Podcasts about Dwell

If you're a follower of Jesus, you know you're supposed to share your faith.We're supposed to tell others about Jesus. But it's often a topic that gives any Christian anxiety. What if I don't know how to articulate what I believe? What if someone asks me a difficult question I don't know how to answer? What if I'm a terrible Christian, fail in my defense, get laughed at, and the name of Christ is disrespected because I don't know what I'm talking about? Take a deep breath… Lisa Fields is the CEO and founder of Jude 3 Project, a leading apologetics organization dedicated to equipping the Black community with the tools to know what they believe and why they believe it. As a renowned Christian apologist, speaker, author, and film producer, she has been a driving force in shapi ng conversations on faith, theology, and culture.She is the author of two books When Faith Disappoints and When Heroes Fall. She has also contributed to two additional books, Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues and Urban Apologetics: Cults and Cultural Ideologies. I wanted to talk to Lisa about her unique way of doing apologetics, what it's like being a black women in a field of study that primarily consists of white men, deconstruction and reconstruction, and how to navigate leadership scandal as both organizations and individuals. Topics Covered: Lisa’s story Healthy and unhealthy ways to approach apologetics Deconstruction and reconstruction Healthy accountability for pastors and churches What to do when a leader falls The challenge of being a black woman in a white male-dominated space (apologetics) Resources Mentioned: Show Sponsor: Dwell Bible Show Sponsor: Planning Center When Faith Disappoints by Lisa Fields When Heroes Fall by Lisa Fields Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer Bullies And Saints by John Dickson People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck Show Sponsor #1: Dwell Bible This episode is brought to you by the Dwell Bible app. Did you have big plans to listen to the Bible in a Year in 2026, but life seemed to get in the way? Maybe it's been a few years since you worked through a Bible listening plan, and now you're feeling the itch to dive back in. Or perhaps this is your first time hearing about a Bible listening plan. Wherever you find yourself today, Dwell has something special just for you! Beginning October 1, you can dive into the New Testament in just three months! It's the perfect way to get back on track or start fresh, by listening to the Bible! It's never been more easy to fit a Bible plan into your active lifestyle. You can choose from multiple NT in 90 Day plans like: The Genre Plan – which groups books by their theme, taking you through the Gospels, Epistles, and Prophecy in a way that highlights their connections and differences The Historical Plan – which takes you through the New Testament as it was likely written, offering a unique historical perspective The Straight Thru Plan – which takes you through the traditional order, from the life of Jesus through the growth of the early church And remember, with Dwell, you're not just listening—you're experiencing the Bible. You can choose from a variety of amazing voices, set the perfect background music, and even adjust the speed to match your pace. To subscribe to a new plan now, head over to dwellbible.com/beyondsunday for 50% off today and so you're ready to start on October 1st! Show Sponsor #2: Planning Center This episode is brought to you by Planning Center, helping you sync all your ministry details across your whole church. Planning Center has become so essential to how I manage a team, that it's almost impossible to consider local church ministry without it anymore. Today, I want to leave you with a PCO pro-tip. Does this sound like a familiar situation? It's the end of the week. You're about to leave the office when you suddenly think: Did all of our volunteers confirm for Sunday? You scroll through the schedule and sure enough—there's a gap. Instead of allowing yourself to spiral into a panic, try this: In Services, Planning Center has gap alerts. Turn them on, and you'll get a heads-up days before service if positions are still unfilled or unconfirmed. No more end of the week scrambling. Speaking of less scrambling, did you know you can access everything you need for rehearsals right from the Service media player on your phone? Lyrics, chord charts, arrangement notes—it's all right there, so you're not hunting for files in the middle of hitting those power chords. To see what else you can do to make your Sundays easier, go to planningcenter.com/blog. The post #402: Apologetics, Disappointing Faith, And When Heroes Fall with Lisa Fields appeared first on Beyond Sunday Worship.

Taste can't be manufactured, so brands are hiring the people who have it. Writer and gr8 collab founder Emma Apple Chozick returns to talk with Phillip about her creative process (sans content calendar), building ShopMy's Signals Substack on proprietary data, and what the long-gone BEST Products showrooms can teach us about designing retail spaces worth remembering.A Category of OneKey takeaways:Brands can't manufacture taste; they've learned to partner with people whose judgment audiences already trust.Real editorial starts with an insight, question, or tension. Consumers today can sniff out a product pitch from a mile away — if a brand's editorial isn't valuable as standalone content, it's not worth sharing. BEST Products' SITE showrooms prove the best retail trades measurability for memory.Emma Apple Chozick: “Taste is obviously completely subjective. But when a brand resonates with a particular person's taste, that's not replicable. A brand can't create that on their own. They can try, but it's never gonna feel authentic.”Emma Apple Chozick: “I don't know if the goal is actually ‘to grow.' I think the goal is to work on really compelling projects that are aligned with what I'm interested in and can reach new people. But the goal isn't always reach.”Phillip: “I don't know that any of those [hot new channels] actually reflect culture. I think we bend culture to those things because that's where we put capital, and an industry likes to talk about them because they're new. But the people actually define what the culture is around the brand.”In-Show Mentions:Watch Emma's BEST Products videoFind Emma Apple Chozick on LinkedIn and InstagramLearn more about gr8 collabExplore the archive of SITE New YorkRead Signals: A Publication by ShopMyWatch Surroundings on YouTubeRead Emma's Dwell essay, “The Midcentury House That Raised Me”Listen to Emma's first Future Commerce episode, Creating Credible Content and Community-Building CollabsAssociated Links:Read: Member Brief: Return on Experience and the New KPIs of Store DesignRead: Insiders #188: Architecting Desire: How Retail-Hospitality Hybrids are Changing ConsumptionRead: Substack and Retail's New Media EraRead The Senses: “That's a Great Collab”Listen: Where Culture Happens, Commerce FollowsVISIONS Summit at MoMA, New York City: Join us on November 3, 2026Watch: Future Commerce on YouTubeCheck out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and printSubscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

OUR BODY GOD’S TEMPLE Share real hope with your family, friends, and community! - Hope 103.2 (hope1032.com.au) What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ 2 CORINTHIANS 6:16 (NIV) Send the Real Hope team a messageListen to more from our Hope Podcasts collection at hopepodcasts.com.au. And send the team a message via Hope 103.2’s app, Facebook or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if getting dressed could actually help you show up with more courage?In this episode of Showing Up Scared, Jess talks with House of Color CEO Ally Van Iten about her journey into color and style, eventually becoming CEO.  Jess also shares how having her colors done three years ago became far more significant than a wardrobe decision. During a season of deep grief and family crisis, exploring color and personal style helped her feel equipped to show up as herself again.Together, Jess and Ally talk about why enjoying beauty isn't frivolous, how creativity reflects the heart of a creative God, and why “not worrying about what we wear” doesn't mean we have to stop caring about beauty and style.If you've ever felt afraid to be seen, this conversation is an invitation to step into the fullness of who God made you to be.Pre-order a copy of You Can't Be Brave Until You're Scared and fill out this form to enter into the drawing to get your colors done!Head to dwellbible.com/jess⁠ to get Dwell and find the New Testament in 90 Days plan.

Get updates: https://www.markkprater.comMark Prater serves as Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches, a community of congregations built on strong commitments, faithful theological convictions, and generous support. Mark uses this channel to encourage and equip the leaders he serves in local churches around the world.Find us at https://www.markkprater.com

Life has a way of pulling our attention in a hundred different directions—especially when fear, opposition, and uncertainty enter the picture. In Psalm 27, David doesn't ask God to remove his enemies or change his circumstances; instead, his deepest request is to dwell in the presence of the Lord. In this week's message, Pastor Jon shows us that when life distracts us, God invites us to fix our attention on him through prayer, worship, and his Word. Rather than waiting for difficult moments to drive us back to God, we can learn to seek his presence and gaze upon his beauty all the days of our lives.

Countdown To The Feast Of Sukkot  Part 2: What Does It Mean To Dwell In A Tabernacle?  -  English and Spanish.  We are commanded to dwell in a tabernacle, in a sukkah, for 7 days. What does it mean to dwell? Join us as we study who we, as follwers of Yeshua, really are, and Who Yeshua is!  Recorded during the morning services on the first day of Sukkot, September 26, 2026. This year we will celebrate the Feast of Sukkot from September 26 through October 3.

Kisses of Torah - Spirit to Spirit, Chabad to Supernal Chabad, Bringing Divinity to Dwell & Elevating Everything - Learning Weekly Tanya Perek 49 at Shirat David Efrat... ty Bnei-Aliyah.com Tanya Summary & Kavanas Nanuim Lulav & Esrog etc... Cover

Ben Oats | 5:30pm service--27 September 2026

God's people have worshiped Him from the very beginning. Able offered sacrifices to the LORD. Noah and Abraham built altars to worship the true God. Moses constructed the tabernacle for worship, and Solomon built the LORD a temple. God people gathered around humble altars, and glorious temples to worship. For what reason?  This hymn, and the Psalm that it is based on (Psalm 100) answers that questions.  The Psalmist describes God's people: "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name." Psalm 100:4 The Psalmist also describes why God's people do this: "For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations." Psalm 100:5 Remember why you come to church: The LORD is good. Remember what that means: Jesus paid the debt of your sin through His life and death. That changes us. He has given us a new life, freedom from ourselves and freedom to serve Him.  O enter then His gates with praise, Approach with joy His courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless His name always, For it is seemly so to do. (TLH 14:3) The LORD bless your worship of Him this weekend, and give you joyful hearts for all that He has done for YOU!  

Set your goals and dreams high. Keep going when things get tough. Dwell in possibility.

Maya Angelou once said, “”History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” The discipline of reading and studying history is not to make us feel good. It's to instruct us so we don't repeat the same mistakes. One of the greatest living historians of American Christianity is Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Her book Jesus And John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation explores how American evangelicalism embraced militant masculinity and Christian nationalism. It was released in 2020 and was a worldwide bestseller. It's not an easy book to ready, but helps to make sense of so much what we're seeing in America today. Her new book Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made is another tour de force. It's a sweeping history about Christian women, but it's not only for women to read. We break it down in this interview and talk about 19th century holiness evangelicalism, the widespread influence of Hannah Whitall Smith and her book “A Christian's Secret to a Happy Life”, the marketing machine of American religion, influential women artists in Christian music, why it's impossible to be apolitical, and why we need to pay attention to stories of spiritual abuse. Historians are not our enemies, even if they tell us what we don't want to hear. Be prepared to be surprised, infuriated, challenged, and motivated to work towards a healthier church. Topics Covered: The surprising success of Jesus And John Wayne What the critics of J&JW are saying Why critiquing evangelical culture is so challenging Why Kristin was talking about Doug Wilson before he was national news The origins of Live Laugh Love Hannah Whitall Smith and her influence on Christian women’s culture 19th century holiness evangelicalism and it’s influence today The marketing machine of American religion Why it’s impossible to be apolitical Why what is marketed as biblical is not always biblical The fascinating and tragic story of Elizabeth Elliot Resources Mentioned: Show Sponsor: Dwell Bible App Show Sponsor: Planning Center Live Laugh Love by Kristin Kobes Du Mez Jesus And John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner Show Sponsor #1: Dwell Bible This episode is brought to you by the Dwell Bible app. Did you have big plans to listen to the Bible in a Year in 2026, but life seemed to get in the way? Maybe it's been a few years since you worked through a Bible listening plan, and now you're feeling the itch to dive back in. Or perhaps this is your first time hearing about a Bible listening plan. Wherever you find yourself today, Dwell has something special just for you! Beginning October 1, you can dive into the New Testament in just three months! It's the perfect way to get back on track or start fresh, by listening to the Bible! It’s never been more easy to fit a Bible plan into your active lifestyle. You can choose from multiple NT in 90 Day plans like: The Genre Plan – which groups books by their theme, taking you through the Gospels, Epistles, and Prophecy in a way that highlights their connections and differences The Historical Plan – which takes you through the New Testament as it was likely written, offering a unique historical perspective The Straight Thru Plan – which takes you through the traditional order, from the life of Jesus through the growth of the early church And remember, with Dwell, you're not just listening—you're experiencing the Bible. You can choose from a variety of amazing voices, set the perfect background music, and even adjust the speed to match your pace. To subscribe to a new plan now, head over to dwellbible.com/beyondsunday for 50% off today and so you're ready to start on October 1st! Show Sponsor #2: Planning Center This episode is brought to you by Planning Center, helping you sync all your ministry details across your whole church. Planning Center has become so essential to how I manage a team, that it's almost impossible to consider local church ministry without it anymore. Today, I want to leave you with a PCO pro-tip. Does this sound like a familiar situation? It's the end of the week. You're about to leave the office when you suddenly think: Did all of our volunteers confirm for Sunday? You scroll through the schedule and sure enough—there's a gap. Instead of allowing yourself to spiral into a panic, try this: In Services, Planning Center has gap alerts. Turn them on, and you'll get a heads-up days before service if positions are still unfilled or unconfirmed. No more end of the week scrambling. Speaking of less scrambling, did you know you can access everything you need for rehearsals right from the Service media player on your phone? Lyrics, chord charts, arrangement notes—it's all right there, so you're not hunting for files in the middle of hitting those power chords. To see what else you can do to make your Sundays easier, go to planningcenter.com/blog. The post #401: How Studying History Can Help The Church Tell The Truth, Face Reality, & Confront Harmful Systems with Kristin Kobes Du Mez appeared first on Beyond Sunday Worship.

Episode 2 of Thessalonians: Holy & Hopeful Watch this message along with helpful notes and resources here Learn how to dwell well in these remarkable letters by paying attention to the world behind the text, the world of the text, and the world in front of the text. We'll follow Paul through Acts from Philippi to Thessalonica and Corinth, see how Scripture helps us understand Scripture, and trace the biblical story behind Paul's teaching through Genesis, Isaiah, Joel, Habakkuk, Psalms 27 and 46, and the words of Jesus. Along the way, we'll consider what it means to read Thessalonians as letters written to real people living faithfully while they waited for Christ. Their questions about suffering, grief, holiness, hope, and the return of Jesus weren't abstract theology. Paul was teaching them how to live. This episode accompanies Lesson One of the 50-day Thessalonians: Holy & Hopeful Bible study from Dwelling Richly Ministries. Get the complete study book here: DwellingRichly.org Let Scripture be your guide and the Holy Spirit your teacher. Welcome to Dwelling Richly, a Bible-based, faith-strengthening, community-building ministry devoted to helping believers know and love God's Word, grow in their faith, and help others do the same. At Dwelling Richly, we don't just “do” Bible study. We dwell. We learn to read Scripture carefully, think biblically, ask good questions, make connections across God's Word, and grow increasingly confident opening the Bible for ourselves. Whether you're studying with a Dwelling Richly Grace Group, alongside a friend, or on your own, I'm glad you're here. → STUDY WITH DWELLING RICHLY http://dwellingrichly.org/ → JOIN THE DWELLING RICHLY COMMUNITY https://dwelling-richly.churchcenter.com/ → LISTEN TO THE DWELLING RICHLY PODCAST https://www.jennifergrichmond.com/podcast/ Dwelling Richly exists to disciple believers to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in them, and to help others do the same. Subscribe and join us as we dwell in the Word together. #DwellingRichly #BibleStudy #ChristianBibleStudy || SOCIAL MEDIA || Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dwellingrichlypodcast || PODCAST || Any platform - "The Dwelling Richly Podcast" https://dwellingrichly.podbean.com/ Teaching Session with every lesson - When/Where to Watch/Listen - Main Message Page click here Dwelling Richly on YouTube: click here Dwelling Richly on any Podcast: click here Released every-other Tuesday, 6am (PST). 2026 release dates:

What does real spiritual transformation actually look like — a powerful moment at a retreat or altar call, or something much slower, deeper, and more relational? In this episode, host Dan Johnson sits down with first-time author Jonathan R. Bailey to talk about his new book, Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation (IVP, 2026). Drawing on years of mentorship from Richard Foster and the legacy of Dallas Willard, Jonathan unpacks the ancient threefold path of Christian spiritual formation — purgation, illumination, and union — and makes the case that transformation can't be rushed. Dan and Jonathan dig into the difference between transactional and transformational faith, why purgation is pruning rather than punishment, how to build a flexible “rule of life,” and what it means to trade trying for training. Jonathan also shares a personal story of a fleeting taste of union he experienced in a Toys “R” Us parking lot, and offers three simple practices — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — for anyone who wants to begin the journey toward becoming more like Christ.ABOUT OUR GUESTJonathan R. Bailey is the cofounder of Dwell, an audio Bible app helping people rediscover the ancient practice of listening to Scripture. He writes Three Weekly Lights, a newsletter on spiritual transformation, and serves on the ministry team at Renovaré. He lives in Frisco, Texas, with his wife, Kori, and their three children. Dwelling in Christ is his first book, with a foreword by Richard J. Foster.WHAT YOU WILL LEARNThe real difference between a transactional and a transformational approach to faith — and why relationship, not quick fixes, is what actually drives change.How to tell God's pruning apart from self-imposed shame or punishment during hard seasons.Why mountaintop spiritual experiences are meant to refresh the journey, not replace the ordinary, sustained faithfulness that follows.How to build a “rule of life” that's flexible rather than rigid — and why an overly aspirational one can do more harm than good.The practical difference between “trying” to produce spiritual fruit and “training” toward it.What union with God actually looks like in daily life: becoming other-centered instead of self-centered.Three simple, relational practices from the Sermon on the Mount — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — and how each corresponds to a different relationship: with God, with self, and with others.BOOKS AND LINKS▶ Get the book: https://www.ivpress.com/dwelling-in-christ▶ More about Jonathan: https://www.ivpress.com/jonathan-bailey Send us Fan MailCONNECT WITH USSubscribe to The UpWords Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and visit slbf.org/studio to learn more about our work at the intersection of faith, the academy, and the marketplace.This episode was created by the SLBF STUDIO at Upper House.Produced by Daniel Johnson and Dave ConourEdited by Dave Conour

We are often quick to forget what God has done for us, and Psalm 103 calls us to remember. In this week's message from Psalm 103, we're reminded of the countless reasons God is worthy of our praise: He forgives our sins, heals our brokenness, redeems our lives, surrounds us with love and compassion, and gives us strength. When we understand who God is and who we are in Christ, we no longer have to strive for approval or live in fear; we can rest in the love, grace, and security He has freely given us. Because of all He has done, our only reasonable response is to praise the Lord with everything within us.

John 2:13-25 "Zealous to Dwell with Us" - 9/20/26 (Mackenzie Matthews) by TwoRiversChurch FoCo

1. Holy Longing 2. Finding Rest 3. Continued Praise This sermon explores the transformative work of grace that creates a holy longing for God's presence in congregational worship, as depicted in Psalm 84. It contrasts the natural human tendency to hide from God with the renewed desire to dwell in His house, emphasizing that this passion is rooted in the special way God reveals Himself through the means of grace. The exposition highlights the imagery of the sparrow and swallow to illustrate how believers, despite their worthlessness and restlessness, find true rest and worth in God's grace through the sacrifice and intercession of Christ. The message concludes by asserting that this worship experience fuels continual praise and sustains the Christian life, pointing ultimately to the eternal worship of God in heaven.

Send us Fan MailEvening Prayer (Great King; Sins Removed;Churches Without Pastors; Liver / Bile duct cancers; Widows / Widowers; Dwell In Shelter of Most High God)#prayer #Jesus #Christian Thank you for listening, our heart's prayer is for you and I to walk daily with Jesus, our joy and peaceaimingforjesus.comYouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@aimingforjesus5346Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aiming_for_jesus/Threads https://www.threads.com/@aiming_for_jesusX https://x.com/AimingForJesusTik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@aiming.for.jesus

Worship can sometimes feel like simply singing songs on a Sunday morning. But Scripture gives us a much bigger picture: worship is our response to the God who has done what we could never do for ourselves. In this week's message from Psalms 98 and 100, we see how God's salvation is rooted in his love and faithfulness. Because he has rescued us through his mighty hand, our response is to worship him with joy, thanksgiving, and our whole lives. And when we remember who God is and what he has done, we can let go of trying to live by our own strength and trust the God who fights for us.

Three weeks ago we walked the courtyard. An altar for what you were carrying. A basin for what you were hiding. And here's what almost nobody notices: both of those things are outside. In the yard. In the open air. They were never the destination — they were the entryway. Today we go in to a room with no windows. Whatever you see in there, you see by a light you didn't light. There's a table set for twelve, because nobody eats alone in the house of God. And there's an altar of incense burning right up against the curtain — which means the nearest thing to the face of God in the whole house is prayer. In Part One of this message Ps. Morgan told you Jesus came through the door. In this message you'll find out He never left.

Kelli Hoffman, co-executive director of the Noblesville nonprofit Healthy & Dwell, joins Larry Lannan to discuss what adults with serious mental illness face when they leave treatment and have nowhere stable to live. Healthy & Dwell operates a supportive housing home in Noblesville where residents pay 30% of their income toward rent and utilities and receive life-skills coaching and help navigating benefits — a model Hoffman says has kept residents employed, connected and out of acute care for three years. The organization is privately funded and is now building duplexes to expand. Larry opens with commentary on why housing insecurity and mental illness are easy to overlook in a prosperous county, and why a discharge plan is not the same thing as a safe place to sleep. Also in this episode: the first successful late-stage trial of a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine from Merck and Moderna, and a South Carolina man with more than 2,000 pairs of socks chasing a Guinness World Record. Learn more: healthyanddwell.org More local news: larryinfishers.com Sponsored by Citizens State Bank — mycsbin.com/larry. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

New Fall Study is here! Groups are forming now and officially starting after Labor Day. Sign-Up Today to get your study book (spiral bound or digital copy) and join a group, grab a friend, or study on your own. Here's an earlybird release of the first episode in the series, "Thessalonians: Holy & Hopeful" - Details/Register Here What does it look like to live holy and hopeful while we wait for Jesus? Join Jennifer Richmond and the Dwelling Richly community for a journey through 1 & 2 Thessalonians, two letters filled with encouragement for believers learning to stand firm, grow in holiness, love one another well, endure hardship, and live with confident hope in the return of Christ. These teaching messages accompany the 50-day Thessalonians: Holy & Hopeful Dwelling Richly Bible study. Each episode builds on the Scripture you've been studying, helping you understand the biblical and historical context, make connections across God's Word, work through challenging passages, and grow increasingly confident studying Scripture for yourself. Dwelling Richly studies are designed to be Bible-based, faith-strengthening, and community-building. We take Scripture seriously, ask good questions, learn to think biblically, and leave room to wonder, wrestle, notice, and grow. Whether you're participating with a Grace Group, studying alongside a friend, or joining us on your own, you're welcome here. Our goal isn't simply to finish another Bible study or collect more information. We want to know God better, love His Word more, live faithfully in light of what is true, and become better equipped to help someone else do the same. Don't just do Bible study. Dwell. → STUDY WITH DWELLING RICHLY http://dwellingrichly.org/ → JOIN THE DWELLING RICHLY COMMUNITY https://dwelling-richly.churchcenter.com/

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Caleb Morell and Mark Dever sit down with Australian author Tony Payne (co-author of The Trellis and the Vine) to discuss his new book, Let the Word Dwell Richly. Payne makes the case that alongside the public preaching of the Word, the New Testament everywhere assumes a "one another word" — believers speaking Scripture and its implications to one another for mutual spiritual benefit.

This week on Hope Prose, Tara has the joy of speaking with an author she recently discovered who resonates deeply with her own reading and writing passions. Originally from  Tasmania, Australia, Mikki Brammer now calls New York City Home. Her debut novel, The Collected Regrets of Clover, was a USA Today bestseller and has been published in over 27 languages. Her second novel, released this past May, Good Joy, Bad Joy, was picked for both  Barnes and Noble and Reader's Digest's Book Clubs. In addition to writing uplifting and life-affirming novels, Mikki also writes about art, design, and architecture for publications such as Dwell and Architectural Digest. Listen in as they talk about balancing losses with joys in both life and novels, how we can learn from those around us to write authentic, true characters, and how recognizing our fears can inspire us to do things we never thought we might. The Hope Prose Podcast's InstagramAlex's Instagram Tara's Instagram

John's vision of the New Jerusalem contains something astonishing: there is no temple, because God's presence fills the whole city. In this sermon from Revelation 21:2–3 and 22–23, Jason explores how the church becomes a living, imperfect symbol of that promised future—a community marked by welcome, generosity, reconciliation, and care for the vulnerable.

How do you respond when someone hurts you?Our natural reaction to conflict is often to run away, fight back, hold a grudge, or become bitter. But when Stephen faced rejection, hatred, and ultimately death, his response looked remarkably different. He looked like Jesus.In this final message from Acts 7, Pastor Matt Shackelford concludes the Dwell series by examining Stephen's response when the pressure was at its highest. Rather than retaliating against his enemies, Stephen spoke truth, remained at peace, loved those who hated him, and even prayed for their forgiveness.Through Stephen's example, we see what can happen when a life is filled with the Holy Spirit and focused on Christ.You'll discover how to confront sin without becoming hateful, why the gospel is the only solution for a hardened heart, how preparation produces peace when pressure comes, and how forgiven people can forgive even those who have deeply hurt them.When the pressure is on, the question isn't simply what will you do—it's will you act like Jesus?Scripture: Acts 7:51–60 Series: DwellIf this message encouraged you, subscribe for more verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Central Church.

Heaven is Your Forever Home and Jesus Will Return to Take You There | Stephen Andersen

Revelation 21:3-4 "God will Dwell with His People"

Alex Calleja's Goodtimes sa Australia returns with Comedy Crew's Israel Beunaobra and Dawit Tabonares, who promise to bring non-stop laughter and Pinoy humour. - Sa pagbabalik ni Alex Calleja sa Australia, kasama niya ang ilang miyembro ng Comedy Crew, sina Israel Beunaobra at Dawit Tabonares, na magtatanghal at magdadala ng Pinoy humour.

Psalm 4 is an evening prayer of trust in God. David is under attack, but the threat in this psalm appears to be the threat of slander, lies, and reproach rather than physical violence. In that distress, David turns to the Lord and remembers that the only judge of his worth and character who finally matters is God.Pastor Ben Smith explains Psalm 4 through three movements: turn to the Lord, declare truth, and trust in God. David's confidence does not rest in his own righteousness, reputation, achievements, or the approval of men. His hope rests in the grace of God and in the truth that the Lord hears when His people call.This sermon calls believers to find their value in the Lord alone, fear the Lord, trust His deliverance, and rest in the peace that comes from God's protection. The enemies may remain, but God's people do not face them alone.To learn more, visit BenSmithSr.org.

Brothers Dwell in Unity (Psalm 133) Daniel Nealon August 23, 2026 by Deer Creek Church

What if the restlessness we feel deep in our souls is not a problem to be solved but a signpost pointing us toward something greater? We spend our final Sunday exploring Psalm 23 by focusing on its final verse and considering one of the most universal human experiences: homesickness. Drawing on everything from 20th-century psychiatry to German philosophy to C.S. Lewis, we discover that our longing for a place where we truly belong is not a sign of weakness or dysfunction. It is actually evidence that such a place exists. The closing declaration of Psalm 23, that we will dwell in the house of the Lord, is unpacked in its full richness, revealing that the Hebrew language intentionally holds together two truths at once: the home of God is something we can begin to experience right now, in the ordinary and concrete realities of daily life, and it is also something that will last forever, outlasting every fireplace that burns out and every table that eventually empties. For anyone who has ever felt that this world is not quite what they were made for, this message offers not an escape from that feeling but a destination for it.

Is your view of God too small?We often put God into boxes. We limit His presence to a church building, His will to our plans, His calling to what feels comfortable, and His power to what we think is possible. But God refuses to fit inside the boxes we build for Him.In this message from Acts 7:44–50, Pastor Matt Shackelford continues the Dwell series by examining Stephen's teaching about the tabernacle, the temple, and the God who cannot be contained by either. Stephen reminds us that God's presence has always been bigger than a building, a method, or our personal preferences.We'll discover why we must accept God's invitation on His terms, loosen our grip on our preferences, and begin looking for God's work beyond the walls of the church.God made us in His image, but too often we try to return the favor by remaking Him in ours. It's time to break the box and see God for who He truly is.Scripture: Acts 7:44–50 Series: DwellIf this message encouraged you, subscribe for more verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Central Church.

Series: The Holy SpiritService: Bible Study - SundayType: Bible ClassSpeaker: David McClister

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

Send us Fan MailA gorgeous home can still be a bad story, and a “normal” house can be unforgettable if you know what to look for. We sit down with freelance home, culture, travel and lifestyle writer Michelle Mastro, whose bylines span Architectural Digest, Dwell, Bloomberg, Smithsonian and National Geographic, to talk about what actually gets a home tour or design feature over the finish line with editors and readers. We get practical fast: what catches her eye in a pitch, why photos are non-negotiable, how “sterile” images can kill interest and what “lived-in” really means in editorial terms. Michelle explains how she hunts for the hook behind the visuals, from the way a family gathers in a space to the unusual choices that make a home distinct. We also unpack the realities of budgets and image rights, plus how PR professionals, designers, architects and builders can make pitching feel less like shouting into a black hole. Then we zoom out into the bigger ideas that make lifestyle journalism matter. Michelle shares which design trends she's loving, why she's over generational labels like “Millennial Gray” and what Victorian homes still teach us about comfort, identity and the concept of home itself. We connect design to travel and culture, including why the Midwest deserves more attention as an architecture destination. The conversation turns personal as Michelle reflects on loss, motherhood, and the questions that keep pulling her back to domestic spaces. If you work in PR, design or media, you'll leave with clearer pitching instincts and a sharper sense of what editors want right now. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves homes and storytelling and please leave a rating and review so more listeners can find us.Connect with Michelle:Instagram: @homes_writerLinkedIn: Michelle MastroPortfolio/Website: Michelle's websiteMuck Rack: Michelle Mastro

God spent two chapters on the galaxies and fifty on a tent. That's not an accident — it's an announcement. This week we walk the courtyard of the tabernacle: one gate, an altar on fire, and a basin made out of mirrors… finding ourselves in it, and the Substance that the shadow of the tabernacle was always pointing to Dwell with Me. Part 1

Why does God make us wait?Whether you're waiting for healing, direction, a relationship, or God to answer your prayers, waiting can feel frustrating and even confusing. But throughout Scripture, we see that God never wastes a waiting season.In this message from Acts 7, Pastor Matt Shackelford continues the Dwell series by examining the life of Moses. Before God used Moses to deliver Israel, He first prepared him through years of waiting in the wilderness. The same God who worked in Moses' waiting room is still at work in ours.You'll discover: Why God often works while we wait  What Moses' life teaches us about trusting God's timing  How waiting prepares us for God's purposes  Why God's presence matters more than immediate answers  How Jesus meets us in seasons of uncertainty  What it means to trust God when life feels delayed Your waiting season isn't a detour. It may be the very place where God is preparing you for what's next.Scripture: Acts 7:17–43Series: Dwell If this message encouraged you, subscribe for more verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Central Church. 

God spent two chapters on the galaxies and fifty on a tent. That's not an accident — it's an announcement. This week we walk the courtyard of the tabernacle: one gate, an altar on fire, and a basin made out of mirrors… finding ourselves in it, and the Substance that the shadow of the tabernacle was always pointing to Dwell with Me. Part 1

Pastor Matt Horsfall

Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. [NKJV]

Why does God make us wait?Whether you're waiting for healing, direction, a relationship, or God to answer your prayers, waiting can feel frustrating and even confusing. But throughout Scripture, we see that God never wastes a waiting season.In this message from Acts 7, Pastor Matt Shackelford continues the Dwell series by examining the life of Moses. Before God used Moses to deliver Israel, He first prepared him through years of waiting in the wilderness. The same God who worked in Moses' waiting room is still at work in ours.You'll discover: Why God often works while we wait  What Moses' life teaches us about trusting God's timing  How waiting prepares us for God's purposes  Why God's presence matters more than immediate answers  How Jesus meets us in seasons of uncertainty  What it means to trust God when life feels delayed Your waiting season isn't a detour. It may be the very place where God is preparing you for what's next.Scripture: Acts 7:17–43Series: DwellIf this message encouraged you, subscribe for more biblical teaching each week from Central Church.

We all want God's protection, peace, and provision, but Psalm 91 reveals that these promises are connected to something deeper: abiding in His presence. Join us as we discover what it means to dwell with God and how a life anchored in Him can transform the way we face fear, uncertainty, and everyday challenges.

What do you do when life feels like you've been thrown into a pit?Whether it's betrayal, loss, disappointment, or suffering, every believer eventually walks through seasons they never would have chosen. The good news is that God doesn't wait for you to climb out before He comes near.In this message from Acts 7, Pastor Matt Shackelford continues the Dwell series by looking at the life of Joseph. Through betrayal, slavery, false accusations, and imprisonment, Joseph experienced God's faithful presence every step of the journey.You'll discover: Why every Christian experiences "pit" moments  How Joseph's story points us to Jesus  Why God's presence matters more than your circumstances  How suffering can become part of God's greater purpose  What God is producing in you through difficult seasons  Why your deepest pit is never beyond God's reach No matter what pit you find yourself in today, God has not abandoned you. His presence reaches farther than your pain.Scripture: Acts 7:9-16Series: DwellIf this message encouraged you, subscribe for more verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Central Church. 

This summer I have re-opened the podcast for a short season of sharing sessions from Friend to Friend LIVE 2026, themed,"My Heart, His Throne." I pray that these lessons will strengthen your relationship with God and His Word creating a fervor to, "...love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,". In today's episode I share a biblical lesson from Psalm 91 enititled, "Where Do You Dwell?" Happy listening, friends! Connect with us! srbcnewnan.com Instagram Facebook Logo Design: Jamie Hurst