Podcasts about Mars Hill

Today the Restless hosts ask the important questions. Are they real? Why did Mark Driscoll leave Mars Hill? How much do you make impersonating your father in law?  Watch till the end for a Pinocchio impression. ----more---- Join our Patreon for exclusive content and access to our Telegram chat!   / therestlesspodcast   Follow us on X: https://x.com/RestlesPod #restlesspodcast #reformedtheology #christiantiktok #restless #protestant #debates #markdriscoll #longforminterview #marshill #men

Paul at Mars Hill Part 1 Acts 17: 16 - 23 Pastor Jae Lee

Now that the terms are defined and we understand what covenantal apologetics means, we turn to understanding what offering proof entails. Oliphint centers his giving of proofs on top of Mars Hill in Acts 17 and point to two areas of how all people can be given proof. In this episode, we talk about how the fact that the Imo Dei reflected in humanity is the primary reason we can offer proof and also be in the fickle state we find ourselves.

Radical Intimacy The Illusion of Distance By default, many of us have this view of God where we're distinct. We're down here on earth. We're trying to pray up to God. It's a bit of a one-way prayer. We're shouting. We're hoping he's going to catch it. We're hoping he's listening. He's up there somewhere. He's dealing with other stuff and we're down here dealing with our stuff. But actually, that's not reality. It's just a perception that we have. And I actually think it's probably wrong teaching that many of us have had growing up. So prayer becomes a struggle to bridge a massive gap. Separation though feels safe. It feels orthodox and it feels reverent. It's a reverent thing to stay separate. But the Bible teaches something different. It teaches indwelling is the reality. It's a mutual indwelling too. So existence cannot happen outside of God. Estrangement is real, but it is a rupture in relationship, not an absolute metaphysical absence. So, while we might feel God is distant from time to time, we'll talk about that. In reality, he's not distant. Paul at Mars Hill Paul went to Athens and he preached on Mars Hill and that's what it looks like today. But it didn't always look like that. This is an architect's impression. So, you can see the Acropolis up top and you can see Mars Hill. That's that platform down the bottom. It wasn't like a marketplace or place where people gathered, just ordinary people. This is where the courts were and the council and all the philosophers. And this is where they had the big debates about reality and the spiritual world and whatever deity they might worship. This is where Paul preached. And I might just get Zara to come up here and read what Paul actually said. So she's going to read out of Acts 17:16–28. Reading of Acts 17:16–28 While Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy in Athens, he was deeply troubled by the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all those who happened to be there. He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, "What's this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he's picked up?" The others said, "He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods." Then they took him to the high council of the city on Mars Hill. "Come and tell us about this new teaching," they said. "You are saying some rather strange things and we want to know what it's all about." It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to be spending all their time discussing the latest ideas. So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: "Men of Athens, I noticed that you are very religious in every way. For as I was walking along, I saw many of your shrines, and one of your altars had this inscription on it: 'To an unknown god.' This God whom you worship without knowing is the one I'm telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn't need man-made temples and human hands can't serve his needs, for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything. He satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall and determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him. Though he is not far from any one of us, for in him we live and move and exist. As some of your poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" God as the Environment of Existence Quite an incredible statement. And if you look at Paul, who had the ministry to preach to the Gentiles, whenever he spoke to the Gentiles, this is probably the clearest preaching we hear from Paul or from anyone in the New Testament, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. He ends with, "We are all his offspring." He's talking to people who never heard about God. Certainly not the God we worship. They worshipped all these other gods. We're all his offspring. Incredible statement. When Paul speaks to the philosophers in Athens, he doesn't describe a god who occasionally visits from afar. He describes a God who is the very environment in which humanity exists. Life never exists outside of God. For in him we live and move and have our being, our very existence. We don't exist without God. We are in him and he holds us all together. This is quite different from the view that God's up there, we're down here, and we're completely separate. And in fact, it's not just Paul who talked about this. This is a consistent thread throughout scripture. And it follows in several dimensions. There's the cosmic dimension, the entire universe. There's the sustaining dimension, where all things are being sustained in him. And there's the personal dimension. And this is the one that we want to actually realise and be awakened into. Scriptural Dimensions of Divine Presence In the cosmic dimension, quoting Jeremiah, God said to Jeremiah: "Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord." He fills heaven and earth. He's everywhere. We can't escape. If we look at the personal dimension there, as David is speaking: "I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there." So, it doesn't matter where we are, what state we're in, whether we're here on earth, whether we've passed away, God is always there. And we don't cease to exist when we pass away. And in fact, in Revelation 14, Jesus is even present at the lake of fire. So, we think, "Oh, lake of fire. No, they've all been rejected by God. They're absent from God." It's in the presence of the Lamb and his angels. That's what's happening at the lake of fire. So, I'll let Paul talk about that more when he gets there in Revelation. And then sustaining: Paul writes in Colossians 1:15–17, "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities of the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He exists before anything else, and he holds all creation together." So Paul brings us directly to Jesus Christ. Christ is the divine glue actively sustaining every atomic particle, every subatomic particle, every human heartbeat...everything. There is not this idea that we're separate and individual. Distinction Versus Separation I just wanted to make some crucial distinctions here before I go any further, because there are some confusing ideas out there. It centres around the difference between distinction and separation. Where is God? There is a New Age teaching which says the creator and creation are identical. There's no distinction. So the creation is God and God is the creation and they're all the same. That's obviously false teaching because there's no distinction there. If we look in the middle, the classical teaching is that there's a separation between God and us, and we have to figure out: are we good enough to get to God? Will he be interested in me? And then on the right-hand side, the whole of creation exists within a distinctly greater God. We are distinct. Creation is distinct. It isn't God, but it's held together by God and exists within God. I just want to really make sure there's a contrast that's understood here, because biblical union does not inflate the self. It requires the death of the false self to live in harmony with the truth. Remember from last time I said there is no resurrection without crucifixion. The death to that false self is required. New Age spirituality ignores sin and avoids accountability, whereas God exposes sin as a rupture in the shared life of God. It skips the cross and dismisses absolute truth in the New Age view. But the biblical view is centred entirely on Christ, the cross, the resurrection, and surrender from us. There's a stark difference. On the surface, they might seem similar, but they are actually opposites. Analogies of Indwelling and Distinction How can we be fully in God yet distinct from him? Here are some analogies to help understand this a bit further. The mind and the thought: a thought exists solely within the mind and depends on it completely. But the mind is far greater than a single thought. Without the mind, the thought doesn't exist at all. I think no analogy is perfect, but that's not a bad one. The ocean and the wave: the wave is completely distinct in form, but has no independent life or substance apart from the ocean that sustains it. You can't have a wave without an ocean. You can't have us without God. The author and the story: characters exist entirely within the author's imagination and sustaining presence. Yet, the author is not trapped in the book. The author isn't the book, he's not the characters, and the characters aren't the author. This helps us keep things in context and distinct. Even though we're not separated, we are distinct. The Revelation of Participation It goes even further because we often don't just view God as separate; we view ourselves as isolated individuals. But in Ephesians chapter 4, it didn't say that. The New Testament insists that shared human life is more fundamental than our divisions, and it's within Christ. Modern Western teaching is very individualistic...what your truth is, is your truth, and it is the truth for you, but it's not the truth for me, and all this sort of stuff. What scripture teaches is that the body is one. The body within Christ is one and has many members. We are one body in Christ and individual members of one another. Paul writes this to the various churches in Rome and Corinth, and it's a theme throughout scripture. Even Jesus talked about it, and I'm calling this the revelation of participation. If we look at Jesus' public ministry, he announced the arrival of the kingdom, and in Mark 1:15 he says, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near." Repent doesn't mean think about all the sins you did, say you're sorry, and promise not to do them again. Repent is turn towards God. We're turning away from the old man, turning to the new man. This is metanoia, turning towards God. Jesus stopped there in his public ministry. Until people repented, they couldn't move on to the next step, because the next step is the private revelation that Jesus gave to his disciples, which required repentance. Unless you've turned to God, you can't actually enter the next step, which is revealing that the life inside this kingdom is defined by mutual indwelling and shared divine life. If he tried to preach that to people who weren't even in the mindset of turning towards God, it just wouldn't make any sense to them.  Woven into the Trinitarian Life  In John 17, Jesus didn't simply pray for moral harmony or a corporate framework that's out of the flesh. He asked for humanity to be woven directly into the Trinitarian life. He prays that they may all be one...all of us being one. "Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us." That's pretty profound. John 14 says, "On that day"...and that's the day of Pentecost Jesus is talking about..."you will realise that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." There's a mutual indwelling: us in him and him in us. I would encourage you to go and read from John 14 through to John 17, because there's a whole slab of scripture there that is just mind-blowing. I've cheekily put us inside this diagram that's often used to represent the Trinity, because I'm not saying we are God at all. I'm saying we can participate in being in him, because Paul writes to the Corinthian church and says he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. There's this inclusive language that we're just not used to.  Then this brings us full circle back to John 3:16. What is the gospel? That you can have eternal life. Jesus tells us what it is: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That is eternal life. This is eternal life: full communion with God, being with God and God being with us. It's not just going to heaven one day and staying there forever.  The Origin of Felt Distance If we live in God, why do we feel so distant? We've all felt that God is distant. Scripture speaks of alienation and outer darkness. But sin is not relocating completely outside of God's existence. It's a rupture in relationship and perception. It's living out of the illusion of perception. The old self comes into play. We become self-dependent. We view ourselves as independent from God. We decide what we want to do and set ourselves up as a little god in charge of ourselves. We lack that communion with God, and we're blinded by it. In Ephesians 4:17–25, Paul captures this: "You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another." It's very inclusive language. It's a matter of waking up so we don't feel that alienation. We have to gain those spiritual eyes by taking our focus off ourselves and putting it onto him. The Paradigm Shift There is a paradigm shift required here. In prayer, instead of calling up to the sky to reach a distant god, we need to tune into the divine presence that's already holding us together. In discipleship, instead of trying hard to obey the rules of a far-off boss...the Ten Commandments...it is about waking up to the reality of the vine and allowing his life to flow through you. That is why you don't want to murder somebody: because you aren't harbouring anger toward people. From the perspective of love, instead of maintaining a moral to-do list..."be nice to others because that's what I need to do; I really don't like those people, but I have to be nice to them"...it is living in harmony with our shared biological and spiritual reality. We are members of one body, and Christ is all and in all. Prayer is no longer an attempt to project your voice across the empty cosmic void. It is the practice of sinking into the sustaining presence that is already holding you together...moving from reaching to abiding.  Spiritual growth is not a frantic effort to close a gap, but a peaceful yielding to the faith of Christ already at work within you. How do we allow the faith of Christ to flow? Through our faith...we turn that valve on the tap to allow the faith of Christ to flow in us.  From isolation to communion, we cease viewing faith as a purely private endeavour and begin viewing every human interaction as an event happening within the shared life of God. This is another dimension of how we participate in presence prayer. The Present Kingdom The good news is already here. The gospel isn't a roadmap for how to reach a distant, reluctant God. It is an invitation to participate in life itself through Christ. The illusion of separation is shattered, and we are invited to wake up to the presence that has held us all along. Where is the kingdom of God? It is within us. The kingdom of God is not up there somewhere. Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." The kingdom is within us through the Holy Spirit. That is the reality we have been given. I'll now play a five minute video which brings all this together… A Deeper Perspective on Union and Panentheism Most of us grew up with a very specific geographic assumption about how the universe works: God is up there completely outside of the world, and we are down here separated by a massive, unbridgeable gap. This worldview is often called classical theism. It paints a picture of a creator who is completely separate from his creation, looking down on reality from a safe distance. That perceived distance takes a real emotional toll. When God feels far away, prayer starts to feel like trying to place a long-distance phone call into the sky, hoping the signal somehow reaches him. It also turns the entire concept of salvation into an escape plan. The ultimate goal becomes abandoning a doomed earth so we can cross that cosmic divide and reach a distant heaven. Under this framework, the spiritual life devolves into a relentless, exhausting exercise. We spend our days striving, reaching, and trying to close the gap between ourselves and a completely unreachable entity. Because we are so used to that distance, introducing words like oneness, indwelling, or union makes a lot of Christians immediately uncomfortable. It is easy to see why. For many, that language sounds uncomfortably close to New Age mysticism or eco-spirituality. It triggers a fear that we are simply glorifying the self. The deeper theological concern is that embracing oneness compromises God's holiness. It feels as if we are blurring the line between the creator and the creation, pulling God down to our level. What if our extreme caution has a massive blind spot? What if avoiding these mystical-sounding words means we are accidentally rejecting the language of the Bible itself? In our desperate attempt to protect a safe, distant orthodoxy, we might be ignoring what the scriptures literally say about the nature of our reality. The Biblical Case Against Separation The moment you look closely at the text, the idea of a distant god starts to crack. Take Paul's speech to the philosophers in Athens in Acts 17. Paul uses incredibly specific, radical language. He tells them that God is not far from any of us, stating plainly that in him we live and move and have our being. He doubles down on this in Ephesians 4, describing one God who is above all and through all and in all. God transcends creation yet is intimately present inside every part of it. Jesus takes this even further in John 17. The night before his crucifixion, he prays for his followers, asking explicitly that they may all be one just as he and the Father are one. The Bible explicitly portrays a reality where humanity exists inside God's presence. These are not isolated metaphors; they completely dismantle the concept of a detached "man upstairs." This dynamic illustrates panentheism: the universe existing entirely within God's sustaining presence. Contrast that with pantheism, which collapses the distinction, claiming creator and creation are identical. To grasp panentheism, think of characters existing entirely within an author's imagination while the author remains infinitely greater and distinct from the narrative. This framework balances the biblical text. It preserves God's absolute holiness and distinction without requiring him to be physically distant from the reality we live in. The Illusion of Disconnection This raises a glaring question: if we exist entirely inside of God, why do we experience such profound feelings of isolation, darkness, and sin? The answer lies in the difference between distinction and separation. We are distinct beings, but never truly separated from the one holding us together. Sin isn't physical separation from God. It is a rupture in our relationship, a distortion in our own perception, a life turned away from the truth. Sin is the tragic illusion of living as if we are completely disconnected from the very source that is currently sustaining our existence. Recognising this ongoing presence dictates how we must interpret Jesus' public command to repent. The original Greek word he used is metanoia. It requires a total shift in perception and a completely new way of seeing reality, rather than a simple moral clean-up. Jesus explained this intimately to his disciples when he called himself the vine and us the branches. A branch lacks independent life. Its entire existence relies on a shared, participatory connection with the vine. The gospel is not an evacuation plan to a distant heaven. It is a radical invitation to wake up to the divine reality that is already surrounding us here and now. This awakened state extends directly to how we view each other. If every single human being exists within the exact same sustaining presence, then ultimate isolation is a physical and spiritual myth. We are, as Paul wrote, members of one another. This gives entirely new weight to the command to love your neighbour as yourself. This directive goes far beyond simple advice for getting along. Loving others is not a moral checklist; it is living in perfect alignment with the physics of reality, recognising that we all share the exact same source of life.  

Dusty and Joseph continue the series in Acts discussing Paul and Mars Hill.

Excellence in ministry and dependence on God aren't opposites, they belong together. In this episode of Breaking Barriers, Andrew and Brant answer a question pastors ask them again and again: does striving for excellence lead to the kind of pride and burnout seen in stories like Mars Hill? Drawing on Scripture (Proverbs 21:31, Colossians 1:29, the parable of the talents, Nehemiah, and 2 Kings), they break down five biblical principles for church leaders: why preparation and dependence work together, why stewardship requires leveraging what God has given you, why prayer and action go hand in hand, why preparation is actually evidence of faith, and why the real danger for pastors is self-reliance — not hard work. A must-listen for pastors, church planters, and ministry leaders wrestling with how to work hard for God's glory without losing their dependence on Him.

Excellence in ministry and dependence on God aren't opposites, they belong together. In this episode of Breaking Barriers, Andrew and Brant answer a question pastors ask them again and again: does striving for excellence lead to the kind of pride and burnout seen in stories like Mars Hill? Drawing on Scripture (Proverbs 21:31, Colossians 1:29, the parable of the talents, Nehemiah, and 2 Kings), they break down five biblical principles for church leaders: why preparation and dependence work together, why stewardship requires leveraging what God has given you, why prayer and action go hand in hand, why preparation is actually evidence of faith, and why the real danger for pastors is self-reliance — not hard work. A must-listen for pastors, church planters, and ministry leaders wrestling with how to work hard for God's glory without losing their dependence on Him.

Paul's encounter with the philosophers of Athens and his subsequent sermon on Mars Hill is the centerpiece of the book of Acts. Here we see God going toe-to-toe with the wise debaters of the age as He speaks through Paul to reveal His person, His will for mankind, and the truth of how He will ultimately bring human history to a close. In this first part of a two-part sermon, Pastor Shawn examines the dangers of idolatry and God's solution in Christ.

This sermon covers the second half of Paul's sermon to the Athenians on Mars Hill. Given that there is one true God who made and rules over all creation, and that mankind is desperately 'groping' for the divine, what is the proper response? We must abandon our man-made gods, repent of our self-loving sin, and prepare for the risen judge.

When Paul reached Athens, he was deeply disturbed by idols and inscriptions to an “Unknown God.” He earned the invitation to speak with the Greek philosophers and used his sermon on “Mars Hill” to introduce the Creator they worship without knowing.

Paul's second apostolic journey brings him to Athens, the intellectual center of the Greek world at that time. While there, he engages in dialogue in the synagogue with Jews and Gentiles about Christ, and also in the marketplace, where he interacts with everyday Athenians and also two groups of philosophers, who bring the apostle to Mars' Hill to explain his “strange” teaching of Christ and the resurrection to the city's main Council. We see in this episode that Paul's purpose in his message that day was to convict the idol-worshipping Athenians of their accountability to the one true God. https://bereanbiblesociety.org/tbg-episode/377-mars-hill/ Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dNovkNB9FOQ Buy episode on DVD: https://store.bereanbiblesociety.org/shop/dvd-transformed-by-grace-single-episode-1-dvd-351-375/?attribute_pa_episode=377-paul-the-preacher-mars-hill Buy series on DVD: https://store.bereanbiblesociety.org/shop/dvd-transformed-by-grace-series-paul-the-preacher/

Season 2, Episode 129In this episode, Michael and Zach continue their series on conversational apologetics by introducing the third question in Gregory Koukl's Columbo Tactic: “Have you considered...?” While the first two Columbo questions help Christians understand what another person believes and why, the third gently introduces a new perspective and invites that person to evaluate the consistency of their own ideas.Drawing from examples such as Paul at Mars Hill, Paul before King Agrippa, Jesus before Pilate, and Nathan's confrontation of David, the discussion shows how Scripture frequently leads people toward truth through thoughtful questions rather than immediate correction. Michael and Zach also examine the importance of defining terms, recognizing who carries the burden of proof, and allowing people to discover weaknesses in their own reasoning without humiliation or hostility.Along the way, they apply the Columbo method to common claims about judgment, miracles, love, truth, and Christianity. The episode emphasizes that these questions must arise from genuine curiosity and love rather than manipulation or a desire to trap someone. The goal is not always to secure immediate agreement, but often to plant a seed, leave someone thinking, and trust the Holy Spirit to use a faithful conversation over time.Find our videocast here: https://youtu.be/cynu7gVXA0wMerch here: https://take-2-podcast.printify.me/Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):⁠https://uppbeat.io/t/reakt-music/deep-stone⁠License code: 2QZOZ2YHZ5UTE7C8Find more Take 2 Theology content at http://www.take2theology.com

Leslie Eiler Thompson leads audio storytellers Mike Cosper (The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill), Jakob Lewis (No Small Endeavor), and Tasha A.F. Lemley (Nashville Public Radio, This Is Nashville) in conversation on how the transcendentals—truth, goodness, and beauty—shape their work. The panel examines the craft, ethics, and wonder behind their varied styles of audio storytelling that invites listeners into deeper meaning and awe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Spiritual Treadmill and the Life of Grace Or Salvation: Our Two Identities Scott Kardash 19th July 2026 Introduction: Two Identities I named this talk "The Spiritual Treadmill and the Life of Grace," and today I want to contrast both of these. The song we heard talked about letting go. That represents the left-hand side... the treadmill that we're on. I had a little alternate title: "From Striving to Flow: Our Two Identities," because we all live out of two identities. It's a matter of moving from one identity, our old self, to our new self. In my view, that is in fact what salvation is all about. We have a bit of a different view of salvation which has been taught, particularly in the Western church. If we step back and think about it, what actually is the gospel? What is the good news? If someone asked you today, "What's the gospel? What's the good news?" your answer might be a bit different to what's commonly taught... or even preached... today. Let me give you an example, because some of us might have heard a version of it that goes a little bit like this: "God is sending you all to hell forever. Well, unless Jesus stops him, of course. And that's the good news." It's a caricature, obviously. No-one actually says it quite like that, but it's a little clip just to give you an example. It's a fear-based gospel presenting an angry God, not a God of love, but an angry and unforgiving God. Now, God tells us to forgive even our enemies, but this view says, no, God can't forgive. There's actually something wrong with this picture. The Impact of a Fear-Based Gospel I lived in Japan for three years. Some of you may know that Japan is only about 1% Christian. It's not because there haven't been missionaries going there; there have been. But it has something to do with the Japanese culture, and even the broader Asian culture, where they revere their ancestors. In fact, they have these ceremonies where they practice ancestor worship. When their ancestors were alive, they didn't hear this gospel, so they didn't know Jesus. For them to accept this modern Western gospel message is essentially to condemn all their ancestors to hell forever. So, it goes down like a bit of a lead balloon, as you can imagine. It's not well received. It can be experienced a little bit like this: picture Jesus knocking on the door of our heart... which is a misquote of Revelation 3:20... and the little guy inside saying, "Well, why should I let you in?" And Jesus replies, "Because of what I'll do to you if you don't." It comes across a bit like a threat. Where is this loving God that we're talking about? I think it's a complete distortion of what the gospel actually is. Paul's Gospel to the Gentiles If we look at Paul the apostle, his job was to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus preached to the Jews... His mission was for the Jews first, then the Gentiles. So Paul went and preached to the Gentiles. Not many people realise that Paul didn't even mention the word "hell." He didn't even mention it. He wrote most of the New Testament and didn't mention the word hell. He talked about judgment, and Jesus did warn the Jews about Gehenna... which is a physical place outside Jerusalem with a very shady past... and he talked about outer darkness, and John warned about the lake of fire. Paul... I'm sure he will cover the lake of fire in his upcoming Revelation series if he hasn't already, and talk more about its purpose. But there's a good example in Acts 17 where Paul is preaching on Mars Hill. You might remember when he talks to the men of Athens. He doesn't go up there and say, "Turn or burn forever." He doesn't say that. He says, and I'll quote, "God is not far from each one of us, for we are all God's offspring. The times of ignorance God overlooked. God now commands all men everywhere to repent"... which means to turn to him. "He has appointed a day in which He will be judging the habitable earth in righteousness by a man he has appointed"... which is Jesus. And listen to this: "...offering faith to all by raising him from the dead." I want to pick up on this phrase later... "offering faith to all." This is something very much in line with what Paul's been talking about. The Modern Transactional View vs. True Transformation The common, modern-day process of salvation goes something like this: you'll likely begin with a prayer. More often than not, before you know what's happening, you'll be asked to pray at the end of a meeting. You'll be asked to "repeat after me" and just say these words. The words might include a declaration of future repentance, but that's optional. But repentance isn't something we say we will do; repentance is something we do. It's not a verbal promise, it's an action. Once you say this prayer, you're then deemed to be saved. People will ask, "When were you saved?" and you'll say, "Well, I was saved on the day I said that prayer." It's a very common view, presenting salvation as a finishing point rather than a starting point. What I want to put to you today is that making that declaration is actually just the starting point. Here is a bit of a challenge. The proposition is: to be saved from hell, you say this prayer, and you're now saved from eternal punishment. Try to find a passage in the Bible that talks about hell where this is the criteria for not going there. It's pretty hard to find. I can tell you the passages that talk about hell don't talk about some sort of verbal declaration. Under that view, salvation becomes a legal transaction where God is now obliged not to send you to hell forever. You were just lucky enough to find the legal loophole before you died, whilst most won't find it. Unfortunately, this can lead to an attitude that sin doesn't matter, or "cheap grace," as it's known. Some of the most devastating moral failures occur in church leadership and congregations. I suspect this kind of mindset contributes to the problem. People think, "I said the prayer, I'm saved, I'm not going to hell, so what does it matter?" Sin does matter, because it damages us and it damages the people around us. As we will see later, it's evidence that we're operating out of the wrong, false identity. Unpacking John 3:16 and Perishing Here's the classic "ticket to heaven" verse, John 3:16. We can probably all recite it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who is believing in him should not perish but have eternal life." A couple of things here. "Believing" is the translation, but Paul would have covered pistis with you... to have faith. It's talking about having faith. It's not a matter of, "Did I believe hard enough so that I'm not going to perish?" No, it's about having faith. Paul has talked about having faith in Christ to allow the faith of Christ to flow. People often conflate perishing with judgment and eternal punishment. But actually, this word "perish" in the Greek is apollumi. It's the exact same word used for "lost" in the stories of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. It doesn't mean "destroyed beyond existence" or "beyond redemption." In Luke 15, which contains those three parables, the father of the prodigal son says, "Listen to this: my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost"... was perishing, same word... "and is found." To perish doesn't mean to cease to exist. People often conflate judgment with perishing and endless punishment in hell without any hope of redemption. But we're talking about God's righteous judgment, and God's judgment always has a righteous purpose. What is Eternal Life? What is eternal life? The picture many of us have had is sitting on a cloud in heaven playing a harp, thinking, "What am I going to do for the rest of eternity? Will it get boring?" Well, actually, your eternal destiny isn't up in heaven. Where is it, Zara? Where will we be eternally? Zara: New Jerusalem. Speaker: New Jerusalem, exactly... the new earth. Our destiny is actually here. Jesus will return here as King. Heaven is just a waiting room until he returns. We're not going to stay up there forever sitting on a cloud playing a harp; that is a waiting room. Fortunately, Jesus defined eternal life for us. He said, "This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." So, eternal life is not about the length of time. We have this Western mentality that eternal life means a long period of existing alive. No, it's about the quality of life. It's about knowing God. The word "eternal" is actually translated from the Greek term aionios, which means "of an age." It doesn't inherently mean endless. But when it got translated into Latin... which is where a lot of Western doctrine comes from... the Latin word used really did mean endless eternity. We've lost some of the nuances of the original language in our English translations. It is an age of life where God is the source of our life. In Jesus' view, salvation stops being a transaction to avoid punishment and becomes the process we go through to know God and experience this life. Salvation isn't just a one-time event or a prayer; it's a process. The Post-Pentecost Reality I think this leads to one of the most startling verses in the Bible. How can we actually know God? Paul tells the Corinthian church that he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. That's quite amazing. When did this become possible? It only became possible at a certain period of human history: after Pentecost. God said, "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh." We now have the Holy Spirit. Prior to Pentecost, they didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit in the same way; they were dealing with rules, regulations, and laws to try to be good or obedient enough. After Pentecost, we are equipped with the Holy Spirit for a transformation process. We're moving way beyond the concept of just wanting to escape punishment or go to heaven forever. We're talking about a total transformation. Does anybody remember what I presented last time? It was in November last year. It's all right, because I didn't remember either! Yes, Barbara? Do we have an award for Barbara? Very good, Barbara. Paul and I did a series on the Ten Commandments, and the summary was about living by the law... what they used to have to do to live up to those commandments. Today, we flip those commandments completely through the Holy Spirit into a transformed life. Instead of "don't steal," it becomes "be a generous giver." Everything is flipped from "don't do this" to "do the opposite." That is the transformed life available to us because we have the Holy Spirit, the spirit that heals and reshapes us. The Three Dimensions of Salvation Today I want to build upon that concept and pick up on some of the things Paul has been talking about recently. I'll reuse one chart from my last talk, which highlights the fact that we are spirit, soul, and body. * Our spirit has been saved in the past... Jesus accomplished that for us. * Our soul is being saved now... that is present tense, and that's what the healing of the soul is all about. It's the ongoing transformation process. * Our body will be saved at the resurrection, when we receive our new bodies. That is the complete salvation process from soup to nuts. To say "I was saved on this date"... well, okay, but that was just the beginning of the journey. The Two Operating Systems: Striving vs. Dependence We live in a culture obsessed with life hacks and self-optimisation. It's incredibly easy to drag this exhausting striving straight into our walk with God, treating holiness as a behavioural self-improvement project. Does that sound familiar? I know kids who are on their devices all the time, with constant, on-demand entertainment. They never have a chance to get bored. I tell them that boredom is a necessary ingredient for creativity. If you're constantly receiving input, you can't be creative because there's no space for it. We can get trapped in the exact same exhausting treadmill... like a hamster wheel... where we're striving to be better and trying to fix our flaws. "Oh, I keep doing this and I need to stop." It becomes exhausting. We are running on the wheel but getting nowhere. Why does that happen? Because we operate out of two distinct operating systems. The first is the system of self-reliance. Picture a rigid, geometric tree of self-reliance, which represents the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden. On the other side, we have the flowing tree of dependence. As believers, we often operate out of both, but the goal of salvation is to shift from the left to the right. Living out of the system of dependence results in an organic union and spontaneous fruit, modelling Jesus, who only did what he saw the Father doing. But dependence requires trust... or believing loyalty. It's much harder for us to let go, like the song was saying, and trust. We'd rather be self-dependent and ensure everything is controlled. Andrew was talking about OCD earlier, and that is essentially a striving to control everything around us. We need to let go. I call the system on the left the "old self." I couldn't think of a name for the one on the right at first. What could the one on the right be called? The "new self." Okay, that's a good label! Crucifixion, Not Rehabilitation Looking at the old self, it cannot be upgraded or rehabilitated; it must be crucified. That is a pretty startling statement. When we operate out of the old self... which the Bible often refers to as the flesh... trying to fix it is like trying to dress up a corpse to make it look good. Our old self must die so our new self can live. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. We have to die first before we can be born again. We all go through two births and two deaths. We are born physically and we die physically. We also have to die spiritually to be born again spiritually. Everybody will go through this process at some point. Paul talks about this specifically in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Notice he says, "I have been crucified." It's past tense and decisive. Paul talked in one of his recent sermons about this being ontologically true... it is objectively true. It's just that it is often hidden from us, or we fail to acknowledge it. The old system is finished. The old self has been put to death, and we have a new source of life. It is Christ living in us, requiring a present and continuous dependence... a believing loyalty. You can see the echoes of John 3:16 rephrased here: living by faith in the Son of God who loved us. Dead people don't require a more rigorous rule book; they lack the capacity to be resuscitated. When someone dies physically, their body is still there, but their life force... their spirit... is gone. You cannot rehabilitate a corpse. It is an error to think we can reform the old man. We see many religions trying to do exactly that... trying to perform better, strive harder, and follow rules. That's the old man. We don't need a rehabilitation programme to dress up a corpse; we require an entirely different kind of life. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, we were dead in our trespasses. We need to shift from a corrupted identity to an entirely new species. On the left, you have a protective castle driven by self-protection, hiding, performance, and control, cut off from the primal source of life. Who is that primal source? Jesus. He is sustaining us all right now. There is nothing about us that he doesn't actively sustain, but we need that spiritual awakening. The model on the right is a creation model, not an evolutionary upgrade of the old flesh. It's a complete paradigm shift. The old self has to die. As Paul told the Corinthians: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." The Faith of Christ Let's talk about our faith allowing Christ's faith to flow. Paul previously shared a crude diagram of this, which I've significantly improved, and I'll let him use it whenever he wants! He'll probably listen to this recording, so I'm sure he'll follow up. In modern translations, many verses are translated as faith in Christ rather than the faith of Christ. That comes down to the theological bias of the translators. Every translation acts like a tightly worded commentary. Because there are far more English words than Greek words, they have to choose the word that fits their doctrine. If they believe it's purely your personal faith in Christ doing the heavy lifting, they will translate the phrase pistis Christou that way. But it is actually the faith of Christ. Remember what Paul said to the men of Athens: Jesus is "offering faith to all." Paul was saying this to Gentiles who knew nothing about Jesus until Paul opened his mouth. The faith of Christ is the very environment of God's grace. Our faith in Christ is simply the valve. It allows God's faith to anchor us and his Spirit to flow into our spirit, connecting with our soul. Our soul then becomes the expression of our spirit. Relational authenticity and believing loyalty to our King is what biblical faith is all about. The proclamation of the gospel originally meant the declaration of a new King. That's the good news: we have a new King, so swear allegiance to Him. Isaiah 45 says: "By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance." That is the end state God saw for humanity. It's not forced submission; it's a voluntary allegiance once everyone finally sees who the King of the cosmos actually is. As Paul writes in Corinthians, once all that is done and Jesus has reconciled the world to himself, he hands the kingdom back to God the Father. That is the ultimate end of the story, where God is "all in all"... all things in all people. In Revelation, you see people in the lake of fire, but that isn't the final chapter. The end of the story is when God becomes all in all. Inside-Out Transformation As Peter Carbless would say, when we're "fair dinkum" with God, we step out of the anxiety of daily performance reviews. (I like using Peter for Australian slang because he's Greek... it's a nice flip, he should be teaching us Greek instead of Aussie English!) Under the old operating system, we try to improve our quality of being through an upward movement. We try to set external boundaries and learn rules, hoping they will eventually change our heart. That's the Ten Commandments approach. You use the rules to manage behaviour. I tell my kids they have to wake up early, so they set an alarm. Zara had to work at 6:00 this morning at the bakery. Her alarm went off, and what did she do? Went straight back to sleep! She was operating under a rule. She didn't set the alarm because she passionately wanted to wake up; she set it because she had to. The alarm clock became the rigid focus. She wasn't responding to the internal reality of needing to be at the bakery. God works the exact opposite way. The old man works from the rules upward. God starts at the very top: the quality of being. He begins with an internal infusion of divine life. He joins his Spirit to our spirit. How do we access this? We turn the valve of faith. That transformation then affects our principles. We receive a new nature that naturally understands God's ways, and the external boundaries become completely obvious. We want to do what is right because our core identity has changed, not because we're managed by a checklist. Sin management attempts to fix the perimeter to heal the core. God heals the core, and the perimeter naturally aligns. True Fruit vs. Dead Works Let's talk about works. People often say, "I'm a good person." But who is actually good? No-one. We can manufacture good actions out of self-reliance, but they are still dead works. Who is truly good? Jesus. We could copy his actions perfectly, but if they come out of the old self, they are just forced labour. True good works are a natural fruit blossoming out of our new life in him. We become his masterpiece. Galatians 5:22 says: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." We can exhibit nice attributes from either operating system, but the source is what matters. If they come out of the old man, they are dead works. This is why the author of Hebrews talks about "repentance from dead works." It's not just repenting of obviously bad things; it's repenting of the good things we tried to manufacture out of our own fleshly identity. Summary of the Framework To pull this framework together, let's contrast the two systems: The Old Man (Flesh) The New Man (Spirit) Self-protective castle New creation & resurrection life Performance-led striving Absolute rest & conjoined union Adam (Dust of the earth) Christ (The life-giving spirit) Pre-Pentecost (External law) Post-Pentecost (Indwelling Spirit) Damaged, unhealed soul Healed, transformed soul False identity / Dead works True identity / Fruit of the Spirit When we operate out of the new man, our desires naturally become his desires. Instead of praying for a new model Porsche because our current one is out of date, we pray into his desires. That's what the Lord's Prayer is all about. We all have a damaged soul that needs healing. This transition from a damaged soul to a healed soul is what the present process of salvation is. We often believe a false identity ("This is just who I am, I can't help it"), but we need to move into our true identity in him. I have gathered a lot of scripture that maps this out, and I'll share the slides later. Please be like a Berean: don't just accept what someone says from a pulpit. Check the scriptures to see if these things map out accurately. Look at Ephesians 4, which tells us to put off the old self, renew our minds, and put on the new self. Scripture is full of this paradigm. It is completely different from simply saying a sinner's prayer and assuming you're completely done. This is a call to total transformation. Application: Presence Prayer How do we apply these principles? We begin with presence prayer. Paul recently put up a brilliant six-episode series on the Uncreated YouTube channel about this. The goal of presence prayer is to restore us to the exact purpose for which we were created: full communion with God. Jesus prayed, "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us." That is full, beautiful integration. Our primary responsibility is simply to open the valve of faith and allow the life of Christ to flow. When you notice yourself slipping into striving, stop. Take a physical breath, open your lungs, and receive his grace like oxygen. To close, I'll share the Peter Carbless translation of Romans 5: "Therefore, since we have all of our ducks in a row because we are fair dinkum with God, we have peace with God. We stand and we rejoice in the hope and glory of God." That is what salvation is all about. It's not a transaction you did once at the back of a church building years ago. My mother used to get up at 3:00 am and sit in a small study chair. Sometimes she had a Bible on her lap, sometimes she didn't. I'd come home at all hours, see her there, and ask, "What are you doing? Are you praying?" She would always say, "No, I'm just waiting on the Lord." She didn't have a laundry list of demands. She was simply waiting on the Lord actively and deliberately. That is what presence prayer is. Closing Prayer Let's pray. Lord, bring us into the full communication and organic union for which we were created—the secure reality where we are already seated together with you in finished victory and absolute rest. We simply thank you as we permit your life to flow through us, naturally growing your beautiful fruit and transforming us into a healing presence for everyone around us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today, the Apostle Paul arrives in Athens and preaches on mars Hill. Perhaps the greatest sermon of all time!  

When life feels unstable and the world around us seems chaotic, we need to be reminded of where our true security lies. This message takes us through Psalm 125, one of the ancient songs of ascent that God's people sang as they journeyed upward to Jerusalem for worship. The physical climb mirrored a spiritual reality—they were reorienting their hearts toward the Lord. The psalm opens with a powerful image: those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, unmovable and enduring forever. This isn't about having perfect faith or never feeling shaken; it's about recognizing that our steadiness comes from God's faithfulness, not our own strength. The psalm reminds us that just as mountains surrounded Jerusalem, the Lord surrounds His people—not watching from a distance, but present in the midst of our struggles. We explore five anchors for our journey: peace, presence, pressure, path, and plan. The message confronts our tendency to grow too familiar with holy things, to walk past God's grace as if it's ordinary ground. Through vivid imagery from Athens and Mars Hill, we're challenged to examine whether we've forgotten the weight of what we've been given. Pressure reveals what we're truly trusting in, and this psalm calls us back to the foundation that cannot be moved—not our ability to control outcomes, but the Lord who holds us. When wickedness seems to have power and compromise starts looking reasonable, we need to remember that God surrounds us not only to protect us from what's around us, but from what's within us. The ultimate anchor is found in Jesus, who stood in our place, stretched out His hands in love at the cross, and walked out of the grave to prove that sin, death, and wickedness will never have the final word.

In this week's summertime rerun, Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye discuss the (still) hot topic of women in ministry within the Church. Throughout Christian history, with the increased institutionalization of the Church came very set patterns of misogyny. And certain passages of Scripture have been used to fuel both sides of this debate as to what role women can and should take within the Church. Episode Links Dr. White has written several blogs that may serve as helpful additions to today's conversation, such as a blog titled “Beth Moore in the Pulpit,” in which he explores the complementarian vs. egalitarian views held by many within the Church. And one of the most foundational things Dr. White laid out was to follow “The Biblical Model of Leadership.” The conversation also touched on Jesus and how He viewed women. Check out this blog simply titled “Sexism” to explore more about this. Also mentioned was the letter of I Timothy in the New Testament and how that has impacted many churches' views on women in ministry. Dr. White mentioned that a good book on this is The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus by John R.W. Stott. And at the beginning of the discussion you heard Alexis mention a conversation that took place in a Christianity Today podcast titled “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” While the entire podcast had a lot to contribute to the topic of women in the Church, Episode 13 in particular includes an insightful interview with the CEO of CT, Tim Dalrymple. For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can submit your questions through the form on the podcast website HERE.

This week Joel walked us through Acts 17, where Paul stands on Mars Hill in Athens and, rather than mocking the city's countless idols, aches for it as a place of people starving for a God they cannot name. We are showed that an idol is not the absence of longing but longing that hasn't found its true home, and that God had been introducing Himself to Athens for six hundred years through their own poets and nameless altars before Paul ever arrived to fill in the name of Jesus. We are left with Paul's playbook for the Athenians in our own lives, to grieve instead of mock, to learn their poets, and to trust God's timing, reading our own stories as a hillside covered in altars marking every mercy God gave us before we knew Him.Support the show

Have you ever wondered why you ended up in the city you live in, the job you have, or the relationships you find yourself in? According to Acts 17:26, it is not an accident. God determined the times and places where people would live so that they would seek Him. That means your everyday environment is not random. It is a mission field.In Acts 17, Paul finds himself in Athens, a city full of idols and philosophical debate. Rather than leading with judgment, he leads with curiosity. He walks through the city, observes what people are searching for, and finds a connection point at an altar dedicated to an unknown God. He meets the Athenians where they are, quotes their own poets, and builds a bridge to the gospel. His approach is one of the most practical and powerful examples in Scripture of how to share faith in a culture that does not share your beliefs.This message explores what it looks like to be intentionally placed by God, how to find common ground with people who have no church background, and how to share truth without pushing people away. It also tackles one of the most common fears Christians face: the difference between compromising the gospel and simply connecting with culture. Paul shows us that flexible methods and a fixed message are not in conflict. They work together.Whether you are trying to reach a skeptical coworker, a spiritually curious neighbor, or someone who considers themselves spiritual but not religious, this message gives you a practical and biblical framework for starting those conversations well.Topics covered include: being intentionally placed by God, sharing the gospel cross-culturally, finding common ground with non-Christians, Acts 17 and Paul at Mars Hill, the unknown God, evangelism in everyday life, how to share your faith without being pushy, truth and love in evangelism, and what to do when people do not respond to the gospel.If you have ever felt unsure about how to talk about your faith in a world that seems increasingly resistant to it, this message is for you. God has placed you exactly where you are for a reason, and the people around you are searching for something they may not yet have words for. You might be the one who helps them find it.

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Paul and Silas preach in Thessalonica, get run out of town, land in Berea, and Paul ends up alone in Athens, face to face with a city full of idols. The question tying it all together: how do you keep sharing your faith when it keeps costing you something? In this episode, we walk through Acts 17 with Carlos Renfroe — covering the Bereans, Paul's Mars Hill moment, and why your identity in Christ is what keeps you standing when the outcome isn't guaranteed. Join us Sundays at 10 AM | The Healing Place Shreveport | thpshreveport.com Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:49 - Thessalonica: When the Gospel Starts a Riot 4:00 - The Bereans: How to Study the Bible the Right Way 5:48 - Paul in Athens and the Altar to the Unknown God 8:04 - How Do You Keep Going When Sharing Your Faith Gets Hard? 9:41 - Your Identity in Christ Is What Holds You Together 11:54 - The Be-Know-Do Framework and Closing

Washington Wednesday on Iran's costly move, World Tour on Switzerland's population growth, and a Mars Hill student competition. Plus, Janie B. Cheaney on home management skills, a helium balloon law, and the Wednesday morning newsSupport The World and Everything in It today at wng.org/donateAdditional support comes from Harbinger Tours, supporting Israel through luxury tours, with a November departure led by Marshall and Jessica Pennell. HarbingerTours.net

“And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:27–28 NLT) One of the biggest obstacles many people face when it comes to evangelism is a reluctance to talk about the unpleasant parts of the gospel message. They’re happy to share that “the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NLT). It’s the first part of Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death,” that trips them up (NLT). But we must not lose sight of the fact that Jesus talked a lot about Hell. In fact, He talked about Hell more than any other preacher in the Bible. Therefore, we don’t want to steer clear of the subject. Instead, we want a biblical understanding of what the Bible says so that we can share this information with others. The apostle Paul concluded his message on Mars Hill with these words: “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30–31 NLT). The author of Hebrews certainly didn’t shy away from the topic of judgment: “And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27–28 NLT). We need to talk about it, too. Of course, in order to do that, we must have a proper understanding of God’s judgment—what it is and what it isn’t. Some people say that it isn’t loving to talk about such things, that it’s resorting to scare tactics. But I couldn’t disagree more. I think talking about these subjects is the most loving thing we can do. Imagine that I see a house on fire. And through a window I see that there’s a person inside who doesn’t seem to know the house is on fire. Would it be a loving thing for me to kick down the door, grab him, and lead him out of the burning house? Of course it would. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be a loving thing for me to walk by and say, “Oh, that house is on fire! Very interesting. Oh, well, let me be on my way.” That wouldn’t be loving at all. If we really believe there’s an afterlife—and more specifically, a final judgment—and if we really believe we’ll be held accountable for the things we say and do, then it will affect the way we live. So, we need to give others the opportunity to hear and respond to the truth about God’s judgment. Don’t avoid the topic of judgment. It may be instrumental in changing people’s lives. Reflection question: What’s the best way to talk about God’s judgment with unbelievers? The Harvest Crusade is coming to Angel Stadium on July 11! Stay updated on all important event details. — The audio production of the podcast "Greg Laurie: Daily Devotions" utilizes Generative AI technology. This allows us to deliver consistent, high-quality content while preserving Harvest's mission to "know God and make Him known." All devotional content is written and owned by Pastor Greg Laurie. Listen to the Greg Laurie Podcast Become a Harvest PartnerSupport the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

283. Live from Athens - Acts 17 This week's episode is recorded in Athens, specifically from Mars Hill, the place we encounter in Acts 17. Join Cris as he explores the city of Athens, reads the Scriptures on location, and unpacks Paul's message in the very setting where it first unfolded. Recorded early in the morning from the exact place where Paul preached to the philosophers of his day, this episode brings the biblical story and the ancient world together in a fresh and vivid way.   Support the podcast with a coffee....
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    Rev Dr Cris Rogers is a church leader at allhallowsbow.org.uk and Director of Making Disciples. Chair of the Spring Harvest Planning Group. For more information, check out wearemakingdisciples.com #Heart #Hands #Heart    

Are you carrying the weight of a life that feels hopeless or far from God? In today's Words From The Word devotion, Pastor Roderick Webster draws from Ephesians 2:12 (KJV) to explore five conditions the Gentiles once lived under — and what it means to no longer live that way. You will learn what a divine covenant truly is, why believers grieve with hope rather than without it, and how Paul's bold message at Mars Hill still speaks to people searching for the true God. Whether you are a believer needing encouragement or someone still searching, this devotion is for you. Subscribe to Words From The Word wherever you listen to podcasts.

Paul at the Areopagus, Hill of Ares, Mars Hill, War Hill, or we might say Paul at the Pentagon. What did Paul preach while quoting two pagan poets? He preached Jesus, the resurrection, the necessity of repentance, and the coming day of judgment.

Many Christians lament the fact that the culture is becoming more “secular”. Paul's walk through Athens and his speech on Mars Hill (the Areopagus) offers a pattern for Christians to use when pointing to the “unknown God” that many people today are seeking. 

We're so glad you're listening to our podcast! This sermon is based on Acts 17:16–31, the story of Paul in Athens, where he speaks to Greek philosophers and thinkers on the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill. What might he have to say to these diverse and thoughtful people about God and Jesus? We hope that you'll enjoy this sermon and that it will be meaningful to you this week.To find out more about our church, you can head on over to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.williamsburgbaptist.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you have a moment, we'd also love for you to click over to follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.We are a small but vibrant and growing congregation, and there are lots of ways to connect. Please don't hesitate to reach out if we can help support you in any way! Thanks so much for tuning in!

We unpack the powerful story of Paul at Mars Hill in Athens, where he addressed a city full of idols and introduced them to the "Unknown God". We explore how Jesus Christ, the exact representation of God's glory, provides hope for past failures and future longings. Learn how Paul engaged in meaningful spiritual conversations with philosophers without compromising the truth of the gospel. We dive into the magnitude of a Creator who is the Lord of heaven and earth, transcending human-made temples and inviting every person to authentically seek Him. . Speaker: Greg Holder

Send us Fan Mail(REPRISE) Ken welcomes back to the podcast the originator of the hashtag that launched a movement: #exvangelical, Blake Chastain. They discuss his new book, Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement Fighting Back. An undergraduate at an evangelical university in Central Indiana, Blake had questions - about the Bible, the exclusive truth claims, the identification with conservative politics, the indifference to Earth care, to race, to social justice, and finally, the full-on embrace of MAGA Trumpism. It was a crisis of faith. When his hashtag went viral, CBS called him for a life-changing interview. Blake started The Exvangelical Podcast. In a wide-ranging conversation, Ken and Blake explore the history of evangelicalism and the contributing factors that have led to the evangelicalism we know today. SHOW NOTESPurchase Blake's Book on Amazon | Ken's Most Recent SubstackOriginally Aired November 15, 2024Support the showBecome a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you!Ken's Substack PageThe Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com

Pastor Phelps continues through the book of Acts by studying the sermon of Paul on Mars Hill to show how we can be a witness in our communities today. Message originally preached Sunday morning April 12, 2026.

Athens was the kind of place that felt spiritually busy and intellectually confident, and Paul walks straight into it with the gospel. We watch him step onto Mars Hill before the Areopagus, speak with surprising respect, and start with what he can honestly affirm: people are more religious than they think. From there, we trace his bold move. He doesn't merely criticize “idols” as ancient statues. He shows how every culture builds objects of trust that promise identity, meaning, and security, and how those functional gods still shape our lives today.  Paul's most brilliant pivot is an altar inscribed “To An Unknown God.” He uses their own admission of spiritual uncertainty to proclaim the God they've missed: the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth who needs nothing from us, yet gives life and breath to everyone. Along the way, we talk about how to witness to skeptics in a pluralistic society, how to listen for the idols under the surface of someone's story, and how to use true insights from literature and culture as a bridge to biblical truth without watering anything down.  The message turns urgent when Paul brings it home: repentance is not self-improvement, it's turning from lesser gods to the living God because a day of righteous judgment is fixed. And the cornerstone claim is not a vague feeling but a public act of God: the resurrection of Jesus, offered as proof that changes what we do with the questions “Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?”Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCDzWSS6X30

Paul's sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17) is explored, emphasizing the historical, eyewitness evidence of Jesus' bodily resurrection and why it compels a call to repentance. The episode explains how the resurrection serves as God's assurance for judgment and salvation, contrasts Jesus' risen body with that of Lazarus' resurrection, and urges listeners to respond in faith.

Paul Medlin grew up in church and spent decades running from God.Between a Pentecostal mother and an atheist father, conflicting religion confused him at 12 years old and pushed him further and further away. What followed were years of chasing adrenaline, building success, breaking his marriage, and waking up angry that he'd woken up at all.But on a hillside in Athens, Greece — sitting on top of Mars Hill where the Apostle Paul once preached — God asked him a question he couldn't shake:"Paul... who is your God?"This is the story of a man who had tried religion over and over again, only to discover that God never wanted his religion in the first place.He just wanted his heart.

This teaching argues that so-called “replacement theology” falsely claims the Church has supplanted Israel in God's redemptive plan, despite Scripture affirming Israel as the root from which Gentile believers are grafted (Revelation 5:5; Revelation 22:16; Romans 11:17–24), and it warns that redefining God through culture or general revelation undermines the gospel, since salvation comes only through hearing and believing the preached message of Christ (Romans 10:14–15; John 3:18), not merely through awareness of a creator (Romans 1:20); the speaker refutes the idea that Gentiles historically “knew God,” citing repeated biblical testimony that they were ignorant of Him and without hope apart from Christ (Galatians 4:8; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 3:1; Romans 1:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; Ephesians 2:12–13; 2 Thessalonians 1:8), and explains that Paul's sermon at Mars Hill did not affirm pagan knowledge of God but exposed their ignorance while calling them to repentance (Acts 17). You can connect with Moriel in more locations than just YouTube! Check out all our official links on the About page: https://www.youtube.com/c/MorielTVministries/about.

This episode is brought to you by the children's book "The Adventures of Ben and Travis and the Joy Rider". Get your copy here: https://www.benandtravis.com/store/p/joyrider or the whole collection here: https://www.benandtravis.com/store/p/the-adventures-of-ben-and-travis-childrens-book-collection Ben and Will take Read Across America Week to the hallways of Mars Hill Bible School in Florence, Alabama to ask the faculty, staff and two special surprise guests about their favorite books and the impact they have made on their lives! Links mentioned in this episode: Get our free ebook "28 Days of Focused Living" here: https://www.benandtravis.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/benandtravis Reframing Hope Book: https://www.benandtravis.com/books For extra content and material you can use for your family or ministry go to https://www.patreon.com/benandtravis Represent the show: https://www.benandtravis.com/store The Friday ReFresh: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-friday-refresh/id1611969995 Good Old Fashioned Dislike Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-old-fashioned-dislike/id1643163790 Co-Producers: Justin B., Doris C., Rhonda F., Scott K., Mary H., Scott B. This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

We believe that it's important to stand in the culture and preach the Gospel. At the same time, it's important to be careful that the culture doesn't begin to shape us, or that we become dependent on the culture in a way that compromises the message of saving faith in Jesus Christ. If we have […] The post Mars Hill? appeared first on Rockpointe Community Church.

We believe that it's important to stand in the culture and preach the Gospel. At the same time, it's important to be careful that the culture doesn't begin to shape us, or that we become dependent on the culture in a way that compromises the message of saving faith in Jesus Christ. If we have […] The post Mars Hill? appeared first on Rockpointe Community Church.

Acts 17.16-34. Paul stands on Mars Hill, connects with the philosophers of ancient Athens in a quintessential Pauline fashion... nothing short of brilliant!

The conversation with Mike McKenna provides insights into the world of Classical Christian Education and the shift away from school rankings to celebrate partner schools.TakeawaysClassical Christian education emphasizes the development of the whole person in ChristThe CLT is moving away from school rankings to highlight and celebrate partner schoolsChapters00:29 Introduction to Mike McKenna and Classical Christian Education03:17 Mike McKenna's Educational Journey06:09 Mars Hill Academy Strengths and Community09:36 Mission Preservation in Education12:16 Adopting CLT Assessments15:43 Engagement and Preparation for Success18:35 Impactful Texts and Closing Thoughts

We all tend to imagine God in ways that fit us—filtered, familiar, and often transactional. In this message, we explore a surprising and freeing truth about who God really is: God doesn't need us. Drawing from Moses at the burning bush and Paul's sermon at Mars Hill, we look at God's self-sufficiency—what theologians call aseity. God is the great “I AM,” not dependent on us, not extracting value from us, and not operating out of lack. And that turns out to be really good news. If God doesn't need us, then our faith isn't about obligation, guilt, or trying to earn God's approval. It's an invitation into relationship. We're not employees trying to perform—we're beloved children learning to rest. This sermon invites us to lay down control, release the weight we carry, and rediscover a God who doesn't need us—but deeply wants us.

WhoDeb Hatley, Owner of Hatley Pointe, North CarolinaRecorded onJuly 30, 2025About Hatley PointeClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Deb and David Hatley since 2023 - purchased from Orville English, who had owned and operated the resort since 1992Located in: Mars Hill, North CarolinaYear founded: 1969 (as Wolf Laurel or Wolf Ridge; both names used over the decades)Pass affiliations: Indy Pass, Indy+ Pass – 2 days, no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Cataloochee (1:25), Sugar Mountain (1:26)Base elevation: 4,000 feetSummit elevation: 4,700 feetVertical drop: 700 feetSkiable acres: 54Average annual snowfall: 65 inchesTrail count: 21 (4 beginner, 11 intermediate, 6 advanced)Lift count: 4 active (1 fixed-grip quad, 1 ropetow, 2 carpets); 2 inactive, both on the upper mountain (1 fixed-grip quad, 1 double)Why I interviewed herOur world has not one map, but many. Nature drew its own with waterways and mountain ranges and ecosystems and tectonic plates. We drew our maps on top of these, to track our roads and borders and political districts and pipelines and railroad tracks.Our maps are functional, simplistic. They insist on fictions. Like the 1,260-mile-long imaginary straight line that supposedly splices the United States from Canada between Washington State and Minnesota. This frontier is real so long as we say so, but if humanity disappeared tomorrow, so would that line.Nature's maps are more resilient. This is where water flows because this is where water flows. If we all go away, the water keeps flowing. This flow, in turn, impacts the shape and function of the entire world.One of nature's most interesting maps is its mountain map. For most of human existence, mountains mattered much more to us than they do now. Meaning: we had to respect these giant rocks because they stood convincingly in our way. It took European settlers centuries to navigate en masse over the Appalachians, which is not even a severe mountain range, by global mountain-range standards. But paved roads and tunnels and gas stations every five miles have muted these mountains' drama. You can now drive from the Atlantic Ocean to the Midwest in half a day.So spoiled by infrastructure, we easily forget how dramatically mountains command huge parts of our world. In America, we know this about our country: the North is cold and the South is warm. And we define these regions using battle maps from a 19th Century war that neatly bisected the nation. Another imaginary line. We travel south for beaches and north to ski and it is like this everywhere, a gentle progression, a continent-length slide that warms as you descend from Alaska to Panama.But mountains disrupt this logic. Because where the land goes up, the air grows cooler. And there are mountains all over. And so we have skiing not just in expected places such as Vermont and Maine and Michigan and Washington, but in completely irrational ones like Arizona and New Mexico and Southern California. And North Carolina.North Carolina. That's the one that surprised me. When I started skiing, I mean. Riding hokey-poke chairlifts up 1990s Midwest hills that wouldn't qualify as rideable surf breaks, I peered out at the world to figure out where else people skied and what that skiing was like. And I was astonished by how many places had organized skiing with cut trails and chairlifts and lift tickets, and by how many of them were way down the Michigan-to-Florida slide-line in places where I thought that winter never came: West Virginia and Virginia and Maryland. And North Carolina.Yes there are ski areas in more improbable states. But Cloudmont, situated in, of all places, Alabama, spins its ropetow for a few days every other year or so. North Carolina, home to six ski areas spinning a combined 35 chairlifts, allows for no such ambiguity: this is a ski state. And these half-dozen ski centers are not marginal operations: Sugar Mountain and Cataloochee opened for the season last week, and they sometimes open in October. Sugar spins a six-pack and two detach quads on a 1,200-foot vertical drop.This geographic quirk is a product of our wonderful Appalachian Mountain chain, which reaches its highest points not in New England but in North Carolina, where Mount Mitchell peaks at 6,684 feet, 396 feet higher than the summit of New Hampshire's Mount Washington. This is not an anomaly: North Carolina is home to six summits taller than Mount Washington, and 12 of the 20-highest in the Appalachians, a range that stretches from Alabama to Newfoundland. And it's not just the summits that are taller in North Carolina. The highest ski area base elevation in New England is Saddleback, which measures 2,147 feet at the bottom of the South Branch quad (the mountain more typically uses the 2,460-foot measurement at the bottom of the Rangeley quad). Either way, it's more than 1,000 feet below the lowest base-area elevation in North Carolina:Unfortunately, mountains and elevation don't automatically equal snow. And the Southern Appalachians are not exactly the Kootenays. It snows some, sometimes, but not so much, so often, that skiing can get by on nature's contributions alone - at least not in any commercially reliable form. It's no coincidence that North Carolina didn't develop any organized ski centers until the 1960s, when snowmaking machines became efficient and common enough for mass deployment. But it's plenty cold up at 4,000 feet, and there's no shortage of water. Snowguns proved to be skiing's last essential ingredient.Well, there was one final ingredient to the recipe of southern skiing: roads. Back to man's maps. Specifically, America's interstate system, which steamrolled the countryside throughout the 1960s and passes just a few miles to Hatley Pointe's west. Without these superhighways, western North Carolina would still be a high-peaked wilderness unknown and inaccessible to most of us.It's kind of amazing when you consider all the maps together: a severe mountain region drawn into the borders of a stable and prosperous nation that builds physical infrastructure easing the movement of people with disposable income to otherwise inaccessible places that have been modified for novel uses by tapping a large and innovative industrial plant that has reduced the miraculous – flight, electricity, the internet - to the commonplace. And it's within the context of all these maps that a couple who knows nothing about skiing can purchase an established but declining ski resort and remake it as an upscale modern family ski center in the space of 18 months.What we talked aboutHurricane Helene fallout; “it took every second until we opened up to make it there,” even with a year idle; the “really tough” decision not to open for the 2023-24 ski season; “we did not realize what we were getting ourselves into”; buying a ski area when you've never worked at a ski area and have only skied a few times; who almost bought Wolf Ridge and why Orville picked the Hatleys instead; the importance of service; fixing up a broken-down ski resort that “felt very old”; updating without losing the approachable family essence; why it was “absolutely necessary” to change the ski area's name; “when you pulled in, the first thing that you were introduced to … were broken-down machines and school buses”; Bible verses and bare trails and busted-up everything; “we could have spent two years just doing cleanup of junk and old things everywhere”; Hatley Pointe then and now; why Hatley removed the double chair; a detachable six-pack at Hatley?; chairlifts as marketing and branding tools; why the Breakaway terrain closed and when it could return and in what form; what a rebuilt summit lodge could look like; Hatley Pointe's new trails; potential expansion; a day-ski area, a resort, or both?; lift-served mountain bike park incoming; night-skiing expansion; “I was shocked” at the level of après that Hatley drew, and expanding that for the years ahead; North Carolina skiing is all about the altitude; re-opening The Bowl trail; going to online-only sales; and lessons learned from 2024-25 that will build a better Hatley for 2025-26.What I got wrongWhen we recorded this conversation, the ski area hadn't yet finalized the name of the new green trail coming off of Eagle – it is Pat's Way (see trailmap above).I asked if Hatley intended to install night-skiing, not realizing that they had run night-ski operations all last winter.Why now was a good time for this interviewPardon my optimism, but I'm feeling good about American lift-served skiing right now. Each of the past five winters has been among the top 10 best seasons for skier visits, U.S. ski areas have already built nearly as many lifts in the 2020s (246) as they did through all of the 2010s (288), and multimountain passes have streamlined the flow of the most frequent and passionate skiers between mountains, providing far more flexibility at far less cost than would have been imaginable even a decade ago.All great. But here's the best stat: after declining throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, the number of active U.S. ski areas stabilized around the turn of the century, and has actually increased for five consecutive winters:Those are National Ski Areas Association numbers, which differ slightly from mine. I count 492 active ski hills for 2023-24 and 500 for last winter, and I project 510 potentially active ski areas for the 2025-26 campaign. But no matter: the number of active ski operations appears to be increasing.But the raw numbers matter less than the manner in which this uptick is happening. In short: a new generation of owners is resuscitating lost or dying ski areas. Many have little to no ski industry experience. Driven by nostalgia, a sense of community duty, plain business opportunity, or some combination of those things, they are orchestrating massive ski area modernization projects, funded via their own wealth – typically earned via other enterprises – or by rallying a donor base.Examples abound. When I launched The Storm in 2019, Saddleback, Maine; Norway Mountain, Michigan; Woodward Park City; Thrill Hills, North Dakota; Deer Mountain, South Dakota; Paul Bunyan, Wisconsin; Quarry Road, Maine; Steeplechase, Minnesota; and Snowland, Utah were all lost ski areas. All are now open again, and only one – Woodward – was the project of an established ski area operator (Powdr). Cuchara, Colorado and Nutt Hill, Wisconsin are on the verge of re-opening following decades-long lift closures. Bousquet, Massachusetts; Holiday Mountain, New York; Kissing Bridge, New York; and Black Mountain, New Hampshire were disintegrating in slow-motion before energetic new owners showed up with wrecking balls and Home Depot frequent-shopper accounts. New owners also re-energized the temporarily dormant Sandia Peak, New Mexico and Tenney, New Hampshire.One of my favorite revitalization stories has been in North Carolina, where tired, fire-ravaged, investment-starved, homey-but-rickety Wolf Ridge was falling down and falling apart. The ski area's season ended in February four times between 2018 and 2023. Snowmaking lagged. After an inferno ate the summit lodge in 2014, no one bothered rebuilding it. Marooned between the rapidly modernizing North Carolina ski trio of Sugar Mountain, Cataloochee, and Beech, Wolf Ridge appeared to be rapidly fading into irrelevance.Then the Hatleys came along. Covid-curious first-time skiers who knew little about skiing or ski culture, they saw opportunity where the rest of us saw a reason to keep driving. Fixing up a ski area turned out to be harder than they'd anticipated, and they whiffed on opening for the 2023-24 winter. Such misses sometimes signal that the new owners are pulling their ripcords as they launch out of the back of the plane, but the Hatleys kept working. They gut-renovated the lodge, modernized the snowmaking plant, tore down an SLI double chair that had witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And last winter, they re-opened the best version of the ski area now known as Hatley Pointe that locals had seen in decades.A great winter – one of the best in recent North Carolina history – helped. But what I admire about the Hatleys – and this new generation of owners in general – is their optimism in a cultural moment that has deemed optimism corny and naïve. Everything is supposed to be terrible all the time, don't you know that? They didn't know, and that orientation toward the good, tempered by humility and patience, reversed the long decline of a ski area that had in many ways ceased to resonate with the world it existed in.The Hatleys have lots left to do: restore the Breakaway terrain, build a new summit lodge, knot a super-lift to the frontside. And their Appalachian salvage job, while impressive, is not a very repeatable blueprint – you need considerable wealth to take a season off while deploying massive amounts of capital to rebuild the ski area. The Hatley model is one among many for a generation charged with modernizing increasingly antiquated ski areas before they fall over dead. Sometimes, as in the examples itemized above, they succeed. But sometimes they don't. Comebacks at Cockaigne and Hickory, both in New York, fizzled. Sleeping Giant, Wyoming and Ski Blandford, Massachusetts both shuttered after valiant rescue attempts. All four of these remain salvageable, but last week, Four Seasons, New York closed permanently after 63 years.That will happen. We won't be able to save every distressed ski area, and the potential supply of new or revivable ski centers, barring massive cultural and regulatory shifts, will remain limited. But the protectionist tendencies limiting new ski area development are, in a trick of human psychology, the same ones that will drive the revitalization of others – the only thing Americans resist more than building something new is taking away something old. Which in our country means anything that was already here when we showed up. A closed or closing ski area riles the collective angst, throws a snowy bat signal toward the night sky, a beacon and a dare, a cry and a plea: who wants to be a hero?Podcast NotesOn Hurricane HeleneHelene smashed inland North Carolina last fall, just as Hatley was attempting to re-open after its idle year. Here's what made the storm so bad:On Hatley's socialsFollow:On what I look for at a ski resortOn the Ski Big Bear podcastIn the spirit of the article above, one of the top 10 Storm Skiing Podcast guest quotes ever came from Ski Big Bear, Pennsylvania General Manager Lori Phillips: “You treat everyone like they paid a million dollars to be there doing what they're doing”On ski area name changesI wrote a piece on Hatley's name change back in 2023:Ski area name changes are more common than I'd thought. I've been slowly documenting past name changes as I encounter them, so this is just a partial list, but here are 93 active U.S. ski areas that once went under a different name. If you know of others, please email me.On Hatley at the point of purchase and nowGigantic collections of garbage have always fascinated me. That's essentially what Wolf Ridge was at the point of sale:It's a different place now:On the distribution of six-packs across the nationSix-pack chairlifts are rare and expensive enough that they're still special, but common enough that we're no longer amazed by them. Mostly - it depends on where we find such a machine. Just 112 of America's 3,202 ski lifts (3.5 percent) are six-packs, and most of these (75) are in the West (60 – more than half the nation's total, are in Colorado, Utah, or California). The Midwest is home to a half-dozen six-packs, all at Boyne or Midwest Family Ski Resorts operations, and the East has 31 sixers, 17 of which are in New England, and 12 of which are in Vermont. If Hatley installed a sixer, it would be just the second such chairlift in North Carolina, and the fifth in the Southeast, joining the two at Wintergreen, Virginia and the one at Timberline, West Virginia.On the Breakaway fireWolf Ridge's upper-mountain lodge burned down in March 2014. Yowza:On proposed expansions Wolf Ridge's circa 2007 trailmap teases a potential expansion below the now-closed Breakaway terrain:Taking our time machine back to the late ‘80s, Wolf Ridge had envisioned an even more ambitious expansion:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

This week, Kings Kaleidoscope's Chad Gardner joins us to talk about the band's new album, “Asaph's Arrows II,” a return to their roots reimagining classic hymns. He opens up about creative integrity, the lessons of Mars Hill, and how the band's journey has reshaped his view of worship and art. Plus, the cast tackles haircut horror stories, the SNAP funding freeze, Mike Todd's viral Breakfast Club interview and this year's weirdest scientific discoveries.Highlights:1:00 – Intros10:45 – The Great Hair Debate: Who has the courage to stop a bad haircut in progress?11:00 – RELEVANT Buzz: This week's headlines at the intersection of faith and culture11:15 – SNAP Funding Freeze: 42 million Americans face a food crisis — what Christians can actually do to help12:15 – Church vs. State: Who's really responsible for feeding the hungry?17:30 – Mike Todd on The Breakfast Club: Why he went viral (again)25:20 – Special Guest: Kings Kaleidoscope's Chad Gardner joins to talk about the band's new album, “Asaph's Arrows II”26:00 – Back to the Beginning: Why Kings is remaking hymns after a decade of experimentation30:10 – “The rose that grew from concrete”: How Mars Hill shaped Kings Kaleidoscope's DNA36:15 – The Future of Kings Kaleidoscope: How Kings might return to leading church worship42:00 – SLICES:• Jesse's “Ig Nobel Awards” — scientists prove drunk bats fly worse and cows painted like zebras get fewer fly bites• Marty's Vintage Gaming Corner — a Russian Sims 2 love story gone terribly wrong52:46 — Marty tells us about his exciting new projectAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Michael Warren speaks with Mike Cosper, host of the podcasts Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, to discuss ideological shifts in mass shootings, extremism among young conservative men, and the role of figures like Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson in shaping narratives. The Agenda:—The Great Unbundling of Humanity—The rise of ideological mass shootings—Nick Fuentes and his influence—Christian Zionism and its implications—The future of the American church The Dispatch Podcast is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch's offerings—including access to all of our articles, members-only newsletters, and bonus podcast episodes—click here. If you'd like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"In him we live and move and have our being." When Paul quoted the Greek poet Epimenides at Mars Hill in Acts 17, the Athenian philosophers weren't confused—they knew exactly what he was referencing. Their council of gods. In this LIVE from Blurry Con preview, Dr. Joel Muddamalle explains that Greek philosophy included a divine hierarchy ruling over nations and territories, strikingly similar to what Scripture describes in Deuteronomy 32:8. When God judged humanity at Babel, He didn't just scatter the nations—He disinherited them, assigning each to divine beings called "sons of God." These weren't decorative angels; they were governing authorities with real power over territories. The Greeks called them gods. The Hebrews understood them as rebellious divine council members. Paul, standing in the intellectual epicenter of the ancient world, used their own theology against them: "That council you worship? They're defeated rebels. The 'Unknown God' you acknowledge but don't know? That's Yahweh—and His Son Jesus Christ has authority over every power you've been serving." Joel walks through how Paul's Mars Hill sermon connects to the entire biblical narrative of spiritual warfare: the serpent's Eden rebellion, Babel's cosmic judgment, Mount Hermon where divine beings (Watchers) descended and corrupted the nations they were supposed to steward, and ultimately Christ's victory reclaiming all territory and authority. This is why Paul could confidently quote Greek poets—he wasn't compromising truth, he was revealing it through a framework the Greeks already understood. Joel explains what the divine council is, why geography matters in spiritual warfare, where demons originate (not fallen angels—Scripture doesn't teach that), how territorial spirits function, and why missions and prayer look different when you understand cosmic geography. The Greeks believed in a council of gods ruling over territories. Paul said: You're right about the structure, but wrong about who's in charge. Christ has defeated them all and reclaimed His rightful dominion. This conversation bridges ancient philosophy, Hebrew theology, and practical spiritual warfare—showing they're not contradictory but complementary when understood correctly. Whether you're trying to make sense of Ephesians 6, understand missions strategy, or grasp what Christ actually accomplished, Joel provides the framework Scripture assumes but Western rationalism has stripped away. Blurry Con 3 might be sold out, but you can still join us virtually on our Livestream. Get tickets here: www.blurrycreatures.com for half the cost of last year! This episode is sponsored by:https://zocdoc.com/blurry — Find and instantly book top-rated doctors today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can We Move From Fear to a Holy Indifference That Teaches Peace and Presence? Seattle-based writer Sara Billups joins host Curtis Chang to explore how faith, mental health, and spiritual practices can help calm anxiety in our bodies, families, churches, and politics. Drawing from her book Nervous Systems (available November 4, 2025), Sara shares practical ways to find peace, emotional balance, and spiritual resilience amid today's chaos. Together, Curtis and Sara discuss how understanding our stories and grounding in faith can help us live with calm and clarity in an anxious culture.   (02:23) - Navigating Anxiety in Uncertain Times (04:35) - Understanding Anxiety Across Generations (18:58) - Navigating Anxiety With Holy Indifference (26:00) - Anxiety in Churches, Politics, and Systems (28:15) - Churches Cultivating Non-Anxious Presence (33:43) - Finding a Spiritual Home in Crisis (41:20) - Sara's Message a Generation of Anxious Young Adults   Join The After Party   Send Campfire Stories to: info@redeemingbabel.org   Donate to Redeeming Babel   Mentioned in this episode: Sara Billups' Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics What is Epigenetics? (Cleveland Clinic) Curt Thompson discusses generational trauma and epigenetics (episode of Curt's podcast) Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises  St. Teresa of Lisieux's Divine Office The story behind the hymn It Is Well With My Soul Frederick Buechner describes his daughter's anorexia and praying Psalm 131 (video) Frederick Buechner's Telling Secrets Matthew 26:36-46 (ESV) Jesus prays in Gethsemane Edwin Friedman's A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix Edwin Friedman's Six Measures of Effective Leadership (Jack Shitima's Non-Anxious Leader blog) Mark Sayers's A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders The ignatian concept of Indifference Thomas McKenzie's The Anglican Way: A Guidebook Tim Keller's The Church in the City (Series of audio messages) Christianity Today's The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill (podcast) 22 Explore Grace Church Seattle Good Faith episode featuring Paco Amador of Little Village in Chicago   More from Sara Billups: Sara Billups' Orphaned Believers: How a Generation of Christian Exiles Can Find the Way Home Sara Billups' Bitter Scroll (substack) Sara Billups' That's the Spirit podcast (with Morgan Page)   Follow Us: Good Faith on Instagram Good Faith on X (formerly Twitter) Good Faith on Facebook   Sign up: Redeeming Babel Newsletter  

At just nine years old, Jase found himself alone in the frozen woods, turning a childhood scare into his very first survival story—and his first glimpse that God was near. Al and Zach connect that experience to Paul's sermon at Mars Hill in Acts 17, where creation itself testifies to the Creator's closeness. It turns out that both Phil and Missy preached the same message at Mars Hill years apart without knowing it. The guys explore the gnostic belief that our flesh is inherently sinful, and why resurrection hope isn't about escaping the body but God redeeming it. In this episode: Romans 1, verse 20; Acts 17; John 14, verse 2; John 14, verses 16-23; John 13, verse 3; Psalm 145, verses 17–20; John 5, verses 39–40; Romans 8, verse 8; Romans 8, verse 11; 1 Corinthians 6; Galatians 5, verses 19–24; Galatians 6, verse 14; 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23; 1 John 5, verse 4 “Unashamed” Episode 1151 is sponsored by: https://puretalk.com/unashamed — Get a Samsung Galaxy A36 for FREE with a $35 qualifying plan when you make the switch! https://ruffgreens.com — Get a FREE Jumpstart Trial Bag for your dog today when you use promo code Unashamed! https://chministries.org/unashamed — See why Christians are ditching health insurance for good. Get a simpler alternative at half the cost! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join us every Friday starting 8/29 for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices