about what exactly happened to Jesus when He died? What happened in those days before He resurrected? This week in our series on the Apostles Creed, we hone in on the phrase, “He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose again.” If you believe in God and/or have been a believer you may or may not have given much thought to what happens when you die. That is what this week's sermon is all about, specifically looking at the in-between of Christ's journey from death to resurrection. Featuring a great deal of Scriptural references, join us for this week's sermon on The Apostles Creed.Things to consider as you listen:If we believe that God wastes nothing, then Christ's time in the grave was significant.Christ had the full human experience, bearing the weight of our sin, even in death.In death, the soul separates from the body. In resurrection, the soul in reunited with the body.THEORY #1 (1 Peter 3:18-22 NLT, NRSV, 1 Peter 4:5-6 NRSV) Christ preached the Good News in the place of the dead offering one last chance to repent.THEORY #2 (Ephesians 4:8-9 NRSV, Philippians 2:9-11 NRSV, Revelation 1:17-18 NRSV) Christ preached the Good News in the place of the dead declaring victory over evil on its home turf.Christ's death was the beginning of our eternal victory.

JULY 13, 2025 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST REV. KENDRA BALLIET ORGANIST JIM ROSS Prelude - Benedictus - Gordon Young Welcome & Announcements *Call to Worship Pastor: Children of God, are you listening? Have you noticed? God has planted seeds of hope among us. People: We have heard of this hope! Pastor: Are you listening? Have you noticed? God nurtures hope among us, helping us bear the fruit of faithfulness in this world. People: We seek this hope as we learn to live in faith. Pastor: Are you listening? Have you noticed? The hope of God’s good news forms you to love one another with the love of Christ. People: We cling to this hope as we grow in love of God, self, neighbor, and all creation. Pastor: Children of God, come! Come, let us worship God who graciously offers us the gift of hope. People: Come, let us worship God who empowers us to put our hope into faithful and loving actions! * Opening Hymn – “Come That We Love the Lord” #733 **Prayer of Confession Gracious and Merciful God, your love is steadfast, and your mercy endures forever. Forgive us for not loving as you love. Forgive us for the ways and words we’ve used to oppress your people and help us to forgive those who’ve oppressed us. Forgive us for the deeds that we’ve done that have burdened instead of uplifted the hearts and minds of those we’ve encountered. Forgive us for silence during times of injustice and free us to rise and advocate for those who live under the leadership of unjust rulers, who live in a state of turmoil and depression. Help us to reconcile and make peace with one another. Help us to bear one another’s burdens and to be agents of your liberating love so that all of your people will be able to live justly. We confess our sins before you silently now, knowing that you are willing to able to cleanse and revive us through Christ’s resurrecting power, in whose name we pray. Amen. *Apostles Creed #881 *Glory Be to the Father #70 Children’s Chat Scripture – Colossians 1:1-14 Pastor: The Word of God for the people of God. People: Thanks be to God Series: “Dear Children of God,” Message: “Heard of This Hope” Tithes and Offering Offertory - Come Down O Love Divine - Paul Manz *Doxology – Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow #94 Prayers of the People - Joys and Concerns *Prayer Hymn – “El Shaddai” #123 Pastoral Prayer & Lord’s Prayer *Closing Hymn – “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian” #402 Action Steps and Benediction Reflecting and Sharing Prompt: Where do you encounter hope in this church community? Postlude - Postlude on Hyfrydol - Gordon Young Thank you for sharing in this worship service. Please continue to stay in touch through our website (stoneumc.org) and/or by following us on Facebook (Stone UMC). If you have joys or concerns that you would like lifted up in prayer, please fill out the Prayer Card in the pew, on the website, or share them by contacting us at 814-724-6736 or churchoffice@stoneumc.org

JULY 13, 2025 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST REV. KENDRA BALLIET ORGANIST JIM ROSS Prelude - Benedictus - Gordon Young Welcome & Announcements *Call to Worship Pastor: Children of God, are you listening? Have you noticed? God has planted seeds of hope among us. People: We have heard of this hope! Pastor: Are you listening? Have you noticed? God nurtures hope among us, helping us bear the fruit of faithfulness in this world. People: We seek this hope as we learn to live in faith. Pastor: Are you listening? Have you noticed? The hope of God’s good news forms you to love one another with the love of Christ. People: We cling to this hope as we grow in love of God, self, neighbor, and all creation. Pastor: Children of God, come! Come, let us worship God who graciously offers us the gift of hope. People: Come, let us worship God who empowers us to put our hope into faithful and loving actions! * Opening Hymn – “Come That We Love the Lord” #733 **Prayer of Confession Gracious and Merciful God, your love is steadfast, and your mercy endures forever. Forgive us for not loving as you love. Forgive us for the ways and words we’ve used to oppress your people and help us to forgive those who’ve oppressed us. Forgive us for the deeds that we’ve done that have burdened instead of uplifted the hearts and minds of those we’ve encountered. Forgive us for silence during times of injustice and free us to rise and advocate for those who live under the leadership of unjust rulers, who live in a state of turmoil and depression. Help us to reconcile and make peace with one another. Help us to bear one another’s burdens and to be agents of your liberating love so that all of your people will be able to live justly. We confess our sins before you silently now, knowing that you are willing to able to cleanse and revive us through Christ’s resurrecting power, in whose name we pray. Amen. *Apostles Creed #881 *Glory Be to the Father #70 Children’s Chat Scripture – Colossians 1:1-14 Pastor: The Word of God for the people of God. People: Thanks be to God Series: “Dear Children of God,” Message: “Heard of This Hope” Tithes and Offering Offertory - Come Down O Love Divine - Paul Manz *Doxology – Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow #94 Prayers of the People - Joys and Concerns *Prayer Hymn – “El Shaddai” #123 Pastoral Prayer & Lord’s Prayer *Closing Hymn – “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian” #402 Action Steps and Benediction Reflecting and Sharing Prompt: Where do you encounter hope in this church community? Postlude - Postlude on Hyfrydol - Gordon Young Thank you for sharing in this worship service. Please continue to stay in touch through our website (stoneumc.org) and/or by following us on Facebook (Stone UMC). If you have joys or concerns that you would like lifted up in prayer, please fill out the Prayer Card in the pew, on the website, or share them by contacting us at 814-724-6736 or churchoffice@stoneumc.org

Pastor James teaches from 1 Corinthians 12:27 Nearing the end of the creed, Pastor James helps dissect this line that is confusing for some believers. He explains the meaning is to accept the universal church, that is all the Christian denominations that accept the Creed as the word.YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/mAGTHwMOASEThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

It is week four in our wonderful series looking deeply into the Apostles Creed. This week's text was “…who suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, dead, and buried…”. Within this text, Pastor Jeni took us to Ephesians 4:11-16, as well as several passages in John 19 all within the scope of examining the humanity of Christ, his very real abuse, crucifixion, and human life/death. Pastor Jeni went on to remind us that through Christ's humanity God became relatable to us. Join us for a humbling week four in the series “The Apostles Creed”. *A specially added, bonus clip is provided below in case you missed the announcement of the result of Pastor Jeni's pastoral review. Things to consider as you listen:The body of Christ was human enough to be brutally abused & crucified on a cross.In His humanity, God became relatable in the person of Jesus.CRUCIFIXION1) This was common practice for criminals.2) This declaration resulted in the persecution of many.The Gospel doesn't rise and fall on society's economy of power. The Gospel stands firm on Jesus.

Matt, hey, my friends, welcome to the off the wire podcast. My name is Matt Wireman, and with over 25 years of coaching experience, I bring to you a an integrated approach to coaching where we look at mind, body and soul. So this being my little corner of the universe, welcome we cover everything from spiritual formation or the interior life all the way to goal setting and how to make your life better with life hacks, and I cover everything in between. So whatever it fits my fancy, I'm going to share with you, and I'm so thankful for your time, and I hope this episode helps you. All right. Well, hey, welcome, welcome to another episode of Off The Wire. This is Matt, still I haven't changed, but I do have with me, my friend. Really proud to call him a friend. And from seminary days, Dr Josh chatro, who is the Billy Graham chair for evangelism and cultural engagement at Beeson. That's a mouthful. Josh, well done. And then he is also, they just launched a concentration in apologetics at Beeson, which is really exciting. They got a conference coming up this summer. Is that also an apologetics Josh,its own preaching and apologetics? Okay? Awesome.And, and largely, you're also, you're also part of the Tim Keller Center for Cultural apologetics, and then also a, they call them fellows at the Center for Pastor theologians as well. That's right, yeah. And you in, you have been at Beeson for a couple years, because prior to that, you were at a you were heading up. And what was it largely an apologetics group, or was it, was it more broad than that in Raleigh?Yeah, it was. It was much more expansive than that. Evangelism and apologetics is part of what we were doing, but it was the Center for Public Christianity, okay? It was also very much in the work and faith movement. And I was also resident theologian at Holy Trinity Anglican in Raleigh. We were there for five years,excellent and and you don't know this because you don't keep tabs on who bought your book, but I've got every one of your books brother, so every every book you put out, and I'm like, I love this guy, and I'm gonna support him and buy his book. So it started all the way back, if you remember, with truth matters, yeah. And I use that book for one of the classes that I built here where I teach. And then then I want to go through the Litany here and embarrass you a little bit. And then it goes to apologetics, at the Cross Cultural Engagement, telling a better story, surprised by doubt. And then one that you just released called the Augustine way, retrieving a vision for the church's apologetic witness. So do you write much on apologetics? Is that kind of your thing?Yeah, I've written a few books on that.So why? Like, what is it about apologetics that has really captured your heart, in your mind and like, as opposed to just teaching theology, yeah, it's a certain it's a certain stream. If folks are first of all, folks are curious, like, What in the world is apologetics? Are you apologizing to folks? Like, are you saying I'm sorry?Well, I do have to do that. I'm sorry a lot. That's a good practice. That's not quite what apologetics is. Okay. Okay, so we, one of the things I would say is, and when I meet, when I meet up with old friends like you, sometimes they say, What have you been doing? Because we didn't see this coming. And when we were in seminary together, it wasn't as if I was, you know, reading a lot of apologetic works. And so one of the things is,and you weren't picking fights on campus too much. You were always a really kind person. And most, most time, people think of like apologists as, like, real feisty. And you're not a feisty friend. I'm not. I actually, unless you start talking about, like, soccer and stuff like that, right? Yeah,yeah, I'm not. Yeah, I don't. I don't love, I don't love, actually, arguments I'd much rather have, which is an odd thing, and so I need to tell how did I get into this thing? I'd much rather have conversations and dialog and kind of a back and forth that keeps open communication and and because, I actually think this ties into apologetics, most people don't make decisions or don't come to they don't come to any kind of belief simply because they were backed into an intellectual corner. And but now maybe I'll come back to that in a second. But I got into this because I was doing my PhD work while I was pastoring. And when you do yourpH was that in in Raleigh, because you did your PhD work at Southeastern, right?That's right, that's right. But I was actually, we were in southern, uh. In Virginia for the first half, we were in a small town called Surrey. It was, if you know anything about Tim Keller, it was he served in Hopewell, Virginia for seven or nine years before he went to Westminster and then to New York. And we were about 45 minutes from that small town. So if you've read Colin Hansen's book, he kind of gives you some background on what is this, these little communities, and it does, does kind of match up the little community I was serving for two years before moving to another little community in South Georgia to finish while I was writing. And so I pastored in both locations. So these aren't particularly urban areas, and yet, people in my church, especially the young people, were asking questions about textual criticism, reliability of the Bible.Those are any topics forfolks like, yeah, something happened called the Internet, yes. All of a sudden now, things that you would, you would get to, maybe in your, you know, thm, your your master's level courses, or even doctoral level courses. Now 1819, year old, 20 year olds or 50 year olds had questions about them because they were reading about some of this stuff on the internet. And because I was working on a PhD, I was actually working on a PhD in biblical theology and their New Testament scholar, people would come to me as if I'm supposed to know everything, or you know. And of course, of course, when you're studying a PhD, you're you're in a pretty narrow kind of world and very narrow kind of lane. And of course, I didn't know a lot of things, but I was, I kind of threw myself into, how do I help people with these common questions. So it wasn't as if, it wasn't as if I was saying, oh, I want to study apologetics. I kind of accidentally got there, just because of really practical things going on in my church context. And and then as I was reading and I started writing in response to Bart Ehrman, who is a is a agnostic Bible scholar. Wrote four or five New York Times bestsellers, uh, critical of the New Testament, critical of the Bible, critical of conservative Christianity. I started writing those first two books. I wrote with some senior scholars. I wrote in response. And then people said, so your apologist? And I said, Well, I guess I am. And so that, yeah, so I'm coming at this I'm coming at this area, not because I just love arguments, but really to help the church really with really practical questions. And then as I began to teach it, I realized, oh, I have some different assumptions coming at this as a pastor, also as a theologian, and trained in biblical theology. So I came with a, maybe a different set of lenses. It's not the only set of lens. It's not the it's not the only compare of lenses that that one might take in this discipline, but that's some of my vocational background and some of my kind of journey that brought me into apologetics, and in some ways, has given me a little bit different perspective than some of the dominant approaches or dominant kind of leaders in the area.That's great. Well, let's go. Let's get after it. Then I'm gonna just throw you some doozies and see how we can rapid fire just prove all of the things that that are in doubt. So here we go. Okay, you ready? How do we know that God exists?Yeah, so that word no can have different connotations. So maybe it would be better to ask the question, why do we believe God exists? Oh,don't you do that? You're you can't, you can't just change my question. I was kidding. Well, I think, I think you bring up a great point, is that one of the key tasks in apologetics is defining of terms and understanding like, Okay, you asked that question. But I think there's a question behind the question that actually is an assumption that we have to tease out and make explicit, right? Because, I mean, that's, that's part of you. So I think sometimes people get into this back and forth with folks, and you're like, Well, you have assumptions in your question. So go ahead, you, you, you go ahead and change my question. So how do we knowthe issue is, is there is that when we say something like, you know, we people begin to imagine that the way Christianity works is that we need to prove Christianity in the way we might prove as Augustine said this in confessions, four plus six equals 10. And Augustine, early church father, and he's writing, and he's writing about his own journey. He said I really had to get to the point where I realized this is not how this works. Yeah, we're not talking about, we do not one plus one, our way to God.Yeah. And when is Augustine writing about When? When? So people are, yeah, 397,at. This point. So he's writing right at the, you know, right right before the fifth century, okay? And, and, of course, Augustine famously said, we have to believe to understand, for most believers, God is intuitive, or what? Blaise Pascal, the 17th century Christian philosopher He called this the logic of the heart. Or I can just cite a more contemporary figure, Alvin planeta, calls this basic belief that. He says that belief in God is a basic belief, and and for So, for for many believers, they would say something like this. And I think there's validity in this so is that God just makes sense, even if, even if they haven't really worked out arguments that they they say, Well, yeah, this God makes sense to me. Now I can kind of begin to explore that. I will in just a second, but I just want to say there's, for most of your listeners, it's something like, I heard the gospel and this and the stories of Jesus, and I knew they were true, right? And as kind of insiders here, we would say that's the Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit is working, and God speaks through creation and his word, and people believe. And so that's that's why we believe now, of course, once we say that people have these kinds of intuitions, or as theologians would put it, this sense of God kind of built into them, I would want to say, as an apologist, or even as a pastor, just a minister, you don't have to be apologist to say this is that we can appeal to those intuitions and make arguments in many different types of ways. Well,hold on one second. Isn't that a little too simplistic, though? Because, I mean, you have the Greeks who believed in all the different gods, and the Romans who adopted those gods and changed their names and like, how do we assimilate that? You know, where, you know Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins famously say, Well, I don't, I don't believe in Zeus. So does that make me an atheist? It would have made me an atheist back in, you know, you know Roman and Latin and Greek times. So, so there's an intuition, but, but how do we delineate that? Well, that's not the right object of that intuition.Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have this intuition, you know, we could say Romans, Romans, one is pointing us to, this is what I would argue, this sense of God, and yet we're, we're fallen, according to the Christian story. And so even though we have this sense of God, we suppress that, and we worship false gods, or we worship the created, rather than the Creator. So the Christian story as a as a Christian, helps make sense of both the kind of why? Well, although we have this sense this, there's this common sense of God, it goes in many different directions and and I would argue that even if you deny kind of transcendence altogether, you're still going to have you're going to still make something kind of a god. You're going to you're going to want to worship something. And I think that's that's part of the point of Romans, one, you end up going to worship the created rather than the Creator. So does that get out what you're asking Matt or Yeah,I think so. I think sometimes the arguments that are real popular, even now is like, well, I just don't, I just don't, I just don't believe that God exists, just like I don't believe that Zeus exists, like, what's, what's the big deal? Why? Why are you so adamant that I believe in that God exists? Like to because I don't, I don't know that God exists because I don't see him. So how would you respond to somebody who says, Well, this Intuit intuition that that you say we all have, and that Romans one says we have, I just don't buy it, you know, because, I mean, I'm, I wouldn't believe that Zeus exists, because there's no empirical evidence to show me otherwise. So how would you respond to somebody that's equivocating or saying that, you know, Yahweh of the Old Testament, the God of the, you know, the God of the Bible is, this is just a tribal deity, just like Zeus is. So, how should we? Iwould, I would say so. So I think we can make kind of arguments for some kind of for transcendence. So there's ways to make arguments against naturalism. That's that's what's being promoted. And there's various different kinds of, you know. So sometimes these kinds of arguments that are in the Christian tradition are used to say, hey, we're going to prove God's existence using these arguments. I think I'm not. Are typically comfortable with the language of prove and how it's used in our context today, again, we get into the math, kind of two plus two equals four. Kind of thinking, yep. But I think a lot of those arguments are appealing to both intuitions and they they work much more effectively as anti naturalistic arguments. Not so much saying, Okay, we know a particular God through, say, the moral argument, okay, that we're but, but it's arguing against simply a naturalistic, materialistic. You know, even Evans, who's a longtime professor at Baylor, makes this argument that those, those types of arguments are really good against pushing back against naturalism. So plan again, has a famous argument that says, if naturalism and evolutionary theory are both true because of how evolution theory works, it's not about right thinking, but right action that you perform certain things to survive. Then, if both of those are true, you have no reason to trust your kind of cognitive faculties.Can you tease that one out a little bit? I kind of lost on that one. He said,What planet is arguing? Is he saying? Look, if, if all of our kind of cognitive faculties are just a product of evolution, okay? And by the way, not only does it's not just a plan. Ago makes this argument, it's actually kind of interesting figures who were like Nietzsche and others made this argument that basically, if, if evolution and naturalism is true that all we are is energy and manner and this product of evolutionary process, then we would have no reason to actually trust kind of our rationality, and that's what rationality is actually mapping onto reality. All of our our brains and our minds are really just producing certain conclusions to help us survive. So it would undercut the very foundations of that position. Now again, yeah, being able to observe, yeah, yeah. So, so with that, again, I think that's an example of an argument that doesn't so much. You know, say this is the Christian God. This supports the belief in Christian God. But what it does is it from within their own thinking. It challenges that. It undercuts their own way of thinking, which is what you're assuming and what you're kind of pushing back on, is a kind of naturalistic world. And I think we can step within that try to understand it and then challenge it on its own terms. And I think that's the real strength of planning this argument. What he's doing now, go ahead.Well, that's it, yeah, in his, in his, like, the the Opus is, uh, warranted. Christian belief is that what you're referencing the the big burgundy book.I can't remember where he makes this argument? Yeah, I can'tremember exactly. But like, if all your cognitive faculties are working, somebody who believes that God exists does not mean that they does not negate all of the other cognitive faculties that they're like if they're in their rational mind, that they have warrants for their belief. But, but that's what I what I think, where I'm tracking with you, and I love this is that even like, it still holds true, right? Like there's not one silver bullet argument to say now we know, like, that's what you were challenging even in the question is, how do you know that you know that you know that God exists? Well, you have to layer these arguments. And so this is one layer of that argument that even the Greeks and the Romans had a sense of transcendence that they were after, and they identified them as gods. But there's this other worldliness that they're trying to attribute to the natural world that they observe, that they can't have answers for, and that we can't observe every occurrence of reality, that there has to be something outside of our box, so to speak, out of our naturalistic tendencies. And so even that can be helpful to say, well, that kind of proves my point that even the Greeks and the Romans and other tribal deities, they're after something outside of our own experience that we can experience in this box. Yeah, that'sright. And there's a, I mean again, this, this argument, isn't intellectually coercive, and I don't think any of these are intellectually coercive. What I mean by that is you can find ways out. And so the approach I would take is actually called an abductive approach, which says, Okay, let's put everything on the table, and what best makes sense, what best makes sense, or what you know, what story best explains all of this? And so that way, there's a lot of different angles you can take depending on who you're talking to, yep, and and so what one of the, one of the ways to look at this and contemporary anthropology? Psycho psychologists have done work on this, to say, the kind of standard, what we might call natural position in all of human history, is that there's there's transcendence. That's, it's just the assumption that there's transcendence. Even today, studies have been shown even people who grow kids, who grew up in a secular society will kind of have these intuitions, like, there is some kind of God, there is some kind of creator, designer. And the argument is that you actually have to have a certain kinds of culture, a particular culture that kind of habituate certain thinking, what, what CS Lewis would call, a certain kind of worldly spell to to so that those intuitions are saying, Oh no, there's not a god. You know, there's not transcendence. And so the kind of common position in all of human history across various different cultures is there is some kind of transcendence. It takes a very particular, what I would say, parochial, kind of culture to say, oh, there's probably no there. There's not. There's, of course, there's not. In fact, Charles Taylor, this is the story he wants to tell of how did we get here, at least in some secular quarters of the West, where it was just assumed, of course, there's, of course, there's a God to 500 years of to now, and at least some quarters of the West, certain, certain elite orsecular? Yeah? Yeah, people. And even then, that's a minority, right? This is not a wholesale thing, yeah.It seems to be. There's something, well, even Jonathan height, uh, he's an atheist, says, has acknowledged that there seems to be something in humans. That's something like what Pascal called a God shaped hole in our heart, and so there's this kind of, there's this deep intuition. And what I'm wanting to do is, I'm wanting in my arguments to kind of say, okay, given this as a Christian, that I believe we have this sense of God and this intuition of God, these intuitions, I want to appeal to those intuitions. And so there's a moral order to the universe that people just sense that there is a right and wrong. There's certain things that are right and certain things are wrong, even if a culture says it is, it is, it is fine to kill this group of people, that there's something above culture, that even there's something above someone's personal preference, that is their moral order to the universe. Now, given that deep seated intuition, what you might call a first principle, what makes best sense of that, or a deep desire, that that, that nothing in the universe seems to satisfy that we have. This is CS Lewis's famous argument. We have these desires, these natural desires for we get thirsty and there's there's water, we get hungry and there's food, and yet there's this basically universal or worldwide phenomenon where people desire something more, that they try to look for satisfaction in this world and they can't find it. Now, what best explains that? And notice what I'm doing there, I'm asking that the question, what best explains it? Doesn't mean there's, there's not multiple explanations for this, but we're saying, What's the best explanation, or profound sense that something doesn't come from nothing, that intelligence doesn't come from non intelligence, that being doesn't come from non being. Yeah, a deep sense that there's meaning and significance in life, that our experience with beauty is not just a leftover from an earlier primitive stage of of evolution. And so we have these deep experiences and intuitions and ideas about the world, and what I'm saying is particularly the Christian story. So I'm not, I'm not at the end, arguing for just transcendence or or kind of a generic theism, but I'm saying particularly the Christian story, best, best answers. Now, I'm not saying that other stories can't incorporate and say something and offer explanations, but it's a, it's a really a matter of, you know, you might say out narrating or or telling the Gospel story that maps on to the ways we're already intuiting about the world, or experiencing or observing the world.Yeah, so, so going along with that, so we don't have, like, a clear cut case, so to speak. We have layers of argument, and we appeal to what people kind of, in their heart of hearts, know, they don't have to like, they have to be taught otherwise. Almost like, if you talk to a child, they can't, they kind of intuit that, oh, there's something outside, like, Who created us? Like, who's our mom? You know, like, going back into the infinite regress. It's like, okay, some something came from nothing. How does that even how is that even possible? So there has to be something outside of our. Experience that caused that to happen. So, so say you, you go there, and then you help people. Say, help people understand. Like, I can't prove God's existence, but I can argue that there are ways of explaining the world that are better than other ways. So then, how do you avoid the charge that, well, you basically are a really proud person that you think your religion is better than other religions. How, how could you dare say that when you can't even prove that you're you know? So how? How would you respond to somebody who would say, like, how do you believe? Why do you believe that Christianity is a one true religion? Yeah, um,well, I would say a couple of things. One is that, in some sense, everyone is staking out some kind of claim. So even if you say you can't say that one religion is true or one one religion is the one true religion, that is a truth claim that you're staking out. And I think it's fine that this for someone to say that they just need to realize. I mean, I think they're wrong, but I think they're they're making a truth claim. I'm making a truth claim. Christians are making truth so we're, we all think we're right, and that's fine. That's fine, but, but then we but then once you realize that, then you're not saying, Well, you think you're right, but I just, I'm not sure, or it's arrogant to say you're right. I think, of course, with some some things, we have more levels of confidence than other things. And I think that's the other thing we can say with Christian with as Christians, it's saying, Hey, I believe, I believe in the resurrection. I believe in the core doctrines of Christianity. It doesn't mean that everything I might believe about everything is right. It doesn't even mean all my arguments are are even 100% always the best arguments, or I could be wrong about a particular argument and and I'm also not saying that you're wrong about everything you're saying. Okay, so, but what we are saying is that, hey, I I believe Jesus is who he said he was, and you're saying he's not okay. Let's have a conversation. But it's not, rather, it's not a matter of somebody being air. You know, you can hold those positions in an arrogant way. But simply saying, I believe this isn't in itself arrogance, at least, I think how arrogance is classically defined, yeah. And what is this saying? I believe this, and I believe, I believe what Jesus said about himself. And I can't go around and start kind of toying with with, if I believe he's Lord, then it's really not up to me to say, okay, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna, kind of take some of what he said, but not all of what he said. If you actually believe he rose from the dead and he is Lord and He is God, then then you take him at his word.What is it, as you think about cultural engagement, cultural apologetics that you've written on like, what is it in our cultural moment right now where people you say that thing, like Jesus said, You know, he, he, he said, I'm God, you know, not those explicit words, right? That's some of the argument. Like, no, but you look at the narrative he did, and that's why he was going to be stoned for blasphemy. That's why all these things. But that's, that's another conversation for another day. But, and then you talk to someone, you're like, Well, I don't believe he was God. I don't believe His claims were. Like, why then do you do we oftentimes find ourselves at a standstill, and people just throw up their hands like, well, that's your truth, and my truth is, I just don't, like, just don't push it on me. Like, why do we find ourselves in this? And it's not new. I mean, this is something that goes back to, you know, hundreds of years ago, where people are making arguments and they're like, Well, I just don't know. So I'm gonna be a transcendentalist, or I'm gonna be a deist, or I'm gonna whatever. So how do we kind of push back on that a little bit to say, No, it's not what we're talking about. Is not just a matter of preference, and it's not just a matter of, hey, my truth for me and your truth for you. But we're actually making it a claim that is true for all people. Like, how do we kind of encourage people to push into that tendency that people have to just throw up their hands and say, whatever? Pass the piece, you know? Well,okay, so I think let me answer that in two ways. One's philosophically, and then two are practically. One philosophically. I do think it's, you know, CS Lewis was on to this, as he often was way ahead of the curve on certain things, but on an abolition of man. When he talked, he's talking about the fact value distinction and how we've separated. You know, you have your facts, and then everything you know, where, classically, you would kind of recognize that courage, you know, is a virtue, and that's, it's a, it's a, it's also a fact that we should pursue courage and rather than just my preference of kind of and so there's actually. Be this, but now we have, well, that's a value, kind of courage, and say you should do something, but it's, it's, that's your value and and so we have this distinction between facts, which is, follow the science, and then values over here. And as that has opened up. You have both a kind of, on one hand, a very, very much, a people saying in a very kind of hard, rationalistic way, you know, science has said, which, that would be another podcast to kind of dive into that more science is good and, yeah, and, but science doesn't say anything. So I'm a fan of science, but it doesn't say anything. We interpret certain things, but, but so you can kind of have a hard rationalism, but you also combine with a kind of relativism, or at least a soft relativism that says, Well, this is my truth, because values become subjective. So that's the philosophical take. But the kind of practical thing, I would say, is they need people. One of the reasons people do that is because, it's because they've seen kind of these to reference what you're talking about earlier this hey, this person's coming in wanting to talk about my worldview, and it just becomes this fierce, awkward encounter, and I don't want anything to do with that type of thing, like I don't, I don't want to go down the dark corners of of the Internet to have these, to have these intellectual just like Charles Taylor says, a lot of the kind of arguments are, I have three reasons why your position is untenable. He says something like untenable, wrong and totally immoral. Now, let's have a conversation. It just and so it's kind of like, no thanks. I don't think I want to have that conversation. You do you. And so there's, there is a part that, culturally, something is going on which needs to be confronted. And Lewis was doing that work, and a lot of philosophers have followed him in that but there's also a side of of maybe where our own worst enemies here, and the way that we try to engage people, and where we start with people, and we think, Okay, let's start in this kind of, you know, apologetic wrestling match with people. And a lot of times, people are just looking to cope. People are just looking to survive. They have mental health issues going on, and they don't want another one to pop up because of the apologist. And so they're just looking to try to skirt that conversation and get to feeding their kids or dealing with their angry neighbor. And so we've got to kind of take stock on kind of where people are at, and then how to engage them with where they're at. Now I'm going to apologize. I think all of those arguments are helpful in a certain context, but a lot of times, we've been our own worst enemy, and how we try to try to engage so what I what I encourage students and ministers to do is is start talking about people's stories, and you know how life is going and where what's hard, and asking really good questions, and kind of having a holy curiosity and and often, I was in an encounter with a guy who came up to me after a kind of a university missions thing, and he was an atheist, and he wanted to talk about the moral argument. And I was happy to do that for a few minutes, but then I just asked him. I said, what you know, what do you love to do? Tell me about yourself, and where do you really find joy in life? And he looked at me, and he started to tear up, and he said, You know, I'm really lonely right now, you know, go figure this moment in our world, the kind of fragmented world we live in. And he said, what's really meaningful to me is my is my pet, because he provides solace. And there's this moment where, of course, I mean, here's an atheist wanting to show up at a Christian event, right? And because Christians were nice to him, and he's deeply lonely, and we got to have a pretty meaningful conversation about, you know, the benefits of following Christ in the community, communion with not only God, but with others, yeah, but if I would have just left it at, let's go to the more we would have never got there. But it took me kind of asking the question, which is, in essence, what I was trying to ask is what, I didn't put it like this, but what are you seeking? What are you really after here? And where are you really getting joy in life, and what's going on? And I if we can learn to go there, I think we'll have much more productive conversations. And then just kind of, I heard chatro talk about the, you know, ontological argument. Now let me throw that out there at somebody. I think that's why apologists and apologetics have sometimes been given a bad name. But if you. Actually look at the tradition, the the larger tradition. There's so many resources, and there's so many people, apologists, doing lots of different things, that I think gives us kind of way to actually engage people where they're at.Yeah, yeah. No, that's great. Well, I It reminds me, I believe it was Schaefer who talked about the the greatest apologetic, at least his time, and I think it stands true even now, is welcoming people and being hospitable towards people, welcoming the questions, not looking at folks as adversaries, but fellow pilgrims. And then you welcome them into that space, into that community. And then they're they see that, quite frankly, the faith works. The Christian ethic actually works, albeit imperfect, by imperfect people in imperfect ways. But you know, as we go through pain and suffering, as we go through, you know, elation and disappointment, like there's still a lot that that we can demonstrate to the world through our testimony that it works. You know, so to speak. So I'd love to hear you kind of help walk us through how the Christian story tells a better story about pain and suffering, because that's that's a fact of every person listening is that there's some modicum of pain and suffering in their life at any moment. And then you look at the grand scale of the world and all these things, but just even we can go down to the individual level of the why is there pain and suffering in my life and in the world and, you know, in general. But I like, like for you to just kind of riff on that for a little bit for us, to helpus, yeah. And in some ways, this question, and the apologetic question is a kind of real, a snapshot into the into what we're talking about with, how do we respond to that? Not just as Okay, an intellectual question, yeah, yeah, but it's also a profoundly experiential question. And there's youmean, you mean, and how, in the moment when you're saying, in the moment when somebody asks you the question, not getting defensive, but being being willing to listen to the question, Is that what you mean by that? And yeah,well, what I mean is, that's certainly true. Matt, what I was really thinking, though, is how this is not just something kind of an abstract, intellectual question. Oh, okay, but it's a profound experiential and there's different angles that we might take into it. But I mean, as a kind of snapshot or a test case in our apologetic is, I think there's ways to answer that question that are sterile, that are overly academic, and I and that also, I would say, rushes in to give an answer. And I would want to argue that Christianity doesn't give an answer to evil and suffering, but it gives a response. And let me make, let me explain that, yeah, is, is an answer. Tries in the way I'm using it, at least tries to say, I'm going to solve this kind of intellectual problem, and the problem of evil and suffering in the world, of why a good God who's all powerful would allow the kind of evil and suffering we see in the world is, is one that we might say, Okay, now there's the problem. Now let me give the solution. And this is often done, and we've you maybe have been in this if you're listening into a certain context where a kind of famous apologist says, Here is the answer, or famous Christian celebrity says, Here is the answer to evil, and this solves all the problems, until you start thinking about it a little bit more, or you go home, or three or four years, and you grow out of that answer and and so I think we need to be real careful here when we say we have the answer, because if you keep pushing that question back in time, or you start asking questions like, well, that that bullet that hit Hitler in World War One and didn't kill him? What if the God of the Bible, who seems to control the wind and everything, would have just blown it over and killed Hitler. It seems like maybe it could have been a better possible world if Hitler, you know, didn't lead the Holocaust. Okay, so, so again, I think, I think pretty quickly you begin to say, Okay, well, maybe some of these theodicies Don't actually solve everything, although I would say that some of the theodicies that are given things like free will, theodicy or or the kind of theodicies that say God uses suffering to to grow us and develop us. And I think there's truth in all of that, and there's but what it does. What none of them do is completely solve the problem. And so I think that there's value in those theodicies in some extent.Hey, did you know that you were created to enjoy abundance? I'm not talking about getting the latest pair of Air Jordans or a jet plane or whatever that this world says that you have to have in order to be happy. Instead, I'm talking about an abundant life where you are rich in relationships, you're rich in your finances, but you are rich in life in general, that you are operating in the calling that God has for you, that He created you for amazing things. Did you know that? And so many times we get caught up in paying our mortgage and running hither and yon, that we forget that in this world of distractions that God has created you for glorious and amazing things and abundant life. If you would like to get a free workbook, I put one together for you, and it's called the my new rich life workbook. If you go to my new rich life.com my new rich life.com. I would be glad to send you that workbook with no strings attached, just my gift to you to help you. But here'sthe thing, here's what I want to go back to with a question. Is that the Odyssey as we know it, or this? And what I'm using theodicy for is this, this responsibility that that we feel like we have to justify the ways of God, is a particularly modern phenomenon. I think this is where history comes and helps us. Charles Taylor talks about this in that the kind of way we see theodicy and understand theodicy was really developed in the middle of the 1700s with figures like Leibniz, and then you have particularly the Lisbon earthquakes in the middle of the 18th century. And that was this kind of 911 for that context. And in this 911 moment, you have philosophers being saying, Okay, how do we justify the ways of God? And are trying to do it in a very kind of this philosophical way to solve the problem. But from for most of human history and history of the West, of course, evil and suffering was a problem, but it wasn't a problem so much to be solved, but it was a problem to to cope with and and and live in light of, in other words, what you don't have in the Bible is Job saying, Okay, well, maybe God doesn't exist. Or the psalmist saying, maybe God doesn't exist because I'm experiencing this. No, they're ticked off about it. They're not happy about it. They're struggling to cope with it. It is, it is a problem, but it's not, then therefore a problem. That says, well, then God doesn't exist. Yeah. And it didn't become a widespread kind of objection against God's very existence, until certain things have happened in the kind of modern psyche, the kind of modern way of imagining the world. And here is what's happened. This is what Charles Taylor says. Is that Taylor says what happened is kind of slowly through through different stages in history, but but in some sorry to be gloved here, but it's, it's a very kind of, you know, long argument. But to get to the point is, he says our view of God became small, and our view of humans became really big. And so God just came became kind of a bigger view of version of ourselves. And then we said, oh, if there is a reason for suffering and evil, we should be able to know it, because God's just a bigger kind of version of us, and he has given us rational capacities. And therefore if we can't solve this, then there must not be a god. That's kind of where the logic goes. And of course, if you step into the biblical world, or what I would say a more profoundly Christian way of looking at it is God. God isn't silent, and God has spoken, has given us ways to cope and live with suffering and ways to understand it. But what he what he doesn't give us, is that we're going to he actually promises that, that we're not going to fully understand His ways that, that we're going to have to trust Him, even though we can't fully understand why he does what he does in history all the time. And so this leads into what, what's actually called. There's, this is a, this is a weird name if you're not in this field, but it's called skeptical theism. I'm a skeptical theist. And what skeptical theists Are you is that we're not skeptical about God, but we're skeptical about being able to neatly answer or solve the problem of evil. But we actually don't think that's as big of a deal, because, simply because. I don't understand why God, God's simply because I don't understand God's reasons. Doesn't mean he doesn't have reasons. Yeah, yeah. Andso just beyond your the your finite, uh, temporo spatial understanding of things, right? Like you don't understand how this horrible situation plays out in a grander narrative,right? So it's Stephen wickstra. He had this famous argument. I'll riff off of it a little bit. I mean, just metaphor. He says, if you have a if you have a tent, and we go camping together, Matt and and I open the tent and say, there's a giant dog in there. And you look in there, there's no dog, you would say, Yeah, you're either crazy or a liar. But if I open the tent and say there's tiny bugs in there, and they're called no see ums, you wouldn't, you wouldn't know. You wouldn't be in a position to know. You wouldn't be in an epistemological position to know whether there's a bug in there or not. So you would simply have to decide whether you're going to trust me or not. And then, you know, the claim of the non Christian might be, well, yeah, why would I trust the God given the kind of crap that I see in the world? And I would say, well, a couple reasons. One is most profoundly because God has entered into this world. He has not sat on the sidelines. So even though we don't fully understand it, he has in the person of Jesus Christ, he has suffered with us and for us. So this is a God who says, I haven't given you all the answers, but I have given you myself. And that's I think both has some rational merit to it, and profoundly some intellectual merit to that. I'd also say that the Christian story actually gets at some deep intuitions, kind of underneath this challenge or this problem. It was CS Lewis, who was an atheist in World War One, and and he was very angry at God because of the evil and violence and his his mom dying at an early age, and was an atheist. But then he realized that in his anger against God, that he was assuming a certain standard, a certain kind of moral standard, about how the world should be, that there is evil in the world and that it shouldn't be so, and this deep intuition that it shouldn't be so that certain things aren't right. Actually, you don't have if you do away with God's existence, you just you have your preferences. But in a world of just energy and matter, why would the world not be absurd? Why would you expect things not to be like this. Why would you demand them not to be like this?So a deeply embedded sense of morality that can't be explained by naturalism is what you're getting, yeah?That that we have a certain problem here, or certain challenge with not fully being able to answer the question, yeah, but they have, I would say, a deeper challenge, that they don't have even the kind of categories to make sense of the question. So that's those are some of the directions I would go, and it's first stepping inside and kind of challenging against some of the assumptions. But then I'm as you, as you can tell, then I'm going to say how the Christian story does make sense of these deep intuitions, our moral intuitions, that are underneath the problem, or the challenge of evil and suffering. And then also going to Jesus in the Gospel. And the Gospel story,one of the questions I had on our on the list of questions was, how do we know the Bible is true? But I want to delve into more of this understanding of doubt and how that plays, because you've written a lot on this. But I'd like, could you just direct us to some resources, or some folks, if folks are interested in, how do we know the Bible is true? I'm thinking real popular apologist right now is Wesley. Huff is a great place to go. But are there other like, hey, how do I know that the Bible is true? Because you keep appealing to Christianity, which is in for is the foundation of that is the Bible. So could you give us a few resources so people could chase those down.Peter Williams has written a couple little good books on the Gospels. AndPeter Williams Williams, he's in Cambridge, right, orTyndale house, over there and over the pond. And he's written a book on the Gospels. And I can't think of the name, but if you put it on the internet, it'll show up. And the genius of Jesus as well. Okay, little books, and I think both of those are helpful as far as the Gospels go. Richard, Richard balcom is really good on this, Jesus and the eyewitnesses. As well as a little book that most people haven't heard of. It's a, it's an introduction to the Gospels in that off in an Oxford series, which is, you know, kind of a brief introduction to the Gospels. And he, especially at the very beginning, he gives us John Dixon, who's at Wheaton now, has written a lot of good books on on on this. And it's got this series called skeptics guide to and it does both Old Testament and New Testament kind of stuff. So that little series is, is really helpful. So those are some places I would start. And in my books, I typically have, you know, chapters on this, but I haven't, haven't written, you know, just one book, just on this. The early books, truth matters and truth in a culture of doubt, were, were engaging Bart airman. But really, Bart airman not to pick on on Airmen, but just because he was such a representative of a lot of the the views that that we were hearing, he ended up being a good kind of interlocutor. In those I would just say, I know you didn't. You just asked for books. And let me just say one thing about this is I, I think if you are trying to engage, I think if you take the approach of, let me prove the Bible, let me take everything and just, yeah, I don't think that's the best way. I think you often have to give people some you know, whether it's, you know, the beginning of Luke's Gospel, where he's saying, This is how I went about this. And I actually did my homework to kind of say, this is at least the claim of the gospel writers say, and then, but the real way that you you come to see and know, is you have to step into it and read it. And I think one of the apologetic practices I would want to encourage, or just evangelistic practices, is is offering to read the gospels with people and and working through it. And then certain things come up as you read them, apologetically that you'll, you'll want to chase down and use some of those resources for but I think often it's, it's saying, hey, the claims are, at least that, you know, these guys have done their homework and and some of the work Richard welcome is doing is saying, you know, the Gospel traditions were, were were pinned within the lifetime of eyewitnesses and this. And so that's some of the work that that balcom has helpfully done that kind of help us get off the ground in some of these conversations.Would that be your go to gospel Luke or, like, if you're walking with players, or a go to like,some people say more because of the shortness or John, I I'm happy with them. Allfour should be in the canon. Yeah, no, that's great. And I think a couple other books I'm thinking of Paul Wagner's from text from text to translation, particularly deals with Old Testament translation issues, but then text critical pieces, but then also FF. Bruce's canon of Scripture is a real, solid place to go, if people are interested in those big pieces, but those, I mean, yeah, Richard Bauckham work was really helpful for me when I was like, How do I even know, you know the starting place is a good starting place. So, yeah, thank you for that. Sowhat the challenge is, people have got to make up their mind on Jesus. Yeah. I mean, I think that's where I want to kind of triage conversations and say, Hey, I know the Bible is a big book and there's a lot going on. First things you gotta make a call on. So that's where I'm going to focus on, the Gospels. That'sgreat. No, that's great. Well, you know, a lot of times you, and you've mentioned this earlier, that sometimes in our attempts to give reasons for our faith, we can come to simplistic answers like, Okay, this is, here you go. Here's the manuscript evidence, for example. Or, hey, here's the evidence for the resurrection. Oh, here. You know, this is pain and suffering, Romans, 828, you know, having these quick answers. And I think it stems from a desire to want to have a foundation for what we stand on. But a lot of times, and I think what we're seeing in our culture, and this is not anything new, this topic of deconstruction is not really a new topic is, you know, it's what's been called in the past, apostasy, or just not believing anymore. But now it's gotten a more, you know, kind of sharper edges to it. And and I would love for you to you know how you would respond to someone who is deconstructing from their faith because it didn't allow for doubt or because they were raised in perhaps a really strict Christian home. So how would you respond to somebody who says, I don't I don't like the. Had answers anymore, and I don't, you know, it's just too simplistic, and it doesn't, it's not satisfying. So how would you, because I encounter a lot of folks that are in that vein, the ones who are deconstructing, it's, it's not, you know, there's definitely intellectual arguments, but there's something else in back of that too, I think. So I'd love to hear you just kind of, how would you respond to someone who is deconstructing or has deconstructed in their faith?Yeah, yeah. And of course not. In that situation, my first response it's going to be, tell me more. Let's, let's talk more. I want to hear, I want to hear your story. I want to hear your deconversion story, or where you're at and and to have some real curiosity. Rather than here, let me tell you what your problem is. And let me tellyou, yeah, you just don't want to believe because you got some secret sin or something. Yeah? Oh, goodnessno. I mean, it's right faith, unbelief and doubt is complex, and there's lots of forms of doubt. And we use that word I mean, it has quite the semantic range, and we use in lots of different ways. And of course, the Bible, by no means, is celebrating doubt. The Bible, it's, you know, that we is saying we should have faith. It calls us to faith, not to doubt, but doubt seems to be a couple things to say. We talk about, we talk about ourselves as Christians, as new creations in Christ, but we also recognize that we still sin, we still we still have sinful habits. We're still sinful, and in the same way we we we believe, but we can struggle with doubt, and that's a reality. And it seems to me that that doesn't mean, though, that then we celebrate doubt, as if doubts this great thing, no, but at the same time, we need to be realistic and honest that we do. And there's certain things culturally that have happened, because we now live in a pluralistic world where people seem very sane and rational and and lovely, and they believe radically different things than we do. And just that proximity, Peter Berger, the late sociologist, did a lot of work on this area. This is just it. It creates these kinds of this kind of contestability, because, well, we could imagine even possibly not believing, or kids not believing, in a way that, again, 500 years ago, you know you Luther was wrestling with whether the Roman Catholic Church had everything right, but he wasn't wrestling and doubting the whole the whole thing, yeah, God. So that creates certain pressures that I think we need to be honest about, and but, but with, and part of that honesty, I think, in that kind of conversation to say, Hey, you're not alone and you're not just simply crazy because you're you're raising some of these things because, I mean, that's in many ways, understandable. Yeah, okay, yeah. I'm not saying it's good, I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's understandable. And I hear what you're saying, and I'm, let's talk about it now. The the kind of metaphor that that I use is to think about Christianity as a house. Of course, that's not my metaphor. I'm I'm borrowing from CS Lewis, who talked about Christianity as a house and in Mere Christianity, Lewis said he wanted to get people through non Christians into the hallway, and so he wanted to get them into the door so that they would and then they could pick up a particular tradition, they could enter a room. But his approach in Mere Christianity was to represent kind of the whole house. And what I think is happening in many cases is that people, now, I'm riffing off of his metaphor, people in the church. People have raised in the church, so they've grew up their whole life in the house, but it's actually in the what I would call the attic. And the attic as as I talk about it is, is in the house. It's, it's a Christian community, but it was, it was many times they're built out of a kind of reactionary posture against culture, without a deep connection to the rest of the house. It's kind of like, Hey, we're scared, and understandably so, the kind of decadent morality, certain shifts happening in the west with Can you giveus a couple examples of what you're thinking like? What would a person living in the attic like? What would their tradition kind of. Look like,yeah. So a couple of things. One in response to, in some cases, in response to the kind of intellectual movements, the kind of sex, secular and, you know, thinking they would say, you know, intellectualism is bad, that would be one response from the attic, like, don't worry about, you know, thinking. Just believe your problem is you're just thinking too much. So that would be one response, a kind of anti intellectualism. The other response is what I would call a kind of, depending on what kind of mood I'm in, I would call it a kind of quasi intellectual that, and that sounds harsh that I say what kind of mood I'm in, but a kind of quasi intellectual response, which is like, Oh, you want arguments. You want evidence. We'll give you two plus two equals equals God, and we'll kind of match, you know, fire with fire, and we can prove God's existence. And oftentimes, those kinds of apologetic reactions, I would call them, sometimes they're kind of quasi intellectual, because I don't think that's how the kind of bit we come to the big decisions. I don't think it's rational enough about a rationality about kind of what type of humans we are, and how we come to the big decisions and the big truths and and so I think that's one response, and that's why you have a kind of industry of apologetics sometimes. And the way they do it, I'm not saying in some ways it can be helpful, but in other ways, it can cause problems down down the road, and we've seen that at least, like, for instance, with the evil and suffering kind of conversation we were having before. If people say, actually, those arguments actually don't make, don't fully do what they were. We you claim too much for your arguments. Let's just say, like that. Okay, so that's one kind of, so there's a there's a kinds of, well, Christianity, in that side can kind of become this kind of intellectual, sterile work where you're just kind of trying to prove God, rather than this, than this way of life, where does worship come in? Where does devotion come in? What is And so very quickly it becomes, you know, this intellectual game, rather than communion with the living God. And so the emphasis understandably goes a certain way, but I would say understandably wrong goes a certain way, and that argument should be part of this deeper life of faith that we live and so we again, I'm wanting to say the motives aren't necessarily, aren't wrong, but where we get off because we're too reactionary, can go off. Let me give you one other ones. And I would say, like the purity culture would be another kind of side of this where we see a morally decadent culture of sexuality, and we want to respond to that we we don't want our kids to grow up believing those lies. Yeah, as as a friend of mine says, you know that the sexual revolution was actually and is actually bad for women, and we need to say that. We need to say that to people in the church, absolutely. But in response to that, then we create what, what has been called a purity culture, which, which has, has kind of poured a lot of guilt and have made have over promised again, if you just do this, you'll have a wonderful life and a wonderful marriage if you just do this, and then if you mess up, oh, you've, you've committed this unpardonable sin, almost. And so there's a lot of pressure being put on, particularly young women and then, and then over promising and so all of this,can people see that the House of Cards is coming down because they're like, Yeah, my marriage is horrible.It creates this pressure, right where you have to. You have to think a certain way. You have to behave this very kind of way. It's reaction to want to protect them. So again, I'm saying, Yes, I understand the reactions, yeah, and, but, but, and this is, I think, a key part of this, because it's not connected well to the rest of the house. It often reacts, rather than reflected deeply on the tradition and helps fit your way, the centrality of the Gospel, the centrality of what's always been, Christian teaching and coming back to the main things, rather than kind of reacting to culture because we're nervous, and doing it in such a way that, you know, well, people will begin to say, That's what Christianity is about. Christianity is really about, you know, your politics, because that's all my pastor is talking about, interesting, you know, and this is all they're talking about. So that becomes the center,even though the ethic is is, is, becomes the. Center, as opposed to the the philosophy and theology guiding the ethic, is that, would that be another way to put it, like how you live, become, becomes preeminent to, you know, wrestling with doubt and and trying to bring God into the space of your doubt and that kind of stuff is, that, is that?Yeah, I mean, so that, I think one of the things that the the early creeds help us to do is it helps us to keep the main thing. The main thing, it helps us to keep, rather than saying, well, because culture is talking about this, we're going to, you know, kind of in our churches, this becomes the main thing, is reacting or responding, maybe, whether it's with the culture and certain movements or against the culture, yeah. But if you're anchored to the kind of the ancient wisdom of the past you're you do have, you are at times, of course, going to respond to what's going on culturally, yeah, but it's always grounded to the center, and what's always been the center, yeah? And I think so when you're in a community like this, like this, the pressure of, I've gotta think rightly. I've gotta check every box here, yes, and oh, and I've, I've been told that there is proofs, and I just need to think harder. I just, you know, even believe more, even Yeah, if I just, if I just think harder, then I'll eliminate my doubt, but my doubts not being eliminated. So either I'm stupid or maybe there's a problem with the evidence, because it's not eliminating all my doubt, but this creates this kind of melting pot of anxiety for a lot of people as their own Reddit threads and their Oh, and then this, trying to figure all this out, and they're Googling all these answers, and then the slow drip, oh, well, to be honest, sometimes the massive outpouring of church scandal is poured into this, yeah. And it just creates a lot of anxiety amongst young people, and eventually they say, I'm just going to jump out of the attic, you know, because it looks pretty freeing and it looks like a pretty good way of life out there. And what, what I say to people is two things. Number one, rather than simply jumping out, first look what you're about to jump into, because you have to live somewhere, and outside the attic, you're not just jumping into kind of neutrality, you're jumping into cultural spaces and assumptions and belief. And so let's, let's just be just as critical as, yeah, the attic or house as you are will be mean, be just as critical with those spaces as you have been with the attic. So you need to explore those. But also, I'm wanting to give them a framework to understand that actually a lot of the ways that you've kind of grown up is actually been in this attic. Why don't you come downstairs, and if you're going to leave the house, explore the main floor first.And what would be the main floor? What would you say? The main floor?Yeah. I would say themain orthodox historic Christianity, like, yeah. Orthodox historic Christianity, Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, just kind of go into the Yeah. And whatI would say is, for instance, the apostle creed gives us kind of what I would call load bearing walls in the house. So it gives us the places where you don't mess like load bearing walls. You don't you don't knock those down if you're going to do a remodel, and, and, and. So you would recognize the difference between load bearing walls, walls that are central versus actual different rooms in the house, and how? Well, these aren't load bearing walls, but they're, they're, they're, they're how certain people in Christian communities, churches at particular times, have articulated it and and some of these, you could deny certain things, but you could, but those are more denominational battle lines, rather than the kind of load bearing things that you if you pull out the resurrection of Jesus, if you pull out the the deity of Christ and the full humanity of Christ, If you pull out the Trinity. So let's go back to the core. And if you're going to reject, if you're going to leave, leave on the basis of those core things, not okay. I've had these bad experiences in the church now, yeah, what I think this to kind of wrap this up on this is what often happens, or what can happen if someone says, Well, yeah, I've done that, and I still don't, I don't believe Okay, yep, that's going to happen. Yep. But one of the things I suggest, in at least some cases, is that the addict has screwed people up more than they realize, and that the way that they approach. Approach the foundation and the the main floor, it's still in attic categories, as in, to go back to our first question, well, I can't prove this, yeah. And I was always told that I should be able to prove it. Well, that's not how this works, yeah. And so they they reject Christianity on certain enlightenment terms, but they don't reject Christianity as Christianity really is. So people are going to interact with Christianity, I would say sometimes your people are investigating, say the resurrection, and reflecting more on on these central claims, but they're still doing it as if, if it doesn't reach kind of 100% certainty that I can't believe. And that's just not how this works.Yeah, that's, that's food for thought, because there, there's so many people that I interact with that I try to encourage. Like, yeah, your experience was really bad, like I'm affirming that, and that was messed up. That's not That's not Christianity, that is a branch on this massive tree trunk that stinks and that needs to be lamented and grieved and also called out as wrong. So I'm using another metaphor of a tree instead. But I love the because the house metaphor is something that you use in the telling a better story. Isn't that surprised bydoubt? Surprised by doubt? Yes, that's that's what we use, and we march through things, and we use that as, really our guiding metaphor through all the chapters. And that's what I would encourage if you're if you have somebody who's struggling with this, or you're struggling with this yourself, that's That's why a friend of mine, Jack Carson, that's why we wrote the book together, because obviously this is a we had a lot of friends and acquaintances and people who were coming to us and we weren't fully satisfied with all of the kind of works, yeah, that were responding and so this, this was our attempt to try to helppeople. Well, the book right after that was, is telling a better story. And one of the things I've really appreciated in your emphasis over the last few years has been, I would call a more humane apology, apologetic in that, you know, not giving into, okay, we're gonna give you want evidence. We're gonna give you evidence, as opposed to like, okay, let's just talk about being a huma

Pastor Brad teaches from John 14:15-21Pastor Brad takes us through the next Apostle's Creed Verse. "I Believe in the Holy Spirit" is a verse that proclaims we believe what Jesus said about sending an advocate, the Spirit of Truth, to us after his ascendance to heaven. This advocate is to guide us and help us become more familiar within Christ.YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/PIu6ejayzscThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

We are in week 3 of our series on the Apostles Creed. This week, District Superintendent Dr. Mark Lindstrom joins us as our guest speaker. The text from the Creed to be focused in on this week is “…who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” For this chosen text, Dr. Lindstrom helps us discover the wonder of Jesus' unique nature in that he is 100% man yet also 100% God. Join us for an intriguing message through the Gospels and a few Epistles as we look into the birth of our Lord together. Things to consider as you listen:The Incarnation - “en-FLESH-ment”We are NOT Christians because we are committed to a proposition.We ARE Christians because we are committed to a person.Immanuel - “God is WITH us”

Pastor James teaches from 1 Corinthians 15:3-22The next verse in The Apostle's Creed deals with the Resurrection. The event that separates Christ from other Religions. Pastor James drives as we journey through the orthodox telling of the resurrection, the good news that proclaims that all whom shall believe in Christ, shall have everlasting life.Thank you for joining us today! Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodlcop.com/connectPlease access the bulletin to view all the announcements please check out the bulletin here: www.lakewoodlcop.com/resourcesYouTube Link: https://youtu.be/-7Q5dusD684Thank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

Following the initial kickoff to a new series on the Apostles Creed, Youth Pastor Beau Hamilton preaches in the second week of the series, honing in on the phrase, “I (We) believe… in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord”. Preaching from Ephesians 4:11-16, Pastor Beau gives some historical context as to when the Creed was written and a little of why it was written. He then focuses on the incredibly complex concept of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Things to consider as you listen:We have more resilience to remain stable in the winds and waves of difference because we are tethered to something greater than our distinctives.Christ means MessiahOneness vs AlonenessWe must reject all other allegiances or Jesus becomes one of the many “lowercase” lords in our life.

Pastor Brad teaches from Genesis 3: 14-15; and 2 Corinthians 5:21Happy Fathers Day! In todays sermon, Pastor Brad tackles the next verse in the Apostles Creed. We examine Jesus' time upon the cross and the surrounding, such as Pontus Pilates significance, and Jesus' following decent into Hell. Thank you for joining us today! Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodlcop.com/connectPlease access the bulletin to view all the announcements please check out the bulletin here: www.lakewoodlcop.com/resourcesYouTube Link: https://youtu.be/PQPKzf1JkMMThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

Trinity Sunday! New Sermon Series! Yes please!On this Trinity Sunday, we are starting a new sermon series on the Apostles Creed titled, “tethered to truth: Apostles Creed”. We will be taking a deep dive into everything Apostles Creed. To start off the series, Pastor Jeni begins by telling what the Apostles Creed is, why it was/is needed, and how we can still cherish/value it and learn from it even today. Join us for this intriguing new series as we learn more about this ancient creed of the post-Acts Church. Things to consider as you listen:We have more resilience to remain stable in the winds and waves of difference because we are tethered to something greater than our distinctives.Brief History: dates back to the 2nd century - used as a baptismal creed - current version dates back to 8th century & has remained essentially unchanged since.“I believe…” in such a way that all other life choices & convictions will be tethered to these truths even when doubt arises.What is inside of us comes out and what comes out ends up inside of us!“God the Father Almighty” is a subversive declaration proclaiming that our God has power & authority over all other powers and authorities - seen and unseen.“…Maker of heaven & earth…” God is over all because he created all.

Pastor James teaches from Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23; and Luke 1:26-33Tacking the subject of the virgin birth is a tough one, but that is the next stop in our Apostle's Creed Series. Pastor James teaches on believing in the virgin birth by revealing how the breath of god breathes life. That Jesus' life needed to be free from original sin, in order for salvation to work. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/VHznxHfDcBQThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

On Easter Day we enter into the Christian calendar, a season of Resurrection. As the body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we follow as closely as possible the life of Jesus Christ (his life teachings and mission (redemptive purposes).[1] So we will study the topic of “Resurrection and Our Concerns” k'g?yfg / xfd|f] ;/f]sf/ For the next 7 weeks, until Pentecost, we will focus on the various aspects of the Resurrection, and it's meaning for our lives in the 21st century. Resurrection is often thought of in terms of a historical event in the life of Jesus Christ, and people debate over the validity, possibility, and its historical meaning, etc. But, as NT Wright says that Resurrection is not simply about proving a historical event or its logic, rather in his words, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you are now invited to belong to it.” NT Wright. Resurrection is a worldview matter, thus needs to be set in our lives Operating System. Its' something in your mind and heart's eyes, a telescope to see the world with a particular scope, an angle, a perspective (with its colors), like James Webb Telescope cameras that's observing the universe out there far outside our eye's sight. NT Wright says, “Resurrection is a view from future into our present”. It's a reliable account of what God has been cooking up since the creation, mystery now unveiled to us through Christ and his church. Wow, a whole new worldview, a perspective to consider (see Romans 8). Now we can read the whole Bible anew, from Christ's Resurrection and the New Creation perspective.   We will do that in this series, possibly under these following topics, I call “Resurrection Curriculum”: a.     Resurrection planted a seed of eternity in our hearts. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and life…” b.     Resurrection of Jesus has given us a new worldview, a scope for all of life and world-view. c.      Resurrection of Jesus is a deposit, guarantee of things promised, now with a guarantee. d.     Resurrection is a signpost, showing us a direction towards God's future New Creation. e.     “Hope is what you get when you realize that a different worldview is possible, the same worldview that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.” (75) f.       “We believe in the resurrection of the body…” as we declare in the Apostles Creed.

Pastor Brad Teaches from John 1:1-14The next line to be tacked in our Apostle's Creed Series is "Jesus Christ His Only Son Our LORD." Pastor Brad teaches upon this passage, building upon what it truly means to proclaim Jesus is LORD. That it takes time and intentionality to be proper stewards for the LORD. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/8JvzWt3aLaIThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

On Easter Day we enter into the Christian calendar, a season of Resurrection. As the body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we follow as closely as possible the life of Jesus Christ (his life teachings and mission (redemptive purposes).[1] So we will study the topic of “Resurrection and Our Concerns” k'g?yfg / xfd|f] ;/f]sf/ For the next 7 weeks, until Pentecost, we will focus on the various aspects of the Resurrection, and it's meaning for our lives in the 21st century. Resurrection is often thought of in terms of a historical event in the life of Jesus Christ, and people debate over the validity, possibility, and its historical meaning, etc. But, as NT Wright says that Resurrection is not simply about proving a historical event or its logic, rather in his words, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you are now invited to belong to it.” NT Wright. Resurrection is a worldview matter, thus needs to be set in our lives Operating System. Its' something in your mind and heart's eyes, a telescope to see the world with a particular scope, an angle, a perspective (with its colors), like James Webb Telescope cameras that's observing the universe out there far outside our eye's sight. NT Wright says, “Resurrection is a view from future into our present”. It's a reliable account of what God has been cooking up since the creation, mystery now unveiled to us through Christ and his church. Wow, a whole new worldview, a perspective to consider (see Romans 8). Now we can read the whole Bible anew, from Christ's Resurrection and the New Creation perspective.   We will do that in this series, possibly under these following topics, I call “Resurrection Curriculum”: a.     Resurrection planted a seed of eternity in our hearts. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and life…” b.     Resurrection of Jesus has given us a new worldview, a scope for all of life and world-view. c.      Resurrection of Jesus is a deposit, guarantee of things promised, now with a guarantee. d.     Resurrection is a signpost, showing us a direction towards God's future New Creation. e.     “Hope is what you get when you realize that a different worldview is possible, the same worldview that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.” (75) f.       “We believe in the resurrection of the body…” as we declare in the Apostles Creed.

Where is Jesus right now? Many Christians focus on Jesus' life, death, and resurrection but overlook His ascension and current ministry. This powerful message explores what happened after Jesus rose from the dead and what He's doing right now at the right hand of God. Learn how Jesus is actively interceding for you, ruling over every circumstance in your life, and equipping you through His church. Discover why understanding the ascension transforms how you handle guilt, anxiety, and spiritual growth. If you've ever struggled with shame from past mistakes, worried about circumstances beyond your control, or wondered how to engage meaningfully with the church, this message offers biblical insights that will change your perspective. The ascension isn't just theological trivia—it's a present reality that can bring peace, confidence, and purpose to your daily life. Keywords: ascension of Jesus, where is Jesus now, Jesus interceding, overcoming guilt, anxiety, worry, spiritual growth, church community, God's right hand, Jesus in heaven, Christian living, biblical teaching, spiritual transformation, Ephesians 1, Romans 8, Acts 1, Apostles Creed, Christian doctrine, practical faith.

Pastor James Leads us from Colossians 1:15-23 and Psalm 139In our thirds installment Pastor James helps us tackle the line "Maker of Heaven and Earth." Expanding on our role as stewards of the earth, and the relationship between creator and creature. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/09fnDOubiEIThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

On Easter Day we enter into the Christian calendar, a season of Resurrection. As the body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we follow as closely as possible the life of Jesus Christ (his life teachings and mission (redemptive purposes).[1] So we will study the topic of “Resurrection and Our Concerns” k'g?yfg / xfd|f] ;/f]sf/ For the next 7 weeks, until Pentecost, we will focus on the various aspects of the Resurrection, and it's meaning for our lives in the 21st century. Resurrection is often thought of in terms of a historical event in the life of Jesus Christ, and people debate over the validity, possibility, and its historical meaning, etc. But, as NT Wright says that Resurrection is not simply about proving a historical event or its logic, rather in his words, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you are now invited to belong to it.” NT Wright. Resurrection is a worldview matter, thus needs to be set in our lives Operating System. Its' something in your mind and heart's eyes, a telescope to see the world with a particular scope, an angle, a perspective (with its colors), like James Webb Telescope cameras that's observing the universe out there far outside our eye's sight. NT Wright says, “Resurrection is a view from future into our present”. It's a reliable account of what God has been cooking up since the creation, mystery now unveiled to us through Christ and his church. Wow, a whole new worldview, a perspective to consider (see Romans 8). Now we can read the whole Bible anew, from Christ's Resurrection and the New Creation perspective.   We will do that in this series, possibly under these following topics, I call “Resurrection Curriculum”: a.     Resurrection planted a seed of eternity in our hearts. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and life…” b.     Resurrection of Jesus has given us a new worldview, a scope for all of life and world-view. c.      Resurrection of Jesus is a deposit, guarantee of things promised, now with a guarantee. d.     Resurrection is a signpost, showing us a direction towards God's future New Creation. e.     “Hope is what you get when you realize that a different worldview is possible, the same worldview that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.” (75) f.       “We believe in the resurrection of the body…” as we declare in the Apostles Creed.

Pastor James Leads us from Genesis 1:1-2 and Revelations 22:13In the second installment of our Apostles Creed Series, we continue setting our foundation for believing in God. This week Pastor James helps up Delve into the first section of the creed: The Belief in the Father God the Almighty.YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/GKm0wHP5woEThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

This is a very different, very controversial text. This verse is the origin of the statement "descended into Hell" in the Apostles Creed. Does the Bible say that Christ went to Hades to preach? Where does it say this?.

This is a very different, very controversial text. This verse is the origin of the statement "descended into Hell" in the Apostles Creed. Does the Bible say that Christ went to Hades to preach? Where does it say this?.

The Catechism provides an overview on how Jesus grants the Church the ability to forgive sins through both Baptism and the sacrament of Reconciliation. Fr. Mike doubles down on the revelation that there is no sin that Jesus can't forgive—and no one is disqualified. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 976-987. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

On Easter Day we enter into the Christian calendar, a season of Resurrection. As the body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we follow as closely as possible the life of Jesus Christ (his life teachings and mission (redemptive purposes).[1] So we will study the topic of “Resurrection and Our Concerns” k'g?yfg / xfd|f] ;/f]sf/ For the next 7 weeks, until Pentecost, we will focus on the various aspects of the Resurrection, and it's meaning for our lives in the 21st century. Resurrection is often thought of in terms of a historical event in the life of Jesus Christ, and people debate over the validity, possibility, and its historical meaning, etc. But, as NT Wright says that Resurrection is not simply about proving a historical event or its logic, rather in his words, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you are now invited to belong to it.” NT Wright. Resurrection is a worldview matter, thus needs to be set in our lives Operating System. Its' something in your mind and heart's eyes, a telescope to see the world with a particular scope, an angle, a perspective (with its colors), like James Webb Telescope cameras that's observing the universe out there far outside our eye's sight. NT Wright says, “Resurrection is a view from future into our present”. It's a reliable account of what God has been cooking up since the creation, mystery now unveiled to us through Christ and his church. Wow, a whole new worldview, a perspective to consider (see Romans 8). Now we can read the whole Bible anew, from Christ's Resurrection and the New Creation perspective.   We will do that in this series, possibly under these following topics, I call “Resurrection Curriculum”: a.     Resurrection planted a seed of eternity in our hearts. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and life…” b.     Resurrection of Jesus has given us a new worldview, a scope for all of life and world-view. c.      Resurrection of Jesus is a deposit, guarantee of things promised, now with a guarantee. d.     Resurrection is a signpost, showing us a direction towards God's future New Creation. e.     “Hope is what you get when you realize that a different worldview is possible, the same worldview that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.” (75) f.       “We believe in the resurrection of the body…” as we declare in the Apostles Creed.

Pastor Brad Leads us from Exodus 2:13-17Today's sermon properly begins our Apostles Creed Series, and what better way to begin than by laying a solid foundation. Pastor Brad teaches on how the Apostles Creed itself, starts as a foundation for believing in God, and how to go about creating it through studying scripture.YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/GKm0wHP5woEThank you so much for joining us today! We also have a Podcast Link: www.lakewoodgrace.com/podcast Please connect with us by filling out a communication card here: www.lakewoodgrace.com/connect

This is a very different, very controversial text. This verse is the origin of the statement “descended into Hell” in the Apostles Creed. Many crazy ideas have sprung from this text.

This is a very different, very controversial text. This verse is the origin of the statement “descended into Hell” in the Apostles Creed. Many crazy ideas have sprung from this text.

On Easter Day we enter into the Christian calendar, a season of Resurrection. As the body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we follow as closely as possible the life of Jesus Christ (his life teachings and mission (redemptive purposes).[1] So we will study the topic of “Resurrection and Our Concerns” k'g?yfg / xfd|f] ;/f]sf/ For the next 7 weeks, until Pentecost, we will focus on the various aspects of the Resurrection, and it's meaning for our lives in the 21st century. Resurrection is often thought of in terms of a historical event in the life of Jesus Christ, and people debate over the validity, possibility, and its historical meaning, etc. But, as NT Wright says that Resurrection is not simply about proving a historical event or its logic, rather in his words, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you are now invited to belong to it.” NT Wright. Resurrection is a worldview matter, thus needs to be set in our lives Operating System. Its' something in your mind and heart's eyes, a telescope to see the world with a particular scope, an angle, a perspective (with its colors), like James Webb Telescope cameras that's observing the universe out there far outside our eye's sight. NT Wright says, “Resurrection is a view from future into our present”. It's a reliable account of what God has been cooking up since the creation, mystery now unveiled to us through Christ and his church. Wow, a whole new worldview, a perspective to consider (see Romans 8). Now we can read the whole Bible anew, from Christ's Resurrection and the New Creation perspective.   We will do that in this series, possibly under these following topics, I call “Resurrection Curriculum”: a.     Resurrection planted a seed of eternity in our hearts. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and life…” b.     Resurrection of Jesus has given us a new worldview, a scope for all of life and world-view. c.      Resurrection of Jesus is a deposit, guarantee of things promised, now with a guarantee. d.     Resurrection is a signpost, showing us a direction towards God's future New Creation. e.     “Hope is what you get when you realize that a different worldview is possible, the same worldview that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.” (75) f.       “We believe in the resurrection of the body…” as we declare in the Apostles Creed.

On Easter Day we enter into the Christian calendar, a season of Resurrection. As the body of Christ, in order to follow Christ, we follow as closely as possible the life of Jesus Christ (his life teachings and mission (redemptive purposes).[1] So we will study the topic of “Resurrection and Our Concerns” k'g?yfg / xfd|f] ;/f]sf/ For the next 7 weeks, until Pentecost, we will focus on the various aspects of the Resurrection, and it's meaning for our lives in the 21st century. Resurrection is often thought of in terms of a historical event in the life of Jesus Christ, and people debate over the validity, possibility, and its historical meaning, etc. But, as NT Wright says that Resurrection is not simply about proving a historical event or its logic, rather in his words, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you are now invited to belong to it.” NT Wright. Resurrection is a worldview matter, thus needs to be set in our lives Operating System. Its' something in your mind and heart's eyes, a telescope to see the world with a particular scope, an angle, a perspective (with its colors), like James Webb Telescope cameras that's observing the universe out there far outside our eye's sight. NT Wright says, “Resurrection is a view from future into our present”. It's a reliable account of what God has been cooking up since the creation, mystery now unveiled to us through Christ and his church. Wow, a whole new worldview, a perspective to consider (see Romans 8). Now we can read the whole Bible anew, from Christ's Resurrection and the New Creation perspective.   We will do that in this series, possibly under these following topics, I call “Resurrection Curriculum”: a.     Resurrection planted a seed of eternity in our hearts. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and life…” b.     Resurrection of Jesus has given us a new worldview, a scope for all of life and world-view. c.      Resurrection of Jesus is a deposit, guarantee of things promised, now with a guarantee. d.     Resurrection is a signpost, showing us a direction towards God's future New Creation. e.     “Hope is what you get when you realize that a different worldview is possible, the same worldview that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.” (75) f.       “We believe in the resurrection of the body…” as we declare in the Apostles Creed.

In this episode, Jonathan and Jordan take some time to discuss the infamous 'Descent Clause' in the Apostles Creed. Jonathan introduces the history of interpretation as well as the various Reformed positions on how to understand the descent. Then Jordan takes us through James Ussher's definitive treatment on the topic. Follow us on Twitter: @IrenicprotestFeel free to shoot us an email: protestantirenics@gmail.comFollow the gang on Twitter:Jonathan: @JonathanMcK1647Matthew: @_matthewpearsonAddison: @raddison_bartonJordan: {only available by carrier pigeon}

Mollie and Tique discuss the upcoming Holy Week ministries and touch on the Apostles' Creed and the forgiveness of sins.

Is the Holy Spirit a person, or a force? What does the Holy Spirit do? What is the church? Why does the Apostles Creed say "we believe in the Holy Catholic Church?"3.23.25

Mollie and Tique continue the Conversation this week reflecting on the saints and our cloud of witnesses, and the mission of the Church.

Tique continues the Conversation this week looking at the Church and the Saints in the Apostles' Creed.

Dr Clark continues the series, "The Comfort of the Covenant." This series will show us the value of having a good covenant theology in order to help us understand the history of redemption correctly and well. And, more particularly, to help understand the gospel and how the gospel relates to the covenant of grace. In this episode, Dr. Clark continues discussing A Firm Foundation: An Aid to Interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism by Caspar Olevianus and considers Olevianus' explanation of why Jesus Christ had to die for our transgressions. This episode of the Heidelcast is sponsored by the Heidelberg Reformation Association. You love the Heidelcast and the Heidelblog. You share it with friends, with members of your church, and others but have you stopped to think what would happen if it all disappeared? The truth is that we depend on your support. If you don't make the coffer clink, the HRA will simply sink. Won't you help us keep it going? The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All your gifts are tax deductible. Use the donate link on this page or mail a check to Heidelberg Reformation Association, 1637 E Valley Parkway #391, Escondido CA 92027. All the Episodes of the Heidelcast Heidelcast Series: The Comfort Of The Covenant Subscribe To the Heidelcast Browse the Heidelshop! On Twitter @Heidelcast How To Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button below Subscribe in Apple Podcast Subscribe directly via RSS New Way To Call The Heidelphone: Voice Memo On Your Phone Text the Heidelcast any time at (760) 618–1563. The Heidelcast is available everywhere podcasts are found including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Call or text the Heidelphone anytime at (760) 618-1563. Leave a message or email us a voice memo from your phone and we may use it in a future podcast. Record it and email it to heidelcast@heidelblog.net. If you benefit from the Heidelcast please leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts so that others can find it. Please do not forget to make the coffer clink (see the donate button below). SHOW NOTES Heidelblog Resources The HB Media Archive The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions Heidelberg Catechism (1563) The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025) Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008). What Must A Christian Believe? Why I Am A Christian Heidelblog Contributors Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to: Heidelberg Reformation Association 1637 E. Valley Parkway #391 Escondido CA 92027 USA The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Today we further realize the sense of the word “credo,” meaning “I believe.” As we read the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, we discover the differences between the two and come to understand how the Nicene Creed, which came centuries later, expands upon and explains the beliefs of the Apostles' Creed. Fr. Mike tells us that these Creeds help us to share the essential elements of Catholicism, acting as “symbols of faith,” and encouraging communion between believers. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 185-192. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

While faith is deeply personal, it is not an isolated act. Today, Fr. Mike reflects on the reality that our faith is communal. It is lived out and passed down in the context of community. We also learn that faith is truly the beginning of eternal life. Despite the sufferings of this world, when we walk by faith, we experience a taste of heaven here and now. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 163-169. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Part 1 of the Catechism—the first pillar—is the longest part of the four parts of the Catechism, and arguably the most foundational. Fr. Mike sits down with Jeff Cavins to discuss the big picture behind this important pillar and prepare us for the journey ahead. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.