Podcasts about sacrifices

Mother Miriam Live - October 2nd, 2025 Mother Miriam and Rick Paolini fundraise for The Station of the Cross Mother discusses a new LGBTQ release of the Bible Mother tells a story of when she was a Chaplain at a prison

Love the show? Have any thoughts? Click here to let us know!Our first Spooky Special of October is all about superstitions! We dive into the origins of some of the most famous beliefs—like why people knock on wood or avoid walking under ladders. Kenzie takes us deep into the world of Santa Muerte and her influence on Mexico's narcocultura (narco culture). Meanwhile, Lauren hits the road to uncover unique superstitions from across the United States—you might even hear one from your own state! Don't tempt bad luck… join us for our very first October spooky special!--Follow us on Social Media and find out how to support A Scary State by clicking on our Link Tree: https://instabio.cc/4050223uxWQAl--Have a scary tale or listener story of your own? Send us an email to ascarystatepodcast@gmail.com! We can't wait to read it!--Thinking of starting a podcast? Thinking about using Buzzsprout for that? Well use our link to let Buzzsprout know we sent you and get a $20 Amazon gift card if you sign up for a paid plan!https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1722892--Works cited!https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dq_0tJvFgEFuU1ZpZQ3E_LcuLc-RrTML8fSt9ILWb6k/edit?usp=sharing --Intro and outro music thanks to Kevin MacLeod. You can visit his site here: http://incompetech.com/. Which is where we found our music!

Merci à notre commanditaire ProCafetière : https://tinyurl.com/procafetiere-jerrPour obtenir le Café Whats Up :https://procafetiere.ca/collections/cafe-vrac/products/espresso-whats-up-cafe-vracUtilise le code JERR20 pour 20% de rabais sur le sac Whats Up ;)David Deschênes a fondé une véritable institution à Montréal : une épicerie de quartier devenue une référence dans Hochelaga. Nous avons eu le plaisir d'accueillir le créateur du Bièrologue pour discuter des réalités du parcours entrepreneurial — les sacrifices, les défis comme le vandalisme et la pandémie, mais aussi pour plonger dans l'univers brassicole québécois. Il nous a parlé de l'engouement croissant pour les microbrasseries, ainsi que de la crise récente que le milieu a su traverser. Un grand merci à ce passionné de bière artisanale pour sa présence au Whats Up ! Enregistré le 20 août 2025.Pour suivre David Deschênes :https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-desch%C3%AAnes-75a61537a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_appFacebook :https://www.facebook.com/david.deschenes.18Pour devenir membre et supporter le Whats Up Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/whatsuppodcast Merci les patreon !!Pour suivre Jerr sur Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/jerr_allain/Pour suivre Jerr sur facebook : https://www.facebook.com/JerrAllainofficielContact : jerr.production@gmail.comPour vous abonner à mon Infolettre : http://eepurl.com/hvpnhj

Subscribe To The Willie D Live Audio Podcast at:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/williedlivepodcastArtistActivist InvestorPodcasterSupport This ChannelCashApp http://cash.app/$williedlive PayPal http://www.paypal.me/williedlive Support My Foundationhttps://marvelousbridge.orgFollow me on Social Media:Instagram: williedliveTwitter: williedliveTikTok: williedliveFacebook: williedofficial

Si Dieu veut que nous aidions les autres, pourquoi ne nous donne-t-il pas un moyen facile et peu coûteux de le faire ? Je répondrai à cette question par une autre question : Cela a-t-il coûté quelque chose à Jésus de nous libérer de l'esclavage du péché ? Oh oui ! Il a payé le prix fort – et nous lui sommes éternellement reconnaissants pour notre salut. Une des façons de montrer notre gratitude est d'être généreux envers les autres. J'ai appris qu'un don digne de ce nom coûte à son auteur. Donner nos vieux habits ou des articles ménagers dont nous n'avons plus besoin est un beau geste, mais n'a aucun caractère sacrificiel. Le véritable don consiste à donner quelque chose que nous aimerions conserver, ou qui nous fera défaut. Dieu nous a donné son Fils unique parce qu'il nous aime. Et nous, que ferons-nous par amour pour les autres ? Ne laissez pas la peur du désagrément ou du sacrifice vous empêcher d'aimer véritablement votre prochain. Merci, Père, de m'avoir aimé au point d'envoyer ton Fils Jésus mourir pour mes péchés. Aide-moi à me rappeler que l'amour n'est pas égoïste, mais au contraire désintéressé et sacrificiel. — Êtes-vous prêt à aller plus loin ?

The sacrifices of the Old Testament were types and shadows of a much greater sacrifice which was to come. The sacrifice of Christ Himself.

Fr. Mike explains how God's favor was with Ezra because he set his heart to study God's laws, to obey his laws, and to teach his laws to others. We also learn about hypocritical fasting, and how our sacrifices should remind us that everything ultimately belongs to God at all times. Today's readings are Ezra 7-8, Zechariah 7-8, and Proverbs 20:12-15. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Did Jesus come to cancel the Law of Moses—or fulfill it? In this compelling episode, Dr. Paul Sloan joins Dru Johnson to challenge one of the most persistent misunderstandings in modern Christianity: the idea that Jesus and Paul opposed the Torah. Drawing from his book Jesus and the Law of Moses, Sloan explains how legalism, misunderstanding of impurity, and modern Christian readings of Paul have distorted our view of the biblical law. Instead of a rigid checklist of 613 rules, the Torah was a wisdom-guided, relational framework that assumed the realities of sin, forgiveness, and impurity—and offered ways to address them. They explore how Jesus engaged in sophisticated legal reasoning, why Paul continued to participate in the temple sacrificial system even after his conversion, and why the “burden” of the law has been misunderstood. Sloan also critiques how Pharisees are caricatured as villains, with damaging theological consequences—especially for how Christians view modern Jews and Judaism. This episode brings clarity to what Jesus and Paul were really doing with the law—and why recovering this perspective is crucial for theology, biblical interpretation, and interfaith understanding today. To get your copy of Jesus And The Law Of Moses: https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/products/9781540966384_jesus-and-the-law-of-moses We are listener supported. Give to the cause here: https://hebraicthought.org/give For more articles: https://thebiblicalmind.org/ Social Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HebraicThought Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hebraicthought Threads: https://www.threads.net/hebraicthought X: https://www.twitter.com/HebraicThought Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hebraicthought.org Chapters: 00:00 Understanding the Law and Jesus' Perspective 02:22 Hurdles in Understanding the Law 05:13 Legalism and Its Misinterpretations 08:20 The Case for Jesus and Paul Abolishing the Torah 11:35 Exploring Dietary Laws and Their Implications 14:33 The Nature of Law and Forgiveness 17:31 Ritual Purity and Its Misconceptions 20:24 Pharisees: Villains or Misunderstood Figures? 23:25 Modern Implications of Ancient Interpretations 24:43 Paul's Observance of the Torah 25:33 The Role of Sacrifices in Early Christianity 31:40 Jesus and the Sacrificial System 34:04 Cultural Critique: Rabbinics and Jesus' Teachings

One of the most destructive things we do is ignore the signs.    The signs about the times.     Accepting reality that things are going to change.    It's no surprise.    The pendulum of life swings back and forth, but for some reason, we get caught in continuing to believe the lies.    The best thing you can do is to be wlling to surrender to the inevitable......   Change will always be a part of life.    Personally and professionally, you will continue to be called to pivot.    Make changes.    Sacrifices.     Sit with failures and gather the courage to come up with a plan.    But here's the secret......   Everything you're trying to figure out has already been figured out......   That's if you trust in the plan God has created for you.    All you have to do is be willing to pivot when the time comes.    About the ReWire Podcast The ReWire Podcast with Ryan Stewman – Dive into powerful insights as Ryan Stewman, the HardCore Closer, breaks down mental barriers and shares actionable steps to rewire your thoughts. Each episode is a fast-paced journey designed to reshape your mindset, align your actions, and guide you toward becoming the best version of yourself. Join in for a daily dose of real talk that empowers you to embrace change and unlock your full potential.    Learn how you can become a member of a powerful community consistently rewiring itself for success at https://www.jointheapex.com/   Rise Above

Our acts of love for others are like building blocks of a house that will not crumble in times of storms and floods. May they stand as a testimony of God's love and goodness.

Listen-in to today's This Day In The Word radio teaching broadcast, "Living Sacrifices," and let's see what God's Word has to say.

What makes communion and baptism so important? This week in our series Becoming – Living the Way of Jesus with the People of God, Pastor CJ Ward explains the meaning of sacraments and why they matter for our faith. Scripture: Joshua 4:1–7 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 Romans 6:3–4 Sacraments are not magic—they are sacred because they remind us that something happened. Jesus' death and resurrection have changed everything. Communion and baptism are memorials that point us back to that reality: Communion reminds us of Christ's body and blood given for us. Baptism is our public declaration that our old life is gone and we now belong to Jesus. Sacraments both comfort us when we feel unworthy and challenge us to obedience. Above all, they remind us that because of Jesus, everything is different now. Subscribe for more messages from New Life Gillette Church and join us as we continue becoming who God created us to be. Chapters (00:00:00) - Joshua 4:1(00:00:46) - Joshua 4: Sacraments(00:02:23) - Joshua(00:06:49) - Sacrifices(00:08:30) - The Story of the Ark of the Covenant(00:12:50) - For We Can't Remember the Good Things(00:19:04) - The Sacraments of Jesus(00:21:46) - Jesus' Baptisms(00:25:53) - Something Happened in My Life

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire 1 person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk Guest: Jake Tapper is an award-winning broadcaster and chief Washington correspondent, currently anchoring The Lead with Jake Tapper every day on CNN. He's also the #1 New York Times best-selling author of 7 books, including The Outpost (which was later made into a movie), Original Sin, and most recently Race Against Terror. Notes: Be So Good They Can't Ignore You. Jake: I'm in control of how hard I work. It is our responsibility to work so hard that we become the obvious choice for the job or the promotion. Be So Good They Can't Ignore You. "I had to be so good that even though maybe on a broadcasting level I wouldn't be the number one pick... they had to give it to me." The one leadership skill that is massively important to develop… Don't insulate yourself with “yes” people. You have to have truth tellers in your life. Who are your foxhole friends? Who are the people who are willing and able to tell you the truth? Who are the ones who love you and care about you enough to let you know when you've messed up? Those people are gold. We all need them. Rejection: Dr. Seuss was rejected by 47 publishers. Rejection is part of life. You have to stay in the game for a chance to win it. Keep going. And nobody will give you a job to be nice. What value do you bring to a company? How will you make your boss's life better? You get hired to solve a problem, not because someone wants to be nice. Pinned tweet since 2017 – "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." -- George Orwell. A reminder to see obvious truths being obscured by spin or wishful thinking. "You Can Always Tell Them No" - Ted Koppel's crucial advice to young Jake about maintaining journalistic integrity and not compromising values for opportunities. This became a career-defining principle that Jake still follows 20 years later. The Jar Jar Binks Theory of Leadership - Successful leaders often remove critics from their inner circle, creating dangerous echo chambers. "Great people often achieve as much as they can to the point that they are able to remove from their inner circle anyone who tells them they're being an asshole or making a wrong decision." Constructive vs. Destructive Criticism - Jake learned to distinguish between useful feedback and personal attacks: "Very few of my critics are people that I actually care what they think... folks who understand I'm just trying to be a good faith operative here." Curiosity as Career Driver - Deep curiosity drove Jake from reading microfiche about MASH as a kid to investigating complex stories as an adult: "I find something interesting and I wanna find out everything I can about it." Rejection as Constant Reality - Even at his career peak, Jake faces daily rejection: "I get rejected every day... it doesn't matter that I've had New York Times bestsellers before... it's part of life." Humility Enables Learning - Accepting expertise gaps allows growth: "Having the humility to accept that I am not an expert on any particular thing... I'm a journalist, which means I try to be an expert on whatever I'm covering at that moment." Leadership Lessons From Powerful People The Inner Circle Problem: Leaders systematically remove critics until surrounded only by yes-people, creating dangerous blind spots. Jake witnessed this pattern with Joe Biden (surrounded by aides and family who weren't honest about his declining acuity) and across industries. The Solution: Intentionally maintain truth-tellers in your inner circle who care about you personally but will challenge you professionally. Creating Truth-Telling Environments: Jake encourages healthy disagreement with executive producers, acknowledges power imbalances that make criticism harder for junior staff, and creates indirect channels for feedback ("some people on the staff think..."). The Criticism Paradox: Public leaders face constant harsh criticism, making them naturally defensive. Understanding this context helps leaders distinguish between constructive feedback that improves performance versus personal attacks that serve no purpose. Following Curiosity Despite Opposition Jake's major works were all advised against by professionals: The Outpost (no military expertise) The Atlantic story of freeing a wrongly imprisoned man Biden book (started the day after the election, despite uncertainty) Key Insight: "Every single one of them, people were telling me not to do it... It's been following my curiosities even when people told me I'm not interested in that." The Hard Work Advantage: Jake couldn't compete on appearance or natural broadcasting ability, so he outworked everyone: broke stories constantly, used blogs when he couldn't get on air, and made himself impossible to ignore through sheer output. Dealing with Rejection Expect constant rejection even at a career peak Don't take rejection personally unless there's constructive feedback Use rejection as data, not judgment of worth Keep creating regardless of immediate acceptance The Wave Metaphor: Like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, timing the waves - "every code can be cracked" if you persist and find the right timing. Key Elements for Writers: Strong structure: "Act one, chase your hero up a tree. Act two: throw rocks at your hero. Act three, get your hero out of the tree." Good editor who pushes back - be willing to "kill your darlings" Life Philosophy The Acceleration Mindset: At 56, Jake is speeding up output: "I don't know how much longer I have this window where people are paying attention... relevance is ephemeral... when it leaves, it looks fucking brutal." For Young People: "So much of life is rejection... You cannot stop it... don't take it personally." Focus on developing skills and delivering value: "Nobody will give you a job to be nice... They'll do it because you have something they want." Time Sacrifice Awareness: Success requires acknowledging costs: "What I cried about is the stuff I missed that I wasn't there for because I was chasing a story or on assignment." Time Stamps: 02:46 Jake's Dedication to Influential Figures 05:05 Hot Mic Moment in Alaska 06:59 Preparing for Big Interviews & When to Follow Up 09:01 Dealing with Criticism 12:07 The Story Behind Jake's Pinned Tweet 13:48 Race Against Terror: The New Book 18:29 Balancing Multiple Roles 20:47 Chasing Your Own Curiosity  23:58 Sacrifices for Career Success 29:00 The Importance of Humility in Leadership 31:08 Surrounding Yourself with Truth Tellers 34:18 Healthy Tension in Team Dynamics 37:15 Understanding the Pressure on Public Figures 40:09 Empathy in Leadership 45:17 Balancing Career and Family 49:00 Advice for Aspiring Journalists and Writers 52:01 The Reality of Rejection and Hard Work 57:26 The Importance of Structure and Editing in Writing 01:01:16 End of the Podcast Club

Find something worth dying for, and then spend your life living for something that will last for eternity. Sacrifices that come from love and by faith forge an identity that can save our eternal lives and nation. It means living the truth, not just claiming it. Hell's gates won't prevail against you.

CONNECT WITH MICHAEL:https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-grauer-553b2788https://www.museumofthebigbend.com/michael-grauer/https://www.enpleinairtexas.com/museum-talk-by-michael-grauerIn this episode of the Vacation Rental Revolution podcast, host Shawn Moore interviews cowboy historian Michael Grauer, who shares his insights into the true history and culture of cowboys in America. Grauer discusses his background, the misconceptions surrounding cowboy life, and the evolution of the term 'cowboy.' He emphasizes the importance of understanding the cowboy's role in American history, the business aspect of ranching, and the code of the West that guides their lives.Want to learn more about Vodyssey or start your STR journey. Book a call here:https://meetings.hubspot.com/vodysseystrategysession/booknow?utm_source=vodysseycom&uuid=80fb7859-b8f4-40d1-a31d-15a5caa687b7FOLLOW US:https://www.facebook.com/share/g/16XJMvMbVo/https://www.instagram.com/vodysseyshawnmoorehttps://www.facebook.com/vodysseyshawnmoore/https://www.linkedin.com/company/str-financial-freedomhttps://www.tiktok.com/@vodysseyshawnmooreChapters00:00:00 Intro00:01:19 Michael Grauer's Journey to Cowboy History00:03:24 The Misunderstood Cowboy00:05:40 The Origin of the Term 'Cowboy'00:10:27 The Cowboy as a Global Symbol00:13:57 The Business of Cowboying00:16:05 Rodeo: Entertainment vs. Reality00:20:42 The Code of the West00:25:39 Untold Stories of Cowboys00:32:20 The Sacrifices of Cowboys00:35:58 The Truth Behind Cowboy Culture

The 10 Minute Personal Brand Kickstart (FREE): https://the505podcast.courses/personalbrandkickstartWhat's up, Rock Nation! Today we're joined by Kolin Jones - founder and CEO of Amalfi Jets, one of the fastest-growing private aviation companies in the world. While most of his competitors stuck to polished ads and Google keywords, Kolin flipped the script and turned TikTok into his main growth engine, racking up billions of views with provocative office skits, culture clips, and disruptive behind-the-scenes contentKolin breaks down how to engineer virality in one of the most conservative industries imaginable, why safe is actually risky, and how consistency and volume beat aesthetics every time. From declaring war on industry “dinosaurs” to turning impressions into real revenue, he shares the exact systems that scaled Amalfi Jets from startup to tens of millions.If you want to understand how to make any business go viral - even the ones that look boring on the surface - this episode is packed with lessons you can put into practice today.Check out Kolin here:https://www.instagram.com/thekolinjones/https://www.instagram.com/amalfijets/SUSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: https://the505podcast.ac-page.com/rock-reportJoin our Discord! https://discord.gg/xgEAzkqAvsKostas' Lightroom Presetshttps://www.kostasgarcia.com/store-1/p/kglightroompresetsgreeceCOP THE BFIGGY "ESSENTIALS" SFX PACK HERE: https://courses.the505podcast.com/BFIGGYSFXPACKTimestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:10 – The most overlooked strategy brands don't do on social media2:01 – Not showing off the planes to go viral4:21 – Kolin's provocative approach to social media5:27 – Declaring war on Dinosaurs7:29 – How to make an unsexy brand viral8:56 – Using tech & efficiency to scale Amalfi11:03 – People buy from people13:00 – The responsibility of flying private15:44 – Personal Brand Kickstart16:08 – Utilizing campaigns as a content strategy17:17 – Strategically targeting an affluent audience19:30 – Getting creative to generate success21:48 – Bringing employees into content24:02 – Building trust and brand equity with clients25:15 – The absurd lifestyle of flying private27:33 – Can virality be manufactured?28:45 – Social media is a volume game30:13 – Competing against legacy jet companies31:51 – Why organic content beats paid ads34:39 – Outworking and outposting competitors38:01 – Handling criticism from the industry39:35 – Turning views into qualified leads44:06 – Why more friction creates better customers45:46 – Data, attribution, and scaling systems47:49 – Organic content as the best marketing49:11 – Google, TikTok, and the future of search50:32 – Copywriting & SEO for brand equity53:31 – Competing against better-funded rivals54:54 – Landing your first customers as a new founder58:15 – Lessons for first-time entrepreneurs59:45 – Scaling from $3M to $15M in revenue1:02:44 – Using data to understand your customers1:05:29 – Customer experience as a competitive advantage1:08:01 – The power of branding and perception1:09:05 – Surviving the early days of Amalfi Jets1:10:22 – Sacrifices and risks of entrepreneurship1:12:04 – Kolin's mindset when building Amalfi1:13:46 – Navigating rapid growth and challenges1:14:55 – Why speed beats perfection in business1:18:05 – Staying competitive in a cutthroat industry1:18:54 – The pressure of leading a team1:20:46 – Keeping consistency at scale1:22:20 – Why competitors can't copy Amalfi1:23:17 – The importance of brand reputation1:25:06 – Leveraging content for long-term trust1:27:25 – Building resilience as an entrepreneur1:28:44 – Kolin's advice for new founders1:30:43 – Advice to your 18-year-old self1:32:13 – Post pod debriefIf you liked this episode please send it to a friend and take a screenshot for your story! And as always, we'd love to hear from you guys on what you'd like to hear us talk about or potential guests we should have on. DM US ON IG: (Our DM's are always open!) Bfiggy: https://www.instagram.com/bfiggy/ Kostas: https://www.instagram.com/kostasg95/ TikTok:Bfiggy: https://www.tiktok.com/bfiggy/ Kostas: https://www.tiktok.com/kostasgarcia/

Too many designers wait for their companies to approve conferences or courses before investing in themselves. This week, we unpack why that's a career-limiting mistake and how taking ownership of your education builds leadership, confidence, and community.What if the biggest career mistake you're making is waiting for your company to invest in you?This week, I sit down with Yao Adantor, a UX professional, educator, founder of UX Con and User Experience University. Yao has built a career across Fortune 500s, startups, and government, while also teaching at Johns Hopkins and MICA. At the heart of his story is one simple belief: don't wait for permission to grow.In our conversation, Yao shares why investing in your own education is less about buying a certificate and more about building confidence, networks, and opportunities that pay dividends for years. We talk about the “entrepreneurial mindset” of learning—how approaching your growth like a founder changes the way you show up in your job.We also dig into the hidden ROI of conferences, courses, and communities. Beyond the talks, it's the connections, the ideas, and the confidence you bring back to your team that make the investment worth it. Whether you're a junior designer or a seasoned leader, this episode will challenge how you think about your growth.If you've ever hesitated to spend your own money or time on learning, this conversation is for you. Give it a listen and rethink how you approach your education and career.Topics:• 03:04 – Investing in Your Own Education• 03:39 – Guest Introduction: Yao Anor• 05:15 – Yao's Journey into UX• 08:23 – The Importance of Networking and Conferences• 15:39 – Leadership and the Entrepreneurial Mindset• 25:52 – Defining Education and Personal Growth• 31:09 – Community and Fulfillment Through Education• 32:57 – Maximizing Education for Personal Growth• 34:09 – Balancing Family and Professional Development• 35:09 – The Sacrifices of Pursuing Education• 40:06 – The Importance of Leading by ExampleHelpful Links:• Connect with Yao on LinkedIn• UXCon 2025—Thanks for listening! We hope you dug today's episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you really enjoyed today's episode, why don't you leave a five-star review? Or tell some friends! It will help us out a ton.If you haven't already, sign up for our email list. We won't spam you. Pinky swear.• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get a FREE audiobook AND support the show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Support the show on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out show transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Stitcher⁠

In this episode of "Delusional Fandom," Johnathan, Brad and Max dive into the chaotic world of NFL fandom, where Panthers fans are perpetually heartbroken, and the Eagles fans are already planning their Super Bowl parade. Amidst the laughter and tears, they debate whether trading for Mitch Trubisky is a good idea, and ponder if sacrificing a pinky could bring back the glory days of Cam Newton. Meanwhile, Max joins in to provide youthful optimism, only to be reminded that the Panthers' season is a rollercoaster of emotions, mostly downhill.Follow the show here: https://www.instagram.com/thetgitpod/Checkout the new Hopecast website:https://thehopecastnetwork.com/Buy Merch here:https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-hopecast-network-swag/This show is brought to you by The Hopecast Networkhttps://www.instagram.com/hopecastnetwork/

On today's page, Zevachim 2, we open the mysterious world of Kodashim—the Talmud's deep dive into sacrifices. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin reminds us that these offerings were never about feeding God, but about drawing close through holiness. What does it mean to treat the conceptual as more real than the material? Listen and find out.

An introduction to Seder Kodashim... with its focus on Temple ritual and the distance of those practices from how we practice Judaism today (and, for that matter, from how the sages did too). Including overviews for the kinds of korbanot (sacrifies), where they're offered, and the wide range of occasions when sacrifices are made. Also, a new mishnah! Namely, how korbanot can be offered not for the reason they were being brought - and they are still "kosher," fit as offerings, but with some exceptions. Plus, a comparison to bills of divorce written "in the name of" the woman being divorced. Where Rava raises a theory, a contradiction, and a resolution.

Scripture:  1 Kings 3:1, 1 Kings 3:4ff, 1 Kings 3:16ff, 1 Kings 6, 1 Kings 8, 2 Chronicles 5-7, 2 Chronicles 3:1, Genesis 22, 1 Kings 9, 2 Chronicles 7:14, 1 Kings 9:4-5 This study helps us dig deeper into Solomon: Wise Leader     ⁃    Pharaoh's Daughter - 1 Kings 3:1 - Solomon secures a peace treaty with Egypt and a strategic marriage to one of the Pharaoh's daughter's.     ⁃    Sacrifices at Gibeon - 1 Kings 3:4ff - shortly after taking the throne we see Him following his father David's advice. We see Solomon going to Gibeon to offer sacrifices to God and commits his life to God. The Lord appears to Solomon in a dream saying “ask for whatever you want.”  Solomon replies in humility, and asks to be given a discerning heart to distinguish between right and wrong so that he can govern the nation justly and well. He sought God's wisdom and guidance so that he could bless and nurture the children of Israel. The Lord was pleased with Solomon's reply and gave him what he asked for, plus God told him He would give him even more than what he had asked for: wealth and honor.      ⁃    2 Prostitutes - 1 Kings 3:16ff - Two prostitutes come to Solomon. Both have birthed boys but one had rolled over on her son and the child died. But they each claimed the living son as their own. Solomon says, “bring me a sword and cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” But at that point the real mother says, “oh please don't do that.” And the other woman says, “yes, do it.” Solomon then gives the living child to the one who had asked for the child to be spared because she was the real mother. King Solomon was admired greatly by his people for his wisdom from God in administering justice.  He is recognized as very wise. Solomon: Builder     ⁃    Temple Construction - 1 Kings 6 - in the 4th year of his reign Solomon begins building the Temple of the Lord. ca. 966 BC. It will take 7 years to build this incredible temple. Temple was only for priests, but people would gather in the courtyards around the temple. The temple has 3 sections: The Porch, The Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The interior was covered in gold. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies where the High Priest went once per year on the Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur. A place of shed blood pointing to the One who is the Lamb of God/The Mercy Seat/The Messiah/Jesus our Savior. In 2 Chronicles 3:1 we read that the Temple was build on Mount Moriah. The place of the story where Abraham had taken his only son Isaac. Pastor shares prophetic likeness to Jesus in this story of Genesis 22. (This will also be the location of the Second Temple).     ⁃    Temple Dedication - 1 Kings 8 & 2 Chronicles 5-7. When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the Holy of Holies, the glory of the Lord filled the temple!  Solomon shares a sermonette and a powerful prayer. Solomon's heart is to win people to the Living God - that they walk in faith and obedience to God. And when he finished praying a fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnet offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The people began shouting praises and thanks to God. And a multiple sacrifices were given to God.     ⁃    God appears to Solomon a second time - 1 Kings 9 & 2 Chronicles 7:14 - God speaks to Solomon and tells him that He wants to bring blessing saying, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  This too is our prayer  -  it is a prayer for us still today - a prayer for our nations, that we would seek God, turn from our wickedness, because He will hear from heaven and heal our land. God closes His time with Solomon with these words: (1 Kings 9:4-5) “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness….and do all I command …. I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David…”.  God calls Solomon to Himself and God calls each one of us to Himself! Now What? Learn about God at https://www.awakeusnow.com EVERYTHING we offer is FREE. View live or on demand: https://www.awakeusnow.com/tuesday-bible-class Join us Sundays  https://www.awakeusnow.com/sunday-service Watch via our app. Text HELLO to 888-364-4483 to download our app.

In this special takeover episode of The Coaching 101 Podcast, the spouses of coaches come together for a heartfelt and humorous discussion about their unique experiences. Samantha Chamberlain, Jamey Simpson, Jessica Collins, Corinne Stevens, and Lindsay Harvey introduce themselves and share insights into managing busy lives filled with coaching, family activities, and supportive relationships. They delve into the challenges and rewards of being a coach's wife, offering tips on intentionality, quality time, and finding balance during the hectic football season. The episode also includes a segment dedicated to quotes, sponsorships, and a poignant message for the public about the dedication of coaches. The wives close the episode by emphasizing the importance of appreciating and supporting the sacrifices made by coaches and their families.00:00 Introduction and Host Takeover00:14 Meet the Wives00:55 Life as a Coach's Wife04:35 Quote of the Week06:14 Sponsorships and Advertisements09:18 Challenges and Behind the Scenes22:49 Supporting the Family During the Season39:46 The Sacrifices of Coaches40:56 Coaches Are Human Too42:02 Community Involvement and Trust46:59 Preparing for the Season48:34 Balancing Family and Coaching50:15 Intentionality and Support54:26 Admiring the Coaches01:06:50 Team Dinners and Bonding01:13:29 Social Media Etiquette for Coaches' WivesDaniel Chamberlain: @CoachChamboOK ChamberlainFootballConsulting@gmail.com chamberlainfootballconsulting.com Kenny Simpson: @FBCoachSimpson fbcoachsimpson@gmail.com FBCoachSimpson.com

This week's episode we will be discussing the new UFO video that's shocking and alarming . Also making sacrifices to level up later and playing the long game!! Last but not least, on the anniversary of the death of Tupac , our Top 5 Tupac songs !

Welcome to Valleybrook Church Online!We're so glad you're here. At Valleybrook, we exist to know and share the life-changing love of God.✝️ Today's Message: Living Sacrifices (Romans 12:1-8) Part of our #Therefore series

I Peter 2:5

Fluent Fiction - Hindi: Dark Days and Divine Sacrifices: A Bunker Tale Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/hi/episode/2025-09-12-22-34-02-hi Story Transcript:Hi: गणेश चतुर्थी का माहौल था, लेकिन बाहर की दुनिया में कुछ भी सामान्य नहीं था।En: It was the atmosphere of Ganesh Chaturthi, but nothing was normal in the outside world.Hi: एक भूमिगत बंकर में, अंधेरे के बीच, अर्जुन, माया और रिया बैठकर योजना बना रहे थे कि कैसे उन्हें ज़रूरी सामान मिले।En: In an underground bunker, amidst the darkness, Arjun, Maya, and Riya were sitting and planning how to get the essential supplies.Hi: बंकर की मोटी कंक्रीट की दीवारें उन्हें बाहरी दुनिया के संकटों से दूर रखती थीं।En: The thick concrete walls of the bunker kept them away from the crises of the outside world.Hi: अंदर ठंडी हवा थी, जबकि बाहर देर गर्मियों का मौसम था।En: Inside, the air was cool, while outside, it was late summer.Hi: अर्जुन अपने दोस्तों का ख्याल रखते हुए कुछ बेचैन था।En: Arjun was somewhat restless, caring for his friends.Hi: वह चाहता था कि उनके पास जरूरी चीजें हों, ताकि वे सुरक्षित और आराम से रह सकें।En: He wanted them to have the necessary things so they could be safe and comfortable.Hi: अर्जुन ने अपनी मामूली उदासी को छिपाने के लिए एक मजाक किया, "अगर कुछ नहीं मिलता, तो क्या गणेश जी की मूर्ति खाकर पेट भरें?En: To hide his slight sadness, Arjun made a joke, "If we find nothing, should we eat the statue of Ganesh Ji to fill our stomachs?"Hi: " माया और रिया मुस्कुरा दीं, लेकिन उन्हें पता था कि उनके शांत हंसी के पीछे गंभीर चिंता थी।En: Maya and Riya smiled, but they knew that behind their quiet laughter was serious concern.Hi: बंकर की आधी खाली शेल्फ को देखकर अर्जुन तकलीफ महसूस कर रहा था।En: Seeing the half-empty shelves of the bunker, Arjun felt a sense of distress.Hi: राशन कम था और उन्हें जल्दी से फैसला करना था।En: Rations were low and they needed to make a decision quickly.Hi: अर्जुन ने अपनी कीमती कॉमिक बुक्स को बार्टर के लिए देने का मन बना लिया।En: Arjun decided to barter his precious comic books.Hi: यह उनके लिए आसान नहीं था, क्योंकि यह उनकी बचपन की यादों का हिस्सा थीं।En: This was not easy for him, as they were part of his childhood memories.Hi: अर्जुन नीलामी वाली मेज तक पहुंचा।En: Arjun reached the auction table.Hi: कई विक्रेताओं ने उनकी कॉमिक बुक्स पर ध्यान नहीं दिया।En: Many vendors did not pay attention to his comic books.Hi: अर्जुन के मन में संकोच होने लगा।En: Doubt began to creep into Arjun's mind.Hi: क्या यह त्याग पर्याप्त होगा?En: Would this sacrifice be enough?Hi: तभी एक कलेक्टर ने उनकी एक दुर्लभ संस्करण को देखा और रुचि दिखाई।En: Just then, a collector noticed one of his rare editions and showed interest.Hi: थोड़ी बातचीत के बाद, अर्जुन ने सफलतापूर्वक आवश्यक आपूर्तियों का व्यापार कर लिया।En: After a brief conversation, Arjun successfully traded for the necessary supplies.Hi: माया और रिया ने राहत की सांस ली।En: Maya and Riya breathed a sigh of relief.Hi: इस अनुभव ने अर्जुन को सिखाया कि व्यक्तिगत बलिदान कभी-कभी आवश्यक होता है।En: This experience taught Arjun that personal sacrifice is sometimes necessary.Hi: वह अब ज्यादा आत्मविश्वास से भरा हुआ था और समझ चुका था कि संकट के समय में नेतृत्व कैसे किया जाए।En: He was now filled with more confidence and understood how to lead during times of crisis.Hi: बंकर के हल्के, ठंडे माहौल में, गणेश चतुर्थी की सच्ची भावना प्रकट हो रही थी - एकता, बलिदान और समझ।En: In the light, cool atmosphere of the bunker, the true spirit of Ganesh Chaturthi was manifesting - unity, sacrifice, and understanding. Vocabulary Words:atmosphere: माहौलbunker: बंकरdarkness: अंधेरेessential: ज़रूरीsupplies: सामानconcrete: कंक्रीटcrises: संकटोंrestless: बेचैनnecessary: जरूरीcomfortable: आराम सेsadness: उदासीjoke: मजाकstatue: मूर्तिlaughter: हंसीdistress: तकलीफrations: राशनbarter: बार्टरprecious: कीमतीauction: नीलामीvendors: विक्रेताओंdoubt: संकोचcreep: घुसपैठsacrifice: त्यागcollector: कलेक्टरeditions: संस्करणtraded: व्यापारexperience: अनुभवconfidence: आत्मविश्वासlead: नेतृत्वunity: एकता

J.J. and Dr. Shlomo Zuckier offer up some sweet-smelling insight into the history and future of sacrifices. Follow us on Bluesky @jewishideaspod.bsky.social for updates and insights!Please rate and review the the show in the podcast app of your choice.We welcome all complaints and compliments at podcasts@torahinmotion.org  For more information visit torahinmotion.org/podcastsShlomo Zuckier is a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and will this coming year be the Igor Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on ancient Judaism, and he has written extensively on matters of sacrifice and atonement, including in the article on “Sacrifice” for the Routledge Companion to Jewish Philosophy. Some of his other research relates to intersections between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Late Antiquity and the early Medieval period, and to contemporary Jewish theology. Shlomo received his PhD from Yale University and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University and has previously served as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill and Notre Dame Universities. 

We reflected on God's impartiality from Romans and the call to offer our lives as living sacrifices. Through scripture and testimonies, we explored how faith transforms our thinking, how mercy and love are lived out in daily practice, and how God's Word anchors us even when faced with tragedy in the world. We were reminded that suffering, loss, and hardship are not meaningless but are opportunities for prayer, unity, and deeper reliance on God's unchanging presence.Themes:God shows no partiality, reminding us of His unchanging nature (Romans 2:11)Living as a holy offering through renewed minds, avoiding conformity to the world (Romans 12:1–8)Using our unique gifts in the body of Christ for the good of allPracticing mercy, cheerfulness, hospitality, and brotherly love while avoiding vengeanceOvercoming evil with good through patience, prayer, and unityTragic events in the world reveal the depth of human brokenness and the need for prayerGod's Word brings peace and guidance in decisions and personal strugglesPrayer and fellowship strengthen us in times of trial and remind us of God's presenceScripture References: Romans 2:11; Romans 12:1–8

Ashe in America and Abbey Blue Eyes deliver a heavy but thought-provoking episode of Culture of Change. They begin with the horrific Charlotte train stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee, dissecting CNN's coverage that tried to bury the story and frame outrage as “racist.” The hosts contrast this with how left-wing narratives like George Floyd's death were amplified, exposing media hypocrisy and narrative warfare. From there, they examine a chilling lawsuit against Character AI, where a chatbot allegedly encouraged a 14-year-old boy to take his own life, sparking a wider discussion on technology, mental health, and how children are being conditioned by digital escapism. The conversation then shifts to predictive programming and 9/11, with Ashe and Abbey exploring eerie “coincidences” in pop culture, from the Illuminati card game and The Matrix to The Simpsons and Back to the Future. They also dive into time travel theories, carbon-based transhumanism, and how technology could tie into biblical end-times. Wrapping up, the hosts connect Spygate to British intelligence, Perkins Coie, and the FBI, exposing how the same actors behind Russiagate tie back to 9/11. It's a dense, sobering episode blending media critique, cultural decay, and deep-dive conspiracy analysis.

The Otalku Cafe is open! Join Mat and Ethan as they discuss the latest news in anime, like the announcement of Jujutsu Kaisen Culling Game Arc. Reviews continue on with shows such as Dr. Stone, Kaiju no. 8, City, No Way I'll Be Your Lover, Shield Hero, and more! You can also watch this episode in video form on the W2M Network Youtube Channel, please give us a like, comment on the episode, and give the channel a subscribe and follow as well: You can also watch this episode in video form on the W2M Network Youtube Channel, please give us a like, comment on the episode, and give the channel a subscribe and follow as well: https://youtube.com/live/3HUWHOsYnQY

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Ecoutez L'angle éco de François Lenglet du 08 septembre 2025.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Ecoutez L'angle éco de François Lenglet du 08 septembre 2025.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, the First Manned Flight to Another World Author: Bob Zimmerman Segment 3: The Unsung Heroes: Wives' Sacrifices Under Public Scrutiny The wives of the Apollo 8 crew—Susan Borman, Marilyn Lovell, and Valerie Anders—were central to the mission's story, facing intense media attention akin to being "under siege" in their "NASA village." Despite the financial strains of middle-class incomes and Valerie Anders raising five children under eight, all three women gave their husbands permission to go. Susan Borman, though supportive, was convinced Frank Borman would die in lunar orbit, needing reassurance from Chris Kraft that the mission had "a 50/50 chance" of success. 1870

1 My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you. 2 Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative, 5 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. 6 For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. 7 I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, 8 passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, 9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. 10 Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. 11 She is loud and defiant. Her feet don't stay in her house. 12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. 13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: 14 "Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows. 15 Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. 16 I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving. 19 For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey. 20 He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon." 21 With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him. 22 He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose. 23 Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life. 24 Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. 25 Don't let your heart turn to her ways. Don't go astray in her paths, 26 for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army. 27 Her house is the way to Sheol,* going down to the rooms of death. Listen Donate Subscribe: Proverbs Daily Podcast Psalms Daily Podcast

To kick off season four of The Central Seminary Podcast, we are joined by Dr. Roy Beacham and Dr. Kevin Bauder to discuss Millennial Sacrifices. In this episode, we explore the role of the sacrificial system prophesied in Ezekiel 40-48 and some of the differences between the Old Testament sacrifices and those in the Millennium. Thanks for subscribing! Visit is at centralseminary.edu

A dangerous new alliance could push the United States out of power. Are Russia, China, and others planning a future where America is no longer in charge?✅ I can be your speaking partner https://brentspeak.as.me/ Use Code SUMMER10 for 10% off your conversationEurasian – about both Europe and Asia. : The leaders talked about Eurasian trade between Europe and Asia.Stable – steady, not changing quickly. : China wants a stable friendship with India and Russia.Upend – to turn over or change completely. : The summit could upend the old system led by the West.Elaborate – detailed or fancy. : Xi gave an elaborate plan for new projects.Might – strength or power. : The summit showed the might of these big countries.Intentions – plans or goals. : Modi's intentions were to grow trust and trade.Disarray – confusion or disorder. : Some experts said the group might fall into disarray.Military Bloc – a group of countries joined for defense. : The SCO is not just a military bloc, but also for trade.Count On – to depend on. : Russia can count on China's support.Be At Odds – to disagree. : India and China have been at odds about their border.Clash – to fight or argue strongly. : The leaders did not want to clash during the meeting.Beats Up On – to hit again and again (real or in words). : Modi's message beats up on the need for trust.Reached Out – tried to connect or talk. : Putin reached out to India for closer ties.Embraced – accepted gladly. : The leaders embraced the idea of more energy trade.Crude Oil – oil in its natural form. : They spoke about selling crude oil to each other.Hypocritical – saying one thing but doing another.Some people said it was hypocritical for leaders to talk about peace while selling more weapons.Levying – charging a tax or fee. : The group warned against levying high trade taxes.Manifesting – showing clearly. : Smiles were manifesting friendship at the summit.Roll Out The Red Carpet – give a very special welcome. : China rolled out the red carpet for Putin's visit.Sacrifices – things given up for something else. : India may make sacrifices to keep peace in the region.Comparison – looking at how things are alike or different. : In comparison to Western meetings, this one felt different.Underdog – the weaker side. : Smaller countries in the group feel like underdogs.

Romans: Transforming Power of the Gospel, Pt. 20 – Living SacrificesRomans 12:1–2 | King's Chapel Live StreamRomans 12 opens with one of the most life-changing calls in the entire Bible. Paul urges us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.This call is not about rules or rituals. It is about responding to the mercy of God shown at the cross. Because of what Jesus has done for us, our whole lives are meant to be an offering of worship.Living as a sacrifice means refusing to be shaped by the values of the world. Instead, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. A renewed mind begins to see the world through the truth of Scripture. It helps us discern the will of God and live it out with confidence.This message reminds us that true worship is not just about what we sing on Sunday but how we live every day. If you want to know God's will and live a life that honors Him, Romans 12:1–2 shows the way forward.Connect with King's Chapel in Longwood, FL- ▶️ www.kingschapelfl.com▶️ https://www.facebook.com/KingsChapelfl▶️ https://www.instagram.com/kingschapelfl/For the GLORY of our Great GodFor the GOOD of our NeighborRomans 12 sermon, living sacrifice meaning, transformed by the renewing of your mind, King's Chapel Longwood FL, Romans Bible study, God's will for my life, what is true worship, Paul's letter to the Romans, renewing your mind sermon, gospel centered teaching

Send us a textWhat corners of your life are you unwilling to give up to follow our Lord Jesus Christ? Website @ https://www.st-innocent.orgInstagram @ https://www.instagram.com/st.innocentchurch/Facebook @ https://fb.me/SaintInnocentMaconGeorgia Help Support St. Innocent Orthodox Church @ https://onrealm.org/siocmacon/-/form/give/now

We're back at it again with part two of the Herb-dog. In episode one we looked at his turbulent early life, and his first vicious kill. Now in part two we go off the rails, and he kills A LOT more people in sinister and tragic ways, including priests during confession, kids out camping, and children in the wrong home at the wrong time. Send your scary stories to: mikeohhello@gmail.com   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatchapterpodcast   Business enquires : thatchapter@night.com Researched by Benj Button Merch : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://that-chapter-shop.fourthwall.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this thought-provoking episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony and Jesse explore the complex relationship between Christian vocation and professional ambition. Moving beyond the obvious prohibition of inherently sinful professions, they examine whether certain legitimate careers might still be inappropriate for Christians if they compromise our responsibilities to family and church. The hosts challenge the common assumption that Christians should seek maximum worldly influence, suggesting instead that faithfulness in our threefold calling—to work, family, and church—should guide our vocational choices. Drawing on Reformed theology's rich understanding of vocation, they offer practical wisdom for believers navigating career decisions and workplace responsibilities while maintaining spiritual priorities in a culture that often glorifies professional success at any cost. Key Takeaways Vocation is threefold: A proper understanding of Christian vocation includes responsibilities to our work, our families, and our church—not just our careers. Lord's Day conflicts: Professions that regularly prevent church attendance and Lord's Day observance may be inappropriate for Christians, regardless of their potential for influence or impact. Family obligations: Scripture teaches that Christians who neglect family responsibilities are "worse than unbelievers" (1 Tim. 5:8), suggesting that careers demanding excessive time away from family may be problematic. Christian influence vs. gospel proclamation: We must distinguish between transforming culture through worldly influence versus the actual proclamation of the gospel, which can happen at any level of employment. Sacrifice is expected: Following Christ often requires sacrificing career advancement, prestige, or financial gain to fulfill our primary callings. Priority check: When considering job opportunities, Christians should evaluate church options in a new location with the same care they give to schools, housing, and other community factors. God calls us to faithfulness: Our primary calling is to faithfulness in our responsibilities, not necessarily to positions of maximum influence or cultural power. Balancing the Threefold Calling The hosts challenge the idea that Christians should prioritize career advancement and influence above all else. They argue that vocation in the Reformed tradition encompasses more than just our paid work—it includes our responsibilities to family and church as well. This means that even if a career opportunity seems beneficial for "kingdom influence," we must evaluate whether it allows us to fulfill our other God-given duties. Tony points out that while some professions clearly contradict Christian ethics, others may subtly undermine our ability to be faithful in all areas of life. A high-powered executive role might provide platforms for influence but could require such time commitments that family relationships suffer or regular Lord's Day worship becomes impossible. As Jesse observes, "vocation is fundamentally God's doing," not simply about finding personal fulfillment or maximizing impact. This framework helps believers evaluate career choices more holistically. The Question of Christian Influence A central question emerges throughout the episode: Should Christians pursue positions of maximum influence to advance kingdom values? While this idea sounds appealing, the hosts suggest it often masks a "theology of glory" rather than embracing the "theology of the cross." Jesse notes that "God doesn't call us to necessarily have outside impact. What he's calling us to is faithfulness." They distinguish between the transformative power of the gospel—which can be proclaimed regardless of position—and other ways of transforming culture through worldly influence. Tony explains that "whether you're the janitor of the hospital or whether you're the CEO of the hospital, the gospel is the same and your role in proclaiming the gospel is the same." This perspective challenges Christians to reconsider whether pursuing leadership positions always aligns with God's calling, especially when such roles might compromise other spiritual obligations. The hosts argue that faithfulness in ordinary circumstances, not exceptional influence, should be our primary aim. Quotes "Would it be great if the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company could be a Christian? Yeah. That would be kind of cool. But if the trade-off is that person has to sacrifice their genuine Christian convictions, that's not worth it." - Tony Arsenal "I do think we have to sit back and ask, is that the calling? So that we're pursuing what is our vocation, not just our potential... I think there is a real temptation to somehow say like, what we need to do is to infiltrate in all the places. And I think what we mean by that is that things here will be better." - Jesse Schwamb "I think the Bible is clearer about a person who is taken away from their home more than is reasonable and more than is healthy for their family, or a Christian who never is able to worship on the Lord's day... than it is on something like identity politics and some of the tangential ways that might cause a person to need to compromise a little bit at a high level." - Tony Arsenal Practical Applications The hosts suggest several practical considerations for Christians evaluating career opportunities: Will this job regularly prevent Lord's Day worship? Does it require sacrificing time with family beyond what's reasonable? Could you negotiate Sabbath observance with potential employers? When relocating, evaluate church options with the same care given to schools and housing Consider whether a lower-paying job that allows faithfulness in all areas might be better than a higher-paying one that doesn't Full Transcript [00:00:00] Introduction and Episode Overview [00:00:08] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 458 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. [00:00:16] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast where even your work is unto the glory of God. Hey brother. Hey [00:00:24] Jesse Schwamb: brother. You know that's right. It [00:00:26] Tony Arsenal: is. That's why I said it. [00:00:28] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it was. That's a great way to open. We, I think from time to time come back to the topic of work and we've got a great, I think, conversation in the queue for this particular episode. [00:00:39] Jesse Schwamb: Now it's gonna sound maybe on the face. Right off the top here. Familiar. So of course, like we've talked before, how scripture makes it clear that Christians are to be salt and light in the world. And we've talked, I think, at length about, well, how exactly do we carry out that? And though we know that we're not saved by our good works. [00:00:57] Jesse Schwamb: Again, the Bible teaches very clearly that God expects good works from Christians, that that is in fact what he saves us to do. Again, we're not saved by those good works, but the question I think still remains, and we're gonna come to it in this conversation about what exactly does he want us to do and where does he want us to do it. [00:01:13] Jesse Schwamb: So in other words, we know that according to scripture, God providentially, governs and cares for his entire creation. So how does that play out in human society given the reality of sin? So we're gonna get to topics like. Well, should Christians be in every line of work? Is that the ideal? Are there jobs or positions or responsibilities that seemingly may not be obvious that Christians really shouldn't be a part of? [00:01:37] Jesse Schwamb: Because it takes them too far afield, maybe from the responsibilities that God gives us holistically to think of our calling is and our families and our churches in our work. So it's a bit more nuanced play of a conversation we had before, but hopefully something that's gonna have all kinds of practicality wrapped around it. [00:01:55] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. So that's what's coming. [00:01:56] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I'm stoked. I think this is gonna be a good conversation and I think I, I think this is one of those topics where like there's a lot of different angles to come at it from, right? We talk about vocation and work, and we've had those conversations before, and I think other shows and other venues have had that conversation before. [00:02:15] Tony Arsenal: I don't think that I've encountered a conversation really to this like angle of it. So I'm looking forward to this. [00:02:23] Jesse Schwamb: Me too. It's gonna be great. And of course, before we get to all that goodness, all that greatness, which I'm sure is about to transpire shortly and will be of course the definitive conversation, the one to end all to, I guess both to your point, bring it into the world. [00:02:36] Jesse Schwamb: Then to shut it down because we'll have accomplished both ends in just a single hour. [00:02:41] Affirmations and Denials [00:02:41] Jesse Schwamb: Before we get to that, let's do some affirming or denying. This is the part of our conversation where you and I always pick one thing either that we're affirming with and kind of the tradition of the reformed faith, where we take something that's undervalued or something that excites us, we think has great merit or worth, and we put out into the world and say, we're standing behind this thing, or conversely, we deny against it in that same kind of tradition by saying, this thing is overvalued, not worth it. [00:03:05] Jesse Schwamb: Not our jam. So in our tradition, I ask you are you affirming with something or are you not against something? [00:03:11] Tony Arsenal: I'm affirming with something specific that will lead to something general. So, okay. [00:03:16] Exploring AI in Learning [00:03:16] Tony Arsenal: I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I've been playing around with Google Gemini, which is Google's AI platform. [00:03:22] Tony Arsenal: And uh, I've been using it in a sort of interesting way. So Google has, uh, Gemini has these things called gems, which are basically like predefined personalities or predefined. I dunno, like instructions. So they have one gem that is a learning guide where basically you can give it a topic and it will, it will deliver mini lectures, give you quizzes, you can prompt it. [00:03:46] Tony Arsenal: So like I can paste in, um, you know, I can take in Lagos, I can paste a copy of the Bible, like a chapter of the Bible into the learning guide. It'll summarize it, it'll ask me questions. It'll basically gimme many lectures on it. Um, that's the specific thing. This is such a cool technology. And in my mind, this is really where AI is strong, is that you can take large sections of text and it will summarize it and synthesize it into a very usable format. [00:04:14] Tony Arsenal: Um, so what I've been doing, like I said, is I'll read, I'll read a, a chunk of text from whatever it is I'm reading, and then I'll copy and paste that entire chunk of text if it's an electronic text into the learning. Learning guide module and ask it to act as like a seminary lecturer and quiz me on the content. [00:04:33] Tony Arsenal: Um, which really helps to solidify the content I'm reading rather than just passing my eyes over it. I'm actually, um, processing it and retaining it more. I think you could probably do something similar with just about any AI platform if you had the right kind of prompt, which is where the general one comes in. [00:04:50] Tony Arsenal: And I would encourage you, listener to think a little bit about how you might utilize this, because I think we all read lots and lots of things. Our, our, um, particular audience tends to be a little bookish, and so I'm sure we're all reading things as we go, but I'm not sure we're always processing things in the most effective way. [00:05:07] Tony Arsenal: So think a little bit about like how you might use something like chat, GPT, which is available for free, or Claude, which is available for free to do this kind of like. Almost like simulated classroom lecture. Um, and I know there are some questions about ai. Like I, I heard an argument that ai, when you're generating content is, is a sort of form of sophisticated, uh, plagiarism, which I'm not sure I buy it, but I understand the argument. [00:05:33] Tony Arsenal: This is something very different where you're really just using the, using the AI to synthesize and summarize text and sort of spit it back to you in a new format. Um, you're not trying to generate anything new. You're not trying to create anything. That you're gonna publish or anything like that. It's really just a, a form of synthesis. [00:05:49] Tony Arsenal: So I've really found this to be super beneficial. Um, I'm having a really great time at it. I'm, I'm using it for language studies, so I'm reading through mount's basics, biblical Greek. And I'll copy and paste the whole chapter in, ask it to act as a lecturer, and it will walk me through the chapter. It'll stop to do quizzes. [00:06:08] Tony Arsenal: It'll drill me on vocab as I'm going. And then when, when I up, the instruction I get is, don't move forward until you are convinced that I've mastered the content. And so when I get something wrong, it goes back and makes me redo it. So it continues to iterate until it's, until the AI has. Synthesize that I have mastered the content, and then it asks me to provide the next chapter. [00:06:30] Tony Arsenal: So it's a cool technology. It's a, it's a sort of novel use for the technology. Um, again, Google has built in modules that do this, but I think you could probably use chat, GPT or Claude or Orrock or whatever AI model you're using to accomplish the same goal. [00:06:45] Jesse Schwamb: There's no doubt that AI is great for like building study notes, helping you create space, repetition, all those like little hacks that we have long talked about. [00:06:53] Jesse Schwamb: And this provides it to you in a really bespoke course customized way, but it gets you involved. I'm with you if you wanna do this the old fashioned way. I'll go back to something I I've affirmed with before and that's this very famous book originally authored in the 1940s called How to Read a Book by Mor Mortimer, j Adler, and that is an exercise. [00:07:13] Jesse Schwamb: Helping you do some of that stuff in real time as well. Yeah, so I think there'd be a lovely compliment to say you're reading actively and then you get to test immediately that active reading by way of using ai. So even before, like, maybe even just jumping to like, well, let me read it, but I'm, I'm gonna trust that AI's gonna really kind of supplement me or fill in the gaps and just gimme what I need to know. [00:07:33] Jesse Schwamb: Trying to do that in real time. Pausing in your reading. Again, kind of studying as you go along, thinking out loud through what you've just read and then saying, alright, now test me is a great way to, 'cause who wants to like read stuff unless you can remember this stuff and then unless you can apply it, right? [00:07:48] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. So it's such a joy to be able to read things and then to remember. And if you haven't had that experience yet, I like your affirmation. I think this is a great way to test it out. [00:07:56] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, just to maybe flesh this out. So I, I asked it to, and I'm, I'm doing this sort of as an experiment just to see how it works, but also just 'cause it's, it's useful. [00:08:06] Tony Arsenal: I asked it to act as a seminary lecturer and I copied and paste the entire first chapter of the Westminster Confession. And rather than split it up by section and actually combined paragraphs that were. Um, related to each other. So it combined the list of Bible, uh, books, and then the chapter on apocrypha and gave me some like lectures. [00:08:25] Tony Arsenal: But here's what it said about, um, about chapter 10. It says, paragraph 10, declares the supreme judge can be no other than the Holy Spirit speaking scripture. This is the ultimate outworking of sola Scripture, means that every other authority is lesser authority that must submit to the judgment of the word of God. [00:08:42] Tony Arsenal: This includes decrees of church counsels. Opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, private spirits. It goes on for a little while longer. Then it says, I will give you a brief final quiz covering the whole of chapter one, and it asks questions like A historian makes the following claim. The Bible only has authority. [00:08:59] Tony Arsenal: It does because influential councils in the early church, like the Council of Carthage officially voted on which books would be included in the cannon. The church therefore gave the Bible its authority drawing from your knowledge of paragraphs three, uh, three, four, and five. Provide a two-part critique of the historian statement. [00:09:16] Tony Arsenal: Which then I had to type it out. It critiqued, um, it analyzed my answer. Um, I happened to get that question right. I did at one point think maybe this is actually just like finding a way to say everything that I say is right. So I purposely put a wrong answer in and it did identify that the answer was wrong, and then it made me go back and revisit that content. [00:09:35] Tony Arsenal: So it's very, it's a very cool use case. I'm glad that Google kind of built this in. They have all sorts of other gems. If you have, if you have a way to get access to Google Gemini, um. It's not the best AI for everything, but it's got, it's pretty versatile. It's got a lot of utility, so check it out. [00:09:53] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that sounds great. [00:09:53] Jesse Schwamb: Again, there's all kinds of fun things I think we could be using AI for to help us be better learners or to really enjoy our interaction with data and information more. Yeah. It is a really great way to conversationally help you to learn something, and that's what makes it so much better. It stands way far apart from, again, just leading, just reading or just creating flashcards or even just, just creating study notes, but that back and forth to test you on something, even if it's just like casual knowledge that you can really want to internalize. [00:10:21] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I found that to be super valuable. Again, like, man, if you're a learner, if you're a reader, if you're a human being, what an amazing time to live in the world where data is so prevalent, but it's increasingly being brought into a place where we can put our arms around it in a way in which we're trying to really understand it. [00:10:38] Jesse Schwamb: You know, I think about how we used to search for something, I mean. Used to like this that like, that wasn't like last year. You know what I mean? Like we just go on to our, your favorite search engine. Type in a topic or maybe type in even a specific question. And at best you'd have to sort through this litany, this plethora, this morass of all these links about articles that may pertain to what you asked. [00:10:58] Jesse Schwamb: Or maybe they pertain to it generally, but not really specifically. Yeah. The specificity with which you can have a conversational interaction that engenders knowledge is wild. I mean, I really think that is like the huge play of ai. Just lean into it and enjoy it. [00:11:12] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. Jesse, what are you affirming or denying tonight? [00:11:16] Nasal Spray Affirmation [00:11:16] Jesse Schwamb: I'm going a totally different direction. It's an affirmation, but I'm taking it from my ears, nose, nose, and throat doctor who affirmed this to me, so I might be totally late on this. There are very few things that I can say like somebody's recommended to me or affirm. It's been like absolute game changer, like just drop dead from the first moment I used it or employed the thing that it just changed everything. [00:11:38] Jesse Schwamb: This is one of those things. Which maybe I've just already oversold, but the affirmation is with something called it's, it's spelled X-L-E-A-R, I think it's still pronounced clear, but it's called literally phonetically XL nasal spray, and it's a. This doesn't sound very exciting, but bear with me everybody. [00:11:57] Jesse Schwamb: It's a natural, non-addictive saline nasal spray featuring Zi Atol as its primary active ingredient. So if you're not familiar with Zi Atol, which I wasn't until I went to my ENT by the way I've seen for many years and only just recommended this to me. So I had some words 'cause I was working, where's this been all my life. [00:12:14] Jesse Schwamb: But Zito is a naturally occurring alcohol sugar. It's found in like many fruits and vegetables, and it can be commercially produced from like birch wine or corn fiber. It looks and tastes similar to like table sugar, but it contains fewer calories, so it can be used and is often used as like a sweetener in sugar-free foods like chewing gum, mint candies, jam, stuff like that. [00:12:35] Jesse Schwamb: Here's one of the strange side effects. That they notice though about Zi atol, and that is it totally, uh, cleanses, moisturizes and soos nasal passages. And it gives you all kinds of relief from like common congestion stuff like colds, allergies, low humidity, humidity, science, pressure, stuff like that. What it does is it actually breaks down or lubricates your inner nasal passages, including like flushing out the mucus. like it works actually with your body. So what's amazing is it's, it's really great for, it's kinda like a soap for the nose. It clears up bacteria, pollens, dander, molds, like all kinds of irritants. [00:13:14] Jesse Schwamb: It also studies have shown blocks, adhesion of other pathogens like bacterial, fungal, viral to the mucosal tissues, helping the body to wash them away. So [00:13:23] Jesse Schwamb: this thing is absolutely. Wild. And I can say for certain that if you're the kind of person like me, where let's say like you're, you're hitting the Flonase hard at different seasons because you got those seasonal allergies because of the fall and because sin is real. I'm with you. That dries out your nose. [00:13:42] Jesse Schwamb: This thing is like a, a sauna or a spa for your nose, and then it literally like clears everything out. It's almost magical. I, I'm serious. It's so fantastic. So if you've been looking for something to really help with that and it, again, it's safe. There's no drug in it. It's not addictive, so you can use it all the time. [00:13:58] Jesse Schwamb: It's just saline and zi etol. It is phenomenal. So go get yourself, do yourself a favor. Do, do your, do your nose and your sinuses a solid and, and get the solids outta them by using. X clear. I feel like a bat just flew by your face or like a giant bird. [00:14:17] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So, uh, first of all, that sounds like a really great thing to check out. [00:14:22] Tony Arsenal: Is this clear stuff? Um, I have had struggles with like sinus infections over the last couple years, so I'm gonna check this out when it gets to allergy season in the fall year. [00:14:32] Hummingbird Moth Encounter [00:14:32] Tony Arsenal: But yes, uh, one of the rare, uh, moths that I've learned lives near my house is called a, uh, what's it called? Uh. It commonly, it's called like a hummingbird moth. [00:14:44] Tony Arsenal: Have you heard of these things? Yeah. Oh yeah. Um, I've never seen them before, but the reason they're called hummingbird moths is 'cause they look like hummingbirds, but they're actually moths and I right now. Hopefully this will change eventually, but. It will have to, 'cause it gets cold here. Um, I'm recording outside and a hummingbird moth literally just flew between my computer and my face. [00:15:05] Tony Arsenal: Um, I wasn't talking at the time so you wouldn't be able to see it on the screen, which is too bad. Uh, but yeah, Jesse saw me freak out a little bit, which is uh, which is fine. [00:15:16] Jesse Schwamb: It happened the [00:15:16] Tony Arsenal: first time I saw one. I was like, is that a huge bee? No, it's just a hummingbird broth. [00:15:21] Jesse Schwamb: Somebody, everybody should look them up though, because they're kind of wild looking. [00:15:25] Jesse Schwamb: Like if you've seen it in real life, they have that hummingbird pose where the body, body is kind of laid back and the wings are going crazy. Like they literally do hover like that. Yeah. And they're, they're almost that big. The one that tried to attack you there was pretty large. [00:15:38] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. They don't, um, they, they. [00:15:41] Tony Arsenal: Move a little different than hummingbirds, which is why the first time that I saw one, I thought it was a bee. Um, because when they, when they land on a flower, they crawl inside the flower the same way that a, like a bee or a bumblebee will, um, they don't hover outside the flower like a hummingbird, but they do. [00:15:57] Tony Arsenal: They, their body is, I mean, their body is probably an, an inch and a half long like a hummingbird. Um, and it's thick like a hummingbird. They don't look like moths at all. So I'm not sure they must be part of the Moth family, I guess. Um, I'm trying to remember. It's. They have like a specific name, I wanna say Scarab, but that's not right. [00:16:14] Tony Arsenal: But it's something like that is the, the technical name of it. They're like a scarab moth or something like that. But [00:16:20] Jesse Schwamb: yeah, I've just come up. It's a wild name. [00:16:22] Tony Arsenal: This is your top 50 Entomology, uh, podcast apparently. As well as the top 50 health cath. We're gonna, we're gonna uh, com combine the two tonight, so yeah, I'm gonna check that out in the, the spring or in the fall here, Jesse. [00:16:34] Tony Arsenal: My, my allergies always go a little bit crazy when we get to September. Yeah. With all the, like leaves falling down and crumbling up and stuff, it just gets in the air, so I'll just, I'll spray some artificial sugar. It's not artificial. I'll spray some pseudo sugar in my nose and see what happens. [00:16:48] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. It does have the added benefit that because it is a naturally occurring. [00:16:53] Jesse Schwamb: Sugar, like it's a type of sugar alcohol that if it drips down the back of your throat, all you get is a little like, mm, sweet. [00:17:03] Tony Arsenal: I wanna know who the first guy who was like, let me put some of this fake sugar in my nose and see what happens was it's, [00:17:09] Jesse Schwamb: I'm telling you, it, it's better than any actual, like, prescribed nasal spray I've ever taken. [00:17:15] Jesse Schwamb: You can get it like just at your g it. Yeah. Or you can get it on Amazon. I, I will, I forgot about it for a while. I, maybe I use it daily now it's become my go-to. But I mean, I don't wanna make this weird or gross, but it's the kind of thing like if you wake up in the morning and you're stuffy and you, it feels like somebody parked like a bus way up in your sinus cavity. [00:17:32] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. And you're like, I can't even blow my nose. There's nothing there where, where's all this stuff? There's nothing there. If you use this, when I use this within two, two, I'd say like seven minutes, I can just. Drop a huge load of mucus right outta my face and you feel like a million bucks. I don't know how to describe it. [00:17:49] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it's like better than like a sinus rinse or a netty pot. I know this sounds wild, like I'm way too excited about this stuff, but that clear spray is wild. And what I especially love is that it's all natural, that I'm not doing any harm to my nose or my face by using it. And that it, I just feel better afterwards because it's like moisturized everything. [00:18:08] Jesse Schwamb: So, and there's, there's, the debate is I think ongoing. There's a lot apparently, because I went down the rabbit trail and looked at all these scholarly studies and peer-reviewed journal papers, all this stuff. There's a lot, I guess, uh, still somewhat in debate about like its ability to really help prevent certain things like COVID, any kind of like nasal airborne kind of like, yeah, because it helps to flush and it prevents literally bacteria from sticking, uh, inside your nasal passages. [00:18:34] Jesse Schwamb: So that could be a benefit. I can't say anything about that. I'm not a doctor. What, [00:18:40] Tony Arsenal: what I would love is, uh, if you are a listener who has seasonal allergies or whatever, uh, if you would join our telegram chat at t.me/reform brotherhood. Well done. We have what's normally a tastings channel, which is like people get like new foods they wanna check out, or a beer they like or whatever, and they'll, uh, they'll do a little tasting and a review. [00:19:04] Tony Arsenal: I would love if some people would join the channel and do some, some clear, clear. We'll go clear, uh, a tasting of this nasal spray. Yeah, please don't show us. 'cause that's disgusting. Right. But, uh, let us know. Let us know what you think of it. I think that'd be great. So that's t me slash Reform Brotherhood. [00:19:21] Jesse Schwamb: There you go. Come hang out with us. It's a lot of fun. I see we've had some people join that group this week, so I see you out there, brother Sean. Crushing it, getting in the mix. Welcome everybody. Come again. Spend a little time in there. And there's, I love that the channel for like the conversation about our episodes is. [00:19:37] Jesse Schwamb: Hot. It's going strong. I love that. And we gave the call last week. You should listen to last week's episode when we were really speaking about, uh, God's faithfulness and a challenge of how we seek after piety, under the care and the direction, the kind direction and the convicting influence of the Holy Spirit. [00:19:55] Jesse Schwamb: So many good things were said there. I really loved reading all those. And it probably goes without saying, but I'm gonna mention it anyway. You and I read everything that pops in there. Yeah. For the most part. I mean, sometimes I look at it and there's 150 messages, right? And um, it got wild. But I go back through and always, always read those. [00:20:10] Jesse Schwamb: But I especially love like the conversation when we invite people to say, like, now it's, we'd love to hear from you. And so I think that's gonna be a large part of what we talk about. On this episode as well. [00:20:20] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. So, Jesse, why don't you lead us in here. This was the topic you brought up. I think it's a great one. [00:20:25] Tony Arsenal: I'd love to to dive into it here. [00:20:27] Christian Vocation and Work [00:20:27] Jesse Schwamb: I think one of the things that Christians always have to come to terms with at some point, every generation has to, but every person as well is, so where is my role as Christ child in something we might generally call like Christian activism? By which I mean like, of course, like Christians. [00:20:44] Jesse Schwamb: Attempt to improve or influence society through time, especially in our work. And as I was thinking about this recently, I think one of the hard things we have to measure out is well. Are there different places where we would, there's certainly jobs where we say Christians shouldn't hold that position because it contravenes God's law directly. [00:21:05] Jesse Schwamb: But what about these kind of, as we've talked about before, this threefold responsibility that we have in our callings, which you can go back to our previous catalog, which is all in the reform brotherhood.com, by the way. Listen to where we talked about this idea of like the vocation that happens in our work, in our households, in our church, and is it possible that in the work sphere that there are jobs that like Christians just shouldn't hold because it takes them too far away from their responsibilities in the other two spheres, which there are equally parts of their vocation, or if we want to put like a really fine point in it, and I don't really mean to derail the conversation with this question, but this would be exemplifying kind of what we're after here, which was like, should Christians be involved and. [00:21:47] Jesse Schwamb: In politics, are there other jobs like that where we'd say, listen, we, we tr we trust God in his sovereign superintendent will that he's always doing his good work. And you and I have talked at length about what it means to be living in the, under the normal principle of God using ordinary, normal means to do great and extraordinary things. [00:22:06] Jesse Schwamb: So how does all of that fit with our work? Are there lines to be drawn or. Does it not really matter? [00:22:15] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, I think for the sake of our conversation, we can just sort of take some professions off the table. Right? Of course, there are some professions of course, and calling them professions is probably even, probably even a misnomer. [00:22:27] Tony Arsenal: But there are some ways to earn money that are just intrinsically sinful that are outside of the scope of the conversation, right? You can't, uh, there's no argument for a Christian to become like. An assassin or like a drug dealer or a prostitute, like, there's no, there's no valid argument or discussion to be had around those. [00:22:45] Tony Arsenal: So we can just exclude those entirely. But I think for, for the sake of this conversation, we're talking about professions that do not involve, intrinsically involve sin, um, and, and may or may not have, um. Prudential reasons why they are not the best idea. Right. So I, I'm thinking like, the one that came to mind when you asked this was like, and it's funny because I, um, I mentioned the topic to my wife and, you know, she kind of joked, I was like, well, yeah, like Christians can't be. [00:23:15] Tony Arsenal: Can't like be porn stars, like that's not something you can do as a Christian. But then, then I, she said, well, what, what other professions would it be? I said, well, like, like a professional football player, right? And like the question is like, can a Christian be a professional football player? I think instinctively, right? [00:23:29] Tony Arsenal: We all say yes. But, but is that actually true? Right. And, and I would, I would make the argument that no, like a Christian can't be a professional football player or really, really any kind of professional sports, um, figure because it, it necessarily takes you away from the gathered fellowship of Christians on the Lord's day on far too often a basis. [00:23:47] Tony Arsenal: Right? I don't think you can make a good prudential argument to say like, well. It's fine for a Christian to be absent from the lord's uh, Lord's Day worship in his congregation of membership, you know, 60% of the time. Like, I just don't think you can make that argument. So I think in a lot of these cases, the immediate instinctive answer is yes. [00:24:07] Tony Arsenal: Uh. Christians can be part of any profession, and there's a certain, there's a certain way that that's true, but when we actually start to look at the way some professions actually play out, we have to analyze that a lot deeper. And this is actually not all that different than our conversation last week. [00:24:23] Tony Arsenal: Right. Involving like a. Pop culture and like media consumption is we have to look at what is actually, what the actual cost is. Uh, opportunity cost, I guess if we want to use like economic terms, what the actual opportunity cost is here of a particular profession in respect of. Our obligations and our commitments as a Christian and our obligation to the law of God, our obligation to our Christian brothers and sisters, all of that. [00:24:49] Tony Arsenal: So I think this is gonna be a great conversation. I'm excited to get into it. Um, but I do think it's one that we should think through a little bit more than just sort of like our gut reaction. Like we, of course, Christians can be involved in any profession. [00:25:00] Jesse Schwamb: Let me add to that. 'cause that's perfect. That's exactly, you're not on the same page as usual. [00:25:04] Jesse Schwamb: That's exactly where my mind was going. And what makes like this such a rich opportunity to really explore what the scripture has to say about this particular topic? I think you're right on that we need to weigh out, which we often just kind of glance over. What are the other responsibilities by taking on a particular line of work or job. [00:25:20] Jesse Schwamb: Does that necessarily mean that we must sacrifice and preclude these other areas? We should have direct or more intimate involvement because that is also part of vocation. Part of that, like we've talked about at length before, is responsibility in the Lord's day. So we might set that up as one particular test. [00:25:36] Jesse Schwamb: To that end, another one might be exactly what you were saying. So here's like the opposite of like the professional footballer or American football or whatever. Pick your, pick your sports. What about like high level? High responsibility, let's say leadership positions like in all kinds of areas of industry that would require the man or the woman to, let's say, like be on call continually, or maybe to sacrifice long hours at that job as part and parcel of what's required to do it effectively. [00:26:04] Jesse Schwamb: And that might mean that necessarily like not being very connected with family or having to be away from their family a lot of the time. I think what we often come to is this idea that, wouldn't it be great if Christians were just everywhere and were infiltrating all the things all the time at all the levels. [00:26:21] Jesse Schwamb: I think the question here that's under the surface is, is that what God assigns in a life of vocation? And maybe it's, it's of course more nuance than that and it could be for the person. Again, I wanna be clear that, like we said before, vocation is a very specific and narrow term in that we're talking about an actual calling being called out for a particular purpose. [00:26:42] Jesse Schwamb: And if we're using that in the right way, then it's possible that with the exception of some things like the Lord's Day, the other thing I just talked about, season of life. And your particular commitments or entanglements, they might be different from person to person. Therefore, allow for a direct call that God gives to a particular purpose at a particular time. [00:27:01] Jesse Schwamb: I think what I'm really kind of weighing out here is if we understand how the reformers viewed all of this. We have to come to this conclusion that God assigns us a life and then God calls us to that life. And that really is what vocation is all about. And notice in that there's nothing that's said about choosing a vocation or finding your true vocation or being fulfilled even in your vocation. [00:27:24] Jesse Schwamb: We may experience a struggle with all of that, but vocation is fundamentally God's doing. So what is. God doing in our society. And as you said, are there roles that he's, in a way not calling, let's say like the, the quintessential or the normative, I don't wanna say average 'cause that implies the weird thing, but Right. [00:27:44] Jesse Schwamb: Kind of Christian too. And I think. We've gotta, we've gotta wrestle with that because you're right. Like we too often just run to, we need Christians in all the places now let's get them everywhere. Doing all the things. Yeah. And that might be good from our perspective, because Christians should be the best workers as we said that we should. [00:28:01] Jesse Schwamb: The most kind. There is the salt in lights everywhere. However, it takes a Christian to do all those things. And can a Christian in certain roles have great fidelity to the threefold? [00:28:13] Exploring the Theology of Work and the Lord's Day [00:28:13] Jesse Schwamb: Calling and vocation of life while upholding certain jobs and responsibilities. [00:28:19] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think, um, I think that may be like a little bit of progam is, is warranted here too. [00:28:26] Tony Arsenal: Like there, you know, there's the, the, the conversation at the top of like, some, some professions are just out of bounds. Yeah. Um, but there's also, you know, a pretty robust theology. And I think a lot of this is gonna center around. Uh, maybe just for simplicity's sake and for the fact that we have 30 minutes left of a conversation that probably could be multiple hours, um, there's a pretty robust apparatus in reform theology that is designed to help Christians understand whether or not, um. [00:28:57] Tony Arsenal: A particular activity is acceptable on the Lord's day. And we've, we've had conversations in the past about like, if, if all of your theology of the Lord's Day is about what you can and can't do, then you're missing the point entirely. [00:29:11] Jesse Schwamb: That's right. [00:29:11] Tony Arsenal: But there is an element of what you can and can't do in terms of understanding the Lord's day. [00:29:16] Tony Arsenal: Right. We're, we're not supposed to engage in worldly recreation or employment on the Lord's day. So we have to talk about what that means. And so I think. [00:29:24] Works of Necessity and Charity on the Lord's Day [00:29:24] Tony Arsenal: I think to start with, like there's categories, like works of necessity, works of charity, um, that, or, or like works of ministry, which would, would sort of be a third category that's not necessarily, um, not necessarily enumerated in many of the sources, but it's assumed that like pastors who are working on the Lord's day are not, they're not violating the Sabbath by doing the work on the Sabbath. [00:29:47] Tony Arsenal: Um, I think we have to have those categories. 'cause I think that helps us inform too, like. If you are the CEO of a major retailer, does that mean you have to work on Sunday, right? Well, probably it does. Like, it probably means that on a regular basis you're gonna be checking emails on your phone, you're gonna be taking phone calls. [00:30:05] Tony Arsenal: You've got, you might have partners in markets overseas where it, it's Sunday morning for you, but it's Monday afternoon or you know, Monday morning for them or something like that. Um. I think that the industry you're in largely is going to drive whether that's an acceptable or, or an appropriate role for you. [00:30:24] Tony Arsenal: So I could see a situation where you could make the argument that being the CEO of a of a major medical center, right. Where the work that's being done at the medical center falls easily within that sort of definition of, uh, works of necessity. A nurse who is working in the emergency room or a police officer or a firefighter or somebody who is fixing the power, like in our society, right? [00:30:47] Tony Arsenal: Electricity is, is not an option for most people. It's not a, it's not a luxury for most people. So those, those professions. It's acceptable to work on the Lord's Day when it's a work of necessity, and so the higher level leadership positions that make those possible and constrain them also, I think. Would fall under that same work of necessity. [00:31:06] Tony Arsenal: If the CEO of my hospital, I don't know if she's a Christian or not. I, I'm, I'm not speculating on that, but if, if the CEO of my hospital was a Christian or is a Christian and she has to take an important phone call on Sunday morning and miss the Lord's day because if she doesn't take care of that, the hospital's not gonna function correctly and people may not have emergency services. [00:31:26] Tony Arsenal: I don't think that's a violation of the south principle. If the same scenario is happening and it's the CEO of Best Buy and they need to take a phone call, otherwise people won't be able to buy widgets on Sunday afternoon, that's a different calculation. So I think like right off the bat, we have to start having those conversations about what's the nature of the work, what's the, what's the tell loss of the work or the end aim of the work. [00:31:46] Tony Arsenal: That's really important as well. [00:31:48] Balancing Professional Responsibilities and Christian Obligations [00:31:48] Jesse Schwamb: So it sounds like though what we're saying, both of us in a way, is that if you run that test, so to speak, like you go through that algorithm and you come out with this idea that you know, it's, you're saying your industry is more like Best Buy and less like your local hospital, then there might be significant and maybe insurmountable roadblocks to taking that position Should be as a c. [00:32:08] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I mean, that's kinda what we're saying. [00:32:10] Tony Arsenal: Oh yeah, for sure. And you know, like this is a real world application I think for a lot of people. I remember when I was in college, um, I had the opportunity to take a promotion. I worked at Best Buy. I, I'm not using Best Buy as an example for any specific reason, but I worked at Best Buy. [00:32:23] Tony Arsenal: I worked in the Geek Squad area and I had the opportunity to take a promotion. Um, and the sort of the strings that came with the promotion is that I was expected to be available to work on Sundays. I didn't have a super robust doctrine of the Lord's Day at the time. Like I wasn't super theologically versed on Sabbath theology and stuff. [00:32:39] Tony Arsenal: Um, but it just didn't sit right with me. And so initially I didn't take the, I didn't take the, um, promotion because I didn't feel comfortable saying at the time, it was mostly about like, I'm not gonna miss the church service. I didn't feel comfortable saying I need to be available. And that might mean I Ms. [00:32:57] Tony Arsenal: Church to, to be able to take this shift. Um, eventually the management adapted and said, well, we'll just figure out something else. We really want you to take the position, but that's the kind of question we have to ask. And then that same question, as you move up in an organization, it expands and you're more likely to need to be drawn away from Lord State worship or just general. [00:33:19] Tony Arsenal: Obligations on the Lord's Day. [00:33:20] Personal Experiences and Real-World Applications [00:33:20] Tony Arsenal: And I don't wanna make this entirely about the Lord's Day 'cause there are other obligations that Christians have and it probably will be interesting to get to those. But I think, um, the, the other thing maybe that I wanna push back on a little bit too is I. I, I've never been a CEO. [00:33:34] Tony Arsenal: I probably never will be a CEO. You're far closer to a CEO than I ever will be. But I think a lot of times we assume those positions have no flexibility. Right. But in reality, some of those people are absolutely able to say, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take Sunday, and just not. Yes, I'm not gonna do work on Sunday. [00:33:52] Tony Arsenal: I'm gonna delegate that. You know? And then this is a whole other question. I'm gonna delegate that to someone else. Well, there's a whole different question that comes with that, but saying like, I'm just not going to do work on Sunday is actually within the options for a lot of positions. So that's the other question is when we take a position, do we have the option to set aside the Lord's Day? [00:34:11] Tony Arsenal: Even if we might acknowledge that occasionally, that's not gonna work out. There are oftentimes in all of our lives that we're drawn away from being able to fulfill our ordinary obligation of the Lord's Day, and I don't think that that's intrinsically sinful. If on a rare occasion you're not able to attend the Lord's Day worship or something like that. [00:34:29] Tony Arsenal: So I think those are questions we have to ask. Then what? What kind of other Christian obligations do we have? And this is hypothetical, but you're welcome to answer if you've got one in mind. Like what other kinds of Christian obligations do we have that any particular vocation or particular job might make difficult or impossible to fulfill? [00:34:47] Tony Arsenal: I think those are questions we have to ask. [00:34:49] Jesse Schwamb: I'm with you. And that's actually more where my mind goes because again, we've talked before and for some Christians it's easier to identify the stuff that certainly explicitly contravenes the Lord's Day. And I think it's more difficult to say like we, again, I think we talked before about that threefold responsibility and the vocation that is to like work that is like our industry, so to speak, and then to our household, then to our church. [00:35:10] Jesse Schwamb: So the church often does. Again, in a very finely pointed way, connect very tightly with the Lord. Say what about that household stuff? Yeah. So what about these jobs that would just make you too busy? And I think like what's interesting to your point is I agree. Like I think part of this conversation is just a thoughtful assessment of what the job entails, and then even as like maybe you're taking a job or considering a job. [00:35:33] Jesse Schwamb: Having a conversation with your potential employer about what opportunity is there for flexibility given like certain convictions that you have? All of that could fall into place neatly and I think would still be within the bounds of yes, but I think part of this is if it's truly a calling that we, we have to be praying through it and assessing whether God is calling us through that. [00:35:50] Jesse Schwamb: Part of that is passing it through the sin of what the scriptures require in each of those threefold vocational responsibilities. So sometimes I hear there is like a pushback or counter, this argument says, but wouldn't it be better? [00:36:01] The Role of Christians in Leadership Positions [00:36:01] Jesse Schwamb: Wouldn't it be fantastic if you get a Christian as an opportunity to be a CEO? [00:36:05] Jesse Schwamb: Isn't it better for them to be a CEO and to be in that role, even if they're crazy busy, even if they're sacrificing so much for their family, for their household or for the church because they simply, they're gonna be a Christian and think of the role model and the emphasis and the impact they can have. [00:36:19] Jesse Schwamb: And to that, I would say we gotta be really careful with that loved ones because God, I don't think God's calling us to necessarily have outside impact. What he's calling us to is, is faithfulness. Invocation, invocation pulls us back into those three responsibilities, and we know the way in which God prefers to work His jam is these ordinary means, these natural ways of in the normative work of our lives and faithfulness showing that his power is demonstrated in this weakness. [00:36:44] Jesse Schwamb: Somehow we're back to the theology of. Glory and theology of cross. But you know, it's interesting to me that there are no calls like in the entire scriptures, of course, to withdraw into like a private ghetto or to take back the realms of cultural and political activity. And so I think we have to be really careful about even how we kind of pull that into then how. [00:37:03] Jesse Schwamb: Our jobs that like, shouldn't it be my goal as a Christian to get as most influence as possible? And I think I wanna push back on that and say like, you know, the, the church, the Christian exists within the world as a community of word and sacrament. But it doesn't always have to seek influence in larger society. [00:37:19] Jesse Schwamb: It can. It can. And when God provides the opportunity by way of clear calling, I think internal and external that is appropriate. However, often that calling is gonna come at a much more normative level, I think. And, and I do not believe that we are somehow compromising or sub-optimizing the work that God does in the world merely because we might have a Christian that says, I don't know if it's right for me to be in this leadership role, and therefore a unbeliever is going to vault above that person's speaker or take that role on that somehow. [00:37:51] Jesse Schwamb: Again, God's superintendent will, or his strong arm is, is somehow pulled aback from what he wants to do that we need like more Christian plumbing in the world. I do kind of bristle that idea a little bit. Specifically because I wonder if sometimes we go outside of that calling. [00:38:08] Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, I'm picking up what you're putting down and I think, I think there's, um, it, it does all come back to theology, the cross theology of glory. [00:38:17] Tony Arsenal: And I'm glad that, that, that conversation happened before this. 'cause I think there's good framework there. I, I think, um, we, we as Christians can often confuse. The transformative power of the gospel with other ways of transforming culture. Yeah, that's good. Right. So, um, it is totally, um, I wanna be careful how I phrase this. [00:38:42] Tony Arsenal: I'm not post mill, I'm probably never gonna be post mill, but I'm okay with a kind of post mill theology that says that the gospel of Jesus Christ, as people become Christians, the culture will. Change along with that. And the gospel has a transformative power in that it changes individuals and individuals make up, make up the broader society. [00:39:05] Tony Arsenal: And so the society itself changes. Where I struggle with some flavors of postal theology, and this is where I think the theology of glory comes in, is there are some kinds of postal theology I'm thinking, I'm thinking, um, like Doug Wilson, they just, uh, opened A-C-R-A-C church in Washington, DC specifically with the goal of gaining influence with politicians. [00:39:26] Tony Arsenal: Right. I might be misconstruing that a little bit 'cause I haven't read all of it, but that's, that's the impression that I'm getting from some of their promotional material. I, I think we can, we can look at it and say the gospel can change culture as the gospel. And so where that. [00:39:43] Sacrifices and Priorities in Christian Vocation [00:39:43] Tony Arsenal: Levels of playing field is that whether you are, and this is where I think a genuine Protestant reform theology of vocation comes in, whether you're the janitor of the hospital or whether you're the CEO of the hospital, the gospel is the same and your role in proclaiming the gospel is the same. [00:39:58] Tony Arsenal: And you might have more people's ear as the CEO than you do as the janitor. Although I would maybe question that knowing how many people janitors interact with at the hospital, um, you may have more people's ears in a higher level position, but the message that you're proclaiming, the influence that you're wielding or you're using, I don't know what you wanna say. [00:40:18] Tony Arsenal: It's not different because it's still just the gospel. [00:40:21] Jesse Schwamb: That's good. [00:40:21] Tony Arsenal: Um. Where I think we can get confused is when we look at it and say, but we have these other opportunities to transfer, transform the culture by, um, for example, I, I'm the supervisor in my patient relations department. I'm making changes to the, to the policy and the way that we as a sort of service recovery resolution group, the way that we interact with patients, I'm making changes to that. [00:40:46] Tony Arsenal: I think those changes are consistent with the law of God as revealed in the light of nature, and I'm. I'm informed of those things and my whole outlook and ethos is shaped by the scriptures, but. I don't see the transformation of the way we interact with patients as somehow propagating the gospel, right? [00:41:05] Tony Arsenal: So we can, we can make transformation and make society better, right? If you're a politician, you can, you can legislate things that make society more outwardly in conformity with the law of God or more pleasant and more prosperous, and more flourishing, and those are all fine and well, but that's not. [00:41:21] Tony Arsenal: Building the kingdom of God in, in a strict sense. Right? And so I think what we're getting at is our, would it be great if, if, you know, the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company could be a Christian? Yeah. That would be kind of cool. Sure of That'd be nice, of course. And yeah, they could probably do a lot of good things and they could probably shape the way that that business runs and they could probably, um, have more opportunities to share the gospel. [00:41:42] Tony Arsenal: They could probably shape their business into a vehicle that, that moves forward. Missions, all those things are great, but. If the trade off is that that person has to sacrifice their genuine Christian convictions, right? That's not worth it. And I think we, we look at this and we might be able to identify certain. [00:42:00] Tony Arsenal: Obvious ways that we would say, no, it's not worth it. Right? If a CEO, uh, the CEO of a major retailer has to give way to all of the, um, transgender LGBT sexual, you know, identity politics has to give way to that in order to survive as CEO, I think we would all look at that and go, yeah, it's probably a hard sacrifice, but that's a sacrifice we would expect a genuine Christian to make at that level. [00:42:25] Tony Arsenal: Where we might not look at it is saying, well, I don't know. The Bible says that if you don't properly care for your family, then you're worse than an unbeliever. That's right. And so that CEO that is at the office for 70 hours a week and is never home, um, and their kids don't, you know, their kids don't have an opportunity to know their father or their mother because their. [00:42:44] Tony Arsenal: Constantly jet setting around the world. I don't know that we would as readily identify that as a sacrifice. I would actually argue that, that the Bible is probably clearer about that being a problem than it is about identity politics or other sort of, of social issues that, that, uh, a business person might have to. [00:43:04] Tony Arsenal: Hold their nose a little bit and, and, you know, sign off on a commercial or something that they don't necessarily want to, I'm not advocating that they should do that, but I think the Bible is clearer about a person who is taken away from their home more than is reasonable and more than is healthy for their family. [00:43:20] Tony Arsenal: Or a Christian who never is able to worship on the Lord's day, um, or, or something like that. I think the Bible is clearer about that than it is on. Something like identity politics and some of the tangential ways that, that might, might cause a person to need to compromise a little bit at a high level. [00:43:35] Tony Arsenal: So I, I think this is a, it's an interesting question that we probably don't think about it from the right angle most of the time. [00:43:41] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it's just too easy to consider this in light of if we can get more responsibility, that should always be a good thing. And I think that proclivity is, is fine and maybe even noble, but sometimes I think we do get it twisted where we get this sense that we are trying to make the world into something moral like the church. [00:43:57] Jesse Schwamb: And if we could do that in our jobs and get the most influence in that greatest sphere of impact. We should always take on those additional responsibilities. And I do think we have to sit back and ask and say, is that the calling? So that we're pursuing what is our vocation, not just our potential. [00:44:13] Jesse Schwamb: There's a lot of brilliant, God has made all kinds of brilliant people. Many of them are his children, and as a result of that, we might say like we should always again be trying to move up. And this is not to say that we shouldn't take great initiative, that we shouldn't want to try to do more and be more productive. [00:44:27] Jesse Schwamb: You and I have always been outspoken about that kind of thing, but I think there is a real temptation. To somehow say like, what we need to do is like to infiltrate in all the places. And I think what we mean by that is that things will, like, whether we wanna admit it or not, that things here will be better. [00:44:41] Jesse Schwamb: And I, I don't know all the time that what we're saying is what you just said, which was that what we're really concerned with is that the gospel get proclaimed more forthrightly. More loudly, more specifically, more cogently in all places. But that if we just had good examples of moral behavior and good character, yes, those things are profitable in and of their own ways, but there's also a lot of common grace we see God bring about good leaders who are not a Christian at high level to do that kind of thing. [00:45:05] Jesse Schwamb: And sometimes I do wonder, just depending on the job, quite honestly, whether it's really possible for Christian to be successful in that job. [00:45:14] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:45:14] Jesse Schwamb: As like the world or the industry or the company has defined it. I'm not sure that's the case, so I don't wanna put like too high a line on this. I think we're trying to just drop a bomb in some ways and say, I'm not gonna make it overly prescriptive and say like, as a Christian, you can't be a CEO. [00:45:29] Jesse Schwamb: Move on. That's not true at all. Of course, again, here are hopefully what we said about the particulars of that wrestling through it and again. Really sensing where there's an actual call on your life that God has given for that role in a particular time. But I do think we ought to question where there's always and everywhere appropriate for any Christian to take on, quite frankly, any job. [00:45:51] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. And so I'm with you. Sometimes it's super easy when I first start out in banking, when I was looking for my second banking job. I had a great interview. It was a very nice company. The bank actually doesn't exist anymore, but, uh, one of the things, one of their big, like, kind of gimmicks was they were open seven days a week. [00:46:09] Jesse Schwamb: And so I said to them, well. I attend church on Sundays. That's my day of rest and my high conviction on that. And I said, is there any flexibility with that? And they said, Nope. You would still have to be on the schedule. And though they very graciously offered me the job, I was thankfully in a place where I, I turned that down. [00:46:26] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Actually I didn't have a job at the time, but I turned it down trusting. That God would provide. And this wasn't my great act of faith on my part. It was more of just, I think what you were saying, Tony, growing in our conviction that those things really do matter. Yes. And that it's sometimes just too easy to kind of push them aside and say, I, I know it's gonna be really stressful. [00:46:43] Jesse Schwamb: I know it might take much more of my time than I want to give. I know I might be at home a lot less. I know I might have less like attentional fortitude and space to think about my spouse or my children, but it's gonna be worth it because. I'll be able to like have this big influence. I do think sometimes madness lies that way. [00:47:02] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. Certainly a great deal of foolishness. This is just hopefully a call for all of us as God's children to, to think through that. I don't wanna discourage anybody from taking on bigger and bolder things for the kingdom of God. I think we all have to think about what it is that we're. Promulgating or proclaiming when we talk about the Kingdom of God coming and whether or not we're just trying to make the world a better place, so to speak. [00:47:26] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. By bringing our like quote unquote Christian influence into a setting where really that influence is now particularly strong and what it's actually compromising is the vocation that we're meant to undertake. [00:47:37] Concluding Thoughts and Future Discussions [00:47:37] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Are you ready to, for me to drop two bombs? Just, just straight up. You got, [00:47:41] Jesse Schwamb: you got two of them. [00:47:42] Jesse Schwamb: Let's do it. I, I've [00:47:43] Tony Arsenal: got 13 minutes or less left on this episode. There go. So I actually got into a pretty big, uh, like a pretty big dust up with someone way back in the day when I was in the reform hub over actually this topic. And I'm surprised I didn't think of it earlier in the evening. Um, we are using like CEOs as like kind of the proxy for this, but there's all sorts of jobs where, um, your, your job may be admirable and it may be. [00:48:06] Tony Arsenal: Right. Even something that's sort of quote unquote necessary for society. But I got into a big dust up with someone who was an overroad trucker, right? And they were constantly, um, posting in the pub at, at back in the day. They were constantly posting how discouraged they were and, and how difficult their faith was and how much of a challenge it was to just remain faithful as a Christian. [00:48:27] Tony Arsenal: And I. Originally, I kind of naively and, and I think innocently said like, well, you know, like, have you talked to your pastor about this? And the person said like, well, I don't have a regular church because I'm always on the road. And I said like, well, there's your problem. Like there's the first step is like, figure out your local church thing. [00:48:43] Tony Arsenal: He said, well, I can't do that

On this solo episode of Pac Talk, Pieter Vodden dives deep into the reality of sacrifice in fitness. What does it take to be great at one discipline—and what do you give up along the way? From bodybuilding to Hyrox, half marathons, endurance hikes, and strength training, Piet shares how he balances competing priorities while still preserving muscle, family time, and long-term health.At 47, Piet has learned that the real key isn't chasing perfection in one lane but building general physical preparedness (GPP)—a foundation of muscle, conditioning, and mobility that serves you for life. He covers:The trade-offs between specialization vs. hybrid trainingHow sacrifice plays into bodybuilding, endurance sports, and CrossFitWhy muscle, VO₂ max, and mobility are essential for longevity after 40How sleep, nutrition, recovery, and hydration impact performanceThe mindset shift of training to be “good at many things” rather than “great at one”Whether you're chasing a marathon PR, training for Hyrox, or just trying to stay strong and healthy as you age, this episode will help you define what's worth sacrificing—and what isn't.Welcome to the Pac, please make sure you subscribe wherever you are listening to this show and if you loved this show please leave us a 5 star review in the iTunes store. It is the currency of podcasts and it really goes along in helping us grow our show.If you are in Southern California come train with us Echo ParkRedondo BeachIdyllwildPalm SpringsFollow Pharos, Piet and Emylee on Instagram for more fitness related content.#PacTalk #PieterVodden #FitnessPodcast #Sacrifice #HybridTraining #Bodybuilding #EnduranceTraining #Hyrox #MarathonTraining #LongevityFitness #StrengthAndConditioning #MuscleAfter40 #RecoveryMatters #GeneralPhysicalPreparedness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Send us a textPART 2 .... In 1983, Diane Downs drove her three children to an Oregon hospital — one dead, two critically injured — claiming a stranger had attacked them. But investigators quickly uncovered a much darker truth. In this PART TWO episode, we look at the shocking real-life crime committed by Downs and how it was brought to the screen in the 1989 TV movie Small Sacrifices, starring Farrah Fawcett. We explore the case, Diane's past, and how the film captured one of the most cold-blooded crimes in modern history.Sources:Small Sacrifices - Ann Rule https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R59i2p7i30https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsMXTsU4eqhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObFpAYinB8Ehttps://vocal.media/criminal/like-the-wolfhttps://abcnews.go.com/2020/diane-downs-mother-shoots-children/story?id=10615736https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/diane-downs-escapes-maximum-security-prison-part-61880673https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/06/12/the-mother-38/13b24fdf-7294-4623-ad2d-0665435ceed4/https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-finding-peace-learning-mother-child-killer-diane/story?id=61692453https://entertainmentnow.com/news/diane-downs-children-kids-now-today/https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/diane-downs-biological-daughter-finds-truth-birth-mom-61880672https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/courts/2024/11/25/elizabeth-diane-downs-declares-mistrial-in-child-murder-case/76139803007/https://delanirbartlette.medium.com/diane-downs-hungry-like-the-wolf-22905cecdd97https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW0wgwoKp74*This podcast is independently produced using publicly available information and personal research. I approach each story with care and respect, though I recognize that I may not always have access to every voice or perspective involved. If you're connected to the story and would like to share your experience, I truly welcome the opportunity to include your insights in a future update. Email Residue: residuepodcast@gmail.comFind RESIDUE online:Instagram: @residuepodcastTik Tok: @residuepodcast Facebook: Residue:A True Crime Podcast Credits: RESIDUE is Hosted/Produced/Researched/Edited by Chrissy Champagne THEME SONG: "Dance Of Death" by Purple Planet Music collection written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey. Additional music provided by Epidemic Sound. Residue logo designed by Tricia Cappelli

Herbert Mullin did a lot in his young life, travelled, worked, drank and drugged. And he got a lil ole video in his head, from the voices he heard of course, telling him ole Cali is on it's way to the biggest earthquake yet. How to prevent it? Why how else, murder people. Send your scary stories to: mikeohhello@gmail.com   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatchapterpodcast   Business enquires : thatchapter@night.com Researched by Benj Button Merch : ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://that-chapter-shop.fourthwall.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

West Bengal & Assam elections almost happen simultaneously, so what will happen in Assam will depend on Mamata Banerjee & what transpires in Bengal, Rajya Sabha MP Dev tells ThePrint.  

Trinny Woodall went from recovering from addiction in her mid-20s to becoming one of the most beloved authorities in style and fashion. She landed a lucky break with a weekly style column in London, then parlayed her expertise into the TV show What Not to Wear. Life threw her some curveballs, from mourning loved ones to going through 16 rounds of IVF. Today, Trinny gets real about the sacrifices she had to make around those private battles because of her self-employment status.  In this episode of 9 to 5ish, Trinny also shares:  Why she made herself try a stint in finance Sacrifices she had to make for being self-employed Why she only took three weeks of paid family leave after having her daughter  What she learned from having her business fail during the dot com bubble Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices