Podcasts about jesuses

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank brings up the issue of why God would allow bad things to happen.Hank also answers the following questions:The word “lie” means any intentional deception. Isn't God's command to Abraham to kill Isaac an intentional deception? Mike - Trinidad, CO (6:02)I heard teachings about “little Jesuses.” Have you addressed this teaching? Susan - AZ (9:22)Regarding Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster, is what he says about simplicity and redistribution of wealth accurate? Susan - CA (15:10)How do you know that God exists? Tom - Kansas City, MO (18:36)

In the deeper episode the gang has a conversation about identity, and what it means to know and find one's self. On a lighter note they also discuss space rocks, Louisiana folklore, existentialism on prom night, fake Jesuses and so much more…Time Stamps0:00 - Harley's a real boy. 3:00 - Stories of Dave & Science Experiments15::00 - Rec n' Rev36:50 - Borealis & Identity1:25:40 - Final Thoughts

On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (04/28/26), Hank brings up the issue of why God would allow bad things to happen.Hank also answers the following questions:The word “lie” means any intentional deception. Isn't God's command to Abraham to kill Isaac an intentional deception? Mike - Trinidad, CO (6:01)I heard teachings about “little Jesuses.” Have you addressed this teaching? Susan - AZ (9:22)Why do people criticize the Scofield Reference Bible? Marilyn - WA (16:40)Can you address the development of the different views on pre-, mid-, and post-tribulation rapture? Steve - Hammond, LA (20:48)What is pantheism? Alice - Houston, TX (23:59)

Put on the New Humanity Ephesians 4:11-24 by William Klock Back in the Fall of 2007—after you'd hired me, but before we'd made the move here—I came up for a standing committee meeting in Victoria and then a visit here.  The trip from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay started out like any other trip, but about half an hour in, the winds picked up.  It got bad enough that the terminals were shut down for the rest of the evening.  But there I was.  It was one of the big Spirit-class ships.  But there I was on a ship in the middle of the storm.  What was supposed to be a two-hour trip took a little over three hours as the ship drove into the winds and the waves.  Every few minutes the ship would hit a wave and the loud “thud” and the shudder would reverberate through the ship.  But we made it.  It took longer than it should have.  And all through, even though we could feel the reverberation of the waves through the ship, it was steady as a rock on the churning strait.  Its design, its stabilisers all did what they're supposed to do.  I was a little impatient to get to the destination, but no one was seasick and  never once did I fear we wouldn't make it. Brother and Sisters, in the midst of the wind and waves of the world, that's how the church should be.  The church should be the great ship, rock steady, in the middle of the storm, not being tossed this way and that way.  The church should be the ship, dead on course, sure of its arrival even if the storms slows her down.  The church should be the ship—like Noah's ark—a place of security, a place of peace, a place of safety in the midst of the wind and waves.  But the ship won't be that steady rock in the storm if we don't get the preliminaries right.  Those big ferries that sail the Strait are carefully engineered: precisely designed hulls, precisely designed stabilisers, paired with precisely designed engines.  And just so the church. Remember last week as we began our look at Ephesians 4. I said that what Paul was doing there was a bit like designing a three-legged stool to support what comes next.  And so he stresses, first, that we—as individuals, but then collectively as the church—need to be humble, meek, and patient, bearing with each other in love.  You can build a church without those things, and it might even be rock steady in the storm, but it's going to the sort of place—or the sort of ship—that throws people overboard when there's a problem, or it's going to be the sort of ship that sees someone floundering helplessly in the sea and runs them down instead of rescuing them.  It's going to be a ship sailing to the wrong port. And, second, the church needs to be one—to remember the unity it has in the one Spirit, the one Messiah, the one God and Father of all.  We've all been baptised in one baptism and strive forward toward the one hope shared by the one church.  It's hard to be steady in the storm if we forget that.  Instead of all pulling together to accomplish our gospel mission, this person is doing this and that person is doing that and someone else is doing something else over there and the ship goes nowhere or drifts aimlessly off course. And then, third, and closely related are the gifts.  Paul wrote in 4:7-10, loosely quoting Psalm 68:18, that when Jesus ascended to his throne, he sent the Spirit to bring gifts to his people—so that he might fill all things.  That was temple language and a reminder that God's ultimate purpose is to fill the whole of creation with the knowledge of his glory and ultimately with his presence.  And that's our job, our purpose, our mission.  It's the port our ship is headed for as we proclaim and live the gospel, making God known.  But we don't do it on our own.  Our knowledge and experience of God's glory will only go so far, and so he's not only filled us with his Spirit, but the Spirit the equips us for the mission.  In the Spirit, the presence of God goes with us. And that brings us to our text today as we pick up with Ephesians 4:11. [Page 1161 in the pew Bibles.]  As Paul wrote verses 11 to 16, it's one really long sentence.  In English we have to break it up.  It has two “movements”.  First, look at 11-13.  Paul writes, “The gifts he gave were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for their work of service, for the building up of the Messiah's body, until all of us come to unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God, to maturity, measured by the standard of the Messiah's fullness.” This is one of those lessons that it seems the church has to learn over and over and over.  We're all different.  Paul, thinking in terms of the First Century, talks all the time about Jew and Gentile, slave and free, rich and poor, man and woman, but we bring all sorts of difference.  We come from different cultures and backgrounds, different socio-economic classes, different languages, different levels of education, different sorts of families.  We have different interests and different likes.  We have different personalities and different skills.  Sometimes we find that those who were once enemies—soldiers on different sides, criminals and their victims, people from different political parties—are now brought together by the gospel.  The Spirit binds us together.  We share one baptism in one Lord who is the son of the one Father and we all yearn towards that one hope in which the earth is full of God's glory and creation set to rights once and for all.  And it's not only that, but the Spirit gifts us all differently.  What those gifts are and how they work and how they're received isn't fully clear.  I think sometimes we've had a tendency to try to nail this down too much.  To say, for example, that the gifts Paul talks about are all somehow miraculous gifts that we wouldn't have without the Spirit or we take Paul's lists of gifts (and there are several lists and they're all different) and we tell people that they have to have one of those specific gifts from his lists.  Brothers and Sisters, I think it's more organic than that.  The Spirit can give someone an entirely new gift that they could never come by naturally, but many of the gifts are just who we are and what we're gifted with naturally, but now empowered and given gospel direction by the Spirit.  And I think the full list is as diverse as the church is.  None of us is entirely quite the same as anyone else. So there's a vast panoply of gifts, but Paul puts his focus here on the ones that steer the ship: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  I wonder if Paul puts his focus here because of his own experiences with rejection as an apostle.  Or maybe it was because he'd seen churches torn apart when leaders and teachers put themselves above the unity of the church.  Some people followed this teacher and other followed that teacher.  It's still a big problem today. I'm always suspicious of men and women who develop big ministries that aren't anchored the church and who name those ministries after themselves or ministries, again not really tied to a church and all centred around a person or personality.  We just don't see that in the New Testament.  It's the opposite of the model for ministry scripture gives us.  And it's also sadly common these days for churches to split because people have decided to follow this teacher, instead of that one.  When the gospel is being compromised and the people doing it refuse correction, that may be just cause for division in the body.  But an awful lot of our divisions today are the result of leaders and teachers who have forgotten the great importance of maintaining the unity that Jesus and the Spirit have given us. Whatever Paul's reason for focusing on these kinds of leadership or authority or teaching gifts, it's not exhaustive, and his point is that the Spirit gifts us—not just some “saints”, but all the saints, all of God's people—in order to equip us for the work of service.  Some translations say “ministry”, but I think “service” is probably better in our context.  When we think of “ministry” today, a lot of people immediately think about the clergy, about pastors.  The way we talk about the clergy can be misleading.  We often use the term “minister” for someone who is ordained.  Or we say, “He's in the ministry.”  And that can leave people with the false impression that people like me or like our bishop are the ones who do the real work.  But that's not how it's supposed to be.  We're all ministers and we're all equally involved in ministry—or service.  The Greek word is diakonia.  That's where we get the word “deacon”, meaning one who serves.  But that's what we all do.  The church isn't like a ferry, where you've got a few people who run the ship and everyone else is just along for the ride.  In his providence, God has brought us all together and each of us has a natural place to serve.  If we struggle to find it, it might just be because we're thinking too narrowly of what “ministry” is or looks like. And that ministry, whatever it is, Paul is stressing, is for the building up of the body.  Paul longed for the Ephesians to grow into maturity.  And that meant growing to the point where they—not just as individuals, but as the body—the point where they faithfully put on display the truth of Jesus the Messiah.  It happens through a combination of unity in faith and knowledge of the son of God, of Jesus.  And the standard for measuring that maturity is the fullness of Jesus himself.  Think of it this way.  The risen and ascended Jesus is the embodiment not just of God's new creation, but more importantly he is the new human being, the new Adam.  He is everything Adam was supposed to be and more.  And Paul wants to see the church grow into just that kind of image: to grow into Christ-likeness.  It will never be perfect this side of eternity, but Brothers and Sisters, when the world looks at the church, it should see Jesus and it should see his new creation. And this maturity, this growing up” is the main point of verses 14-16.  Paul goes on, “This is so that we won't be babies any longer.  So that we won't be toss to and fro by the waves, carried away by every gust of teaching, by human tricksters, by their cunning and deceitful scheming.  Instead, we must speak the truth in love, and so grow up in everything into him, that is, into the Messiah, who is the head.  He supplies the growth that the whole body needs, linked as it is and held together by every joint which supports it, with each member doing its own proper work.  Then the body builds itself up in love.” We all start as spiritual babies.  God plunges us into his Spirit and gives us new life, but that doesn't make us mature saints—saints who have grown into the stature of the Messiah—overnight.  That said, it's often remarkable what the Spirit does do.  Often the Spirit will convict of sins that we didn't even know were sins.  Often the Spirit will suddenly flood us with one or more of his fruit and dramatically change us.  But on the whole, it takes diligence and effort to grow as Christian.  We don't learn the great story, we don't learn God's character, or what he expects of us by osmosis; we've got to steep ourselves in the scriptures.  We've got to invest in prayer—talking to God—in response, as we hear him speak to us through those scriptures.  We have to exercise our faith as if it were a muscle and the same goes for all the fruit of the Spirit.  We have to work diligently to put off the old and put on the new, not just to leave our sins behind, but to resist going back to pick them up.  We have to work at guarding the unity of the body of Jesus.  Because the world, the flesh, and the devil are all doing their damndest to make sure we never grow up. And this may be why Paul puts the emphasis here on gifts related to authority, leadership, and teaching.  There are heresies and false teachers out there.  People proclaiming false Jesuses and false gospels, people promoting gospels that promote selfishness or sin or health and wealth.  There are people proclaiming violence and politics as gospel.  There are people inventing their own scriptures and there false prophets.  And there are even real Christians and real churches out there that have, themselves, never grow up.  They got as far as the spiritual toddler phase, and somehow they got a platform—the modern church is sadly really good at giving it to them—and they're proclaiming that Jesus just wants you to come play forever in the sandbox instead of doing the hard work of growing into his full stature.  We need the people with those gifts who will lead us where we need to go.  The apostles—who were unique and whom we only meet in the New Testament—it's their authoritative writings that speak with the authority of God.  There are those uniquely gifted to shepherd the flock into green pastures and to protect them from wolves.  There are those with gifts to faithfully teach.  God even gifts some to be prophets.  We too often today think of prophets in terms of someone who tells the future, but in scriptural terms a prophet is really someone who applies God's truth to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.  A prophet comes alongside the faithful in times of trouble to comfort and to exhort.  But a prophet also confronts the church when it is in error or has gone astray and calls it back to faithfulness lest it experience God's judgement.  These are the people who guide us as we grow, who protect us from wolves, and who confront us when we've gone off course—or when we'd rather just play in the sandbox. And, of course, it's all done in love.  Remember the first leg of the stool that supports all this: humility, meekness, patience, and love.  As we minister in the name of Jesus, we need to minister with the heart and character of Jesus.  But if we do that, we will gradually grow up into Jesus, who is the head of the body.  And Paul stresses: never forget that he is the one who ultimately grows us up.  It's all of his grace.  He's ultimately the one who has brought us all together and holds us all together.  If we want to grow up into his likeness, we need to keep our eyes, our focus on him. So Paul started the chapter by urging them to live up to the calling they've received—in other words, to be the new humanity that Jesus has made them.  And now he gets back to that in verses 17: “So this is what I want to say; I am bearing witness to it in the Lord.  You must no longer behave like the gentiles, foolish-minded as they are.  Their understanding is darkened; they are cut off from God's life because of their deep-seated ignorance, which springs from the fact that their hearts are hard.  They have lost all moral sensitivity, and have given themselves over to whatever takes their fancy.  They go off greedily after every kind of uncleanness.” This should be a no-brainer.  I think that was especially so for the Ephesians.  They'd come out of the dark, hopeless world of paganism.  They knew how everyone just looked out for themselves.  They knew what a world without grace was like.  They knew that world in which things like humility and meekness and forbearing with people below your status was a sign of weakness.  They knew a world of idolatry and moral filth that, even as bad as our world sometimes seems, we can only begin to imagine.  They'd been delivered from that kind of life.  They'd been made part of God's new creation.  And yet, over time, bits and pieces of that old world kept creeping back into the lives of these Christians.  The same thing happens to us.  We're captivated by the gospel, we repent, we turn aside from sin and idols, we embrace Jesus.  We read our Bible and we pray and we walk with our brothers and sisters.  But slowly bits and pieces or our old life start to creep back in.  Or maybe we've never full repented in the first place.  So we commit ourselves to Jesus, we love God, but money is still an idol.  Maybe not as much as it once was, but we haven't really let go of it and that starts affecting our spiritual growth and our witness.  Greed leads us to be dishonest in business or to treat coworkers or employees unjustly.  It keeps us from being generous with God and with others.  Or maybe it's sex.  We continue to use and abuse others, whether physically or virtually through pornography, to gratify our desires.  Maybe we indulge our anger and wrath.  Maybe we let our self-control slide.  And instead of maturing into the stature of Jesus, we stagnate or we even start to revert back to being babies again. Paul warns us: Don't behave like that.  You know better.  The fallen world and fallen humanity are like that because their hearts are hard and their minds are full of foolishness—and, most importantly, they know nothing of real life.  But you know better.  The Spirit has softened your hearts.  God has filled you with his wisdom.  And, most important of all, he's not only given you a taste of his new creation and made you a part of it, he's made you a steward of it.  No, Paul says in verse 20: “That's not how you learned the Messiah—if, indeed, you did hear about him, and were taught in him, in accordance with the truth about Jesus himself.” Notice: Living in such a way that Paul would question whether you ever actually did know the gospel, that's not a good place to be.  No, Paul's saying, remember what you were taught: “That teaching stressed that you should take off your former lifestyle, your old humanity.  That way of life is decaying as a result of deceitful lusts.  Instead, you must be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and you must put on the new humanity, which is being created the way God intended it, displaying justice and genuine holiness.” I love the way Paul puts in terms of how we “learned the Messiah”.  That's how it works.  We were captivated by the gospel because we learned an image of Jesus: wise and loving, tender and gentle with the hurting, confronting and stern with the hypocrites and the wicked.  And we realise, that's what true humanity looks like.  That's what men and women set to rights by God are supposed to be like.  And so, in our baptism, we put off the old, fallen, broken, decaying way of being human—a way that leads only to tears and death—and we put on the new humanity embodied by Jesus and enlivened, made possible by God's indwelling Spirit.  Maybe we need to bring back the old practise from the ancient church where those being baptised put off their old clothes and put on clean, fresh, white robes. It might remind us what we committed to in our baptism: to put off the old way of life that leads to death and to put on the new life of Jesus and the Spirit, the new humanity, God's new creation.  Because, Brothers and Sisters, we need to ground ourselves in this renewal every single day.  This is what it means to be a Christian.  This is what it means to live as God's renewed humanity. And, Paul stresses in verse 24, such a people will display God's justice and true holiness.  Let's close with that image: justice and true holiness.  Such a people will display their—our hope—as we live together as a people washed clean by the blood of Jesus and renewed by the Spirit.  We live out and bring to the word justice.  Or righteousness.  The Greek word, dikaiosune, means both.  And that's why Paul can couple our display of justice and righteousness with true holiness.  Brothers and Sisters, as God sets us to rights, he makes us a people who witness the very thing the whole of humanity and all of creation so desperately needs—the solution to the pain and the hurt and sickness and the tears, the solution to the brokenness of the world.  It's not just moralism.  It's justice finally brought to a world of injustice.  It's righteousness finally brought to world of unrighteousness.  It's a people, made holy by Jesus so that we can be a fit place for the dwelling place of God—a temple that carries his presence to the ends of the earth.  It begins in our baptism, but it does not stop there.  It continues as Jesus grows us into his full stature of justice and holiness, and as he brings us together to share our gifts in a united mission of service: to bring the good news of that justice and righteousness to the world.  To be the temple through which God will make his glory known through all the earth. Let's pray: Almighty God, who gave your only Son to be for us both a sacrifice for sin and an example of godly life: Give us grace that we may always receive with thankfulness the immesasurable benefit of his sacrifice, and daily endeavour to follow in the blessed steps of his most holy life, who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for evermore.  Amen.

Toxic Relationships: Recognizing Narcissism in a Spouse, Parent, or Child with Kris Reece (Episode 288)   *Disclaimer* This episode contains mature content and user discretion is suggested.    Proverbs 27:6 AMP “Faithful are the wounds of a friend [who corrects out of love and concern], But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful [because they serve his hidden agenda].”   *Transcription Below*   Kris Reece is a Christian Author, Toxic Relationship Coach, and Manipulation Tactics Specialist. Kris equips believers to escape the grip of toxic relationships—especially those shaped by guilt, confusion, or spiritual distortion. Her work empowers Christians to set biblical boundaries and walk in emotional and spiritual freedom. Connect with her on Instagram or through her website.    Thank you to our sponsor for today's episode: Midwest Food Bank   Topics and Questions We Cover: In your opinion, can you be a Christian and a narcissist? Will you share a few of the toxic tactics narcissists use for power and control in relationships?  Will you define codependency for us and also reactive abuse and trauma bond?   Other Related Episodes on The Savvy Sauce Podcast: 146 Biblical Response to Emotionally Destructive Relationships with Leslie Vernick 148 Overcoming Evil with Good: Recognizing Spiritual Abuse with Dr. Diane Langberg 263. Domestic Violence and Abuse: Identifying and Healing from Abusive Relationships with Stacey Womack   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:10)   Laura Dugger: (0:11 - 1:29) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at lemanproperties.com or connect with them on Facebook.   My captivating guest for this week is Kris Reece. She has an abundance of resources available online, and she's actually recently had this book published, Breaking the Narcissist's Grip. I cannot recommend this episode enough to you to find out about toxic relationships, whether that's with your parents or your adult children or your spouse. She's going to do a deep dive into narcissism. Help us understand it, help us identify those people in our lives, and most importantly, offer some hope, which is only possible through Jesus Christ. Here's our chat.   Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Kris.   Kris Reece: (1:31 - 1:34) Thank you so much for having me. I am so blessed to be here.   Laura Dugger: (1:34 - 1:48) Well, I am so grateful to have you, and you are in a unique line of work that is so needed. How did you get into this work of offering Christian advice for toxic relationships?   Kris Reece: (1:50 - 4:16) Well, I'll give you the short version of that story. So, I had been in the fitness industry for a good 20 plus years, and I went back to school for counseling and theology because I really wanted to be able to help people emotionally and mentally as opposed to just physically, right?   So, as I started to counsel people, there were women that were coming to me from all walks of life and all ages. I'm talking 16 years old all the way up to 86 years old. And no matter what their issue was, no matter what they were struggling with, they were coming to me for purpose or just growing in their faith. It all came down to one thing. And Laura, I think this might surprise you just as much as it surprised me. Toxic mothers. I was floored. And this wasn't the kind of thing where now we're just blaming mom for everything. No, this started to get revealed on all of the dysfunctions that were taking place within their relationship with their mother and how it had impacted them in so many areas of their lives. So, I said, “Lord, I need to dive deeper into this.” Now, I had already come out of, unfortunately, several toxic narcissistic relationships, not with my mother. So, that was very foreign to me. So, I started to dive deeper into how those same traits applied. And it was sad and it was very scary. So, I started teaching more on that.   And then they started coming out of the woodwork. But what about my husband? What about my daughter? What about my boss? What about my... And it was just like a flood. And it reached a point where, Laura, I got to confess to you. I took this to the Lord and I said, please don't send me. I don't want to do this. This is toxic. It's like you're just dealing with this toxicity all day long. And once I began to rest in, not just talking about the toxic relationships, but understanding where His heart was in it and the healing that He wants, not only for the toxic people, but those weren't the ones that were coming to me, the ones that were affected and infected by it, is when my heart started to shift. I said, “okay, God, all right, send me.” And here we are. Many, many years later.   Laura Dugger: (4:16 - 4:41) Well, you've done some incredible work. And I am shocked by that answer. Can you clarify too with the toxic mothers? That's not speaking to the mom who's trying her best asking the Lord for help and yet making mistakes. Would you consider them as mothers who are narcissists or does toxic embrace a wider?   Kris Reece: (4:41 - 6:01) Toxic can embrace a much wider spectrum. It could be borderline personality disorder, even a lot of codependent traits. If they're not harnessed properly or surrendered to the Lord, it can be very toxic to our relationship. You know, you're dealing with the guilt and the manipulation. No, we are not in any way talking about a mother who's made some mistakes, hands up, who's surrendering all this to the Lord and really just trying to find her way, you know, regardless of whether it's a newborn, an infant, a teenager or an adult child.   That's not what I'm referring to as a toxic mother. And some of them do struggle because it's so common for, I guess, young adults at this point to just be like, my mom's toxic because your mother had an opinion, because your mother is trying to get a little bit more time with you. Now, all of a sudden she's toxic. So, the label is unfortunate, but no, we're not referring to that type of mother. We're talking about the ones that have been approached lovingly and gently and are still standing firm in their manipulation, their guilt, their no, this is my way or the highway, their distorted view of scripture. I don't care if you're two or 42, you're called to obey me. That's the kind of toxic mother we're talking about.   Laura Dugger: (6:01 - 6:13) That is helpful. And then just to zero in on that term, narcissist, can you just help us understand what characteristics define a narcissist?   Kris Reece: (6:14 - 8:00) Yeah, absolutely. So, at its core, narcissism is less about confidence and it's more about this distorted sense of self. And that distorted sense is what damages relationships. Psychologically, narcissism can actually be marked by three pillars.   Number one is an exaggerated sense of self-importance. They quite honestly believe that the world revolves around them. Two is a deep need for admiration. They crave validation and praise, and we call that supply. So, if you're giving it to them, you're on their good side. You're not, you're on the bad side. And then lastly is their lack of empathy. This is a true hallmark of narcissism. But I know you didn't ask this, but we kind of go down a little bit of a rabbit trail.   Now that narcissists are starting to catch on to what these traits look like, they're doing what we call performative empathy. So, they're looking and they're saying all the right words. One of my, I love to say is they got the words, they ain't got the music. So, you really have to understand what true empathy looks like, but they lack empathy. So, and then what happens is from those traits are going to flow three roots, entitlement, arrogance, and manipulation. They twist everything and it's all about them. And one of the things that we need to understand is that a one-time selfish act doesn't make someone a narcissist. I've said some things that, oh boy, that I need to repent of. It doesn't make somebody a narcissist, but a lifestyle of self-protective empathy, lacking behavior at the expense of others. Yeah. Raise the red flag.   Laura Dugger: (8:01 - 8:22) That's helpful. That even shows us the difference between a little self-absorbed or mistakes made and a narcissist. But then I'm also curious as we're raising children, do these traits show up early in life or when are they usually identifiable?   Kris Reece: (8:23 - 10:25) That's a great question. One that I don't think you're ever going to be able to get a solid answer from anyone on, because narcissistic traits, while they don't just appear out of nowhere, we can say that they're formed in childhood. And we can say that probably almost every child is a bit narcissistic. I mean, we don't get like the terrible mind, mind twos from nowhere. I mean, as children, as human beings, I mean, even scripture tells us we are innately selfish. Our heart is deceptively wicked. So, the point of childhood is for the parents to now pull that out of the child, to grow that out. Right. And a lot of times that doesn't take place. So, what we have to understand is that the roots usually form in childhood, but the fruit shows up later in life.   So, in childhood, you may notice things like entitlement, this extreme sensitivity to criticism, but kids, like we said, are naturally self-focused. So, that's actually going to be part of their normal development. So, kids are self-centered by nature, but narcissism becomes very concerning when someone never grows out of it. So, when we start to see by the teen years, you see that pattern take place and how they handle correction, how they handle empathy and accountability. And if empathy isn't growing, but entitlement is, oh, we've got a pretty big sign. So, now by adulthood, those narcissistic traits, they just become unmistakable.   You see the manipulation, the blame shifting, the lack of accountability, the control, especially when life requires any type of humility. So, immaturity says, I messed up. Narcissism says, you made me do it.   Laura Dugger: (10:25 - 11:04) Oh, that's helpful. And I guess just to put parents at ease, if they are parenting, let's say tweens and teens, I'd love to hear your take on this, but something we learned in grad school was that they said, “don't freak out when your child, even when your teen does this, because a lot of times teenagers could be fitting all of the description in the DSM for multiple things.” And that is part of adolescence and going through puberty and everything. But what I hear you saying is then if that pattern continues into adulthood, especially as you're developing certain things, but lacking empathy, that's one big concern. Is that correct?   Kris Reece: (11:04 - 12:07) That is correct. That is why they don't diagnose teenagers with narcissism, because quite honestly, I would say about 98% of them would be diagnosed. So, no, that's why we don't, because a lot of teenagers are that way. So, yes, don't panic if your teenagers are acting that way. But the other thing that I would also say is don't chalk it up to a phase. It's a great opportunity to speak the truth in love. You may not think they're hearing it. You may not think they're receiving it, but we are responsible as parents for obedience, not outcome. Of course, we want the best outcome for our children possible, but we can't just chalk up those traits as, ah, they're just being teenagers. Ah, it's just a phase. No, as your parent, I need to teach you and train you out of that phase, not force you out of the phase, but I need to train you out of that phase. And then the rest is going to be up to them.   Laura Dugger: (12:07 - 12:22) That's good. Knowing who's part to own. And would you say part of that then is disciplining them and discipling them, training them in the ways that we would think of or anything that you would add for how to help train our children out of these characteristics?   Kris Reece: (12:23 - 13:39) Absolutely. So, we do want to train them in the way they're supposed to go. So, when there is entitlement, we don't chalk it up to a phase. We don't continue to give what they're expecting. So, there needs to be consequences for behavior. And I'm not talking harsh punishment, but there's two sides. So, if there is really bad behavior that needs to stop, then there needs to be a consequence for that. On the flip side, if it's behavior that could kind of be borderline, and I don't mean borderline personality, I just mean borderline in terms of is this bad or is this a phase, then it's a talking too.   Hey, why did you decide to handle your classmate in this way? What do you think could have been a better way? What was the point of your outcome? What were you hoping the outcome would be, I should say? And then starting to really guide them through that, because they're still in their very formative years in terms of processing, in terms of how to cope with things. So, if they're now going to start defaulting to patterns that maybe that was taught or caught, we really want to take that opportunity to train them out of that. And we can do that with gentleness and love. And then, of course, use consequences when necessary.   Laura Dugger: (13:40 - 13:52) That is so well summed up, Kris. I appreciate that. And then what are some types of narcissism that make it especially difficult to recognize at first?   Kris Reece: (13:53 - 16:40) Oh, my favorite one. And I say that with seeping sarcasm. Is the covert narcissist. We would call that one the quiet one. And now if you want to add another layer of complexity, the Christian covert narcissist. This one is going to be the hardest type to detect because they don't look confident. They look wounded. They use self-pity. They use guilt. They use this emotional fragility. But they're using it to control others. And what we have to recognize is covert narcissists, they don't dominate the room. They dominate your emotions. They play the victim. So, you now feel responsible for their feelings, their life, their outcome. That's a scary one.   The other one is what we call the communal or we could refer to them as more of the spiritual narcissist. This is what we would refer to as the helper or the holy one. So, they appear really generous. Big servant's heart, maybe in a serving profession. They're spiritually devoted, but it's all about image. And they're going to use the good deeds. They're going to use the faith, the ministry, or their morality as proof of their superiority. And they may quote the Bible, but they will use shame, silence, and scripture to control others.   And the other one is, this is a little bit more of the obvious one, but we often disguise this in our society. And that's the overt. This is your classic narcissist. This is the one that people recognize. They're loud, they're attention seeking, they're boastful, they're arrogant, and they are just outwardly entitled. But we often, depending on the position that they're in, in business or politics, we're like, oh, they're confident. Oh, they're good leaders. They could be classic overt narcissists. And a lot of times these narcissists really go unrecognized because they always, always start with the charm or the kindness. My favorite is the connection. They establish this connection with you. They're gonna mirror your values, your interests, and yes, even your faith. And a lot of times they appear very wounded or generous, and the whole intention is to now just disarm you. Bottom line is a lot of narcissists, they're gonna wear different masks, but at the core, they're all the same.   Laura Dugger: (16:41 - 18:35) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   With over 1,700 apartment units available throughout Pekin, Peoria, Peoria Heights, Morton, and Washington, and with every price range covered, you will have plenty of options when you rent through Leman Property Management Company. They have townhomes, duplexes, studios, and garden style options located in many areas throughout Pekin. And make sure you check out their newest offering; the McKinley located in Pekin is a new construction addition to their platinum collection. Featuring nine-foot ceilings, large spacious layouts, beautiful finishes such as quartz countertops and garages, you won't want to miss this outstanding new property.   In Peoria, a historic downtown location and apartments adjacent to OSF Medical Center provide excellent choices. 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They see themselves truly as entitled, as somebody who's been given the short straw, somebody who is owed something, the victim. They honestly don't see themselves as narcissistic.   Then there's another side where they sort of see it and they actually will use that now to their advantage. See, this makes me somebody who is self-reflective. This is somebody who is, I'm willing to recognize where I've gone wrong. But the problem is, there's no depth there. You'll get generalities like, oh, I know I'm not perfect, but, and then you'll get a litany of justifications or you'll, I know I'm not perfect, but all of your sins are now laid out in detail. So, they will, if they do recognize it, they will use it to their advantage.   Now there is that final subset that does start to recognize and they see, I don't want to be this way. Wow, I've caused a lot of destruction to relationships. I do want to change. And that road is really long, really long. But I'm not, I'm not of the camp that believes that narcissists don't change. They can, if they want to. It takes a lot to recognize it. And I've seen some do.   Laura Dugger: (20:22 - 21:11) I appreciate that hope. You don't always hear that very often with this type of personality. But I think one more piece that has always been so confusing to me when loved ones have shared that they're in a relationship with someone who is a narcissist, whether that's their spouse or their parent is where I've been in friendship with people before. But they, all of their stories, no matter where they live in the world, the narcissist seems to struggle with the same things. They seem to act the same way. They're master manipulators. And I just don't understand how they all have the same playbook. And like you say, they lie even when they don't have to. So, as you've thought about this, are there any reasons why it's so similar across the board?   Kris Reece: (21:14 - 23:27) Yes, because by nature, they are, they're lazy. They don't want to put in an effort. And they're also, what word would I use to describe this? It's almost like they're aliens to empathy. So, if you could imagine an alien coming from, I don't believe in aliens, so please don't hear what I'm not saying, but let's just imagine for a moment, you know, they come on this earth and they're like, oh, I got to adapt myself to these people. I got to fit in. What do I do? So, they're going to start listening. They're going to start mimicking behaviors and they're going to start testing to see what works and what doesn't work. So, for them, now we go back to that whole childhood thing. If they've learned that the only way to get what I want is to lie, the only way to get people to see me as XYZ is to manipulate, that's what they're going to do. And they're going to do it by default.   And that's what people don't understand is that default mechanisms are so powerful that even a master manipulator could turn around and say, “you know, I really, I recognize, yeah, I do manipulate a little bit.” And then when push comes to shove, if they have not done the hard work to begin to dig and really understand where it came from, why it's there and start to develop the patterns to override it, they're going to default to the same way every single time.   And that's why they lie so easily. It's just a default. Now, I'm not saying that as an excuse, but it's a default. And what they also don't realize is that this is not just psychological. This is spiritual. Narcissism is fueled by pride, deception, and control. Is that describing anybody we know? That's the enemy to the core. So, it's not that they're all just studying the same playbook. It is that they're all influenced by the same spirit. And that's what we're struggling with.   Laura Dugger: (23:29 - 24:00) Wow. And that really, there was an aha moment, and I wrote this down, kind of what you're saying. But on page 133, you said, “it's like they're demonically inspired or at the very least, influenced.” And I think that makes so much sense. Even the insidious ways that they are cunning or crafty, that they're influenced by our enemy. That makes a lot more sense. Anything else that you would want to add to that?   Kris Reece: (24:02 - 25:36) Yes. When we look at, I hate to, I don't like to label people. But when we look at how the enemy operates, let's look at how Satan operates. Kill, steal, destroy. Control, pride, deception, manipulation. If he is now influencing these people and they are not putting up any of the barriers, they're continuing to give him a foothold. They are now walking in his purpose. So, if Satan is looking to do this to you, why wouldn't his ambassadors? They are highly influenced by his behaviors, and they don't even realize it. So, yes, we can have compassion. We can take this to prayer because any stronghold can be broken. But that's got to be done by the power of Christ.   So, we pray for their eyes to be open. We pray for them to see the wickedness of their ways and give them a desire to turn from it. But you're not going to change that. It's not going to happen, especially when it is so deeply spiritually rooted. Because a lot of times we get caught in the, well, I'm a good person. Well, I would never behave that way. If I knew I was doing that, I'd want to change. So, we think that our explanation alone is really just going to be the aha moment for the narcissist, right? So, we explain, we re-explain, we over-explain. And then what we don't realize is that now we just got caught in that trap as well. We're now playing that game on their turf and we're not going to win. We have got to hand over this spiritual battle to the Lord.   Laura Dugger: (25:37 - 25:54) Okay, so then that makes me wonder, you said that there is hope. So, how is this treatable? You've kind of let us in on a little bit of it, but also can you just share if you have ever seen someone repent or change their ways?   Kris Reece: (25:56 - 28:30) Yes, more than one. I've seen it on more than one occasion. It is a journey. It does not come from you just over loving them and just giving them passes and excuses and being more like Christ. It's usually from what I refer to as a two-by-four moment.   When God just clunks them over the head, everything is lost, everything is gone, and everything that they held so dearly, meaning everything that was holding them up. So, if you can think about narcissists, they can't function on their own. They don't have their own self-identity. They don't have their own self-discipline. They don't have any other self-regulation. They have no sense of self. So, everything is external. So, when God is looking to change somebody, guess what's going to happen? He's going to start kicking out those crutches one by one, and then they're going to get the two-by-four moment, which is that knock over the head, like that road to Damascus experience that Paul went through. It's like, hello, are we going to wake up here?   And that is when they start to have their awakening, and that is when they begin to pursue, hey, I think change might be possible. This is what happens to me. And then in that environment, if they're able to get met with then the love and the compassion, again, not the enabling, then you'll start to see that change begin to unfold. Narcissism is treatable, but not in the way people often imagine. It's not this surface-level behavioral issue. It's not getting somebody to say, I'm sorry, or getting somebody to validate you. It is a deep identity and a heart issue that is rooted in pride. And I don't know about you, there is not enough experience on the planet. I could never take somebody through that. That has got to be a God moment.   And that's where I want to just caution people sometimes, especially if we struggle with codependency, thinking that we are now responsible for these people, that maybe God planted me in their lives for such a time as this. Stop, stop, stop. Guard your heart. Allow God to heal you of what's driving you now to want to fix this person. And truly, truly, if you really love this person, pray for them, go into warfare for them, but hand them over to the Lord.   Laura Dugger: (28:32 - 28:48) Okay, so then another spiritual question, Kris, in your opinion, can someone be a Christian, a true born-again believer, and a narcissist? Ah, I love and I hate this question.   Kris Reece: (28:52 - 32:44) Hilary, you're going to love and hate my answer. Yes and no. So, in one sense, yes. In the sense that somebody can actually profess faith and faith in Christ but still live in a way that looks absolutely nothing like him. And we see this all throughout scripture. But claiming Christ and following Christ are not the same thing. And that's where I believe that there are times where it's no. You know, just because you had an altar moment where some way, somehow your belly was full, you were well rested, the music was just right, and you came to this place of, okay, I'm going to give my life to Christ at the altar, but you continued in your iniquity for the next 30 years. I really have to seriously question your salvation. But it's not my job to question someone's salvation. But I can question your walk. If I'm not seeing the fruit of that walk, I don't know that I can call you a brother or a sister. If you continue to walk in that route of pride and self-exaltation and manipulation, it's not of God. So, there's a difference between a Christian who's struggling and a Christian who's just refusing to admit any of the error of their ways. One of the questions that we really have to ask is, can a narcissist be saved? And the answer to that is absolutely. Jesus came for the broken, the blind, the hard-hearted, every single last one of them. But that transformation is going to require repentance.   So, yes, I think our hope always needs to be in, Lord, you can save them. If you saved a wretch like me, you could save them. So, now what happens is our prayer needs to now shift. Lord, give them a heart of repentance, a willingness to see themselves truthfully and surrender to your work. That's where our prayer now needs to shift. Not, Lord, get them to stop doing this, get them to stop doing that, get them out of here, move them on. Because if it is God's heart that none should perish, it should be our heart that none should perish. But all should come to repentance. So, that's where our prayer needs to be. So, yes, while there is hope, we're not mini-Jesuses. It's not going to happen. It's not our responsibility. Sometimes our responsibility is actually to step out of the way and allow them to suffer their own consequences, because that is what starts to bring a narcissist to themselves. Not always, but oftentimes. You know what it's reminding me of is the scripture in 1st or 2nd Corinthians, I can't remember, is when Paul commanded the young man who was sleeping with his stepmother to be cast out of the church, get rid of him, to send him out. And here's what he said, “Give him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.” So, it wasn't like, get rid of him. He's a piece of dirt. We don't want anything to do with him anymore. It's like, okay, if that's the lifestyle he wants to live, then let him live it. And let Satan have his way. So, his flesh is now destroyed. Not him as a person, but his flesh is destroyed. And that's really what narcissists are. They're very fleshly people. I want what I want when I want it, and I'm going to do whatever I can to get it. So, we really want to change our prayer to the Lord, lead them to repentance.   Laura Dugger: (32:49 - 34:01) Updated website, thesavvysauce.com, so that you can have access to all the additional freebies we are offering, including all of our previous articles and all of our previous episodes, which now include transcriptions. You will be equipped to have your own practical chats for intentional living when you read all the recommended questions in the articles or gain insight from expert guests and past episodes as you read through the transcriptions. Because many people have shared with us that they want to take notes on previous episodes, or maybe their spouse prefers to read our conversations rather than listen to them or watch them now that we're offering video rather than just audio. So, we heard all of that, and we now have provided transcripts for all our episodes. Just visit thesavvysauce.com. All of this is conveniently located under the tab show notes on our website. Happy reading.   Will you also share a few of the toxic tactics that narcissists typically use for power and control in relationships?   Kris Reece: (34:02 - 36:33) Yes, actually one of their favorite ones is gaslighting. And I think it's just a word that is so overused and abused, but it is so accurate because it's not just lying, it is denying, it is distorting, and it is rewriting reality with the intention to make you doubt yourself, your memory, your feelings, or even your sanity. Tell me that's not wicked. I don't know what it is. It's manipulation at its finest. And the same with love bombing, which is another one of their tactics. At the start, or not even just at the start, maybe when they recognize that you've had enough, like that's it, I'm putting my foot down, I'm setting boundaries, sometimes they'll come in with that love bombing. And what they do is they start to overwhelm you with the affection and the attention and the promises and the chores and all those things that you've been just fighting for all those years. What they're looking to do is to recreate or recreate that emotional dependency, because it's not about love to them, it's about bait. So, in their mind, they're not going, oh no, I'm losing this relationship. Let me get my act together. It's, oh no, I'm losing control. Let me get him or her back into my clutches. So, those are two of the very common ones.   Another one is projection. You want to know what a narcissist is doing? Listen to what they're accusing you of. That will tell you clearly what they've got going on. Lying, selfishness, anger, cheating, hiding, whatever it is, they want to put you on the defensive instead of facing their truth. So, what it does is it puts the spotlight on you and keeps it off them. So, those are some of the most common tactics that they're going to use. And it's on a spectrum. They will do it to different degrees. They'll do it in different ways to different relationships. But they're always going to do what has worked in the past. So, again, once your eyes start to open, now it becomes more difficult. And now their tactics start to change just a little bit. Remember, they're the alien. They're here. They've now got to figure this out. They're like, oh, this isn't working anymore. So, they're going to try to figure out what does work. And that's where you need to be very careful. Know them by their fruit. Fruit takes time to develop.   Laura Dugger: (36:35 - 36:45) Okay. Even that term gaslighting, I think it can be hard to understand. Can you give an example of what that would look like in a relationship?   Kris Reece: (36:46 - 37:50) Yeah, absolutely. So, you can go to, let's say, your spouse and you tell them, you know, when you said this to me, it really hurt my feelings. An obvious form of gaslighting could be, I never said that. You're misunderstanding me. Now, a lot of times people become savvy enough to have proof. No, no, no. You did say that. See, it's right here. Well, that's not what I meant. And you should know that. If you were a good Christian, you would know that that's not what I meant. You know that I get a little confused. You know that I mix up my words.   And what they're doing is they're trying to distort your feelings instead of just owning. Wow. I didn't intend to make you feel that way, but I could see that it left an impact on you. They will skirt around all of that. They will make you question yourself. They will even deny, they will flat out deny that they said or did anything.   Laura Dugger: (37:52 - 38:26) And I see where this gets so confusing for the person in relationship with them, because there's extra layers that you talk about and even extra tactics, like pathological lying that are added in there too. Yep. But they will flat out deny it. Yeah. Well, there's also a few more terms that I'd love for you to explain, just because they may come up throughout our conversation this week and next week. So, will you define codependency for us and also reactive abuse and trauma bond?   Kris Reece: (38:27 - 43:41) Oh, absolutely. These are all very powerful and they are issues that can leave. I hate to use the word victim because we may be victimized, but if you're in Christ, you are not a victim. You have a hope and a future. God can meet you and do exceedingly abundantly above what you could ask, hope or think. But codependency, reactive abuse and trauma bonds are all very real and they often travel together. But they're different pieces of the same trap.   So, when we look at codependency, this is where your sense of worth or peace now depends on someone else's mood or approval. It's like saying, if you're okay, I'm okay. If you're not okay, I'm not okay. So, I need you to be okay. Okay. And you start to manage other people's emotions instead of your own. And that's when we start to confuse enabling with loving because at the core of it, we want to feel okay and they're not okay. So, we have to get them okay. And that's where that caring now turns into control.   So, now we get into reactive abuse. This is often very misunderstood because this happens a lot in churches. So, I want you to picture this. You have a married couple. Let's just say he is for the, just for the sake of our conversation. There are, there are a lot of female narcissists out there, but let's just say the male is the narcissist and he is gaslighting and he is abusive at home, but it's borderline. It's like, you know, he's a little insulting. He's a bit harsh. He's not loving. He's not nurturing. But boy, when he's at church, oh, he's everybody's pal. He's serving all the time. So, now when they go to counseling, they're sitting in front of the pastor, and she's got years and years and years of this abuse that has taken place. And she's now reacting to it. She's elevated. She's yelling, she's screaming, she's crying. And guess what happens? He's sitting there cool as a cucumber. I really don't understand. I mean, I know I've not been perfect and that's where the reactive abuse is taking place because she's now reacting to all of those years of manipulation and provocation and now questioning her own sanity because she knows what's going on. So, she's got that, what we refer to as cognitive dissonance going on.   She's like, well, wait a minute, he's done this, saying this, this isn't making sense. I know I'm not losing it, but I feel like I'm losing it. And that's what's taking place. So, she just explodes because she has no idea what's going on. Her sanity is in question right now. So, to that pastor, guess who looks like the problem? She does. So, if you would just react a little bit more gently when he brings something to you, you may not have this problem. And if she's a Christian, she's going to go back and recognize the error of her ways, which that is a problem. You know, we are responsible for how we react, but she's owning now all of it. So, now let's take a step back.   What is reactive abuse? It happens when you finally explode after those long periods of manipulation and provocation. The abuser then points to your reaction as the proof that you are the problem. And that keeps the guilt train going.   The trauma bond is what happens with trauma bonds is they form when your brain gets hooked on the cycles of fear and relief. And we also go back to that cognitive dissonance. We're like, oh, wait a minute. Okay, he's this way one minute and he's this way another minute. So, is he good? Is he bad? I don't, I don't, instead of the brain being able to say, he's both, you've got both of this going on and we need to deal with this. We're trying to put either a bad blanket on it or a good blanket on it. So, we get hooked in these cycles in the relationship. And what we're chasing is that constant good time. Maybe we had a great time at the gala and he was so wonderful. He was even kind to me after we got in the car, and those small moments of kindness start to release the dopamine, and they convince you to stay even though the big picture is you're being hurt long term.   It's like the frog in the boiling pot. They don't even realize it. But the good news, codependency, reactive abuse, and trauma bonds, once you recognize these patterns, you can begin to renew your mind, break the cycle and allow the Holy Spirit to retrain your heart towards peace instead of that counterfeit connection.   Laura Dugger: (43:43 - 44:06) Wow. That is so well summed up. And if somebody is recognizing that they're in that cycle or if they're identifying they're in a relationship with a narcissist, do you have a practical first step as we're starting to wind down our time together today? Anything that they could do before they tune in next week?   Kris Reece: (44:07 - 45:13) Absolutely. So, the first thing you're going to want to do is to release these feelings of shame and bringing this before God. Your time right now with the Lord can be precious and incredibly restorative. My hope would be that we take our focus off of them. Yes, I get it. We're starting to identify. We're recognizing. And all that can be very enlightening. But be careful not to fall into the enemy's trap of now overanalyzing, over fixing, over controlling.   Take this before the Lord and say, “God, what are you trying to do in me?” Because for whatever reason, He's allowed this relationship. For whatever reason, He's not allowing you out of it. There's a lot of work that He's going to want to begin to do in you. And this is not to say this is your responsibility, but I promise you at the end of this road, if you walk this with Him, there will be a life that is beyond your imagination. Whether it's in the relationship or not, I'm not sure, but it will be beyond your imagination.   Laura Dugger: (45:15 - 45:24) Thank you again for sharing the hope, Kris. And where can we go in between these weeks if we want to continue learning more from you?   Kris Reece: (45:25 - 45:43) Oh, that'd be great. I would love if you'd jump on over to my website. It's krisreece.com. That's Kris with a K, Reece with a C. And you're going to find a wealth of content and resources, some of them free resources. And it's also where you can find my new book. It's called Breaking the Narcissist's Grip. Or you can just jump on Amazon for that as well.   Laura Dugger: (45:44 - 46:01) Wonderful. We'll add links for all of that in the show notes for today's episode. And you're familiar that we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge.   And so, as my final question for you today, Kris, what is your savvy sauce?   Kris Reece: (46:02 - 47:06) My savvy sauce is going to be very practical. I'm a really practical gal. And this may sound like a cliche, so I want you to kind of stick with me a little bit, but it has changed my life. And that is practicing the pause. In these difficult relationships, whether you were reactive before or not, you are now. And we want to begin to practice that pause because toxic people really want to dictate the emotional temperature of the conversation.   So, before you respond, before you react, before you decide anything, just one pause. And you got to ask yourself this one question. This is what I do. I say, is this led by peace or pressure? And that question has saved me from countless toxic conversations and impulsive decisions. So, before you respond, pause, because peace is always going to tell you the truth faster than pressure ever will.   Laura Dugger: (47:08 - 47:37) Well, so well said. I love that. And you are, I'm just so grateful that you were called to this work and that you did surrender to the Lord. Here I am. Send me with your book and the way that you're communicating today and all of these resources that you put together. I think a lot of people are going to find healing and hope. And that's my prayer as we conclude our time together. But I'm just very grateful for you, Kris. So, thank you for being my guest.   Kris Reece: (47:37 - 47:41) Thank you. Thank you. It's been such a blessing and an honor. I am so appreciative.   Laura Dugger: (47:43 - 51:25) One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

On Palm Sunday, the crowds welcomed Jesus as King… but they were expecting a very different kind of Savior. They wanted freedom from Rome, while Jesus came to bring something far greater. In this message, we explore how easy it is to miss who Jesus truly is when we're focused on what we want Him to do. As the crowd was faced with a choice between two “Jesuses,” we're confronted with the same question today: are we following the real Jesus, or a version we've created to fit our desires?

On Palm Sunday, the crowds welcomed Jesus as King… but they were expecting a very different kind of Savior. They wanted freedom from Rome, while Jesus came to bring something far greater. In this message, we explore how easy it is to miss who Jesus truly is when we're focused on what we want Him to do. As the crowd was faced with a choice between two “Jesuses,” we're confronted with the same question today: are we following the real Jesus, or a version we've created to fit our desires?

Finding your ‘calling' can bring a lot of pressure when it is associated with a particular vocation or role. But the foundation and principle of our calling should be to be loved by and to love Jesus. This leaves us free–whatever our stage of life–to follow the Spirit in obedience to Christ, whatever avenues or roles he may lead us to. Bible passage: Gen 11:27–12:9

Dave Brisbin 2.9.26 There seem to be two Jesuses in the gospels. The first is the unconditional-love-Jesus who accepts and sits with anyone who will sit with him, regardless of moral or social standing. This is the Jesus who says: Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Then there's another Jesus, a turn-or-burn-Jesus who sets performance criteria between us and God's love. He's the one saying: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of your religious lawyers, there is no way you will enter the kingdom of heaven. Will the real Jesus please stand up? Is God's love unconditionally free or a reward for acceptable behavior? Seems it can't be both, yet the contradiction stands. And therein lies the source of our religious dissociative identity disorder, the reason it is so hard for us to shake our existential fears of condemnation. But a contradiction is only impassable within a certain context. Change the context, evaporate the contradiction. Jesus presents all his teaching within the context of the kingdom of heaven. If we misunderstand kingdom's context, we misunderstand Jesus, and the contradiction stands. As Jesus tirelessly illustrates, the kingdom of heaven, malkhuta d'ashmaya, is not a future politically sovereign Israel, as his first followers believed, or future heaven of the afterlife, as we typically believe today. It's the quality of life right herenow, reflecting a person's experience of the connection of all life to God and each other. The context of a future kingdom, creates a permanent if/then contingency, as if our performance determines God's decision to admit us. But in the herenow context of Jesus' kingdom, everything resolves, yet both Jesuses stand. God loves and accepts unconditionally, but our “sinful” beliefs and behavior are those that create separation, not from God, but from the experience of oneness herenow, the only context in which kingdom exists. Kingdom is never closed, never withheld—always now, always available. God doesn't admit us or not. God is eternally open. God's presence is kingdom itself. We admit ourselves whenever we're ready to experience it.

There seem to be two Jesuses in the gospels. The first is the unconditional-love-Jesus who accepts and sits with anyone who will sit with him, regardless of moral or social standing. This is the Jesus who says: Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Then there's another Jesus, a turn-or-burn-Jesus who sets performance criteria between us and God's love. He's the one saying: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of your religious lawyers, there is no way you will enter the kingdom of heaven. Will the real Jesus please stand up? Is God's love unconditionally free or a reward for acceptable behavior? Seems it can't be both, yet the contradiction stands. And therein lies the source of our religious dissociative identity disorder, the reason it is so hard for us to shake our existential fears of condemnation. But a contradiction is only impassable within a certain context. Change the context, evaporate the contradiction. Jesus presents all his teaching within the context of the kingdom of heaven. If we misunderstand kingdom's context, we misunderstand Jesus, and the contradiction stands. As Jesus tirelessly illustrates, the kingdom of heaven, malkhuta d'ashmaya, is not a future politically sovereign Israel, as his first followers believed, or future heaven of the afterlife, as we typically believe today. It's the quality of life right herenow, reflecting a person's experience of the connection of all life to God and each other. The context of a future kingdom, creates a permanent if/then contingency, as if our performance determines God's decision to admit us. But in the herenow context of Jesus' kingdom, everything resolves, yet both Jesuses stand. God loves and accepts unconditionally, but our “sinful” beliefs and behavior are those that create separation, not from God, but from the experience of oneness herenow, the only context in which kingdom exists. Kingdom is never closed, never withheld—always now, always available. God doesn't admit us or not. God is eternally open. God's presence is kingdom itself. We admit ourselves whenever we're ready to experience it.

Most youth camp games fail for one simple reason… and almost nobody realizes it. Leaders spend hours planning activities, but kids lose interest in minutes — and it's not because they're distracted or bored. Today, I'm sitting down with the creator of Camp Clue — a game that's been used in camps around the world to keep kids fully engaged. He's breaking down exactly why it works — and how you can design games that actually hold attention all week long. And how you can get it for yourself! CAMP CLUE ON DYM https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/camp-clue/camps-and-events/events-6260.html SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/187 ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry YM Lab - Anthony's Old Podcast https://podcast.downloadyouthministry.com/ymlab/

A faint light flickers up and down as a small converted golf cart is driven slowly along the rows of vegetables growing in the fields beyond. The light bobs and then pauses for some minutes before carrying on along the row. The cart is idled and I imagine the Jesuses and Josés of the world wearing thick jackets and pulled-down caps over stained jeans climbing down, knives in hand as they each pull an empty crate from the back of the golf cart before bending down and harvesting from another row of chard.

She's seen demons lined up like an army. Angels 60 feet tall. Jesus himself, standing in a backyard with a toddler. Britt Holland is a seer, and she's been seeing things since childhood—long before she had any framework to understand it. In this episode, Britt shares her full story: prophetic dreams that came true, a vision of the crucifixion at 17, years of seeing in the spirit realm, and the dangerous season when meditation practices opened doors she didn't mean to open. She encountered false Jesuses with fangs. Witches astrally projecting into her room. A mimicking spirit impersonating her husband.Britt's story is wild, but it's also grounded. She talks about the angels who appeared as humans in Russia and Germany and vanished without a trace. She explains the difference between the prophetic and the psychic, and how she tests what she sees against scripture. She's honest about where she went wrong, what she learned, and why she now believes that just because you can see into the spirit realm doesn't mean you should go exploring. For anyone who's ever had a supernatural experience and wondered if they were crazy—or if it was real—this episode is for you.Join us for a wild journey beyond the veil in this intriguing and wide-ranging interview on the unseen realm.  Want to listen to this and the entire back catalog of member-exclusive episodes? Check out all the perks at https://blurrycreatures.com/pages/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for our monthly Favored or Forsaken episode! Join Jamie, Erin, and Evan as we discuss woke nuns, a TikTok social experiment, and the recent influx of little Jesuses appearing all over cities. You'll also hear what is favored for each of us right now! MENTIONS​Give the gift of The Faith Adjacent Seminary: Here's the link | Here are the Diplomas Woke Nuns: Nuns Return Land to Native American TribeTikTok Baby Formula Test: Here's Nikolie Monroe's AccountTiny Jesuses? Here's the instagram post Evan's Favored: As Long As I Am in the Tent of This Body I Will Make a Joyful Noise Pt 1. by John Van DeusenErin's Favored: Knock at the Sky by Liz Charlotte GrantJamie's Favored: Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage by Kelly Foster LundquistThe Faith Adjacent Seminary: Support us on Patreon. I've Got Questions by Erin Moon: Order Here | Guided Journal Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith AdjacentFaith Adjacent Merch: Shop HereShop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacentFollow Faith Adjacent on Socials: Instagram See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The boys discover a peculiar cult boasting not one, but two Jesuses. Yowzah! Must be pretty awkward at Christmas. James whisks Alasdair off to the commune of the Agapemonites: a scandalous Victorian sect nestled in the sauciest region of Somerset. (Well, a few miles north of Taunton.) There's a little extra spice in the mix, because James has noticed that the word "sects" sounds a bit rude. See Alasdair On Tour in 2026! Edited by ⁠Laurence Hisee⁠ Join the LoreFolk at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/loremen⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check the sweet, sweet merch here... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/loremen-podcast?ref_id=24631⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @loremenpod ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/loremenpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.instagram.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.facebook.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1. Seth continus his review of Luke 10, further examining workers in the harvest.2. Seth responds to a question in the inbox about Christian firmness. 3. Seth discusses recent rubber Jesus experiences.

View this sermon (with video and/or audio recording) on our website: https://www.lordoflords.org/sermons/christ-for-us/He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him. But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:11-12). Amen."On the 300th anniversary of the Reformation (1817), one of the most powerful rulers in Germany attempted to unify both Lutheran and Reformed churches into one Evangelical church. The government mandated a common confession that blended Lutheran and Reformed beliefs. Those who opposed the policy had two choices: establish a free church, deprived of government financial support, or leave Germany. Some of them left and sought religious freedom in the United States. They were known as the Old Lutherans, or Strict Lutherans, and wanted to be free to practice their Lutheran faith" (Christ Through Us, p. 4)."When they came to the American West, they carried their German Bibles, hymnbooks, and copies of devotion books from the old country and gathered in homes for worship, hymn singing, and Bible reading. Often there were no pastors to teach them or conduct services. Someone would be chosen to lead the singing and perhaps also to read. With so few pastors on the frontier, differences in doctrine were ignored. The German Christians, Reformed and Lutheran, simply agreed to disagree. The Lutheran Confessions remained silent protests to set aside for the sake of unity and convenience When the people established congregations, sometimes they were gatherings of both Lutheran and Reformed protestants" (Christ Through Us, p. 5)."In reality, opposing doctrines often stood side by side in silent opposition and tension. The sound of axes and the struggle to create families, homes, and productive farms were more important" (Christ Through Us, p. 5).Three pastors - John Muehlhaeuser, John Weinmann, and William Wrede – founded a new synod called the "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Wisconsin," which later became the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The official founding of the synod was on May 26, 1850, at Salem Lutheran Church in Granville, which is now part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Though Strict Lutherans had fled Germany because of religious persecution, these three pastors did not care for the restrictive views of the Strict Lutherans. They preferred a Mild Lutheran synod that would allow them to also minister to the Reformed in their communities. The founding of our church body was not with strong, doctrinal, confessional Lutheran convictions. The beginning of the WELS was indeed small, even weak. We will discover over these three sermons and our ten-week Bible study on the history of the WELS, that this young Wisconsin Synod did something almost unheard of among Christian church bodies. By God's grace, it grew more biblically sound over it's 175 years.Today we examine the blessing of Christ for us. It's a rare blessing from the Lord that any church body teaches the gospel with remarkable clarity, much less for 175 years. We haven't done anything to deserve this blessing. Instead, Christ has done everything for us. He died for us, he rose for us, he saved us, and he reconciled us to God the Father. St. Paul lays all this out for us in Romans 5.Paul writes, "God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Paul explained earlier that what makes us sinners is that we are "ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Being godly means doing the will of God. But we do the opposite of God's will. We don't put God first in our lives. We take his holy name in vain. We don't worship God. We don't honor God's representatives in the home or government. We allow our temper to get the better of us. We lust, steal, covet, and gossip. All this makes us ungodly sinners.And yet, while we were ungodly, Christ, the perfect God-Man, died for us. In our place. As our Substitute. Look at Jesus hanging dead on the cross and then think of all the biblical stand-ins – the ram that spared Isaac (Genesis 22:13); the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:21); the scapegoat of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:21), the Suffering Servant of Isaiah: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Christ is the stand-in for sinners. Christ is the vicarious Victim.Paul explains that being ungodly sinners, we are God's natural-born enemies. "Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life" (Romans 5:9,10)You may consider yourself a good, decent, hard-working, church-going, right-decision-making Christian. Still, even you are an ungodly, sinful, enemy of God. Yet, this is how God shows his love for us – while we were still sinners and God's enemies, Jesus Christ died for us. He took the place of his enemies. Not his family. Not his buddies. He died for those who wanted him dead. For those who wanted nothing to do with him. That's you and me.One life in exchange for another. He becomes the sinner in place of every sinner; and we in him become the saint – holy and righteous before God. That's what Paul means when he says, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him." By saving us from God's righteous wrath, Jesus changed our eternal destination from hell to heaven. When God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin any more, but he sees the blood of his Son covering your sinfulness. He sees only little Jesuses. Even though your sins are many and great, Jesus' divine blood is greater. He became your sin in his death, and you received his life.St. Paul continues, "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation" (Romans 5:10-11)."Reconcile" means to win enemies over to friendliness. When I was playing soccer in college, there were players on a certain team that were taking me out. I was slide tackling them, too. It was rough! The ref had to get involved. But after the season was over, the players on that team invited me to their college to play indoor soccer on their intramural team. We had been sworn enemies. But we were reconciled.Most of the time, when there is reconciliation between bitter opponents, warring nations, fighting spouses, or arguing neighbors, each party has to give a little to get a little. That's not the way it worked with our reconciliation with God. We were God's bitter enemies. While we remained enemies, Christ made peace with us. We weren't doing the work that was assigned to us. We cheated on God. We were unfaithful followers and disloyal children. Still, Jesus entered our world to restore peace between us and God. We didn't give up anything ... except our sins. Christ is the One who gave up everything – he gave up heaven to suffer hell on the cross; he gave his perfection to us; he who cannot die as God, became Man so that he could die.On Good Friday, in the darkness of Jesus' death, God said to the world, "I am at peace with you." In your Baptism, when water was poured on you in the Name of the Triune God, the Father said, "I am at peace with you." In the Supper, with Jesus' own Body and Blood as his gift to you, God says again, "I am at peace with you."Brothers and sisters, take the time right now to bow your head and repent of your being God's natural-born enemy – an enemy that killed the Son of God with your sins.Silence for private confession.Reconciled children of our Heavenly Father, you are forgiven. Your name is written in the wounds of Jesus. Christ has dipped his pen in the crimson ink of his divinely human veins and written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Jesus promises, "I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels" (Revelation 3:5). Jesus has engraved your name on the palms of his hands. God promises, "Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16). Jesus has now set up his divine kingdom within your heart. That means he rules over your soul, mind, and body. Jesus says, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).You were once at war with your heavenly Father. Like Adam and Eve, you ran away and tried hiding from God. But Jesus came as the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent-Crusher (Genesis 3:15). You are the flesh that will return to dust. But the Son of God is the Word who became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). Jesus did all this to reconcile you to your heavenly Father. He has forgiven you. You are now God's friend. God's saint. God's child.You did nothing to bring about this reconciliation. God did it all through Jesus Christ. In Baptism, you didn't commit yourself to Christ; he committed himself to you. In those waters he crucified you with himself, laid your body with his in the tomb, and he carried you forward into the light of eternal life. Jesus promises, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). That faith is not a conviction you created but a gift you received. By the Holy Spirit you confess, "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3).Reconciled. Do you realize the implications? It isn't a matter of you "getting right with God" but of you believing that Christ has made you right with God. You weren't reconciled and made a Christian because you were so great a person, or had a heart that was so pure, or because you were so awesome that God just had to have you. Nope. It was because you were so unrighteous that Christ covered you with the clothing of his righteousness. It was because you were living for yourself that Christ lived for you, and then died for you, and then lives for you again. It wasn't because you asked Jesus to be your Savior that you were saved. It was because while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you, chose you, called you, and washed you clean in his own divine blood.You might have heard people say, "God loves you just the way you are." That sounds nice and loving. But when people say that they are often using those words to excuse someone's sinful lifestyle and harmful choices.A better way to speak is to say, "God loves you just the way you are. ... But he also loves you too much to let you stay that way."God loved you while you were still a sinner and his enemy. But he didn't let you remain in your sin or continue as his enemy. You were an enemy that Jesus saw needed changing. He didn't leave you the way you were. What would be the point in that?If you were going to stay the same, then what would have been the purpose of Jesus living and dying for you. No, while you were still an enemy of God, Jesus reconciled you to himself. He chose you while you were his enemy so he could make you a child of God. He chose you when you were a sinner so he could remake you into a saint. He chose you while you were still friends with the devil so he could remake you into a brother or sister of Christ.By God's grace, this is the message of Christ for you that generations of Lutherans in the Wisconsin Synod have been blessed to hear for the past 175 years from pulpits in our churches, learn in the classrooms of our grade schools and high schools, receive from the water in the baptismal fonts, and accept in the Body and Blood at the Lord's Table. By that same grace of God, this is the message of Christ for you that has been proclaimed here at Lord of Lords for the past 45 years.In this small church body we call the Wisconsin Synod, God has done something that is almost unheard of among Christian church bodies. "While most other church bodies have merged into larger bodies and lost their bodies and lost their distinctiveness or simply folded and disappeared into the mists of history as the decades have passed. But not the Wisconsin Synod" (Christ Through Us, viii). Our little Wisconsin Synod has grown more biblically sound over the past 175 years. That has only happened because we, always by God's grace, continue to proclaim a message of reconciliation – of Christ for us. Amen.The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Amen.

He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him. But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:11-12). Amen."On the 300th anniversary of the Reformation (1817), one of the most powerful rulers in Germany attempted to unify both Lutheran and Reformed churches into one Evangelical church. The government mandated a common confession that blended Lutheran and Reformed beliefs. Those who opposed the policy had two choices: establish a free church, deprived of government financial support, or leave Germany. Some of them left and sought religious freedom in the United States. They were known as the Old Lutherans, or Strict Lutherans, and wanted to be free to practice their Lutheran faith" (Christ Through Us, p. 4)."When they came to the American West, they carried their German Bibles, hymnbooks, and copies of devotion books from the old country and gathered in homes for worship, hymn singing, and Bible reading. Often there were no pastors to teach them or conduct services. Someone would be chosen to lead the singing and perhaps also to read. With so few pastors on the frontier, differences in doctrine were ignored. The German Christians, Reformed and Lutheran, simply agreed to disagree. The Lutheran Confessions remained silent protests to set aside for the sake of unity and convenience When the people established congregations, sometimes they were gatherings of both Lutheran and Reformed protestants" (Christ Through Us, p. 5)."In reality, opposing doctrines often stood side by side in silent opposition and tension. The sound of axes and the struggle to create families, homes, and productive farms were more important" (Christ Through Us, p. 5).Three pastors - John Muehlhaeuser, John Weinmann, and William Wrede – founded a new synod called the "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Wisconsin," which later became the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The official founding of the synod was on May 26, 1850, at Salem Lutheran Church in Granville, which is now part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Though Strict Lutherans had fled Germany because of religious persecution, these three pastors did not care for the restrictive views of the Strict Lutherans. They preferred a Mild Lutheran synod that would allow them to also minister to the Reformed in their communities. The founding of our church body was not with strong, doctrinal, confessional Lutheran convictions. The beginning of the WELS was indeed small, even weak. We will discover over these three sermons and our ten-week Bible study on the history of the WELS, that this young Wisconsin Synod did something almost unheard of among Christian church bodies. By God's grace, it grew more biblically sound over it's 175 years.Today we examine the blessing of Christ for us. It's a rare blessing from the Lord that any church body teaches the gospel with remarkable clarity, much less for 175 years. We haven't done anything to deserve this blessing. Instead, Christ has done everything for us. He died for us, he rose for us, he saved us, and he reconciled us to God the Father. St. Paul lays all this out for us in Romans 5.Paul writes, "God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Paul explained earlier that what makes us sinners is that we are "ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Being godly means doing the will of God. But we do the opposite of God's will. We don't put God first in our lives. We take his holy name in vain. We don't worship God. We don't honor God's representatives in the home or government. We allow our temper to get the better of us. We lust, steal, covet, and gossip. All this makes us ungodly sinners.And yet, while we were ungodly, Christ, the perfect God-Man, died for us. In our place. As our Substitute. Look at Jesus hanging dead on the cross and then think of all the biblical stand-ins – the ram that spared Isaac (Genesis 22:13); the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:21); the scapegoat of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:21), the Suffering Servant of Isaiah: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Christ is the stand-in for sinners. Christ is the vicarious Victim.Paul explains that being ungodly sinners, we are God's natural-born enemies. "Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life" (Romans 5:9,10)You may consider yourself a good, decent, hard-working, church-going, right-decision-making Christian. Still, even you are an ungodly, sinful, enemy of God. Yet, this is how God shows his love for us – while we were still sinners and God's enemies, Jesus Christ died for us. He took the place of his enemies. Not his family. Not his buddies. He died for those who wanted him dead. For those who wanted nothing to do with him. That's you and me.One life in exchange for another. He becomes the sinner in place of every sinner; and we in him become the saint – holy and righteous before God. That's what Paul means when he says, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God's wrath through him." By saving us from God's righteous wrath, Jesus changed our eternal destination from hell to heaven. When God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin any more, but he sees the blood of his Son covering your sinfulness. He sees only little Jesuses. Even though your sins are many and great, Jesus' divine blood is greater. He became your sin in his death, and you received his life.St. Paul continues, "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation" (Romans 5:10-11)."Reconcile" means to win enemies over to friendliness. When I was playing soccer in college, there were players on a certain team that were taking me out. I was slide tackling them, too. It was rough! The ref had to get involved. But after the season was over, the players on that team invited me to their college to play indoor soccer on their intramural team. We had been sworn enemies. But we were reconciled.Most of the time, when there is reconciliation between bitter opponents, warring nations, fighting spouses, or arguing neighbors, each party has to give a little to get a little. That's not the way it worked with our reconciliation with God. We were God's bitter enemies. While we remained enemies, Christ made peace with us. We weren't doing the work that was assigned to us. We cheated on God. We were unfaithful followers and disloyal children. Still, Jesus entered our world to restore peace between us and God. We didn't give up anything ... except our sins. Christ is the One who gave up everything – he gave up heaven to suffer hell on the cross; he gave his perfection to us; he who cannot die as God, became Man so that he could die.On Good Friday, in the darkness of Jesus' death, God said to the world, "I am at peace with you." In your Baptism, when water was poured on you in the Name of the Triune God, the Father said, "I am at peace with you." In the Supper, with Jesus' own Body and Blood as his gift to you, God says again, "I am at peace with you."Brothers and sisters, take the time right now to bow your head and repent of your being God's natural-born enemy – an enemy that killed the Son of God with your sins.Silence for private confession.Reconciled children of our Heavenly Father, you are forgiven. Your name is written in the wounds of Jesus. Christ has dipped his pen in the crimson ink of his divinely human veins and written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Jesus promises, "I certainly will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels" (Revelation 3:5). Jesus has engraved your name on the palms of his hands. God promises, "Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:16). Jesus has now set up his divine kingdom within your heart. That means he rules over your soul, mind, and body. Jesus says, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).You were once at war with your heavenly Father. Like Adam and Eve, you ran away and tried hiding from God. But Jesus came as the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent-Crusher (Genesis 3:15). You are the flesh that will return to dust. But the Son of God is the Word who became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). Jesus did all this to reconcile you to your heavenly Father. He has forgiven you. You are now God's friend. God's saint. God's child.You did nothing to bring about this reconciliation. God did it all through Jesus Christ. In Baptism, you didn't commit yourself to Christ; he committed himself to you. In those waters he crucified you with himself, laid your body with his in the tomb, and he carried you forward into the light of eternal life. Jesus promises, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). That faith is not a conviction you created but a gift you received. By the Holy Spirit you confess, "Jesus is Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:3).Reconciled. Do you realize the implications? It isn't a matter of you "getting right with God" but of you believing that Christ has made you right with God. You weren't reconciled and made a Christian because you were so great a person, or had a heart that was so pure, or because you were so awesome that God just had to have you. Nope. It was because you were so unrighteous that Christ covered you with the clothing of his righteousness. It was because you were living for yourself that Christ lived for you, and then died for you, and then lives for you again. It wasn't because you asked Jesus to be your Savior that you were saved. It was because while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you, chose you, called you, and washed you clean in his own divine blood.You might have heard people say, "God loves you just the way you are." That sounds nice and loving. But when people say that they are often using those words to excuse someone's sinful lifestyle and harmful choices.A better way to speak is to say, "God loves you just the way you are. ... But he also loves you too much to let you stay that way."God loved you while you were still a sinner and his enemy. But he didn't let you remain in your sin or continue as his enemy. You were an enemy that Jesus saw needed changing. He didn't leave you the way you were. What would be the point in that?If you were going to stay the same, then what would have been the purpose of Jesus living and dying for you. No, while you were still an enemy of God, Jesus reconciled you to himself. He chose you while you were his enemy so he could make you a child of God. He chose you when you were a sinner so he could remake you into a saint. He chose you while you were still friends with the devil so he could remake you into a brother or sister of Christ.By God's grace, this is the message of Christ for you that generations of Lutherans in the Wisconsin Synod have been blessed to hear for the past 175 years from pulpits in our churches, learn in the classrooms of our grade schools and high schools, receive from the water in the baptismal fonts, and accept in the Body and Blood at the Lord's Table. By that same grace of God, this is the message of Christ for you that has been proclaimed here at Lord of Lords for the past 45 years.In this small church body we call the Wisconsin Synod, God has done something that is almost unheard of among Christian church bodies. "While most other church bodies have merged into larger bodies and lost their bodies and lost their distinctiveness or simply folded and disappeared into the mists of history as the decades have passed. But not the Wisconsin Synod" (Christ Through Us, viii). Our little Wisconsin Synod has grown more biblically sound over the past 175 years. That has only happened because we, always by God's grace, continue to proclaim a message of reconciliation – of Christ for us. Amen.The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Amen.View this sermon (with video and/or audio recording) on our website: https://www.casperwels.com/sermons/christ-for-us/

Is political loyalty pulling our hearts away from Jesus?  Craig speaks with Brian Drinkwine, a pastor and church planter who's seen both the beauty and the brokenness of the American church. After one of Brian's posts about Charlie Kirk's death went viral, he found himself in the middle of a national conversation about faith, politics, and misplaced allegiance. Brian shares his story, from growing up in a strict Baptist home to planting churches across the country, and how he learned that following Jesus means laying down every other flag. Together, he and Craig talk about what happens when believers confuse the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world. They dig into: Why early Christians were persecuted for refusing to worship Caesar How politics can sneak in and take the place of Christ What real repentance looks like when we've mixed faith with empire The freedom that comes when our only loyalty is to Jesus first Brian also shares how he's helping others recognize political idolatry and live out the words, “No King but Christ.”   Take a listen and ask yourself: where does your allegiance really lie…the flag or the cross?  

In this eye-opening episode of Faith and Friction, we sit down with Dr. Laura Sanger to unpack some of the most pressing spiritual battles of our time. They dive deep into the Nephilim agenda, the rise of false Jesuses, and the ways mind control tactics are infiltrating our culture and faith.If you've ever felt confused, manipulated, or unsure of how to discern truth in a world full of spiritual deception, this episode is for you. Dr. Sanger shares insights from Scripture, history, and her experience exposing these hidden agendas, giving you tools to recognize and resist deception in your own life.Resources & Links:Learn more about Dr. Laura Sanger: nolongerenslaved.comSubscribe for exclusive episodes: patreon.com/faithandfrictionDon't forget to like, comment, and share this episode with someone who needs clarity in these times.

Welcome back to Bears! This episode the guys react to an extraordinarily ordinary type of L to start the season as the Bears fall 27-24 after blowing a late 17-6 lead. Three quarters of dominance begat one quarter of miserable failure, so what do we make of it? How did Caleb do? How about the new coaching staff? How about the one old member of the coaching staff (I'm coming for YOU Richard Hightower)? Can we officially say Poles' tenure has been a disaster? And how many Jesuses is an acceptable number of Jesuses? Find out inside! Thanks for listening!

Christians are unified in Jesuses words by speaking truth to one another in godly love. We are His mouth and feet, ambassadors for Christ, encouraging one another and glorifying God.

Bridget and Brookes discuss what film props they would want to own, and experience minor difficulties with the sound board.-Join our Discord community, subscribe to our Twitch channel, follow us on social media, and more!"Hellraiser is finally getting its first ‘true' game adaptation" - Polygon@scaredycast on TikTok"What's your best 'would you rather'?" - Reddit-Fighting With Friends is a member of the Eclectic Cult Media Network.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/fighting-with-friends-1. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Pentecost Sunday - the day we celebrate the arrival of the Spirit. Like we talked about last week, Christian means "follower of Christ." We can also understand it as meaning "little Christ." We're all little Jesuses. This happens with the indwelling of the Spirit. The Spirit is nothing more than Jesus moving from the outside to the inside. It's Jesus moving in. So here we'll walk a bit through the story in Acts 2. How do we know that Jesus has moved in? 1) There will be a renewed sense of community. They were all together in one place. The Spirit arrived to the gathered community. They had everything in common. We'll talk for a bit about the importance of the gathered community. With all of our online options today, the gathered community has never been more important. 2) There will be a renewed sense and passion for loving the world - our neighbors. There was such a diversity of people present at the first Pentecost. They were there meeting the practical needs of people. Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: Acts 2:1-13; 42-47 http://bible.com/events/49447317

Today's title may seem a little bit odd - how many Jesuses are in the NT? I'm sure there are going to be several comments on YouTube from people who didn't stay to watch the episode because the answer is clearly “one”. For those who want to see where we go with this, Dr. Bart Ehrman is going to be answering my questions on the different ways early Christians and writers of the NT viewed and understood Jesus, and whether all of those views and perspectives can be embodied in a single figure.

How many Jesuses are too many?

DATE: 10/27/2024SERIES: Kingdom TrialsTITLE: Choosing Between Two JesusesTEXT: Matthew 27:11-26BIG IDEA: Jesus is not intimidated by the world's power.SERMON NOTES: http://tiny.cc/notes20241027GROUPS QUESTIONS: http://tiny.cc/gqs20241027RESPOND: http://thecreeksidechurch.org/discovercard

DATE: 10/27/2024SERIES: Kingdom TrialsTITLE: Choosing Between Two JesusesTEXT: Matthew 27:11-26BIG IDEA: Jesus is not intimidated by the world's power.SERMON NOTES: http://tiny.cc/notes20241027GROUPS QUESTIONS: http://tiny.cc/gqs20241027RESPOND: http://thecreeksidechurch.org/discovercard

Who is Jesus? In our day we could say that we have many Jesuses! There's a religious version and a permissive version; a humanist Jesus, an activist Jesus, and many more. And we would do well to ask: Are we worshiping, following, and preaching the Genuine Article? Who is Jesus? In this sermon we kick off a short series asking that question. We'll go to the disciple who arguably knew Him best, the Apostle John. Listen to Right Start Radio every Monday through Friday on WCVX 1160AM (Cincinnati, OH) at 9:30am, WHKC 91.5FM (Columbus, OH) at 5:00pm, WRFD 880AM (Columbus, OH) at 9:00am. Right Start can also be heard on One Christian Radio 107.7FM & 87.6FM in New Plymouth, New Zealand. You can purchase a copy of this message, unsegmented for broadcasting and in its entirety, for $7 on a single CD by calling +1 (800) 984-2313, and of course you can always listen online or download the message for free. RS08272024_0.mp3Scripture References: John 1

This episode is a college baseball-palooza, what with my attempts to make peace with the Bulldogs' outcome at the regionals and Melanie's recap of her trip to watch the Aggies play the Longhorns (which ended up being an unexpected encounter with an array of tiny Jesuses). Plus, I have some feedback about the announcing side of college baseball and lots of thoughts about a quality at-bat. We also discuss a show we have both loved - as well as my impromptu trip to a fast food restaurant after a doctor's appointment - and it's Melanie's turn for Five Favorites. Hope you enjoy! - Join Us on Patreon - Our Amazon Shop Show Notes: - A&M going to super regionals - NCAA baseball super regional line-up - Hacks - Taco Bell's Cheez-it menu - tennis dress - Agolde Parker denim shorts - tunic ruffle hem shirt dress - oversized boyfriend button down shirt - Tan Luxe The Body Butter (this was a sidebar) - Musely The Spot pill Sponsors: - OSEA Malibu - use code BIGBOO for 10% off - Dwell - use this link for a 25% discount - Green Chef - use code BIGBOO50 to get 50% off plus 20% off your next two months - AG1 - use this link for a free year's supply of vitamin D3 & K2 plus five free travel packs

This week, Ryan and Brian speak over music, customize their burgers, share more McCartneys than Jesuses, and offer one of the most nail-biting thrillers Kealoa has ever known -- but we won't harp on it, give a listen yourself. If you get bored (how could you?!), write something for the Fill Me In wiki. And if you're feeling philanthropic, donate to our Patreon. Do you enjoy our show? Actually, it doesn't matter! Please consider leaving us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. This will help new listeners find our show, and you'll be inducted into the Quintuple Decker Turkey Club. Drop us a note or a Tweet or a postcard or a phone call — we'd love to hear from you. Helpful links: Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fill-me-in/id1364379980 Google Play link: https://player.fm/series/fill-me-in-2151002 Amazon/Audible link: https://www.amazon.com/item_name/dp/B08JJRM927 RSS feed: http://bemoresmarter.libsyn.com/rss Contact us: Email (fmi@bemoresmarter.com) / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram We're putting these words here to help with search engine optimization. We don't think it will work, but you probably haven't read this far, so it doesn't matter: baseball, crossword, crosswords, etymology, game, hunt, kealoa, movies, musicals, mystery, oscar, pizza, puzzle, puzzles, sandwiches, soup, trivia, words

"We've all got the same 24 hours; Goku is just spending them with God."Who knew Heaven was a place on Earth? This week on Destructo Discourse Origins, Goku rides the power pole up to Kami's Lookout, as we recap episodes 124-126 of the original hit anime, Dragon Ball, and wrap up the King Piccolo Saga! Join us as we spaghettify a Kamehameha, create at least 500 Jesuses by happenstance, and begrudgingly discuss the concept of "Oozaru backshots."Beating the brain-having allegations since 2018, baby!Your hosts this week are:Jayson, Matt, Melissa, TylerYou can also check out Tyler's other podcasts,What The FolklorePiece Meal

In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl tells Jack about the Mexican holiday 3 Kings Day.Transcript:00:00:01JackWelcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and today I'm here with my co-host social. And this is a new kind of episode that I like to call, topic talks and so social. What is today's topic or the topic talk?00:00:20XochitlUh, today's topic tag is a cultural holiday tradition called 3 Kings Day, and it's a holiday celebrated on January 6th and we celebrate in Mexico and I'm not sure if we celebrate it in other places of Latin America, but it celebrates when the three kings visited the baby Jesus.00:00:41XochitlYou brought gifts. So in Mexico you don't actually get your gifts on Christmas and stuff you. I mean, you can, but you usually get your gifts on three Kings Day.00:00:52JackOhh really you get?00:00:53JackYour your gifts on three Kings Day for not not.00:00:58XochitlYeah, I mean, I got.00:01:00XochitlGifts both days growing up, I split, split them up like between Christmas and three Wednesday.00:01:09XochitlBut traditionally in Mexico, you do get your gifts on three Kings Day so.00:01:16JackAnd and this also we should let our listeners know, this is like a this is from the the Christian Bible. The idea that on the on I guess it was when when Christ was Jesus was born.00:01:31JackBarn 3 Kings presented him with gifts, right? Gold, frankincense and myrrh.00:01:42JackIs that what it?00:01:42발표자Yeah, yeah.00:01:42JackIs OK alright. I don't know what Murray is. Actually, I don't know what frankincense is either, but.00:01:47XochitlFrankincense is a type of like it's a it's like a potpourri, or like an incense type of thing. It's a smell. I've smelled it before. It's kind of it smells kind of like minty.00:01:55JackOK. OK. OK.00:02:02XochitlBut look really sweet. I don't know.00:02:03JackThat's nice. Oh, OK. OK. Frank, it's. I mean, it kind of sounds like frankincense kind of sounds like some kind of incense. You know, like it comes to the word incense, but, but murder?00:02:03XochitlHow to?00:02:05XochitlIt is nice.00:02:13XochitlRight, yeah.00:02:16XochitlYeah, I don't know what that one is.00:02:19XochitlI'll be honest.00:02:19JackWhat is that? OK. All right. Have no idea if you know what Mer is. Please let us know. Send us.00:02:20XochitlI have no.00:02:21XochitlI don't have that one.00:02:24XochitlAn e-mail leave us a comment.00:02:29XochitlOr time in the we chat or.00:02:30XochitlWhatsApp groups, but uh.00:02:32XochitlYeah. So what we do typically is that we exchange gifts on this day kind of like you would for Christmas and then we.00:02:42XochitlCut up the roska, which is a three kings cake or King's cake. Kind of like Mardi Gras where you have.00:02:48XochitlKing's cake it's.00:02:49XochitlA similar kind of consistency. It's flavored with orange and anise seed.00:02:55XochitlAnd it has, like marzipan and cherries and candied orange peels. UM on the top.00:03:04XochitlAnd the very interesting.00:03:05JackOhh nice.00:03:06XochitlYeah, it is really tasty. I had two pieces, but the really interesting part about this pastry, it's shaped like a ring and everyone cuts their own peace. And if you get there's three plastic baby jesuses inside the.00:03:24XochitlThe cake and if you get a baby Jesus on February 2nd, you have to make tomorrow's for every.00:03:32JackOh, really? OK.00:03:36JackDid you get a baby Jesus?00:03:38XochitlNo, I I have a few tricks up.00:03:40XochitlMy sleeve Jack. So.00:03:42JackNobody wants.00:03:42JackA baby Jesus. You don't want a baby Jesus.00:03:45XochitlYou don't want a baby Jesus because then you have to make tomorrow and no one wants to make tamales. So I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I use to avoid the baby. Jesuses #1 is.00:03:57XochitlThe riskiest part is when you've cut your first piece of cake, you're pretty much.00:04:02XochitlIt's just your luck on luck.00:04:04JackYou got you go.00:04:04JackLeft or you go right. I mean that's it, right? I mean, right.00:04:07XochitlYeah, you have no pretty much no.00:04:12XochitlSay you kind of want to be in the middle.00:04:14XochitlOf the pack because.00:04:18XochitlIf you are the first person to cut, you have no idea. And if you're the last person to cut, then unless everyone else magically got a baby Jesus, which is very unlikely, then you're running out of space. You know what I mean? Like.00:04:31XochitlYou're running out.00:04:32XochitlOf real estate there. So it's likely that you're getting a baby Jesus, but if you're.00:04:36XochitlSomewhere in the middle of the pack.00:04:37XochitlIf someone just got a baby, the best time to go is.00:04:39XochitlIf someone just got a baby.00:04:41JackYeah, go right next to their their baby Jesus because.00:04:45XochitlThanks. Yeah.00:04:46JackThere's not going to be two.00:04:47JackBaby Jesus, next to each other, right?00:04:49XochitlYeah, they're not right next to each other. So I mean, when I used to make it, sometimes I put them.00:04:53XochitlNext to each other.00:04:56JackYou trick people, OK?00:04:57XochitlYeah, but you don't know where.00:05:01XochitlYou don't know where you they are. Even if you baked it, because once you bake it, you bake it with the baby.00:05:05XochitlJuice inside by.00:05:06XochitlThe way I know that can't be good for you.00:05:09XochitlBut or maybe?00:05:09JackThat can't be good, that those those are forever plastic chemicals, you know, so.00:05:14XochitlI know, but yeah. But you.00:05:16XochitlForget by the time it's ready where you put the baby Jesus. So it's like you.00:05:22XochitlThat's the best time is what right after someone got a baby Jesus.00:05:26XochitlThe other thing the other way that.00:05:28XochitlI avoid it is.00:05:30XochitlIf you already got a baby dude so you can eat as many slices as you want because getting the 2nd baby juices doesn't make you have to make more tamales.00:05:37JackNo, it's you're already. You're already done anyway. You're you're you've lost already, so.00:05:38XochitlWell, it's.00:05:43XochitlI just avoid a second slice until everyone has already.00:05:47XochitlGotten a baby Jesus? Like if they've already found three baby jesuses, then I can have as many slices as I want, but I tend.00:05:53XochitlTo hold out until that point.00:05:55JackOK.00:05:56JackOK.00:05:57JackWhat about? I'm just, I'm just brainstorming here, but what if?00:06:00JackYou cut really slowly.00:06:03JackAnd then you feel the plastic, you know, baby Jesus kind of touch the knife.00:06:10JackBut you can feel which side the the baby Jesus is on.00:06:14JackAnd then you cut the other go. The other way is that does that count? Or if you touch the baby Jesus with the knife, does that mean you you're now making tamales for everybody?00:06:25XochitlYes, because if you even if it peeks out, like even if you slice didn't have any, if you can see it when you cut it, like if it's in the then it's yours.00:06:34JackOh, OK, OK. So you.00:06:36XochitlPut it with the knife and you like moved your knife because you felt it. Everyone would. Everyone's watching you cut. So everyone be like you felt it. So you're making it tomorrow. Like they don't care. But I'll be really dirty. Trick that I used to have up my sleeve when I was a kid. Is that when everyone was distracted? I would. It's like a.00:06:54JackYou would poke a toothpick in there.00:06:57XochitlNo, I would pick it up and look at the bottom because you can see the.00:07:00XochitlHoles where they put the baby juices in.00:07:04JackSo you would know exactly where not to OK.00:07:08XochitlYeah, we're not to cut. And just, like, make a mental note of it. That was when I was younger I.00:07:12XochitlTried not to be that unfair.00:07:14JackYeah, that's some serious cheating right there. But yeah, you must be making tamales. Must be really awful. Must must be.00:07:21XochitlIt's not awful, but it's a lot of work, like no one to do it because you have to sit around. It's like an all day of Fair like you have to make the dough. You gotta boil the pork. You have to make the sauce. So that goes in there like you have. There's so many components to the ceiling and then you have to wrap each individual tomorrow. And you have to steam them in a pot, then you're done.00:07:24JackOK, OK.00:07:41XochitlSo it's like all the affair.00:07:43XochitlSo just no one.00:07:43JackI love tamales though. Ohh my gosh.00:07:46JackThey're so good.00:07:47XochitlI'm actually not a fan.00:07:48XochitlOf tamales either actually. So that's like.00:07:50JackReally. Ohh like that? I don't I.00:07:52JackThink I like them.00:07:54XochitlMore little ones with banana like that are wrapped in banana leaves. I do love those, but other other ones. I'm not a huge fan of. Yeah. So that's kind of the the big thing is like the excitement about whether you're gonna find a baby Jesus or not.00:08:08XochitlAnd do you have like hot cocoa or, you know, you drink it with like hot cocoa usually?00:08:13XochitlBecause it's not a super sweet. It's like it's kind.00:08:15XochitlOf a sweet.00:08:16XochitlBread, pastry kind of thing, but it's not very sweet. It's not like American pastries.00:08:21XochitlWhere it's like.00:08:21XochitlA mouthful of sugar. It's like a.00:08:22JackRight, right, right. Yeah.00:08:23XochitlVery light beef bread.00:08:25XochitlSo you dip it in your hot chocolate to complement it.00:08:29XochitlUM.00:08:31XochitlAnd that's kind of how you do it you.00:08:33XochitlKnow so.00:08:34JackSun right, actually.00:08:36XochitlYeah, it is really nice. I actually do, really.00:08:38XochitlEnjoy it and.00:08:40발표자Like did you?00:08:40JackGuys stretch out the holiday season even a little bit farther.00:08:43XochitlOh, ohhh yeah, we're bad in Mexico. If you if you whenever. If you ever moved to Mexico or go travel to Mexico or something. Everything. I mean, except businesses, some businesses and stuff, but any kind of like paperwork, anything like that is shut down completely from like December through the end of January.00:09:05XochitlDecember starts Posadas all the way until December 24th. Posadas are like.00:09:10XochitlWhen you know.00:09:11XochitlHow Mary and Joseph asked for a place to stay like they asked for refuge, I guess.00:09:17JackYeah, yeah, yeah.00:09:18XochitlSo you go around knocking. I told you about this before.00:09:21XochitlBut you go.00:09:22XochitlAround knocking door.00:09:22XochitlTo door and you like get hot chocolate and there's like party. It's like a part.00:09:26XochitlEvery night up until Christmas Eve. Then you party on Christmas. Then it's like you have New Year's. Then you have they smuggle. But January 6. And then there's still more stuff that you're doing up until February 2nd, where you have the people come back and have the tamales.00:09:47JackI love it. I love it. Months of celebrations? Yeah, that's.00:09:48XochitlSo it's just a party all through December and January.00:09:54XochitlIt's like doing some partying. Yeah, yeah.00:09:57JackI like it. I like it.00:09:59XochitlVery festive culture, which is something I appreciate and something a lot of.00:10:03XochitlPeople like but.00:10:04XochitlA lot of people aren't prepared for it when they move their full time because they get angry because they're like, why are there fireworks waking me up at 2:00 AM every night? It's like, well, they're.00:10:13XochitlPart people are partying cause it's like a patron, St's birthday or some kind of holiday. It's like pretty much every week there's a holiday of some sort.00:10:22JackRight. It's the day before the day before the three Kings Day. And it's the day after, you know? Yeah.00:10:23XochitlAnd they're not all set.00:10:28XochitlRight.00:10:29XochitlYeah, they after this. So it's kind of like it's a big celebratory culture and a lot of people enjoy that. But again, they're not really like ready for it because it's a lot of.00:10:41XochitlCommunity and like in America, we're so individualistic and we're so reserved and we don't like loud noises and we're very bothered by.00:10:51XochitlThose couple things and like it's something that I feel like a lot of Americans are really not prepared for when they move to Mexico. I see so many complaints on expat groups like why are people putting on fireworks? My poor dog is scared. I'm scared. I don't like the noise. I can't.00:11:07XochitlSleep and like it's.00:11:08XochitlJust that's how it is here.00:11:11XochitlI guess that it is better. Yeah, or. Yeah. But it's like not going to change anytime soon because it's just part of the culture, a huge part.00:11:11JackYeah, accept it or leave God love it.00:11:15JackLeave it.00:11:21XochitlOf the culture so.00:11:23XochitlYeah. All right. Well, listeners, if you've ever heard about 3 Kings Day or similar holiday share, share your experiences with us at A-Z, englishpodcast.com, leave a comment down below. Shoot us an e-mail at AZ englishpodcast@gmail.com join our WhatsApp.00:11:40XochitlGroup or WeChat?00:11:41XochitlGroup and we'll see you guys next time.00:11:43발표자Bye bye.Podcast Website:https://atozenglishpodcast.com/topic-talk-3-kings-day/Social Media:WeChat: atozenglishpodcastFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/671098974684413/Tik Tok:@atozenglish1Instagram:@atozenglish22Twitter:@atozenglish22A to Z Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/theatozenglishpodcastCheck out our You Tube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCds7JR-5dbarBfas4Ve4h8ADonate to the show: https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/donationsRobin and Jack started a new You Tube channel called English Word Master. You can check it out here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aXaXaMY4P2VhVaEre5w7ABecome a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-a-to-z-english-podcast-4779670Join our Whatsapp group: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7Intro/Outro Music: Daybird by Broke for Freehttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Directionless_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Directionless_EP_-_03_Day_Bird/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcodeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Merry Ja Mas www.patreon.com/loljkpodcast

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Pope Francis has said that homosexuals and even atheists go to Heaven. Even for Roman Catholicism, he is a heretic. But he recently made a startling statement about Jesus and how many “Jesuses” there are. ✅

Pope Francis has said that homosexuals and even atheists go to Heaven. Even for Roman Catholicism, he is a heretic. But he recently made a startling statement about Jesus and how many “Jesuses” there are. ✅

In this episode we tackle what we see as a problem with Jesus, metaphysical beliefs and abilities, Indigo Children, emanations of enlightenment and a practical Tantra. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gintantra/message

If the Jesus I worship looks just like me, is he the real Jesus or a Lord of my own making? This week, once more, we'll consider some of the fake “Jesuses” that appeal to Christians on the conservative side of the theological spectrum. False Christs are dangerous because they can lead us to trust in an imagined “god” who is not real. Don't fall for that trap!

Although God calls us to be shaped into his likeness, we're more interested in fashioning God in our own image. But the real Jesus cannot be made into the image of man so easily. This week we'll look at five modern distortions of Jesus that appeal to Christians on the conservative side of the spectrum: Braveheart Jesus, American Jesus, Dr. Phil Jesus, Prosperity Jesus, and Legalist Jesus. These fake Jesuses are dangerous because those who follow them put their trust in someone other than the biblical Christ. If the Christ we worship looks just like the man in the mirror, is he the real Jesus…or a Jesus of our own making?

Featuring Matt Anderson and Ben De Bono It’s the return of a news episode! And other announcements!

In Matthew 24, Jesus says that many will come in His name; but how do we know when we see another "Jesus"? Join David Lister on his discussion and find out how to know a false Christ when you see one.We're taking a break in Sandy's Apologetics for this month as we take a look at evangelism in a day when its desperately needed. Sandy will be back with more apologetics and bible teaching  in June.

Lords: * Avery * Tyriq Topics: * Adam, Father of all humankind, was maybe a giant * Heathcliff is still going and it's weird * I've heard a million novelty metal covers but still nobody's done Truly Scrumptious / Doll on a Music Box from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang * "The Phone Call" by James Tate Microtopics: * Withholding all your best URLs until the end of the episode. * Using lowercase Ls in place of Is and seeing if anybody notices. * Leaving capitalizations to the whims of chaos. (Your fingers.) * Teachers explaining that if you can't write in cursive by junior high your teachers will throw things at you and call you stupid. * Adam and Eve growing to 18 feet tall. * Pre-flood humans and their towering heights/lifespans/IQs. * How to make your wisdom teeth fit again. * Conspiracy theories that have no bearing on anything. * Fighting wars over the estimated radius of the earth. * The Nephilim. * YHWH fanfiction. * How many Jesuses are alive today. * The friend you have with superhuman charisma and whether they ended up starting a cult. * Getcherself a nice cult, settle down, have a thousand babies. * The guy who was both a dwarf and a giant during his lifetime. * Every tall person having been short at one point. * Chain-smoking tweens drinking martinis and yelling at their secretaries. * A Topic Lords ouroboros. * Hypothesizing why the elderly people Heathcliff lives with have a child. * Having a child for some reason. * A humanoid robot with the word "meat" printed on its chest. * The kind of people who read comics every day. * Zippy the Pinhead. * A weird underground subculture comic that somehow made it into newspaper syndication. * Mustache Mondays vs. Mustache Lasagna. * A milk mustache but for lasagna. * A cartoon anvil that has its weight imprinted on it. * Two side characters explaining the situation to each other. * One of the birds says to the other, "Christ, what an asshole." * Historians a thousand years from now deciding whether Heathcliff should be included in the Bible. * After recorded media stops being a thing, episodes of The Simpsons being passed down as oral history. * Rhapsodes. * Contests for the best rhapsode. * Hector of the Shining Helmet vs. Hector the Booty Inspector. * Fillet episodes in the Odyssey and the Iliad. * The Flaming Lips album that comes on four CDs that your supposed to play simultaneously, but nobody's ever bothered. * How they handle hidden tracks on Spotify. * How to deal with skits when you're ripping rap albums to mp3. * The Meat Puppets playing a set in the middle of Nirvana'a MTV Unplugged set. * Writing a song about a shooting star who's been turned into a rat and has just fallen in love with someone named Tristran, and trying to figure out what rhymes with Tristran. * Working at the Brill Building. * Tin Pan Alley. * Nearly jumping out of your pants. * Taking a high-paying job as a murder victim. * The one where people wear horse skulls. * The Scrambler, from issue #12 where the panels were all out of order. * Working at the oil refinery until a giant spider comes and steals the Light of the Silmarils. * Whether there's a werewolf in the Silmarillion. * Biblical Exigesis. * Getting email saying that your art is improving someone's life. * A phone that can receive text messages but you have to pay extra to know who they're from.

Crystal has a wonderful and enlightening conversation with spiritual mentor, author, and podcast host of The Cosmic Love Antenna, Harrison Meagher. Topics discussed: the multi-dimensional body, the cosmic heart and the heart portal, the three Jesuses, timelines, humanity's shadow, and much more. Pre-Order Harrison's book: https://www.cosmicloveantenna.com/Listen to Harrison's podcast, The Cosmic Love Antenna: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cosmic-love-antenna/id1610645851Follow Harrison on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harrisonmeagher/ *Join Crystal's Text Community: https://textcac.comJoin the Life Magnetics Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lifemagneticsWrite to Crystal: questions@life-magnetics.netFollow Crystal on IG: https://instagram.com/crystalannecomptonSubscribe to Crystal's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrystalAnneCompton/Visit Crystal's website: https://crystalannecompton.comJoin Crystal's spiritual community: https://lightshinelab.comFollow the Miraculous Thinking Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/miraculous-thinkingJoin the Holy Agreements Prayer Circle: https://crystalannecompton.com/agreementsDonate to keep the teaching coming: https://paypal.me/CrystalAnneCompton

My special guest tonight is author Mathew Barnes, who is here to discuss his book   The Emerald Tablet 101: A Modern, Practical Guide, Plain and Simple (The Ancient Egyptian Enlightenment Series).        The Emerald Tablet is an Ancient Egyptian work written by Hermes Trismegistus that is believed to represent a step-by-step instruction manual for the Alchemical process of turning ordinary metals like lead into something much more valuable, like gold.  The manual consists of fourteen cryptic, symbolic statements that many have tried to decipher throughout thousands of years.   The fourteen statements of the Emerald Tablet are a symbolic guide to a far greater treasure than the conversion of lead into gold. Instead, it is a symbolic guide to awakening the human soul. I believe it to be a guide to converting a base and petty human being into an awakened soul, the likes of which we have seen in the Jesuses and the Buddhas of our world.   In the Christian Bible, it is said that Adam fell into a deep sleep. Nowhere in that Bible does it say that he woke back up. I believe the Emerald Tablet's purpose is that very awakening.   It's super easy to access our archives!   Here's how:   iPhone Users: Access Mysterious Radio from Apple Podcasts and become a subscriber there, or if you want access to even more exclusive content, join us on Patreon.

My special guest tonight is author Mathew Barnes here to discuss his book called The Emerald Tablet 101: a modern, practical guide, plain and simple (The Ancient Egyptian Enlightenment Series). The Emerald Tablet is an Ancient Egyptian work written by Hermes Trismegistus that is believed to represent a step-by-step instruction manual for the Alchemical process of turning ordinary metals like lead into something much more valuable, like gold. The manual consists of fourteen cryptic, symbolic statements that many have tried to decipher over the course of thousands of years.  I believe the fourteen statements of the Emerald Tablet to be a symbolic guide to a far greater treasure than the conversion of lead into gold. I believe it to be, instead, a symbolic guide to the awakening of the human soul. I believe it to be a guide to the conversion of a base and petty human being into an awakened soul, the likes of which we have seen in the Jesuses and the Buddhas of our world.  In the Christian Bible, it is said that Adam fell into a deep sleep. Nowhere in that Bible does it say that he woke back up. The purpose of the Emerald Tablet, I believe, is that very awakening. BECOME A PLUS PASS MEMBER TO ACCESS ARCHIVED EPISODES AND MORE! APPLE IPHONE USERS: LISTEN AD-FREE BY BECOMING A PLUS PASS MEMBER ON APPLE PODCASTS ANDROID USERS: LISTEN AD-FREE BY BECOMING A PASS MEMBER AND LISTEN FROM MOST PODCAST APPS PLUS PASS MEMBER BENEFITS: AD-FREE ACCESS TO MYSTERIOUS RADIO PLUS: AD-FREE ACCESS TO PARANORMAL FEARS! AD-FREE ACCESS TO SEVEN! AD-FREE ACCESS TO OVER 150 HOURS OF ARCHIVED EPISODES! AD-FREE ACCESS TO CONTROVERSIAL EPISODES! AD-FREE ACCESS TO BONUS EPISODES FOR MEMBERS ONLY! Want All Paranormal Episodes? Subscribe To Our Podcast Paranormal Fears! Follow Paranormal Fears on Apple Podcasts Follow Paranormal Fears on Spotify Follow Paranormal Fears on Google Follow Paranormal Fears on Amazon Follow Paranormal Fears on Podcast Addict Follow Paranormal Fears on TuneIn Radio or in your favorite podcast app! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.In the late first century, there were false concepts of Jesus circulating in the Christian world. Just as today there are numerous false Jesuses (perhaps best known is the one begging you to "accept" him, in exchange for nothing -- no commitment), so at the turn of the second century there was a false and idolatrous Jesus. This was being proclaimed in the churches where the apostle John, now an old man, had influence.1 Jn 1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— 3 we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.1 John is a letter from the apostle to Christians in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).These inspired words are addressed to the second (third?) generation of Christians. A whole generation or two of believers has been converted and died; it's up to their children to carry the torch.The letters of 1 and 2 John address a heresy called Gnosticism, and specifically a version of Gnosticism called Docetism. If you are unfamiliar with these doctrines, be sure to click on the links -- otherwise it will be difficult for you to fully understand these letters. There are other articles on Gnosticism at this website, too.2 Jn 7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 8 Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward. 9 Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; 11 for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.Christians shouldn't say, “Philosophy and theology don't matter; just read the Bible.” Training in how to read the Bible benefits us all. The fact is, words and ideas are powerful. We have a moral obligation not only to teach the truth clearly, but also to protect the church from the ravages of false teachers.There are a number of NT references that begin making sense when you realize the nature of the false doctrine being discussed.Colossians 2:18-23 deals with ascetic regulations, and the specific heresy seems to be a fusion of Jewish and Gnostic philosophy.1 Timothy 6:20 addresses the Gnostic superiority complex (“what is falsely called knowledge”).1 and 2 John deal with Docetism. The docetic "Jesus" is nothing but an idol (1 John 5:21).John is emphatic that Jesus Christ came in a physical body (vv.1-3).His life and person were open to verification through the physical senses: sight, hearing and touch.Keep in mind that the Docetists are claiming that he came not in a physical body but as some sort of disembodied spirit.John insists he is a reliable eyewitness of Jesus Christ.It really does matter whether Jesus existed, whether he physically came to earth as a man, preached, loved, and resisted temptation in the flesh, whether he physically died on a cross and bodily rose from the dead (1 Cor 15)!John stresses here not the divinity of Jesus, but his humanity, which was being questioned.So, was Jesus 50% human and 50% divine? No! He was 100% human and 100% divine.As an illustration, Gatorade is totally wet and completely lime-green—100% of each—both at the same time. There are two natures, yet neither excludes the other.In the same way, Jesus is human and divine.Why the mention of fellowship in 1:3?The false teachers, influenced by the Gnostics, had left the fellowship.Either you are in the fellowship or out of it (in both senses of the phrase!).The Gnosticized Christians had “gone out” (1 John 2:19); their new “church” was not in fellowship with the real disciples—they had nothing in common.A modern day phenomenon that is sweeping away many people tired of traditional religion is New Age religion.This is a fusion of eastern mysticism and western concepts, with elements of astrology, pantheism, meditation, the occult and a good deal of snob appeal.Enlightenment is sought within, rather than without—at the foot of the cross of Christ. This is the central flaw of this and many other quasi-religious movements.Sin is downplayed, and the language of love, unity, freedom and tolerance masks the true heart of the movement, which throbs with rebellion and individualism. The movement takes strong exception to the doctrines of sin, judgment, righteousness, hell, and other doctrines clearly set out in the Bible.The message is promoted in such bestsellers asThe Celestine ProphecyThe Care of the SoulA New EarthThe Power of NowA Course in MiraclesFour AgreementsFor an exploration of Gnosticism, with a survey of five Gnostic gospels, see my audio set The Lost Books of the Bible (IPI: Spring, Texas, 2007).The material in this and the next 5 or 10 lessons has been adapted from chapter 17 of my book James, Peter, John, Jude.  Re-read prologue

An episode so nice they done it twice! Support us on our Patreon page and get weekly bonus Patreon-exclusive content! Patreon.com/Page7Podcast Intro song by Green Dreams Flowerhead - Pondering My Orb (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXb6QLCaLxjvucwNlQuS2gg) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0