Podcasts about loved

From punk rock revolutionary to bridge-builder, Grammy winner Ani DiFranco reveals how being canceled by her own community transformed her approach to activism and art.This intimate conversation explores how to maintain fierce convictions while fostering revolutionary love, featuring vulnerable insights about evolving activism, DIY independence, and creating change through music and dialogue in an age of deepening divides.Watch this conversation on YouTubeYou can find Ani at: Website | Instagram | Episode TranscriptIf you LOVED this episode, you'll also love the conversations we had with Zoe Boekbinder, joined by Ani DiFranco and Nathen Brown, about The Prison Music Project—a powerful collaboration born inside New Folsom Prison that became the album Long Time Gone, produced by Ani and featuring songs written with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated musicians.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount CodesWatch Jonathan's new TEDxBoulder Talk on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zUAM-euiVI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Go to https://www.shopify.com/chaser to sign up for a $1 per month trial period! Follow Tim on IG: @timchantarangsu Follow Rick on IG: @rickyshucks Follow Nikki on IG: @NikkiBlades Check out Goodie Brand at https://www.GoodieBrand.com Check out Tim's Patreon for exclusive content at https://www.patreon.com/timchantarangsu To watch the No Chaser podcast on YouTube go to: www.youtube.com/timothy Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/NoChaserPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You absolutely can heal from disorganized attachment and I'm living proof of it. For over a decade, I was stuck in chaos, emotional highs and lows, and constant self-doubt. My relationships were a reflection of the deep wounds I hadn't yet faced. In this episode, I'm opening up about my own journey with disorganized attachment, the rock-bottom moments, the painful patterns, and the neuroscience-backed healing process that helped me finally become secure and build the peaceful, healthy love I once thought was impossible.Inside the Episode:How disorganized attachment forms and the unpredictable caregiving patterns that create it.Why you keep attracting chaos in love (and how to stop recreating your childhood pain in adult relationships).The exact process I used to rewire my attachment style and finally experience secure, emotionally regulated love.Healing disorganized attachment is so possible but it starts with saying yes to yourself. Inside the Empowered.Secure.Loved Program, I walk you through my proven neuroscience-based framework that has helped over 1,000 women become securely attached and attract the kind of love they once thought didn't exist.✨ Applications are closing soon for this year. Don't wait! This is your moment to heal, to rewire, and to step into the peaceful love you deserve.

What does it mean to act with wisdom—and make every moment sacred? In Chapter 4 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna reveals how true wisdom isn't passive—it's a call to action. He teaches Arjuna how knowledge, action, and sacrifice are deeply intertwined, offering a timeless guide for navigating moral crises with clarity and courage. Today, we explore how these teachings apply to your modern life, showing you how to transform every choice, breath, and moment into an offering aligned with your highest purpose. Here's what you'll learn:

Forget “closing the gap.” It's widening — for the first time since the 1960s. And if you're waiting for the system to fix it, you'll be waiting forever. Because as Cindy Gallop says: no one's coming to save us.   Cost of waiting: Every underpaid year compounds the gap — not just in salary, but in wealth, opportunity, and ownership. This episode isn't about leaning in. It's about taking over. Cindy Gallop — entrepreneur, speaker, and founder of MakeLoveNotPorn.tv — joins Loren to dismantle outdated rules and lay out a new playbook for women who are done asking for permission.   In this episode: Why women must unapologetically set out to make a “god-fcking-sht-ton of money” — and why that's a good thing The mindset shift from “safe jobs” to self-ownership and wealth creation How to spot (and escape) the workplaces that quietly drain your confidence A simple rule for asking for your true value — and getting it Why starting your own business is the fastest path to power and equality The They Got Acquired mindset: why anything you build has value — and how to cash in on it How women can build their own financial ecosystems by funding, supporting, and hiring each other   Timestamps (0:00) – Intro: Why this pay gap is different (1:05) – Meet Cindy Gallop: The unapologetic truth-teller on money and power (3:00) – Patriarchy, pay, and why she's done explaining the “why” (5:20) – Make a god-fcking-sht-ton of money — and help other women do it (9:45) – Start your own business: the fastest path to equality (13:10) – The corporate dilemma: how to ask for your worth and when to walk (18:30) – Radical simplicity for confidence and negotiation (23:50) – How to network like a pro (Cindy's Dear Cindy method) (27:45) – Reinventing after layoffs and ageism — your next move starts now (31:30) – Final takeaways + Loren's 30-Day Blast invitation   Mic-Drop: No one's coming to save you. So stop waiting for equity — start creating it.   Loved the episode? Support Cindy's work: Dear Cindy Substack Cindy Gallop on LinkedIn MakeLoveNotPorn.tv   Ready to own your next career move? Join Loren's 30-Day Blast — the fast-track program that helps executives land roles and raise compensation by 40%–100%. Book your free 30-minute clarity call: https://www.portfoliorocket.com/contact   Follow Loren Greiff LinkedIn Instagram Watch on YouTube

On the 120th episode of Dorm Damage With Tom & Zeus the guys discuss the article by Cracked.com, "Top 100 Greatest Seinfeld Moments 40-21" Seinfeld is in the Shout Out It Loudcast Hall Of Fame for a reason. It is perhaps the greatest tv comedy of all time. Loved by critics and fans alike. Cracked.com ranks the Top 100 Greatest Moments in Seinfeld. Tom & Zeus will break this down into 5 parts with part 4 here, number 40 - 21. So don't be like poor Lily and make sure you tune in! To Read Cracked.com's article “The 100 Greatest Seinfeld Moments”   ⁠The 100 Greatest Seinfeld Moments⁠ To Purchase Shout It Out Loudcast's KISS Book “Raise Your Glasses: A Celebration Of 50 Years of KISS Songs By Celebrities, Musicians & Fans Please Click Below:   ⁠Raise Your Glasses Book⁠   For all things Shout It Out Loudcast check out our amazing website by clicking below:   ⁠www.ShoutItOutLoudcast.com⁠   Interested in more Shout It Out Loudcast content? Care to help us out? Come join us on Patreon by clicking below:   ⁠SIOL Patreon⁠   Get all your Shout It Out Loudcast Merchandise by clicking below:   ⁠Shout It Out Loudcast Merchandise at AMAZON⁠   Shop At Our Amazon Store by clicking below: ⁠Shout It Out Loudcast Amazon Store⁠   Please Email us comments or suggestions by clicking below: ⁠ShoutItOutLoudcast@Gmail.com⁠   Please subscribe to us and give us a 5 Star (Child) review on the following places below: ⁠iTunes⁠ ⁠Podchaser⁠ ⁠Stitcher⁠ ⁠iHeart Radio⁠ ⁠Spotify ⁠   Please follow us and like our social media pages clicking below: ⁠Twitter⁠ ⁠Facebook Page⁠ ⁠Facebook Group Page Shout It Out Loudcasters⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠   Proud Member of the Pantheon Podcast click below to see the website: ⁠Pantheon Podcast Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abby in Evanston understands us. Chicago’s best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page. Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101. Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every few years, conversations about education in the U.S. circle back to the same refrain: Why can't we be more like Finland?In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Chrishawn Finister from Your Joy Psychological, PLLC to unpack this comparison.We dig into the nuanced relationship between educational eligibility and clinical diagnosis, which often overlap but aren't interchangeable. From there, we widen the lens to explore the broader systems-level challenges that shape how students are identified, supported, and served.Some key themes we discuss:✅ Orthographic density and literacy: Why differences in written language systems matter when comparing reading outcomes across countries.✅ Population homogeneity and “education tracks”: When we look at instructional outcomes data, the students included in the education system and the numbers matter. Are the same individuals “counting” when we compare results across countries? ✅ Teacher pay and professional identity: What Finland's investment in teacher preparation and salary looks like compared to the U.S. (spoiler alert: Dr. Finister and I both think the US should be more like Finland on this one). ✅ Cultural perceptions of medicine vs. education: Why recommendations from evaluations are perceived differently depending on the setting and who is making decisions about services.✅ Housing instability and socioeconomic factors: We're educating students with complex needs in the US who have varying experiences outside of school. With this in mind, has the education system made more progress than what the media is saying? Rather than looking for a one-size-fits-all solution, we highlight why U.S. educators, policymakers, and clinicians need to understand the challenges and opportunities when designing systems of support.If you've ever wondered where the lines between clinical diagnosis and educational eligibility blur, this conversation will give you a grounded perspective.Dr. Chrishawn Finister is an Independent Practicing Licensed Psychological Associate and a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology, possessing over a decade of experience in the role of School Psychologist. Recognized as a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, she is committed to utilizing diagnostically sound assessments to identify learning barriers and implementing research-based interventions to amend challenging behaviors effectively. Dr. Finister is an advocate of culturally competent practices and is dedicated to training future practitioners in the field. She received her foundational training in psychological pedagogy and assessments at Texas Woman's University, where she completed her Master's degree in 2010. While working in a prominent North Texas public school district, she advanced her education by earning a Doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2019. Her contributions to the field extend to academia, where she has served as a guest lecturer at the College of Education at Texas Christian University.Places to connect with Dr. Finister:Her private practice, Your Joy Psychological, PLLCWebsite: https://yourjoypsych.com/Business Instagram: @yourjoypsychHer NonProfit, Texas Psychological Hive: https://thetexaspsychhive.org/Non-profit Instagram: @texaxpsychhiveAdditional Resources Mentioned in this episode:Steven Pinker: https://stevenpinker.com/Mark Manson: https://markmanson.net/Dr. Tim Shanahan: https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives SLPs and other service providers a system for language therapy. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/ We're thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL's comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers' timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments

Chaos costs more than you think — not just in time or money, but in joy. Without structures, joy gets swallowed by stress, disorganization, and reactivity In this episode, Jenn Whitmer breaks down why steady systems, rhythms, and rituals are essential for sustaining joy in your leadership and life. Drawing inspiration from Elizabeth Gilbert's wisdom and backed by behavioral science, Jenn reveals how creating repeatable, life-giving structures protects your energy, improves resilience, and helps you thrive—even when life is what it is. Here's What's in the Episode: 1:30 Why go-with-the-flow quietly destroys your joy. 4:00 What Elizabeth Gilbert knows about creativity and suffering. 7:45 How leaders accidentally normalize anxiety and burnout. 10:50 The three steady structures that sustain joy. 18:50 How to identify what structure you need most. Key Takeaway Joy doesn't grow from scattered steps. Joy grows from steady structures. About the Host: Jenn Whitmer Jenn is an international keynote speaker, leadership consultant, and the founder of Joyosity™, helping leaders create positive, profitable cultures through connection, curiosity, and joy. With a background in communication, conflict resolution, and team dynamics, Jenn helps leaders and organizations navigate complex people challenges, reduce burnout, and build flourishing workplaces. Her insights have resonated with audiences worldwide, blending real-world leadership expertise, engaging storytelling, and a dash of humor to make the hard stuff easier. Whether on stage, in workshops, or with coaching clients, Jenn equips leaders with the tools they need to solve conflict, cultivate communication, and lead with purpose. Her upcoming book Joyosity hits shelves December 9, 2025, offering leaders a fresh approach to joy at work that builds real results. Resources & Links: Preorder Joyosity: Joyosity: How to Cultivate Intense Happiness in Work & Life (Even If Things Are What They Are) Joy isn't fluff — it's fierce strategy. This book gives leaders the tools to turn exhaustion into resilience and build cultures where work is a joy, people are whole, and organizations flourish. Ready to Make a Plan: Joyosity™ Jumpstart → Get crystal clear on what you want, what's in the way, and how to move forward with traction. Starting the Journey: Enneagram Navigator → Stop guessing your type. In this 1:1 session, get clarity on your motivations and blind spots. Ready to Dive In: Joyosity™ Intensive → A one-day transformative experience to realign with your values and build a practical plan for joyful leadership. A Party for More: Bring Jenn & the Joy to Speak → Bring the spark (not just the spark notes!) to your whole team with contagious joy, practical tools, and plenty of laughter. Loved this episode? Rate, review, and share with a fellow leader who's ready to ditch the drama and lead with more joy, curiosity, and clarity.

LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!!Let's Connect On Social Media!youtube.com/anthonyvicinotwitter.com/anthonyvicinoinstagram.com/theanthonyvicinohttps://anthonyvicino.comJoin an exclusive community of peak performers at Beyond the Apex University learning how to build a business, invest in real estate, and develop hyperfocus.www.beyondtheapex.com

While predestination might seem an unsettling doctrine at first, the Bible shows that this is a wonderfully comforting teaching. Today, Sinclair Ferguson reflects on the absolute grace of God in choosing to set His love on us. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/things-unseen-with-sinclair-ferguson/predestination-he-loved-us-first/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Special Guest “Cash Flow Mike”   Grab Mike's free resource: cashflowmike.com Welcome to another episode of Podcast Profits Unleashed Podcast — the show that helps coaches turn podcasting into a powerful client-attraction tool! I'm your host, Karen Roberts, and today's episode is packed with insights you do NOT want to miss. Before we dive in — stay tuned after the ads because I'll be sharing my special strategy for consistent podcasting without burnout or quitting. Trust me, you'll want to hear this. Now… today's guest is the legendary Mike Milan, also known as Cashflow Mike — a former state trooper turned business growth strategist. With 14 businesses built, $150M in hidden profits found, and his proprietary Clear Path to Cash System, Mike helps business owners understand their numbers so they can scale sustainably without blowing up their bank accounts. I absolutely LOVED this conversation because it pulls the curtain back on the financial truths every entrepreneur needs to embrace: ✅ Cashflow isn't a mystery — it's math. ✅ Growth doesn't matter if your money disappears in the process. ✅ Pricing and inventory mistakes are silently killing profits. ✅ The Financial Gap determines whether your business thrives or goes broke. Mike also taught me his rule that every business must follow:

You can text us here with any comments, questions, or thoughts!This episode features a heartfelt conversation with Dr. Nadia Abuelezam, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University and an epidemiologist dedicated to advancing health equity among Arab and MENA American populations. Join Kemi and Nadia as they reflect on Nadia's transformative journey from feeling undervalued and stuck in her academic career to embracing her purpose and finding agency in her work. Nadia shares the emotional toll of being in a system that often prioritizes institutional needs over individual passions and recounts her journey of self-discovery, the pivotal moments that shaped her career, and how she is now paving the way for future scholars in her field. Together, they explore the power of purpose-driven work in overcoming systemic barriers and how participating in the Get That Grant® coaching program contributed to her shift in mindset.  CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS: The significance of community and resilience in creating impactful work. What fulfillment looks like beyond traditional measures of success. The power of purpose-driven work, especially in the face of challenges. How rejection can serve as an opportunity for growth and refinement.  Loved this convo? Please go find Dr. Abuelezam on LinkedIn @nabuelezam to show her some love!  If you'd like to learn more foundational career navigation concepts for women of color in academic medicine and public health, sign up for our KD Coaching Foundations Series: www.kemidoll.com/foundations. 

Today, the Safari heads to Lincoln Children's Zoo for the Tree Kangaroo Workshop! We talk to multiple people from the workshop, and I give my experiences there as well. The Tree Kangaroo Workshop is THE best example of the incredible lengths people in this field go to for their animals, and I'm so excited to share it with y'all! EPISODE LINKS: @treekangarooconservationprogram @treekangaroosafe @rwpzoo @minnesotazoo ROSSIFARI LINKS: Rossifari.com Patreon.com/rossifari @rossifari on socials @rossifaripod on TikTok Nature DisturbedMother Nature is one weird ladyListen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

If you're a purpose-driven person who's tired of overthinking your calling, this one's for you. In Episode 3 of She Got Activated, we're pulling back the curtain on the real reason you keep hesitating (hint: it's deeper than strategy or motivation). Expect a faith + neuroscience convo in plain English, a dose of holy permission to want what God wants with you, and the kind of clarity that makes taking action feel inevitable. Ready to move from perfectionism and second-guessing to peace, purpose, and momentum? Press play—and if you know you want support, apply for Activated, my 6-month brain-based Christian coaching experience. Apply → reneebooe.com/activated   Loved this episode? Be sure to follow the show and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify — it helps more faith-driven women find this message.

Welcome back to the show!Today, my friend and realtor, Valerie Velasquez Lazarus joins me to chat about the ins and outs of buying a home. Whether it's your first home, or you're an investor, this episode will help you find useful information and funny anecdotes that will help ease the buying process. Get in touch with Valerie:valerie4nm@live.comMOBILE: 505-250-1758OFFICE: 505-883-9400⭐️Join EMPOWERED SPENDER: My digital course that will teach you how to transform financial chaos and shame-inducing emotional spending sprees, into Rich Bitch energy, using an easy-breezy nervous system friendly approach that empowers you to spend guilt free, and save for future adventures. https://www.saveamillioncents.com/empoweredspender ⭐️Check out my 1:1 Money Magic Mentorship Program here.

When was the last time you showed up as your whole self — messy bun, bold dreams, coffee cup in hand — and said, “This is me”? In this episode of The Communication Queen Podcast, host Kimberly Spencer sits down with Marianne Hickman, professional speaker, storytelling coach, and founder of The Elegant Office. Together, they unravel the truth that every Queen in business needs to hear: authenticity isn't optional — it's your greatest business strategy. From her journey as a single mom of five on food stamps to becoming a powerhouse on global stages, Marianne reveals how owning your story — every raw, unfiltered, audacious bit of it — builds unshakable trust. Kimberly and Marianne go deep on the “cost of conformity,” how to stop shrinking to fit, and why storytelling that comes from the scars (not the wounds) transforms audiences and careers alike. If you've ever felt like your story wasn't “professional” enough to share, this conversation will shake you awake. Because when you stop performing and start being real, your people don't just listen — they lean in.

In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul reveals that the secret to resilient faith is not rooted in fleshly leadership, control, or self-reliance, but in the sacrificial, parental love shared by spiritual leaders and the community of faith. Paul, Silas, and Timothy demonstrate both the nurturing care of a mother and the exhorting guidance of a father- pouring themselves out to serve, protect, instruct, and exemplify holy living for the Thessalonians. Their ministry is a powerful model of building true spiritual endurance: believers are shaped not by being pushed or manipulated, but by being “loved into resilience,” challenged to grow, and shown what it means to endure and persevere, all while pointing back to the ultimate love and example of Christ Himself. Faithful investment in others- out of genuine love- becomes the crown and joy of spiritual parenthood, with eternal significance at the return of Christ.

This episode offers a radical reframe: what if your body's overwhelm, fatigue, and dizziness aren't signs of failure — but evidence of healing at a cellular level? In this compassionate teaching, Shelby explains: How trauma leaves the body through unexpected events Why dizziness, exhaustion, or "checking out" are part of spiritual upgrades What to do when your nervous system feels fried How to lovingly support yourself through recalibration If you've been questioning your ability to function — this episode is your reminder that you're not behind… you're becoming.

We all experience worry, hurts, and conflict. Often we suppress our emotions and keep others at a safe distance. But we end up imprisoned, settling for shallow relationships with God, family, and friends. The key to deeper connection? Empathy for yourself and others, says psychologist-therapist duo Bill & Kristi Gaultiere.Empathy is often misunderstood, even maligned as nothing more than coddling or rescuing. Yet true empathy, the Gaultieres explain, respects truth and encourages personal responsibility. It's Biblical and loving. Empathy relieves stress and renews energy. It strengthens emotional health and raises emotional intelligence. It enables us to resolve conflicts and develop close, loving relationships. It's also how Jesus relates to us.In their new book, Deeply Loved (Revell, Sept. 2025), Bill and Kristi weave together engaging true stories with compelling insights from Scripture and modern psychology to help readers. Bill and Kristi join Dale on today's 95Podcast to talk through the powerful impact of giving and receiving empathy.Show Notes: https://www.95network.org/deeply-loved-receiving-reflecting-gods-great-empathy-for-you-w-bill-kristi-gaultiere-episode-311/Support the show

Buongiorno… or perhaps Buonasera—depending on where you are in the world. Today's episode is a heart-opening love letter to Florence, Italy. And if you've ever stepped foot in a foreign city and felt inexplicably at home—like your soul had been there before—this story will speak to you. I'm joined by the beautiful and wise Melinda Gallo, writer, intuitive expat, website developer, and author of the exquisite new book Messages from Florence—a collection of soulful reflections, photography, and poetic messages received through her 21-year journey of living in Florence. Melinda didn't plan to live in Italy. But after arriving for what was meant to be a three-month break to learn Italian and find inspiration, the city had other plans. Within weeks, she had an apartment, a job, and a whole new life—and she's been guided by Florence ever since. Inside this romantic, soulful episode, we talk about: How Melinda followed her intuition (and left a successful tech career in Paris) to start over in Italy Why Florence became her muse, her teacher, and her greatest guide The story behind her book Messages from Florence and how it was divinely downloaded over years of quiet communion with the city The creative rituals and intuitive practices that shaped her path What it truly means to lead a heart-centered life A beautiful $10-off gift for Messages from Florence—link below! Melinda's story reminds us that reinvention doesn't always begin with a plan. Often it begins with a feeling… and the courage to follow it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if AI could help solve medicine's biggest blind spots?Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. Charlotte Blease reveals why doctors can only keep up with 2% of new medical research and how artificial intelligence could transform healthcare for both patients and providers. Drawing from her new book Dr Bot: Why Doctors Can Fail and How AI Could Save Lives, she shares fascinating insights about the future of medical care.Part of the Future of Medicine series exploring innovations reshaping healthcare as we know it.You can find Charlotte at: Dr Bot Substack | Website | Episode TranscriptIf you LOVED this episode, don't miss a single conversation in our Future of Medicine series, airing every Monday through December. Follow Good Life Project wherever you listen to podcasts to catch them all.Check out our offerings & partners: Join My New Writing Project: Awake at the WheelVisit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount CodesWatch Jonathan's new TEDxBoulder Talk on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zUAM-euiVI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Disclaimer: We are not professionals. This podcast is opinioned based and from life experience. This is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions helped by our guests may not reflect our own. But we love a good conversation.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/2-be-better--5828421/support.

Let's be honest… modern dating feels hard. Between viral TikToks saying “having a boyfriend is cringe,” the rise of avoidant attachment, and an entire culture that glorifies hyper-independence. It can start to feel like relationships just aren't worth it anymore. But what if I told you this collective cynicism isn't the truth… Is it a trauma response?In this episode, I'm breaking down what's really going on beneath the surface of today's dating world, why so many women are leaning into avoidance and “high standards” that actually keep love out. And how to shift back into openness, trust, and secure connection.Inside the Episode:The truth about why avoidant attachment is growing fastest among women and what that means for your love life.How cynicism and “high standards” can secretly be trauma responses that keep you disconnected.The mindset and nervous system rewiring you need to attract emotionally available, securely attached love.If you've been feeling frustrated with dating or losing hope that real love exists, this episode will help you see things differently. You can have the healthy, peaceful, passionate relationship you deserve… and it starts with your healing.✨ Ready to do the work?Apply now for the Empowered.Secure.Loved Relationship Program. We're closing applications soon for this year! Don't wait. This is your moment to heal your attachment style and attract the love you've been dreaming of.

As I prepared for maternity leave, I've been sitting with a question that cuts deep:What happens to the business when you step away?In this episode of Your Big Next, I'm sharing in real time what I'm learning (and unlearning) as I shift from being the go-to operator to the visionary leader my business actually needs.You'll hear:The real cost of being the bottleneck—even when it looks like “being a good leader”The difference between over-functioning and empoweringWhy the most successful founders don't just delegate tasks… they transfer ownershipA breakdown of my Leadership Leverage Pyramid (Operator → Manager → Visionary) and what each level requiresHow I'm using AI tools and systems to build a business that grows even while I restIf you're feeling the pull to lead differently, but aren't sure how to let go this episode will help you reset your framework, trust your team, and build something that's both scalable and sustainable.Resources from this episode:20 CEO Cheat Code AI Prompts https://www.luminaryleadershipco.com/noforceOverflow CEO Mastermind https://www.luminaryleadershipco.com/overflow-mastermindYour Big Next Book - Join the Waitlist https://yourbignextbook.com/Show notes: https://luminaryleadershipco.com/episode300Connect with me:Website: https://luminaryleadershipco.com/If there's a topic, a question or a guest you want to hear on the show or an idea you have for us, just reach out and share that at marketing@luminaryleadershipco.com. We'd love to chat!Connect with me on Instagram!Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here!

 With host retail coach Wendy Batten   https://wendybatten.com/podcast-intro/   In This Episode: Let's face it – most shop owners can sell naturally, but teaching your team to do the same without feeling "salesy" can often be tricky.  In this episode of the Creative Shop Talk Podcast, I'm sharing five easy, actionable prompts you can teach your staff to boost confidence, build genuine customer connections, and make sales feel natural (not pushy!). These simple, human-centered tools will help your team move from awkward to authentic – and you can start right now. Actionable Sales Strategies for Your Retail Team: 5 conversation starters to guide sales without pressuring your customers How to use demos and storytelling to connect with customers Why choice-based language makes buying easier The power of curiosity and gratitude in every sale How to create a culture of service, not sales scripts Your Next Steps: Teach the 5 conversation starters outlined in this episode to your team. Share this episode with them, even! Pick one of them and start using it today. Practice it on the sales floor. Share your results with me on Instagram! (I hope you are already following along @wendybatten.biz)  Related podcasts we think you'll like:  Episode 272: Unlocking Team Potential: Nurturing a Culture of Ownership Episode 208: Stacking Your Team with Guest Expert Shelli Warren Episode 84: 6 Tips to Amplify Your Team's Performance this Holiday    About your host, Wendy Batten   In case we haven't met yet, I'm Wendy Batten, retail business coach and founder of the Retailer's Inner Circle. With over 30 years of experience running successful businesses, I now help independent shop owners grow profitably and sustainably—with more confidence and joy. I've had my own business columns in featured magazines, such as What Women Create and other top publications, worked with some of the top industry brands as retail care manager, and I've supported hundreds of retailers through coaching, speaking, my programs, and this podcast.  For more support from Wendy   Join Wendy's CEO Planning Session for Retailers Retailer's Inner Circle - Join Wendy inside the best retailer's community Free resources for shop owners   Hang out and connect with Wendy on IG    All of Wendy's current programs and services for shop owners can be found HERE.  Never miss an episode! Subscribe to the Creative Shop Talk Podcast and get the tools, inspiration, and strategies you need to thrive as an independent retailer.Click here to subscribe to iTunes!  Loved the episode? Leave a quick review on iTunes- your reviews help other retailers find my podcast, and they're also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select "Ratings and Reviews" and "Write a Review" and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. So grateful for you! Thank you!

Send us a textThis week we do a Yorgos Lanthimos spicy dub!! 00:00 - Intro03:30 - Bugonia22:65 - The Killing of a Sacred DeerFollow us on Instagram @moviemavensWrite us an email at moviemavenspodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield shares the secret to turning every client into a raving fan — without spending a dime on ads. If you've ever wondered why some studios seem to have a never-ending stream of referrals while others struggle to fill classes, this episode is for you.Seran breaks down the difference between simply teaching classes and crafting experiences that leave clients eager to tell everyone they know about your studio. You'll learn how to design intentional client touchpoints, create emotional connections, and develop simple systems that keep your members coming back (and bringing their friends, too!).✨ Whether you're running a Pilates studio, barre studio, or any boutique fitness business, this conversation will help you refine your client journey, boost retention, and grow your revenue — all through the power of exceptional experiences.Got a question for Seran? Add it here

Do you want to be a business owner and regulate your nervous system?Same.So we have Julianna Garrett on ep 301 of The Content Queen Podcast to talk about how our nervous system impacts marketing, and why honouring it might be the missing piece in your strategy.If you've ever felt overwhelmed, burnt out, or frozen when it comes to showing up online, this episode will be a game-changer. Julianna is the founder of JB Marketing Creative and the creator of the Capacity Method - a nervous-system-informed marketing framework that helps highly sensitive, intuitive and trauma-impacted entrepreneurs show up, sell and scale without shutting down. YES PLEASE.If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @Joyful_Entrepreneurship.⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS

You don't have to earn your Intuition. You don't have to perform spirituality. And you definitely don't have to be “consistent” to be Loved or Guided.In this episode, we're dismantling the myth that spiritual growth requires discipline—and exploring the deeper truth that while Love doesn't require devotion, devotion magnifies Love.You'll hear me share how my own intuition practice evolved over time: from rigid daily routines and spiritual guilt to a fluid, Love-led rhythm that feels alive and sustainable. I'll tell personal stories—from when I was a pastor working with postpartum moms, to moments in my women's circle, to the way I now approach my own daily connection with Spirit.If you've ever:Felt guilty for “falling off” your practice or not being consistent enoughLonged to feel closer to your Intuition but didn't know where to beginConfused structure with intimacy or discipline with devotionNeeded permission to rest, pause, or reconnect in your own way—then this episode will feel like a deep exhale.You'll walk away understanding:The real difference between discipline and devotionHow to build a relationship with your Intuition that's based on Love, not obligationWhy consistency doesn't mean doing the same thing every dayHow to recognize when Love is already speaking to you through ordinary lifeHow to release guilt and respond to the invitation of devotion when it arisesWhether you're in a quiet winter of the soul or a season of blooming creativity, this conversation will remind you that Love hasn't gone anywhere.Love doesn't need your discipline—but it delights in your attention.Mentioned in this episode:“The Wind, One Brilliant Day” and “Traveler, There Is No Path” by Antonio MachadoIf this episode resonates:Visit my newly updated website to explore 1:1 coaching openings for the end of 2025. This is the work we do together—releasing guilt, deepening trust, and learning to live guided by Love, not fear.Let's Connect on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!Free Resources- Feel how you want to feel NOW with my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Free Desire Map⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- FREE Masterclass: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discover Your Spiritual Gifts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Sign up for a FREE 1:1 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠coaching curiosity call⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Learning Pet Nutrition Science may be easier than you realize. In this episode, I sit down with Holly Baer from Superior Feline to explore the world of homemade pet nutrition. Holly's journey began when her own cats faced serious health challenges—kidney disease, fish allergies, and inflammatory conditions that commercial foods couldn't address. What started as a desperate search for solutions became a mission to help cat parents everywhere take control of their pets' nutrition.From Crisis to SolutionHolly's husband, a microbiologist, dove deep into research when their beloved cat Coconut developed kidney disease. What they discovered changed everything about how they approached feline nutrition. But Superior Feline goes beyond just food mixes. They've developed a complete system including omega-3 oils (both fish and plant-based options), postbiotics for gut health, and liver powder toppers for picky eaters. What you'll learn in this episode:How to transition from commercial to homemade cat food safelyThe difference between probiotics and postbiotics for feline healthSolutions for cats with allergies, kidney disease, and digestive issuesTips for dealing with picky eaters and multiple cats with different preferencesHusband and Wife team, Eric and Holly Baer, founded Superior Feline because of the positive, physical results they saw from making homemade cat food for their two cats, Coconut and Luna Belle, who had health issues. They started Superior Feline with the main goal of providing quality, science-based, affordable products that aren't built around marketing, but around the true pursuit of real results and long-term health for fur family. Follow Superior Feline on Facebook or Instagram.Support the showSupport the Podcast by Buying Us a Treat via Buy Me a CoffeeShop our Affiliate Partners & Sponsors:

Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost; Sermon based on Matthew 25:31-46. Preached at The First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn (https://linktr.ee/firstchurchbrooklyn). Podcast subscription is available at https://cutt.ly/fpcb-sermons or Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/4ccZPt6), Spotify, Amazon, Audi....This item belongs to: audio/first-church-brooklyn-sermons.This item has files of the following types: Archive BitTorrent, Columbia Peaks, Item Tile, Metadata, PNG, Spectrogram, VBR MP3

We Are More Than Conquerors Through Him Who Loved UsRomans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”This scripture verse is letting us know that there is nothing that we can do that will separate us from God's love.  It is also telling us that we should not interpret the bad things that are happening in our lives as proof that God has stopped loving us.  God will continue to love us forever.  There is nothing that we can do to change this.  The verse is asking us if hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword will separate us from Christ.  This is a tough question because these things can separate us if we let them.  One really important part of this verse is when it says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  Do you need to hear that again?  “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”If this is the case, then why do we feel so defeated at times?  Some of the things listed above can absolutely separate us from Christ if we let them.  Have you ever gone through a hardship and instead of feeling closer to God, you felt farther away?  Have you ever struggled to see where God was in all of your pain?  This can happen to a lot of people.  I just heard about a couple that lost one of their 6-month-old twins.  Loss of a child is something that can really strain your relationship with God.  Losing a loved one is always hard.  However, losing a child has got to be one of the hardest things to understand.  It makes no sense to us.  Why did she have to die?  Why would God do this to their family?  Why wouldn't God heal her, as we know that He can?  When we are hurting, we tend to lash out and we try to find someone to blame.  God is a good candidate as He is strong and He can take our anger.  God doesn't mind when we yell at Him, as He understands what we are going through.  The problem is when we don't process our anger and our grief, and we stay mad at God.  If we are able to lean into God instead of turning away from Him in anger, God can give us the strength to get back up again after we have been knocked down.  God can ease our pain and help us to get out of bed in the morning.  God can help us find a reason to go on.  We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.  We can defeat the grief we feel if we turn to God and ask Him to help us.  The same is true with any hardship you are going through.  Maybe you have lost your job, and you don't know how you are going to provide for your family right now.  Turn to God, and He will help you provide.  He will provide for you if you ask Him to. He is amazing!What about persecution and famine, could that separate you from Christ?  I can see how it could.  If you are being persecuted for your beliefs, you may start to hide your beliefs more so that you fit in with the crowd.  You may even compromise your beliefs just so that you do not get persecuted anymore.  Today, when I was listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, Father Mike read from 2 Maccabees 6.  It told the story of a wise old man named Eleazar.  The Greeks were trying to get the Jews to become more like the Greeks.  They were trying to force Eleazar to eat pork, which was against Jewish laws.  His friends were telling him that it would be ok, he could eat whatever meat he wanted to eat, but it would look like he was eating the pork.  The Greeks wouldn't know the difference, and Eleazar wouldn't have to die.  However, Eleazar refused, saying that if people saw him eat the meat and thought that he had gone against the Lord's law, then they too might sin, and He couldn't do that.  Eleazar was able to withstand the persecution, but what about those who didn't?  Persecution and famine can definitely mess with your head.  Most of us don't want to die, especially if that dying involves torture and a painful death.  We also don't want to starve to death. When you don't have anything to eat and you haven't had anything for a very long time, you will do something that you normally wouldn't.  The same goes for how you act when your life is on the line.  These things don't have to separate us from the Lord.  If we turn to Him and ask Him for help, we will get the help we are looking for.  Remember, it says right in this verse that, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  We can conquer anything with Christ.  He is there for us, and He will help us get through whatever it is we are going through.  The only thing we need to do is ask for this help and then accept when He offers it to us.  I know accepting help can be hard.  We think we need to be strong and do it all ourselves.  I am telling you, accept the help.  Accept the help, even if it looks different from what you thought it would.  You never know how God will reach out and help. Sometimes it is through a complete stranger, sometimes it is exactly what you asked for, and sometimes it is nothing like the help that you asked for.  The thing is, God knows best.  If he is sending you help, it is because that is exactly what you need right now.  Accept it.  Trust that He knows what He is doing.  I will end with the end of the verse, as I think it sums it up nicely, and it doesn't really need any explaining.  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to lean into you in times of distress and not turn away.  Lord, give us the strength to not let anything separate us from your love.  Give us the strength to get back up again when life knocks us down.  Help us to process our grief in a way that does not blame you for all that is going wrong.  Help us to see that you are with us through all the bad and the good.  We love you, Lord. You are so amazing. Help us to never forget that.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow, have a blessed day!! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

In this episode of Transformative Principal, host Jethro Jones interviews Adrian Ireland, an international educator, systems thinker, and author of "Designing Different." Together, they explore the challenges and opportunities in reimagining the architecture of learning within schools. The conversation delves into why educational reform often fails when it focuses on incremental improvements rather than structural changes, emphasizing the importance of authentic learning experiences, student motivation, and agency.Adrian shares insights on how small but significant changes—like creating "sandboxes" for experimentation and expanding the audience for student work—can lead to meaningful transformation. The discussion covers the pitfalls of over-relying on extrinsic motivators like grades, the value of interdisciplinary and project-based learning, and the need for flexible systems that nurture both passion and competence in students. Practical examples, such as school newspapers and project weeks, illustrate how schools can foster ownership, engagement, and real-world skills.Making little pockets where students can be seen in a different light with different experiencesHow education has an architecture problem, not an effort problem. The flow of the river. Curricularize them!Neglect students' autonomy at our own demise.More about motivation. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation.False fails - good ideas that are implemented into architecture that rejects them. Design principles - authenticity, flexibility, mutuality (we are connected), and simplexity (designed simple but able to handle a complex reality)School Newspaper as an example of mutuality.The whole game at a junior level - Good architectures that already exist. Avenues World SchoolWhat comes first, passion or competence? Interdisciplinary teamsHow to be a transformative principal? Make a decision that we are going to have two official expositions of student work. Create a sandbox, a space of possibility. About Adrian IrelandAdrian Ireland is an international educator, systems thinker, and author dedicated to reimagining the architecture of learning. With extensive experience teaching and leading across Asia and Europe, Adrian has spent his career challenging the traditional, standardized models of education by championing learner-centered approaches that value individuality, curiosity, and creativity. His entrepreneurial mindset drives him to experiment with bold ideas, test innovative systems, and design frameworks that empower both students and educators to thrive. He wears a mix of hats that have shaped his perspectives on education: Watching the development and natural learning progressions of his two boys as father. Coaching Volleyball at both high and low levels. Teaching in the classroom in both middle and high school. Leading full school change efforts around interdisciplinary learning and  project-based learning. Redesigning time and scheduling to allow space for change and most recently Coordinating the MYP (Middle Years Program).  Rooted in both practical classroom experience and a deep understanding of educational theory, Adrian believes that the future of learning lies not in small improvements, but in daring to create something fundamentally different. His work blends systems thinking with human-centered design principles, helping schools and organizations shift toward environments that foster authentic engagement and personal growth.In "Designing Different", Adrian shares the lessons, insights, and strategies gathered from years of navigating the complexity of educational reform, inspiring others to move beyond "better" and design the future of learning. (Link to Book Website) LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe're thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL's comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers' timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“Might be back on the ropes,Might be down in the ring,Oh, Death, you're a fighter,But you've lost all your sting.So the more that you hit meThe more you can't win.You can knock me down, drag me out,But ring the bell for one more round.I'll get up again, ‘cause this is not the end.”~“This Is Not The End” by The Grey Havens “God never fumbles the ball. If he turns it over to the other side for a few downs, it's because he knows a better way to win.”~John Piper, pastor and author “What would it mean for Christians to give up that little piece of the American Dream that says, ‘You are limitless?' Everything is not possible. The mighty kingdom of God is not yet here. What if ‘rich' did not have to mean ‘wealthy', and ‘whole' did not have to mean ‘healed?' What if being the people of ‘the gospel' meant that we are simply people with good news? God is here. We are loved. It is enough.”~Kate Bower in Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved “This is the most precious answer God can give us: wait. It makes us cling to him rather than to an outcome. God knows what I need; I do not. He sees the future; I cannot. His perspective is eternal; mine is not. He will give me what is best for me when it is best for me.”~Vaneetha Rendall Risner in The Scars That Have Shaped Me SERMON PASSAGEActs 12:1-24 (ESV) 1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. 6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place. 18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there. 20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.24 But the word of God increased and multiplied.

Humanity is in a relationship crisis with nature, and most of us don't even realise it. This episode opens a doorway to something bigger: the moment we remember that we are not separate from nature. We are nature. In this uplifting and expansive conversation, John Merkus sits down with global climate leader Tim Christophersen to explore how repairing our bond with the natural world can create a future of balance, beauty, and shared abundance. John brings his signature warmth, curiosity, and energising presence to this conversation, ✅ Why ecosystems should be treated as essential infrastructure ✅ The surprising benefits of bringing more nature into our cities ✅ Indigenous and community-led restoration projects transforming entire landscapes ✅ What “Generation Restoration” really stands for ✅ The simple, powerful actions we can each take to regenerate our world ✅ A hopeful vision of what life could look like when humans live in harmony with nature

It's Sunday, and Rich is putting on his preacher hat as he tends to do sometimes… Today he's going to talk about 5 times Jesus was loved without condition… but there is actually a lot more to this. Rich is going to also talk about WHY it's necessary to love without Condition… and how a big part of what Jesus was here on earth to do… was to model that for us.

Life has been stretching me this season and I'm ready to share a key takeaway that I've re-discovered in myself as I've been navigating these shenanigans. Let's talk about our response ability. Related content: Listen to Ep 401 “ALLOW” on Apple Podcasts – ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/confident-women-glow/id1559267632?i=1000600661548⁠Listen to Ep 401 “ALLOW” on Spotify – ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/27Rz7DrWVpkAVPfhAGifvu?si=UOViy7JURnikXHI2rFMMPwResources Mentioned & Show Notes Confident Women Glow is the podcast where we dive into self-discovery, self-trust, and self-expression so you can live a life that's bold, honest and deeply yours.Hosted by Mo James, Confidence Coach. Camille is your AI confidence coach and on-demand agent of support. Camille was created to help you build trust in yourself, unpack your thoughts, and remind you of your power—anytime you need it.Learn more or start chatting → camilleai.net The Inner Strength Journal helps you recognize that sneaky voice of fear, pretending and performing so you can choose authenticity and courage instead. Because you deserve to live a life that's truly YOU.Your favorite version of you is waiting to be discovered, buy your copy today -– https://www.innerstrengthjournal.com.  Loved this episode? Share it with a friend or tag us with your thoughts. Remember, the safe bet is always you. Connect Elsewhere:www.confidencecoachingforher.cominstagram.com/confidencecoachingforherfacebook.com/confidencecoaching4hertiktok.com/@confidencecoachingforher

You’ve heard that God loves you with an everlasting love. And while you can believe that in your head, your heart might say, “Wait, is that really true?” On this Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author and speaker Glenna Marshall shines a light on Psalm 139. She believes that passage can transform people at the heart level. Hear more about that on Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman. Featured resource: KNOWN AND LOVED: EXPERIENCING THE AFFECTION OF GOD IN PSALM 139Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/buildingrelationshipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever stared at your D&D character sheet, wondering if you picked the right fighting style, and suddenly felt like someone out there was judging you? That's because they were—and it was your DM, silently counting how many times you could've picked Defense instead of Dueling. But worry not, because in this episode, we're unlocking your character's true martial potential faster than a fighter can Action Surge after a long rest. Join the RPGBOT Patreon Want to hear Tyler, Randall, and Ash critique character builds in real-time, or maybe even share your hottest takes live? Join the RPGBOT Patreon today. You'll get ad-free episodes, access to live recordings, bonus content, and maybe even the secret to getting the most out of the Two-Weapon Fighting style without regretting your life choices. Show Notes In this episode of the RPGBOT.Podcast, the hosts take a deep dive into fighting styles in Dungeons & Dragons, unpacking how these choices can optimize your martial build and define your character's combat identity. They explore the classic styles available to Fighters, Rangers, and Paladins, and evaluate how each style synergizes with class features, feats, and weapon choices—especially in the new landscape of D&D 2024. They analyze popular choices like Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, Archery, Defense, and why Protection either makes you the party MVP or the target of everyone's complaints. Along the way, they offer practical advice on build planning, weapon synergies, narrative flavor, and how fighting styles impact your role in combat and the party dynamic. Whether you're building a min-maxed Fighter, a divine smiting machine Paladin, or a bow-wielding Ranger with dreams of Legolas-tier accuracy, this episode arms you with the knowledge to bring out your character's best in the battlefield. Key Takeaways Fighting styles are a crucial decision point for martial characters like Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers in Dungeons & Dragons, defining your combat specialty. Different styles fit different builds and playstyles. Archery is amazing for ranged builds, while Dueling and Great Weapon Fighting shine for melee smiters and strikers. Some fighting styles synergize with specific feats or class features, especially in D&D 2024 where changes may affect how much value you get from styles like Two-Weapon Fighting. Optimization matters—Defense may look boring, but +1 AC goes a long way in making your character survivable, especially at low levels. Don't forget the roleplaying opportunities: the story behind your fighting style can give your character depth beyond combat efficiency. Loved this conversation about martial mastery? Like and subscribe to the RPGBOT.Podcast on your favorite podcast platform to stay up to date with the latest D&D strategy, character building tips, and tabletop RPG goodness. And remember—your build matters, but listening to this podcast might just give you the edge you need to crit in both combat and creativity.

This episode is truly one of the most powerful conversations I've ever shared on the podcast. I'm joined by my dear friend and mentor, Tiffany Carter, whose story will move you to your core. Tiffany opens up about her journey from surviving deep abuse and trauma to finding real healing, peace, and purpose. Her honesty and courage are such a reminder that no matter where you've been, it's never too late to rewrite your story and live in your worth.Inside the episode:Tiffany shares her raw and powerful story of moving from trauma and abuse to healing and abundance.What it really looks like to set boundaries, break free from toxic family patterns, and choose yourself.How healing your self-worth opens the door to aligned love, abundance, and freedom.This conversation is a love letter to anyone who's ever wondered if healing is possible, it is. You can rise. You can heal. And you can build the life you were always meant to live.Connect with Tiffany Carter:

How Daily Habits Transformed His 36-Year Marriage: Harvey's Story Marriage is holy work. Maybe you're reading this today because you're hoping your marriage will change. Maybe you're reading this because you've prayed, "Lord, please help my marriage," when really you mean "Lord, please help my spouse!" I hope this blog and episode will make you feel both comforted and inspired — that you'll be reminded your marriage can change, not by grand gestures or perfect communication, but by small, faithful, daily habits of love. This is what Harvey discovered as well. That it wasn't grand gestures or big sweeping shifts that changed his marriage, but small, daily, consistent habits that brought it God's love, peace, and patience into his marriage. Changing Your Priorities: When Hard Work is Leading to Disconnect Harvey and his wife have been married nearly 37 years. Together, they raised four kids and built a life on their dairy farm. For decades, he worked two full-time jobs—teaching high school by day and farming by night. He says, "Every day was between 12 to 16 hours. My wife was incredibly supportive, but I just wasn't there emotionally." Maybe you can relate. Life's responsibilities pile up, and before you know it, years have passed. You're functioning—but not really connecting. Despite his faith and commitment, Harvey admits that emotional and spiritual intimacy were missing. He wanted closeness, but didn't know how to get there. A Different Kind of Prayer—and a Different Kind of Growth After retiring from teaching, Harvey finally had space to seek help. He'd been listening to our podcast for years and decided it was time to join Masculinity Reclaimed, our men's program. The first surprise? It wasn't about changing his wife! It was about learning to love her the way Christ loves the Church. He started with one habit: daily time with God. Reading Scripture. Praying. Reflecting. And eventually, he began praying with his wife in the mornings—a completely new rhythm in their 36 years together. That quiet time, over coffee and prayer, became a beautiful and cherished time for emotional connection. The Turning Point: Accepting Your Wife as She Is Halfway through the program, Harvey realized that for years, he had been looking at his wife through the lens of what she wasn't. She wasn't this, she wasn't that... But when he stopped trying to change her and started accepting her for who she is, the woman he fell in love with, the woman she had always been, rather than who he hoped she might someday become–everything began to shift. That acceptance made her feel safe. Seen. Loved. And when a woman feels safe, her heart opens. His wife began to blossom before his very eyes and the connection Harvey had longed for finally began to grow. The Habits That Build a Marriage Here's the truth: marriage is a system of habits. Paul says, if you're married, you will have trouble. (1 Corinthians 7:28) You'll have to think about how to please your spouse. (1 Corinthians 7:34) Are you in the habit of thinking about your spouse? Are you in the habit of considering them and putting them first? Are you in the habit of encouraging, loving, praying, and serving them? It's not always easy work — but it is good work. Every word, every look, every morning prayer can help build connection. That's why transformation doesn't happen overnight. It happens in the daily choices. Final Thoughts Friends, you don't have to wait to start changing your marriage. Harvey shared with us, "I wish I had learned these things earlier in my marriage." We want that for you as well!  You don't have to wait to retire or for your kids to be out of the house. You don't have to wait to be a certain age or have been married a certain number of years. You can start investing in your marriage now, today, to say that the next 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years of marriage were incredible. That is what we want for you. And we know, that no matter where your marriage is at right now, it can change. Just ask Harvey. We are rooting for you and we know that we serve a God who makes all things new– and that includes marriages.   God bless you!   With love, The Delight Your Marriage Team   PS - If you're ready to take the next step and get into a community that knows what it's like and are doing the hard work themselves– we'd love to chat with you. Click here to schedule a free Clarity Call with one of our Clarity Call Advisors and take the next step in healing your marriage. PPS - Are you a fan of this work and wish more people knew about it? We are launching an In-Person Training program this January and we would love to come to your church, workplace, community group, or wherever you gather! For more information, visit our In-Person Training page. PPPS - Here is what another recent grad had to say about our program: "I've become more contented and patient and focused on [my wife's] needs and a better listener I think. She says our home has less tension since I've been doing the program. I take that as a win!"

In this illuminating episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony explore Jesus' parables of the mustard seed and leaven found in Matthew 13. These seemingly simple parables reveal profound truths about God's kingdom—how it begins imperceptibly, grows irresistibly, and transforms completely. The hosts delve into what these parables teach us about God's sovereign work in both our individual spiritual lives and the broader advance of His kingdom in the world. Believers can find hope in understanding that God intentionally works through what appears weak and insignificant to accomplish His purposes. This episode offers practical encouragement for Christians who may feel discouraged by the apparent smallness of their faith or ministry impact. Key Takeaways The kingdom of heaven begins in small, hidden, or seemingly insignificant ways, but grows powerfully through God's sovereign work. The mustard seed illustrates the kingdom's visible expansion (extensive growth), while the leaven highlights its internal transformative influence (intensive growth). Both parables emphasize that God's kingdom often appears to "disappear" initially but produces outsized results through His work, not our own. These parables provide encouragement for times when the church feels weak or our personal faith feels insufficient—God's power is made perfect in weakness. God's kingdom transforms both outwardly (extensive growth illustrated by the mustard seed) and inwardly (intensive growth shown by the leaven). Cultural transformation happens most effectively through ordinary Christian faithfulness rather than flashy or provocative engagement. Christians should not despise small beginnings, recognizing that faithfulness rather than visibility is the true measure of fruitfulness. Understanding Kingdom Growth: From Imperceptible to Unstoppable The parables of the mustard seed and leaven powerfully illustrate the paradoxical nature of God's kingdom. In both cases, something tiny and seemingly insignificant produces results far beyond what anyone would expect. As Tony noted in the discussion, what's critical is understanding the full comparison Jesus makes—the kingdom isn't simply like a seed or leaven in isolation, but like the entire process of planting and growth. Both parables involve something that initially "disappears" from sight (the seed buried in soil, the leaven mixed into dough) before producing its effect. This reflects the upside-down nature of God's kingdom work, where what appears weak becomes the channel of divine power. For first-century Jewish listeners expecting a triumphant, militaristic Messiah, Jesus' description of the kingdom as beginning small would have seemed offensive or disappointing. Yet this is precisely God's pattern—beginning with what appears weak to demonstrate His sovereign power. This same pattern is evident in the incarnation itself, where God's kingdom arrived not through military conquest but through a humble birth and ultimately through the cross. Finding Hope When Faith Feels Small One of the most practical applications from these parables is the encouragement they offer when we feel our faith is insufficient or when the church appears weak. As Jesse noted, "God is always working. Even when we don't feel or see that He is, He's always working." The kingdom of God advances not through human strength or visibility but through God's sovereign work. These parables remind us that spiritual growth often happens imperceptibly—like bread rising or a seed growing. We may go through seasons where our spiritual life feels dry or stagnant, yet God continues His sanctifying work. Just as a baker must be patient while bread rises, we must trust the invisible work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the church. When we feel discouraged by apparent lack of progress, these parables assure us that God's kingdom—both in our hearts and in the world—is advancing according to His perfect timing and plan. As Tony explained, "The fact that it feels and looks and may actually be very small does not rob it of its power...in actuality that smallness is its power." God deliberately works through weakness to display His glory, making these parables powerful reminders for believers in any era who may feel their impact is too small to matter. Memorable Quotes "We shouldn't despise small beginnings. Let's not despise whatever it is that you're doing in service to God, to your family, to your churches, especially in the proclamation of the gospel... Faithfulness and not visibility—that's the measure of fruitfulness." — Jesse Schwamb "The Kingdom of Heaven is at work not only in our midst as a corporate body, but in each of us as well. God's grace and His special providence and His spirit of sanctification, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness and the one who makes us holy. He is doing that whether it feels like it or not, whether we see outward progress or not." — Tony Arsenal "What cultural transformation looks like is a man who gets married and loves his wife well, serves her and sacrifices for her, and makes a bunch of babies and brings them to church... We transform culture by being honest, having integrity, by working hard... without a lot of fanfare, without seeking a lot of accolades." — Tony Arsenal Full Transcript Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 468 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother, you and I have said it over and over again. One of the incredible truths that the Bible conveys about the kingdom of God is that it's inaugurated in weakness. It's hidden. It advances irresistibly by the sovereign work of God through the Word and the Spirit. It transforms both individuals and nations until Christ's reign is fully revealed in glory. And so as we're about to talk about parables today, I can't help but think if that's one of the central positions of the Bible, and I think we both say it is how would you communicate that? And here we find Jesus, the son of God, our great savior, you know where he goes. He goes, mustard seeds and yeast. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. And if you're just joining us maybe for the first time or you're jumping into this little series, which is to say, we do know tiny series, this long series on parables, you, I go back to the last episode, which is kind of a two-parter because Tony and I tried this experiment where we basically each separately recorded our own thoughts and conversation, almost an inner monologue as we digested each of those parables, both the one of the mustard seed and then the leaven sequentially and separately. And now we're coming together in this episode to kind of talk about it together and to see what we thought of the individual work and to bring it all together in this grand conversation about the kingdom of God that's inaugurated and weakness and hiddenness. [00:02:31] Affirmations and Denials Explained Jesse Schwamb: So that's this episode, but it wouldn't be a episode without a little affirming. And a little denying it seems, 22, we should this, every now and again we pause to say why we do the affirmations and denials. Why, why do we do this? What, what is this whole thing? Why are we bringing it into our little conversation every time? Tony Arsenal: Yeah. I mean, it, it, at its core, it's kind of like a recommendation or an anti recommendation segment. We take something that we like or we don't like and we spend a little bit of time talking about it. Usually it ends up taking a little bit of a theological bent just 'cause that's who we are and that's what we do. And we use the language of affirmations and denials, uh, because that's classic, like reformed confessional language. Right? If you look at something like the, um. I dunno, like the Chicago statement on Biblical and Errancy, which was primarily written by RC sprawl, um, it usually has a, a statement, uh, of doctrine in the form of things that we affirm and things that we deny. Um, or you look at someone like Turin, a lot of times in his, uh, institutes of elected theology. He'll have something like, we affirm this with the Lutherans, or we affirm that or de deny that against the papus or something like that. So it's just a, a little bit of a fun gimmick that we've added on top of this to sort of give it a little bit of its own reformed flavor, uh, onto something that's otherwise somewhat, um, Baal or, or I don't know, sort of vanilla. So we like it. It's a good chance for us to chat, kind of timestamps the episode with where we are in time. And usually, usually, like I said, we end up with something sort of theological out of it. 'cause that's, that's just the nature of us and that's, that's the way it goes. That's, and that's what happens, like when we're talking about stuff we. Like when we're together at Christmas or at the beach, like things take that theological shift because that's just who, who we are, and that's what we're thinking about. Jesse Schwamb: By the way, that sounds like a new CBS drama coming this fall. The nature of us. Tony Arsenal: The nature of us? Yeah. Or like a, like a hallmark channel. Jesse Schwamb: It does, uh, Tony Arsenal: it's like a a, I'm picturing like the, the big city girl who moves out to take a job as a journalist in like Yosemite and falls in love with the park ranger and it's called The Nature of Us. Jesse Schwamb: The nature of us Yes. Coming this fall to CBS 9:00 PM on Thursdays. Yeah. I love it. Well, this is our homage to that great theological tradition of the affirming with, or the denying against. So what do you got this week? Are you affirming with something or you denying against something? [00:04:55] No Quarters November Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming. This is a little cheeky. I'm not gonna throw too much, much, uh, too much explanation. Uh, along with it. I'm affirming something. I'm calling no quarters, November. So, you know, normally I'm very careful to use quarters. I'm very careful to make sure that I'm, I'm saving them and using them appropriately. And for the month of November, I'm just not gonna use any quarters. So there'll be no 25 cent pieces in my banking inventory for the month. Oh. So I'm, I'm making a little bit of fun. Of course. Obviously no, quarter November is a tradition that Doug Wilson does, where he just is even more of a jerk than he usually is. Um, and he, he paints it in language that, like, normally I'm very careful and I qualify everything and I have all sorts of nuance. But in November, I'm just gonna be a bull in a China shop, um, as though he's not already just a bull in a China shop 95% of the time. So I'm affirming no corridors. November maybe. No corners November. Everything should be rounded. Jesse Schwamb: That's good too. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. No, no. Quatro November. Like we don't do anything in Spanish. No fours in Spanish. I don't know. Okay. I'm just making fun of that. I'm just making fun of the whole thing. It's such a silly, dumb enterprise. There's nothing I can do except to make fun of it. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's fair. That's basically the response it deserves. This time, we, we brought it up for several years going, it's such a strange thing. [00:06:13] Critique of Doug Wilson's Approach Jesse Schwamb: It's hard not to see this thing as complete liberty to be sinful and then to acknowledge that. Yeah. As if somehow that gives you, reinforces that liberty that you're taking it, it's so strange. It's as if like, this is what is necessary and probably we'll get to this actually, but this is what is necessary for like the gospel or the kingdom of God to go forward is that kind of attitude at times. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I will say this, I do always look forward every year to seeing what he sets on fire. 'cause the, the videos are pretty great. I'm not gonna lie. Like the video quality is, is certainly compelling. Um, and you could say it's lit is another little punny way to get at it. Uh, I, I haven't seen it this year. I mean, that's, we're recording this on November 1st, so I'm sure that it's out. Uh, I just haven't seen it yet. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of, kind of ridiculous, uh, that anyone believes that Doug Wilson is restraining himself or engaging in lots of fine distinctions and nuance. You know, like the rest of the year and November is the time that he really like holds back, uh, or really doesn't hold back. That's, that's just a silly, it's just a silly gimmick. It's a silly, like, I dunno, it's a gimmick and it's dumb and so I'm gonna make fun of it 'cause that's what it deserves. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's right. You know, I was thinking recently because as you said, the counter just rolled over. And generally this time of year I end up always watching that documentary that Ligonier put together on Martin Luther, which is quite good. And I think it does, has a fair treatment of him, including the fact that he was so bombastic and that he was very caustic with his language. And I think they treat that fairly by saying, oh, that some of the same things that we admire in somebody can be some of the very same things which pull them into sinful behavior. And there's no excuse for that. And, and, and if that's true for him, then it's true for all of us, of course. And it's definitely true for Luther. So I think this idea, we need to be guarding our tongues all the time and to just make up some excuse to say, I'm not gonna do that. And in some way implying that there's some kind of hidden. Piety in that is what I think is just so disturbing. And I think most of us see through that for what exactly it is. It's clickbaits. It's this idea of trying to draw attention by being bombastic and literally setting things on fire. Like the video where he sets the boat on fire is crazy because all I can think of is like, so if you judge me, one more thing on this, Tony, 'cause I, I, when you said that, I thought about this video, the boat video implicitly, and I've thought about this a lot since then. There's a clip of him, he sets the boat on fire and it's kind of like him sitting on the boat that is engulfed in flames looking out into the sea, so, so calmly as if it's like an embodiment of that mean this is fine, everything is fine, this is fine. Right? Yeah. And all I can think of is that was great for probably like the two seconds that somebody filmed that, but guess what happened immediately after that? Somebody rescued you by putting out the fire on the boat. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Jesse Schwamb: It's just like insanity to presume that, encapsulating that single moment and somehow conveying that he is a great champion, pioneer advocate of things of the gospel by essentially coming in and disrupting and being caustic and that him setting thing on fire makes everything better is a mockery, because that's not even exactly how that shoot took place. Yeah. So I, I just really struggle with that, with the perspective he is trying to bring forward. Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, I'm dubious whether or not there was actually any fire involved. Well, that's, I think 95% of it is probably camera magic, which is fine. Like, I don't know. That's fine. Like, I don't want Doug Wilson to burn up. That's, that wouldn't be cool either. But, um, yeah, I mean, like the fruit of the spirit is love, joy piece patience, kindness, good as gentleness, setting things on fire and being a jerk in November, apparently. And I, I just don't, I, I've never fully understood the argument. Um, and this is coming from someone who can be sarcastic and can go over the top and go too far. And, and I recognize that about myself. I've just never understood the argument that like, it's okay to be a jerk sometimes. Or, or not even just, okay. It's necessary to be a jerk sometimes. Exactly. Um, there's a difference between boldness and being a jerk. And, you know, I think, um, the people who, who know me well are gonna like fall off their chairs. I say this like, Michael Foster is actually someone who I think. Does the boldness with a little bit of an edge. I think he actually does it really well. And just like all of us, I, you know, he, he probably goes over the line, uh, on occasion. Um, and, and, but I think he does the, I'm just going to be direct and straightforward and bold. And sometimes that might offend you because sometimes the truth is offensive. Um, I think he does that well. I think where we go sideways is when we try to couch everything in sort of this offensive posture, right? Where, where even the things that shouldn't be offensive, uh, somehow need to be made offensive. It, it's just, it's dumb. It's just, um, and I'm, I'm not saying we should be nice just for the sake of being nice. I think sometimes being nice is. When I say nice, I mean like saccharin sweet, like, like overly uh, I don't know, like sappy sweets. Like we don't have to be that. And uh, there are times where it's not even appropriate to be that. Um, but that's different than just, you know, it's almost like the same error in the wrong direction, right? To be, just to be a jerk all the time. Sometimes our words and our behavior and our actions have to have a hard edge. And sometimes that's going to offend people because sometimes the truth, especially the gospel truth is offensive. Um, but when what you're known for is being a jerk and being rude and just being offensive for the sake of being offensive. Um, right. And, and I'll even say this, and this will be the last thing I say. 'cause I didn't, I, I really intend this just to be like a, a jokey joke. No quarters, November. I'm not gonna spend any quarters. Um, I don't know why I was foolish enough to think we weren't gonna get into it, but, um. When your reputation is that you are a jerk just to be a jerk. Even if that isn't true, it tells you that something is wrong with the way you're doing things. Right. Because I think there are times where, and I'll say this to be charitable, there are times where Doug Wilson says something with a little bit of an edge, and people make way too big of a deal out of it. Like they, they go over the top and try to condemn it, and they, they make everything like the worst possible offense. And sometimes, sometimes it's, it's just not. Um, and there are even times where Doug says things that are winsome and they're helpful and, um, but, but when your reputation is that you are a jerk just to be a jerk, or that you are inflammatory just to get a reaction, um, there's something wrong with your approach. And then to top it off, when you claim that for November, like you explicitly claim that identity as though that's not already kind of your shtick the rest of the year. Um, and just, it's just. Frustrating and dumb and you know, this is the guy that like, is like planting a church in DC and is like going on cnn. It's just really frustrating to see that sort of the worst that the reformed world has to offer in terms of the way we interact with people sometimes is getting the most attention. So, right. Anyway, don't, don't be a pirate. N November is still my way. I celebrate and, uh, yeah, that's, that's that. Jesse Schwamb: That's well said. Again, all things we're thinking about because we all have tendency to be that person from time to time. So I think it's important for us to be reminded that the gospel doesn't belong to us. So that means like that sharp edge, that conviction belongs to Christ, not to our personalities. So if it's tilted toward our personalities, even toward our communication style, then it means that we are acting in sin. And so it's hard for us to see that sometimes. So it does take somebody to say, whoa. Back it down a little bit there and you may need to process. Well, I'm trying to communicate and convey this particular truth. Well, again, the objective that we had before us is always to do so in love and salt and light. So I agree with you that there is a way to be forthright and direct in a way that still communicates like loving compassion and concern for somebody. And so if really what you're trying to do is the equivalent of some kinda spiritual CPR, we'll know that you, you don't have to be a jerk while you're doing it. You don't have to cause the kind of destruction that's unnecessary in the process. Even though CPR is a traumatic and you know, can be a painful event by it's necessary nature, we administer it in such a way that makes sure that we are, we have fidelity to the essential process itself, to the essential truths that's worth standing up for. Yeah, it's not a worth being a jerk. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. [00:14:37] Practical Application of Parables Tony Arsenal: Jesse, let's, let's move along. What are you affirming or denying tonight Jesse Schwamb: and now for something much lighter? So, my, my affirmation I share at the risk of it being like so narrow that maybe nobody will actually want to use this, but I actually had you in mind. Tony, I've been sitting on this one for a little while 'cause I've been testing it. And so we're, we're just gonna run like an actual quick experiment 'cause I. I'm guessing you will find this affirmation useful and will come along with me and it and might even use it, but you and I are not always like representative of all the people in the world. I say that definitely tongue in cheek. So we're a little bit nerdy. We love our podcasts and so occasionally, I don't know if this happens to you, I'm guessing it does, but I want to capture like a moment that I heard while podcast is playing on my phone. Maybe somebody says something really interesting, it's great quotes, or it's mathematical nature and I wanna go back and process it. And so generally what I do is I, I don't know, I stop it. I try to go back and listen to it real quick if I can, or maybe I can't because running, driving, all that stuff. So. When I hear something now that I want to keep, I just cry out to my phone. I have an, I have an iPhone, so I say, Siri, you could do this with Google. Take a screenshot. What happens is the phone captures an image of my podcast app with a timestamp showing of course what's being played. Then I forward this image, this is the crazy affirmation part. When it's time to be alive, I forward this image to a certain email address and I get back the text transcript of the previous 90 seconds, which I can then either look at or file into my notes. What is this email address sent it to you. Well, here's the website so you can go check it out for yourself though. Website is actually called Podcast Magic App, and there's just three easy steps there, and this will explain to you how you actually get that image back to you in the format of a transcript. And the weird thing about this is it's, it's basically free, although if you use it a lot, they ask for like a one-time donation of $20, which you know me, I love. A one time fee. So I've been using this a lot recently, which is why I've been sitting on it, but it is super helpful for those of you who are out there listening to stuff. They're like, oh, I like that. I need to get that back. And of course, like you'll never get it back. So if you can create this method that I've done where you can train your phone to take a snapshot picture of what's on the screen, then you can send it to Podcast Magic at Sublime app, and they will literally send you a transcript of the previous 90 seconds no matter what it is. Tony Arsenal: That is pretty sweet. I'll have to check that out. Um, I don't listen to as many podcasts as I used to. How dare you? I just, the I know. It's, it's crazy. Where do we even do it Feels like heresy to say that on a podcast that I'm recording. Yes. Um, Jesse Schwamb: we've lost half the audience. Yeah. Tony Arsenal: Well, yeah. Well, the other half will come next. Um, no, I, I, I just don't have as much time as I used to. I, I live closer to work than I used to and um, I'm down to, we're down to one car now, so, um, your mother is graciously giving me a ride to work. Um, 'cause she, she drives right past our house on the, the way and right past my work on the way to her work. Um, but yeah, so I guess I say that to say like, the podcast that I do listen to are the ones that I really wanna make sure I'm, I am, uh, processing and consuming and, uh, making sure that I'm kinda like locking into the content. Jesse Schwamb: Right. Tony Arsenal: So this might be helpful for that when I do hear something and I do think, like, it's hard because I use matter, which is great, and you can forward a podcast to matter and it generates a whole transcript of the entire episode, which is great. Um, but I don't often go back and, you know, a lot of times, like I'll go through my matter, uh, queue and it'll be like three weeks after I listened to a podcast episode, I be like, why did I put this in here? Right? I get that. I don't wanna listen to the entire 60 minute episode again to try to remember what that special thing was. So I just end up archiving it. So this might be a good middle ground to kind of say like, I might set, I might still send it to matter to get the whole transcript, but then I can use this service to just capture where in the transcript actually was I looking for? Um. It's interesting. I'll have to look at it too, because you can, you can send, uh, through Apple Podcast, the Apple Podcast app and through most podcast apps, I think. Right? You can send the episode with the timestamp attached to it. Yes. So I wonder if you could just send that, that link. Okay. Instead of the screenshot. Um, you know, usually I'm, I'm not. Uh, I don't usually, I'm not driving anymore, so usually when I'm listening to a podcast I have, my hands are on my phone so I could actually send it. So yeah, I'll have to check that out. That's a good recommendation. Jesse Schwamb: Again, it's kind of nuanced, but listen, loved ones, you know what you get with us, you're gonna get some, it could be equally affirmation, denial that Doug involves Doug Wilson, and then some random little thing that's gonna help you transcribe podcasts you listen to, because life is so hard that we need to be able to instantly get the last 90 seconds of something we listen to so that we can put it into our note taping at note taking app and put it into our common notebook and keep it. Yeah, there you go. Tony Arsenal: There's a lot of apps. There was actually a, a fair number of apps that came out a while ago that were, they were trying to accomplish this. Where you could, as you were listening to the podcast, in that app, you could basically say, highlight that and it would, it would highlight whatever sentence you were on. But the problem is like by the time you say highlight that you're already onto the next sentence, you now you're going back trying to do it again. And I didn't find any of that worked really seamlessly. It was a lot of extra friction. So this might be kind of a good frictionless or less friction way to do it. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I'm totally with you. [00:20:08] The Kingdom of Heaven Parables Jesse Schwamb: I mean, speaking of like things that cause friction, there's no doubt that sometimes in Jesus' teaching on the parables that he himself brings the heat, he brings a little friction in his communication. And since you and I basically did go through each of these parables, we don't have do that again on this conversation. In fact, what I'm looking forward to is kind of us coming together and coalescing our conversation about these things, the themes that we both felt that we heard and uncovered in the course of talking through them. But I think as well ending with so what? So what is some real good shoe leather style, practical application of these ideas of understanding the kingdom of God to be like this mustard seed and like this lemon. So why don't I start by just reading. Again, these couple of verses, which we're gonna take right out of Matthew chapter 13. Of course, there are parallel passages in the other gospels as well, and I'd point you to those if you wanna be well-rounded, which you should be. And so we're gonna start in verse 31 of chapter 13. It's just a handful of verse verses. Here's what Matthew writes. Jesus puts another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all leavened. Alright? Yeah. So Tony, what do you think? Tony Arsenal: Uh, I mean, these are so like, straightforward. It was almost, it, it felt almost silly trying to like explain them. Yeah. One of the things that, that did strike me, that I think is worth commenting too, um, just as a, a general reminder for parables, we have to be careful to remember what the parable is saying, right? So I, I often hear, um. The smallness of the mustard seed emphasized. Mm-hmm. And I think your, your commentary, you did a good job of kind of pointing out that like there's a development in this parable like it, right? It's a progression and there's an eschatology to it, both in terms of the, the parable itself, but also it comments on the eschatology of the kingdom of heaven. But it's not just that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sewed in his field. Right? It's that whole clause that is the, the kingdom of heaven is like likewise, the kingdom of heaven is not just like leave, it's like leave that a woman took in hidden in three measures of flour till all was leavened. So when we're looking at these parables. Or when we're looking at really any parable, it's important to make sure that we get the second half of the, the comparison, right? What are we comparing the kingdom of heaven to? You know, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a sower who sowed seeds among, you know, in three types of four types of soil. This kingdom of Heaven is like, this is like that. We don't wanna miss part of the parable because we latch on to just like the first noun, and that follows the word like, um, but I think these are great, these are great little, um, parables that in some ways are almost like, uh, compliments or ex explanations of the other parables that we're looking at too. They, they explain to us something more about what the Kingdom of Heaven is using similar kinds of analogies that help us flesh out the parables that are surrounding them. So the Kingdom of Heaven. You know, again, we always want to caution against kind of like overinterpreting, the parables, but the, the parable of the sower is talking about the seed that is sewn into the field, right? And then there's the parable of the wheat and the tears, and there's seed again. And we, we might have a tendency to sort of miss the nature of the kingdom in a certain sort of dynamic. This fleshes this out. So we might think of like the parable of the sowers, like we don't know what, what proportion is of good soil, you know, good soil versus bad. We know that there's three types of soils that are bad soils or unproductive soils and one type, but we don't know like how much of the soil is, um, like what percentage of the field is that. Similarly, like we don't know what percentage of the field was wheat and what was weeds. This is kind of reminding us that the, the kingdom of heaven is not found primarily in the, um, the expansiveness of it. Right. It's not, it's not initially going to look like much. It's going to initially start out very small. Right. And in some ways, like in both of these, it appears to disappear entirely. Right? You sow a grain of mustard seed. I don't, I've never seen a mustard seed, so, but it's very small. Obviously you sow that into the ground. You're not gonna find it again, you're not gonna come back a week later and dig up that seed and figure out where you sewed it. Um, similarly, like you put a, you put a very small amount of yeast or lemon into a three measures of flour. You're not gonna be able to go in even probably, even with a microscope. You know, I suppose if you had infinite amount of time, you could pick a every single grain of flour, but you're not gonna be able to like go find that lemon. It's not gonna be obvious to the eye anymore, or even obvious to the careful searcher anymore. So that's what the kingdom of heaven is like in both of these. It's this very small, unassuming thing that is hidden away. Uh, it is not outwardly visible. It is not outwardly magnificent. It is not outwardly even effective. It disappears for all intents and purposes. And then it does this amazing thing. And that's where I really think these, these two parables kind of find their unity is this small, unassuming thing. That seems ineffectual actually is like abundantly effectual in ways that we don't even think about and can't even comprehend. Jesse Schwamb: Right? Yeah. I would say almost it's as if it's like, well, it's certainly intentionally, but almost like offensively imperceptible. And I think that's the friction that Jesus brings with him to the original audience when he explains it this way. So again, from the top, when we said this idea that the kingdom of God is imperceptible, it's hidden, it grows, it conquers, it brings eschatological resolution. And I'm just thinking again, in the minds of the hearers, what they would've been processing. I think you're spot on. I liked your treatment of that by focusing us to the fact that there is verb and noun and they go together. We often get stuck on the nouns, but this, that verb content means that all of this, of course, is by the superintendent will of God. It's volitional. His choice is to do it this way. It is again, where the curse becomes the blessing, where it's the theology of the cross or theology of glory, where it is what is small and imp, perceptible and normal by extraordinary means becomes that which conquers all things. And so I can. Picture, at least in my mind, because I'm a person and would, would wanna understand something of the kingdom of God. And if I were in a place, a place of oppression physically and spiritually living in darkness, to have this one who claims to be Messiah come and talk about the inauguration of this kingdom. My mind, of course, would immediately go to, well, God's kingdom must be greater than any other kingdom I could see on this earth. And I see it on the earth that the sun rises. And cast light across provinces and countries and territories in a grand way. And then we have this kingdom of God, which, you know, theory, the, the sun should never set on it and the sun should never be able to shine, but on a corner of it. And it doesn't have provinces or countries, it doesn't even have continence, but it has, it encapsulates worlds. And it doesn't stretch from like shore to shore or sea to shining sea, but from sun to sun or star to star from the heavens to the earth, its extent couldn't be surveyed. Its inhabitants couldn't be numbered. Its beginning, could never be calculated because from Tard past, it had no bounds. And so I'm just thinking of all these things and then like you said, Jesus says, let me tell you what it's really like. It's like somebody throwing a tiny seed into a garden. Or it's like a woman just making bread and she puts yeast into it. These seem like not just opposites, but almost offensive, I think, in the way that they portray this kingdom that's supposed to be of great power and sovereign growth, but it comes in perceptibly and how perfect, because the one who's delivering this message is the one who comes imperceptibly, the person of Christ preaching the gospel and the hearts of believers. But that grows into a vast and global proportion, and that of course, that aligns exactly with so many things you and I have talked about in process before. These doctrines are providence and sovereign grace, that God ordains the means that is the seed and ensures the outcome, which is the tree. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, um, you know, I don't, I don't know of any affinity with mustard seed in like the Old Testament law, but there's, there's a sort of a reversal of expectation here too, because although Levin is not always associated with like impurity, um, I think most Jewish listeners would immediately have a negative connotation with Levin for sure. Right? So when, when all of a sudden he's comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven it, it becomes sort of this, um, the reason Levin is so pernicious and the reason that in the Old Testament law, you know, they're, they're, they're not just not making their bread with leave for the, for the Passover. They have to like sweep out their whole house. They have to empty all their stores out. They have to clear everything out. And that's not just because like. In, in, in Old Testament, sort of like metaphors, leaven does get associated with sin, right? Uh, and that gets carried on into the New Testament, but just the actual physical properties of leaven is like, if there's any little bit of it left on the shelf or even in the air, like even on your hands, it's can spoil the whole batch. It can cause the entire batch to go a different direction than you want it to. And in a certain way, like the Kingdom of Heaven is like that, right? Um. [00:30:21] The Resilience of God's Kingdom Tony Arsenal: You hear about, um, you hear about situations where it seems like the presence of God's people and the, the kingdom of God is just, it's just eradicated. And then you find out that there's actually like a small group of believers who somehow survived and then like Christianity is thriving again like 50 years later. Um, you can't just wipe out the kingdom of heaven because it is like leaven and any small remaining remnant of it is going to work its way back through the entire batch in a way that is, uh, mysterious and is somewhat unpredictable and is certainly going to surprise people who are not expecting it to be there. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. [00:31:04] Understanding Theological Concepts Jesse Schwamb: One of the things I really picked up in your treatment of that, that kind of drew me in in a special way was, you know, we think of some theological terms. We have really, I think, strong. Rubric for processing them, and especially like their multifaceted nature. So for instance, when we think about sanctification, we often talk about positional and progressive. And those are really helpful ways to understand a concept that brings us into modeling where it's finite and precise to a degree that allows us to understand it and comprehend it with a greater degree of confidence. And knowing it's many parts, because it is many parted. [00:31:36] The Parable of the Leaven Jesse Schwamb: And I was thinking as you were talking about the leaven, how the kingdom of heaven here that is inaugurated by Christ, that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit is growth and always deny that. But what you drew out for me was I think we're definitely seeing in that this idea of the intensive growth and then of course in the. Parable of the mustard seed. It's more extensive growth and they're both important. So they're in consummate harmony. It's not just like one recapitulating the other. And what that made me think about was even as you were speaking now, this really interesting difference, you know, the woman is taking this, again, talking about the verb, there's two nouns here actually. There's like the, the proper pronoun of the woman there is the act which she's doing, which she's taking the leaven and working it as it were like into the flower. I just did like a weird motion here on the camera if you're watching on uh, YouTube. Sorry about that. [00:32:28] Practical Lessons from Bread Making Jesse Schwamb: Almost like I was giving CPR, but she's working it into this meal or this flower and the working it from within outwards and that working itself like changes the whole substance from the center to the surface of this meal. Now I was thinking about this 'cause you noted something about bed bread. Bread baking in yours. And I did actually just a couple weeks ago, make some bread and the recipe I was using came with this like huge warning. Some of the recipes are like this, where when you're using some kinda lemon, most of the time we're using yeast. You have to not only be careful, of course, about how much yeast you put in because you put in too much, it's gonna blow the whole thing up. You're gonna have serious problems. You're not gonna make the bread anymore, you're gonna make a bomb, so to speak, and it's gonna be horrible. You're not gonna want to eat it. But the second thing is the order in which you add the ingredients, or in this recipe in particular, had very explicit instructions for when you're creating the dry ingredients. When you have the flour, make a little well with your finger and delicately place. All of the yeast in there so that when you bring the dough together, when you start to shape it, you do it in a particular way that from the inside out changes the whole thing so that there's a thorough mixing. Because the beauty of this intensive change is that. As you know Tony, like there's so many things right now in my kitchen that are fermenting and I talked about before, fermenting the process of leavening something is a process of complete change. It's taking something that was before and making it something very different. But of course it retains some of the essential characteristics, but at the same time is a completely different thing. And so it's through a corresponding change that man goes to whom the spirit of God communicates His grace. It's hidden in the heart and chain begin, change begins there. You know, the outward reformation is not preparing a way for inward regeneration. It's the other way around that regeneration, that reformation on the outside springs from a regeneration that's on the inside, growing out of it as a tree grows from a seed as a stream flows from the spring or as leave, comes and takes over the entire lump of dough. [00:34:26] The Power of Small Beginnings Jesse Schwamb: It's amazing. This is how God works it. We again, on the one side we see the kingdom of heaven. That is like the manifestations of his rule in rain coming, like that seed being sown and growing into this mighty tree. It brings shade. The birds come nest in it. And that may be a reference Allah to like Ezekiel or Daniel, the Gentiles themselves. There's that inclusion. And then to be paired with this lovely sense that, you know what else, anywhere else, the power of the kingdom of heaven is made. Manifest is in every heart in life of the believer. And so the Christian has way more in religion in their outer expression than they do anybody else. Because the inner person, the identity has been changed. Now you and I, you and I harp all the time on this idea that we, we don't need some kind of, you know, restoration. We need regeneration. We don't need to be reformed merely on the outside by way of behaviors or clever life hacks. We need desperately to be changed from the inside out because otherwise we. Where it's just, I don't know, draping a dead cold statue with clothing, or all we're doing is trying to create for ourselves a pew in the house of God. What we really need is to be like this bread that is fully loving, that grows and rises into this delicious offering before the world and before God. Because if you were to cut into this outwardly looking freshly baked bread and find that as soon as you got through that delicious, hard, crispy crust on the outside, that in the inside all it was, was filled with like unprocessed, raw flour, you would of course say, that's not bread. I don't know what that is. But that's not bred. What a great blessing that the promise that God gives to us is that the kingdom of God is not like that. It lies in the heart by the power of God. And if it's not there, it's not anywhere. And that though the Christian May at times exhibit, as we've talked about before, some kinda hypocrisy, they are not essentially hypocrites. Why? Because the Kingdom of God is leavening us by the power of the Holy Spirit. That gospel message is constantly per permeating that yeast through all of who we are, so that it continues to change us. So that while the natural man still remains, we are in fact a new creation in Christ. So to start with, you know, bread and or not bread to end with bread, but to start with flour and water and yeast and salts, and to be transformed and changed is the intensive power of the growth of the gospel, which is with us all our lives, until we have that beautific vision. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And I think, um, you know, to kind of take a, a pivot maybe to the practical, I think this is, this is not the point of the parable necessarily 'cause the parable. I think there's a lot that these parables have to say to us about like, personal, individual growth, but they really are about the growth of the kingdom or the, the, maybe necessarily the growth of the kingdom. I think that's there too. But really like the nature of the kingdom as this sort of like, hidden, hidden thing that then grows and creates big results. [00:37:34] Encouragement in Times of Darkness Tony Arsenal: I, I think this is a, this is a parable that should encourage us. Like absolutely for sure we should look to this and, and be encouraged because. It is not the case. Um, I know there are lots of people who wanna act as though like this is the worst time anyone has ever lived in, and everything is the worst as it's ever been. It's, this is not even close to the worst time that the church has ever existed in, um, there are, it's funny, um, we'll give a little plug. Some of our listeners have started their own new show called Over Theologizing, and, um, it, it was, it was funny listening to the second episode they had, um. Pete Smith was on there and they were saying, like, they were talking about like, how do you feel about the nature of the church? And Pete was like, it's fine. Like it's great out here. Like there's lots of churches, lots good. Like I, I think that there are pockets in our, in our world, um, particularly, you know, my, my former reference is Western World and in the United States and in some senses in, in Europe, um, there are certainly pockets of places where it's very dark and very difficult to be a Christian, but by and large it's not all that challenging. Like, we're not being actively persecuted. They're not feeding us to the lions. They're not stealing our businesses. They're not, um, murdering us. You know, like I said, there are exceptions. And even in the United States, there are places where things are moving that direction. But there are also times when the church is going to feel dark and small and, and like it's failing and, and like it's, it's weak. And we can look at these parables and say, the fact that it feels and looks and may actually be very small does not rob it of its power that does not rob the kingdom of heaven of its power. It in, in actuality that smallness is its power, right? Leave is so powerful of an ingredient in bread because you need so little of it, right? Because that it, you can use such a small quantity of lemon to create such a, a huge result in bread. That's the very nature of it. And it, its efficacy is in that smallness. And you know, I think the mustard seed is probably similar in that you, you don't need to have, um. Huge reaping of, of mustard seed in order to produce the, the crop that is necessary, the trees that are necessary to, to grow that. So when we look around us and we see the kingdom of heaven feeling and maybe actually even being very small in our midst, we should still be encouraged because it doesn't take a lot of leave to make the bread rise, so to speak. And it doesn't take a lot. And, and again, like of course it's not our power that's doing it, that's where maybe sort of like the second takeaway, the baker doesn't make the bread rise by his own like force of will, right? He does it by putting in this, this agent, you know, this ingredient that works in a sort of miraculous, mysterious way. It's obviously not actually miraculous. It's a very natural process. But I think for most of history. So that was a process that probably was not well understood, right? We, we, people didn't fully understand why Bread did what it did when you used lemon. They just knew that it did. And I think that's a good takeaway for us as well, is we can't always predict how the kingdom of heaven is gonna develop or is gonna operate in our midst. Um, sometimes it's gonna work in ways that seem to make a lot of sense, otherwise it's gonna seem like it's not doing anything. Um, and then all of a sudden it does. And that's, that's kind of where we're at. Jesse Schwamb: I like that. That's what a great reminder. Again, we all often come under this theme that God is always working. Even when we don't feel or see that he is, he's always working and even we've just come again on the calendar at least to celebrate something of the Reformation and its anniversary. Uh. What again, proof positive that God's kingdom will not fail. That even in the places where I thought the gospel was lost or was darkens, even in Israel's past in history, God always brings it forward. It cannot, it will not die. [00:41:26] Faithfulness Over Visibility Jesse Schwamb: So I wanna tack onto that by way of, I think some practical encouragement for ministry or for all believers. And that is, let's not despise small beginnings. Like let's not despise whatever it is that you're doing in service to God, to your family, to your churches, especially in the proclamation of the gospel. This is from um, Zacharia chapter four, beginning of verse eight. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, the hands of the rebel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zabel. So I love this encouragement that is for all Christians. That's one. Again, God is doing all the verbs like just. For one last time for everybody in the back. God does all the verbs. Yeah, and in so doing, because he is doing all the verbs, he may, but he chooses to start with small things because again, he is always showing and exemplifying his glory and he does this in these normative ways. It's a beautiful expression of how majestic and powerful he is. So let's embrace those things with be encouraged by them. The gospel may appear weak or slow in bearing fruit, yet God guarantees its eventual triumph. God guarantees that he's already stamped it. It's faithfulness and not visibility. That's the measure of fruitfulness. So if you're feeling encouraged in whatever it is that you're doing in ministry, the formal or otherwise, I would say to you. Look to that faithfulness, continue to get up and do it, continue to labor at it, continue to seek strength through the Holy Spirit, and know that the measure of his fruitfulness will come, but maybe in a future time, but it will come because this is what God does. It's God doing all the work. He's the one, he's essentially the characters needs of these parables, sowing the seed, working in lemon. Yeah. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And I think, you know, like I said, the, the parables are not necessarily about individual personal growth. Um, but I, I think the principle that is here applies to that as well is I think oftentimes we feel like, um. I'll speak for myself. There are have been many times in my walk as a Christian, um, where it just feels like nothing's happening. Right? Right. Like, you just feel like it's dry and like you, you're, you know, you're, you're not like you're falling into some great sin or like you've walking away from the faith, but it just feels sort of dry and stale and like God isn't doing anything. And, um, I've only ever tried to bake bread once and it was a, it was just a terrible, terrible failure. But, um, I think one of the things that I've. I've read about people who bake bread is that there is a level of patience that has to come with it, right? Because oftentimes it seems like the bread isn't rising. It seems like the, the lemon is not doing what it's supposed to do until it does. Right? And like, if you take the bread out of the oven every couple of minutes to check and see if it's rising, it's never going to rise. It's never going to do what it's supposed to do. And, um, you know, I think that is kind of like the Christian life in microcosm too, is we, we have these spiritual disciplines that we do. We pray, we read the scriptures, we attend faithfully to the Lord's Day service. And oftentimes it doesn't feel like that's doing anything right. But it is. The Kingdom of Heaven is at work in not only in our midst as a corporate body, but the kingdom of heaven is at work in each of us as well. That's right. God's, God's grace and his, uh, special providence and his spirit of, of sanctification, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of holiness and the one who makes us holy. Um, he is doing that whether it feels like it or not, whether we see, um, outward progress or not. If the spirit dwells within us, he is necessarily making us holy and necessarily sanctifying us. Um, and and so I want us to all think about that as we, we kind of wrap up a little bit here, is we shouldn't be. I, I don't wanna say we shouldn't be discouraged, um, because it's easy to get discouraged and I don't want people to feel like I'm like, you should never be discouraged. Like sometimes the world is discouraging and it's frustrating, and it's okay to feel that, but we should be able to be encouraged by this parable. When we look at it and we remember like, this is just. This is just the parable form of Paul saying like, God glories by using the weak to demonstrate his strength. Exactly right. He, he is, his power is shown in, in using the weak and frail things of this life and this world to accomplish his purposes. And so when we are weak, when we are feeling as though we are failing as Christians, we should be able to look at this and say, well, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like a tiny mustard seed, a tiny mustard seed of faith that grows into a large tree. It's, it's like this little little spark of leave that God puts in us and it's hidden in us and it leavens the whole loaf. And that's us, right? And that's the church, that's the kingdom. It's the world. Um, God is at work and he is doing it in ways that we would not ordinarily see. Even the person who has this sort of like explosive Christian growth. That's not usually sustained. I think most people when they first come to faith, especially if they come to faith, you know, as a teenager or a young adult, um, they come to faith and they have this like explosive period of growth where they're like really passionate about it and on fire. And then that, that passion just kind of like Peters out and you kind of get into like the, the day in, day out of Christianity, um, which is not, it's not flashy. It's not sexy, it's not super exciting. It's very boring in a lot of ways, like right, it's, it's basic bread, it's basic water. It's hearing a, a person speak and it's, it's reading words on a page. But when the Holy Spirit uses those things, he uses them faithfully to finish the work that he started. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's exactly right. The spirit's work of leavening, it continues quietly, but it powerfully, yeah. And we shouldn't despise that quietness or that smallness that I think is altogether a gift of God. And again, we're talking about the one who embodies the perfect will of God, who came and condescended to his creation was like us in every eight, where every way without sin. This is the one who became, I think as Paul writes in Galatians, a curse for us. And so again, this blessedness arises out of, again, what I think is this offensive means. And if that is the model that Christ gives to us, we ourselves shouldn't despise that kinda small beginning or even despise the sacrifices we're often called to make. Or those again, I would say like offensively and auspicious kinds of beginnings. All of that is peace wise, what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And there's a beauty in that. And I would say, I want to add to what you said, Tony, 'cause I think it was right on, is this idea that's easy to be discouraged is. It doesn't require any explanation. I, I, I'm totally with you. If you were to pick up any, or go to any kind of website and just look at the headlines for their news reporting, you're going to find plenty of reasons to be discouraged and to feel melancholy. And yet at the same time when I think we, you and I talk about these things, what I'm prone to consider is what Paul writes elsewhere to the church in Corinth, where he says in two Corinthians chapter 10, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Being ready to punish every disobedience when you're disobey, when you're obedience is complete. And so what I think that applies to us in this particular case is understanding that this is the promise of God. Like you're saying, you and I are saying. Discouragement happens. And yet the truth is that small inauspicious beginnings in the kingdom of heaven always result in outsized gains that God never ceases to work. That he's always with us, that he's always for us. Then we do have to take captive those thoughts that lead us into kind of a disproportionate melancholy that pull us away or distract us from this truth of God, the knowledge of God, which is that he is super intending, his sovereign will completely over every molecule in the universe because this is what the Kingdom of Heaven does. And so that gives us, I think as I said last week, hope and evangelism we're storming those gates of hell we're coming for you like because there is a triumphalism in Christ that will be manifested in the final day. It's the reformed understanding of the here but not quite yet. [00:49:57] Cultural Engagement as Christians Jesse Schwamb: And like the last place that Le that leads me to like some practical, I think application is, and I wanna be careful with this, so I'm curious for your opinion. It's cultural engagement. You know, if we're thinking about this, leave permeating this dough, this tiny seed growing to overtake the garden, then I think believers should labor to continue to bring biblical truth into every sphere. So your family, your vocation, arts, politics, everything under Christ's lordship. I think sometimes that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be. As we've talked about the top of the show, really outspoken in a provocative kind of way. I think sometimes, again, that same quiet though, consistent work that the Holy Spirit does that's powerful in leavening us is the same thing that we can do with just our attitudes at work or our attitudes in our family, or our willingness to serve or our kind words. Of course, it does require us to preach the gospel using words. It also means that the power of the leaven is that quiet power. It doesn't jump outta the bread. It doesn't boast, but it is present. So maybe I'm saying Christians, let's be present, and leavening means to be present with the attitude and the mind of Christ. What? What do you think? Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I think that's, um, I think that's right on, you know, um, it, it's not quite a parable, but Christ, Christ commands his people to be like salt and light and true. Um, and, and by saying that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, you know, like a, a measure of leaven that was hidden away in three measures. Um, he's also commanding us to be like leaven, right? And he is commanding us to be like the, the mustard seed because that is what we are. And I think, um, we shouldn't think that we can cloister off or sequester off the kingdom of heaven from the rest of culture and create like, um, I'm not quite, uh, I'm not quite to the point where I'm, I'm a transformational in the sort of like Tim Keller sense, but I do think that. We, and I don't like this word, but I'm not sure of a better, a better way to say it, but like, we like to set up these little Christian ghettos where like we, we isolate ourselves culturally into these little subcultures and these little sort of cordoned off areas of culture. Um, where we, we actually then strive to look just like the culture that's around us, right? Right. We subsection off Christian music and although it's, you know, typically it's like a decade behind the curve in terms of what music is good, we're really just doing the same music as the rest of the world. We just baptize it with Christian language. Like, I remember my, my youth pastor in high school rewrote the song closing time to Be Quiet Time. And like that was like, that was like the most Christian thing he could do at the time, was rewrite the lyrics to a song. But like, that's, that's absolutely not what cultural transformation looks like. Right. Well, cultural transformation, and maybe I'm channeling a little bit of, of Michael Foster here, what cultural transformation looks like. Is is a man who gets married and loves his wife, well, serves her and sacrifices for her, and makes a bunch of babies and brings them to church, right? Like that's, that's cultural transformation. And in our culture, like that is a very counter-cultural way to do things. It's actually very counter-cultural. There have been times when that's not particularly countercultural and there probably will be times again where it is. And actually it seems like our broader American culture is moving away from the sort of like two kids, two kids and a dog is a, is a bygone era fantasy. And now it's like two single people living in a house together with a dog. Um, you know, and, and that's not to say that that's the only way to be, to transform culture, right? That's just one example of sort of the most mundane, natural thing is actually the way that we do it. Um. We transform culture by, um, by being honest, having integrity, yes. By, um, working hard, right? Yes. Going to work, doing your job well, uh, without a lot of fanfare, without seeking a lot of accolades, um, and just doing a good job because that's what God commands us to do when he tells us to honor our employers and to be good, faithful bond servants in the Lord. Um, that is also very, uh, that also will transform culture. Um, you know, I think we think of cultural transformation and we, I think we immediately go to, for better or worse, we go to like the Doug Wilsons of the world and we go like, that guy's engaging the culture. Well, yeah, I guess in a certain sense he is. Um, or we, or we go to. The Tim Keller's of the world where they are, they're engaging culture in a different way. But I think for most of us, for most Christians, our cultural engagement is very nor like very normal and very boring. It's living a very ordinary, quiet life. Um, you know, what does Paul say? Work quiet life. Mind your own business. Work with your hands, right? Like, don't be a busy body. Um, like that's, that's actually the way that culture is transformed. And that makes perfect sense. We will have to come back and do another episode on this sometimes, but like, that makes perfect sense. When you think about how God created Adam and what he was supposed to do to transform and cult, cultivate, right? The word cultivate and culture come from the same roots to transform and cultivate the entire world. What was he supposed to do? Plant a garden, tame the animals, right? You know, bake babies. Like, it's, it's not, um, it's not. Rocket science, it's not that difficult. And again, we are all called to different elements of that. And God providentially places us in situations and in, in life, you know, life circumstances, we're not all gonna be able to fulfill every element of that. But that's where this, that's where this becomes sort of the domain of the church, right? The church does all of these things in the culture, and I don't mean the church as institution. I mean like the people who are the church. They do all of these things in very ordinary, normal ways, and that will, that will transform the culture. Um, right. You, you show me a. And this is not, you know, by God's common grace, there are lots of really nice people out there who are more or less honest and have integrity and work hard at their jobs. So it's not as that, that's a uniquely Christian thing. But you show me a, a, a person who is known to be a Christian and works hard as honest is straightforward, is kind, is charitable, is self-sacrificial in, in all arenas of their life. Um, people will notice that and they will see it as different and they will associate it with Christianity. They will as

The crew gets a crash course in pretzel-ing at Auntie Anne's. Then they compete to collect the most donations for Alex's Lemonade Stand. We watch as our girl, is a no-nonsense cashier. In our Dig, we explore the IBLP Basic Care Bulletin on cancer. It follows suit with the our Medical literature in having some absolutely wild takes on cancer, who gets it, and the shitty message it sends to someone diagnosed with it. Remember, the problem is you. Like what you hear? Would you like to support a snarking couple from Glendale, AZ? Head on over to ⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com/diggingupthedug⁠⁠⁠We have episode visuals and Mildred related content on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠@digginguptheduggarspod⁠⁠⁠Of course we have a P.O. Box 5073, Glendale, AZ 85312

Links & Mentions: Consult booking link: www.dryazdancoaching.com/consult Email me: DrDYazdan@gmail.com Make more money video: www.dryazdancoaching.com/MDM Follow me for more tips: (@DrYazdan) www.instagram.com/dryazdan and (@DrYazdanCoaching) www.Instagram.com/dryazdancoaching In this episode, we're tackling one of the biggest (and most frustrating) challenges dental practice owners face: staff turnover. If you've ever hired someone great, trained them for months, only to lose them six months later—you're not alone. But what if the problem isn't your people… it's your systems? I'm sharing exactly how strategic systems for hiring, onboarding, and retention can help you build a loyal, consistent, and high-performing team. You'll learn what's really behind team members quitting (hint: it's not just money), and what to put in place today to start improving your practice culture and stability. Whether you're hiring right now or just tired of constant turnover, this episode will help you lead with clarity, keep your best team members, and reduce the stress of staffing issues.

In this episode, we dive into Part 2 of the Love Is Blind Season 9 recap and let me tell you, it's a juicy one. This isn't just reality TV talk. It's about self-awareness, emotional regulation, and real relationship growth. We're unpacking what Love Is Blind teaches us about attachment styles, boundaries, and what truly creates lasting love.Inside the episode:

Today we're doing a throwback episode to one of our favorites from the early days of Stories Podcast. The Boy Who Loved Cheese Too Much! Klaas LOVES cheese. He can't get enough! But what will happen when he gets to eat all the cheese he's ever wanted? Can you really have too much of a good thing? Tune in to this adaptation of a Dutch folktale to find out! Check out Stories RPG our new show where we play games like Starsworn with all your Max Goodname friends, and Gigacity Guardians featuring the brilliant firefly! https://link.chtbl.com/gigacity Draw us a picture of what you think any of the characters in this story look like, and then tag us in it on instagram @storiespodcast! We'd love to see your artwork and share it on our feed!! If you would like to support Stories Podcast, you can subscribe and give us a five star review on iTunes, check out our merch at storiespodcast.com/shop, follow us on Instagram @storiespodcast, or just tell your friends about us! Check out our new YouTube channel at youtube.com/storiespodcast. If you've ever wanted to read along with our stories, now you can! These read-along versions of our stories are great for early readers trying to improve their skills or even adults learning English for the first time. Check it out.