Podcasts about Mortification

Check out this great show from March 11, 2025 Father Rob Kroll joins Patrick to discuss Mortification Where does the word mortification come from? (5:21) what does mortification include? How do we find the happy medium in mortification? (19:03) Laurie - A long time ago, my kids were going away from the faith. Stopped putting sugar in coffee. Would it be efficacious to cut out the cream too? Is it better to intensify it? (23:12) Break 1 Deb - Question about if a person has struggles when trying to do mortification and trouble with self-denial. Any advice? What are ways we can do mortification? (32:55) Chris - To what extent does trying to define holiness differ from by what you deny yourself instead of what you do for others? Is there a risk of denying yourself vs. becoming more active in our faith? (39:15) Break 2 What are dangers of Mortification? (45:15) How to discern what to do for mortification?

As we continue to recover from the winter storm that affected northeast Mississippi, we're grateful for your patience and prayers. We didn't want to leave you without encouragement this week, so we're returning to the second episode in our series on John Owen's Mortification of Sin, originally published on October 20, 2022. We trust the Lord will use it again to strengthen and steady your walk. Robert Murray M'Cheyne described the human heart as gunpowder and temptation as a spark that will ignite the heart in sin. The most careful practice we can have is to keep our hearts damp by gazing upon Christ. In this week's episode, John Snyder and Jeremy Walker share how Owen encourages us to keep our hearts damp by the dual command to watch and pray. What must we watch for? How must we pray? John and Jeremy share some of the most practical help from Owen in this week's episode. Check out Jeremy's podcasts From the Heart of Spurgeon and A Word in Season here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts Temptation Resisted and repulsed by John Owen: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/ch... The Mortification of Sin by John Owen: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/ch... Volume 6 of the Works of John Owen: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/co... Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Father Casey Jones is a priest of the Diocese of Venice, Florida. He currently serves as the pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish and school in Naples, Florida. In Today's Show: If a couple is not married in the Catholic church, can they have their baby baptized? What is the proper way to dispose of a garden statue of the Blessed Mother if it is broken? What is the Catholic teaching on past lives? Why do we have Laetare Sunday? What does it mean when we say "cast Satan to Hell" in the Saint Michael prayer? What is the Church's stance on Oplatki wafers? If you did not know a Mass was invalid, would it still fulfil your obligation? Why did past Saints inflict pain upon themselves and purposely induce sufferings of their bodies? Do those who receive the apostolic blessing automatically go to Heaven? What is the Jubilee Year of Saint Francis?  Visit the show page at thestationofthecross.com/askapriest to listen live, check out the weekly lineup, listen to podcasts of past episodes, watch live video, find show resources, sign up for our mailing list of upcoming shows, and submit your question for Father!

You may have heard about the significant ice storm that has swept through northeast Mississippi. Like many in our area, the Media Gratiae team has been affected, and the disruption has made it difficult for us to release a new episode this week. Still, we didn't want to leave you without encouragement. So this week we're returning to one of our most well-received series, originally published on October 13, 2022, featuring a conversation between Dr. John Snyder and Jeremy Walker on John Owen's Mortification of Sin. Our prayer is that the Lord would use these conversations to strengthen your faith and stir your hearts toward holiness, even in a week marked by disruption. We at The Whole Counsel love Puritans. We have benefited so much from their sermons, prayers, and books, it is our delight to discuss them and hopefully whet your appetite to read their words. In this new series of podcasts, Dr. John Snyder is going to walk through two books from the Puritan, John Owen, with our longtime friend Jeremy Walker. In this first episode, Jeremy and John are discussing Owen's, “On Temptation” and they discuss how to define, identify, and deal with temptation and testing. What are the differences and how should we approach them differently? Check out Jeremy's podcasts From the Heart of Spurgeon and A Word in Season here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts Temptation Resisted and repulsed by John Owen: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/christian-living/temptation/ The Mortification of Sin by John Owen: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/christian-living/the-mortification-of-sin/ Volume 6 of the Works of John Owen: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/collected-workssets/the-works-of-john-owen-6/ Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app Show Notes Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

Lent precedes Easter as a season of preparation. We are encouraged to pray, give alms, and fast. We invite Christ more into our lives this time of year so as to bring about greater conversion before the great feast of Easter. This blogcast explores “Letting Christ Reign in Your Lent" from the Ad Infinitum blog, written by Erin Donn, and read by Meghan Abando.“Jesus, let there be more of you and less of me.”This is the short prayer I was once encouraged to pray as a penance by a wise, older priest. As we find ourselves at the start of Lent, these words once again come to mind, and I would like to offer them for your contemplation.​The Church offers the season of Lent as an opportunity to prepare Her children well for Christ's resurrection–both at the celebration of Easter (March 31 this year) and at His Second Coming. These preparations take the form of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; the spiritual, penitential, and charitable practices we take up and the worldly things we put down. For forty days we walk into the desert, just as Jesus did, to humbly open ourselves to temptations and more fully offer our lives to the Lord. So what does that prayer–letting there be more of Jesus and less of me–have to do with Lent? Well…everything. In the first reading at Mass on Ash Wednesday, the prophet Joel extols us: “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God” with your whole hearts (Joel 2:12). The Lord does not want to see what we can do of our own strength or will during this season; He wants us to see what He can do through us and the transformation He can work within us. Lent certainly calls for a degree of testing the limits of our comfort zones. More than this, it is an invitation to leave behind our will and consider the offerings and changes that will help us become more like Christ. As you reflect on your Lenten practices, consider asking yourself: “What can I offer to Jesus? How can I make more room for Him in my life? What can I let go of that will help me on this journey?” Approaching Lent in this way necessitates an act of surrender. It requires us to focus less on the material outcomes and more on the spiritual. This might mean to not give up ice cream like you do every Lent and instead, or additionally, prayerfully consider what areas of your life you have been keeping the Lord out of. St. John Henry Newman speaks to this in a sermon for the First Sunday of Lent: “...fasting is only one branch of a large and momentous duty, the subdual of ourselves to Christ. We must surrender to Him all we have, all we are. We must keep nothing back.” This, admittedly, is a challenging invitation, but remember that we are not doing Lent on our own. We are doing it with Jesus. This act of surrender necessitates reliance. And this reliance requires humility; an admission of our own weakness and powerlessness compared to Christ's great strength. When you want to snooze your alarm and eschew the morning prayer time you've committed to, offer that to the Lord. When you are tempted to join in the office gossip, ask for Jesus' strength. Ordinary as these offerings may be, that does not mean they are easy. If we have chosen to subdue ourselves for Christ's sake, we can trust that He will provide the grace and strength we lack.​As Catherine Doherty writes in Season of Mercy, “Mortification and penance are a passionate response of a man to a Passionate Lover who is God.” In humbly striving to more fully do the will of the Father, we naturally make more room for Jesus. As you surrender yourself to Him this Lent, also rely on Him. He wants us, and the attachments that bind us, to shrink away only so that His mercy and love can reign more completely.“Jesus, let there be more of you and less of me.” Author:Erin Donn serves as the parish missionary at Immaculate Conception Church in Washington, DC. Resources:Listen to On Mission: Journeying Through Holy WeekRead and learn about Lent and EasterRead the Ad Infinitum blog Follow us:The Catholic Apostolate CenterThe Center's podcast websiteInstagramFacebookApple PodcastsSpotify Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. also appears on the podcast, On Mission, which is produced by the Catholic Apostolate Center and you can also listen to his weekly Sunday Gospel reflections. Follow the Center on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube to remain up-to-date on the latest Center resources.

Group Guide Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week. TranscriptGood morning. Nope, wrong way. There we go. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are beginning the year with a series on New Testament prayers. So just the first four weeks, we're going to look at. When you read the New Testament, you're going to see in various points where it's not teaching, it's. It's not application, it's not correction, but it's actually just there's a prayer. And we're going to look at a few of these over the next few weeks with the goal of encouraging us to pray, which is a discipline that we as Christians need to continue to grow and especially as we start out a new year. Then we'll jump into second Samuel and we're done with this to finish out first and second Samuel. So we're going to be in first Thessalonians 5, 23, 24. Last week, Chet took us to Ephesians 1, and we got to look at a prayer that calls God's people to delight in worship in God and his glory, to know him. And this week we get to see another aspect of what God desires for his people.So I am getting closer to 40. Yeah. Which means getting closer to the age where you start going to the doctor more because you get to discover all the ways that your body is trying to kill you. You just. When you're younger, most folks, the only doctor that you have is whoever you see at urgent care. But when you get older, you, like, have your own doctor. And then you start having a team of specialists, which I've gotten a head start on already. I realized I had entered a new phase of life when I started bragging about how good my specialist was. But this, this is what happens, because the older you get, like, statistically, when you're younger, your car is more likely to kill you. When you get older, your heart is more likely to kill you. So you, if you want to live, if you want to thrive, you want to flourish bodily, you've got to actually go to the doctor more regularly. And our older folks know this. How many of you of our older folks this that? A big topic of conversation that shows up every time that y' all get together is doctor visits, right? It. It's, it's. That's a reality. And we should consider our health seriously. We should go to the doctor. We should be healthy. We should do all of those things. We should take our health deadly serious. It matters.Paul in, in. In First Timothy 4, he makes the point that for a while, bodily training is of some Value. So he starts that statement with saying, yes, you should. You should take care of your body. There's some value there. But he continues and says, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come.> For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:8, ESV)So it makes the case, yes, bodily training is of value, but you should train for godliness. As serious as we take our physical health, the question is, how serious are we taking our spiritual health? And more specifically, how serious are we taking sin in our lives? And that's the subject matter for this prayer today. This is a prayer of sanctification. It's very brief, but I'm encouraged that we get to look at this this morning and hopefully we will see a prayer that calls us to grow in being more like Christ, the process of sanctification. So let me pray for us, and then we will walk through this together.Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us consider the reality of our sin in ways that we may not have or are not. That takes you going to work in our hearts in a way that compels us to be the people that you've called us to be. So God, I pray that you'd speak to us and that we would respond. In Jesus name, Amen.All right, so first Thessalonians 5, 23, 24.> Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, ESV)All right, so this is a prayer. It's a benediction, a blessing, a prayer that he prays over this church in Thessalonica. So before we jump into this prayer that comes at the end of First Thessalonians, I want to give a little bit of context for this letter that Paul wrote to this church in Thessalonica. So Thessalonica is a city in Greece, still is a major city in Greece, and at the time in ancient Greece was a major city that Paul traveled to. In Acts 17, he plants this church. It begins, it grows, and then there's some persecution and suffering that happens, and the God takes him elsewhere. And one of the things that Paul does in his ministry as he starts churches all over Asia Minor, Asia Minor in Europe, is he ministers to them from a distance. And some of that we get in these letters that God has inspired through him, teaching truth to these Thessalonians.So when you read First Thessalonians, there's a major theme that shows up over and over again. And that is the encouragement that Christ will return, that Jesus is coming back. That's a, that's a big part of this letter. And that's important for Christians to remember that Jesus is actually coming back. If you were here this time last year in January, we were finishing a five month journey through the book of Revelation. And one of the helpful things that we gathered from that is this regular reminder that the end is coming, that Jesus will come, he will make all things new, that we need that encouragement, especially when life is very difficult.Over the past couple of weeks we've had sickness, various forms of sickness flow through our house, which has been loads of fun, you guys, but we had the flu. Now we've got some type of infection. And one of my kids who was going through seven days of fever ridden flu in the middle of it, she just was so tired of it. She just was like, I'm, I'm so, I've just, I want to be well. And I just had to say, hey, listen, I know the flu stinks. Waking up every day feeling like this is rotten, it's awful. But there's a day coming in just a few days, you're going to wake up and you're going to finally feel better. And she just needed that little bit of encouragement to pick her head up and realize, okay, no, this is hard, but I'm going to be okay at the end of this. And the New Testament does this over and over again. It picks up our gaze a bit and says, Jesus is coming. He's going to make all things new. And that's the big theme that runs throughout this letter. And towards the end of him really pressing this upon this church, he prays this blessing over them. May the God of peace sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.As, as Jesus is going to come, he says now, may the God of peace, which pause for a moment. Isaac Hill and I were, we were discussing this this week and he just made a really good point. He says it's so helpful that he, he could have chosen any attribute to emphasize here about God. But he says, may the God of peace. It doesn't say may the God of wrath. He says, may the God of peace, which is a picture of God the Father who makes peace with us. We once were lost, dead in our sin, enemies of God. But through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to become friends of God because he makes peace with Us and we live in peace with God, says, may the God of peace sanctify you completely. May sanctify you. So that is the prayer of sanctification. So let me take a moment and define sanctification, okay? Because it's important for us to not miss this sanctify, which is the verb form here, or sanctification, which is the noun form, the state of being. Sanctified comes from the Latin word sanctus, which means holy. And the original language, which is the Greek here it's hagios. So this is the process of becoming holy as God is holy.When you read the Old Testament and the Old Testament law, in Leviticus 11, it says, Be holy as I am holy. But we get the fullest picture of what sanctification is in the New Testament.> For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44, ESV)So if I had to define sanctification for us this side of the New Testament. And sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus Christ through repenting of sin and obeying him. Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus through repenting of sin and obeying him. Which means that for the life of the Christian, this is one of the most important aspects of our faith. It is becoming more like Jesus taking sin seriously, repenting and obeying him. That this should mark our lives.Every now and then I'll be meeting with somebody and they'll, they'll ask some version of. I'm just trying to figure out like what, what is God's will for my life? I just want to know what God's will is for me. And when they say that, I have to have some self control because an intrusive thought comes in. Because first Thessalonians 4, 3 is the, the one verse that captures that idea. The bet, like the most explicit in the Scriptures, 1st Thessalonians 4. 3 says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification.> For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality. (1 Thessalonians 4:3, ESV)And every time someone, I know what they're saying. It's not that the will of God is just narrow to sanctification. They're asking about how do I think about this job or how do I think about this decision. I just wonder what the will of God is. In the back of my head, I'm like, it's your sanctification. No, put that away. You're talking about something else. But that is a big part of the will of God for us is that we would be more like Him. That's one of God's grand desires for us, is that we would be more and more like him. That's a big part of our faith. And in the context of First Thessalonians 4, when he continues, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. He starts to name what is one of, probably one of the bigger sins in that church and in that city at the time. He says that you had abstained from sexual immorality. And he goes on to explain that further. But you broaden that out to the rest of the New Testament and you see that God desires His people to take sin seriously. I want you to hear that He. He wants his people to take our sin seriously.> And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24, ESV)Galatians chapter 5, verse 24 says, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. That he references the horrific, violent, brutal murder of Christ pulls that imagery to mind. And he says, all of that violence you should reserve for your flesh, that you should murder, destroy, end the desires of your flesh.> Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4, ESV)Romans chapter 2, verse 4 says, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness in forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? It's this idea that gets throws up over again. We do not presume upon the kindness of God. The kindness of God and His patience and his forbearance is meant to lead us to repentance, to the turning away of sin to crucifying the flesh. You see this over and over and over again in the New Testament as it calls us to take our sin seriously.So we should, as Christians, consider our sin seriously. That we should consider all the ways in which we sin. We should live a life that is one of walking in the light, that is one of confession, confessing our sin to the Lord and confessing it to other Christians as we walk in the light together. That we should be in the process of sanctification, reading our Bibles and reading His Word and knowing God and His Word and knowing his holiness, and as we read His Word, realizing and reflecting upon all the ways in which we sin against God. That we should grow in this type of holiness. That we should grow in the difficult work of identifying patterns in our life that need to be changed and changing those patterns. We should identify habits, we should consider what we watch. We should consider the things that we scroll through. We should consider the things that we fantasize about, the things we think about that in all these ways and more, we should consider our sanctification seriously. We should be serious about our repentance as we plead for God to sanctify us. We should have this type of Prayer, pleading for God.And think about how thorough Paul is here. He says, now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And he says, and may your whole spirit so that word, the word for completely and the word for hold there in the original language are the same. And I, and I, I think, completely captures some of this. I do like what the NIV says. The NIV says, may he sanctify you through and through. May he sanctify you through and through thoroughly. And then he goes on to picture this. Your whole spirit, your whole soul and body be kept blameless. Now, I, I, I don't think what Paul's doing there is dividing the self into three different parts, body, soul, spirit. I don't think that's what he's doing. He's not doing three clean divisions of who we are. I think what Paul's getting at here is he's saying all of you, and this is what the scriptures do sometimes and just capturing all of who we are. This is your thoughts, your actions, your immaterial self, your spiritual self, your material self, your body, every aspect of may God sanctify you completely. And this should be our desire.Let me address an aspect of sanctification that I think our church, specifically we need to receive this and understand this. Well, I'm going to say something, and for some of us that's going to be quite jarring. But just stay with me. You should desire. We should desire to please God in our sanctification. Now let me qualify for a moment when it comes to the work of justification, faith in Jesus Christ. When he converts us, we go from old to new, dead to alive. We're born again before Christ. You cannot please God. I think it's important, because we say this sometimes, is that we cannot please God with our good works. We cannot please God. We cannot earn our favor, earn favor before. We cannot earn our status before Him. And it's like, yes and amen. We absolutely should remember that, that we cannot please God in earning our place before him. So have that locked in our brain when he makes us new and brings us to a new life in Christ. In our sanctification, we should want to please God. We should want to please Him. And the New Testament captures this over and over again.> But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 2:4, ESV)I'll just give you a couple of ways it captures this in First, Thessalonians 2, 4, it says, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God, who tests our hearts in Colossians 1 a prayer, he says, and so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.> And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9–10, ESV)So when it comes to the work of sanctification, the work of becoming more like Christ, the repenting of sin and obeying him, that we should want to please God, that is for our joy, for our flourishing, for our good, and we have to kind of separate those two parts of our brain that we will never please God to be saved. But in Christ, when he puts the Holy Spirit within us, that work that is flowing in us when we lean into this, it is pleasing to God. Every deliberate choice to kill sin and to honor God is a choice to depend upon his power and not our own. Every time we decide to know, I want to grow in this, I want to be holy as God is holy. It pleases him, it's pleases him. When we confess Jesus is better than everything else and we live that out. When we have temptation that comes to us and presents, send us and we just say, no, I want Jesus, I believe that he's better than everything else. And therefore I'm going to desire, I'm going to choose, I'm going to follow Christ here. It's pleasing. And we should remember that language because I think sometimes we get so much in the language of I don't have to please God, I have to please God, I have to please God. And we blur the lines a bit till we get to a little bit of Romans 6 where we're presuming upon the grace of God and that's not a place where we need to be as Christians, we should desire to grow in sanctification.We should take our spiritual health seriously as like more seriously than we do even our physical health, as I said earlier, with all the time and energy that we take to think about our physical health, to think about our overall financial well being, our overall success in life, all that ever different aspects of our life which we should consider and pray for, we have a lot of energy that's directed in that. And then some of us, we have little energy that's directed in seeking the Lord, asking Him to sanctify us. I mean, consider our prayers. Consider what you pray for on a regular basis. Do you pray for, for physical health? Do you pray for financial success? Do you pray for a lot of good Things that you should absolutely pray for. God never grows tired of hearing those prayers. You should. We should grow and we should pray. We should do all of that. But do we pray for that with more zeal, more passion, more earnestness, more consistency than we do in praying and considering our own sin? That's something we should reckon with and we should consider.I mean, think about the psalmist, how the psalmist pray. Go to Psalm 139. It says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.> Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23–24, ESV)When is the last time that we prayed like that? That on our face before the Lord? We're saying, God, would you search me? Would you know my heart? Try me, expose me, help me see. I don't want these grievous ways to have victory in my life. I want you to lead me in the way of everlasting. When is the last time that we prayed passionately, consistently, fervently like that?Consider how David prays in Psalm 51 after he. He sins against Bathsheba and Uriah, which we'll read about in Second Samuel, coming up. And he has this prayer of repentance. He says in verse seven, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.> Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7, ESV)When is the last time on your face before the Lord? You said, God, purge me. Purge me of the sin. Purge me like hyssop. Cleanse me. Remove this. I want to be holy as you are holy. I want to be whiter than snow. I don't want to be a slave to my sin. Would you purge me of this? When is the last time that we fervently prayed like this? This is the type of intensity that God desires of his people that we might pray like this, y'. All. We will. We currently do. And we will probably, with the size of our church, always have someone who is battling cancer, who is battling disease. And this church, we respond by consistently and passionately pleading with the Lord on behalf of our church family to heal. And we're not going to stop doing that. But with that type of intensity that we're asking for physical healing, do we do that with spiritual healing, with becoming more like Christ, with repenting of sin and becoming more like him. Do we pray like this? Because we should.We should consider all the ways in which we are plagued by sin and praying. We should pray earnestly. God so tired of the sexual sin that's bound up within me. I'm so tired of stumbling and falling with actions and with thoughts. God, would you purge me? Would you cleanse me? Would you remove it? I don't want to sin against you when the temptation comes. I want to believe that you're better. Would you cleanse me of this? God, would you purge me of a dishonest tongue? Because I don't know what happens at work. My boss talks and it gets me stressed out and I tell half truths. I'm hanging out with my friends and they're telling all kinds of stories and I feel like I gotta tell a story and then I embellish upon it. And then all of a sudden I just. I don't want this anymore. I want to speak truthfully. God, would you purge me of a dishonest tongue? Would you cleanse me of the heartless apathy that has plagued me in this season? I feel so spiritually dry and distant. And I don't want it. God, I want to. I want a fervor for you. I don't want to be so apathetic. God, would you cleanse me of this? God, would you purge me of the greed within me? Because every time I get a raise, all I can think about is the next thing I want to buy that. All I can think about is more and more. I don't want that. God, would you purge me of my greed? Would you cleanse me of my faithless anxiety that I'm so tired of being so fearful of everything else but you? But God, I want to fear you. Above all, I want to try. I don't want to live in a persistent, consistent state of anxiety. God, would you purge me of the petty rivalries that I create in my own heart with people that don't even know that I'm mad at them and the gossip that flows out of me and the slander that flows out of me? I don't want this anymore. Would you cleanse me of this desire to seek substances for my pain? I'm tired of just wanting the next drink. I'm tired of getting THC in my system. I just. I don't want. Would you cleanse me of my faithless anxiety, my faithless idolatry? And on and on and on and all the ways that we should consider, all the ways in which we sin against God? When is the last time that we got on our face and prayed with that type of zeal? That's what God desires of his people, to pray and say, God, peace, sanctify me. Sanctify my whole spirit, my whole, every part of me. Keep me blameless until the coming of Jesus Christ.John Owen, the Puritan pastor from centuries ago, and his work, Mortification of Sin and Mortification of Sin, which mortification just means putting to death of a thing. He impacts this idea of mortifying sin in the flesh. He says to mortify means to put any living thing to death. To kill a man or any other living thing is to take away the principle of all its strength, vigor and power so that it cannot act or exert or put forth any proper actings of its own. He goes on to say, it is the constant duty of believers to render a death blow to the deeds of the flesh that they may not have life and strength to bring forth their destructive influence. Boy, oh boy, when have we prayed that God would remove the strength, the vigor, the power, the destructive influence, the life, all of it from our sin? I just want you to remove the destructive influence of this sin in my life. God, would you do it? You put the spirit in me. It's alive and it worked in me. Would you empower me to put this to death? This is the pursuit of the Christian life. This is what God desires of his people. How often are we praying for our sanctification like this.And push this even further. How often are we praying these type of prayers for one another? How often are we praying? Because look at this, this is Paul praying for them. He's praying for their sanctification. And how often are we doing that with one another? Because sanctification is not a solo sport, it's team sport. We have a Western American individualistic mindset that my sin is my business. The Bible says, no, it is not your business. You belong to a community. No, your sin is not just your business. This is how we love one another.Well, I was watching over the holiday season, I was watching a movie called the Long Walk, which is an adaptation of a Stephen King novel. And it's about a dystopian future after an American civil war where there's a totalitarian regime in place. And they, they have a contest and a lottery for that contest. They take young men from all 50 states and they put them in the Long Walk, which is a death march, which is quite the movie to watch over the holidays. But I was really looking forward to seeing this movie and a death march, if you don't know what that is historically, it's where you tell people to walk. And every person that stops walking is shot. And the last person standing, last person walking, the end wins. The contest. And one of the things I appreciate about this story is that the main character, he arrives and he. He decides, I'm going to team up with some of these other guys and we're going to walk together. And they. They team up and they walk together. There's another guy that shows up, and his strategy is to walk alone. And he. His whole strategy is to discourage everyone else who's walking. And for a few days, it works. He gets in the head of a few other guys, they stop walking, they're killed, and he just keeps walking. And that works for one, two, three days. But about day four, day five, and day six, when there's only about 10 people left, the guys who've been walking together are still walking together. And there are times where it's in the middle of the night, and one of them is literally sleepwalking. He's asleep and he's walking. He's slowing down, and his friend grabs him and carries him every step of the way. So they endure as they go up steep inclines, and people are starting to fall off. One by one, they encourage each other together. And these five are walking together. By day five or six, the guy who's been walking alone begins to go insane. Name? He begins to lose his mind. He has this desire. He's freaking out where he wants a team, he wants people to walk with him. He feels all types of disorientation. Then he finally stops walking and he dies. And as I'm watching that, I'm like, that is such a picture of why we need each other so much. That sin is serious. This life is serious. There's a lot on the line, and we should walk together. We're not designed to walk alone. We're designed to walk together. That means we should care about each other enough to care about each other's sin and sanctification.When is the last time that you. You reached out to someone in your group and asked them, would you be praying for me? I'm struggling right now with temptation. I've been struggling with sin. But would you pray for me? When's the last time that you've reached out to someone in your group, someone you're walking with, inviting them in? When's the last time that you spoke honestly about the reality of the sin that you're struggling through? When's the last. At a time, at a care night, as we're talking to each other in group, that you were real and honest and didn't give polished stories of your reality even further? When is the last Time that you cared enough about someone else that you're walking with to go out of your way to ask them tough questions. Do you know their sin? You've walked with them for a year, a few years, you know what's happening. When was the last time that you went on your way to ask them difficult questions, to reach out and say, hey, I know it's been hard lately, but I'm praying for you. And you're on your face pleading and praying, may God sanctify him completely. May he sanctify her completely. May you help this brother or sister, crucify this desire, and may they have victory. When have you been praying like this and caring about someone else that you walk with? This is what we're called to. This is sanctification in the church of Jesus Christ. This is what part of the reason he's given us one another, that we might walk together in this battle with sin.Let me close with this. In verse 24, he says, he who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it. The good news of God's sanctifying work is that God is the One at work within us. God is the one at work with us. He will surely do it. It is he that will keep us blameless. The God who calls us into faith carries us through to completion and works within us every step of the way. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, he will surely do it. And that is encouraging. And some of us need to be reminded of that today. Some of you need to be reminded of this because some of us have been trying to sanctify our worldly minds by our own effort, by our own strength. And we're neglecting this opportunity to run to the Lord in prayer, pleading with him, relying upon Him. Search me, know me, purge me, cleanse me, sanctify me by his power and not our own.Some of us need to hear this this morning because some of you are deeply discouraged right now. You've been stumbling and stumbling and stumbling and I want you to hear so clearly this morning. He is at work within you and he will surely do it. That as you lean into the reality of spirit filled dependence upon him to crucify the desires of the flesh. Yes, we know biblically we're never going to be perfect. We know that. We know we're never going to arrive there. We know that we're broken, sinful, corrupt to the core. We get that. And also the Spirit at work within us will mold us and shape us in the image of Christ. And whatever you're facing right Now God is at work. If you belong to him, he will surely do it.Some of us have neglected. Though hear this. Some of us have neglected the power of God coming to bear on our lives because we have not taken sin seriously enough. And it is time for us to start taking some sin seriously. The beginning of this year. Some of you need to start taking sin seriously. You need to start praying for God to search you, to know you, to purge you, to cleanse you. Some of you have neglected the power of God to destroy the patterns of sin in your life, be it for reasons of apathy, distraction, indulgence, indifference, unbelief. But all of those we got to put at the foot of the cross and we got to plead for God to change us. But if we belong to Christ, we have to start taking this seriously. And for some of you, some of you have only depended upon your own self. And this morning, it is time for you to depend upon the Lord to actually see him as Lord and ruler of your life, taking over every aspect of your life, including the things that you've held most dear to you, so that he might change you and conform you into his image. And beautiful, wonderful ways to bring about the change that God wants for you because there is a man or a woman that he has made you to be that is growing in Christ likeness. But you cannot take those steps to flourish and grow into his image until you start taking sin seriously. But if you woo, if you, if you, if you take the leap of faith, if you walk in the light, if you start talking to other Christians, if you do the tough work of sanctification, you will change. He will surely do it.This is how we're going to close this morning. It's going to be a little bit different. We're going to take communion here in a moment. So let me go ahead and introduce communion now as we prepare for the table. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body that was broken for you. And he took the cup. This is the cup of the new covenant. This is my blood that was shed for you, that as often as you eat and drink this, you proclaim my death until I return.> For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23–26, ESV)So the table is a reminder that our sin cost the blood of God and that God and His abundant mercy and kindness gives us Jesus Christ. That covers our sin. So typically, we take a few moments and we consider our sin and we consider our Savior and then we come to the table. But that's not what we're going to do this morning. We're going to do something a little bit different. I'm going to ask Matt to come up and Matt is going to sing a song over us. So right now we're going to pray. We're going to pray. The song captures Psalm 139, Search me and his kindness leads us to repentance in Romans 2. And we're going to pray. We're not coming to the table. We're going to sit and we're going to pray. And we're going to ask the Lord to sanctify us. We're going to ask the Lord to expose us, to search us, to know us, to find the grievous ways within us. And we're going to sit in silence as he sings and ministers to us, as he sings over us. We're going to consider our sin. And I hope right now that the Holy Spirit begins to prod and worship. I hope he starts giving you action steps when you leave here today that you start having conversations. We got a care night this week in our community groups. I hope that you come prepared to bear burdens with one another there. But we're going to do the work right now where God's going to work in our heart. So don't come to the table. We're going to pray. And when he's done singing the song, then he'll invite us to the table. But right now, sit and pray before the Lord in silence. And may the Lord go to work in our hearts.

This principle of truth, concerning the necessity of mortification, is retained in the Church of Rome; yea, she pretends highly unto it, above any other Christian society. The mortification of their devotionists is one of the principal arguments which they plead, to draw unwary souls over unto their superstition. Yet, in the height of their pretenses unto it, they have lost all experience of its nature, with the power and efficacy of the grace of Christ therein; and have, therefore, framed an image of it unto themselves. For,— 1. They place the eminency and height of it in a monastical life, and pretended retirement from the world.

Join me to read John Owen's classic book “The Mortification of Sin in Believers”. This book is one of the best that have ever been written about how to live a holy life. This final chapter is about how we can put all the pieces together in our lives.Topics covered in this chapter:* Everything comes through faith in Christ* How Christ is sufficient* How we can be sure of expecting Christ to act -- his faithfulness and mercy* How we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection* The place of the Holy Spirit in all thisFind out more about my book, Confused by Grace.You can download a copy of John Owen's book (for free) from this website.My new project is The Bible Uncancelled: Get full access to Understand the Bible at utbible.substack.com/subscribe

You think you've made peace with your past—until the world decides to turn it into a headline. In this A Fresh Story: Book Talk conversation, Olivia sits down with author Melissa Petro, whose life was forever altered when the New York Post splashed her face across the front page, reducing her to a caricature of “dirty hooker teacher.” What the paper didn't capture was the human being behind the story: a young woman who once took a stripping job in Mexico to pay her bills, a recovering addict, a public school teacher, and eventually a stay-at-home mom trying to do her best in a world that seems determined to shame women no matter what they choose.Melissa's book, Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, weaves her own memoir with the stories of more than 150 others, mostly women, to examine shame as the quiet force shaping our lives. She unpacks how shame shows up in big, dramatic moments—like public humiliation, sex work stigma, or career loss—and in the small, everyday ways we “mess up” as mothers, partners, or professionals. Melissa and Olivia talk about how shame keeps us small, makes us hide parts of ourselves, and convinces us that belonging is something we have to earn by being “good enough.” The book becomes both confession and mirror: a self-help guide wrapped in raw, unflinching storytelling.Throughout the episode, Melissa shares how she moved from secrecy and self-censorship to curiosity, honesty, and community. She explains how telling the truth about her past—and listening to the stories of others—helped her reclaim a narrative that once felt weaponized against her. For anyone who has ever felt judged, exposed, divorced, “too much,” “not enough,” or quietly ashamed of the life they've lived, Shame on You offers a path toward self-acceptance that doesn't require perfection. It's a book for people in the messy middle of a life transition who suspect that their shame isn't proof of their brokenness, but evidence of the impossible standards they've been living under—and who are finally ready to rewrite the story.

Join me to read John Owen's classic book “The Mortification of Sin in Believers”. This book is one of the best that have ever been written about how to live a holy life. This chapter is about how we can avoid a false sense of peace and instead seek the peace which is given by God.Topics covered in this chapter:* How we need God to speak peace to us, it is not something we can get ourselves* Peace comes with a hatred of sin, there is no real peace without it* How to know when we are granting peace to ourselves without God, and how we can rightly seek peaceFind out more about my book, Confused by Grace.You can download a copy of John Owen's book (for free) from this website. Get full access to Understand the Bible at utbible.substack.com/subscribe

When I first embraced the Christian faith, there were a number of things in my life that profoundly needed changing. But nothing seemed to work until some Christian writers took me to Romans 6, 7 and 8.  When I began to understand the teaching of these chapters, my life began to change. In this brief series, I'm sharing these teachings with you as we ask this question: how does faith in Christ actually lead to real change in one's life? In Romans 8, we see that in Jesus, you get three things: 1) you get the freedom to know yourself, 2) you get a new method to change yourself, and 3) you get a new power to be yourself. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 3, 2006. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 8:1-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Join me to read John Owen's classic book “The Mortification of Sin in Believers”. This book is one of the best that have ever been written about how to live a holy life. This chapter is about how we need to get to know God better so we can have a right understanding of his majesty.Topics covered in this chapter:* How we should consider the excellence and majesty of God* How it is that we do not know God as we should or could* How our knowledge of God should lead us to humilityFind out more about my book, Confused by Grace.You can download a copy of John Owen's book (for free) from this website. Get full access to Understand the Bible at utbible.substack.com/subscribe

Join me to read John Owen's classic book “The Mortification of Sin in Believers”. This book is one of the best that have ever been written about how to live a holy life. This chapter is about how we can use the Law to help us grow in understanding our own guilt and need for God to help us.Topics covered in this chapter:* Why Christians do not outgrow the Law. The Law helps us to understand the depths of our own guilt* How the grace of God should teach us to say ‘no' to sin* The grace of longing for deliverance from the power of sin.Find out more about my book, Confused by Grace.You can download a copy of John Owen's book (for free) from this website. Get full access to Understand the Bible at utbible.substack.com/subscribe

Halloween suite et fin a priori, et on démarre avec un titre culte de Slayer, live 1985. Suivi de My Dying Bride, The Exploited, et une doublette horrorcore (rap) avec Three Six Mafia puis 3 Headed Monster (Ouija Macc, Esham et Violent J). On passe ensuite au post punk et au gothic rock avec X […] L'article Mortification et Pestiférés Vol. 2 est apparu en premier sur Radio Campus Tours - 99.5 FM.

Are you truly fighting sin, or just "struggling" with it? In this powerful episode, we dive deep into Romans 8:13 and the biblical concept of mortification—putting sin to death through the power of the Holy Spirit.This episode is brought to you by our ministry partner Accountable2You. To join thousands living in Freedom with nothing to hide visit https://accountable2you.com/dialin. **Use our unique code: DIALIN to get 25% off your first year of an Accountable2You Personal or Family Plan**KEY TOPICS COVERED: • What it means to mortify sin (and why the language is so violent) • The difference between struggling with sin vs. fighting sin • How to identify areas where you're making provision for the flesh • The role of the Holy Spirit in sanctification • Why accountability is crucial (and what real accountability looks like) • John Owen's classic teaching: "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you" • Practical steps to wage war against temptationSCRIPTURE REFERENCES: • Romans 8:13 - Putting to death the deeds of the body • Colossians 3:5 - Put to death what is earthly in you • Galatians 5:24 - Crucifying the flesh with its passions • Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heartThis isn't about earning salvation through works—it's about living out the new identity Christ has given us. Every believer must engage in this daily battle until we meet Jesus face to face.Remember: You take a day off from mortifying the flesh, the flesh grows. RESOURCES MENTIONED: • John Owen's "The Mortification of Sin" • Accountable2You (accountability software) - Use code DIALIN for 25% offShare your thoughts: What practical steps are you taking to fight sin in your life?

On today's episode, Johnnette Williams talks about mortification and how we shouldn't waste suffering to create an intimate union with God. Listeners call in wondering what to do when they haven't spoken with their parish priest and asking for guidance on how to faithfully navigate difficult times.

On today's episode, Johnnette Williams talks about mortification and how we shouldn't waste suffering to create an intimate union with God.

Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/editorialtpv ¿Cómo un académico destituido terminó modelando la espiritualidad evangélica? Este episodio recorre la doble vida de John Owen (1616–1683): capellán de Cromwell y predicador ante el Parlamento el 31 de enero de 1649; luego, disidente con una teología forjada “desde la derrota”. Su hilo conductor no es la contradicción, sino un programa coherente: ortodoxia reformada escolástica al servicio de la cura de almas y de una “piedad pública” congregacional. Revisamos su ascenso en Oxford y la Declaración de Savoie (1658) como carta magna independiente; y su giro de la arena política al taller literario: The Death of Death, Perseverance, Mortification, Communion with God. El corazón metodológico late en su Exposición de Hebreos, verdadero “laboratorio” hermenéutico donde su cristología-trinitaria y la tipología pactual sostienen la perseverancia de una iglesia bajo presión. Cerramos con claves de uso hoy: matar el pecado sin neonomianismos, orar trinitariamente, y pastorear comunidades libres, santas y centradas en Cristo. Siguenos: - Web: https://teologiaparavivir.com/ - Blog: https://semperreformandaperu.org/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teologiaparavivir/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teologiaparavivir/ - Youtube: https://www.instagram.com/teologiaparavivir/

L’émission annuelle sur Halloween, le marronnier maggotique, hein, et en matière d’horreur on pourrait évoquer les notions de journalisme de France Info en certaines occasions (Riviera, quelqu’un, ou bien la tranche 20h-21h…), pour ne pas aller trop loin. Bref entamons cette émission avec Riz Ortolani, Goblin et Matriarch. S’ensuit (ou s’ensuivent) Venom, Mercyful Fate, Witchfinder […] L'article Maggot Brain – Mortification et Pestiférés est apparu en premier sur Radio Campus Tours - 99.5 FM.

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Mortification of Sin - Nature and Causes of It Subtitle: On The Holy Spirit Speaker: John Owen Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 11/1/2025 Length: 88 min.

Jason Seville, Pastor of Del Ray Baptist Church

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Dangerous Symptoms Of Any Lust Subtitle: Mortification of Sin Speaker: John Owen Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 10/24/2025 Bible: Romans 8:13 Length: 20 min.

St. Francis Catholic parish homily preached by Fr. Michael Casey. To learn more: www.stfranciscatholic.org

Week Five - Mortification and VivificationThis Trellis Podcast episode focuses on the themes of mortification and vivification—dying to self and coming alive to Christ. Counselors Katie Johnson and Brent Crenshaw explain how these processes are part of sanctification, emphasizing that growth is God's work in us, not something we can manufacture by effort alone. They highlight the importance of reshaping core beliefs, embracing identity in Christ, and living in community.Watch this episode on YoutubeToday's episode ties with the sermon from September 7 called "Mortification & Vivification"

Mortification & VivificationSeptember 7, 2025 • Devon Accardi • Colossians 3:1–17This Sunday, Devon continued our fall series, More Like Him. Colossians 3 shows that when we confess faith in Christ, we become new creations, reconciled to God, and invited into the lifelong process of sanctification. Though Jesus has accomplished all the saving work, God calls us to actively participate by putting sin to death (mortification) and living into our new life in Christ (vivification). This work goes beyond behavior modification—it addresses the deeper roots of sin in our hearts. God desires to shape us into lives of holiness and righteousness, inviting us to walk with Him, keep in step with the Spirit, and cultivate an interior life that reflects His design.MORE LIKE HIM RESOURCES: https://fellowshipknox.org/moreWEBSITE: https://fellowshipknox.org/INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/fellowshipknox/

267. Apologetics with Ray Comfort   Acts 4:20 NKJV "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”   **Transcription Below**   Ray Comfort is a best selling author - having written over 100 books, including his most recent one, entitled Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I've Learned. He is a cohost of an award-winning television show that airs in 190 countries.   Living Waters Website Living Waters YouTube Channel   Questions and Topics We Cover: What are some memorable encounters you've had over the years as an open-air preacher? What fears do you notice holding believers back from evangelizing? What's an easy win or next step we can take today so that the inspiration from this conversation turns into action?   Related Episodes on The Savvy Sauce: School Series (Legal) Gospel Sharing During School Hours with Joel Penton Stories Series: Faith Building Miracles with Dave Pridemore Stories Series: Testify to Glorify with Richard Gamble   Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Sam Leman Eureka   Connect with The Savvy Sauce Facebook, Instagram or Our Website    Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)   Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:10 - 1:18) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.    Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at lemanproperties.com or connect with them on Facebook.    I'm delighted with this opportunity to interview my special guest for today, Mr. Ray Comfort. Ray is a best-selling author of over 100 books, one of which we'll be discussing today, about 50 years of open-air preaching.   He's also a co-host of an award-winning television show that airs in over 190 countries around the world. So, I'm pleased to welcome Ray Comfort and get to hear all of his stories and inspiration. Here's our chat.   Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Ray.   Ray Comfort: (1:19 - 1:27) Well, thank you for having me. Can you explain Savvy Sauce to me? Absolutely.   That means knowledge, knowledge poured out.   Laura Dugger: (1:27 - 1:46) Well, savvy is synonymous with practical or insight. And my husband having a background in Chick-fil-A, people always talk about the Chick-fil-A sauce or the secret sauce. And so, when we were creating this podcast, that just became the favorite question that I wanted to ask every guest.   Ray Comfort: (1:47 - 1:50) Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me on.   Laura Dugger: (1:51 - 2:00) It's truly my pleasure. And I just love how everybody has a unique testimony. So, would you be willing to share your salvation story with us?   Ray Comfort: (2:01 - 4:47) Yeah, sure. I came from a non-Christian background. My mother was Jewish.   My dad was Gentile. And when my mom met my dad, it caused problems in the family. So, they brought me up with no Christian instruction or any instruction whatsoever.   Until at the age of 10, an aunt taught me the Lord's Prayer, which I prayed every night for 10 years. I believed in God. And at the age of about 20, 21, I had an epiphany, just a revelation that I was part of the ultimate statistic.   10 out of 10 die. And I thought, this is ridiculous. We're all waiting around to die.   And you can have fun while you're dying. You can play sports or save money. And I'd achieved everything I wanted to achieve by the age of 21.   I had my own business and my own house, my own wife. I'd made one child by then. Everything material I could want.   And I remember one night just going to sleep, or my wife had gone to sleep just before I went to sleep. I looked at my wife, we're newly married, and I just wept at the thought of her dying. And I just cried out, why?   Why is this thing called death? It's like there's an elephant in the room stomping on all humanity and nobody talks about it. And so, I cried out, why?   I didn't know I was praying. I didn't know God heard. And six months later, I was on a surfing trip, and there was a young Christian guy there, and he had a Bible, and I remember reading parts of it.   And my eyes fell upon, you've heard it said, by them of old you shall not commit adultery. And I thought, well, if there is a heaven, I'll make it there because I've never committed adultery. But then I read the words of Jesus, but I say to you, whoever looks upon a woman to lust for her has committed adultery already with her in his heart.   And it was like an arrow went into my chest. And I thought, whoa, boy, am I undone. Because like every red-blooded male, I was filled with unlawful sexual desire and eyes full of adultery, as scripture says.   And that's when I understood the cross. I realized I had sinned. Jesus bore my sin.   And we broke the law, the commandments. Jesus paid the fine. And that meant God could forgive my sins, grant me everlasting life.   And I cannot express to you the joy, it was unspeakable, that's why I can't express it, that I had and the knowledge my sins were forgiven. It was like an explosion of gratitude filled my heart. And for the last 50 years, it's been the high-octane fuel that's driven me to live for God's will and honor.   So everywhere I go and everything I do is centered around sharing the gospel with unsaved people. And every Christian should be like that. I call myself a normal, biblical Christian.   Laura Dugger: (4:48 - 4:59) I love that. Well, and something that you speak about and that you live out is open-air preaching. And I just want to read a piece from the dedication page, if that's okay.   Ray Comfort: (5:01 - 5:03) So, make sure you speak in a New Zealand accent.   Laura Dugger: (5:03 - 5:28) Oh, goodness. I won't even attempt. But you define open-air preaching saying, going somewhere I don't want to go, to preach a message I don't want to preach, to people who don't want to hear it, but the love of Christ compels me.   And so, Ray, what was your journey to becoming an open-air preacher?   Ray Comfort: (5:30 - 9:18) Well, I'll go back to when I was 16. I was in high school, and the teacher had the bright idea to have class speeches. And I was horrified at the thought of class speeches.   Have to get up and make a speech? Because I was kind of introverted, and the day came when I got caught. I used to stay away when they had class speeches, but my name was left on the roster, and it was last.   And the teacher got me up, and I thought I'll speak on the subject of surfing because I just loved surfing. And I dried up in the middle of that speech. My heart just went thump, thump, thump, thump till I could hardly hear.   It was like a drum beating, and I couldn't think straight. And I sat down humiliated in front of my peers at the age of 16, which is huge. And I vowed never, ever to speak in public again.   But I got born again. I became a new person in Christ. And I had a message that I could not be quiet about.   And I remember one day I was on a bus going to the city, and I remember looking at the people that were sitting on the bus, and I thought most of them probably not Christians. They die. They're going to Hell.   I've found everlasting life. I should stand up and speak to them. And I thought the bus would stop, and a whole lot of them would throw me off.   And I thought, what do I do? And I remember praying, oh, God, if there's just some way where I could speak in public to people knowing there wasn't. And two weeks later, they legalized public speaking in our city through just strange circumstances.   And I thought, whoa, what an answer to prayer. Horrors. And I remember avoiding any thought of going into that speaker's corner for the next two weeks until I opened a newspaper.   Remember what newspapers were? I opened a newspaper and had a picture of an elderly lady with a Bible in her hand, and underneath it had the Bible lady sharing her Christian testimony in speaker's corner. And I felt so ashamed that here was an elderly lady, and here I was hiding like Jonah.   So, I went in, took a deep breath, and preached the gospel to a crowd that was standing or sitting there. And I went back about 3,000 times and commuted to it for about 12 years, almost daily for 12 years. So, I broke the sound barrier, and I've been doing it ever since.   And I'll tell you why I do it, because the average church wouldn't reach as many people in a year as a good open-air preacher can reach in 30 minutes. And you just have to learn how to draw a crowd and what to say, and you've got to have the will to say it. And if you're a Christian and you've found everlasting life, you should be saying with the disciples, I cannot but speak that which I've seen and heard.   And I'm so glad the disciples didn't stay in the upper room. They found everlasting life. God granted eternal life.   They didn't carpet out the room, put in pipe music, with a little notice outside their door, tonight, 7 o'clock, all welcome. They didn't do that, because they knew fish don't jump into the boat. That's not normal.   If you're a fisher of men, you've got to go where the fish are. So, they went open-air and preached. And as you read the book of Acts, that's all they did.   They preached open air at peril of their lives. And so if we want to walk in the steps of Jesus, in the steps of the disciples, in the steps of Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Whitfield, others down through the ages, then we've got to open our mouths and lift up our voice like a trumpet and show these people their transgression. And so, I am thrilled that you want to do an interview on this book, because I've often said the church has as much excitement about evangelism as you and I have about having a root canal.   It's not exciting. But we all have fears, and we can learn to overcome them.   Laura Dugger: (9:18 - 9:38) Ray, you make already such a compelling argument for why we as Christians are called to evangelize and deliver the good news and specifically calling it as open-air preachers. So, will you still share a few more arguments or reasons to try and help people understand why this is of utmost importance?   Ray Comfort: (9:39 - 10:47) Yes, we have a moral obligation. We're like doctors with a cure to cancer. We must speak, as the disciples said.   And if you've got fear, let me ask you a question. Could you jump into a pond that had big chunks of ice in it? It was so cold that you would die if you stayed in it for three minutes.   And most people say, no, no, you wouldn't get me jumping into that pond for anything. Let's say a four-year-old boy fell into that pond and his feet couldn't reach the bottom, and he began to drown. You wouldn't hesitate.   You'd just jump in. You wouldn't worry about how cold it was. Grab that kid and pull him out.   And the waters of personal evangelism are freezing. Ice cold. We're not excited about it.   Last thing we ever want to do is get involved in something like this. But love cannot but do something. Love couldn't stand there and watch a child drown.   And love cannot sit on a pew while sinners sink into Hell. So, if you've got problems with fear, don't pray for less fear. Pray for more love because that's the problem.   Laura Dugger: (10:48 - 11:02) Ray, I'm curious. You seem so confident and comfortable with this, but clearly you've been doing it, like you said, for many years. So, was there fear at the beginning for you?   And is there still fear when you do this today?   Ray Comfort: (11:03 - 18:09) No, there wasn't fear at the beginning. Fear is here. Terror is here.   Mortification is here. I was up there somewhere. So, the first time I did it was terrifying.   Second time wasn't quite so terrifying. But after all these years, I still battle fear, always. Every person I got a witness to on a one-to-one basis looks like Goliath.   It goes from a Zacchaeus to a Goliath in a split second. I think a witness to that guy, he's anti-Christian. I can see it by the look on his jawline.   He hates Christians. Can't wait to get his fingers around the neck of any Christian because I've got overripe imagination. I remember once I was driving my car and I saw a dead dog on the road about 100 yards ahead of me and it was such a sad sight.   I could see its head was all twisted back and I could see its ears. It was a German shepherd. And as I got up to it, it was someone's jacket that had fallen off his bike.   That's all. And I just had an overripe imagination. And that's exactly what it's like when it comes to fear.   I have an imagination that some guy's going to kill me if I share the gospel with him. So, I've learned to not listen when fear speaks. I've learned to think about the fate of the person rather than myself.   I mean, think of a firefighter. He arrives at a fire, and he looks up and he has to climb a 60-foot ladder. At the top of the ladder is a woman and two children leaning out of a window and the place is on fire.   It's the fifth story. And they're screaming because they're going to be burned alive in about three minutes. So, he's got to climb that ladder amidst the screaming, amidst the smoke and the sirens.   He could drop one of those kids. He could drop that woman. And so, would he rather be at home with his wife and kids watching an old black-and-white movie?   Of course. Is he terrified? Absolutely.   But he doesn't listen to his fears because of this one fact. He's not thinking of himself. He's thinking of that woman and her terrible fate and those kids.   And that's the key to overcoming fear. When I get my fears, I don't listen because I'm not thinking of myself and my silly little fears, my imagination. I'm thinking of this person and their terrible fate, that they die in their sins.   Lake of fire. Damned. If you think death is fearful on this side, wait till the other side.   It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And the apostle Paul said, Wherefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. So, if you've got a wrong image of God, it's kind of like a Santa Claus sitting in a cloud.   You won't have a terror in your heart. You won't fear God enough to obey him. You know, Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord and do not the things that I tell you?”   And so, if we are submitted to Christ, if we yield to him, if he's our Lord, when he says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” We go. He didn't say to stay. Think of what he said.   Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I've actually studied the original Greek words of the word all, every, and go. Go actually means in the original, I think it's passe.   The original Greek, it actually means go. Into all the world and all the world. That word all means all in the original Greek.   And to every creature means every creature. So, when Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, in the original Greek, he actually was saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” So, we're so fortunate to have Greek lexicons and things that we can go back and see what Jesus was actually saying.   And so, it's very simple. We shouldn't stay. We shouldn't want to fill our churches with people when they come in, where to go out and get them.   And one of the most effective ways is with open air preaching. And so, we teach people how to get a crowd. Now, when I first started speaking, I would begin open air preaching with an anecdote, something very gripping.   And it was always difficult because if I didn't live up to that, I didn't get a crowd. And so, for about four or five or six years, it was very difficult. And then I started asking trivia and giving away money.   And I've been doing that for 30, 40 years, where you say to a crowd, I've got some trivia questions, giving away money. And a preacher giving away money is like water running uphill. It's kind of unnatural, so it gets people's attention.   So, I'm going to ask trivia questions. I've got money here to give away. When you get it right. What's the capital of France? Anyone know?    And someone says, “Paris?” That's right.   Here you are. What's the capital of China? Beijing or whatever it is.   Give out a dollar. Say, “What's your name?” Fred.   That's right. And you give Fred a dollar and people laugh, and they gather around and it's just a great way to get rapport with a crowd. And while you're doing that, you look around to see who's got confidence.   This guy over here, or Fred, laughs when I say, “Here's a dollar, and he yells out answers.” I say, “Fred, you want to go for $5?” He says, “Sure.”   So, jump up on the box. So, we've got a box for the hecklers. So, you think you're a good person?   He says, “Yeah, I'm a really good person.” So, if you are, you get $5. If you're not, give me $5 anyway.   Just being a good sport. So, we're going to go through the Ten Commandments to see how you're going to do on Judgment Day and if you are a good person. Let me take him through the commandments as Jesus did with the rich young ruler.   How many lies have you told? Ever stole something? Ever used God's name in vain?   Ever looked at women with lust? And Fred says, “Yeah, I've done all those.” So, Fred, you've just told me you're a lying thief, a blasphemer, and an adulterer at heart.   And you have to face God on Judgment Day. You're going to be innocent or guilty? He says, “Guilty.”   Heaven or Hell? Hell. Does that concern you?   Yeah, sure it does. And the crowd's listening. It's not some sweaty preacher pointing a finger at them.   They're just listening to the gospel. And so, it's a great way. And then you go into that Christ died for our sins, took our punishment.   And Fred, “Thanks for listening. I really appreciate this. Here's your dollar.”   I've got a book for you that I wrote. I hope you enjoy it. Nice to meet you.   He shook his hand. He's off. Anyone else, like any atheists here, never be intimidated by an atheist.   Atheism is the epitome of stupidity. It's just so dumb. Every time I meet an atheist, I ask him one question, and I've seen so many atheists backslide when they've heard this.   I say, “Do you really believe the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything? Puppies and kittens and flowers and seeds and the marvels of the human eye and the miracle of childbirth. All this happened because nothing created it. Do you really believe that?”    They say, “Oh, no, I don't believe that. Oh, there was something in the beginning.”   I say, “Oh, it just wasn't God. Is that it?” Yeah, that's it.   It was something, but it wasn't God. Well, let's see if we can find out why you don't want it to be God. When did you last look at pornography?   I say, “Oh, it was last night. What do you think God thinks of that?” And you realize the issue isn't intellectual.   It's moral. They're running from God like Adam, hiding behind bushes. And so, you've just got to flush them out and then use the Ten Commandments to bring the knowledge of sin and address the conscience rather than the intellect.   Let's take a quick break to hear a message from our sponsor. With over 1,700 apartment units available throughout Pekin, Peoria, Peoria Heights, Morton, Washington, and Canton, and with every price range covered, you will have plenty of options when you rent through Leman Property Management Company. 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And would you even share a few stories of times that this has gone miraculously well and times that have been such a struggle?   Ray Comfort: (20:19 - 30:16) It's always a struggle. But let me share the two great keys that I use when it comes to evangelism. I don't even like using the word evangelism because it scares Christians.   Apologetics. And that is this. I address the conscience, as Jesus did.   When you're in apologetics, and I believe in apologetics, we've got what's called the Evidence Study Bible, which is pregnant with apologetics. So, I believe in apologetics, but they have their place. Apologetics are like bait when you're fishing for men.   If you stay with bait, you're going to end up with fat, happy fish that get away. You've got to have a hook, and that hook is God's law. So, you bait the hook.   And so, it's important if you bait the hook with apologetics and address the intellect to realize this one fact. Romans 8:7 says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” What does that mean?   It means the carnal, natural mind of man is in a state of hostility towards God, particularly His law. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And you can see this enmity by the fact that human beings lavished with life by God use His name as a cuss word, and the name of Jesus as a cuss word.   Nobody in history has had their name used as a cuss word except Jesus, Jesus Christ, and God. And that shows the enmity they have towards their Creator because they're criminals. And as criminals hate the police, so sinners hate God without cause.   So, you want to move away from the carnal mind because you're going to get enmity. If you say, “Look, I'm going to show you that Noah did build an ark. I'm going to prove it to you there was a big flood.” And so you go through the whole thing that the ark was really big and the animals were small and it could have happened. Then we've got oceans and that's evidence that the earth was flooded. You get this guy who was a skeptic who'd say, “Okay, I believe there was a big flood and Noah could have built an ark.”   Well, great. Now you've got a mountain to climb of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish. Children of Israel shouting and walls coming down when they shout.   Balaam's donkey speaking with a man's voice. Samson with strength in his hair. And you've got all these stories, and they're all an intellectual thing, and they're like a mountain you've got to climb to convince them to believe there's an easier way.   And the early Christians didn't try and convince anyone the Bible is the word of God because they didn't have a New Testament. There was no printing press. No one could read or hardly anyone could read.   Now they just preached the gospel, and you do it not by going for the intellect and trying to intellectually convince someone that God exists or the Bible's the word of God. You do what Jesus did with a rich young ruler. You address the conscience with the commandments.   You shall not lie, shall not steal, shall not commit adultery. It's all written on the heart of man. Conscience means knowledge.   So that knowledge is there. So, the commandments echo the truth, or the conscience echoes the truth of the commandments. When Paul used the commandments in Romans chapter 2, you who say you shall not steal, do you steal?   You say, “You shall not commit adultery; do you commit adultery?” He was addressing the conscience. Romans 2:15, same chapter, would show the work of the law written on their hearts, the conscience bearing witness.   So, I have an ally right in the heart of the enemy. I have a judge on the court and in the mind of every sinner that's going to affirm the truth of what I'm saying and point guilt to the sinner or show him that he's guilty. That's the conscience.   The second great tool I have or weapon I have is the will to live. Human beings are not dogs, horses, cats, or cows. We're completely different.   We're not primates. We're made in the image of God and God has written eternity upon our hearts. He doesn't seem to have done this with my dog.   My dog's only concerned with chasing cats and eating. I don't think there's anything else that really interests her, although I love her, but she's not worrying about eternity, but human beings do. So, I know, according to scripture, that everybody has this will to live.   So, when I go to the local college, and I go there twice a day, to interview people for our YouTube channel. I often say this, “Would you like to go on YouTube?” They say, “Yeah.”   I'm going to ask you, “If you think there's life after death.” I say, “That's okay, and this is my first question. Are you afraid of dying?”   And they go, “A little bit.” A little bit? It's huge.   It's a tormenting fear of death. It haunts you, and that's what the Bible says, this fear of death that we have. And I can tell by the look in the eyes of this person, they're saying, “How did this guy know?”   I haven't told mom or dad. I haven't told my boyfriend or my girlfriend, my brother, my sister, but there's something in me that's terrified of dying. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us.   Amplified Bible, so I'll quote it a little louder. It says, “That God has caused the fear of death or the will to live to be haunting,” it uses the word haunting, “within every human being all their lifetime.” Remember when I was a kid, maybe nine or ten, I used to play wars, cowboys and Indians, and someone would shoot me. I'd roll down a hill and lie there for two minutes and then get up.   And then one day as I got older, I thought, I'm not going to get up one day. And that's that haunting fear of death. That revelation that comes to us, as light comes to us, as we get older. And so, I address that, and this is what I say, “Ever read the Bible?”    “No, never opened it.”    “Why not? It's the world's biggest selling book of all time. Did you know in the Old Testament, God promised he would destroy death? And in the New Testament, we're told how he did it. Did you know that?”    They say, “No.”    “Is he interested?”   And even if it's an atheist, he's going to say, “Yeah, I'm interested.” Because he's got that haunting fear of death. And so, then I go through the gospel. This is the verse that I share with so many people, and it's the most illuminating verse, and I can see light coming to them as I say this.   I say, “Have you ever heard the Bible verse, the wages of sin is death?” And they say, “Maybe.” It's saying that God is paying you in death for your sins.   Like a judge who looks at a criminal who's committed murder, but he thinks he's a good person. The judge says, “I'm going to show you how serious your crime is. I'm giving you the death sentence.”   This is your wages. This is what you've earned. And I say, “Fred, sin is so serious to a holy God, he's given you the death sentence.”   You're on death row. You're in a holding cell. It's got a nice blue roof, good air conditioning, good lighting, but this life is a holding cell, and your death will be evidence to you that God is deadly serious about sin.   That has a sobering effect on people because now they've got a reason why they die. Now they know what's going to happen after they die. It's appointed a man.   It's appointment. It's appointed a man who wants to die, and after this, the judgment. And as you go through the commandments, it shows them how they need a Savior.   And so many people say, I'm going to really think about this. Thank you for talking to me. I say, “When are you going to repent and put your trust in Jesus?”   And so many people lately have been saying, “Today.” So, the pandemic, that plague that no one calls a plague, the pandemic did us a huge favor because it made a whole generation think about their mortality, made them realize they're going to die one day. And so, the harvest fields are white.   One other thought regarding the fear of death and the will to live, the same thing. Think of a waitress who has to approach three men, businessmen wearing dark suits and little briefcases sitting at a table. They're obviously wheeling and dealing millions of dollars.   Is she intimidated? No. She just walks up and says, “Can I take your order?”   Why is she so bold? It's because she knows she has what they want. They're there for food.   And so that makes her bold. And you and I have what this world wants. Right at this moment, there are people in torture chambers called gyms, lifting weights that are far too heavy for them, pulling things they shouldn't be pulling.   And I believe in physical fitness is great. And at the same time, there are people drinking green slime. They would love a chocolate shake, but they drink because they want to increase their life just that little bit more.   We have found everlasting life. So, if the world knew what we had, they would ask us. This is what Jesus said to the woman at the well.   If you knew who it was that was speaking to you, you would ask me. And if the world knew what we had, everlasting life, they'd plead with us. So, because we know we have what the world wants, like that waitress, we must be bold.   And when they realize that we have the answer to death that Jesus Christ has abolished death. When that revelation comes to them, what causes death. That Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, he destroyed death, bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel. That's when the light goes on and they say, “Thank you so much. Thank you for talking to me.” I've just about worn myself out.   Laura Dugger: (30:16 - 30:30) Well, that's incredible to hear, especially the breakdown practically of how you do that. And I would say, “Do you even give people permission to use some of those examples if they want to give this a try?”   Ray Comfort: (30:31 - 31:18) I would plead with them to do so. We've got the evidence Bible. It's filled with how to do these things.   And that book, Fifty Years of Open-Air Preaching: Everything I've Learned is filled with stuff like this. How to get a crowd standing up nice and orderly. There's a picture, I don't know if you can see it, at Berkeley University.   They're all standing around nice in a big circle. That's where you get stoned to death, Berkeley. But because we understand these principles, we just drew a circle out of chalk and said, stand behind the circle.   If anyone got in front of the circle, approached us, we wouldn't talk to them unless they got to the edge of the circle. And people are like sheep. If you say, “Move back behind the chalk line. Do it now.” Okay. They'll do it, if you've got a little bit of authority.   And so, you just learn to do things like that. And it means the gospel can go out. So yeah, please, please use these principles.   Laura Dugger: (31:19 - 31:34) And then can you also just paint a picture. If somebody's never seen this before, they've never tried this before, are there any memorable encounters that you've had as you reflect back on these years of open air preaching?   Ray Comfort: (31:35 - 33:54) Yes. Oh, I've got beaten up by a woman once. Oh dear.   I'll have to tell you. I was in Santa Monica many years ago, and I had a crowd of maybe 40, 50 people. And there's a woman there that was very vocal and kept calling me, using the F word a couple of times.   So, I said, “Ma'am, can you watch your language? There are ladies present.” And she said, “I'm a lady.”   I said, “Ma'am, you may be a woman, but you are not a lady.” And with that, she ran at me like a bat out of heaven and began beating me up. Now, most women go scratch, and hair pulling, but she was like Mike Tyson's sister. She got in six punches, knocked me to the ground before my team pulled her off.   They held her back. And she said, let me go and get my purse. They let her go.   And she gave me a kidney punch and took two weeks for the bruising to go, but she doubled my crowd. She can come back anytime she wants. But that was my fault.   And that was very memorable. So, I talk nicely to ladies now. One to one, one of the most memorable ones is a guy named Mario.   Our YouTube channel's got 1.57 million subscribers, just past 314 million views. And one of the best, most gripping encounters was with a guy named Mario. I went out on my bike.   My dog's on my bike. She's on a platform. She wears sunglasses.   I wear sunglasses. It gets people's attention. She's the best bait I've ever had when fishing for men.   Saw this guy standing by a tree on a pathway, and I said, “You want to come on camera?” He said, “Yeah.” I was surprised because I didn't have to talk him into it.   And he was quite arrogant, very handsome young man. And as we went through the commandments, I saw a tear well in his eye and roll down his cheek. And I thought, oh, no, God's doing a work in the heart of this guy, and I don't want to mess it up.   And so, I did my best to end up praying with him, and he was just beside himself in sorrow for his sin. And I think that's something like 4 million views on a YouTube channel. If you go to the most popular to see it, you'll see him there.   But that was a very memorable encounter. One that I often think when I'm going out on my bike each day. Lord, give me a Mario today, please.   Laura Dugger: (33:55 - 34:58) When was the first time you listened to an episode of The Savvy Sauce? How did you hear about our podcast? Did a friend share it with you?   Will you be willing to be that friend now and text five other friends or post on your socials anything about The Savvy Sauce that you love? If you share your favorite episodes, that is how we continue to expand our reach and get the good news of Jesus Christ in more ears across the world. So, we need your help.   Another way to help us grow is to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Each of these suggestions will cost you less than a minute, but it will be a great benefit to us. Thank you so much for being willing to be generous with your time and share.   We appreciate you. It's compelling to hear this and inspiring, but then also if we're going back to talking about the fears. What fears do you see holding people back from giving this a try or from evangelizing in general?   Ray Comfort: (34:59 - 37:37) That is a great question, and you provoke something very important. I've traveled on about 2,000 flights, itinerating over the years, and so many times I've prayed, and when there's an empty seat on a plane beside me, I always pray for the person who's going to sit there. This is the prayer I subliminally pray.   Lord, please don't let this guy show up. That's what I pray. And then he shows up, and I share the gospel with him.   My hardest, my biggest mountain to climb was how do you bring the subject up? Okay, I'm on a plane. This guy's a businessman.   He's wearing a three-piece suit. He's very intimidating, and I've got to talk to him about the things of God and sin and righteousness and judgment. How do I bring the subject up with this guy?   Oh, see those clouds? Guess who made the clouds? God.   No, it's just terrifying. But I learned something many years ago that just dissipated that fear of man and the fear of women, and that's this. I just say to any stranger, “Do you think there's an afterlife?”   That's a simple question. Do you think there's life after death? I haven't mentioned God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell, sin, righteousness, judgment, any of those things that make him feel uncomfortable.   I just said, do you think there's an afterlife? And this is how I do it, and I've done it many times. I'm at the ministry now in our studio.   Many a time I've had workmen come. Let's say there's a plumber working on something. I go up to him and say, “Hey, how are you doing?”   He says, “Good.” I'm Ray. What's your name?   He says, “Eric.” Nice to meet you, Eric. Eric, what?   I've got a question for you, “Do you think there's an afterlife?” Eric stands up and says, “I don't know.”   I say, “Do you think about it much?” Yeah, all the time. His all the time just dissipated my fears.   He's not antichrist. He hasn't stabbed me to death. He's a normal human being.   He thinks about the issues of life and death all the time. And so, I've got confidence. And the thing that got me in there was that question, do you think there's an afterlife?   You can ask anyone. Even Uncle Arthur at the Christmas lunch, sitting there and usually he's working. Uncle Arthur, do you think there's an afterlife? Haven't mentioned God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell. Just let him talk.   He says, “Oh, I don't know about heaven.” So Rich, “You ever read the Bible?” Oh, let me get you my Bible.   Let me lend it to you. It just opens the door and lets them do the talking. So never forget that.   You can talk to any stranger about the things of God by just asking that question. Do you think there's an afterlife? And I do it every day.   Laura Dugger: (37:38 - 37:57) Wow. And I love it, even before we began recording when we were just getting to know each other for a moment. And then you said, well, before we begin, shall we do this in the flesh, or should we pray?   And I love that. I think that's such an approachable first step to this.   Ray Comfort: (37:57 - 38:07) Well, you just have to do something in the flesh to know how terrible it is. You need a pulpit, and you think, oh God, I need your help. So, I always pray.   Laura Dugger: (38:08 - 38:24) Absolutely. That's very relatable. And so, if we're considering this invitation to evangelize publicly, what do you think this looks like for men and for women?   And do you see any difference between the two?   Ray Comfort: (38:25 - 39:21) Yes, I do. When I look at my wife, I see different from the local workman that comes to work around our home. But physically, no, I don't.   Yeah. When Jesus had gone to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he didn't say, “Oh, that's just for men.” No.   Look at the woman at the well. She went off and shared the gospel with the whole village. And so, if a woman's got the courage to stand up and do what men won't do, God bless her.   I think that's wonderful. And so, I'm all for women and women stay silent at the church. Well, that's for the church.   That's church discipline. But when it comes to sharing the gospel, telling people how they can find everlasting life, women can do just as well with men and a woman can do good with five people or 10 people. Now she can gather a crowd of 200 at a university and share how to find everlasting life.   God bless her. And thank you for her, Aud.   Laura Dugger: (39:22 - 39:35) Thank you for sharing that. And can you think of just an easy or approachable next step, something that we could do today that takes inspiration from this conversation and turns it into action?   Ray Comfort: (39:35 - 39:38) Yes. Get the book.   Laura Dugger: (39:40 - 39:41) Absolutely.   Ray Comfort: (39:41 - 39:48) And I'll watch our YouTube channel too. I love it. It'll really help you build confidence.   Thank you for that.   Laura Dugger: (39:49 - 40:01) My pleasure. So, if we do determine that we're going to apply what we've learned today, then there's another side to this as well. What kind of attack can we expect from our enemy?   Ray Comfort: (40:02 - 42:34) Oh, full on. You're going to get negative thoughts. You can't do this.   You shouldn't do this. What are you going to do if you dry up? The dry up thing is a real big fear.   I'm going to get up there and I'll say, “My mind's gone blank.” Well, just have a Gospel of John in your pocket, a little New Testament, maybe a little Gideon in your pocket there. And if you dry up, just say, “Oh, excuse me, I want to read this to you.”   You've got John 3:16, corner turned down. Just say, “For God so loved the world and gave his only begotten son who believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Please think about that.   Close it and get down. Or you can keep speaking. And so, if you've got an out, that will dissipate your fears if you know you can get out if that happens.   I've used it many a time. I mean the fear of every preacher is drying up in a pulpit. I remember I was in a church of 3,000 once and I lost my place.   So, you know what I did? I just said, look at that over there. And everyone looked at the wall.   I said, I just lost my place. Or I'll say something like this. “Turn to Leviticus 15:3.”   And everyone goes, shh, shh, shh. I look for my place. I've got my thoughts back.   And they say that was a fake scripture. I don't know what it is. I wanted to do something while I was trying to find my place.   And there I've never had problems drying up in the pulpit because I know that's my way out. And it's the same with open air preaching. If you dry up, you're just going to quote John 3:16 or begin reading Genesis chapter 1 to the crowd.   “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And just knowing you've got that out will help dissipate your fears. And when you're finished, you'll have such a joy.   I say to our team, whenever you go to preach the gospel, you're dragging your feet. When you come back, you'll be clicking your heels.   And that's exactly what happens. You'll have such satisfaction that you did what you know you should. You overcame that Goliath.   You ran at Goliath and overcame your fears. And so just do it. If you want to learn to swim, you don't study water.   You jump in. That's the best way to learn to swim. And, you know, if you're going to drown, it's a pity more people don't know this, but if you just relax, you'll float.   If you panic, you'll probably sink. And it's the same with this. Don't panic.   Just trust in the Lord. Say, “Lord, you'll fill my mouth. You'll help me out with this.”   And he'll float. He'll float you. He'll take you by the hand, and you'll be fine.   I've done it thousands of times, and God's never let me down.   Laura Dugger: (42:36 - 43:00) Amen. I hope we all are willing to give it a try. I think that you really articulated it well when you narrow it down to that fear of man, fear of woman.   And I love also that just do it, and we can do it scared. But you're so full of these practical tips. There's one about hecklers that we haven't covered yet.   Can you share your perspective on hecklers?   Ray Comfort: (43:01 - 44:02) Hecklers are wonderful. If you fear hecklers, you're fearing the thing that could make what you're doing a great success. A good heckler, if he's handled well, can take a crowd of 15 people to 150 people in about 30, 40 seconds.   And all you do is let him vent. There's one, I think we've got, it's called The Angry Atheist. I think it's one of our videos.   And this guy was furious, a Christian. So, I just let him vent, and the crowd thickened up, and then we started one by one dealing with his problems. And just always remember a soft answer turns away wrath.   If someone's angry, you just speak, what's your name? And they'll say, “Oh, John.” Nice to meet you, John.   That's a nice sweater. I remember once a lady came up, this young lady. She was really angry, and I did say the sweater thing to her when she was yelling at me.   I said, “That's a nice sweater.” She said, “Really?” I said, “Where'd you get it?”   And so, a soft answer turns away wrath. So, you just learn these little things that can really help.   Laura Dugger: (44:03 - 44:14) I love that. And just as a model for us, if we want to share the good news of Jesus, you've done this time and time again. Will you share it with all of us now?   Ray Comfort: (44:16 - 46:05) What are you trying to do to me? You mean you'd like the gospel? Absolutely.   One-minute gospel presentation. Okay, let's do a nutshell. Let me say, I'm meeting a stranger.   I'll talk directly to them. You know, God's placed a will to live within you. Something in you says, I don't want to die.   Did you know the Bible says, “Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel?” And the reason you're going to die is because you've sinned against God. And all you have to do for a few minutes with an honest heart is go through the commandments.   The seventh commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery, but Jesus said if you look at a woman with lust, you commit adultery in your heart, lying lips and abomination to the Lord. No thief will inherit God's kingdom.”    Ever stolen something? Ever used God's name in vain? And if you've been honest, you'll know you've sinned against God. And if all your sin comes out on Judgment Day as evidence of your guilt, you're going to end up justly in Hell, and that breaks my heart.   And God is not willing that any perish. The Bible says, “He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and he's provided a way for you to be forgiven by Christ dying on the cross.” We broke God's law.   Jesus paid the fine. It's as simple as that. That means you can leave the courtroom.   God can dismiss your case. He can take death off you because of what Jesus did through his death and resurrection. And all you have to do is so simple a child can understand it.   You must repent, turn from your sins. You'll never do that while you think you're a good person. And trust in Jesus like you trust a parachute.   The minute you do that, you've got God's promise, and he cannot lie. He'll grant you everlasting life as a free gift, not because you're good, but because He's good and kind and rich in mercy. And don't put it off until tomorrow because you may not have tomorrow.   Fifty-four million people die every year. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.   Laura Dugger: (46:07 - 46:10) It just never gets old hearing that.   Ray Comfort: (46:10 - 46:10) No.   Laura Dugger: (46:10 - 46:28) Thank you. And you also bring up even so clearly from scripture but sharing repent and believe. And is there anything else that you would want to make sure that we wouldn't leave out of a conversation if we were evangelizing to someone?   Ray Comfort: (46:29 - 48:02) Well, another good question. Yeah, a lot of people are saying all you have to do is believe. Just believe.   They say if you repent, that's works. Well, by saying you have to believe, that's works. If you have to do anything, believe.   No, the Bible says, “By grace you're saved through faith, through faith, and not of yourselves.” It's God's grace that saves us. But if you read scripture, it comes through repentance and faith.   And the reason they want to drop repentance is because they don't see the true nature of sin. And what the commandments do, the Ten Commandments, they open up the law and show sin to be exceedingly sinful, and that necessitates repentance. Like with David, when he realized he'd committed adultery and lied and stolen his neighbor's wife, covered his neighbor's wife, murdered his neighbor, that's when he cried out, “Oh, have mercy upon me, oh God, according to your lovingkindness.”   If Nathan hadn't said, “Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, and David hadn't said, I've sinned against heaven, he would have just said, oh, just believe. No, he had to get before God and agonize. Scripture says, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners.”   Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Let your laugh to be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.” That's contrition.   And the law that shows us the nature of sin produces contrition, sorrow for sin, which works repentance, godly sorrow, works repentance unto life. So, it's most necessary to preach, as Jesus did, repent and believe in that order.   Laura Dugger: (48:04 - 48:13) That is so good. Ray, where can we go to continue learning from you and continue to be inspired by the faithful work that you're doing?   Ray Comfort: (48:14 - 48:46) Very kind of you to say that. LivingWaters.com, sign up for our newsletter. We've always got interesting stuff.   We give away a lot of stuff. Watch the YouTube channel. We have different videos each day.   We put one up four days ago that's had 4.6 million views. And so, it's a wonderful way to reach the lost. So, follow us.   Just become part of a YouTube channel, subscribe, and that really helps us and helps further our reach. So LivingWaters.com and LivingWaters YouTube.   Laura Dugger: (48:47 - 49:05) Wonderful. We'll make sure to add those links in the show notes for today's episode. And as you already know, our podcast is entitled The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge.   And so, as my final question for you today, Ray, what is your Savvy Sauce?   Ray Comfort: (49:06 - 49:12) My wife. Is that okay to say that?   Laura Dugger: (49:12 - 49:17) I love that. Do you want to say anything more specific about her?   Ray Comfort: (49:17 - 49:44) Sue and I have been married for 108 years, 54. We love each other. She's my best friend.   She works at the ministry and also I love my dog. And one thing I might say just as we close is don't call this anything to do with evangelism. That'll kill.   Use the word apologetics or say Ray Comfort says this about his wife. Anything other than evangelism that scares Christians off.   Laura Dugger: (49:45 - 49:50) Wow. Interesting. So that's been your experience.   That makes sense.   Ray Comfort: (49:51 - 50:25) Yeah. That's a principle we use at the ministry. If we have a conference, don't mention evangelism.   No one will come. It's like someone saying to me, “Hey, want to go door knocking, tell people about Jesus?” I go; I just wouldn't want to do that.   And there's a reason for it. As a new Christian, I knocked on someone's door, fully aware that Jehovah's Witnesses had stolen our thunder, and I said to this lady, “Hello, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness.” She said, “Well, I am.”   And so, I've got this aversion to door knocking, and that's what most Christians are like when it comes to evangelism. So, call it something else.   Laura Dugger: (50:25 - 50:50) Wow. So practical, again. And Ray, you've just stewarded your many gifts that God has given you.   You've stewarded them so well and so wisely. I can just imagine God greeting you someday and having just, well done, good and faithful servant. So, thank you for generously taking the time to share with us today.   I'm grateful for you, and I just want to say thank you for being my guest.   Ray Comfort: (50:51 - 50:52) Well, thank you for having me.   Laura Dugger: (50:53 - 54:35) One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term gospel before?   It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior. But God loved us so much, he made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.   We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, would you pray with me now?   Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you. Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life?   We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.   If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me, so me for him. You get the opportunity to live your life for him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason.   We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you ready to get started? First, tell someone.   Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible.   I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the book of John. Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ.   I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Audio Treasures is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Mortification and Vivification Subtitle: Puritan Devotional Speaker: A. W. Pink Broadcaster: Grace Audio Treasures Event: Devotional Date: 8/17/2025 Bible: Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 13:14 Length: 3 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Grace Audio Treasures is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Mortification and Vivification Subtitle: Puritan Devotional Speaker: A. W. Pink Broadcaster: Grace Audio Treasures Event: Devotional Date: 8/17/2025 Bible: Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 13:14 Length: 3 min.

We highly suggest that you READ the TEXT at the link below, as you listen to the audio above. https://gracegems.org/2025/mortification_and_vivification.htm Feel free to FORWARD this gem to others!

Full Title Name: Was Jesus Christ really Jewish? Mortification vs self-harm? Catholic "sacrifice"? How to study encyclicals. Sede-doubtist? How can Modernists be saints? Saint Philomena! Cremationism? Evidence for human soul: "The Immortal Mind"! ChatGPT: instant sermon - in Latin. Can Trump do what WEF couldn't? Cincinnati beat down? Overcoming "spiritual autism": pray! This episode was recorded on 08/12/2025. Our Links: http://linkwcb.com/ Please consider making a monetary donation to What Catholics Believe. Father Jenkins remembers all of our benefactors in general during his daily Mass, and he also offers one Mass on the first Sunday of every month specially for all supporters of What Catholics Believe. May God bless you for your generosity! https://www.wcbohio.com/donate Subscribe to our other YouTube channels: ‪@WCBHighlights‬ ‪@WCBHolyMassLivestream‬ May God bless you all!

Given on the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, 2025.

New Testament Reading Colossians 3:1-17 (p. 984)

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: The Mortification of Sin - The Spirit's Cleansing Subtitle: On The Holy Spirit Speaker: A. W. Pink Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 7/13/2025 Length: 21 min.

In this unscripted “After Hours” roundtable, The Chorus in the Chaos crew dives into two very different—but oddly connected—topics: nicotine addiction and artificial intelligence. What starts with a satirical review of a dramatic Christianity Today article about ZYN pouches spirals into serious (and hilarious) discussions on mastery, sanctification, the creeping perils of AI, and the church's responsibility 

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr    Music:   Bee Gees – Stayin' Alive (Official Video) (youtube.com)  The Jesuits – Psychopath In Your Life Do you have a […]

Mortification. It's a fun word with a serious meaning. Mortification is about killing sin in our lives. In this sermon, Pastor Gabe shares that we kill sin because of who we are in Christ and the invitation we have to live fully into that identity.

In this episode of Mortification of Spin, Carl and Todd discuss the pressing issues facing young men today, exploring the need for role models and the church's potential to fill this void.  The church is a community, and if we're living in a world where young men really lack good role models, there is a tremendous opportunity for the church to speak to that. -- Carl Trueman They discuss the cultural landscape, the challenges of modern masculinity, and the importance of mentorship within the church community. Join them for a thought-provoking conversation that aims to inspire and encourage young men to embrace their identity and responsibilities in today's world.We are pleased to offer three copies of J.C. Ryle's book, Thoughts for Young Men, to our listeners, thanks to the generosity of Banner of Truth Publishing. Enter here for the opportunity to win.

In this episode, we explore how the Book of Concord speaks about the Law's twofold work—accusation for the unbeliever and mortification for the believer. Drawing from key confessional texts like the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord, we discuss how the Law always accuses, but does so differently depending on faith. For the unbeliever, the Law terrifies and condemns. For the believer, the accusation remains, but it drives daily repentance and the mortification of the flesh by the Spirit through the Word. This distinction is not only doctrinally vital but also deeply pastoral, grounding the Christian's struggle in Christ's victory and the Spirit's ongoing sanctifying work. Join us as we trace how this confessional insight shapes our understanding of sin, repentance, and the Christian life. ----more---- Host: Fr. Jason Braaten Regular Guest: Fr. Gifford Grobien ----more---- Become a Patron! You can subscribe to the Journal here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/subscribe/ You can read the Gottesblog here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/ You can support Gottesdienst here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/make-a-donation/ As always, we, at The Gottesdienst Crowd, would be honored if you would Subscribe, Rate, and Review. Thanks for listening and thanks for your support. 

Melissa Petro is hosting the workshop "Writing for Shame Resilience: Turning Shame Into Your Superpower" at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA from July 14th - July 18th; register here.**REPLAY**In this episode of Season of Stuck, Deanna sits down with author and cultural journalist Melissa Petro to dive deep into a topic that keeps so many of us feeling stuck: shame. As the author of Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, Melissa has a unique perspective on how shame impacts our self-worth, keeps us from living authentically, and traps us in cycles of feeling "not enough." Together, Deanna and Melissa explore the complex dynamics of shame (and how those dynamics keep us stuck), discuss how societal expectations drive shame and impact women, and Melissa offers actionable ways to break free from shame and reclaim your worth—and get unstuck in the process.Tune in to learn about:What shame really is and how it differs from guiltHow shame is a social control tool, especially for womenPractical steps to stop the shame spiral and regain your confidenceWhy sharing your story with trusted people is essential for shame resilienceHow acceptance and self-compassion can lead to profound freedom from shameAbout the guest:Melissa Petro is a cultural journalist, writer, and educator whose work delves into social issues, identity, and the female experience. Her recent book, Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, combines memoir with an exploration of societal expectations and shame resilience, empowering readers to move past shame-based identities.Connect with Melissa Petro:On the web: melissa-petro.comOn social media:Instagram: @melissapetroStay connected with Season of Stuck:Want more insights on how to make your journey from stuck to unstuck? Make sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts; you can catch new episodes every Tuesday.Want to make sure you never miss an episode? Visit seasonofstuck.com to get episodes delivered to your inbox. To get involved with the show, fill out our listener survey or send us a message.And for even more stuck-related content, make sure to follow us on Instagram @seasonofstuck.****DISCLAIMER**** Season of Stuck is for general information only and should not be considered health, financial, or any other type of professional advice. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on Season of Stuck is not an endorsement. We do not verify the accuracy of the information that guests present. Adult language may be present. Our producer and host disclaim any liability arising out of your reliance on Season of Stuck. Please note that we may receive a commission should you choose to purchase any product or service using our website link to the products, services, and links featured on Season of Stuck and/or in related properties (including seasonofstuck.com and email communications).

In this episode of Mortification of Spin, Carl and Todd are joined by their friend, Michael Morales, professor of biblical studies at Greenville Theological Seminary. Together, they discuss Michael's much-anticipated 2-volume commentary on the Book of Numbers, an often-overlooked by preachers and students of the Bible. According to Carl, "If Michael Morales writes it, you need to read it." Discussing its significance in the biblical narrative and its implications for understanding the covenant community, Morales shares insights on how the Book of Numbers serves as a foundation for ecclesiology and its connections to Christ and the church today.  The Torah really is the foundation of all of our theology. – Michael Morales Tune in for a rich conversation that aims to illuminate the depths of this vital text! Perhaps, like Todd, you'll renew your enthusiasm for this middle book of the Pentateuch after listening to their conversation.

Christian believers will be tempted to sin. How are we to understand what goes on in temptation? Where is God when we are tempted? How do we lay hold of the resources to resist and come through these times of agony? These and other crucial questions are considered in this week's episode.   Featured Resources: – 'Lead Us Not Into Temptation', Sinclair B. Ferguson, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 145 (October 1975). – Excerpt from William Bridge, A Lifting Up for the Downcast (1649; repr. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2024), Chapter 7, 'A Lifting Up in the Case of Temptation', p. 214–220.    Further Reading: Bridge, William, A Lifting Up for the Downcast Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour (single volume or abridged in three paperback volumes) Owen, John, Temptation Resisted and Repulsed (abridged and made easy to read by Richard Rushing) Owen, John, The Mortification of Sin (abridged and made easy to read by Richard Rushing) Owen, John, Works, Volume 6: Sin and Temptation (includes full text of On the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Of Temptation, Indwelling Sin, and A Practical Exposition of Psalm 130)     Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

Described as 'perhaps the greatest British theologian of all time', John Owen was far more than a theoretician. As a pastor-scholar, Owen showed that his great concern was to promote holiness in his hearers and readers, to the glory of God and their lasting joy. This week's episode constitutes an introduction to Owen and many of his chief works which, it is hoped, will be of help to those new to him, as well as to confirmed and seasoned appreciators of this humble, profound Christian teacher.   Featured Resources: – 'John Owen: A Defeated Puritan?', Ian Hamilton, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 711 (December 2022). – 'John Owen on Spiritual-Mindedness', J. I. Packer, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 620 (May 2015). – 'Some Thoughts on Reading the Works of John Owen', Sinclair B. Ferguson, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 152 (May 1976). – Three testimonies about reading John Owen, Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 57 (June 1968).   From the Pen of Owen:  The Works of John Owen (Goold edition, 16 volumes). Please note each volume can be purchased separately. Owen's Exposition of Hebrews (Goold edition, 7 volumes). Please note each volume can be purchased separately. Apostasy from the Gospel: Nature and Causes (Puritan Paperback, 176 pages, abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law) Communion with God (Puritan Paperback, 224 pages, abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law) The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (Large paperback, 440 pages, introduction and analysis by J. I. Packer) Duties of Christian Fellowship (Puritan Paperback, 96 pages, modernized) The Glory of Christ (Puritan Paperback, 184 pages, abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law) Gospel Life (Puritan Paperback, 256 pages, modernized) Gospel Ministry (Puritan Paperback, 208 pages, modernized) The Holy Spirit (Puritan Paperback, 216 pages, abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law) Indwelling Sin in Believers (Puritan Paperback, 176 pages, abridged and made easy to read) The Mortification of Sin (Puritan Paperback, 144 pages, abridged and made easy to read by Richard Rushing) Searching Our Hearts in Difficult Times (Puritan Paperback, 160 pages, abridged and made easy to read) The Spirit and the Church (Puritan Paperback, 208 pages, abridged and made easy to read by R. J. K. Law) Temptation Resisted and Repulsed (Puritan Paperback, 128 pages, abridged and made easy to read by Richard Rushing)   Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

Todd and Carl, now officially an American citizen, dive into the challenging subject of immigration. Together, they explore the theological concept of the "order of love," its implications for prioritizing our obligations to others, and how this intersects with the responsibilities of the State versus the Church.  The situation is complicated. How do we navigate? How do we develop a hierarchy of loves and obligations that is faithful to Scripture but also handles the complexities that Scripture throws up? – Carl Trueman In other words, how do we balance our responsibilities to our neighbors and the laws of the land? With references to contemporary issues and personal anecdotes, this episode challenges listeners to consider their perspectives on immigration and community, as Christians and citizens. We are pleased to offer Mortification of Spin swag to three of our listeners, including a t-shirt, a baseball cap, and a mug! Enter here for the opportunity to win.

In this episode of Mortification of Spin, Carl and Todd engage in a thought-provoking discussion with Brad Littlejohn, director of Programs and Education at American Compass, about Brad's newly published book, Call to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License.   Christians in the modern West hear a lot about—and talk a lot about—"freedom." The word has taken on so many meanings that Christians often fail to realize how much our contemporary ideals of freedom stray from what freedom has meant in Scripture and the Christian tradition. We need to redeem and recover a properly Christian way of thinking about freedom. – Carl Trueman Today's conversation touches on the Reformation's impact on individual liberty, the tension between authority and conscience, and the contemporary challenges Christians face in understanding freedom.  As Protestants, we have to care about freedom because it's central to our theological heritage. – Brad Littlejohn Tune in for an insightful exploration of these critical themes! Thanks to the generosity of B&H Academic, we are pleased to offer three copies of Brad's book, Call to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License. Enter here for the opportunity to win one.   Show Notes: Call to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License https://bhacademic.bhpublishinggroup.com/product/called-to-freedom-3/#flipbook-sampler/

Born gay is a narrative that severely inhibits anyone dealing with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. Dr. Linda Seiler talks about both the qualitative research that she did regarding same sex attraction as well as the transformation she went through after she reoriented her life towards God. Watch part 1 here: https://youtu.be/gqJ48N5uqYA Subscribe to our newsletter to get this amazing report: Refuting the Top 5 Gay Myths https://ruthinstitute.org/refute-the-top-five-myths/ Chapters 00:00 The Journey to Forgiveness and Healing 02:47 Pursuing Intimacy with Jesus 06:01 Facing Pain for Transformation 08:54 Understanding Temptation and Responsibility 12:14 The Cycle of Transformation 15:11 Exploring the Five Streams of LGBTQ Responses 18:09 Condemnation vs. Affirmation 20:59 Accommodation and Identity 23:53 Mortification and the Fall 27:14 Understanding Temptation and Sin 30:36 The Complexity of Concupiscence 33:25 Celibacy: A Gift or a Burden? 37:43 Holistic Transformation: Body, Soul, and Spirit 41:03 The Role of Prayer in Transformation 43:08 Identifying the Root of Desires 44:05 Advice for Parents of LGBTQ Individuals 46:20 The Importance of Language in Identity 50:23 Resources for Further Learning Dr. Linda Seiler is a trailblazer in understanding gender identity and sexuality. Born and raised in a conservative environment, Linda faced internal conflicts regarding her gender identity from a young age. Despite these challenges, she pursued her education with determination, eventually earning a PhD from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Her academic journey was marked by a deep exploration of gender and sexuality, culminating in a dissertation that examined the experiences of individuals who have undergone significant personal transformations. As an ordained minister, Linda has dedicated her life to ministry and education, leading initiatives like Chi Alpha at Purdue University and serving as a National XA Field Specialist. Her book, "Trans-Formation," reflects her personal journey and academic insights, offering guidance to those navigating similar paths. Through her work, Linda continues to inspire and educate, contributing significantly to the discourse on identity and transformation. Linda's website: https://lindaseiler.com/   Get the 5 streams document here: https://lindaseiler.com/resources/   Buy her book, “TRANSformation” https://www.amazon.com/dp/1625862601   Linda shares her story with Focus on the Family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4WxPhWdU60    Follow her on social media: https://www.facebook.com/RevLindaSeiler/ https://www.instagram.com/revlindaseiler/ https://x.com/revlindaseiler?lang=en   ReStory Ministries: https://restoryministries.org/ Have a question or a comment? Leave it in the comments, and we'll get back to you! Subscribe to our YouTube playlist:  @RuthInstitute   Follow us on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/theruthinstitute https://twitter.com/RuthInstitute https://www.facebook.com/TheRuthInstitute/ https://theruthinstitute.locals.com/newsfeed Press: NC Register: https://www.ncregister.com/author/jennifer-roback-morse Catholic Answers: https://www.catholic.com/profile/jennifer-roback-morse The Stream: https://stream.org/author/jennifer-roback-morse/ Crisis Magazine: https://crisismagazine.com/author/jennifer-roeback-morse Father Sullins' Reports on Clergy Sexual Abuse: https://ruthinstitute.org/resource-centers/father-sullins-research/ Buy Dr. Morse's Books: The Sexual State: https://ruthinstitute.org/product/the-sexual-state-2/ Love and Economics: https://ruthinstitute.org/product/love-and-economics-it-takes-a-family-to-raise-a-village/ Smart Sex: https://ruthinstitute.org/product/smart-sex-finding-life-long-love-in-a-hook-up-world/ 101 Tips for a Happier Marriage: https://ruthinstitute.org/product/101-tips-for-a-happier-marriage/ 101 Tips for Marrying the Right Person: https://ruthinstitute.org/product/101-tips-for-marrying-the-right-person/ Listen to our podcast:  Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ruth-institute-podcast/id309797947 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1t7mWLRHjrCqNjsbH7zXv1 Subscribe to our newsletter to get this amazing report: Refuting the Top 5 Gay Myths https://ruthinstitute.org/refute-the-top-five-myths/ Get the full interview by joining us for exclusive, uncensored content on Locals: https://theruthinstitute.locals.com/support

The following is a talk given by a Benedictine Monk on the topic mortification. Download the Exodus 90 app today and join us for the January 20th, 2025 start date!Support Us on PatreonBecome a Patron! Over 40 interviews, a course with Karlo Broussard, a 10-part series on the domestic church, a course on fitness and virtue by Pat Flynn, and free thank-you gifts for supporting the show!Click here to joinJoin Our 2025 PilgrimageSelect International Tours in the best in the business. We are planning on a 2025 pilgrimage. Click here so you won't miss it. Living Beyond Sunday: Making Your Home a Holy PlaceOur new book is available for pre-order from Ascension Press!“I love this book. It provides wise counsel with beautiful simplicity. So, if you are looking to safeguard your family life from the wiles of the enemy and encourage your spouse and children to become the saints God is calling them to be, this is a book for you.” – Fr Gregory PineHome life can be difficult and busy, and it's easy to get distracted from the point of it all: raising a family of saints.In Living Beyond Sunday: Making Your Home a Holy Place, two married couples share what has helped them make their homes a place of encounter with God–a place where saints are being made.Want to help The Catholic Man Show?By giving us a rating on iTunes, it helps others find the show.Want to say up with The Catholic Man Show? Sign up for our mailing list: Click HereLooking for a prayer to pray with your wife? Check this blog out.Are you getting our emails? Sign up for our newsletter where we give you all bacon content – never spam.SIGN UP HERE:

We are called to be the church, not just go to church. What does it look like to practically live out a life of Godliness? Go to coe22.com/news to take next steps by joining a Disciple Group or signing up for Growth Track. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Todd and Carl, the self-proclaimed Hall and Oates of podcasting, spend a few minutes reflecting on the longevity of Mortification of Spin – "We've been doing this for over a decade now. Easily we must be one of the longest-standing podcast partnerships in history." They then turn their attention to today's returning guest and their friend, Kevin DeYoung, to discuss his latest book, Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology. Deemed by Todd to be his "Book of the Year,” this daily devotional has been designed to make systematic theology clear and accessible for the everyday Christian. Daily devotions are a huge privilege and a tremendous powerhouse for Christian living. – Carl Trueman The conversation delves into the importance of understanding systematic theology, the value of daily devotions, and how Kevin's book aims to equip lay Christians with the historic vocabulary of the church. Thanks to the generosity of Crossway Publishing, we are pleased to offer three copies of Kevin DeYoung's book, Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology, to our listeners. Enter here for the opportunity to win one. Show Notes: Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology https://reformedresources.org/daily-doctrine-a-one-year-guide-to-systematic-theology-hardcover

Todd is pretty excited to have today's guest on “his podcast,” who is none other than his Mortification of Spin co-host, Carl Trueman. Together, they discuss Carl's latest book, To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse, where Carl examines the historical roots of critical theory, its evolution, and its impact on contemporary culture.  I wanted to produce a book that was not a kind of “goodies” and “baddies” book…Everybody coming to critical theory has their opinion on whether the critical theorists are good guys or bad guys. I didn't really want to address that. What I wanted to do was look at critical theory through the historical lens and say, okay, why did this group of men start thinking this way? What was going on? What sources are they using? What problems are they trying to address or questions are they asking in order to get below the surface? – Carl Trueman Todd and Carl discuss some key figures of critical theory, such as Marx, Hegel, and Freud, and how they and other early critical theorists shaped modern thought. What are the implications for Christians today? Tune in to find out! Thanks to the generosity of B&H Academics, we are pleased to offer a copy of Carl's book to our listeners. Enter here for the opportunity to win one.   Show Notes: To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse https://reformedresources.org/to-change-all-worlds-critical-theory-from-marx-to-marcuse-hardcover/