Podcasts about biblically

A lot of churches either forbid tongues in public altogether or let them run with no interpretation and no order. Scripture never actually gives you those two options. So what does the Bible prescribe for the gift of tongues in church? ABOUT THIS EPISODE:Josh, Michael, and Michael sit down with the question that splits churches on both sides of the Word and Spirit divide: what does it actually look like to practice the gifts of tongues and interpretation, named together in 1 Corinthians 12:10, in corporate worship, biblically? Not in theory, but in practice, on a Sunday, in a room full of people, with order intact and the body edified.Cessationist churches simply avoid the conversation entirely by not recognizing that the gift of tongues is still for today. Meanwhile, many charismatic churches practice tongues publicly with real sincerity but without the structure Paul actually prescribed: no clear call for interpretation, no one recognized as an interpreter of tongues, no accountability, no sense of "let it be done for building up," for the edification of the church (1 Corinthians 14:26). Both extremes miss what Scripture is actually asking for.As such, many believers are left without a clear, biblical middle to stand on. We'll walk through 1 Corinthians 14 verse by verse, laying out Paul's actual instructions: what tongues in the assembly is for, why interpretation matters, who should speak and how many, and why "let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40) isn't a suppression of the gift but the framework that lets it function safely.0:00 – Introduction4:51 – Verifying Authentic Tongues Gift12:14 – Interpretation Required for Every Tongue?19:38 – Who Calls Interpretation?33:49 – Tongue And Interpreter Roles34:48 – Limits On Tongue Speakers45:53 – No Interpreter Present49:54 – Singing In Tongues52:14 – Interpretation Accuracy Standards1:02:59 – Shutting Down False Tongues1:10:36 – Order Not Quenching Spirit Subscribe to The Remnant Radio newsletter and receive our FREE introduction to spiritual gifts eBook. Plus, get access to: discounts, news about upcoming shows, courses and conferences - and more. Subscribe now at TheRemnantRadio.com. Support the showABOUT THE REMNANT RADIO: The Remnant Radio exists to equip believers who are hungry for the radical middle of both Word and Spirit. Subscribe for twice-weekly content on theology, church history and the gifts of the Spirit.

What did Jesus mean when He told a crowd to eat His flesh, or told a crowd of would-be followers to hate their own father and mother?   Recorded at a Hot Topic night hosted by McGregor's Journey Together ministry, this teaching opens a short series on the hard sayings of Jesus. Pastor Russell Howard lays out three ground rules for reading them well, then works through the bread of life discourse in John 6, the call to discipleship in Luke 14, and Jesus' words about a sword and a divided household in Matthew 10.   The takeaway is straightforward. Jesus meant to be understood, and when a saying is hard, the difficulty usually sits with us rather than with Him. If you have ever read past a verse because it unsettled you, this teaching is worth your time.   Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026 Visit Our Website at McGregorPodcast.com New to McGregor? Plan a visit at mcgregor.net/plan-a-visit

In episode 502 of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony and Jesse begin what promises to be a multi-part deep dive into the Parable of the Good Samaritan — one of the most culturally embedded and theologically rich stories Jesus ever told. But before a single character hits the Jericho road, the hosts ground listeners in something easily overlooked: the charged context in which this parable is told. A lawyer — trained, confident, adversarial — steps forward not to learn but to test. What follows is a masterclass in how Jesus turns the law back on those who wield it as a weapon. This episode covers Luke 10:21–36, explores the covenant of works and covenant of grace, the noetic effects of sin, and why the Good Samaritan is far more than a lesson in being a helpful neighbor. Buckle up. Key Takeaways The lawyer's question is self-contradictory from the start. Asking "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" smuggles a works-righteousness assumption into the very grammar of the question. Inheritance by definition is received, not earned. Jesus does not give the lawyer a new paradigm — He reorients him to the true one. The covenant of grace is not a New Testament innovation. It runs through every Old Testament covenant administration. The lawyer should have already known this. "Do this and you will live" is not a Pelagian concession. Christ is holding out the law's own terms — perfect, total, unrelenting obedience — not to suggest it is achievable, but to expose its impossibility and drive the lawyer (and us) to the only alternative: mercy. "Desiring to justify himself" is more complex than it first appears. Tony argues that the desire to fulfill the covenant of works is not inherently wicked — it is the misguided belief that one can which is the problem. This distinction creates room for reading Christ's response as genuinely merciful instruction, not merely rebuke. The noetic effects of sin mean accurate theology can be deployed in service of self. The lawyer knows the right answers and still uses them to avoid repentance. Correct doctrine alone does not save. The fundamental human problem is not ignorance — it is the will's bondage and the heart's self-love. The parable is primarily Christological, not merely ethical. Jesus is the Good Samaritan. The story is not first about mercy ministry; it is about who binds up our wounds when we are left for dead on the road, unable to save ourselves. The priest and the Levite are not exonerated by their ritual obligations. Considerable ink has been spilled trying to justify their passing by on grounds of Levitical purity concerns. The parable refuses that exit. Everyone in the story — and everyone listening — already knows what the right thing to do was. Key Concepts The Covenant of Works Is Not a Black Box One of the more quietly important arguments Tony makes in this episode is that the covenant of works was never meant to be mysterious or inaccessible. When Jesus responds to the lawyer's question by asking, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" — He does so with a visible assumption: there is a clear, knowable answer, and the lawyer should be able to give it. And he does. Love God completely, love your neighbor as yourself. The covenant of works was always coherent and comprehensible. The problem has never been that its demands were obscure. The problem is that no one — save the Mediator — has ever kept them. Jesus is not introducing a new ethical framework. He is forcing the lawyer to confront a standard he has always known and has never met. The Lawyer as a Warning to Reformed Christians Jesse closes the episode's first movement with a pointed and personal application that cuts across theological self-satisfaction. The lawyer is not a caricature of ignorance — he is a portrait of someone with accurate, affirmed theological knowledge who instinctively deploys it in the service of self-justification the moment he senses conviction. Jesse names this directly as a danger particularly acute in Reformed circles, where doctrinal precision can become a subtle mechanism of self-defense rather than an occasion for repentance. The Reformation's great recovery of grace must not become a new form of the very disease it diagnosed. Knowing the right words about total depravity, the covenant of grace, and the mediator does not exempt anyone from the need to actually be humbled by them. Theology is not armor against repentance — it is, rightly received, the road toward it. Context Is Not Just Setup — It Is Part of the Lesson Tony and Jesse both emphasize that Luke 10:21–24 is not merely throat-clearing before the real content begins. The theological statement embedded there — that the Father has hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children, that no one knows the Son except the Father or the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him — is the hermeneutical key to everything that follows. The lawyer approaches Jesus as one rabbi testing another. But Luke has already told his readers that this is not a conversation between equals debating interpretive options. It is the Lawgiver being questioned by someone who does not recognize Him. The parable that follows is not just an answer to a legal question. It is a revelation — the kind that only happens when the Son chooses to give it. Memorable Quotes You do not want to pit the law against the one who has given the law, the one whose character is represented in the law — because you're always going to get owned, and you'll get owned before you realize you've just gotten owned on multiple levels. - Jesse Schwamb Jesus is trying to sort of reorient them back to the true paradigm of grace that is present under all of the Old Covenant administrations. It's not so much a matter of developing a new framework and imposing it on this guy. It's really trying to say, 'Listen — think about this for a second. Think about the fact that, yes, you know you have to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, your whole mind, and you have to love your neighbor as yourself. You've answered correctly. If you can do those things, you will live.' — with the subtext: and of course you cannot possibly do those things. - Tony Arsenal The fundamental human problem is not primarily ignorance, but the will's bondage and the heart's self-love. It's a problem no amount of correct discipline or doctrine alone can fix apart from some kind of regenerating grace — which is exactly what Jesus is going to illustrate for us in the mercy he's about to display in this parable. - Jesse Schwamb Full Transcript Tony Arsenal: [00:00:00] This parable is not primarily about us figuring out how to do mercy ministry. Like, that's important. It's probably an outcome of this. It's probably something for us to think about. But really, this is actually Christ saying, like, "Hold on a second here, dude." Like, "Let's just think about this." Do you need someone who is going to tell you to pick yourself up off your bootstraps and cross to the other side of the street and leave you to your own devices? Or do you need someone who's gonna throw you on their donkey, who's gonna bind up your wounds, who's gonna pay the innkeeper, and is gonna pledge to pay everything that is owed for your salvation? Right? That's not too on the nose here, I think. Welcome to episode 502 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm [00:01:00] Jesse  And I'm Tony, and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brother.  Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother. Well, we've got a big one to talk about on this episode. We're marching further and further into all of the glorious parables Jesus told as part of His teaching. And as you and I kind of joked before we began, I mean, what did you call it? Did you say this is, uh, the big daddy?  Tony Arsenal: It's the big daddy, one of the big daddy parables.  Jesse Schwamb: It's one of the big daddy parables. Now, this one is probably second maybe only to the prodigal son. Yeah But in terms of its ubiquity and its kind of just common knowledge in culture, this one ranks right up there. And before I reveal what it is, which you may already know, I was thinking how so many times we look at the Beatitudes as expression of a master class in Jesus teaching the law, and I think that's true. But as I was reading and thinking about this particular parable, I thought, "I don't know. I think this one is, uh, right up there," because [00:02:00] this is like law on law. It's double law. Yeah It's law coming back at the law giver who's trying to use the law to test Jesus, and then Jesus tests him with the law that He himself gave His people. It's... I'm already getting too excited- ... and we've got something to do before we get there. But we're talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan. And so I can't imagine, can I just make a prediction up front? I, you know where I'm going with this, and probably everybody else does. Uh, this is gonna be like two conversations-  Tony Arsenal: At least ...  Jesse Schwamb: probably.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah, at least two.  Jesse Schwamb: Is that fair? Because I realize we, of course, wanna get to the parable itself, and oh, my goodness, how much ink has been spilled. Even going back to, like, if you read, like, Augustine or, like, the early church, like the Patristics, the Church Fathers, there are so much that could be said, and maybe some stuff that just shouldn't be said about all the allegorical potential intent here about these characters. But [00:03:00] there's so much amazing stuff that happens in the opening of this, that's not just the setup, but it is its own lesson, and I'm real excited actually to talk about that with you before we even get into, like, all the good stuff that everybody expects that you wanna talk about. So we're gonna do it all. Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Jesse Schwamb: We're gonna do it all, but it'll take time.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. I'm interested to see if we're even on the same page about where to start reading, 'cause I, I think we might not be, and that's gonna be fun. So we'll, we'll let it fly and see what happens. It'll be our own little, uh, podcast game.  Jesse Schwamb: But, uh, I think- Well, I mean, we're gonna be in Luke chapter 10, but I guess to your point, we should be starting in Luke chapter one to get to this. Yeah.  Tony Arsenal: Exactly. But  Jesse Schwamb: we, we do have to back up quite a bit, and I was gonna ask you about that. Yeah. But I, apparently we're just gonna play that on the fly and see where we go.  Affirmations Denials Segment Jesse Schwamb: But of course, the Reformers had their five solos. Chalcedon had its, what, seven withouts. We've got opinions, and we're just as confident about ours, so of course it's time for affirmations, denials, where we affirm something that we think is good or awesome or [00:04:00] we wanna recommend, and we deny, again, something that is not so great or maybe just plain annoying. So before we talk about the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Tony, what do you got for us on this episode? Are you affirming with something, or are you gonna come in with a denial?  Tony Arsenal: Well, I've got two affirmations. That's fine. One is just- I will allow it ... a declaration of joy, and one is, like, a real affirmation. I, I just can't... It would be remiss of me not to share with our podcasting family that my son August and my daughter Adeline, uh, joined the visible church today as- Hear, hear ... uh, non-communicant members. Uh, Augie and Addie were baptized on the 16th of August of 2026, uh, into the visible church, into the name of Jesus Christ. Uh, was, it was just a great service. Um, it's funny because I've been- been talking with Augie. One of the thing with toddlers when you're doing something big like this is you kinda have to talk about it and practice and rehearse, rehearse it and, and get them ready for it. And up until maybe, like, I don't know, three days [00:05:00] ago, every time it would come up he would be saying, "I don't wanna be baptized. I don't wanna be baptized." And, um, you know, I, I, I, you know, I don't wanna force him to do something, but also, like, I make him eat vegetables. But, um- ... he, I, I think it was nerves, and I think something clicked in his head and all of a sudden he was very excited to be baptized. So, um, it was great. We've been talking about, you know, what baptism is, God's promise to you that if you trust him he'll save you. And so today he- Right ... he was like, "God's gonna make a promise to me to save me." So he was very excited. Nice. And he did a great job just standing quietly and listening to the pastor talk. Uh, and Addie was, was, was just a beautiful little girl, and she, um, she loved it as well. So that's just a bonus affirmation. I don't know that I could get through a podcast without gushing over that.  Glorify App and Devotionals Tony Arsenal: Uh, but the, the affirmation I have, uh, this is an, an app that I think some of our listeners may have heard of. Um, some may roll their eyes at it, to be honest with you. Um, I stumbled on this because, uh, you have an Oura Ring, don't you, Jesse? Jesse Schwamb: I do.  Tony Arsenal: You [00:06:00] do, yeah. So for those who don't know, an Oura Ring is like a little wearable ring that's like a, almost like a fitness tracker, but it tracks biometrics, pulse rate, temperature, all these different things, sleep. Um, there's a startup, uh, that has been doing a GoFundMe or a funding kind of thing for, uh, what they're calling like a Christian version of an Oura Ring. So it does a lot of the same things, sleep tracking, basic biometric tracking. Hmm. But it also has like alerts built in, and it's tied into an app that they use for devotionals. So it'll, it'll remind you to pray. It'll remind you, you know, bring you to an app to do a devotion. But the app it uses is a standalone app that I looked up, and it's called Glorify. Have you ever heard of this app before this evening? I have heard of  Jesse Schwamb: this, yeah.  Tony Arsenal: So Glorify is just a small devotional app. Uh, it's not much different than you would expect based on the name. It is connected to this, uh, to this Glorify ring, which again is, is sort of like an Oura Ring tied into this app. But this app basically is, is [00:07:00] designed to help you complete short daily devotional exercises, and they're usually very brief. They're based on a very brief, um, a very brief passage of scripture. Today's passage, uh, c- there's a quote. So today's quote is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It says, "True love does not consist in finding the perfect person, but in faithfully loving an imperfect one." Not sure why this devotional app is using a romance, uh, quote from Bonhoeffer of all people. But that was today's. Um, and the passage is Proverbs 5:15-17. So it's a, it's a devotional based on two verses, which is fine. So you read the passage. There's a very brief devotional on that passage, and then sort of a guided prayer, and they have both premium and free models. The premium model includes like you can listen to the devotional, you can listen to the prayer. Um, but just for example, today's prayer, it, it's very simple. "Loving Father, thank you for, uh, thank you because you're faithful and unchanging. In a world [00:08:00] marked by broken promises, disposable relationships, you remain the same. Teach me to reflect that faithfulness in my relationships. Help me to love with perseverance, grace, and commitment following the example of Christ. Protect marriages, strengthen families, restore what needs healing. May every relationship be marked by respect, truth, and genuine love. Shape in me a heart of integrity that honors you in both the small and significant choices of life. In Jesus' name, amen." So I think what I love about this, and this, I mentioned last week that there was, this is kind of like, sort of like the fluffy evangelical devotions. Like- Right ... there's not a ton of like solid doctrinal meat- But like, it's still nourishing. And sometimes we need a little bit of help. Sometimes we don't know what to pray, we don't know what to read, we're not sure. Sometimes in, I think in our Reformed circles, we feel like if we're not reading large portions of scripture and reading deep theological treaties or long, complex devotionals, that we're really not doing anything, and that's just not the [00:09:00] truth. So I've been using this in addition to other devotional studies I'm doing. I don't do it every day. I mean, there's some like streak functionality, kinda like habit tracking type stuff that's built into it. Um, but it's nice. It's nice to be able to pick it up, read a very short scripture, a brief devotional thought, and then have some guided prayer. I know one of the reasons I don't pray as often as I ought to is because I struggle to know what and how to pray. So even having some written prayers, I mean, this is why the Psalms are good, things like the Valley of Visions are good. Um, having some pre-written prayers that you genuinely pray but you're not having to come up with in the moment can really help. Right. So the app is called Glorify. I know it's available on iPhone. I'm not sure about Android. I'm sure it probably is. I'm sure they wanna have a pretty broad ecosystem. Um, and, and it's good. Again, it's, it's not anything fancy. It's not anything like super technical. Uh, and as I kind of alluded, like some of it's a little weird. Um, I, I didn't read the proverb. I think maybe the proverb is about romantic relationships, why they're, why they're tying in that, um, Bonhoeffer quote in, in the prayer. [00:10:00] But, um, even that, like it's pretty innocuous. And the quotes, like you don't have to read the quotes. It's not like you have to have to do that. Um, you could jump in, just read the scripture or just read the devotion and just do the prayer and you would be fine. So check it out. It's called Glorify, available on iPhone for sure. I'm pretty sure it's on, on Android. And maybe it's something you add daily, you know, this kinda thing like you do when you're on the bus or you're waiting at the grocery store, something quick you can do when you might be wasting that time just sorta sitting around or scrolling Twitter. Again, Twitter's fine. You can use your leisure time as you see fit. But if you wanna fill it with something like this, something that is more spiritual, then this would be a good option to just add a little bit of, uh, a little bit of nourishment to your diet where you might not otherwise be getting it  Jesse Schwamb: I have no proof of this, but I just keep saying it anyway. It might be that we're living in the golden age of really great- ... daily worship resources. Like, something to actually cultivate, not just, like, a devotional nugget, but something that actually leads you into a pattern and a habit of [00:11:00]worship, giving your attentive focus on Jesus. And I love that. So, uh, uh, 'cause I was just thinking, like, I was trying to look back on some of our past affirmations here. We've talked about the book Walking in Faith. I just gave everybody Awake My Soul last week. You're coming in with the Glorify app. I- we've talked about Dwell, if not recently, we've talked about that for some time. It's like a great Bible reading app, and there's lots and lots of new features, by the way, coming out on that- Yeah that are fantastic. And then, yes, all these other great prayers. I, I see, like, these books on prayer, like, actually, I'm sorry, like, prayer books, I guess, as, like, a great way to kinda... It's like a jumper for your car. You know what I mean? Like, just gets you started. What a, what a lovely thing to come into a place and have a launching pad. And I've been using a lot of Into His Presence, which is a collection of Puritan prayers, sometimes because, for instance, this just happened, where I wanted to pray for someone who was just going through a rough time, a good friend of mine. And I went to that place to kinda start and frame, knowing that I was gonna sit down with him and pray, how I might be able to do that well and [00:12:00] effectively. And these things are just, like, really phenomenal resources. It's just an amazing time to have all these things at our disposal. So that's another great option. It's, it's really more about, like you and I have talked about, Tony, like, whatever gets us into that pattern, whatever gets us, like, authentically experiencing under our own volition, coming in the discipline of sitting before God in daily worship with that expression being pretty broad in its representation- Yeah is to really include something of devotional time in the scriptures, memorization, metabolation, metabolizing. Metabolation, I'm just gonna make that up as, like- ... what happens when you, when you take the scripture and metabolize it into your own life. Meditating on it and, you know, again, maybe looking through the confessions and creeds that have shaped our distilled understanding of what the scripture teaches so that we're enhancing and edifying our mind. We're also engaging the heart, and then we're engaging God and ourselves in communication with Him through prayer. I'm all for anything [00:13:00] that gets us into those rhythms, reminds us of the importance of them, and like we talked about last week, makes it so that when we think about what it means to be married to Christ, so to speak, it's not just about whipping out some kind of marriage certificate to prove that, but that we actually have a frame and a behavioral pattern that fits a married person, that- Yeah how they act, how they think, how they behave, how they communicate, they're never too far away from their lovely spouse in some way or another. And so I think that these tools are great ways to get us exactly into that kind of mindset and practice.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, like, I think- In our Reformed circles, we can, you know, we, we tend to be maybe a little eggheaded, and we, we tend to be a little more intellectual and, and a little more, I don't know, studious. And there's nothing wrong with that. Um, but I think sometimes it can breed a sort of, uh, elitism and arrogance. Sure. Uh, this is a perfectly valid devotional tool. Yes. Mm-hmm. And, and I think, [00:14:00] you know, kinda like the old adage, like, well, what's the best translation of scripture? Well, whichever one you're gonna read. Exactly. Like, what's the best devotional tool? Whichever one you're gonna use, whichever one's actually gonna bring you into the Word, uh, on a, on a regular basis. Um, and again, like, two verses of the scripture is two verses of the scripture that you might- Right ... not have other spent time, otherwise spent time reading. And it really is short enough, and it saves your progress. Like, you can do, you can do the quote in the morning, and then you can check the scripture on the way to the, you know, the word work, on a stoplight or whatever. Um, if you have the, the paid subscription, you can listen to this stuff, you know, on the, the bus or whatever. Um, so check it out. Glorify app, they have a ring they're making. It's in funding, I guess, if you wanna check it out, you can check that out too. I am neither affirming nor denying whatever this Glory ring is, Glorify ring. But, um, but yeah, the app is great. The, the app is free, and it's, it's worth even just checking out and adding once in a while to your day  Jesse Schwamb: The glory ring or the glorify ring sounds like almost too Tolkien, even for me  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. It's the one ring to rule all of your devotions. [00:15:00] Uh, and in the, and in the morning bind them. Jesse, save me from the trail I was about to go on, and, and I was gonna speak in the language of Mordor, I think, on accident. Uh, save us from this. What are you affirming or denying?  Jesse Schwamb: That's  Tony Arsenal: beautiful. Please tell me it's the language of Mordor. Elvish AI and Music Pick Jesse Schwamb: Uh, no, but can I just say at the risk of really taking us really far afield so early on, which is not necessarily off-brand for us, I have done this... I, I don't know if I should be ashamed by this or I should be excited by this. But- ... um, the Elvish tongue in the Tolkien universe-  Tony Arsenal: Oh, no. ...  Jesse Schwamb: is like, there's several... If you're super nerdy, you'll know there's like several different kind of iterations or formulas of it, and there's no, like, official language like Klingon, but there ha- it has been studied, and basically, like, it's kind of like the Eugene Peterson of the language. Like, there's, like, just kind of a dynamic equivalent or an expression of words. Anyway, all that to say- ... there's several languages that, uh, Microsoft Copilot will just not [00:16:00] translate because it says, like, "This one, this language doesn't actually exist. There's not enough for me to do anything." Let me tell you something. Tolkien Elvish is not one of those languages, and I actually built an agent, because I have a coworker who can, uh, who can appreciate all this stuff, that takes a text, translates it into this kind of academic high-level Elvish from Tolkien, and then translates it back to English. That makes anything you're saying way better and far more poetic and just absolutely amazing. So if you wanna have some fun, go and do that with whatever your favorite AI model is. Anyway, that's free of charge. Real quick, my affirmation is more music. It just turns out I've found this band, and I've been listening to them a lot. The band's name is Thronebreaker, which is just a phenomenal name, I think, for any group. Uh, it's amazing. Uh, th- this is... I'm gonna read you their description from Spotify. It just says, "Thronebreaker is Christian metalcore built for the bruised, the doubting, and the ones still fighting their way home." And what I've really been [00:17:00] loving about them is it is kind of like Wolves at the Gate adjacent. It's really lovely music. It is melodic, so it's, there's not just that there's that kind of hard edge, but that is present in it. But, uh, the music is really lovely and beautiful, and in part that's because they're going through this, like, drip of releasing music where they're taking, like, old hymns or maybe songs if you're of a certain age like I am of kind of childhood Sunday school- And they're taking the lyrics, not the melody, and they're reimagining them. So they have two versions of Jesus Loves Me that they just released. They have the old We're Gonna Cross, a song called Glory to the King Most High. These songs are just saturated with gospel. Like, they're just all power, all encouragement, and all authority represented in Jesus Christ. They're incredible, and I've j- where I've, what I've been really blessed by is these two versions of Jesus Love Me are just fantastic. Like, they're orchestral. There is a children's kind of chorus at one point, and it got me [00:18:00] singing that song again, and really, maybe to what you were saying before, Tony, like sitting in those three words, which are really phenomenal words to hear. And so I have been surprised at how moved I've been by what really I, I first understood, of course, as a children's song with simple truth that seems, you know, depending on how long you've known some part of the gospel, obvious. And yet I found them all new again, and a, a really lovely way of just sitting in the truth of God in music that I didn't expect to find. So if you're interested in any of that or maybe just curious of what it would sound like if a Christian metalcore band took Jesus Loves Me and turned it into their genre, then honestly you should just go check out Throne Breaker. I mean, you pretty much have to at this point.  Tony Arsenal: I, I don't ever have anything to add to your musical affirmations or denials, 'cause I, I just don't. What I do have to add is that Throne Breaker actually sounds like some sort of really [00:19:00] amazing, like, mace-type weapon in Lord of the Rings. Yes.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes,  Tony Arsenal: it does. Or like a big hammer that a dwarf carries. And I would also like to say that if you ask Google Gemini to translate something into Tolkien English, it not only will do it, it will tell you how to pronounce it.  Google Elf: A ava aini Ilai amel i trona se.  Tony Arsenal: What do you think that was, Jesse?  Jesse Schwamb: No idea.  Tony Arsenal: First of all, that was elevated Quenya, a Quenya. Yes.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes, that's  Tony Arsenal: the one. Classic Quenya.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  Google Elf: A leta Ilai amel aima.  Tony Arsenal: I would be willing to bet... Actually, let's do this.  Jesse Schwamb: Ugh.  Tony Arsenal: Uh, we don't give out prizes very often. Uh, I will say to anyone who can tell me what that is, the first person that emails, uh, or, or goes into the Telegram chat, we'll do this. We'll be professional podcasters and drive people to one of our channels. Here we  Jesse Schwamb: go.  Tony Arsenal: The first person who goes to our telephone, our Telegram chat and tells me what that [00:20:00] means, what that, uh, Elvish means, will get a Reformed Brotherhood T-shirt.  Jesse Schwamb: Oh, that is big.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Jesse Schwamb: That-  Tony Arsenal: So I'm gonna, I'm gonna play it one more time.  Jesse Schwamb: Okay, here we go. Everybody listen. Every- All right, pull over. Stop your vehicles. Here we go.  Google Elf: A leta Ilai amel aima.  Tony Arsenal: There it is, everybody.  Jesse Schwamb: I'm not being a cry- I have a guess, but I, I, I wanna try to win the T-shirt, so I'm gonna- Yes ... wi- withhold. All right. Uh, yeah, that's, that's super fun. Did it, um... Did you also translate it back into English from that  Tony Arsenal: just to see- No, I'll do that later, 'cause that would give away the, that would  Jesse Schwamb: give away the prize. Yeah, it's, it's... We'll have to save that for next week, because that, that is the fun. It creates, like, what I was doing to, to have fun with this coworker is take very technical, like, work-related emails, and I would send it through. It would go through that iterative process, and I actually loved how it, it was talking. Like, it wa- this was an email about risk, and it, it gave, like, these beautiful grand metaphors that didn't sound corny or cheesy. That's the beautiful thing. That's amazing. It [00:21:00] was like true Elvish. Like, you were just like, "I wish I spoke that way all the time about, about risk." And it, like I said, it wasn't just like... You could, you could obviously throw something in and be like, "Make this Shakespearean," or, you know, "Make this, you know, sound like, you know, Milton." This is way better. This is way better, because it's not, like, actually trying to manipulate what you're saying. It's takes, like, the dynamic equivalent of what you said, then translates it back with way more kind of poetic infrastructure while maintaining, like, the essential meaning that you have. I'm, I'm selling this too hard. Everybody just has to go out and try it. So, all right, you know what's at stake here, but here's how you have to win this. If you want a chance, if you want a chance at winning this, you gotta go to t.me/reformedbrotherhood, t.me/reformedbrotherhood, and that link will take you to the Telegram app and our little corner of it, and you're gonna find there's a bunch of chats there. You gotta go to the affirmations or denials chat, and then you gotta put in what is the translation of what Tony just played.[00:22:00] I just love... Isn't it amazing, though, that, like, y- as you discovered, there's more than one version of Elvish available? Yeah. And they do differentiate between the various kinds. This is a big deal. I learned there are actually scholars who have, like, again, filled in kind of like the details of the language- Oh, yeah taking as a basis what Tolkien had there. Yeah. So I think that this is the best. We couldn't have conceived of this if we'd actually tried and planned for it, so-  Tony Arsenal: It's true ...  Jesse Schwamb: it's just better that it all happened in, in real time. It's true. And, and speaking of which, I think now we get to have the fun of figuring out, uh, where in Luke chapter 10 are we gonna begin? Or should we just start in Luke 1 and just let's see how far we can get reading  Tony Arsenal: in this- I could have, I could have Google Gemini read it in elevated Kenya, Quenya I did try to get it to put it in Sindarin, and it wouldn't do it for some reason. I'm not sure. Maybe this anti-Sindarin bias in Gemini,  Jesse Schwamb: man. Disappointing.  Tony Arsenal: It's disappointing.  Jesse Schwamb: Dis- disappointing. So let's kick off some Good Samaritan talk, which again, I think is gonna take us [00:23:00] through maybe in the next couple of conversations, in part because, like I said, we're not even gonna start at, uh, verse 25 because there is so much more that needs to be said, I think, before that. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think actually the proper place to start this, and I, I'm guessing Jesse probably, whether he was there or not, he probably figured out where I was going, uh, over the course of the last 20 minutes or whatever. Um, I actually think the proper place to start, at least one of the proper places to start, is in verse 21. Yeah. Um, and I- we'll talk about why that is. And I'll... I'm gonna read here, um, 21, uh, through the end of the parable. Uh, and this is Jesus talking. He says in this, uh... Well, it, this is, um... Yes, uh, I'll just read it here. "In the same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one who knows who the Son is except... No, no one knows who the Son is [00:24:00] except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Himself.'" Then turning to the disciples, he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it, and hear what you hear and did not hear it." And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and he saw him and passed on the other side. So likewise a Levite, [00:25:00] when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. Whatever you, whatever more you spend I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" And he said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "You go and do likewise."  Jesse Schwamb: I think you're right, of course, to back us up into verse 21 because I don't want to keep saying it's always a setup, but Jesus is certainly giving us like the right context in which... Well, Luke of course is the author here and as he's explaining the teaching of Jesus, he does so well to start out with some irony that we don't realize is gonna be ironic until we get to the, to verse 25 [00:26:00] when we realize who's testing Jesus, who's setting this all up. So this idea that the Holy Spirit, everybody rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and the knowledge and the wisdom, the intelligence that's revealed through the Holy Spirit to all of these lesser people and in particular here emblematic the infants That here we have kings and rulers, and in this case, this beloved scholar of the law, who all have this adventure in missing the point. They think, in fact, they're looking for the one who is to set them free, and they can't even see that it's Him who is before him. And yet, incidentally, God has already revealed all these things to the lowest, to the ones who are the most humble, the meek, the mild, the down and outs, the ones who are weak by the view of everybody else. And so it's amazing that if we just kinda, again, like blow past it into, like, just all the characters, we don't see that the teaching starts actually well above this, that even everything we're about to understand, that unfolds in our lives, ev- every spiritual incarnation and insight that we have [00:27:00] first starts with God himself in his revealing it to us both in his general revelation, but of course, in the specific revelation of his teaching. So I like that you started us there, because I, I'm with you. That's where this whole thing launches off, right?  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Parables Reveal and Conceal Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and as we come into when we very, like very start of this, uh, series, the, the parable series, Jesus sort of embeds a theology of parables into this introduction, right? Or I should say Luke does. But this, uh, this is written a- as though all of this is occurring as sort of one event. Right. And likely it was, right? So sometimes, uh, in the Gospels, events are kind of, like, moved next to each other for thematic reasons. It's possible that that's the case. It seems like this may have actually just been one, one teaching, and I'll, I'll talk about why that is in a second here. Um, but at the very least, this is placed next to each other in the Gospel almost as, like a, "Here's the theology of parables. Now, here's actually that happening in real [00:28:00] time."  Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  Tony Arsenal: And then also, like, a parable kinda demonstrating it, right? So the theology of the parable here is that there are many prophets, kings who desire to see what it is that, that, uh, uh, the disciples are seeing, right? And all things have been handed over to the Father or to, to the Son, by the Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father. No one who knows who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal, right? So the, the theology of parables here presented in Luke is that the parable itself is being used as a way to reveal the Father and the Son to those whom the Son chooses to reveal it to. The Lawyer as the Fool Tony Arsenal: And that leaves us with this lawyer, um, sort of playing, playing the fool in almost like a dramatic sense, right? In a lot of drama, there's kind of like the fool character who's sort of like the foil or the idiot of the thing who's, who's unaware and is almost like made an example of, right? Um, I, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but there's often a character in a play who's like, uh, it's [00:29:00] almost like the opposite of the everyman, right? The everyman in a, in a play- Right ... or in a movie is sort of like the outsider who things gets explained to, and he's sort of the proxy for, for the audience. Um, I think like, um, Hawkeye in Avengers is kind of the everyman. He's sort of just like this regular dude swept up in this thing, and oftentimes he's the one that, uh, the big characters are explaining things to. And really what that is is the big characters are explaining that to the audience through this proxy. There's also this concept of the fool in a lot of these plays or movies who's sort of like the dummy, the idiot of the play, who things are explained to, and it's still a way to explain it to the audience, but the character doesn't get it. And so that's kind of, kind of the role that this lawyer is playing in this, this narrative here. He, he steps forward. He's like, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answers his question, and then in this like sort of like stunning moment of, like unawareness, he's trying to justify himself. He says, "Well, who is my neighbor?"[00:30:00] As though that's a question that needed to be asked, right? I think, like, we sort of think of it as like, "Oh, yeah, that's a valid question." I actually don't think it is. Like, it's pretty obvious, in the Old Testament at least, who your neighbor is. It's the people who live immediately with you. It's the other people of Israel. It's the people in your immediate concentric circles, the people you have direct access to. Um, and so then Jesus explains it through this parable, and whether or not he gets it at the end, I guess is maybe a little bit unclear. We can talk about that as we get there. But at least in the beginning, he's portrayed as this sort of, like, fool who doesn't understand what Jesus is saying, and then this parable is taught. So it's this theology of, um, revelation to those whom it is intended to, and further obscuring from those it's intended not to, not to illuminate, which is identical. Uh, maybe it's a different flavor of the same thing, but it's the same thing as what Matthew had and what Jesus taught- Right ... in Matthew with the parables. Jesse Schwamb: Right. It definitely is, again, illustrating, again, God's divine prerogative. I think you really have to do a lot of theological gymnastics [00:31:00] to try to work yourself out of a place here that says, like, "Well, this, this knowledge is accessible to all people."  Tony Arsenal: Right.  Jesse Schwamb: That if somehow we just work hard enough, study hard enough, come even before God with the right attitude or do the right things, that somehow all this will be made plain to us, and that's certainly not the truth here. In fact, again, the ironic setup is you have this lawyer asking this question, which creates this strange contrast because here's a man trained in the law, and he approaches the very wisdom of God to test him while the little children already perceive what this fool cannot. So it's irony upon irony, and then I, I like what you're saying. I think, and we'll get to this to anticipate a bit, I'm reading this as he's hoping that the answer to whom is my neighbor, just like he- he's received the affirmative from Jesus saying, "Yes, you understand. Go and do these things. This is life," and we'll get to all of what that means, I think, as well in terms of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. But I think he's hoping that the definition of neighbor is gonna mean that he has [00:32:00] already accomplished the thing then, so that if there's somehow- Yeah ... he could just set the right boundaries. He could say, "Ah, yeah, I'm already good then, Jesus. I already, already did all that stuff." So- It's wild to me that it, it all starts with, of course, like some kind of scribal specialist in the Torah, of course, likely some kind of Pharisee by theological alignment. And as I'm looking at the notes here, what I find particularly stunning as we start this out is that Luke, of course, is able to speak several times in this parable to the intent. And so he says right away with great kind of fanfare and description that the intent here from this scribal Torah person was to test or to tempt, which is the same verb used of Satan's temptation of Christ and of Israel's testing of God in Deuteronomy 6, which of course Jesus is gonna quote here later on. So it's not, of course, like sincere inquiry, like you're saying. It, it is like adversarial probing. It is like really profound setup. It is dripping with like [00:33:00] ulterior motive. It's seeking to expose Jesus as either like heterodox or as diminishing the law's demands. And I think we've talked about this before, so Tony, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure in one of the previous parables we talked about sometimes how these get set up with this kind of weird like oxymoronic setting. Inherit Eternal Life Debate Jesse Schwamb: So like this question of se- uh, uh, itself, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Jesse Schwamb: It's like more than just theologically revealing. Biblically it's self-contradictory, 'cause of course like we talked about inheritance, I think actually when we went through the, the parable of the prodigal. By definition, that's received, of course, on the ba- basis of relationship or promise. It's not earned by performance. And if the inheritance comes by a law, it no longer comes by promise, right? I think that's like Galatians. So the lawyer's question already portray- portrays like some kind of weird works righteous paradigm. E- even if you think he's really after trying to understand the true intent of God's heart [00:34:00] behind the law, he is assuming at least in this question that eternal life is some kind of wage that he can earn rather than a gift to be received by grace through faith. And that's a fundamental error that the entire subsequent exchange, including the parable, is designed to expose. It's both, like you're saying, Tony, he has not learned yet what it means to be in the kingdom of God. He's outside of that, and so he's trying... Now Jesus is bringing in this corrective action, as it were, set up in a story, but he's gonna turn the law on him, which, which I don't wanna get too excited about that yet. But he's... But essentially, here we have somebody who's the expert in the law trying to leverage the law by way of force against the one who he does not understand has all leverage and authority over him, and is in fact the law giver himself So he's gonna, Jesus is gonna drive him to see his own ability to keep the law that he claims to honor, and that's more than just brilliant. This is what the law does. You do not wanna pit the law against the one who has given the law, the [00:35:00] one whose character is represented in the law, because you're always going to get owned, and you'll get owned before you realize you've just gotten owned on multiple levels, and I think that's what basically unfolds here. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, I, I have a little bit of a different take on the, the word inherit here. Um, I don't think what you're saying is wrong, um, but I think there's a little different flavor here, and actually, I, I think it, it still sort of propels us forward to the conversation we have to have, um, about the law and the gospel and the covenant of works, the covenant of grace. The, the Greek that lays under this word is, uh, it's a compound word of the word for, like, lot or portion and the word for law. And so, so the, this force of the word is more along the lines of, like, what shall I do to have a legal right to eternal life? Like- Right ... inherit, I think we hear inherit, and we think of, like, um, like what you get when someone dies, and so, like, obviously there's nothing you do to earn it, and that's certainly an element of the way this [00:36:00] word is used in some instances. I think reading this and kind of how, how the rest of the text plays out, this lawyer is coming forward and he's like, "What do I need to do to have a rightful legal claim to eternal life?" Right? We might even be able, and this is where it comes into the covenant of grace, covenant of works k- kind of paradigm. We might even be able to say that what this lawyer or this person comes forward to ask Jesus is, how do I gain, how do I gain the benefits of the covenant of works, right?  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: Yep. That's language that was developed later that's not, not, like, biblical language in terms of, like, the actual language within the text, but that's the force of what he's saying. What must I do to be a rightful legal... Uh, what must I do to have a rightful legal claim on all of the blessings of the covenant of works, is really the question that's here. And so Jesus' answer is so instructive- Right ... 'cause what he says is, "Well, what's written in the law?" Like, he, he basically says, like, "Well, you should be able to tell me, teacher- Exactly of [00:37:00] the law, like, what, what needs to happen there." And there's an assumption on Christ's part that, like, there is an answer. I think sometimes, sometimes we, we, uh, we make an error in thinking that the covenant of works was never attainable, that it's somehow this, like, um, it's almost like a black box. Like, nobody could know what we have to do to, like, obtain eternal life. That's absolutely not the assumption Jesus makes. Jesus not only knows that there's an answer, it's such a straightforward answer that he expects this scribe to be able to answer it, right? And the scribe can, right? The scribe says, "Well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, and your neighbor as yourself," right? The summary of the law. Just good old classic Westminster larger, shorter catechism. Where's the law summarily comprehended? Summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. And then, then again, I don't know the questions exactly, but then it also, like, says, like, "Where does Christ summarize this?" Well, you should love the Lord your God, and you should love your [00:38:00] neighbor as yourself, right? Covenant Works and Grace Tony Arsenal: So the, the lawyer comes forward and says, "What do I need to do to have a legal right to all of the blessings of the covenant of works?" Christ says, "Well, what do you think?" He says, "Well, you obey the entirety of the law." And he says, "You've answered correctly. Do this. Obey the entirety of the law and you will live." So the parable itself doesn't necessarily speak to this law, gospel, covenant of works, covenant of grace paradigm. The, the parable is used to show that not only does this lawyer know what is required of him, but that he won't do it.  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: And I think that's really key, because even in the parable, within the parable itself, there are these figures that know what they should do, right? I, I think, um, we'll get into it, but there's a lot of ink spilled on almost like, um, explaining [00:39:00] why the priest and the Phar- phar- and the, the Levite almost like did the right thing by going to the other side of the room, and it points to like, well, their priestly and Levitical responsibilities, if they touch a dead body, like they can't do those things, and those things are so important. Like, there's a lot of ink spilled trying to almost explain why what they did is right, when the point of the parable is that actually we all know what the right thing to do in that sense was. And even the most righteous people in the mind of the hearers, the Levites and the priests, the most righteous people, even they don't do what they're supposed to do. Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: This, this paradigm, this gospel law paradigm, law gospel paradigm, this covenant of works, covenant of grace paradigm, is so baked into the very like fabric of, of human thought that it's just there. And Christ takes this time to point out to this lawyer, like, "You know what's expected of you." And so that's why the phrase desiring to justify himself is so key [00:40:00] here. I actually think that the, the, the I don't wanna go so far as to say, like, that this person was regenerated in the midst of this conversation, 'cause I don't know that. But I actually think that there's a forward movement of this lawyer as he interacts with Christ that is optimistic. I'm optimistic about it, right? Right. He starts out trying to test Jesus, then he star- then he moves to having a desire to justify himself. I think we hear that, we read that, desiring to justify himself, we automatically think that that's a negative thing. But if we think about justifying himself in terms of what he's talking about, how do I fulfill the obligations of the covenant of works, that's not a bad thing to wanna do. Right. It's not bad to wanna obey God's law and to lay claim to His promises. It's a misguided notion of something we can't accomplish, but in itself, desiring to justify himself is to desire to fulfill the obligations of the covenant of works. That's not necessarily a bad thing. And so I think this is a merciful, a merciful [00:41:00] teaching on Christ's part. He's trying to instruct this guy to say, "Look, you can't do it. And even if you could do it, you wouldn't do it. So let's, let's talk about mercy instead and what that looks like." And that's where we get to kind of the end of the, uh, the end of the parable.  Jesse Schwamb: And again, we have to remember that we know that the intent here is actually to test or try Jesus, so He's certainly being merciful by using this opportunity not to just put him on blast, but to actually provide true instruction. And of course, like, that was, to some degree, this turning the question back would've been, like, a rabbinic pedagogical technique, but theologically, this is what floors me, is from the jump, Jesus refuses to let this man treat Him merely as one more voice among competing rabbis. Yeah. Instead, He holds that lawyer to the standard of God's own revealed word by, like you said, asking not just what does it say, but how do you read it? Mm-hmm. He's pressing not just for, like, some kind of recitation, but for the lawyer's own understanding and application, and Jesus is gonna hold him [00:42:00] accountable to his own hermeneutic. So by, by the time we get the answer, we know as readers, and all those present would've understood, he already knows the right answer, and he's not ignorant to God's requirements. He already summarizes the whole moral law correctly, encompassing both tables of the Decalogue. And so I think that does lead us then to this statement that we probably should spend a little time on, like, do this and you will live, like you introduced for us. Like, what does that even mean? Because i- it's not, like, in my view It's not like a Pelagian or Arminian concession that law keeping actually saves. I mean, it is the covenant of works principle stated truly inexorably that the law as law does promise life to perfect obedience. But that's the exact problem. I, I like what you said that it's not as if we can't understand what it would be to comprehend or contemplate this perfect law and what it means to fall under the covenant of works. It's just that he also presents for us at the same time this covenant of grace in which life is [00:43:00] granted freely through faith in the mediator who alone fulfills all of these laws' demands. So it's wild in this back and forth that's happening here where it's... I don't even know if it's fair to say this is like the most incredible subtext ever. I'm imagining trying to process this in real time and realizing everything that's being said, not just listening to what's being said and like the technical answers going back and forth. But I think like you said, that the Spirit even here is at work, I would like to believe, in the life and at the heart and the mind of this lawyer who's bringing forward this question with nefarious intent first to test and to undermine, and then is being drawn in almost inexorably into this debate to more profound understanding about a covenant based on works that cannot be accomplished, uh, in perfect obedience except through the mediator who organizes and distributes liberally this covenant of grace to his children for whom he has accomplished at least passively and then actively in his obedience in life and death. And so Jesus' reply is, I [00:44:00] think, thus a very genuine like if that functions to expose an impossibility. I, I don't think he's teaching salvation by works here, of course. He is holding out the law's own terms so that the lawyer and everybody else listening, and even us as well, can discover through this narrative which is about to happen the impossibility of self-produced righteousness, which again is what this gentleman is theologically all about. He's trying to justify himself. And that is precisely the pedagogical strategy like Paul uses later when he systemizes all of this by saying that the law was our guardian or school master until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. I think- Yeah ... and it's only because God is good to us and we might sit in some of this teaching, I think this is all in play. So, so I ask you, like, have I gone too far with all this? Like, how much do you think in the real time was being processed? And maybe that's a horrible question to ask because we know the Spirit does this work of illumination and enlightenment, and we're on the other [00:45:00] side of this and have this time to sit and to kind of parse and to really kind of just be pickled in all of this. But there's so much happening here, right?  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, maybe I'll answer the question a, a little bit of a different way. I think, um- We often can think about Old Testament religion, if we wanna kinda call it that. We think about Old Testament religion as though it was totally uniform and, um, entirely legalistic. Right. Uh, my- the, the listener is gonna panic a little bit when I say this, so please don't freak out, but I, I think N.T. Wright, uh, and some of the new perspective on Paul stuff is a, a little bit helpful in this, in that it gives us a foil to sorta push against. Yes. The new perspective on Paul is this idea that, um- Paul was not saying that Judaism was legalistic and Christianity is a grace-based religion, right? He, m- [00:46:00] um, N- NPP is not, is saying, um, Paul was not correcting New or Old Testament religion. And where they go wrong is that they say that Paul actually retains this concept of covenantal faithfulness, covenantal nomism fidelity. Uh, where I think, where I think they're right is that this idea that, like, the Old Testament religion is entirely legalistic and Paul was just sort of correcting that, I think that's way too simplistic. And the reason I say that is that the Mosaic Covenant for, you know, w- and predominantly this podcast is coming from a sort of Westminster Confession of Faith Presbyterian perspective, give or take, right? The, the broad Reformed tradition would say that the, the Mosaic, uh, covenant, the Davidic Covenant, all of the covenants of the Old Testament, and we can break them up in all sorts of different ways, but all of the covenants of the Old Testament, [00:47:00] um, with maybe the exception of the Noahic Covenant, and there's some debate about that, all of those are They're not just, like, supporting structures for the covenant of grace, but they actually are the covenant of grace in various administrations. If that's true, and of course we believe that it is, if that's true, then the people of those covenants understood that on some level. Right. Right? So to think that, like, people under the administration of the covenant of grace somehow thought that they were operating under a legalistic framework doesn't make any sense. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah,  Tony Arsenal: that's true. So, so where I think that applies here is I think this person coming forward, it's not as though the concept of the covenant of grace... Again, that's language that we would develop later, but the concept that God graciously saves His people by the counsel of His own will, apart from their works of righteousness, apart from their meritorious effort, that God [00:48:00] simply extends His grace and conveys the cov- the blessings of the covenant of works to those who trust in the mediator, those who trust in the one to come, the, the forthcoming serpent-crushing seed, right, if you wanna use- Right language from Genesis 3. The, the idea that God simply graciously conveys the blessings of the covenant of works to those people Um, that's not something that's alien to the Old Testament, right? It's not alien to the, even to the Mosaic economy. The most law-based of all of the Old Testament, um, covenants, even that starts with the concept that these people are God's people who he redeemed out of Egypt, right? Right. The redemption out of Egypt comes before the giving of the law, and the giving of the law is a result of the redemption out of Egypt. So to think that this lawyer comes forward, and again, this had been sort of corrupted and distorted and had become a very works-based, uh, [00:49:00] meritorious-based understanding. But the idea that this framework of a covenant of grace is totally alien to this guy just doesn't, it just doesn't, I think it doesn't play. And so I think rather than us read this as I think sometimes we do, of Christ as kind of like giving this guy, trying to give this guy an entirely new paradigm, or like the rich young ruler is very much a parallel kind of situation. We read this, this guy comes forward, he's like, "What do I gotta do to earn eternal life?" Christ is like, kinda basically says like, "Well, you dum-dum, you can't. And I'm gonna demonstrate for you that you can't by- Right ... taking sort of like this situation that you can't possibly believe that you fulfilled and telling you to fulfill it." That's the outcome of this. We'll get to that when we get to the end of the parable. Um, he's not trying to give them a new paradigm. He's trying, in my opinion, he's trying to sort of reorient them back to the true paradigm of grace that is present under all of the Old Covenant administrations. So it's not so much a matter of like [00:50:00] developing a new framework and impli- like imposing this new framework on this guy. It's really trying to say like, "Listen- Think about this for a second, dude. Think about this, right? Think about the fact that, yes, you know you have to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, your whole mind, and you have to love your neighbor as yourself, right? You've answered correctly. If you can do those things, you will live. With the subtext, which I think is what you're getting at, the subtext of, like, and of course you cannot possibly do those things. Right. Right. So what's the alternative, my friend? The alternative is not justifying yourself by somehow identifying who the person is that you have to love the most. The, the, the, um, the... Well, we'll get this when we get to the parable itself, but the, the alternative is... This will be interesting, 'cause I'm not sure that we... I don't know where you are on this, but, um, the alternative is that there's someone out there who shows us mercy. [00:51:00] Right. There's someone out there who takes care of our need despite our total inability to do so. Jesse Schwamb: That's right.  Tony Arsenal: That's the alternative to the covenant of works, is the covenant of grace. I m- maybe I'm, like, hinting at it too much, so I'll just say it. Like, Jesus is the Good Samaritan, right? Like, there's something for us to learn about our own justification here and our own- Right ... like, um, our own need to be merciful, to treat people as our neighbors. But just like we talked about when we talked about, like, what does the least of these mean, this parable, uh, I'm totally, like, burying the lede for next, next week, but that's fine. This parable is not primarily about us figuring out how to do mercy ministry. Right. Like, that's important. It's probably an outcome of this. It's probably something for us to think about. But really, this is actually Christ saying, like, "Hold on a second here, dude." Like, "Let's just think about this." Do you need someone who is going to tell you to pick yourself up off your bootstraps and cross to the other side of the street and leave you to [00:52:00] your own devices? Or do you need someone who's gonna throw you on their donkey, who's gonna bind up your wounds, who's gonna pay the innkeeper, and is gonna pledge to play- pay everything that is owed for your salvation? Right? That's not too on the nose here, I think. Right. And, and I really look forward to, like, unpacking that, although maybe we don't need to now, but I think, like, this parable is so much more about how salvation works than it is about, like, what it means to have a good neighbor and to be a good neighbor. I think we get bogged down in that, and I just am really excited to talk more about, like, what I think this parable actually gets at.  Jesse Schwamb: I agree, and it's happening in the contex

Your kids are being discipled every day. Movies. Music. YouTube. TikTok. Social media. Influencers. Television. Video games. Friends. Culture. Every message they consume has the potential to shape what they believe about truth, relationships, sexuality, identity, success, morality, and God. The answer isn't simply keeping your children away from every message you disagree with. You need to teach them how to evaluate those messages for themselves. In Episode 308 of the Family Meeting Podcast, Thomas and Lysandra Osterkamp discuss how parents can teach their children to filter the messages they receive through the truth of Scripture. Instead of only asking, "Is this appropriate for my child?" Christian parents also need to teach their children to ask, "Is this true?" We talk about how to use movies, television, music, social media, and other forms of entertainment as opportunities for discipleship. Your children need to learn how to recognize the worldview behind the message, compare it with what Scripture teaches, reject what is false, and hold on to what is true. In this episode, we discuss: Why parents need to help children develop biblical discernment. How media and entertainment influence your child's worldview. Teaching kids to recognize the message behind the entertainment. How to compare cultural messages with biblical truth. Why simply banning media doesn't teach discernment. Using movies, music, and social media to start meaningful conversations. Helping children develop a biblical worldview. Preparing your kids to evaluate messages when you aren't there to do it for them. You won't always be standing beside your children when they encounter a message that conflicts with Scripture. The goal is to raise children who know God's Word well enough to recognize what is true, identify what is false, and make wise decisions for themselves. Subscribe for weekly conversations on marriage, parenting, and faith. Bonus Resource: Send an email to info@familymeeting.org for our The Biblical Media Filter: 10 Questions Every Family Should Ask. For more information: https://linktr.ee/familymeeting

What is a mighty man of God? What does it look like when Biblical masculinity collides with the softening of everyday men in modern culture? For Cody Bobay, exploring healthy masculinity and telling important stories that celebrate the God-given attributes of strength, dignity, and honor is his personal mission. Cody is a U.S. Navy veteran, actor, author, and filmmaker who is very passionate about living out and teaching leadership. Whether he is looking for the perfect role that exemplifies authentic character development or sticking to his personal and Biblically guided beliefs about honoring God in his work, Cody is committed to excellence and discipline. He draws on his personal experience and journey in his acting, which gives his storytelling a raw and vulnerable flair. TAKEAWAYS Check out Cody's book: Memoirs of the Mighty Men: A 68-Day Cinematic Devotional Told by the Bible's Mighty Men If you can't tap into authenticity, you won't be convincing as an actor If you want to be a leader of men, you must be able to lead yourself first, and the hardest person to lead is always ourselves Little habits accumulate over time and create a positive or negative version of yourself

Stephen is back from his Chicago vacation where he managed to miss all the baseball stories that happened while he was there. Field of Dreams game stunk. Jane's still crashing out about the Twins. The US Navy is being absolutely tortured. Some movie talk. You know how it goes.

Guest host Rebekah Haynie talks with Austin Gravley of the What Would Jesus Tech podcast about reports of AI going "rogue" on its developers.  He helps us keep these scary news headlines in perspective, especially as disciples of Jesus.  Plus, with school starting up again, what concerns should we have with AI's integration into the education system.  With families transitioning back to school, mental health therapist Ruth Han helps us get ready for the families for transitions with Biblically-grounded wisdom.  She also addresses the talk around going "no-contact" with family members.  The Reconnect with Carmen and all Faith Radio podcasts are made possible by your support. Give now: Click here

What does God think about ChatGPT and the impact of other emerging AI technology? Philosophy and Ethics professor, Dr. Jason Thacker, joins Kirk Cameron to discuss what Christians need to be aware of as ever-changing technological advancements take a more prevalent role in our daily lives. Don't miss this informative interview on Takeaways with Kirk Cameron on TBN! Missed the last episode? Listen in as Lysa TerKeurst discusses how to Biblically navigate betrayal and broken trust. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WATCH Takeaways with Kirk Cameron episodes for free on TBN+⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Each episode of Takeaways with Kirk Cameron features knowledgeable guests having a respectful and thoughtful conversation surrounding topics that are impacting our society every day. Kirk's hope is that you will walk away from this show with practical steps on how to better your family, your community, and your nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Whole Counsel, John is joined by Louis Sacran to discuss how to handle difficult problems biblically. Louis has many years of experience as both a pastor and a counselor. John has asked Louis to discuss the most common problems he encounters among believers. We all, from time to time, face problems that are especially hard for us. In this first episode, Louis offers us wise advice on viewing our problems in light of Scripture and practical insight into handling those difficulties. Louis lays the groundwork for a biblical perspective of ourselves. How we view ourselves affects everything. All of us are saints, sinners, and sufferers, and we must keep those three views of ourselves in proper balance.

What is the definition of a cult? Is a cult defined by errant beliefs or false practices, or both? What are the identifying factors of a cult?

It's Wednesday, August 5th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark and me Muslims killed 20 Christians in Congo Islamic militants killed over 20 people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last month. The Muslims killed a church elder and a worship leader in the village of Mangina. A local pastor told Open Doors, “Fear is increasing. Brothers and sisters, please intercede for the safety of the rural commune of Mangina and for the strengthening of the faith of Christians.” Such attacks are common in the country as Islamic extremists try to eradicate the presence of Christians.  According to Open Doors, Congo, Africa is the 29th worst country worldwide for the persecution of Christians. 70,000 Muslim migrants stormed Ceuta, Spain Over 70,000 migrants stormed the Spanish North African enclave city of Ceuta. Most were young men from the Muslim-majority country of Morocco.  The Spanish city of Ceuta borders Morocco and is home to just over 80,000 people. Spain deployed its military in response to the surge of migrants, sending most of them back as of yesterday.  Dozens reportedly died in the crossing. A local pastor told Evangelical Focus, “Pray for our city, for the authorities, and for all the staff working on the front line. … We hope that the Lord will allow us to be a beacon of hope and support for our city.” In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” Todd Blanche nomination for Attorney General heads to Senate floor On August 3rd, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General after he struck a deal with two GOP holdouts, reports The Epoch Times. Republican Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas had opposed Blanche because of concerns over a settlement that the Department of Justice negotiated with President Donald Trump in his suit against the IRS. On August 2, Blanche said that he formally terminated a nearly $1.8 billion fund that would have given payments to victims of government weaponization. Tillis and Cornyn subsequently issued a statement on August 3 pledging their support. The Senate Committee voted 12–10, along party lines, to advance Blanche's nomination. It now heads to the Senate floor for a final confirmation vote, where he can afford to lose only two Republican votes, assuming all Democrats will be opposed and GOP Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will be absent due to illness. Contact your two U.S. Senators by email and phone -- whatever their party affiliation might be -- and urge them to vote for Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General.  Do not assume that every Republican Senator will vote for him. And do not assume that every Democrat Senator will vote against him. Just speak your mind and leave the results ion God's hands. Georgia must reinstate Christian education program In the United States, a district court ruled that a Georgia school district must reinstate a Christian education program. Sweet Onion Christian Learning Center provided free, off-campus religious instruction for students at Vidalia High School. However, school officials canceled the program after its leader criticized a proposed tax increase on his Facebook page.  With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, the learning center challenged this in court and won.  Planned Parenthood has closed 57 abortion mills since 2025 Planned Parenthood is closing three of its facilities in Michigan. The abortion giant is facing $5.6 million in losses in the state.   The One Big Beautiful Bill Act temporarily defunded Planned Parenthood last year. The funding pause expired last month. However, it did cause many locations to shut down.    The American Life League reports that Planned Parenthood has closed 57 locations since January 2025. U.S. economic growth slowed in second quarter U.S. economic growth slowed during the second quarter of this year. The Gross Domestic Product increased at an annual rate of 1.5 percent. That's down from 2.1 percent during the first quarter. The slower growth was due in part to a decrease in government spending.  In-N-Out Burger President urges those in Idaho to turn to God The owner of In-N-Out Burger spoke out after a tragic shooting at one of the company's locations.  The shooting happened at a newly opened In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho on Saturday. Three people died, including an In-N-Out associate.  Lynsi Snyder is the owner and president of In-N-Out Burger. She wrote, “In-N-Out will be mourning with the families and praying for them as they tread through a very painful season. I am no stranger to loss, but this is so incredibly tough, and my heart also goes out to all of the Associates and Customers who were there during this traumatic event. I love you all, and I ask you to turn to God, not in anger, but seeking comfort and strength for those who are hurting.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Williams kids in Wasilla, Alaska give $73.45 which parents match On July 31st, Iris Williams in Wasilla, Alaska wrote me and said, “Adam, we have listened as the Lord has opened hearts and provided financial support to The Worldview in 5 Minutes!  This has been an exciting month as my husband Thomas, me, and our 8 children -- Toby, Aubri, Trygg, Trevor, Tyndale, Taleb, Kimber and Torben -- have listened each morning after breakfast as part of our Bible time. It has been such a joy to watch my children become inspired and moved by the news stories you share. “And it's been exciting as we wait, holding our breath in prayer, as you announce how close we are to our goal. I say ‘our goal' because it truly feels like we are in this with you. “We gave earlier this month to The Worldview as a family, but as the final stretch hit, my kids were inspired to scrounge up money they had around the house to give one more time. I told them I'd match whatever they found. They came up with $73.45. “My husband and I decided to round up to $75 and match that. So, we donated $150 on July 31st. We know it's not much, but we know our God is good and He will use every dollar! Thank you Adam and the 6-member team. We cherish the work you do and are so thankful for this Godly, Biblical newscast!” Anonymous New York donor enables us to reach the finish line And, yesterday morning, Tuesday, August 4th, I heard from an anonymous donor in New York. I was blown away by what he wrote.  I started reading it to my children and, you guessed it, I started crying.  I asked Mercy, my 14-year-old daughter, to finish reading it since I got choked up. He wrote, “I just listened to your Worldview in 5 Minutes and was moved to get you guys across the finish line.  I sent the remaining $950 that you guys needed. “I just want to let you know that you have encouraged me. “Adam, I pray two things for you.  First, I pray that you are encouraged by the gifts that shower your ministry. And second, I pray that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continues to use you and your program to share not only the news, but the grace of God.” 13 Worldview listeners gave $2,500 And finally, as we wrapped up our annual fundraiser in our second spillover day, 13 Worldview listeners stepped up to the plate by 10:30pm Central to invest their treasure to help fully fund the 6-member Worldview newscast team. Our thanks to Constance in Los Alamos, California and Michael in Livonia, Michigan – both of whom gave $25. We appreciate Isaac in Omaha, Nebraska, Rob in Annandale, Virginia, Aspen in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Alfred and VinDetta in Pound, Virginia, and Jennifer in Conifer, Colorado -- each of whom gave $50. We're grateful to God for Jennifer in Coos Bay, Oregon who gave $100, Lorraine in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania who gave $120, and Ben in Wall, Texas who gave $230. And we were touched by the sacrifice of Usha in Hudson, New York who gave $300, Max in Macon, Georgia who gave $500, and the anonymous donor in New York who gave $950. Those 13 gifts add up to $2,500. Ready for our FINAL grand total? Drum roll please. (drum roll sound effect) $125,050 (sound effect of people cheering) That means we surpassed our $123,500 goal by $1,550! On behalf of Kevin Swanson and Timothy Reed who write the Tuesday newscast, Jonathan Clark who researches special Christian history anniversaries and writes the Wednesday and Thursday newscasts, myself – I write the Monday and Friday newscasts, voice each weekday newscast, and upload the transcript, Franco Ortiz who selects the image for the newscast online, and Rebekah Swanson and Kayla White, who add the theme music and upload the audio onto multiple platforms including www.TheWorldview.com, iTunes, Spotify, SermonAudio.com, and Amazon Music, thank you. We are deeply grateful to God for the $5 donation and the $6,000 donation from our friend in Naples, Florida who matched twelve $500 donations and everyone in between.  From the kids who held fundraisers and donated money from their chores and odd jobs to the homeschool moms who invested precious dollars from their limited budgets to the business people who gave larger gifts, we are filled with gratitude!  Each of you stepped up to the plate, enabling us to continue this important Christ-centered, Biblically-based, one-of-a-kind newscast. Philippians 1:3 describes my thoughts precisely: "I thank my God every time I remember you." Close And that's The Worldview on this Wednesday, August 5th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Open a bible to Joshua 3 and follow along with Pastor Obie as we continue with our MANCAVE series.

The Fifth Commandment God gave to Israel after He freed them from slavery was a simple statement of respect. God instructed each and every individual to honor their parents. To really understand the import of this command from God to His people of Israel and to us, it is important to do two things. First, recognize that appropriate “honor” for one's parents really has its foundation in the previous four Commandments. Second, be aware that while honoring our parents does have its basis in honoring God, we must recognize that any and all honor we give them reflects how and why we honor God. So, how and why do we as Christians honor our parents? To honor your parents means giving weight, respect and value to their role in our lives. Biblically, honor is an external action rooted in reverence for God, expressed through respect, care, listening and godly obedience. Jesus modeled this honor both in his youth and at the cross. It’s all connected In this episode, we explore how to honor your father and mother goes beyond a cultural expectation to a spiritual discipline. Scripture shows that honoring parents is woven into the very fabric of a God-reverencing life. The Law connects honoring parents with holiness, avoiding idolatry, Sabbath rest and the sanctity of God's name. In other words, how we treat our parents reflects how seriously we take God Himself. What if they just aren’t good parents? As reverential and respectful as all of this is, what happens when parents are not honorable? The Bible never asks us to blindly follow destructive behavior. To honor your parents must always be filtered through honoring God first. Sometimes honor looks like setting boundaries, seeking help or breaking cycles of harm. Other times, honor means patience, forgiveness and choosing respect even when circumstances are challenging. Ultimately, honoring parents is a heart-driven choice. It is an act of worship, a reflection of God's character and a pathway to significantly healthier families and communities. Key Takeaways • Honor is an external action rooted in reverence for God. • The Fifth Commandment builds on the first four, linking family respect to spiritual devotion. • Jesus modeled parental honor from childhood through his final moments on the cross. • Honoring destructive behavior is not biblical; boundaries might be necessary. • True honor comes from the heart and reflects God's holiness in everyday relationships.

The mention of the word modesty typically brings to mind clothing, measurements, and decency. Biblically, however, it is much more. As Paul wrote to Timothy, he instructed the young evangelist regarding matters of modesty that relate to both men and women. While the subject of clothing is an important part of his discussion, Paul's teaching also addresses the deeper foundation of godliness, exploring the attitudes and responses that characterize those who seek first the kingdom. This  sermon will explore the apostle's teaching.Recorded on July 26, 2026

I used to be a member of the Presbyterian Church, way back when in my early years. The church I attended was truly Christian, Biblically based, not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and where the love of God was evident. It offered God-honoring music, sincere prayer, and the true Biblical fellowship of the Saints. That was Presbyterian then, but now comes the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH USA (PCUSA), a church entirely different than the one before. The PCUSA, Cherokee Presbytery, the church which covers the city of Atlanta and much of North Georgia, now goes public with the resolution in favor of all transgender procedures, including that of minors, in the very state, Georgia, which, along with 27 other states, has enacted laws to protect minors from gender transition procedures. The PCUSA went public supporting all things transgender, as it had before with the LGBTQ agenda. The so-called GENDER AND SEXUALITY JUSTICE COMMITTEE approved the church resolution by a vote of 50-10 and the General Assembly in plenary session approached the final draft 441-30 (unbelievable). The vote and the affirmation of transgenderism went entirely against Biblical teaching and Scripture generally, yet this southern branch of the PCUSA defied Scripture and went its own way. This PCUSA committee and its General Assembly said it was more concerned with the wellbeing of many transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive people who experience symptoms of Gender Dysphoria or distress that result in having one's general identity not match their sex assigned at birth. All of that was more important than anything the Bible, the Word of God, had to say. No matter to these Presbyterians that the international medical consensus has become far more cautious about transgenderism, and many countries, such as the United Kingdom, have sharply restricted the use of puberty blockers for children, and medical authorities have concluded the evidence supporting these major interventions is far weaker than previously claimed. 2 It seems obvious that the PCUSA ignores and never even seriously considered Biblical teaching on human sexually as this amendment was passed. Ignored by them was Scripture, which indicates clearly God created man in His own image. Genesis clearly indicates God made human beings: MALE AND FEMALE (GENESIS 1:27). Our Lord Jesus Christ then cites this creation principle as: UNCHANGING TRUTH. The PCUSA utterly ignored the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ who affirmed the Genesis account of creation in Matthew 19:4-6. The God of the Universe made them male and female. Sex was not assigned at birth, nor was gender identity a matter for human beings to decide, but only for God to decide. My fellow Christians, once any individual, or especially a church, ceases to treat Scripture as final authority, the church, its beliefs and teachings, fall prey to the broader cultural revolution surrounding sex and gender. Dr. David Closson, Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council, indicates this was not an isolated decision, but the fruit of years of theological compromise. The PCUSA has been moving away from historic Christian orthodoxy for decades, says Closson. This denomination had abandoned Biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality, redefined sexual ethics, and repeatedly rejected the clear authority of Scripture on issues of human identity, says Closson. In short, the radical, anti-Biblical principles and precepts of the current culture prevail, and the Bible, SCRIPTURE, and the teachings of our Lord matter not at all with regard to this issue. The escalation of the PCUSA's LGBTQ and transgender agendas coincides with an ongoing decline in its membership, and rightly so. In 2025, PCUSA had only 1 million members, a decline in membership from 3.1 million members when PCUSA was formed in 1983. 3 That is so, David Closson believes, because these Presbyterians have abandoned Christian orthodoxy to follow the culture, move in theological thinking and belief to the Left, the far Left, and, at the same time, are undermining their own reason for existence. When a Christian institution abandons Christian teachings and the Bible, and the precious and unique Gospel of Jesus Christ, it loses its uniquely compelling character and really becomes, as Closson says, nothing more than a social club. Small wonder so many members consider this far-Left move by PCUSA has created a church unworthy of participation and involvement. Our beloved Bible teaches us our God, the Triune God whom we believe in, love, and respect, created humanity male and female, none other, and our bodies are gifts to be received rather than obstacles to be overcome. True human understanding does not result in the remaking of ourselves, the change in our sexual identity according to our own desires, but in conforming our lives to Gods wise and loving design. When we are born either male or female, it is what God intended. Let no man or woman seek to change this Divine Decision. It matters not what we want, it only matters what HE wants and decides.

In Homegrown - Guidance and Inspiration for Navigating Your Homeschooling Journey, readers will peruse the perspectives of 30 different homeschooling parents who have been on an incredible journey of home education with their kids. Edited and compiled by homeschooling mom of four Amber O'Neal Johnston, the wisdom and heartfelt experiences shared within Homegrown will encourage, challenge, and bless readers as they explore homeschooling. Amber discusses the unexpected joys and creative opportunities available when parents choose to homeschool. She has challenged stigma, stereotypes, and criticism amid her inspiring homeschooling journey and emerged with soulful wisdom that will guide other parents who seek to do the same. TAKEAWAYS Homeschooling and parenting bring people together, no matter their background or current circumstances Homeschooling is the most elite Christian education available to our children There is so much beauty to be found in home education and Biblically-based truths to learn and implement We're all working within our contexts to pave a new path for our families

In this episode of Crosstalk, hosts Charles and Daniel explore what it means to "think big" about God. They challenge listeners to move beyond limited, childlike perceptions of God's size toward a mature understanding of His transcendence, nearness, and holiness. Using Scripture and personal stories, they present three key principles: a bigger view of God produces wiser thoughts, recognizing God's nearness leads to wiser decisions, and understanding God's holiness inspires purer living. They emphasize intentional biblical thinking as essential for personal faith and passing sound theological understanding to the next generation.

TODAY'S TREASUREAnd this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.Philippians 1:9-11 NIVSend us a comment!Support the show

Trials are not interruptions to the Christian life. They are instruments within it. The text does not say "if ye fall." It says "when ye fall." This removes uncertainty. Trials are certain, varied, and unavoidable. "Divers temptations" refers to multi-coloured, multi-layered pressures—financial strain, relational conflict, physical weakness, ministry burden, internal struggle. Scripture gathers all forms of pressure under one category: testing. Have you recently decided to follow Jesus? Take your next step with Jesus: https://cbcgb.co.uk ⛪ ABOUT CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCHES: We believe that our Calvary Baptist Churches are a movement for all people to know God, Reaching Others, Building Lives, Honouring God and Make a Difference.

The crew's trek through the icy wilderness puts them in the crosshairs of a pack of ravenous predators. *** Support us on Patreon! http://patreon.com/tabletopgold Patrons get access to weekly premium episodes, including behind-the-scenes insights into our game, spoiler-free specials featuring games-related chat, and tons more. The cast of Roughnexx is Lars Casteen, R. Matt Humphreys, Robin Lange, Scott Hoffer, and Alexa Monn. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a rating and review at the podcast service of your choice, and find our website at www.tabletopgold.com. Roughnexx is a Tabletop Gold production, produced under the Paizo Incorporated Fan Content policy. Roughnexx uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Fan Content Policy (https://paizo.com/licenses/fancontent). Paizo does not recognize, endorse, or sponsor this project in any way. Original characters and content are the property of Tabletop Gold. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com…

Common Man Hour 2 --5 Questions --Biblically Bad --ESPN Layoffs --Lebron --NFL Over/Unders

Common Man Hour 2 --5 Questions --Biblically Bad --ESPN Layoffs --Lebron --NFL Over/UndersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Common Man Hour 2 --5 Questions --Biblically Bad --ESPN Layoffs --Lebron --NFL Over/UndersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Travel back to the 1990's with Harriet as she discusses a series of workbooks that helped her navigate her early years of Bible study. In today's episode she will be talking about what being a woman of grace looks like for us Biblically living in the 21st century.    Want to learn more about Sisterhood? Go to our website https://www.lifechurchwilm.com/sisterhood

Most Americans hold clear beliefs about humanity and the supernatural, but those beliefs often conflict with biblical teaching—even among church-goers. We break down the latest worldview study with Dr. Adam Rasmussen of the Cultural Research Center, and learn how to be effective ambassadors for Christ in a confused culture. *Originally aired on Faith Radio Network, posted with permission. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/faith-works-live-with-rebekah-haynie--5411714/support.

It's Monday, July 13th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Texas police officers vs. Christian preachers at “pride” event Today, our persecution of Christians story comes surprisingly from Texas. On June 27th, Rich Penkoski and like-minded believers spoke the truth and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a bullhorn at the Trinity Homosexual Pride Fest in Fort Worth, Texas.  Not surprisingly, homosexual activists and nearby business owners complained to police about both his message and the amplification. When police responded, the officers threatened to arrest and cite the preachers, telling them that phrases like “homosexuality is a sin” were offensive. Listen to a portion of one video posted by preacher Penkoski of his interaction with a female officer. POLICE OFFICER: “If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem.” PREACHER: “That's a constitutional violation of our rights. If you shut us down for talking or speech …” (crosstalk) POLICE OFFICER: “No. If they are offended by speech, …” PREACHER: “I don't care if they're offended.” POLICE OFFICER:  “Okay, then I'll write you a ticket, and we'll go from there.” PREACHER: “Wait, you're going to ticket us for offensive speech?” POLICE OFFICER: “Yes, absolutely.” PREACHER: “Are you serious? You're going to cite us for offensive speech.” POLICE OFFICER: “It's called disorderly conduct.” Plus, according to another video, a male police officer also said if the preacher used biologically accurate pronouns for someone pretending to be the opposite gender that also could be considered an offense. The preacher was warned that continued use of the bullhorn would violate the city's noise ordinance before ultimately receiving a disorderly conduct citation after continuing to use the device. Subsequently, the Fort Worth Police Department acknowledged that an officer made "certain statements that were not accurate," reports Fox News. In last Thursday post on X, Penkoski wrote, "Police officers have been violating preachers' 1st amendment rights for years. This isn't new, we just got it on video, and they can't walk it back or deny it.” He added, “As a street preacher, it is not my job to coddle anyone or go soft on sin. People are dying and going to hell every day and we have to warn them. ​… Christians need to wake up. We have got to stop sitting in the safety and comfort of our church pews and start taking the Gospel back to the streets. If we refuse to exercise our constitutional rights, we are going to lose them." In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the Earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Homosexual couple sues surrogate who refused to abort baby with cleft lip A homosexual male couple in Canada has sued a surrogate mother who believes she is being punished because she refused a request to abort the baby after doctors detected a cleft lip and a possible heart defect, reports The Christian Post. They used a donor egg and sperm from each of the intended fathers. In a suit filed in Ontario Superior Court in May, the homosexuals allege the surrogate mother failed to keep them informed about the baby's health, caused them emotional distress, and violated their confidentiality, reports The National Post. The lawsuit came two years after the perverted couple asked her to abort the baby at 22 weeks — a request she refused. Specialists at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto later determined that the baby was otherwise healthy, except for the cosmetically fixable cleft lip. The couple accepted this assessment, agreed to continue the pregnancy, and took the baby boy home after birth. The surrogate unsuccessfully sought repayment of about $10,000 in out-of-pocket costs. Ironically, the couple filed a lawsuit for $600,000 in damages against the single mother for her failure to abort their now living son. More than 50 countries prohibit both commercial and altruistic surrogacy. And here in the United States, surrogacy laws vary by state. New video: Senator Mitch McConnell loaded into ambulance New video posted on July 10th shows Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky being loaded into an ambulance after suffering an apparent cardiac arrest at his Capitol Hill home last month, reports the New York Post. McConnell has been absent from the Senate for nearly a month as he continues to recover in the hospital. The 84-year-old lawmaker is not seeking re-election this November and will retire when his term ends in January. California puts abortion pill reversal on trial Heartbeat International, a pro-life group, is on trial in a California court for daring to inform women that the effects of the Abortion Kill Pill can sometimes be reversed, reports The Washington Stand. Their attorney, Danielle White, said, “Women deserve to know all of their options. They don't lose that right after beginning a chemical abortion.” In 2023, Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta  sued Heartbeat and a pro-life pregnancy center for “advertising Abortion Pill Reversal as safe and effective.”  Factually speaking, the abortion pill reversal protocol simply requires the use of the natural hormone progesterone which is both safe and helps save 65% of the babies. Bonta asked the court to impose a penalty of more than $20 million against Heartbeat and $600,000 against the pregnancy center. That would amount to a financial death sentence for the pro-life non-profits. The case went to a bench trial on June 24, 2026, and the trial may continue for another three weeks. Thomas More Society's Paul Jonna said, “A ruling in California's favor would hand attorneys general across the country a roadmap to penalize any non-profit organization that provides women with information the state disagrees with. If the [California] Attorney General prevails and our clients cannot deliver free, truthful, and lifesaving information to women who request it, then countless babies that could survive may not — and countless women may never meet the children that they wanted to carry to term.” Marriage advocate Mike McManus entered Heaven On a personal note, my father, Mike McManus, entered the gates of Heaven on July 5th at the age of 85 in Nashville, Tennessee.  Standing at 6'8” tall, he might have had to duck to walk through. To be sure, Dad had a God-sized vision to make a difference. After graduating from Duke University, he was employed at Time Magazine where he was stationed in Bueno Aires, Argentina and later covered President Lyndon Johnson at the White House, writing two cover stories. In 1973, my Dad organized a public participation campaign, “Choices for ‘76” to engage 10 percent of the 20 million people of the New York Metropolitan region in policy issues as the U.S. approached its Bicentennial. The project aimed to spark public debate through a series of television town meetings on issues like housing, transportation, the environment, poverty and urban growth. After becoming informed, citizens were invited to express their opinion on possible public policy tradeoffs, using ballots available in newspapers, banks and libraries. Then, he wrote two self-syndicated weekly newspaper columns which appeared in 100 newspapers.  The first, called “Solutions,” was politically focused and offered practical public policy suggestions. The second, “Ethics & Religion,” was inspired by the preaching of Pastor Terry Fullam of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Darien, Connecticut. It grappled with church news and moral issues like abortion, pornography, and the homosexual agenda. I remember helping him copy, collate, stuff, stamp, address, and seal the envelopes to send out his weekly columns to newspaper editors across the country before the advent of the internet and email. We were always racing to the post office to get there before the deadline at 11pm at night. In 1993, he published his first book Marriage Savers: Helping Your Friends and Family Stay Married. Other books included 50 Practical Ways to Take Our Kids Back from the World and Living Together: Myths, Risks and  Answers. In a 2013 phone interview on American Family Radio, Dad talked about the major myth that women believe about living together. MIKE McMANUS: “One of the myths, believed widely by women, is that ‘'If I live with him, he's going to see how wonderful I am, and he'll ask me to marry him.' But he knows that this woman would marry him if he asked her. He's living together with her because he doesn't want to get married. He wants the sex, he wants the companionship, and the shared rent. But he doesn't want to get married. “She believes this myth until about a year and a half, two years into the relationship, when she realizes he's not going to ask her to marry him, and she sadly walks away. Unfortunately, by that time they may have already had a child. The unwed birth rate has risen right along with cohabitation. “This is an unbiblical position, of course. I mean, the church has been silent on the problem, and it's part of the problem.” Cognizant of the clarity of Malachi 2:16 in which God says He “hates divorce,” my father's passion on the issue led to his founding of the non-profit Marriage Savers with my mother, Harriet, to whom he was married for 61 years and whom he simply adored.  He said, “Most divorces are filed by one person who alleges incompatibility, while the other spouse wants to save the marriage. Sadly, divorce is always granted. When adultery or abuse is not alleged, divorce should only be granted if there is 'mutual consent' by husband and wife. What was entered into by two people, should not be ended, unless both people agree." They organized 10,000 pastors in 229 cities in 43 states to sign a Community Marriage Policy agreement that established rigorous premarital preparation for engaged couples and trained volunteer mentor couples to help people in troubled marriages. The Baptist Press reported that the divorce rate in those cities dropped by 17.5%. Think about the heartache that saved untold families and children! Their work led to appearances on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CBN News, The O'Reilly Factor, The Ricki Lake Show, Breakpoint with Chuck Colson, Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson, Truths that Transform with D. James Kennedy, and Moody Radio's Janet Parshall. I treasure the books that Dr. Dobson personally inscribed to my father as a fellow warrior for the family that are now in my library. And Chuck Colson, President Richard Nixon's former hatchet man who was gloriously saved on his way to prison over Watergate and founded Prison Fellowship, wrote the forward to one of Dad's books after their friendship blossomed. Having always aspired to live on the water, he eventually moved into his dream home with his bride in Kilmarnock, Virginia, just 50 feet from Indian Creek that fed into the Chesapeake Bay.  A great day for him was enjoying the view from his leather chair, reading the paper, listening to classical music, and talking with my mother, who was his great joy. My father taught me how to write clearly and think Biblically. I remember him quizzing us three boys at the dining room table about current events. And he was a faithful husband who pointed the family to faith in Jesus Christ, His legacy lives on in my two younger brothers, John and Tim, and in me, as I strive, with my bride Amy, to disciple Honor, Mercy, and Valor in the ways of the Lord, urging them not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds in the Word of God, as Romans 12:2 articulates. 9 Worldview listeners gave $2,055 And finally, toward our $30,875 goal during the first full week of our month-long fundraiser, 9 listeners stepped up to the plate by 10:30pm Central on Saturday and invested their treasure to fund the six-member team behind The Worldview for another 365 days. Our thanks to 12-year-old Halen in Blum, Texas who gave $5 as well as Mark in Newark, Ohio and Brigitte in Brookings, South Dakota – both of whom gave $25. We're grateful to God for Julie in Victoria, Texas who gave $50, Dirk in Englewood, Colorado who gave $100, and Twyla in Ellensburg, Washington who gave $150. And we were touched by the generosity of Jason in Calhoun, Georgia who gave $200, Elaine here in San Antonio, Texas who gave $500, and Stephen in California, Maryland who gave $1,000. Those 9 gifts add up to $2,055. Ready for our new grand total? Drum roll please. (drum roll sound effect) $23,098 (sound effect of people cheering) That means, in all candor, we missed last Friday's goal by $7,777. Please, do not wait until the last minute.  Every gift gets us closer to our $123,500 goal by July 31st.  So far, out of our tens of thousands of listeners, the most people who have donated in a single day is 15 people. Help us double that.  Will you be one of 30 to step up? Make a donation today to help us hit our $56,565 goal by this Friday, July 17th.  We need to find 7 Worldview listeners who will pledge $100/month for 12 months or give a one-time gift of $1,200, 20 folks who will pledge $50/month or give a one-time gift of $600 and 40 listeners who will pledge $25/month or give a one-time gift of $300. Go to TheWorldview.com, click on Give, select the dollar amount, and make sure to click on the “recurring” button if that's your wish.  What has the Lord placed on your heart to give? Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, July 13th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

AN ALTERNATIVE VIABLE BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AS THE FATHER AND GOD AS THE SON AND GOD AS THE HOLY SPIRIT.   As I mentioned in this study I did a podcast that shows Biblically the answer to the question, “Who dwells in us, the Father? The Son? The Holy Spirit?”  The answer to the question is YES!!  Shown below are the link to the podcast that are critical for Christians to understand the very words of God and the concept that God is the Father and God is the Son and God is the Spirit. 1 COR 3:16 – FATHER & SON & SPIRIT DWELL IN US https://youtu.be/hiG8QC-bHuk?si=6q7ax_82kEhZQ0x3 https://youtu.be/eZyFEL7OUD0?si=SFHLjPTrUppGibdY The word for "book" is sefer (סֵפֶר). Possessive Endings (Pronominal Suffixes) In formal and biblical Hebrew, possession is indicated by adding suffixes directly to a shifted, construct form of the noun (sifr-). Owner Hebrew Transliteration Meaning My סִפְרִי sifri my book Your (m.s.) סִפְרְךָ sifrecha your book Your (f.s.) סִפְרֵךְ sifrech your book His סִפְרוֹ sifro his book Her סִפְרָהּ sifrah her book Our סִפְרֵנוּ sifrenu our book Your (m.pl.) סִפְרְכֶם sifrechem your book Your (f.pl.) סִפְרְכֶן sifrechen your book Their (m.) סִפְרָם sifram their book Their (f.) סִפְרָן sifran their book   Modern Spoken Form In Modern Hebrew, the shel construction is preferred for everyday conversation. You use the base word ha-sefer (הַסֵּפֶר - "the book") followed by the preposition shel and a pronoun. My book: ha-sefer sheli (הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁלִּי) His book: ha-sefer shelo (הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁלּוֹ) Her book: ha-sefer shelah (הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁלָּהּ) Our book: ha-sefer shelanu (הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁלָּנוּ) Their book: ha-sefer shelahem (הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁלָּהֶם)   Plural Forms Hebrew the plural noun sefarim  (ספרים, "books") In Hebrew, possessive endings (called "pronominal suffixes") are attached directly to nouns to show ownership. For the plural noun sefarim (ספרים, "books"), possession is indicated by replacing the masculine plural ending with specialized suffixes. Possessive Endings for "Sefarim" (ספרים) When adding possessive endings, the plural word for books becomes sifrei- (סִפְרֵי) plus the suffix.    Possessor  Suffix Hebrew Form Pronunciation Translation   My י סְפָרַי sfaráy My books   Your (m. sg.) ךָ סְפָרֶיךָ sfaréykha Your books   Your (f. sg.) ךְ סְפָרַיִךְ sfaráyikh Your books   His יו סְפָרָיו sfaráv His books   Her יהָ סְפָרֶיהָ sfaréha Her books   Our נו סְפָרֵינוּ sfaréynu Our books   Your (m. pl.) כֶם סְפָרֵיכֶם sfaréykhem Your books   Your (f. pl.) כֶן סְפָרֵיכֶן sfaréykhen Your books   Their (m.) ם סְפָרֵיהֶם sfaréyhem Their books   Their (f.) ן סְפָרֵיהֶן sfaréyhen Their books   Usage Notes Modern vs. Classical: While these direct suffixes are standard in Biblical Hebrew, formal writing, and religious liturgy, everyday Modern Hebrew almost exclusively uses the preposition shel (של). For example, "my books" is usually expressed casually as hasfarim sheli (הספרים שלי) rather than sfaray. Singular vs. Plural Base: Note that sefer (singular, "book") inflects differently. When modifying plural/dual nouns in Hebrew, you will almost always see a yud (י) placed between the noun and the possessive suffix (e.g., sfaray instead of sifri).  For more detailed breakdowns and audio pronunciations, you can visit the Virtual Ulpan or the Hebrew for Christians grammar guides. Wikipedia article related to Hebrew grammar – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Hebrew_grammar Hebrew4Christians grammar section -https://hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Six/Pronomial_Suffixes_Singular/pronomial_suffixes_singular.html Hebrew word for "face" or "presence" is panim (פָּנִים) The Hebrew word for "face" or "presence" is panim (פָּנִים). It is a grammatically plural noun that takes special, plural-like possessive endings. The primary possessive endings for panim are detailed in this structured layout:  English Meaning Hebrew Transliteration Hebrew Spelling My face panay פָּנַי Our face(s)   paneinu פְּנֵינוּ Your (m. sg.) face(s)   panecha פָּנֶיךָ Your (f. sg.) face(s)   panayich פָּנַיִךְ Your (m. pl.) face(s)   pneichem פְּנֵיכֶם Your (f. pl.) face(s)   pneichen פְּנֵיכֶן His / Its face panav פָּנָיו Her / Its face paneha פָּנֶיהָ Their (m.) face(s)   pneihem פְּנֵיהֶם Their (f.) face(s)   pneihen פְּנֵיהֶן   For a complete look at Hebrew grammar paradigms, you can reference the Hebrew for Christians Suffixes Guide -  https://hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Six/Pronomial_Suffixes_Plural/pronomial_suffixes_plural.html The following is taken from the Wikipedia articles on the etymology (historical development) of the Latin word PERSONA and the Greek word PROSOPON that eventually became used to translate the word “PERSON.” PERSONA The word persona derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask.] The usage of the word dates back to the beginnings of Latin civilization. The Latin word derived from the Etruscan word "phersu," with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον (prosōpon). It is the etymology of the word "person," or "parson" in French. Latin etymologists explain that persona comes from "per/sonare" as "the mask through which (per) resounds the voice (of the actor)." PROSOPON In Ancient Greek, term prosopon originally designated one's "face" or "mask". Actors in Greek theatre-productions wore specific physical masks on stage, in order to reveal their characters and emotional states to the audience. The term prosopon had an important role in the development of theological terminology related to the Trinity and to Jesus. It was the subject of many theological debates and disputes, particularly during early centuries of Christian history. The word prosopon is most commonly used for the self-manifestation of an individual hypostasis (God is understood as one divine essence or being (ousia), but three distinct substances or forms (hypostases): the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Commonly defined as persons in the church after the late 3rd century A.D.  Prosopon is the form in which hypostasis appears (prosopon meant “mask” and each form of the essence of God appears as a unique mask or appearance.  Later the word person was used for appearence or manifestation or face.  Every hypostasis has its own prosopon: face or countenance. It gives expression to the reality of the hypostasis with its powers and characteristics. Paul the Apostle uses the term when speaking of direct heart-felt apprehension of the face (prosopon) of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6): "For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." THE FACES OF THE LORD My wife is brilliant.  Again and again over the years I see how God has used her to enhance the lessons I taught in class, when I led teaching tours on the trails in Israel, or now in these podcasts.  She said the alternative Biblical understanding of the Trinity I presented makes so much sense rather than God in three separate persons.  The alternative does not take away from the doctrine of the Trinity but makes it more understanding.  She states that we are made in the image of God.  As God has faces, different ways of manifesting Himself to us, so do we.  As she explained that when I, her husband, was a son to my father my "face" then was not as my "face" today; that is my manifestation of myself to the world was different 60 years ago.  I was the same JOHN, the same human being, but my "face," or my way I was seen in the world, was radically different than today.  When I was 60 and leading tours to Israel my "face" was not the same as today.  I was the same person.  I was not a separate person from myself.  I was me.  But, then at age 60, I manifested myself differently.  My wife said I had many "faces" but I was still me.  I had the face of the son of my father, I had the face of a student at St. John's Univeristy, I had anohter face as a young dad when we started adopting our kids, and I have a face today of a grandfather.  All these are "faces" or masks, if you like.  It is still me.  Who I am is constant but I have a different face at the various stages of my life. She said it seems then as we are made in His image we, like our Father, have several "faces" or ways of presenting ourselves that differ over time.  As time goes on and circumstances change, I am manifested in different ways to those who I encounter.  I am still the same person.  My essence, or my fundamental core—the unchanging spark of my consciousness, my values, and my authentic presence that persists beneath my physical form and memories and fleeting emotions - does not change and I am still me.  This is the same for God.  His essence, that which makes God God, does not change but only the way He chooses to manifest Himself to the world, to us, in one of His faces. Rev. Ferret - who is this guy?  (Ferret - taking a break from teaching somewhere in the shade in Jerusalem) What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0    

Yesterday we learned that if we are goingto enjoy the peace of God guarding our hearts, then we must also guard ourminds.  TodayPaul gives us the first test for every thought that enters our minds: "Whateverthings are true." Everything begins with truth. We live in a worldwhere truth is often questioned, ignored, or even rejected. We hear people say,"Well, that's your truth," or "This is my truth." But theBible teaches that truth is not something we invent—it is something God reveals.Jesus declared in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: noman cometh unto the Father, but by Me." Later, as He prayed to theFather, Jesus said in John 17:17: “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy wordis truth." God'sWord is the absolute standard of truth. If we are going to think correctly, wemust think Biblically. Why does Paul begin here? Because Satan's greatestweapon has always been deception. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent did notbegin by denying God. He began by questioning God's Word. "Yea, hathGod said...?" (Genesis 3:1) Then he contradicted God. "Youshall not surely die." (Genesis 3:4) A lie believed always leads tobondage. But the truth believed always leads to freedom. Jesus said in John8:31-32: "If you continue in My word, then are you My disciples indeed;and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Thinkabout how many lies Satan tries to whisper into our minds. He says, "Goddoesn't really love you." The Bible says, "The LORD hath appearedof old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love."(Jeremiah 31:3) Satan says, "God has abandoned you." God says, "Iwill never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5) Satan says,"Your failures define you." God says, "If any man be inChrist, he is a new creature." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Satan says,"There is no hope." God says, "Blessed be... the God of allcomfort." (2 Corinthians 1:3) Yousee, every temptation begins with believing a lie, and every victory beginswith believing God's truth. That is why we must continually fill our minds withScripture. Someone once compared the mind to a garden. If you do notintentionally plant flowers, weeds will naturally grow. The same is true of ourminds. If we neglect God's Word, the weeds of fear, doubt, bitterness, lust,pride, and anxiety will quickly take over. David understood this. He wrote in Psalm 119:11, "Thy word haveI hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Noticehe didn't simply read God's Word. He hid it in his heart. He stored it there sothat when temptation came, truth was already available. That is exactly how ourLord defeated Satan during His temptation in the wilderness. Every time Satantempted Him, Jesus answered with the same words: "It iswritten..." He responded to every lie with the truth of God's Word.Ephesians 6:13-14 says: “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that youmay be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Standtherefore, having girded your waist with truth…” Friend,one of the greatest habits you can develop is to begin every day reading,meditating on, and memorizing Scripture. Throughout the day, ask yourself,"Is what I'm thinking true according to God's Word?" If it isn't,reject it and replace it with what God has said.  Remember, God's peace guards our hearts, butGod's truth guards our minds. Today,determine that your mind will be anchored—not in your feelings, not in theopinions of the world, and not in the changing circumstances of life—but in theunchanging truth of God's Word. Godbless and may you have a wonderful wonderful day!

Are you thinking Biblically about who God is and how He has dealt with you?Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/todayssinglechristianSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Table of Contents: Updated Group Prayer–List of Current Event Prayer Points–Part 1 Initial Report: USGS estimates the magnitude 7.5 Venezuela earthquake today caused up to 100,000 fatalities! Venezuela earthquake death toll–nearly 70,000 remain missing  Venezuela Earthquake Very Suspicious—Clearing the Way For Smart Cities—Earthquake Lights?—Demonic Black Creatures Seen in the Sky Prior to the Earthquake—More Junkyard Fires in the US Appears to be a Classic DEW's Directed Energy Weapon Attack! Navy SEAL Meets a Demon in His Barracks…Then THIS Happened Scott Johnson's Teaching: My Testimony and Supernatural Experiences-Parts 1 & 2–September 13, 2009–In this teaching we will be discussing my testimony and many of the supernatural experiences I have had since being saved, and the power of the name of Jesus Christ & His Word has over the forces of evil. We will be discussing how to deal with witchcraft and areas/objects that are defiled/cursed through the Lord Jesus Christ. This should be a uplifting study for the hearer. Scott Johnson's Teachings on the Super Charged Anointing Oil The Demonic Eyes and Evil Smile of a Narcissist—How to deal with them Biblically– Mat 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Mat 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! PDF: Emergency Freedom Alerts 6-29-26 Click Here To Play The Part 1 Audio Source

We strengthen the church when we Biblically care for one another

We strengthen the church when we Biblically care for one another

As parents, we long to raise girls who are thoughtful, grounded, and confident in Christ—not swept away by every cultural trend or viral "hot take." But in a world shaped by social media influence, digital comparison, and nonstop opinions, how do we disciple daughters to think Biblically, lead humbly, and follow Jesus faithfully?  In this powerful conversation, Natalie Ambrose welcomes pastor, author, and mentor Dr. J.R. Briggs to explore Biblical parenting rooted in curiosity, unhurried presence, and meaningful questions. Together, they discuss how servant leadership—modeled perfectly in the life of Jesus Christ—shapes the way we guide our daughters. They also address how families can cultivate discernment in the age of influencers, mentor the next generation of Christian leaders, and create space for authentic faith formation at home.  Whether you're parenting a middle schooler navigating a growing social network or a high schooler preparing for adulthood, this episode offers practical wisdom for Christian parents seeking to raise girls with theological depth, critical thinking skills, and Gospel-centered courage.  Because raising Godly girls doesn't begin with louder voices—it begins with faithful presence, wise questions, and a life anchored in Christ.    Scriptures Referenced in this Episode:    1 Thessalonians 4:11  1 Kings 19:12  Psalm 27:14    To learn more about Dr. J.R. Briggs and his work, visit jrbriggs.com  Visit raisinggodlygirls.com for more encouragement and faith-based parenting tools.  Learn how to find or start an American Heritage Girls Troop in your community at americanheritagegirls.org.  

My 17 year old daughter Kaira just spoke at the national speech tournament in Minneapolis, where her speech was 10th in the nation. I thought she absolutely nailed the idea of family as a team, and the main tool she's seen our family use to truly create this as a reality in our multi-generational family. If you've ever wondered what our kids truly think about this stuff - if it actually lands with them and impacts them - I think this shows just how much they're picking up. Plus, it's a succinct and amazingly delivered argument for our number 1 tool that we recommend to all family teams. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 0:33 The US Has Become Number 1 (Uh Oh) 2:11 The 3 Words That Broke Western Family 3:21 How To Fix The Family 5:40 Practical Wins 7:45 Practical Tips To Start This Today Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: FREE COURSE: 5 Days To Transform Your Family Into A Team: https://familyteams.com/transform --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

We strengthen the church when we Biblically care for one another

We strengthen the church when we Biblically care for one another

We strengthen the church when we Biblically care for one another

Should we as Christian parents really aim to be kicking our kids out of our home as soon as they turn 18? This is an EXTREMELY cultural - not Biblical - idea, yet I meet SO many Christians who believe the lie. Instead of taking the 3 obvious milestones the Bible talks about when it comes to maturing children and our roles as mothers and fathers, we just swallow the cultural lie, hook, line, and sinker, and then wonder what went wrong. In this episode, we break down the actual lie, where it came from, and then give you the TRUTH of scripture to wield against a culture that wants to destroy families...in this case, especially by taking kids out of the home as quickly as possible and leaving no space for a multigenerational family to form. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 0:49 Does This Actually Shift at 18? 19:39 Myron Golden on 18 23:30 The 3 Biblical Milestones 30:20 Milestone 1 39:30 Milestone 2 48:10 Milestone 3 53:08 Where To Find The Answer -- FREE COURSE: 5 Days To Transform Your Family Into A Team: https://familyteams.com/transform -- Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

Falling behind on taxes can feel overwhelming. Maybe you missed one year, then another. Maybe a job change, a divorce, an illness, a death in the family, or a season of financial hardship made it hard to keep up. Or perhaps you started gig work, received a 1099 for the first time, and were surprised to discover that you owed more than expected. Whatever the reason, failing to file your taxes for several years is serious—but it is not the end of the road. The IRS would rather see you come back into compliance than continue avoiding the issue. The most important step is to begin. Kevin Cross has helped many people walk through this very situation, and his counsel is simple: don't panic, don't ignore it, and don't assume it's too late to get help. Start With the Current Year If you have not filed taxes in several years, your first instinct may be to go back to the earliest missed return and start there. But Kevin often recommends a different first step: filing the most recent tax year. The goal is to show the IRS that you are trying to come back into compliance. Filing the current year helps convey that this was not willful neglect but a season when something went wrong, and that you are now taking responsibility. The further behind you are, the harder it can feel to catch up. But beginning with the most recent return can give you a clear starting point and stop the pattern from continuing. Why People Fall Behind There are many reasons someone may stop filing taxes. Some are self-employed or gig workers who receive a 1099 and discover they owe thousands of dollars because taxes were not withheld throughout the year. Others fall behind after a divorce, death, disability, job loss, or another major life disruption. Since the COVID years, many people have also struggled to keep up with their tax responsibilities. Once one year is missed, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and avoid the next one, too. But avoidance only makes the problem heavier. The path forward begins with gathering information and getting the right help. Not Filing Is Different From Not Paying It is important to understand the difference between not filing and not paying. If you owe taxes, the April deadline matters. You can file an extension to extend the time to file your return, but that extension does not extend the time to pay any tax you owe. However, if you are due a refund, there is generally no penalty for filing late. But there is a time limit. If you wait too long—typically more than three years—you may lose the ability to claim that refund. Some people may not be required to file at all. For example, if Social Security is your only source of income, you generally do not need to file a federal tax return. But the challenge is that many people do not know whether they owe or not until their information is reviewed. Other income can change the picture, such as interest, dividends, retirement distributions, self-employment income, or the sale of a home. Even a home sale that qualifies for the primary residence capital gains exclusion may still need to be reported properly so the IRS understands why no tax is owed. Gather Your Wage and Income Transcripts One practical step is to request a wage and income transcript from the IRS. This transcript shows what the IRS has on file for you, including W-2s, 1099s, mortgage interest forms, retirement distributions, and other tax-related documents. You can request this through the IRS website. Searching for “IRS wage and income transcript” should take you to the right place. This can be especially helpful if you do not have all your old tax documents. It gives you a starting point for reconstructing the missing years. Work With a Qualified Tax Professional While you can download your transcripts yourself, you may not know what to do with them once you have them. IRS transcripts do not look like regular tax forms, and catching up after multiple missed years can involve more than simply filling out returns. That is why Kevin recommends working with a tax professional who understands tax representation and IRS procedures. A qualified CPA, enrolled agent, or tax professional can help determine which years need to be filed and how to communicate with the IRS. According to Kevin, the IRS typically focuses on the past six years when bringing a taxpayer back into compliance. That does not mean every situation is identical, but it does mean you should not simply assume you need to start with a very old return from decades ago. A knowledgeable professional can help you determine the proper path. The IRS Will Work With You Many people avoid filing because they are afraid of what they might owe. But the IRS has options for taxpayers who cannot pay everything at once. Depending on your situation, those options may include a payment plan or, in some cases, an offer in compromise. The key is to take the first step rather than remain silent. Ignoring the problem will not make it disappear. But taking action can begin to restore order, clarity, and peace of mind. A Faithful Step Forward Taxes may not be pleasant, but handling them honestly is part of faithful stewardship. Romans 13:7 says, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed.” If you have fallen behind, do not let shame keep you stuck. Begin with the next faithful step. Gather your documents. Request your transcripts. File the current year. Then find a qualified tax professional who can help you walk through the rest. And if you would like to find a trusted financial professional who shares your values, visit FindaCKA.com to connect with a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA®) near you. On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions: I have about $18,000 in credit card debt. I may have the opportunity to work in Alaska's fishing industry for three months and earn enough to pay it off quickly. Should I contact Christian Credit Counselors before I go, or wait to see how much progress I can make during those three months? I have a Thrift Savings Plan and plan to retire within the next five years. I was told I could roll over part of my TSP into something that would protect the principal, keep it from going down, and still leave my TSP open for contributions. Is that wise, and is it really guaranteed not to lose value? I'm 59 and have contributed to my company's traditional 401(k) for years, with a 50% employer match. I'm near the end of my career and likely at my highest income level. Should I keep contributing to the traditional 401(k), or would a Roth option make more sense? I've been studying the Bible for just over a year and recently began tithing. I want to honor the Lord faithfully, but I'm not sure where the tithe should go. Biblically, who should receive it? Resources Mentioned: Faithful Steward: FaithFi's Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner) Christian Credit Counselors Our Ultimate Treasure: A 21-Day Journey to Faithful Stewardship by Rob West Wisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and Anxiety Rich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich Fool Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA) FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every workday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God's resources. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

99% of the Evangelical Christian world gets this wrong, and it's absolutely destroying our families. We've fallen into the trap of thinking of the family in secular terms, instead of looking at the Bible and asking what God's vision was for the family, since HE created it. In this episode I break down 3 of the main critiques against the modern family, and go into the 3 promises of building your family like a TEAM instead of a group of individuals. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 99% Get This Wrong 0:50 The 3 Critiques of the Modern Family 3:49 What Are We Aiming At? 5:29 How Did God Design Family? 12:03 Threefold Promise of the Family Resources Mentioned: FREE "5 Days To Transform Your Family Into A Team" Mini Course: https://familyteams.com/transform --- Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

The family compound... This is such a hot button topic, and often a very emotional topic. So, we decided to look at 2 competing visions (Willie Robertson vs. Dave Ramsey) and break them down with a nuanced conversation. Jeremy and Jeff have experienced this first-hand, so they're talking about this from lived experience and hard-earned wisdom. Should you actually try to build a family compound? Why or why not? What questions should you answer first? How do you know if it'll be a good idea? Listen to this and see how close the tear-jerking dream is to reality for your family. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Why Family Compounds Are Amazing 4:01 Why Family Compounds Are Terrible 11:47 It Doesn't Just Happen 14:56 The Grandmother Dream ---

It's Episode 485 and we're micro dosing mania because we finally don't feel like a bruise. This week in celebration of our birthday's Em covers a ouija board haunting case from Spain - the story of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro aka The Vallecas Case. Then we're looking to the stars for Christine's coverage of Serial Killer Astrology. And will you all be the graphing calculators to our hearts? …and that's why we drink!Link to the r/astrologymemes post: https://www.reddit.com/r/astrologymemes/comments/1s4ax3m/the_actual_statistics_on_the_zodiac_signs_of/Want to listen ad-free? Join our new Certified Yapper tier for $10/month on Patreon! Ad-free episodes starting at E469 at: http://patreon.com/ATWWDPodcast !Catch our bonus Yappy Hour intermissions on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3L28lDw or subscribe on Patreon!___________________Join millions banking fee-free with Chime: https://chime.com/drink Go to https://zenni.com/podcast and use code PODCAST15 for 15% off your first order.Let Rocket Money help you find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitor your spending, and lower your bills to grow your savings at https://RocketMoney.com/DRINK .Get $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping at https://nutrafol.com with promo code DRINK.Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter—try it for free at https://ziprecruiter.com/drink .To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/ATWWD . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Siblings who don't get along is one of the major reasons why families don't have more kids. It drives everyone nuts, disrupts the family, makes you feel overwhelmed, and eventually leads adults who SHOULD be best friends to be essentially strangers. That's why one of the main components of building a family team is creating strong sibling bonds between each one of your kids. Today's guests have 5 children and have been very intentional about creating systems and rhythms in their family that grow the relationship between each sibling. Learn their 3 techniques for building strong sibling bonds that lead to a more peaceful home and lifelong closeness between your kids. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 1:06 Getting Sibling Relationships Right 5:23 Create A Space To Call Out Sibling Wins 8:59 Share Experiences 11:00 Shared Space Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: FREE Sibling Conflict Resolution Script: https://familyteams.com/sibling Join The Family Team Accelerator: http://familyteams.com/accelerator --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

Allie sits down with Dr. Carlos Campo, president and CEO of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., to discuss the reliability of Scripture, the growing crisis in Bible literacy, and whether America was founded as a Christian nation. Dr. Campo lays out the museum's powerful artifacts, like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the groundbreaking Megiddo Mosaic — one of the earliest archaeological declarations of “the God Jesus Christ” — while he gives an exclusive tour of the museum's most incredible historical discoveries. They also dive into the America Reads the Bible event featuring President Trump and what it means for America's 250th anniversary. Share the Arrows 2026 is on October 10 in Dallas, Texas! Tickets are on sale now at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sharethearrows.com⁠⁠⁠ Share the Arrows is sponsored by: A'del Natural Cosmetics: AdelNaturalCosmetics.com Range Leather: RangeLeather.com/ALLIE We Heart Nutrition: WeHeartNutrition.com Buy Allie's book "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.toxicempathy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – Timecodes 0:00 Introduction 1:41 The Museum of the Bible 11:06 Proving the Validity of the Bible 21:53 Is America a Christian Nation? 29:28 What do Modern Christians Believe? 38:55 What Exhibits Should You Start With? – Today's Sponsors: Good Ranchers | If you go to ⁠⁠⁠GoodRanchers.com⁠⁠⁠ and subscribe to any of their boxes of 100% American meat, you'll save up to $500 a year! Plus, if you use code ALLIE, you'll get an additional $25 off your first order. NetSuite — Gain visibility and control of your financials, planning, budgeting, and inventory so you can manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve margins. Go to ⁠ NetSuite.com/ALLIE⁠⁠ to get the CFO's guide to AI and Machine Learning. Legacy Box | Visit Legacybox.com/ALLIE to take advantage of Legacybox's Spring Cleaning sale and preserve your family's story. EveryLife | Visit EveryLife.com and use promo code ALLIE10 to get 10% off your first order today! Episodes You May Like: Ep 1311 | Did John Piper Just Call for Open Borders? X Controversy Explained https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1311-did-john-piper-just-call-for-open-borders-x/id1359249098?i=1000752697343 Ep 1301 | 'The Jews Killed Jesus': Blood Libel or Biblical Truth? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1301-the-jews-killed-jesus-blood-libel-or-biblical-truth/id1359249098?i=1000748966634 Ep 696 | Kids Are Not Public School Missionaries | Guest: Dr. Voddie Baucham https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-696-kids-are-not-public-school-missionaries-guest/id1359249098?i=1000583724154 --- ► Buy Allie's book, "You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love": https://alliebethstuckey.com/book ► Subscribe to the podcast: iTunes: https://apple.co/2UVssnP Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2FwkXxj ► Connect with Allie on Social Media: https://twitter.com/conservmillen https://www.instagram.com/alliebstuckey/ https://facebook.com/allieBlazeTV/ ► Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey